Princeton — Yes, Princeton — Takes On the Class Divide - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

David Leonhardt, MAY 30, 2017, New York Times; see also.

Image from article, with caption: [...] a lower-income student at Princeton [...]

Excerpt:

PRINCETON, N.J. — Few American institutions have a history of exclusion quite like Princeton University’s. ...

This history ... makes ... recent developments here all the more remarkable. It also makes them a lesson for how other American institutions can respond to a central challenge of our time: the hardening of class divisions [JB emphasis] and a widespread stagnation in living standards.

[Princeton president Christopher] Eisgruber and his colleagues have made real and rapid progress. Princeton was until recently among the country’s least economically diverse colleges, overlooking hundreds of qualified low­-income high-­school students each year.

No more. ...

Versions of Princeton’s story are also happening elsewhere. ...

But for every college like these, there is another that doesn’t seem to care much. Over all, economic diversity at top colleges isn’t budging (and is declining at public colleges, thanks to state budget cuts), according to the The Times’s latest College Access Index. ...

Princeton, obviously, won’t solve the nation’s problems. But Eisgruber has still done something important: create urgency in his own community about the American class divide — a divide that has led to anger, alienation and the most worrisome political situation in decades. ...