I find President Eisgruber’s statements in the April 20 issue to be offensively hypocritical. He states that “I am very proud of what Princeton does in intercollegiate athletics. ... We are supplying real educational value through the programs that we have, and that is a tribute to the coaches and the caliber of the students they bring in. ... And I see no reason to ask our coaches to compete with one hand tied behind their back ... .” Why, then, was sprint football forced to compete for 17 seasons without recruited athletes, while the other 35 varsity sports at Princeton receive recruited athletes?
Then President Eisgruber announced that Princeton no longer will offer the only varsity sport that is made up entirely of walk-on players, stating that “after extensive consideration, we concluded that it was not possible to increase the overall number of recruited athletes and that we could not transfer the number of positions needed to achieve appropriate levels of safety and competitiveness in the sprint program without jeopardizing the sports from which the positions would have to be taken.” The reasons cited for cutting the program are that the team cannot win with one hand tied behind its back without recruited athletes, and a confidential injury report that the University has characterized in a misleading way. This is all while Princeton plans to add 500 more undergraduates, but not one a recruited athlete, as President Eisgruber confirmed when I asked him the question May 5 in Baltimore.