I imagine that there are many legitimate reasons for these delays, and I won’t pretend to fully understand any of them. One of these, I suspect, arises from the club’s challenge of distinguishing itself from the 10 other clubs on the Street. I propose that Cannon do this by embracing international students and their like-minded classmates.
Many alums and some students might hope that the resurrected Cannon aspires to its former legendary status as the wild party club par excellence, replete with two tap rooms. Never mind that precisely that club’s funds ran dry and hence was forced to close down because of dwindling membership even after dropping Bicker in 1971. Clearly it’s an insignificant little detail that Tiger Inn has enjoyed almost four decades of monopoly as the wild club and hence has firmly established itself in that role.
Ignoring for now its assuredly secure future in its likely attempt to return to its glorious animal house days, let us ponder — since we’re supposed to have open and inquisitive minds — what realization of Cannon would add the most to campus life.
My father always told me to keep that basic principle in mind: Provide a service that people want, and they’ll pay for it. An eating club provides its members with essentially two things: food and a social scene. Now, there are students to whom eating rather oily food, random spontaneous chantings of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and cheering while a fellow member chugs down a glass of wine at a formal dinner are distasteful. A major subset of them is a distinctive group that consists of one in every nine Princetonians: the internationals.
Of course, it’d be rather stupid of me to treat all international students in a categorical manner. Nevertheless, I think that there are enough similar preferences to consider them as a focused, targetable subset of students. For example, I have found internationals to easily tire of the lack of variety in ethnic food here and more willing and eager to venture with food from around the world. For another, in contrast to what we were told in “US101” during International Pre-Orientation, religion or politics are rarely “inappropriate” and are often good dinner conversation topics in international cultures. Regarding alcohol, the legal drinking ages in other countries are typically 18 or lower. Consequently, experiments concerning the effects of diluted ethanol on our biochemistry are performed mostly in high schools, and we’re largely over them by the time we arrive here. The culture of drinking is very different anyways, where appropriate amounts of respectable wine and beer (and certainly no vodka cruisers) are frequently consumed with dinner.
I am aware that, practically speaking, this is very unlikely to happen — the alums responsible for reopening Cannon would almost certainly be opposed. But there are certain things in the world that are the way they are for no good reason, and this is one of them. Neither the Davis International Center nor the International Students Association at Princeton offers social space, and as a result there is no one place where international students can go to hang out.
Cannon — or any other club that might conceivably make the transition — could be that place. The appeal would not be limited to internationals. It could host international-themed events, such as the Global Groove Night, international film screenings, performances of international artists or language tables. But mostly, anyone who enjoys eating food, hearing languages, drinking beverages, listening to music or just meeting and socializing with people from around the world could find this fictional Cannon Club pretty attractive. It could be a genuine celebration of cultural diversity in the day-to-day lives of many Princetonians.
Eric Kang is a math major from Christchurch, New Zealand. He can be reached at eakang@princeton.edu.
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