Recalling Another Daily Prince Prank

A Daily Princetonian April Fools’ prank this year made national news with the Ivy League admissions day headline “Princeton University accepts 0.00% of applicants to Class of 2027.” While this article was labeled top and bottom as “humor,” 54 years ago when I was a freshman, the issue reporting “President Nullifies Coeducation” two months into the first year of coeducation for the Class of 1973 did not. It caused some considerable dismay, especially among our precious few female classmates. After I told this story to my family, my daughter Victoria made an interesting observation. The old article would have been funnier, and less hurtful to the already stressed coeds, if it had reported “Princeton drops men, goes all female.” The writer could have fun citing statistics that our freshmen women were more selected and accomplished than their male classmates. The prank would have been on the majority men, who probably deserved a good prank and scare more.