Concerned Alumni of Princeton

<p>The <b>Concerned Alumni of Princeton</b> (<b>CAP</b>) was a group of politically <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_conservatism" title="American conservatism" class="mw-redirect">conservative</a> former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_University" title="Princeton University">Princeton University</a> students that existed between 1972 and 1986. CAP was born in 1972 from the ashes of the Alumni Committee to Involve Itself Now (ACTION), which was founded in opposition to the college going coed in 1969. Some claim that CAP was founded to bring the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Officer_Training_Corps" title="Reserve Officer Training Corps" class="mw-redirect">ROTC</a> back to the Princeton campus after the ROTC building was burned down by anti-war activists and the Princeton administration refused to rebuild it. However, the ROTC had returned to campus by the time CAP was founded. The primary motivation behind CAP was to limit the number of women admitted to the university.<sup class="Template-Fact" style=" white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed"><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from June 2011">citation needed</span></a></i>]</sup> CAP also opposed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action" title="Affirmative action">affirmative action</a> designed to increase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group" title="Minority group">minority</a> attendance at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League" title="Ivy League">Ivy League</a> institution. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.isthatlegal.org/images/cap1.pdf">[1]</a> CAP also exhibited strong support for Princeton's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_clubs" title="Eating clubs" class="mw-redirect">eating clubs</a>, which were male-only at the time.</p>

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The existence of the organization attracted wide notice in January 2006 during the nomination of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Alito" title="Samuel Alito">Samuel Alito</a>, who was a former CAP member, to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States" title="Supreme Court of the United States">Supreme Court of the United States</a>, as Alito included his membership in the organization on a job application to work in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Reagan</a> administration in 1985 <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/alito/8105.pdf">[2]</a>. No mention of Alito has been found in CAP files, apart from his own written 1985 statement of membership. Fox News legal analyst <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Napolitano" title="Andrew Napolitano">Andrew Napolitano</a> was a founding member.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#cite_note-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup> Former Senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bradley" title="Bill Bradley">Bill Bradley</a>, a liberal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Democratic Party (United States)">Democrat</a>, was a member until 1973, when he resigned because of the tone of the organization's magazine, <i>Prospect</i>. Republican Senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Frist" title="Bill Frist">Bill Frist</a>, at the time a recent Princeton alumnus, contributed to a report that labeled the organization as far-right and extremist.</p>

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<h2>Contents</h2>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#Opposition_to_coeducation"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Opposition to coeducation</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#Alito_hearings"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Alito hearings</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#Quota_system_for_males"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Quota system for males</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#Reaction_by_undergraduates.2C_faculty.2C_and_staff"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Reaction by undergraduates, faculty, and staff</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#References"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Opposition_to_coeducation">Opposition to coeducation</span></h2>

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<td class="mbox-text"><span class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>contains <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:QUOTE" title="Wikipedia:QUOTE" class="mw-redirect">too-lengthy quotations</a> for an encyclopedic entry</b>. <span class="hide-when-compact">Please <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Guide_to_writing_better_articles" title="Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles" class="mw-redirect">help improve the article</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing" title="Help:Editing">editing it</a> to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources">sourced</a> original prose. Consider transferring direct quotations to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiquote" title="Wikiquote">Wikiquote</a>.</span> <small><i>(April 2012)</i></small> </span></td>

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<p>In 1974, the New York Times reported on CAPs support for quotas guaranteeing that male students would receive most of the available admissions slots, and its earlier and continuing opposition to Princeton allowing women to attend at all. In the following excerpt, "Mr. Bushnell" refers to CAP co-chairman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asa_S.Bushnell%28Princeton%29" title="Asa S. Bushnell (Princeton)" class="mw-redirect">Asa S. Bushnell</a>, and "Mr. Jones" refers to T. Harding Jones, CAP's executive director.</p>

<p>Whether or not the administration satisfies CAP on the faculty issue, the recent decision by the university's Board of Trustees to eliminate sex-based admissions quotas jolted these conservative alumni, many of whom wanted Princeton to remain an all-male institution in the first place.</p>

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<p>When the trustees approved co-education in 1969, there was a widespread understanding that the male enrollment would be maintained at 800 per entering class. The subsequent adoption of an equal-access admissions policy last Jan. 19, along with the decision to retain undergraduate population at current levels, are expected to result in a decrease in the number of males matriculating each year.</p>

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<p>"Many Princeton graduates are unhappy over the fact that the administration has seen fit to abrogate the virtual guarantee that 800 would continue to be the number of males in the graduating class," Mr. Bushnell said.</p>

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<p>"Co-education has ruined the mystique and the camaraderies that used to exist," Mr. Jones added. "Princeton has now given into the fad of the moment, and I think it's going to prove to be a very unfortunate thing."</p>

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<p>Alumni response to the equal-access decision may offer a reliable gauge of CAP's influence among the university's graduates. The changing composition of the undergraduate population concerns many Princeton alumni, especially those who cherish memories of a relatively homogenous student body. Both supporters and critics of the new policy have initiated extensive campaigns to publicize their arguments.</p>

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<p>CAP leaders trace this year's 10 per cent decline in gift-giving to alumni disaffection that emerged during an era of liberalization, an era that reached its culmination in the equal-access decision.</p>

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<p>"Annual giving has been hurt very substantially by the equal-access vote," Mr. Jones said. "And it will be hurt more next year as more people find out about it. For many alumni, it was the last straw."</p>

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<p>– New York Times, March 3, 1974.<a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.isthatlegal.org/images/cap1.pdf">[3]</a></p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Alito_hearings">Alito hearings</span></h2>

<p>In the confirmation hearings, CAP attracted attention because of its public stance against affirmative action and co-education at Princeton. Members of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Judiciary_Committee" title="Senate Judiciary Committee" class="mw-redirect">Senate Judiciary Committee</a> who were questioning Alito suggested that his involvement in this group could shed some light on his stance on minority and women's rights issues, which may come before him if he is confirmed as an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associate_Justice" title="Associate Justice">Associate Justice</a> on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court" title="United States Supreme Court" class="mw-redirect">United States Supreme Court</a>.

The result of an extensive search of CAP documentation demanded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy" title="Ted Kennedy">Ted Kennedy</a> on January 11, 2006 was that no mention of or connection to Sam Alito was found.</p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Quota_system_for_males">Quota system for males</span></h2>

<p>CAP supported quotas preserving admission spots for males. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.isthatlegal.org/images/cap1.pdf">[4]</a></p>

<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Reaction_by_undergraduates.2C_faculty.2C_and_staff">Reaction by undergraduates, faculty, and staff</span></h2>

<p>CAP appears to have been treated as a nuisance or danger by some of the Princeton community contemporaneous to its most active period. Faculty members were wary of participating in a CAP-sponsored political survey. CAP was repeatedly mocked by the school's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_University_Band" title="Princeton University Band">band</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epuband/photo-album/formations.html">[5]</a><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Epuband/media/1974.html">[6]</a>, and the university's chaplain in 1973 defended himself against charges of radicalism for his involvement in supporting draft dodging <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1973/v30-1-criticscorner1.htm">[7]</a>.</p>

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<td style=" padding: 0 0.2em; vertical-align: middle; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Conservatism" title="Portal:Conservatism">Conservatism portal</a></td>

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<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruin_Alumni_Association" title="Bruin Alumni Association">Bruin Alumni Association</a></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></h2>

<li id="cite_note-0"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerned_Alumni_of_Princeton#cite_ref-0">^{</a></b></span}> <span class="reference-text"><span class="citation news">Sethi, Chanakya (18 November 2005). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2005/11/18/13876/">"Alito '72 joined conservative alumni group"</a>. <i>Daily Princetonian</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved 14 January 2011</span>.</span></span></li>

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<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span></h2>

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<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/18/news/13876.shtml">Alito joined conservative alumni group</a> from the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Princetonian" title="Daily Princetonian" class="mw-redirect">Daily Princetonian</a></i></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=20029">PFAW Seeking Access to Records of 'Concerned Alumni of Princeton'</a>, from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_American_Way" title="People for the American Way" class="mw-redirect">People for the American Way</a></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/22/opinion/13901.shtml">Alito needs to shed his CAP</a> from the <i>Daily Princetonian</i></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601120175jan12,1,7627406.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed">Alumni group targeted women, minorities</a>, from the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tribune" title="Chicago Tribune">Chicago Tribune</a></i> (Link dead as of 05:38, 15 January 2007 (UTC))</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.isthatlegal.org/images/cap1.pdf">Conservative Alumni Act to Alter Princeton Image</a>, from the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times" title="New York Times" class="mw-redirect">New York Times</a></i>, March 3, 1974 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pdf" title="Pdf" class="mw-redirect">pdf</a> format)</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051212/press">Alito's CAP Connection</a> from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation%28U.S.periodical%29" title="The Nation (U.S. periodical)" class="mw-redirect">The Nation</a></i></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/qa200601111508.asp">Don't Rush to Judgment</a> from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review_Online" title="National Review Online" class="mw-redirect">National Review Online</a></i></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060114/cm_huffpost/013826;ylt=A86.I0GI7clDNhwA.A_9wxIF;ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--">Samuel Alito and the Concerned Alumni of Princeton</a> from &quot<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo_News" title="Yahoo News" class="mw-redirect">Yahoo News</a>", January 14, 2006 (Link dead as of 05:38, 15 January 2007 (UTC))</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200601120909.asp">Alito: A Last-Gasp Democratic Gambit Fails</a> from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review_Online" title="National Review Online" class="mw-redirect">National Review Online</a></i></li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.humanevents.com/alitoblog.php">Setting the Record Straight: Alito's Role With CAP</a> from <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.humanevents.com/">HumanEvents.com</a></i>.</li>

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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2006/01/13/alito_controversy/">http://www.salon.com/2006/01/13/alito_controversy/</a>

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<p>Although CAP has been defunct for two decades, its sudden exhumation now exposes the unattractive underside of modern conservatism. To describe CAP merely as an organization that “opposed affirmative action,” as the New York Times peculiarly insists in its news stories, is to whitewash its ugly reality.

The founder and chief financial supporter of CAP was an immensely wealthy investment banker named Shelby Cullom Davis, who served as ambassador to Switzerland under President Nixon and, aside from his enormous generosity to his alma mater, spent his fortune promoting right-wing causes and institutions. Davis made no secret of his opinion that diversity at Princeton, including the admission of women, was identical with decline. In “The Chosen,” a recent history of admission policies at Harvard, Yale and Princeton by Jerome Karabel, Davis is quoted trumpeting his nostalgia for the homogeneity of his father’s college class — meaning an era when the Ivy League admitted no women, virtually no blacks or Hispanics and precious few Jews.</p>

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Demanding a reduction in the number of women and minorities permitted to enroll, Davis opposed sex-blind admissions as well as affirmative action (except for the children of alumni, of course). “Why should not a goal of 10 percent to 20 percent women and minorities be appropriate for Princeton’s long-term strength and future?” he wondered.

With lavish subsidies from Davis, who also spent millions to help found the Heritage Foundation around the same time, CAP published a magazine called Prospect, which expressed the same sentiments, though sometimes in far coarser terms. Among the editors of Prospect was <b>D’Souza, </b>a Dartmouth graduate who has endorsed the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and has argued that what Americans regard as racism is only common-sense discrimination.</p>

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Conservatives like Davis and D’Souza certainly opposed affirmative action (except when applied to alumni spuds and star athletes), but the attitudes toward minorities, women and homosexuals expressed by CAP were hostile and extremist. That was why Bill Frist, a Princeton alumnus and no liberal even then, denounced CAP, as did Bill Bradley, who had briefly joined the group but resigned as soon as its real agenda became obvious.</p>

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For Princeton alumni, in other words, CAP became a clear symbol of certain attitudes toward women, minorities and homosexuals that were broadly unacceptable in civil discourse. To alumni of Alito’s generation, his claim not to remember much about the furious debate over CAP is simply <a href="http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/01/11/princeton/index.html">implausible.</a> Everyone who was there remembers which side he or she was on.</p>

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In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Alito said that while he didn’t remember much about CAP, he thought he would have joined only because of his anger about the banishment of ROTC from the Princeton campus. (He had joined ROTC after getting a low number in the Vietnam draft lottery.) That answer undermined his credibility, not only because of his implausible assertion that he doesn’t remember the racist, sexist and gay-bashing rhetoric but because by the time he graduated, ROTC was no longer an issue at Princeton.</p>

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Young Sam Alito <a target="new" href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/a-f/alito_samuel_anthony/htm/10release_cadet.htm">joined the ROTC</a> in 1970, the same year that Princeton trustees voted to end undergraduate military training at the university for a variety of reasons. By the time he graduated two years later, however, the trustees had reinstated Army ROTC programs on campus. (The university’s negotiations with the Air Force and Navy broke down, and their ROTC programs did not return to Princeton at that point.)</p>

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According to the Daily Princetonian, the trustees <a target="new" href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/01/17/history/">acted in recognition of broad support</a> for bringing back a reformed ROTC program from students and trustees, including many who opposed the Vietnam War but viewed ROTC as “a beneficial and liberalizing influence upon the military.”</p>

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In fact, ROTC was reinstated at Princeton by a vote of the trustees in June 1972 — four months before the existence of CAP was announced in the Princeton Alumni Weekly the following October, according to “The Chosen.”</p>

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So when Alito became an alumnus, his motivation to join CAP probably had little to do with his worries about the ROTC, because they had largely been resolved. That issue was never a primary focus of CAP’s energies, and by the time Alito mentioned CAP on his résumé in 1985, the ROTC fight had been long forgotten — but the bitter debate over diversity on campus was still raging.</p>

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<b>The testimony of those who know Alito indicates that he is personally free of the racism and sexism espoused by the CAP crowd, and the archives show that he played no active role in the group</b>. But his eagerness to identify with the likes of Davis and D’Souza is unsettling to say the least, especially in a jurist who has proved so unsympathetic to the rights of women, minorities, workers and consumers. Questioning him about CAP certainly was not “guilt by association,” as his defenders have whined. He associated himself with those bigots — and he still hasn’t offered a plausible explanation.

<i>This story has been <a href="http://www.salon.com/letters/corrections/2006/index.html#alito">changed</a> since it was first published.</i></p>

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/politics/politicsspecial1/27alito.html?pagewanted=all</p>

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