Frank Leal ’90 was an engineering major, as well as an All-Ivy League defensive back for the football team and, believe it or not, my cousin. During homecoming weekend last month, I received an unexpected text from Frank, asking if I wanted to grab lunch at Triumph, as he was flying in from California to see the game against Harvard on Saturday. Not having seen my relative for the better part of a decade, I agreed.
Sitting in Triumph Brewery with his two little daughters, Frank and I caught up on how my mom and brother were doing, what was going on in the life of his mom (my aunt) and the rest of his family, and, of course, how my life was panning out at this school. Over a couple of beers, I was again relating to someone from Tulare my eye-opening experiences at Princeton and how amazing this place has been to me. But this time, it was different. For once, someone from the place of my childhood and adolescence also appreciated the references to my eating club, what life was like in my dorm, the amount of work awaiting me once I got back to my room, and the joys of Reunions and Thursday nights.
After maybe half an hour of conversation, a tall, thin, pretty woman with dark hair and a bright smile walked up to our table, gave Frank a hug and introduced herself to me as Lisa Surace, Class of 1992. Lisa was the wife of the current football coach and a good friend of my cousin. Random as it may sound, I was thrilled to realize that my cousin had friends in the area that had also graduated from the University. The next day, while sitting in the stands with Frank during the game, and having a beer with him at the Princeton Football Association tailgate afterward I realized that I had been thrown into a set of ties with Princeton that I had never been exposed to while applying here, and even during my first two years as a college student. And you know what? I liked it.
These encounters have led me to reconsider my attitude toward legacies and others with prior connections to our school. These groups have many insults thrown their way when they choose to attend Princeton. In May, staff writer Tara Thean wrote a series of articles in the ‘Prince’ on the status of legacies in the Princeton admission process and at the school. “Privileged,” “unfair” and “spoiled” are but a few of the cruel words that filled the online comments to the articles. Though I had previously been ambivalent as to the treatment of legacies at Princeton, I found myself, while reading, annoyed at the preference these students got when applying here. Then, I was reflecting the emotions of a notable number of students on campus. But now, six months later, I am just starting to get the point.
Never have I felt that my time at Princeton has been significantly diminished because of lack of exposure to this place before attending school here. In fact, I have felt honored to carve my own reputation, my own success, and my own academic and social acceptance without the aid of my parents’ names on my application. However, after a weekend with family that led me to consider this place to be more of “my own” than ever before, I see exactly what being a legacy adds to this campus and why it should be given at least a bit of weight in admission decisions, regardless of whether alumni parents give money to the school — a reason that has been cited for legacy preference.
Students who have been given a moderate orientation to Princeton over their lives are blessed with the sense of belonging and continued tradition that the University tries to instill in all of its students, through four-year colleges, Reunions and an exclusively on-campus residence tradition. By giving legacies a slight advantage in admissions, the University is allowing a reasonable advantage to students who already have an emotional connection with Princeton.
I would like to defend this sense of connection as something that we all should strive for as students, and something worthy of extra attention when deciding who should come here. While championing the achievements of those who had to get into Princeton without family ties or an affluent background, I nonetheless thank the contested cohorts on our campus — legacies — for manifesting the sense of timeless community that I, too, would aspire to promote.
Joey Barnett is an anthropology major from Tulare, Calif. He can be reached at jbarnett@princeton.edu.
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