Off Prospect: Paul Rochmis ’60

PAW Tracks

When Paul Rochmis ’60 joined us for an oral history interview at Reunions last year, he spoke about some of his happiest memories of Princeton — meeting new friends, discovering unexpected interests. But he also recalled the disappointment he felt during his sophomore year when several of his peers were not extended bids from the eating clubs — an incident that became known as the dirty bicker of 1958.

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TRANSCRIPT:

When Dr. Paul Rochmis ’60 joined us for an oral history interview at Reunions last year, he spoke about some of his happiest memories of Princeton — meeting new friends, discovering unexpected interests. But he also recalled the disappointment he felt during his sophomore year when several of his peers were not extended bids from the eating clubs — an incident that became known as the dirty bicker of 1958.

Rochmis: I didn’t have any understanding of what the bicker process was or that you needed to network with people. There was one other student from my high school. I was of an ethnic religious minority. I didn’t really feel horribly comfortable about the whole concept of it. It was just a personal feeling. It wasn’t really some sort of intellectual difficulty with it. I just didn’t like that way of being judged superficially.

But I went along with it and not terribly successfully. I ended up with a bid to what was thought to be one of the lesser clubs. I just didn’t feel I wanted to commit. The bicker process back in those days was famous – or notorious – for what was called the 100% bicker, because basically the University provided no eating facilities at all for anybody above the sophomore level. They relied on the club system as sort of an unwritten understanding, as I perceived it, that the people who ran bicker who were upperclassmen, and the club groups, would agree that everyone got a bid and therefore relieve the University of their responsibility along these lines. 100% bicker was a goal, a target, a lodestar so to speak.

Bicker would end at midnight on a certain date, and early in the evening, when a Chinese-American classmate of mine was not going to get a bid I basically said, “Take my bid. I’m out of here. I don’t want any part of this.” I don’t know where I got the courage to do that. I wasn’t a particularly brave person at that time. I sort of watched it, and I felt a burden had been taken off my shoulders. I sort of watched the situation as an observer. About 10 o’clock, 10:30 at night, the person running bicker, Steven Rockefeller, realized that there were about 23 or some number like that of classmates, 1960 classmates, who had not received bids, and he needed to forge this 100% bicker. He called for a meeting of the people that had not received bids, and I tagged along because I knew some of these people.

There was one club that was just off Prospect Street called Prospect Club. It was a cooperative club. In the ranking of clubs, where Ivy or Cottage was No. 1, Prospect felt rightfully or wrongfully to be the worst club and maybe not a real club because it wasn’t on Prospect Street – it was just off Prospect Street on Washington Street, or Washington Road – and it was a cooperative club. It basically had a very high percentage of the Jewish class in there. Steven Rockefeller forged a deal with the people that ran Prospect Club – talked them into or coerced them, I don’t really know what happened – that they turned around and they offered bids to all of the unbid students, at which point Steven Rockefeller declared a 100 percent bicker and success, at which point I walked out disgusted by the whole process.

The episode would place a lasting stain on the eating clubs. More than half of the 23 students who had not received bids were Jewish, and the indication of anti-Semitism drew attention on campus and beyond. Myron Margolin ’58, then president of Prospect Club, told The Daily Princetonian that the bicker system “tolerates and probably engenders dishonesty, disloyalty and discrimination.”

Rochmis, in the end, declined his bid and became a rare “independent” student.

Rochmis: I felt kind of proud and kind of scared at the same time. As it turned out, it was much better for me financially. I didn’t have very much money to spend. I would go down to an African-American luncheonette down Witherspoon Street called Griggs and have the world’s best hamburgers for 35 cents – goes to show you how long ago that was. Every weekend I would have an invitation by one of my friends to a club, so I didn’t really miss much in the way of social life. I was so busy carrying about 30 hours a week with engineering and running the engineering magazine that I really didn’t have a lot of time for social life. I didn’t play bridge and waste my time with things like that.

Rightfully or wrongfully, I like to think of myself now – maybe I’m flattering myself too much – as the person that broke bicker. Subsequently, the University realized that this was an untenable situation and developed the alternative that I’m sitting in right now, Wilson College. Except at that point Wilson College was a lunchroom and commons which would serve a number of people that dropped out of the club system after me, not immediately after me but subsequently during the year for various reasons. The University had professors come and eat dinner with the Wilson members. I was happy being an independent so I didn’t join Wilson. I guess I was just an ornery guy, probably still am. The whole experience was bittersweet, but in retrospect I realize that it helped me develop strengths which were very useful later in life and showed me that I probably had more courage than I gave myself credit for.

Our thanks to Paul Rochmis for sharing his story. Brett Tomlinson produced this episode, and the music is licensed from FirstCom Music.

Comment Archives

April 2016

Jed Davis '60

I was invited to join Elm Club. However, I went to the back porch of Ivy Club to see if any of my friends had been rejected. Pretty much all of my Jewish friends were there. I got very upset. Indeed, that moment is the most vivid memory of my 4 years at Princeton. I called my father to express my anger and pain. He was active in the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. He called one of the ADL leaders, who called the New York Times.

Arvin Anderson '59 p'85 Says:

2016-02-24 09:37:36

Every organization, even Princeton, needs non-conformity to avoid perpetuation of outdated and discriminatory policies and practices. Not all conformity or tradition is faulty - but much is because simple existence ensures perpetuation. I congratulate Paul on his sharing of his part in fulfilling this need.

Gerald S. Golden '57 Says:

2016-02-24 09:41:34

The podcast by Rochmis brought back many memories of the bicker process and the forced 100 percent bicker. I would, however, like to present a somewhat different view of Prospect Club. It was clearly considered to be at the bottom of the social-prestige list by individuals whose opinion, frankly, did not matter. Prospect, however, provided more than a haven for the "undesirables," as they were so gently called. It also provided an opportunity for some individuals to turn down bids to other clubs (two in my case) as a protest to the club system in the absence of any University-sponsored alternatives. The cooperative nature of the club - the only salaried staff were the two cooks - and the camaraderie of others who did not like the bicker process but enjoyed not only socializing but working together, made it a very special place. I applaud Paul's brave decision, but do feel that he missed an opportunity by not joining Prospect Club.

Chuck Watson '61 Says:

2016-02-24 09:45:53

Paul Rochmis' recollections of the "dirty bicker" of 1958 reminded me that bicker, along with the wretched food in Commons, remains one of my few unsavory Princeton memories. Although I was a freshman that year, I well remember the notoriety the club system earned on account of the preponderance of Jews among the so-called "hundred-percenters," and I recall signing a petition urging the suspension of selective bicker until the University could come up with an alternative facility for upperclassmen. Although the next year I did bicker and join a club instead of the newly formed Wilson Lodge, eventually I dropped out and, like Paul Rochmis, ate at a variety of greasy spoons on and around Nassau Street. I too relished Mr. Griggs' diner, where those wonderful hamburgers, mixed with grilled onions, were so big they didn't fit on rolls and had to be served between slices of bread. Bittersweet indeed!

John Biro '60 Says:

2016-02-24 09:48:25

Yes, I recall those days. They were weird. Very weird, as discrimination was something new to me in Princeton. It was there for no good reason, I felt. Never from individuals like friends, classmates and roommates, but it was there institutionally. Just ask Paul Rochmis '60. Hope this is one feature of Princeton that died a rightful death over the years. Or did it?