Like A Virgin

irginity is up at Princeton.

At least that's what a Daily Princetonian poll says.

A random sampling of 395 undergraduates revealed that 65 percent of Princeton students were virgins when they first arrived on the New Jersey campus. In 1979, only 58 percent of entering students were virgins.

Keeping one's virginity has also taken on new vogue. Forty-four percent of Princeton students are still virgins on graduation day, up from 32 percent only six years ago.

The poll did not determine how many students lost their virginity in the first year of college, or even in the first week.

Meanwhile, drug use, smoking, and speed are on the way down, according to the 138-question poll.

Only 40 percent of Princetonians said they had used marijuana before entering college, and only 10 percent more said they had used it since. Both figures represent a decline since 1983, when the last such poll was done.

Only 21 percent of Princeton students said they had ever tried cocaine, and only 8 percent of the respondents said they used it once or more each month. In addition, Princeton students may be pulling fewer all-nighters, as 92 percent said they had never tried speed.

Finally, the neo-Puritans of Princeton will probably live longer than most of us, as only 8 percent of the respondents said they smoked cigarettes once or more each month. In fact, only I degenerate out of the entire 395 undergraduates polled said he smoked every day.

The only category which seems to be almost constant from the last poll, conducted two years ago, is alcohol consumption. Of the students responding, 93 percent said they drank once or more per month and 48 percent drank once or more per week. In fact, only one student out of the entire 395 said that he had never consumed alcohol. It is unclear whether the one teetotaler was the same student who said he smoked regularly.

Officials at the university refused to comment on the poll.