Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Princeton Proud

Recently, the Nation's oldest collegiate debate and political union has voted to strip Senator Ted Cruz PU '92 of it's highest honor for voting to overthrow the November 2020 election. Princeton University's American Whig-Clio Society's Award for Distinguished Public Service has been awarded in the past to Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Golda Meir, and it is the first time it has been rescinded. The society was founded 256 years ago by James Madison and Aaron Burr.


 

The Whig-Clio buildings on campus are iconic, mostly marble and grand columned structures situated behind Cannon Green and revered Nassau Hall itself. Since our PU Class of '75 celebrated it's 25th reunion in the new millennium year, I used architectural drawings from an architect/friend restoring their columns to create our "Millennium Moment" logo. ("Millennium Moment" referred to the moment the Class '75 was led through Nassau Hall gates by the Old Guard in custom made Class blazers leading the P-rade event 2000.) A cartoon version was completed by Henry Martin PU '48, New Yorker cartoonist, by adding a tiger and Princeton's famous fireworks to it. The logos were later used to create fabric for a reunion's shirt, belts, hatbands, bottle labels, etc. Henry Martin recently passed away while living among Princeton University alumni, who upheld high standards of service to the Nation and society we are proud of. I have counted six recognized Class '75 members who petitioned to take away Ted Cruz' award.

"Whig and Clio, like similar literary societies at other American colleges, were the main focus of undergraduate life for much of the nineteenth century. Elaborately organized, self-governing youth groups (though often receiving advice from alumni and faculty), they were, in effect, colleges within colleges. They constructed and taught their own curricula, selected and bought their own books, operated their own libraries (often larger and more accessible than that of the college itself), and developed and enforced elaborate codes of conduct among their members. Intense competition for members and for college honors led to creative emulation between the two societies. Their libraries afforded undergraduates easy access to the world outside; their debates trained generations to consider the great public issues of the day, from slavery to American expansion, from women’s rights to the dismemberment of the union. Surviving the challenge of Greek letter fraternities in the 1850s and 1860s, the societies reached their apogee in the 1880s. Woodrow Wilson himself trained in the arts of speech and debate while serving as Speaker (now President) of the Society. Then Princeton, like many other old American colleges, underwent a rapid transformation. It became a university college. In the process enrollment increased enormously, while a network of social clubs, expanded library facilities, and a widened curriculum replaced many of the functions once performed by Whig and Clio. By the time of World War I, Whig and Clio were only two among the scores of student groups that appealed to a wide range of undergraduate intellectual, social, and physical interests." (excerpt from "The American Whig-Cliosophic Society History, 2021 The Trustees of Princeton"; Whig Hall below.)

Clio Hall.JPG


Dad at Princeton in '49 & Blair Arch near Clio Hall which mirrors Whig.
 

 

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