Jr. Fellow Here Leads Princeton Reform Fight

A Junior Fellow at Harvard has become has been a guinea pig in a current drive to reform Princeton's small, select graduate school. James A. Kritzeck, fellow in Oriental History and resident member of Dunster House, in the past two weeks has become an unnamed hero to 130 Princeton graduate students and a profanely-named pain in the neck to a host of Princeton deans.

The reason for all the excitement is the unique position of the Princeton Graduate College, as it is called. From the time it was established in 1910 to the present it has been consciously set apart both physically and spiritually from the undergraduate college. A full mile away from the rest of the college, it is designed to be a self-contained "community of scholars," an academic monastery far from undergraduate contamination.

Because of this policy of isolation, graduate students at Princeton for their first two years must live in the Graduate College, which is operated along the lines of a Harvard House, and then find a room in the crowded, expensive village of Princeton. In no case are they allowed to room in the cheaper undergraduate dormitories, despite the fact that there are over 50 vacant rooms in the undergraduate halls.

Under special circumstances--he was less than 19 when he entered the Graduate College after receiving his B.A. from the University of Minnesota--Kritzeck made many undergraduate friends and was elected to membership in an undergraduate sating club. He wasn't too enthusiastic about living in the Graduate College--"It has some of the aspects of an Old folks' Home"--and so in 1951 he asked the dean of the school to be allowed to room with two of his undergraduate friends in an undergraduate dormitory.

He received the letter reprinted above. Eventually, by appealing to a more powerful dean, Kritzeck had his request granted, but all last year the letter was displayed in a prominent place in his room. A reporter from the "Daily Princetonian" saw it there and, with assistance and instigation from Kritzeck, began working on an expose of the school which was printed in three parts two weeks ago.

The first article in the series pointed out that, because of the ban on living in campus dormitories, 130 graduate students are now living in the village of Princeton, a far cry from "a community of scholars." The high cost of living in boarding houses and apartments was also stressed.

A second piece questioned the entire value of "a community of scholars" and quoted one student who called the Graduate College "an ivory tower on an ivory pedestal." The Princetonian reviewed the history of the Graduate college, especially Woodrow Wilson's opposition to it. As present of Princeton Wilson wanted its graduate school to be "at the very heart of the campus" while the dean of the school. Andrew Fleming West favored a distant location and an aloof conception for his school. Eventually west favored a distant location and au aloof conception for his school. Eventually West aided by an offer of a $4 million bequest for his "separate" Graduate college, swung most Princeton alumni to his side and Wilson reassigned taking as consolation the post of President of the United States.

One of the Princetonian's strongest pieces of evidence in its demand for better undergraduate graduate relations was the letter from Dean Thorpe to Kritzeck, which it ran prominently on the front page. Kritzeck's name was blacked-out but the deans know who wrote if and are now fuming at him for releasing the letter to the Princetonian. At the same time a group of graduate students are getting up a petition asking to be allowed to room in the undergraduate dorms.

Says Kritzeck "I'm being need by file Princetonian but I'm being used willingly."