The story of my undergraduate alma mater’s unofficial motto, coined by Woodrow Wilson in 1896, is illustrative. “Princeton in the Nation’s Service” has always been much more than a slogan. The school’s Nassau Hall served as the nation’s capitol for four months and eight days in 1783. Nine Princeton alumni served on the Constitutional Convention in 1787. And there has not been a year without a Princeton alumnus in the U.S. House of Representatives since its first meeting in 1789.
But not content to serve just our nation in a globalized world, the university revised Wilson’s motto in 1996 by adding “and in the Service of All Nations.” And then, in the wake of controversy surrounding Wilson and inspired by a speech delivered by alumna Sonia Sotomayor, it was changed again in 2016 to read “In the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity.” As one alumnus said at the time in the official university press release, “It captures the latest narrative of world affairs. We are not just nations separated by borders. . . we may even be nationless. . . service to humanity is apt.”
more.
——-
This backlash has been brewing for a long time, and the more surprising thing is it hasn’t happen earlier