Here is the description of the design published by the class:

“The Class of 1983 Insignia incorporates a “P,” an ’83, a tiger, and a part of the University shield.
It was designed by Diana Corwin ’83. On a symbolic level, the design is meant to portray the following:

We have glided through a ‘banner’ four years at Princeton with flying colors, our Class Spirit ever swelling the ’83 sail, and thus the ‘banner/sail’ which forms the ‘P.’ (It can be left blank or inscribed with the class motto, a senior’s name, or Princeton.) Solidarity, among ourselves and with Princeton as a whole, has been a very important feature of our Class. Thus, the ‘banner/sail’ of the ‘P’ flows to form a continuous ’83.’ Because the Class of ’83 is composed of and unites different and unique individuals, the school colors are interlaced to form our numerals, with ‘crossing arms’ from the ‘8.’ Finally, we as a Class have that extra spark, that special and undefinable something, glowing at our core. Thus, part of the tiger (the chin) forms the ‘light burst’ or ‘fireburst’ toward which the inverted ‘V’ (for Victory, of course) seems to be reaching, at the center of ’83. The chin and ‘light burst’ together form the Class version of Princeton’s shield.”