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November 30, 2005

Women at Princeton: "The Fad of the Moment"

H
ere is an article from the New York Times on March 3, 1974, that describes the organization called "Concerned Alumni of Princeton" ("CAP") that conservative alumni founded in the fall of 1972.

CAP is in the news because Supreme Court nominee (and my old boss) Sam Alito bragged about being a member of the organization in his 1985 application to be one of Attorney General Ed Meese's top assistants.

"Co-education [of men and women] has ruined the mystique and the camaraderies that used to exist," said CAP's executive director at the time. "Princeton has now given in to the fad of the moment, and I think it's going to prove to be a very unfortunate thing."

Alito graduated from Princeton in the spring of 1972, just before CAP was organized.

Posted by Eric at November 30, 2005 10:55 AM

Comments

There's a detailed discussion of CAP and its support of maximum admission quotas for women at Princeton (in opposition to sex-blind admissions), and affirmative action in favor of athletes (but not in favor of traditionally disadvantaged or under-represented gorups) at pp. 467-482 of Jerome Karabel's "The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at harvard, Yale, and Princeton", and the notes to that section. It's worth reading for the context in which CAP was formed and operated.

Posted by: Edward Hasbrouck at November 30, 2005 1:20 PM