Oh man am I slow.

I've been wondering about the "YES!" carved into the footpath connecting Whitman College and the Dinky ever since the College first opened. And this morning, walking toward Fine Hall from the Dinky, I finally understood why:

The Whitman College dorm that is next to South Building and the Dinky (which makes it almost directly over the carved letters) is Hargadon Hall.

Fred Hargadon earned a reputation as the Yes!man of Princeton University during his 15-year tenure as our Dean of Admission that concluded in 2003; he was the one responsible for the characteristic Princeton admission letter that begins

Dear <insert firstname>,

(it looks something like this; note that the letter is photoshopped to display only the first sentence, there are material cut out from the image). My own, unfortunately, was not signed by Dean Fred: he was on leave during the Early Decision admissions season when I was a senior. It was not until a year or so after I arrived at Princeton that I found out who Dean Fred was and why everybody knew about him (mainly because almost every Triangle club Frosh show has some reference to to Dean Fred, and I was in the pit for the 2002 show).