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Monday February 1, 2016 vol. cxxxx no. 1
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } STUDENT LIFE
Third Wintersession a success By Maya Wesby staff writer
631 students were enrolled in the 58 courses offered for the third annual Wintersession which took place from Jan. 25 to 30 this year, according to Undergraduate Student Government Wintersession Committee Head Jacob Cannon ’ 17. Wintersession is a week-long program that runs during Intersession each year. Last year, there were 1,936 registrations for 67 courses, compared to this year’s approximately 1,600 registrations, Cannon said. He explained that
since the committee didn’t calculate the number of unique participants last year, comparing the participation for the two years would be inappropriate, and added that the numbers for this year comes exclusively from Wintersession courses, while in the past the committee included numbers from courses for other campus centers. Cannon said the the committee expected this year’s program to follow past years’ patterns of success, as more student groups and outside companies expressed interest in offering classes this year. See COURSES page 2
ZOE TU:: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
During the Wintersession Cookie Decorating course, Zoe Tu taught students how to create roses and butterflies using buttercream frosting and chocolate piping techniques.
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
ACADEMICS
By Jessica Li
5 U. students named Schwarzman Scholars
Student to maintain anonymity in U. mental health case news editor
A federal court judge has determined that a University student who filed a lawsuit against the University for mishandling his suicide attempt in 2012 may remain anonymous during the discovery phase of the trial. This decision reverses a decision issued by a magistrate judge last summer that dictated that the student, currently identified by the initials W.P., should disclose his name in full. U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey Peter Sheridan signed a temporary order for W.P. to retain anonymity.
However, he said in his brief that he reserves the right to determine whether anonymity will impact a possible trial. In his brief, Sheridan explained that he was concerned several publicly available briefs had already disclosed W.P.’s medical and personal information. He suggested in his brief that his decision was in part to prevent future harm and future release of sensitive information. Sheridan did not respond to a request for comment. The University had filed a motion to partially dismiss claims and to oppose the plaintiff’s anonymity in October 2014. U.S. See LAWSUIT page 2
STUDENT LIFE
By Andrea Ayala staff writer
Two University undergraduates, Ella Cheng ’16 and Tyler Rudolph ’16, as well as three alumni, Lucas Briger ’12, Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic ’14 and Yung Yung (Rosy) Yang ’13 have received the Schwarzman Scholarship in its inaugural year. The scholarship, funded by the co-founder and chairman of the investment firm Blackstone Group Stephen A. Schwarzman, will provide participants with the funds for a one-year master’s degree at Tsinghua University in
Beijing from 2016 to 2017. Each of the participants will receive a master’s in global affairs, and will also have the choice to specialize in economics and business, international studies or public policy. The scholarship program accepted 111 students this year, out of more than 3,000 applicants. Robert Garris, the global director of admissions for Schwarzman Scholars, said that the selected students all expressed interest in learning about China and working in global policy. He noted that the group of students includes some who have never been to China and do not
speak Mandarin, and others who have years of experience with Chinese culture. He also said that the students display a wide range of interests including finance, entrepreneurship, energy policy, health, education and poverty alleviation. “What connects them to each other is their capacity as future leaders,” Garris said. Yang said that she applied to the program because she wanted to gain an even more comprehensive educational experience and maximize her exposure to the world. She noted that she had received her education See SCHOLARS page 3
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
ICC declines to release Cruz ’92, Christie spar at Republican debate sign-in numbers By Jessica Li news editor
By Hannah Waxman staff writer
The first round of sign-ins for Charter Club, Cloister Inn, Colonial Club, Terrace Club, and Quadrangle Club ended Saturday, Jan. 30 at noon, but the Interclub Council decided not to release the acceptance numbers until the second round, accord-
ing to ICC president Jean-Carlos Arenas ’16. Charter president Lorena Grundy ’17, Cloister president Samuel Smiddy ’17, Colonial president Christopher Yu ’17, and Terrace president Nicholas Horvath ’17 declined to comment on the numbers, citing the ICC’s decision. See CLUBS page 2
The next president must be someone who rejects Washingtonian politicking like themselves, both Texas Senator Ted Cruz ’92 and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie expressed in Thursday night’s Republican debate three days before the Iowa caucus. Christie argued that voters must send someone from “out-
side of Washington to Washington.” “I need a Washington-English dictionary converter,” he said, describing the political jargon that surfaced during crossfires in the debate. In politics, one can change one’s mind with full legality, Christie argued, but as a governor, he couldn’t “hide behind parliamentary tricks” like many in Washington do. Christie is an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees of
the University. Similarly, Cruz stated that he has always stood up to “the DC cartel”. When questioned about his lack of support from the GOP establishment, Cruz responded that his greatest endorsement comes from the 200,000 grassroots volunteers on his campaign and his few conservative champions in Congress. Cruz later reaffirmed his commitment to anti-terrorism See DEBATE page 3
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
Snowstorm disrupts U. events news editor
Due to heavy snow and hazardous travel conditions caused by a winter storm, some of the University events and services were disrupted during the winter break. All campus events scheduled for Jan. 23 were either moved up to Jan. 22, delayed or cancelled, according to Assistant Vice President for Communications Daniel Day. The University reopened at noon on Jan. 24, before which non-essential personnel were not required to report to work. The snowstorm brought in a total of 23 inches of snow, according to an announcement from the Office of Communications. Day said that officials from
the Department of Public safety, Human Resources, Environmental Health and Safety, Office of Communications and University Facilities spoke every few hours to monitor the conditions on campus. The Office of Communications issued an announcement around 6 a.m. on Jan 23 morning saying that the University was closed for non-essential personnel. The University Art Museum, campus libraries and athletic and recreational facilities were closed while McCosh Health Center, Frist Campus Center and the Butler-Wilson dining hall will remain open, according to the announcement. Day said that the University was closed overnight on Jan. 23. The 11 a.m. Sunday service at the University Chapel was also See SNOW page 3
AHMED AKHTAR:: ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
Campus buildings and residential halls were covered in snow after the winter storm on January 23rd.
In Opinion
Today on Campus
Editor in Chief Do-Hyeong Myeong presents the paper’s vision for the coming semester, and columnist Christian Wawrzonek hesitates to make hasty accusations against Wall Street. PAGE 6
12 p.m.: The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies will sponsor a talk titled “The Iran Nuclear and US Foreign Policy.” Jones Hall 202.
WEATHER
By Shriya Sekhsaria
HIGH
55˚
LOW
29˚
Mostly cloudy chance of rain:
50 percent
The Daily Princetonian
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Wintersession included courses in ASL, Bartending, Beauty and Hype COURSES Continued from page 1
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He noted that this year’s program included a committee to run study breaks and giveaways, a revamped website with a new logo, and a more effective structure to compensate instructors for class materials. Classes this year included “ASL for Dummies,” “Top Gun Bartending,” and “Beauty in Color,” according to the program website. Benjamin Dobkin ’16, who led a class titled “Hype 101: Don’t let your memes be dreams; Taking the ridiculous to the mundane,” said he got the idea for the class idea after joking with friends. He added that originally he thought that his idea wouldn’t be accepted. “It was interesting. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into,” Dobkin said, describing the course, but added that it was a positive experience, noting that the class was fully enrolled. However, he added that future Wintersession courses should enforce a penalty for students who do not show up to classes, since a course that’s fully enrolled locks out other
students who may have wanted to participate, noting that only seven students came to his classes although 19 registered. For future programs, Cannon noted that he hopes to see more student groups and University centers sign up to teach a course, and added that more faculty should take part in offering lessons that wouldn’t normally appear on their syllabus. Katherine Clifton ’15, who created the program with two other U-Councilors, said she drew inspiration for Princeton’s Intersession from similar midyear programs offered by Williams College, MIT, and Dartmouth. “We expected there to be maybe a hundred or two hundred people interested for the first year. But then we were surprised–and delighted–that more than a thousand people were involved. That reaffirmed the need for this sort of thing,” Clifton said. She noted that last year’s program saw a growth of involvement from the graduate student body in both teaching and participating in classes. “We thought that was a way to encourage dialogue between undergrads and grads,” she
said. Deputy Dean of the Office of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said that although some doubted the program’s success at first, the program has had very high student interest for the past few years. “Since its inception, we’ve really just been scrambling to meet student demand. Interest is really high, there’s a lot of enthusiasm of the program, the diversity of courses offered is broader than when [it started],” he added. He noted that the University’s student body has a wide range of experiences and that Wintersession provides an opportunity for students to share those experiences with others. Clifton said that the Wintersession could potentially be expanded to a two or three-week long program if final exams were held before winter break, an expansion she noted would be interesting to explore in years future. “[Wintersession] would be a really special time to be on campus and to increase the sense of community across classes while fostering individual initiative. If given more time [the program] could really grow into that,” she said.
Arenas ‘16: First-round numbers should not influence sign-in decisions CLUBS
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Quad president Yekaterina Panskyy ’17 did not respond to request for comment. Arenas explained that the
sign-in club presidents agreed to not disclose first-round numbers this year, adding that students should join eating clubs based on their previous experiences there and their interactions with members, and not based on the sign-in numbers.
“The first round numbers are incomplete and they don’t give an accurate representation at this time and we don’t want the numbers to unfairly affect anyone’s decision,” Arenas explained.
Monday February 1, 2016
New ruling is a reversal of previous decision LAWSUIT Continued from page 1
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Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey Tonianne Bongiovanni ruled in favor of the University in June 2015, stating that the student cannot remain anonymous in accusing University officials of serious wrongdoing when those University officials have to defend themselves publicly. W.P.’s lawyers appealed the decision to the U.S. District Court. Bongiovanni did not respond to a request for comment. Julia Graff, W.P.’s lawyer, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said that while he cannot comment on the basis of the University’s legal decisions, any legal proceeding is expected to be public. Mbugua added that another important provision of the order is that it protects the University in conducting investigations into facts, which may involve transmission of identifiable information to a party with information about what happened, but not in court filings. Mbugua also explained that the order gave the parties permission to use identifiable information during the trial. The University had demanded in March 2012 that W.P. either take a voluntary withdrawal from the University in the next four days or be mandatorily withdrawn. The letter followed an incident in late February 2012 when the student, then a freshman, swallowed 20 anti-depressant
tablets and immediately began to try to vomit them out. After disagreements, the student was told that he would be banned from returning to campus. Multiple requests for alternative accommodations outside campus were also denied. The student subsequently filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education outlining ten causes of action. According to the complaint he filed to the Office for Civil Rights, the student resumed his education at the University in 2013. William Maderer, the lawyer representing the University, deferred comment to Mbugua. Mbugua stated that the University has never released the student’s name in the case. However, with its motion to dismiss, the University filed a copy of two letters that the student relies upon in his complaint but did not submit. Before submission, the University had removed the student’s name and other identifying information from the letters. Mbugua said that the University is committed to complying with the Court’s orders, as well all other legal obligations. Sheridan also denied a condition of order sought by U.’s legal representatives to restrain W.P. from making negative remarks outside the court setting. According to the order issued by Sheridan, he had found it a conflict with the First Amendment. The court order also stated that those contacted by legal attorneys of each side should sign a confidential agreement and hoped that both parties go forth “zealously.”
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The Daily Princetonian
Monday February 1, 2016
page 3
Program accepted 111 Cruz objects to personal attacks, faces of over 3,000 applicants criticism from moderators SCHOLARS Continued from page 1
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from many different parts of the world, having grown up in Hong Kong, gone to college in New Jersey and studied abroad in Oxford and in Ishikawa, Japan. Lloyd-Damnjanovic, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Oxford, noted that although she had studied foreign affairs for quite a while, she developed an interest in Chinese foreign policy while learning about power transition theory at Oxford. Power transition theory thinks of global politics as a hierarchy of nations that cooperate and compete with each other to various extents. Lloyd-Damnjanovic is a former news editor for The Daily Princetonian. “I wondered not just whether China’s rise would lead to conflict with the United States, but also whether it could lead to cooperation, new international organizations or even altered international norms,” Lloyd-Damnjanovic said. “I’m hoping my study in China will help me find the answers to these questions.” She added that she is very excited by the impressive academic resources available to Schwarzman scholars at Tsinghua, and that what she finds most exciting about the program is the prospect of interacting with intelligent, ambitious people from around the world who can offer perspectives on the role China will play in the 21st century. Briger explained that he initially wanted to be a Schwarzman Scholar because he’s currently the director of the business development team for a natural resources company in the United Kingdom, and he thought that learning and being
in China would be incredibly relevant to his business, considering that the country is currently one of the biggest investors in new sustainable energy. He said he is grateful that he will, on a day-to-day basis, be able to directly apply what he is learning in the classroom to his line of work. “Mr. Schwarzman’s vision is very prescient as we go on in our careers,” Briger said. Noting that the only time she went back to her country of origin was for the Princeton in Beijing program, Cheng pursue a master’s degree in China because she wanted to reconnect with her family and history there. She said that being able to deepen her understanding of Chinese culture will aid her in fulfilling her ambition to bridge American and Chinese relations. Cheng is a former staff writer for the ‘Prince.’ She added that the program contains a very unique curriculum that intends to capacitate attendees with leadership skills and a comprehensive understanding of China’s relations with the rest of the world. Rudolph said that while he is not set on the idea of working in or with China in the future, he is interested in entrepreneurship and innovation, and that exposure to these aspects of society in the developing market of China would help him get to the forefront of sectors. “I’m especially excited to meet the other people who I’m going to be there with. Reading through everybody’s biographies, they all seem like a very passionate and interesting group of people, and I’m excited to put myself in that environment,” he added. “I’m also looking forward to being in Asia for a year and exploring this really amazing place.”
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DEBATE
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in promises of carpet bombing “radical Islamic elements” and lifting the rules of engagement. Specifically, Cruz explained that compared to the saturation attacks of the first Gulf War in which 1,100 air strikes were launched a day, the Obama administration has averaged a meager 15 operations a day. Comparing the situation to when Reagan assumed office, Cruz stated that the next commander-in-chief faces a debilitated military that can only be rebuilt by unleashing the power of the free market through tax reductions. At one point in the debate, Cruz expressed his frustration with several moderators who asked other candidates to critique his political agenda. “If you guys ask one more mean question, I’d have to leave
the stage,” said Cruz. In response to multiple questions surrounding anti-terrorism domestically and abroad, Christie emphasized his legal expertise as a former federal prosecutor. Christie stated that if elected president, he will prosecute Hillary Clinton for her indiscretion with emails. “Hillary Clinton won’t get within 10 miles of the White house,” Christie said. Christie also stated that he sees defunding Planned Parenthood, something he has already accomplished in New Jersey, as a priority in terms of federal changes. “When you see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children being murdered in the womb, I can’t think of anything bigger than that,” he said. In one instance, Megyn Kelly, political commentator for the Fox News and one of the debate moderators, aired a tape of Cruz
giving a talk at the University in which he expressed verbal support for legalization of undocumented immigrants. Kelly subsequently questioned whether Cruz’s amendment to the immigration reform bill was really to ‘kill the bill’ as he described. “When that battle was waged, we led the fight against amnesty,” Cruz responded. He added that both him and Florida Senator Marco Rubio made identical promises to constituents when it came to immigration, but unlike Rubio, Cruz remained faithful to his promise. Donald Trump, the highest polling Republican candidate, did not participate in this debate, citing Kelly’s bias as a key reason. The debate, which took place in Des Moines, Iowa, at 9 p.m. EST, was hosted by Fox News and moderated by Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier, Kelly, and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
Events rescheduled, transportation disrupted due to winter storm SNOW
Continued from page 1
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canceled, according to the announcement . At noon on Jan 24, Firestone Library and University athletic facilities including Dillon Gymasium were opened. Major roads in Princeton were also reported open according to anannouncement from the Office of Communications, which urged travelers to check local conditions before traveling to the University.
Day noted that several snow and mobile crews have worked around the clock to keep the University roads and walkways as clear as possible. “We just want to make sure that everybody is safe both on campus and in getting here,” Day said. Day added that the decision about whether to resume normal operations at the University includes factors such as whether there is access to the Dinky line, and if the buses are running, in addition to the conditions on campus. Both the TigerTransit
bus service and the Dinky line to Princeton were suspended on Jan 23, and NJ Transit announced a temporary full shut down of services beginning at 2 a.m. on the same day. TigerTransit ran limited service starting at noon on Jan 24. The NJ transit bus, light rail and Access Link service resumed on Jan. 24 when weather conditions permitted and rail service also resumed post completion of an additional mandatory federal inspection, according to the NJ Transit’s press release announcing the resuming of services.
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Opinion
Monday February 1, 2016
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
W
ith the start of the new semester, the Daily Princetonian’s 140th managing board officially began its tenure. Since 1867, The Daily Princetonian has been the paper of record on this campus, and without the support from the larger Princeton community we couldn’t have done it for last 139 years. On behalf of my team, I would like to thank you all for your continued interest in and support for our paper, and we the members of the Prince’s 140th managing board look forward with enthusiasm to working and interacting with you. During the course of last year, the communication between the paper and the readers improved considerably, and we expanded our coverage on LGBT-related topics and issues faced by low-income students. We want to continue that legacy and expand on them during this year. If you have any questions, concerns or feedback to share with us, feel free to come to the open office hours I will be holding for the community members, in addition to sending us an email, commenting on our website and our social media pages. As a community-based news organization, it is our mission to serve the community by keeping our readers informed, to bring the attention of our readers to issues that matter, to start dialogues that impact discourses on
campus and beyond and to make visible some of the least represented yet equally important voices on campus. Our goal this year is producing credible, high-quality and interesting content, and delivering it to you as news happens. Our editors and staff will work around the clock to ensure that our content is accurate, fair and up-todate, and that the Prince is the first thing you check whenever you want to find out what’s going on around campus or want an update on certain events. We also hope you can find some fun in our paper – be it a smile-inducing photo of the day, a review of the latest student performance or a video to keep you entertained during a long train ride, we will have it for you. We hope to continue being the trusted news source, the forum for candid discussions on campus life and the outlet for creative minds that we have been in the past. Most of all, we are committed to representing each and every single part of our community, because each and every one of you matters to us. Our job as a journalistic organization is to listen to you and share your stories – and the goal there is to let our readers enter into experiences of each other and start meaningful dialogue, so that we, as a community, celebrate and respect the diversity of existences and experiences within us. We want to ensure that when someone looks into our archive in ten
years, fifty years, even a hundred years from now to see what it was like to be at Princeton in 2016, they will get as comprehensive and vivid a picture of the people, events and experiences on campus as possible. For that, please talk with us, join us and make your voices heard. The Daily Princetonian is a large organization, and the perk of being a large organization is that there’s a room for everyone who wants to join our team. Whether you are an engineer interested in managing a website, a science major interested in covering groundbreaking discoveries made by the University faculty and students, a cartoonist wanting to give everyone a good laugh or a cinema enthusiast who wants to share your love of good movies with the rest of the campus, we have a place for you. We will be holding open production nights and info sessions next week for those of you interested in joining the Prince family. Feel free to email our section editors and join@dailyprincetonian.com in the meantime to learn about how to join us. I look forward to working and interacting with you, and to hopefully meeting you all over the course of the year. Do-Hyeong Myeong, an anthropology major from Daejeon, Republic of Korea, is the incoming Editorin-Chief of The Daily Princetonian. She can be reached at dmyeong@princeton.edu.
What Frosh Think bicker is
vol. cxxxix
Do-Hyeong Myeong ’17 editor-in-chief
Daniel Kim ’17
business manager
140TH MANAGING BOARD managing editor Caroline Congdon ’17 news editors Jessica Li ‘18 Shriya Sekhsaria ‘18 Christina Vosbikian ‘18 Annie Yang ‘18 opinion editor Jason Cloe ‘17 sports editor David Liu ‘18 street editor Harrison Blackman ‘17 photography editor Rachel Spady ‘18 video editor Elaine Romano ‘19 web editor Clement Lee ‘17
Tashi Treadway ’19 ..................................................
chief copy editors Grace Rehaut ‘18 Maya Wesby ‘18 design editor Crystal Wang ‘18 associate opinion editors Newby Parton ‘18 Sarah Sakha ‘18 associate sports editors Nolan Liu ‘19 David Xin ‘19 associate street editor Danielle Taylor ‘18 associate photography editors Ahmed Akhtar ‘17 Atakan Baltaci ‘19 Mariachiara Ficarelli ‘19 associate chief copy editors Megan Laubach ‘18 Omkar Shende ‘18 associate design editors Ien Li ‘19 Jessica Zhou ‘19 editorial board chair Cydney Kim ‘17
Finding the real bad guys on Wall Street Christian Wawrzonek senior columnist
I
F You haven’t seen “The Big Short” yet, see it. The movie is based on Michael Lewis’s 2010 book, “The Big Short,” about a handful of players who foresaw the 2007 housing bubble and subsequent crisis (a topic covered extensively in a slew of courses on campus and likely familiar to a decent portion of the student body here). The great mix of emotional storytelling and meaningful questions makes it one of my favorite movies of the past few years. If this were a work of pure fiction, I’d still love it – and that scares me. The fact that I was so riled up without knowing the factual accuracy is a recipe for misinformation. We have to understand that this is a movie first and an analysis of the financial crisis second. My opinion of the financial crisis already aligned with the narrative of the movie. It’s easy to watch a great story that simply confirms everything you already believe to be true. But that sort of blind acceptance just makes me uncomfortable, so I did a lot of thinking and a little research. In the name of making a good story, the movie makers and Lewis himself had to make heroes and villians arbitrarily. At its core, it seems to be pretty factually correct, far more so than the vast majority of movies I’ve looked at. However, like any form of entertainment, the problem arises when we try to paint a neat little story around a very complicated issue. As complex as the world is, stories seem to have a pretty simple formula that works. If you want to make something into a story, you have to mold into this format. That’s just the way human psychology likes it. A classic story needs good guys and bad guys. Yes, I admit that there are
lots of stories that don’t do this, and very good ones at that. But this is a tried-and-true method that is found in a great deal of classic stories, and almost all blockbuster movies. This movie is no different. Who are the good guys? Well, without spoiling much, Christian Bale and Steve Carell make the list. Irrespective of what they do, they just have some sort of morality that we like, some level of honesty and integrity that we are immediately drawn to. Christian Bale, who portrays Michael Burry, an eccentric, barefoot, metal music loving investor, is my favorite character. Not only is he absolutely brilliant, he’s simply a genuine and honest person, and the audience immediately loves him for it. The bad guys on the other hand? Total jerks. Mean, manipulative, incompetent. Still, even though I loved the honest appeal of Christian Bale’s character, I couldn’t help but question what exactly made him different from the bad guys. The “baddest baddie” of them all has to be Wing Chau, a financial complexity wizard who meets with Steve Carell’s character in a dinner scene taken straight from Lewis’s book. It reveals that he and everyone else running the show are monstrous pricks who like to make tons of money and it’s about to blow up. The sleaze is just oozing out of this guy the entire scene. In fact everybody who’s bad is an incompetent prick who wants to make money. But, doesn’t Bale’s character love making money? Oh, but he’s just a numbers guy who likes solving puzzles, and just so happens to make money as a consequence, right? Whatever the motivation, his aim is making money. Is the only difference between the good guys and bad guys competency? Of course, even that is highly oversold. I will vastly oversimplify the issue and say that in reality, there
is a lot of uncertainty in financial markets, and the losers of a bet are not necessarily less competent or less informed. They’re just unlucky. By the way, Lewis describes Chau, our prototypical villain, as being “a really nice guy.” Here he refers to Steve Eisman, the real person on which Steve Carell’s character, a “good guy”, is based. He says that “whatever rising anger Eisman felt was offset by [Chau’s] genial disposition.” Huh. Which leads me to the premise of the whole movie: the heroes who saw the financial crisis looming and took on the big bad banks by shorting their evil money making machine. But what is a short on the housing bubble, if not more speculation? In one scene, Selena Gomez tries to explain through a poker game how high speculation and compounding bets lead to large busts based on small chance events. Definitely avoid those, got it. Yet, soon after, our heroes are running around Vegas speculating subprime mortgage default rates and making bets against the stability of the housing market. From Lewis’s mouth directly, here’s an explanation of what Steve Eisman was doing: “But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage.” So, when Eisman realized this, what did he do? Stop betting and run to the papers? No, he just bet more. I don’t think Selena would approve. What gives? Only good guys can speculate? Well, they were right and the bad guys were wrong, duh. I’m leaving out an important as-
pect of the third act in which the main characters all simultaneously realize the implications of their shallow, money grubbing game and decide to call it quits after conveniently raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. But that isn’t real. In real life, these people were just regular players that were on the winning side and most of them are still playing the same game today. I’m going to shamelessly borrow a quote from Yves Smith in his review of Lewis’s original book which essentially is a far better portrayal of my argument. “Eisman recognizes that the subprime market is a disaster waiting to happen, a monstrous fire hazard that, once lit, will engulf the housing market and financial firms. Yet he continues to throw Molotov cocktails at it. Eisman is no noble outsider. He is a willing, knowing co-conspirator. Even worse, he and the other shorts Lewis lionizes didn’t simply set off the global debt conflagration, they made the severity of the crisis vastly worse.” From what I gather about Steve Eisman from both Lewis’s descriptions and the movie’s portrayal, he is a smart, cynical guy who realizes just how screwed up the financial industry is. He himself described the financial collapse as justice. To show the banks just how delinquent they were being, he bet heavily against them. It would be akin to sticking your son’s hand into a fire pit to show him that playing with fire is dangerous. Then you collect $100 million dollars for successfully observing his 3rd degree burns. Don’t get me wrong, the movie made great points about the unnecessary complexity of large financial institutions, how bond credit rating agencies have conflicting interests with their clients, and how huge speculation led to an unnecessary and avoidable financial crisis. It
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wraps up the story with some suggestions about reigning in gross speculation and promoting government regulation of the financial industry. That’s all well and good, and I’ve heard similar arguments from major economists (though I’m no economist myself). But to make this point, it had to tell a story, and stories require arbitrary lines to be drawn in the sand between the good guys and the bad guys. Maybe that’s necessary to get people to think about the important issue at hand. Here I am talking about it and thinking about it, so it clearly worked. Hell, it made a damn good movie too, I admit. But it’s important to realize, especially at a place like Princeton where many of you will go on to work in finance, that in real life, the good guys and bad guys never stand out like this, if they even exist at all. It just makes me worry about the consequences of arbitrarily lauding a group of players while vilifying another when in reality, they’re all just playing the same game anyway. Christian Wawrzonek is a computer science major from Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached at cjw5@princeton.edu.
Monday February 1, 2016
The Daily Princetonian
page 7
Princeton wins 15 of 19 events Tigers win against Iowa against Ivy Rivals Harvard and Yale after loss to Michigan M. SWIMMING Continued from page 6
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Princeton win. After such a dominant start, the Tigers held steady on the second day of the meet. The combination of Helber, Pohlman, Schafer, and Bole struck again to open Saturday’s competition, winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:27.19. The members of that relay would continue to prove dominant through the day, with Helber winning the 200 back in 1:43.55 and Schafer taking the 100 butterf ly in 47.59. Princeton wins by junior Sam Smiddy in the 400 IM with a time of 3:52.64, Hu-Van Wright in the 100 free with 43.47,
and junior Brett Usinger in the 200 breast with 1:57.95 sealed the victory at DeNunzio Pool. Princeton demonstrated depth as well as breadth in its masterful performance. The Tigers took the top three spots in both the 100 breast and the 200 butterf ly, and swept the top five spots in the 200 IM. Harvard and Yale wins were few and far-between: The Crimson took the 400 meter relay and the 500 free, while Harvard sophomore David Pfeifer swept both the 3-meter and 1-meter diving contests. Yale scored their lone event win on Friday, when sophomore Hyogo Kei took the 1650 free in 15:10.36. Ultimately, Harvard snagged
the second spot in the meet over the Bulldogs, 263-90. The double wins in this meet move Princeton to 6-0 in Ivy League competition and boost them to the top of the Ivy League standings. The meet results also place the Tigers in a commanding position heading into the Ivy League Championships on the last weekend of February; Princeton has won four out of the past five titles in swimming and diving, including one this past year. After their convincing wins over Harvard and Yale, the men’s team appears poised for yet another dominant tournament performance. The Tigers will conclude their season at home against Columbia on Feb. 5.
M. TENNIS Continued from page 6
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nament since 1998. Though the Tigers graduated several important players, the Princeton squad remains relatively intact. In fact, five of six from doubles and four of six from singles from last year’s NCAA lineup will return to play for Princeton. In addition to an NCAA bid, the Tigers will also compete in a variety of tournaments and invitations throughout the season. This includes the Penn Invitational, Ivy Plus Tournament, Porsche Napa Valley Classic, Farnsworth Invitational, ITA/USTA Regionals, and theLSU Fall Invitational. Last year, junior Tom
Colautti won the top singles flight at the Ivy Plus Tournament. Furthermore, Princeton wrapped up play in the ITA/ USTA Regional with a double team making the semifinals and Diego Vives advancing to single quarters. Princeton will return to Jadwin Gym this Saturday, Feb. 6, for their first home game of the season. The Tigers will face off against Navy to start a busy weekend. Princeton will play Georgetown soon after to finish matches for the day. The Tigers will resume action on Sunday with another doubleheader. This time, the Princeton squad will play the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the morning and see further action in the afternoon against the University at Buffalo.
Women’s Hockey Twelve-game winning Streak Ends with loss to Crimson W. HOCKEY Continued from page 6
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own. For the first, the veteran Tiger converted a cross-rink fast break play into a lead for the Tigers. Then, later in the period, McDonell and the rest of the Princeton offense outmaneuvered Dartmouth to solidify the lead. To cap off the game, junior forward Molly Contini scored an empty net with just over 20 seconds remaining in the match. In contrast, the Tigers and Crimson collided on Saturday night as growing rivals. Prior to the match, Princeton maintained a two-game series win streak over Harvard.
Moreover, the second ranked Tigers held a two point lead over the Crimson in the ECAC standings. A win for Harvard would end Princeton’s twelve game win streak. In the previous two matchups, Princeton won highly contested battles. When the two teams faced last year, Princeton won off a narrow 1-0 victory. Then, when the two faced in December, the Tigers scored the winning goal in overtime. With redemption in mind, the Crimson jumped to a quick start on Saturday, scoring two unanswered goals in the first period. These goals alone proved insurmountable for the determined Tigers.
A minute into the second period, junior forward Morgan Sly gave the Orange and Black a sliver of hope, narrowly tipping the puck into the Crimson goal. However, two minutes later, Harvard’s offensive leader Miye D’Oench responded with a goal of her own, restoring the Crimson’s commanding two point lead. To seal the defeat, Harvard would go on to score on an empty net in the final seconds of the game. The weekend loss dropped Princeton into third in ECAC standings behind Quinnipiac and Clarkson. Even so, the Tigers still hold the top spot in Ivy League standings as they face Colgate and Cornell next weekend.
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Monday February 1, 2016
Sports
page 8
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S SWIMMING
Men’s Swimming and Diving claims first HYP Win since 2012 By Nolan Liu associate sports editor
In their first three years of competition, seniors Andrew Helber and Jack Pohlmann never celebrated a win in the prestigious H a r v a rd-Ya le-P r i nce t on swim meet. Now, as seniors, they finally have the opportunity of doing so. This past Friday and Saturday, the Tigers snagged 14 out of the 19 events to coast over their traditional Ivy League rivals in style, beating Harvard 224.5-126.5 and Yale 253-98. Princeton began the meet with a victory, albeit a close one, as junior En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, sophomore Alexander Lewis, sophomore Ben Schafer and junior Julian Mackrel edged Harvard out by only .03 of a second to take the opening 200 free relay.
From then on out, the Tigers dominated the first day of competition, winning a stunning eight out of the nine events. The contributions came from across the board. Hu-Van Wright added to his string of successes by winning both the 100 back and the 50 free with times of 47.12 and 19.90, respectively. Tri-captain Pohlmann took the 100 breast with a time of 54.28, while freshman Murphy McQuiet notched a lifetime best in his win in the 200 free, with a time of 1:35.81. Senior Teo D’Alessandro also claimed the 200 IM title with a time of 1:46.73, sophomore Corey Okubo snagged the top spot in the 200 f ly with a time of 1:44.18, and the 400 medley team of Helber, Pohlman, Schafer, and senior Sandy Bole ended the day with final See M. SWIMMING page 7
JACK MAZZULO:: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Princeton took the top three spots in the 100 Breast and 200 Butterfly and the top five spots in the 200 IM.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
Princeton beats Dartmouth, Falls to Harvard By David Liu sports editor
This past Friday and Saturday, Women’s Hockey traveled north to Hanover and Boston, respectively, continuing their current seven game road trip. With a program-record win streak on the line, the Tigers began the weekend with a 4-1 victory over the struggling Big Green. However their luck ran short on Saturday when the Tigers fell 1-4 to the Crimson. From a statistical perspective, the Tigers were the clear favorites heading into Friday’s match against Dartmouth. Prior to Friday, the Tigers had won or tied the last six games against Dartmouth. Furthermore, the Big Green had not won a single game since Thanksgiving, totaling eleven losses in the process. On the other hand, Princeton had won its eleven
previous games. With the stage set, Princeton and Dartmouth faced off in Hanover’s Thompson Arena late Friday afternoon. Despite the record disparity, the first period of the game was scoreless for both teams. In fact, the two were neck and neck, taking an equal number of shots. The game’s first goals went to Dartmouth’s Laura Stacey early into the second period. For the majority of the period, Dartmouth staved off all Princeton attempts to even the score. Finally, with just over two minutes remaining in the period, freshman forward and Princeton point leader Karlie Lund edged the puck into the net past two Big Green defenders. Thereafter, the momentum was in the Tiger’s favor. Senior forward McDonell caught fire in the third period, scoring two goals of her See W. HOCKEY page 7
RACHEL SPADY :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
After defeating the Big Green, Women’s Hockey extended their winning streak to twelve games before losing to the Crimson.
MEN’S TENNIS
Men’s Tennis Splits Matches in Ivy-Big Ten Challenge By David Xin Associate Sports Editor
This past Friday and Saturday, the men’s tennis team travelled to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York for the Ivy-Big Ten Challenge. Princeton, ranked No. 34, competed against unranked Michigan and No. 64 University of Iowa. The Tigers split the matches, losing 7-0 to the Wolverines and clinching a 6-1 victory over the Hawkeyes to conclude the Big Ten Challenge. Princeton (1-2) played Michigan (3-2) in the challenge opener. Despite the emphatic 7-0 score line, the match was not nearly as lopsided as the Wolverine’s sweep would indicate. The Orange and Black pushed
the doubles point, falling finally in the third match. Similarly, the men’s squad showed resilience. Juniors Alexander Day and Josh Yablon both extended their matches to third sets, holding off the eventual Wolverine sweep. The Tigers rebounded quickly after their loss to claim their first win of the new season against the University of Iowa (1-1). The Princeton squad won the doubles point against fierce competition. After conceding a loss on court two, close victories by Day and junior Jonathan Carcione on court one and Yablon and freshmen Jimmy Wasserman on court three sealed the point for Princeton. On the singles side, Princeton won in dominant fashion, claiming five
Tweet of the Day “Remember where you were the last time @tigerwrestling beat Penn? No, you probably don’t. It was Feb. 23, 1991.” Princeton Tigers(@ putigers)
out of six matches. Sophomore Diego Vives claimed the firstsingles victory in two sets to lead the Princeton effort. Despite a shaky start, including an earlier loss to the University of Wisconsin (4-0), the Tigers showed great resilience in the face of a tough schedule. Indeed, Princeton played three Big Ten opponents within the span of a week. Prior to this season, Princeton had not faced the Badgers since 1995 and the Hawkeyes since 1990. The Tigers played Michigan in 2013. As the season opens, Princeton will look to replicate its success from last year. The Tigers qualified for the NCAA tournament last season, their first appearance in the tour-
TIFFANY RICHARDSON :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Men’s Tennis showed its resilience in the face of a tough schedule.
See M.TENNIS page 7
Stat of the Day
15 events Princeton won 15 out of 19 events to beat Harvard and Yale on their way to a HYP Win.
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