Princeton president pines for peculiar persons.

July 10, 2001 12:37 PM

Princeton president pines for peculiar persons. "Princeton University's new president, Shirley Tilghman, says her campus has a problem: not enough weirdos. 'I would like to think we could begin to attract students with green hair. We will take pink and blue and orange hair, too.'" The rest of the article is pretty bland, but that quote is hilarious.
posted by jeb (9 comments total)

At the cost of some 30,000 per year for tuition, plus room and board, take me and I will dye my hair any color you want...I will pay for the dye; Princeton's pres can pick up all other costs.
posted by Postroad at 1:24 PM on July 10, 2001

Interesting to read this in light of this article in The Atlantic Monthly. Here's the lead-in: "The young men and women of America's future elite work their laptops to the bone, rarely question authority, and happily accept their positions at the top of the heap as part of the natural order of life." Getting in to college sucks.
posted by jeb at 1:26 PM on July 10, 2001

Postroad - if you also agree to "work your laptop to the bone" and all that, the payment issue might not be that big of a deal. I heard somewhere that princeton has a large enough endowment that they could afford to give all the students full rides off the interest and still run the school. I don't know if it's true at all, though. But who wants to go that place, anyway, right?
posted by jeb at 1:31 PM on July 10, 2001

Jeb: Princeton is (or was) considered the most Southern of eletie schools, that is, it was safe for a Southern family to send a kid there knowing he would be in a conservative environment. Like all things, I imagine this has changed. I used to teach a bit to the North, at an all-girls college (part of Rutgers) and on Friday's the girls, if "lucky" had dates with Princeton guys. The mascot for Princeton: the tiger. And with the gas ads, I used bid the girls have a nice weekend and "put a tiger in your tank." Alas, this sort of thing can no longer be said (law suits), and the girls loved this sort of kidding. Today, alas, such banter considered harrassment etc etc. But Princeton still a good school, and much better than most, though very costly, as are all the Ivy League schools. And very difficult to get into , as are the better schools all across the nation.
Calif., I think, is best deal for good state schools, quality and low cost for California residents.
posted by Postroad at 1:36 PM on July 10, 2001

"put a tiger in your tank."

!!!
posted by jennak at 1:59 PM on July 10, 2001

methinks shirley needs to spend an afternoon in the moldy basement that houses wprb ...
posted by maura at 2:08 PM on July 10, 2001

Shirley, you can't be serious.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 3:11 PM on July 10, 2001

Funny story: One of my closest friends arrived at Princeton freshman year with green hair. On his second night of going out on "the street," Princeton's equivalent of Fraternity Row, two different people started fights with him for being "a freak."

This was 9 years ago, but it's pretty funny all the same given the president's comments.
posted by chaz at 4:22 PM on July 10, 2001

So Princeton wants to be Brown, now? Go figure.
posted by jacobris at 9:43 PM on July 10, 2001