The University and Wall Street

What a relief to read the comments by Professor Stanley Katz in the Dec. 14 On The Campus column! However, the same column left one with the unsettling impression that Princeton exists to serve and to perpetuate the 1 percent, and that current undergraduates have no problem with the shamefully worsening wealth gap in the United States. It was déja vu for me when I read that Princeton is a “far less political” campus these days. When President Robert Goheen ’40 *48 addressed the incoming freshmen in 1966, he told us we would be too busy with our studies at Princeton to get involved yet in the wider world. That’s not how things worked out.

The previous tradition of apathy at Princeton gave way to intense political involvement in protesting the Vietnam War, Princeton’s investments in apartheid South Africa, etc. Yes, there’s no doubt that facing the draft awakened some of us from our apathetic slumbers. Still, I don’t agree with Vladimir Teichberg ’96 (A Moment With, Dec. 14) that “all of our institutions have become completely corrupt.” Not Princeton!