24. Class of 1890 “Proc”


Hazing was a part of Princeton student life since the earliest days of the College, but the ritual grew particularly intense during the late nineteenth century.  Sophomores taught freshmen their place in the social hierarchy by forcing them to perform degrading acts, shaving their heads and occasionally inflicting physicalabuse.  Sophomores also issued proclamations, which were posted across the campus and the town to relegate the first-year students to an inferior social position.  In this “proc,” the sophomore class of 1890 declared themselves “the undisputed lords of all creation and the masters, owners and trainers of those filthy, foul and fiendish brutes and reptiles which constitute the menagerie which is commonly known as the FRESHMAN CLASS.”  Though hazing was technically abolished by the twentieth century, freshmen’s behavior was still regulated by the