The Tilghman years

This (usually) Silent Generation alumnus would like to suggest that the Tilghman years (Campus Notebook, Oct. 24) would have been more highly regarded by history if she had devoted some effort to changing Princeton’s ­relatively new public image as “just another one of those liberal-bias Ivy League academies.” Although admirable advances were made in the hard sciences, the public reputation derives from such decisions as the less-than-halfhearted address of the ROTC question, the ongoing not-obsession-but-remarkable-fixation with all things multi- in race and sex, and the offering of a Princeton pulpit to such as Van Jones, all of which (and more) have served to intensify the gentry-left aura.

“Princeton in the nation’s service” suggests a posture above trendy political correctness and ideology; indeed, the original LaFollette Progressives, of whom President Tilghman would seem to be an intellectual heir, presented themselves as highly skilled technical experts in governance, not advocates for party or ideology. During her 12 years, she could have restored Princeton’s above-the-fray ­popular image, but made no effort to do so.

Robert Frost would have called it “the road not taken.”