Time to Decide

Taking the easiest way out possible, the Princeton Undergraduate Council passed a resolution this week on the month-old color discrimination battle, recommending immediate admittance of Negroes only to the Graduate School and stalling the college issue until the student body can "orient" itself to the new situation. With recent polls showing a very slight student and a definite faculty majority in favor of Negro admittance, Princeton has now reached the point where it must either practice what it preaches or be content with the humiliation of attacking race prejudice from the armchair only. In connection with this the Council's move was an obvious evasion, since the Graduate School constitutes a very small part of the University and the phrase "orientation" is meaningless.

Though the backbone of opposition comes from a Southern minority within the college, many Northern students have taken the stand that introduction of the new plan would not be worth the disturbance it would cause. This, in itself, is not an argument but a weak, defensive stall. The problem of color discrimination will not vanish in time like a seven-year locust; instead its pressure will grow more and more as Negroes contribute to the preservation of the four freedoms. Princeton, far from being a pioneer, would be one of the last Northern universities to fall in line; and the only means of proving to a Southern contingent that color presents no limitations in university life is by admitting the Negro.

Princeton, by raising this issue, has attracted attention from many quarters, and a final decision in the near future by the university's Board of Trustees will bear more weight than is probably desired. And for President Dodd to say at this time, despite the fact that he recently signed a resolution against post-war race prejudice, that he has never made any comment on campaigns sponsored by the Princetonian indicates a general refusal in the university to appreciate the significance of the issue.