Reading PAW

Thanks for your request for opinions about the content of PAW (From the Editor, July 12). I always enjoy the pictures of scenic views of campus, and a number of them are on the bulletin board in my office. I tend to start at the beginning and read through to the end (and then stop, in line with the recommendation provided by Lewis Carroll). I can only imagine the challenges of putting out a publication that is a “house organ,” so to speak, but with so varied an assortment of alumni.

Generally, I value contributions that address some of the serious problems that the University faces. It’s easy to celebrate the accomplishments of faculty, students, and staff, but those of us who teach at other institutions are aware of the issues that may be going on underneath the surface. If the publication can avoid giving the impression that everything is rosy, then the good news is even more worth celebrating.

Finally, I am enough of a dinosaur to prefer the paper publication to any amount of electronic news, no matter how much more frequent the latter may be. When publications switch to an exclusively electronic format, they are likely to lose me as a reader. Thank you for keeping up the paper version and for all the editorial work that produces issue after issue from which I can select items to send to friends without a Princeton connection. Those items can come anywhere from the letters column to the Class Notes or even the last page.