Sotomayor as a College Activist

Sonia Sotomayor in the 1970s at Princeton. (The Daily Princetonian)

At Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings this week, we’ve heard questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about Sotomayor’s views on seemingly every kind of case, whether she is a "reverse racist," and what she meant by her so-called "wise Latina remarks." We have not heard much about her time as an undergraduate at Princeton University. But her work there for racial equality tells us something about the kind of justice she might be. Sotomayor’s activism won her recognition from Princeton’s 1970s-era administration, not exactly a radical bunch. Their endorsement, and the context of Sotomayor’s activism, indicates that her desire to diversify her campus was not radically leftist; rather, it was as measured—and effective—as her legal career.

Conservatives are eager to portray Sotomayor as someone who discriminates against Caucasian Americans, using her efforts to diversify Princeton as an example, so it’s understandable that those who support Sotomayor’s nomination have deliberately tried to downplay her four years spent trying to make Princeton a place where she and other Latino/a students would feel welcome. But Sotomayor ‘s work with Latino student groups eventually earned her campus-wide fame and was cited as one of the primary reasons that she was awarded the Pyne Prize, Princeton’s highest undergraduate honor.

As co-chair of a student group called Acción Puertorriqueña, Sotomayor co-led a campaign to get Princeton to hire more Latino faculty members and admit more Latino students. At first, on-campus activism found little success. So in 1974, two student groups, Acción Puertorriqueña and the Chicano Organization of Princeton, filed a formal complaint with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In the words of the Daily Princetonian, they were “charging the university with a ‘lack of commitment’ in hiring Puerto Rican and Chicano administrators and faculty and recruiting students from these minority groups.” The work of the coalition was in part responsible for hiring a Latino as assistant dean of student affairs later that year, with Sotomayor and some other minority students serving on a student advisory committee for the job search. (The committee subsequently asserted that they did not have a large role in the selection process and that their input was merely a formality.)

Sotomayor’s advocacy on behalf of minority students was not limited to this particular issue; concerned that “not one permanent course in this university now deals in any notable detail with the Puerto Rican or Chicano cultures,” she succeeded in convincing Princeton history professor Peter Winn to offer a seminar on Puerto Rican history. She was also on the Governance Board of the Third World Center, which—particularly in the ‘70s and ‘80s—was Princeton’s primary social and cultural resource for minority students. (In 2002, the university wisely decided to rename it the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding.) Beyond her work on Latino issues, Sotomayor was also one of the 39 signatories of a landmark 1976 letter to the editor in the Daily Princetonian that criticized an attack against two members of the Gay Alliance of Princeton, now called the Pride Alliance.

The day after Sotomayor co-signed that letter to the editor, the Princetonian reported that Sotomayor was one of two winners of the “M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest honor the university confers on an undergraduate.” The article continued, “The prize, given to the senior or seniors who have ‘manifested in outstanding fashion … excellent scholarship and effective support of the best interests of Princeton University,’ carries with it an award equal to a year’s tuition, $3,900 [in 1976].” When asked to comment on the winners, then-University President Bill Bowen said, “We try our best to find people who excel …. There are many ways to contribute—sometimes not through any organized method.” The fact that Bowen viewed Sotomayor’s advocacy for racial equality as one of “many ways to contribute” speaks to the impact she had in carving out a place for Latino students at Princeton.

Sotomayor was the first Latino student to be awarded the Pyne Prize, which is also telling—her agitation on behalf of Latino faculty and students, her service on the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs student advisory committee, her letters to the editor, and her general involvement in student life left no doubt that there was a place for Latino and other minority students at Princeton. This was recognized by the mainstream when the university awarded her the Pyne Prize. When Sotomayor started at Princeton in 1972, hers was only the fourth Princeton class to include women; she was one of a very few Latino members of her class. That she would graduate as the model Princeton student indicates that she both worked within the university’s system and helped to change it.

If confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor will join the august and yet slow-to-change branch of government as its only Latino member and one of two women. She would also be only the third woman in the entire history of the court at a time when nearly half of law school graduates are women. As at Princeton, her acceptance on the court and in the nation’s perception of the court may be an uphill battle. But instead of downplaying or overlooking Sotomayor’s undergraduate career, we can look to it. It signals clues of how she might interact with those who hold privilege and power, her intelligence and her belief in fairness and justice at work, and a better understanding of the life and work of a woman who is not radical but who would bring the court, like Princeton, much closer to the reality of America and its citizens.

Emily Rutherford is an editorial intern and staff writer at Campus Progress. She is a sophomore at Princeton University. Follow her on Twitter.

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