03/13/2018
It was 40 years ago.....Sunday, 12 March 2018, the Princeton Quadrangle Club undergraduate members from the Classes of 1978 and 1979 voted to make Quad a nonselective club, after a challenging bicker for the Class of 1980. Quad joined Terrace Club (1967), Colonial Club (1969), Cloister Inn (1977), Charter Club (1977), Campus Club, and Dial Lodge as nonselective clubs. With the reopening of Elm Club as a nonselective club in the Spring of 1978, there were 13 Eating Clubs on Prospect Avenue, of which 8 were nonselective, 3 were bicker all-male, and 2 were bicker codeduational. Quad welcomed its first open members on Friday, 28 April 1978: Mitch Horowitz '79, Gary M. King '79, Matthew Liotine *83 P20, Howie Rosen '80, and Armand J. D'Accordo '79.
[This changed the odd coincidence that bicker clubs had brick/stone walls in front and open clubs had hedges in front.]
Quad was the last Eating Club to go open.
The 1970s were a time of great change for the Eating Clubs. Quad and Charter went nonselective. Cloister Inn and Elm Club reopened after brief closures in the early 1970s. And of course, Sally Frank '80 attempted to bicker at the all-male clubs in 1978 and 1979.
In the 40 years since, the change has continued. Dial Lodge closed in 1988. Elm Club closed in 1989. Dial, Elm, and Cannon rechristened themselves as DEC in 1990, but closed permanently in 1998. Campus Club closed in 2005. University Cottage Club (1986), Tiger Inn (1991), and Ivy Club (1991) eventually went coeducational. And after a long hiatus, Cannon Club reopened as a bicker club in 2011, and welcoming alumni from Dial and Elm. There are now six bicker clubs and five non-selective clubs on Prospect Avenue.
