Princeton’s Totally Frat-tastic Residential College
It’s official: the administrators in charge of Princeton’s spanking-new Whitman College are on crack. Following up on the Great Mug Emergency of 2008, these fine folks have decided to transform Princeton’s first four-year residential college into a fraternity. For serious.
Taking a cue from the university’s existing frats, Whitman College is asking impressionable freshman to volunteer to become thesis slaves for graduating seniors. It’s like being a pledge but with none of the benefits! The seniors get to force the freshmen to do laundry and fetch them snacks and drop off library books! What do the freshmen get in return? Why, the pleasure of the seniors’ company!
Each participating Whitman senior will be assigned 2 underclassmen who will be “on call” during the final thesis push. If you are working away in your room and feel like you need a midnight snack all you have to do is contact your thesis buddy and he/she will bring you a hot dog and a red bull or whatever else you need to burn the midnight oil.
Obviously, the idea isn’t to take advantage of your buddy, but to have him or her help out in a pinch. Other examples of acceptable duties include: taking care of a load of laundry, picking up/dropping off some library books, or proofreading a chapter for typos.
After the jump: the email in full.
From: Cole M. Crittenden
To:WHITMAN-SENIOR@Princeton.EDU
Subject: thesis help
Whitman Seniors:
Thesis crunch time rapidly approaches and the time has come to draw on one of Whitman’s greatest assets as a 4-year residential college . . . the underclassmen!
We know that the next few months will pose some challenges so we are instituting a new program with the hope that it will make your life slightly easier during the final push. Introducing . . .
WHITMAN THESIS BUDDIES
What is it?
Each participating Whitman senior will be assigned 2 underclassmen who will be “on call” during the final thesis push. If you are working away in your room and feel like you need a midnight snack all you have to do is contact your thesis buddy and he/she will bring you a hot dog and a red bull or whatever else you need to burn the midnight oil.
Obviously, the idea isn’t to take advantage of your buddy, but to have him or her help out in a pinch. Other examples of acceptable duties include: taking care of a load of laundry, picking up/dropping off some library books, or proofreading a chapter for typos. Unacceptable duties would include: attending a class in your stead, cleaning your room, doing your homework, or getting your thesis bound.
How do you sign up?
You can sign up the week before spring break (March 10th – 14th) during dinner in the Whitman Dining Hall. If you have a specific underclassman in mind, (and he or she has agreed to participate) you can indicate your preferred thesis buddy when you sign up. Otherwise, we will try to match you up with someone from your department or someone who lives in your building. RGS Steven Lauritano is helping us organize the thesis buddy program. He’ll be overseeing the sign-up and matching process.
When does it start?
The program goes into effect 3 weeks before your thesis deadline and concludes after you turn it in.”
What’s next? Whitman College’s hell week? Sign up at the dining hall!
