Poisoned Ivy

Princeton's President Robert F. Goheen plainly thought he had found poison in his ivy. At a press conference last week, Goheen said angrily: "I think it was an ignorant editorial." Goheen's target was none other than the New York Times, which to the ordinary reader seems to observe a Be Kind to Education Week about 52 times a year.

The Times had editorially criticized the eight Ivy League colleges for the "haphazard and chaotic conditions reigning in this year's admissions decisions." Compelled to turn down 25,740 of 39,380 applicants for next fall, the Ivies admittedly made many decisions more on a subjective evaluation of a candidate than on his academic rating (TIME, May 23). To the Times, this was engaging in "something that looks like blindman's buff." Instead, the Times urged that admissions to the Ivy League schools be governed on a "strictly objective" basis--"an average of entrance examination scores or the like--which would insure that the best minds are accepted and avoid any suspicion of unfairness or of bungling."

To Goheen, "the editorial implies there are absolutely reliable measures of individual ability and achievements. At this time these measures do not exist." Or as Princeton's director of admissions, C. William Edwards, put it: "It was the most irresponsible piece of journalism I've ever seen in the Times. If we followed their imbecilic recommendations, we would be in a real mess."

In the Times's letters column, an irate reader added to the din: "I am glad that the New York Times did not determine college-entrance requirements when I applied for admission. I would not have been in the top group. In subsequent years I made a pretty good trustee of the institution from which the Times would have barred me, but perhaps by accepting me they lost another Einstein! Nonetheless, I think you are wrong in urging that marks be the sole factor in determining admissions--very, very wrong. In fact, one more 'very.' " The letter was signed by "A. Aitchess"--a pen name made up of his three initials, used by Times Publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger.

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