The Daily Princetonian: March 5, 2020

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Thursday March 5, 2020 vol. CXLIV no. 24

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ON CAMPUS

Ivy Club sells parking lot to U. for $7.29 million

By James Anderson Staff Writer

Last month, the University acquired a parking lot behind Ivy Club. The price tag? $7.29 million.

The 0.53-acre parcel, currently the site of 22 parking spots and a narrow field, slopes down from the overlooking clubhouse to a set of brick gates on Ivy Lane. In obtaining the property, which lies just north of Ivy Lane and Western Way, the University has furthered its 2026 Campus Plan.

Among other steps, the Plan calls for the construction of six large buildings dedicated to engineering and environmental studies.

In exchange for the lot, the University will cede a tiny parcel of land to complete a corner of Ivy’s rectangular property.

In a Feb. 28 online letter obtained by the ‘Prince,’ Dominic Moross ’90, Corbin Miller ’71, and Robert Engel ’86 of the Ivy Club Board of Governors told alumni and current members that the agreement comes after prolonged discussions with the University, which began in 2017.

According to the letter, Ivy Governor George Knight ’89 led the project, and the Board unanimously approved the

JAMES ANDERSON / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The University bought the parking lot from Ivy Club for $7.29 million.

final agreement.

“The spirit of the discussion was that the Campus Plan represented an historic opportunity for the Club and the University to achieve a result that could be mutually beneficial,” the Governors wrote.

“I would confirm for you that we agree with the contents of that message,” Uni-

STUDENT LIFE

versity Spokesperson Ben Chang wrote in reference to the letter.

Ivy members have used the lot, which lies close to Powers Stadium, for tailgating, a tradition that may become impossible in light of University plans to construct a parking garage.

“From the Club’s perspective, many members and Gov-

ernors were initially reluctant to consider a sale of the lot,” the Governors wrote. “It is currently used by our undergraduates, service providers, and visitors for parking, and by graduate members when they return for athletic events and during Reunions.”

Due to a long-term decline in students bringing cars to campus, however, they wrote

STUDENT LIFE

that parking is “certainly not [the land’s] highest and best use.”

The agreement stipulates that Ivy will retain access to a public street, in addition to its Prospect Avenue driveway.

To meet this requirement, the University’s current plan includes plans to build a service driveway and pedestrian walkway, called “Leafy Lane.”

The proposed walkway would run along the southern edge of Cottage Club, Ivy, Quadrangle Club, and Cannon Dial Elm Club and link Roper Lane to Ivy Lane.

The agreement also requires the University to pay an unspecified amount to cover the cost of erecting a new boundary fence or wall and of related reconfigurations in the club’s rear garden.

The Governors wrote that due to Ivy’s annual property taxes of roughly $115,000 and its rising financial aid costs, it had planned even before the deal to launch a capital campaign.

The $7.29 million, they wrote, will be used in part to undertake improvements on its clubhouse, including a new kitchen and pantry.

Members of Ivy Club either declined to comment or did not respond to request for comment at the time of this publication.

ON CAMPUS

Student startup awarded USG, Letters to Strangers Healthcare $6,000 for self-guided publish Mental Health policy tour of University app Guidebook journalist Sarah Kliff talks ACA legacy, coronavirus Contributor

On Feb. 23, seven studentrun startups presented pitches before a panel of established venture capitalists in a competition for $6,000. The winning project, Adora Experiences, will provide self-guided tours to students as early as this May. The augmented reality application will allow visiting students to take a selfguided tour of the campus.

Entrepreneurship Club (EClub) co-director Austin Mejia ’21 likened the format to Pokemón Go. The technology will allow visiting students to gain a more individualized glimpse of the University campus, beyond what is presented in Orange Key tours and informational sessions.

It will also allow the University to reduce its dependence on existing paperbased self-guided tours.

The project began last year as a collaboration between CEO Ron Miasnik ’22, Chief Architect Joseph Rubin ’22, Head of User Experience Raya Ward ’21, and Chief Engineer Sacheth Sathyanarayanan ’22. The team intends to expand the project to other university campuses as well.

Rubin is a business staffer on The Daily Princetonian.

Unlike previous events such as TigerLaunch, which offered winners the chance to compete in a larger pitch competition, E-Club’s pitch competition offered a tangi-

In Opinion

ble cash prize. Half of the reward will come in the form of a legal contract, while the other half is a cash prize from E- Club’s funding.

When planning the event, the club’s leaders had hoped for around 10 applications, but ultimately received over 20, allowing them to raise the number of finalists from six to seven. No two finalists were from the same industry, ref lecting the range of issues that student entrepreneurs are interested in tackling. Pitches ranged from SaplingSPC, a company trying to create a carbon footprint label for everyday goods, to Allergzy, a company developing technology to test for allergies through DNA sequencing.

When choosing which teams would present pitches, the club’s standards were high.

“If this idea isn’t a 10 times improvement on something that is already being done, it isn’t appropriate for the competition,” said Mejia.

A number of the judges of the competition were University alumni and each had at least a decade of investment experience after graduation. Although the winning app did directly service the needs of the University, Mejia believed that this had not played a role in Adora’s victory. Rather, the company’s innovative idea allowed them to see past their “orange-tinted glasses.”

The University has expressed excitement about See ORANGE KEY page 2

The Editorial Board opposes qualified immunity and criticizes the University’s support for the doctrine, while senior columnist Julia Chaffers argues that student discontent over Marshawn Lynch’s selection as Class Day speaker reflects a broader tendency to disregard athletes of color. PAGE 4

By Julia Brazeau Contributor

CLAIRE SILBERMAN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Mental Health Task Force members Sarah Lee ’22 (left), Chitra Parikh ’21 (center), and Allen Liu ’22 at a meeting earlier this month.

By Caitlin Limestahl Assistant News Editor

On Tuesday, March 3, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and mental health advocacy club Letters to Strangers (L2S) released their 30-page Mental Health Guidebook, a compilation of University mental health resources, student testimonials, and information about important policies like leaves of absences and insurance plans. It also provides information on how to seek help off-campus.

The guidebook is organized into seven parts: Counseling and Psychological Services, OffCampus Care, Mental Health and Academics, Leaves of Absence, Helping Friends, Alternative Resources, and Advice from Stu-

dents.

The partnership between USG and L2S started in December 2019 after L2S conducted independent surveys about students’ experiences with campus services and what they would like more information on regarding mental health resources. USG then combined its information with L2S and began work on the guidebook.

A deeper focus on mental health was one of the five pillars USG President Chitra Parikh ’21 built her campaign upon, the other four being Title IX Reform and Sexual Misconduct; Housing, Dining and Transportation; Sustainability; and Accessibility of Resources and Information.

Parikh described how this See GUIDEBOOK page 2

Today on Campus 6:00 p.m.: Mindfulness for Personal Growth with globally awarded mindfulness master, Ishan Shivanand. A wellness program for sustainable health, peace, and success McCosh 50

On Wednesday, March 4, acclaimed healthcare reporter Sarah Kliff discussed the legacy of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 10 years after it passed, on a panel hosted by the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs.

Kliff is an investigative reporter for The New York Times, focusing on the American healthcare system and the ways it serves its patients. Before coming to the Times in June 2019, she was a senior correspondent at Vox. Her work was cited in the 2012 Supreme Court decision that upheld the ACA, and she was one of the last to interview President Barack Obama before he left office.

Over the past year, Kliff has spent much of her time investigating various threats to our healthcare system, especially following the 2017 effort to repeal Obamacare.

During the talk, she told the story of one woman she has interviewed. A mother sat alone in her car, holding her breath outside the doors of an emergency room in Kansas, described Kliff.

The woman’s daughter was in the backseat, watching “The Little Mermaid” as the mother waited in See KLIFF page 2

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The Daily Princetonian

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Thursday March 5, 2020

Kliff: Why did people vote for a Hotchkiss: The app is president who was specifically unlike anything we’ve promising to repeal their healthcare? seen in the virtual space

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PRINCETON E-CLUB PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Sarah Kliff at the 2015 Health Aspen Ideas Festival.

KLIFF

Continued from page 1

............. agony for her child’s seizures, the result of an accidental dramamine overdose, to stop.

Kliff explained why the woman did not just take her daughter inside: American healthcare is simply too expensive.

According to Kliff, this woman’s story is not unique. People across the country are worried about how much they are having to pay for healthcare. Kliff discussed a “ripple effect” with small businesses, advertising companies, and hiring agencies worried about the cost of care — all feel illness is too expensive to tackle.

Many legislators have put forth solutions to this crisis.

“You see Democrats talking about public options, [specifically] ‘Medicare for All,’” Kliff said.

Medicare for All is a bill proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate. The plan would align the American medical system closer to the current Canadian one, in which every citizen is required to

enroll in a public health plan.

Sanders’ plan is meant to particularly aid regions with high Obamacare enrollment, such as Kentucky, according to Kliff. In her time at Vox, Kliff traveled to and reported in regions that had both high rates of Trump voters and high enrollment in the ACA. “I wanted to understand what had happened [there],” said Kliff.

“Why did people vote for a president who was specifically promising to repeal their healthcare?” “[Experts] had a lot of theories; the leading one was that people just didn’t understand what they were voting for,” Kliff said. “When I went there to do my reporting, I found that that really wasn’t the case ... they were just really frustrated with how their insurance was working.”

The conversation then shifted to a more time-sensitive topic.

Kliff noted her work has become increasingly more important in recent days as the coronavirus outbreak has tested the limits of the American healthcare system.

“We advertised this as the 10th anniversary of the [Afford-

able Care Act], but we didn’t realize we’d be dealing with a global health crisis,” said moderator Heather Howard, Lecturer in Public Affairs and Director of State Health and Value Strategies.

Kliff said that though the United States is among the most developed countries in the world, the way that our healthcare system is structured ultimately makes it difficult to say with certainty that the United States is equipped to handle the coronavirus.

“Our health system isn’t used to this,” Kliff said.

People are being charged thousands of dollars just to get a test for the coronavirus, whether the test comes back positive or not, according to Kliff. She shared a story with the audience of one person she spoke with about what he would do if he showed symptoms of the coronavirus.

“You know, I would go if it was the day after pay day,” her interviewee told her.

The panel, entitled “Obamacare Turns 10: Where Does Healthcare Go Next?” was held March 4 at 4:30 p.m. in the Friend Center by the Wilson School.

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Ron Miasnik ’22 is the CEO of Adora Experiences, which was awarded $6,000 for a self-guided tour app.

ORANGE KEY Continued from page 1

.............

working with Adora Experiences through this project.

“The self-guided tour app is unlike anything we’ve seen in the virtual space.

This project is a prime example of the creativity, talent, and entrepreneurial drive of our student body,” Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’.

The success of the E-Club competition was commended by both organizers and participants. In an exit survey conducted by the club, all participants agreed that the event was necessary to

support student entrepreneurship within the University community. Furthermore, all applicants, even those not selected as finalists, stated that they would participate in the competition in future years.

Following the success of this year’s competition, the E-Club plans to make the event an annual tradition.

“Princeton is not traditionally known as an entrepreneurship community, especially among the Ivy League, but the turnout and support for this event speaks to the fact that that narrative is changing and that Princeton is becoming a more entrepreneurial campus,” Mejia explained.

Reynolds: I hope these will continue the conversation on campus mental health GUIDEBOOK Continued from page 1

.............

guidebook differs from the many packets and brochures students are given during orientation.

“It’s comprehensive, but there’s that peer-to-peer element of it.

There are aspects of it that you may not be thinking about at orientation, like leaves of absences,” she said. “I find the anonymous student quotes to be really valuable. They kind of show that you’re not alone and that there are support systems for you, not only in terms of the University, but also in terms of your peers.”

L2S president Hannah Reynolds ’22 echoed this statement in an email to The Daily Princetonian.

“Not only do [the testimonials] offer good advice, but I think normalizing the idea of acknowledging mental illness and taking the time and space to get help is really important. Princeton students are often on the grind, and I think it can feel a little isolating and ‘abnormal’ to be struggling with mental health,” she wrote.

Mental Health Task Force Chair and U-Councilor Chair Allen Liu ’22 added he wants to create more transparency about these resources outside of publishing this guidebook.

“While the guidebook is a good start to doing that, I also think that continuing to look at different ways for students to be able to find this information and get in touch with people at McCosh or people who manage the different funds or centers would go a long way,” he said.

Liu shared that he is trying to increase the visibility of the guidebook by working with campus organizations like University Health Services to get it published

on their website.

“We’ll see how those plans work out, but personally, I just hope a lot of students are able to see the guide and make use of it,” he added.

Parikh discussed how the guidebook’s publication segues into other efforts that USG is making to make mental health resources on campus more transparent and accessible for everyone.

“Moving forward, we’re hoping to work with Dr. Chin to expand the number of prescribing [insurance] providers on the Exclusive Provider Network,” Parikh said.

“Beyond that, we’re hoping to work with various campus life administrators on emergency funds and attempting to increase the transparency of those.”

Reynolds described the future steps L2S will be taking to further the discussion of mental health on campus.

“L2S is working on a couple of events coming up, one with a mental health activist Dior Vargas and a couple of discussions/panels on mental health with the Mental Health Initiative/USG,” she wrote to the ‘Prince’ in an email.

“I hope these will continue the conversation on mental health on campus,” she continued. “Additionally, we collected a lot of feedback on mental health resources on campus and hope to use these to work with CPS to make these resources more accessible for students.”

Before publication, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Dr. Calvin Chin, Director for Disability Services Elizabeth Erickson, and Senior Associate Dean of College Claire Fowler reviewed and verified the contents of the guidebook.

Thursday March 5, 2020

Features

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“Come find me”: Democratic primary sees student groups compete for traction

PHOTO COURTESY OF KAVEH BADREI ’20 AND JUSTIN WITTEKIND ’22

Princeton students traveled to New Hampshire to campaign for Bernie Sanders.

By Josephine de La Bruyere Head Features Editor and Associate Sports Editor

Marie-Rose Sheinerman Associate News and Features Editor

Twenty-four hours before this year’s South Carolina democratic primary, Justin Wittekind ’22 was driving through Massachusetts, screaming, en route to see his “king.”

This campus is oft bemoaned as apathetic and apolitical, and this country’s college-aged generation as lazy and unaware.

But “Princeton for Bernie,” an outgrowth of Princeton’s Young Democratic Socialists chapter dedicated to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, defies those labels.

The group includes around 50 undergraduate students, plus a slew of graduate students who, said Wittekind, “are the ones really bringing the fire.” Around 25 people show up for weekly phone banks; he and fellow member Jason Seavey ’21 alone have made over 600 calls, by Wittekind’s tally.

This much, Wittekind was quick to clarify: while he speaks for the group, he’s by no means its leader. To members of Princeton for Bernie, the organization’s horizontal structure and lack of formal leadership is a point of pride.

“It’s ‘not me, us.’ That’s the Bernie mantra,” said Wittekind. “It’s not me — Justin.

It’s us — the car.”

But the “us” of Bernie lovers extends well beyond that Boston-bound car.

A recent poll by The Daily Princetonian found that a plurality of Princeton students support Senator Sanders in the Democratic primary. And the group seems hell-bent on expanding its reach past the Orange Bubble.

“The thing that’s so exhilarating about the Bernie campaign,” yelled Wittekind over the excited shouts of other Princeton students in the vehicle, “is just the huge numbers of young people who are

involved.” He explained the group has been in touch with Rutgers organizers, field organizers for the campaign itself, and students across the country through social media.

On the “Princeton for Bernie” agenda this spring: more van trips to key primary states, more phone banks, and in an ideal world, a longdue celebration when — in Wittekind’s words — “our king is finally crowned.”

Another point of pride for the group: they’re the fastest-growing campaign infrastructure on campus.

“Everyone else seems to be dissolving,” Wittekind said.

He’s not wrong.

Late last Sunday, roommates Nate Moore ’22 and Bobby Doar ’22 were sitting on their common room couch.

Doar was mid-problem set, Moore midway through an email to Celia Buchband ’22, president of Princeton College Democrats, about room space for a pre-Super Tuesday pro-Pete Buttigieg phone bank. A CNN alert flashed across the former’s computer screen. He turned to his right.

“Pete dropped out.”

The email on Moore’s desktop went unsent.

A self-described political junkie from Wilson, Wyo., Moore first heard about Pete Buttigieg during the then-35year-old’s bid for DNC Chair.

The campaign ended in failure, but the name stuck; by the time the Washington Post published a profile of the South Bend, Ind. Mayor in Jan. 2019, Moore was smitten. He donated to Buttigieg the day after he announced his candidacy, joined every email list he could, and put his name down as a potential volunteer.

In early December, out of the blue and into Moore’s inbox came an email from the Buttigieg campaign. They had a volunteer opportunity.

Was there a time he could talk?

By the following week, Princeton had a “Students for Pete” chapter, and Moore was its president. The campaign provided him with toolkits,

info sheets, and agendas; he had access to weekly phone calls with campaign officials like Marv McMoore, Buttigieg’s National Youth Engagement Director, and Chasten Buttigieg, the mayor’s husband. Twenty-odd students registered interest in his group. A core dozen regularly showed up, motivated largely by the same reasons as Moore.

“He was such a contrast to everybody else running,” said Moore. “They were all septuagenarians, as old as my grandparents. He obviously isn’t. He has an incredible way of expressing complex — and progressive — policy ideas in a way everyone can understand, and in a way that moderates can really rally behind.”

Buttigieg’s message was well-established. His visibility? Not so much. So the members of Princeton for Pete got to work — which for them, really only meant one thing.

“In New Jersey,” said Moore, “because the primary is so late, there’s not much you can do besides phone bank.”

Phone bank they did, until that Sunday CNN alert. Now the twenty-odd students have a choice to make: where do they go now? Moore, for one, knows.

“Joe Biden,” he said. “What matters to me the most is beating Donald Trump, far more than policy issues. I don’t agree with Joe Biden on everything, and I think there are some issues with him as a candidate. But I think he’s the best chance to beat Trump.”

His compatriots may choose to follow him to the Biden camp, but if they’re looking for the same kind of organized political activism they found for Buttigieg, they’re out of luck. Buchband said she is aware of only three student groups supporting presidential primary campaigns: Sanders’, Buttigieg’s, and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s.

Buchband is an associate chief copy editor for the ‘Prince.’

In October, the ‘Prince’ profiled three students: Harshini Abbaraju ’22 and Eric Periman ’22, the founders and co-presidents of Princeton for Warren, and Josiah Gouker ’22, the founder of Tigers for Julián. Four months later, all three have joined Team Bernie.

Although around 70 students joined the Princeton for Warren listserv in the fall, Dylan Shapiro ’23, a student still organizing with Princeton for Warren, admitted, “They’ve never all been in one place at the same time.”

“We kind of fell dormant,” he said. “Princeton is a difficult campus to organize at, but we’re hoping to pick back up — to help get Elizabeth across the finish line.”

To that end, Princeton for Warren held and widely advertised a phone bank this Monday, on the eve of Super Tuesday. Three people showed up.

Shapiro said he grounds his support for Warren in the simple reality that “no president is ever going to be someone I agree with on every issue.”

“But Elizabeth is the one most interested in actually listening to and being held accountable by the communities most affected by her policies,” he explained.

Abbaraju and Periman feel differently.

In October, Periman cited Warren’s support for “Medicare for All” as exemplary of how her campaign empowers working and middle class people. Now, “Medicare for All” is the reason he supports Sanders.

“It’s non-negotiable for me,” he said. “I feel like my values didn’t change, but Elizabeth Warren’s did — or at least her stances changed.”

An Iowa native now living in South Carolina, Abbaraju spent most of last summer campaigning for Elizabeth Warren in not one, but two early primary states. But ultimately, she realized Warren did not align with her politically.

“It took me a long time to come back home,” she said of her eventual public sup-

port for Sanders. “If we want to beat Trump, we can’t just be against him. We have to present the boldest possible contrast to him, and that’s Bernie.”

Abbaraju said that although she had privately switched to Sanders’ camp for some time, she felt compelled to share her support for him on social media in the wake of sexism allegations toward him from members of the Warren campaign.

“I was really, really disappointed in Senator Warren after that,” she said, adding that as a feminist who is particularly cognizant of race and class issues’ intersection with gender issues, “Senator Sanders is someone I’m proud to support.”

Periman said he feels strongly about deconstructing what he believes is the myth of the uniquely menacing “Bernie Bro.” “He wins every demographic under age 55,” he said. “So it’s saddening — and honestly, a little hilarious — to see people go after him for his base of ‘Bernie Bros.’”

Gouker’s past candidate of choice, Julián Castro, may be campaigning for Warren, but Gouker himself has made his choice clear.

“I think [Sanders] represents the best chance we have right now to bring about necessary progressive change in the executive branch,” he wrote to the ‘Prince’.

Wittekind is right: with every day and every candidate to drop out of the race, his organization grows. But what drew him to the campaign in the first place? Although he supported Sanders in his initial 2016 run, he couldn’t fully articulate why until earlier this year — “I was a fetus,“ he said, “I had incoherent politics.” Now, his message to potential voters when knocking doors for Sanders is simple: You have a right to be angry. So let’s do something about it.

His message for other Princeton students?

“If anyone out there is feeling a slight Bern-ing sensation, come find me.”

Thursday March 5, 2020

Opinion

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A disservice to the community: Against qualified immunity The Editorial Board

L

ast July, the New Jersey State Assembly unanimously passed Bill A-4553, which would have granted qualified immunity to public-safety officers who patrol private institutions. The University’s Department of Public Safety (DPS), which, as of June 2019, employed 33 of the approximately 70 officers who work at private universities in New Jersey, offered testimony in support of the measure. Though the bill did not reach the floor of the State Senate, this Board finds the University’s advocacy for qualified immunity disturbing.

The doctrine of qualified immunity protects officers from liability if they violate a plaintiff’s rights, with the exception of cases in which they breach “‘a clearly established’ statutory or constitutional right.”

By blocking avenues for legal recourse, qualified immunity renders citizens’ constitutional rights meaningless.

Qualified immunity was first invoked in a 1967 Supreme Court case, Pierson v. Ray, to shield white police officers from a lawsuit they faced for enforcing segregation. Today, it

continues to be used to protect officers who engage in horrific acts of abuse, often towards people of color.

In 2004, Malaika Brooks, a black woman who was seven months pregnant, was driving her 11-year-old son to school in Seattle when she was pulled over for speeding. When she refused to sign the speeding ticket, fearing that doing so would be an admission of guilt, the officers demanded she get out of her car. After she refused, they tased her three times, dragged her across the street, and placed her in handcuffs.

Brooks sued the officers for use of excessive force, but her case was dismissed. The judges admitted that the officers had used excessive force, but, citing qualified immunity, concluded the officers could not have known their actions amounted to a constitutional violation.

This is just one of countless examples.

In his testimony before the State Assembly, DPS Executive Director Paul Ominsky defended qualified immunity, which already applies to DPS officers in their interactions with students and other “beneficiaries” of the University. He argued the doctrine should also apply to officers’ interactions with nonaffiliates on campus, because

DPS officers require the same legal privilege as “local police officers with whom they work side-by-side.”

Indeed, we do take DPS officers as seriously as their counterparts. We stand against qualified immunity for campus police, as well as for all other officers. As Ominsky said himself, at a town hall hosted yesterday by Whig-Clio and Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR), “officers should be held accountable.”

Other supporters contend that qualified immunity allows law enforcement to “perform the discretionary functions of their job without fear of liability.” There are scenarios, they argue, in which an officer might need to exercise force to uphold public safety, and the fear of facing a lawsuit might prevent them from doing so.

Yet, studies show that police officers rarely think about the possibility of getting sued while performing their jobs.

As Micah Herskind ’19 told The Appeal last August, “you only need immunity for police violence if you plan on allowing for police violence.”

Strengthening the relationship between the community and the Public Safety Officers who exist to protect us is essential to keeping campus safe for

all, a point the officers repeatedly emphasized at last night’s town hall. Qualified immunity only tilts the balance of power away from the community, fraying this crucial bond.

This Board opposes qualified immunity on principle and finds no reason for the University to support the expansion of this practice. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ’76, qualified immunity “renders the protections of the Fourth Amendment hollow” and “sends an alarming signal to law enforcement officers and the public.

It tells officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.”

144TH EDITORIAL BOARD Chair Zachariah W. Sippy ’22 Members Benjamin Ball ’21 Shannon E. Chaffers ’22 Rachel Kennedy ’21 Kate Lee ’23 Madeleine Marr ’21 Jonathan A. Ort ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 Cy Watsky ’21

A letter regarding Class Day speaker selection Caleb Visser, Jaylin Lugardo, and Jonathan Hanes Guest Contributors

T

o the Class of 2020,

Recently, a few of our classmates shared, via The Daily Princetonian, an open letter to us, the Class Day Committee. In it, the students raised questions about the process of the Class Day speaker selection and our specific selection of Marshawn Lynch as the 2020 Class Day speaker.

By all accounts, we understand this to be the opinion of only a handful of members of our class, but we thought it would also be appropriate to address the Class as a whole in order to provide some clarification and reflections on these topics.

First, the process for Commencement Committee planning began in May 2019, when the elected Class Government solicited applications to contribute and lead in the planning of the graduation, an open opportunity for our classmates to participate in the Class Day selection process.

This group consists of 40 members of our class, serving to facilitate the coordination of the dozens of campus partners who make our three-day graduation possible. Given how many moving pieces this includes, we understand how the process and its constraints may seem opaque to the uninvolved eye. The Class Day speaker is inducted into our class as an honorary member — not to be confused with having an honorary degree — out of a spirit of generosity. Because

of this, Class Day speaker recruitment is a complicated process that relies heavily on a speaker’s willingness to visit Princeton and provide us with their time without compensation.

In theory, inviting publicly ranked speakers sounds great. In reality, however, moving down a public list and inviting potential speakers one-by-one would present important logistical challenges: What speaker would accept an invitation knowing that they were ranked, in any order, on a list with 200 others?

What if the date — which is immovable — presented a conflict for that speaker?

What if the speaker is simply uninterested in the opportunity? Instead, the current Class Day Committee process involves the intentional consideration of the shared values between the speaker and the senior class, and then extending an invitation that we hope will be accepted, as we did with Marshawn Lynch.

It is for these reasons that virtually all student-focused events, such as the USG concert, comedy shows featuring prominent acts, and other invitations to human beings with agency do not function in this way. We trust that students can discern the differences between inviting speakers and conducting a popular vote on a class jacket design.

Regarding Mr. Lynch as our Class Day speaker, we as a committee firmly stand by our selection, and are thrilled by his acceptance.

There are endless selection criteria one may imagine for

a decision as anticipated as a Class Day speaker; each class should be able to choose what standard criteria to consider for itself. In our first conversations as a committee, we established the guiding role we wanted our shared values to play in the process, prioritizing values of inclusion, authenticity, service, and integrity that ignite intellectualism to action.

We also wanted to honor and acknowledge our experiences as the first class to see a comprehensive focus on the first-generation lowincome (FLI) student experience, a variety of athletic accomplishments with the contributions of the 235 student-athletes in our class, innovation in social entrepreneurship on campus, as well as our class’s commitment to activism and civic engagement.

As our initial letter states, Mr. Lynch embodies these values and experiences without a large media presence and instead with a prioritization of application over rhetoric. Even since our announcement, Mr. Lynch has expressed interest in finding ways to further connect with the Princeton community leading up to Class Day. This initiative alone reaffirms our choice in our Class Day speaker.

Unfortunately, the open letter shifted the conversation away from the celebration of the perspective that Mr. Lynch will bring to Class Day, and toward a troubling implication as to the concept of “worthiness” in addressing our class. In implying that Mr. Lynch’s values and

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experiences are not Princeton enough for the Class Day stage, the letter tacitly invalidates the very same values and experiences of our own classmates. The fact is that inclusion, authenticity, service, and integrity do not have one look, come from one place, or occupy a single profession.

And finally, we want to speak on this personally. One of the most special things about our Class is how close we are. Our Princeton experiences have been shaped and enriched by how the intimacy of our campus community facilitates dialogue across differences.

Whether through lingering zee group study breaks, hasty TigerBook searches, random residential dining tables, or heated academic precepts, we have developed our capacity to engage with others, especially those with whom we may not always agree. Throughout the process, we have engendered conversations about our shared values and experiences. We appreciate those who have reached out to us directly during this time to offer feedback and suggestions.

Overall, we are incredibly grateful to Mr. Lynch for voluntarily investing his time into our community and Class Day. We are excited to wrap up our few remaining months together and are eager to welcome Mr. Lynch to campus.

Sincerely, Caleb Visser, Jaylin Lugardo, and Jonathan Haynes Princeton 2020 Class Day CoChairs

editor-in-chief

Jonathan Ort ’21

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John G. Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy L. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees ex officio Jonathan Ort ’21

144TH MANAGING BOARD managing editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 Cy Watsky ’21 Sections listed in alphabetical order. chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Anna McGee ’22 associate copy editors Celia Buchband ’22 Sydney Peng ’22 head design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22 associate design editors Abby Nishiwaki ’23 Kenny Peng ’22 head features editor Josephine de La Bruyère ’22 head multimedia editor Mark Dodici ’22 associate video editor Mindy Burton ’23 head news editors Claire Silberman ’22 Zachary Shevin ’22 associate news and features editor Marie-Rose Sheinerman ’22 associate news editors Naomi Hess ’22 Allan Shen ’22 head opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Madeleine Marr ’21 associate opinion editors Shannon Chaffers ’22 Emma Treadway ’22 editorial board chairperson Zachariah Sippy ’22 head sports editors Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 associate sports editors Josephine de La Bruyère ’22 Emily Philippides ’22

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Thursday March 5, 2020

Opinion

page 5

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

“Stick to sports” is getting old: A defense of Marshawn Lynch Julia Chaffers

Senior Columnist

A

recent op-ed by guest contribu-

tors in The Daily Princetonian objecting to the selection of Marshawn Lynch as this year’s Class Day speaker has garnered widespread attention across campus and in the national media. Aside from being misconstrued as being representative of the campus community, the dismissive attitude towards Lynch within the article falls in line with a long history of disrespect towards black athletes.

In America, we have a tendency to see athletes in purely one dimension: their contribution to their sport.

We applaud them for scoring touchdowns and winning titles, but as soon as they open their mouths, we turn on them.

It is this tendency that led to Colin Kaepernick’s being blackballed from the NFL, and to Laura Ingraham’s telling LeBron James, who is apparently “paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball,” to “shut up and dribble.” The idea that athletes have nothing productive to add to our national con-

versation and that their intelligence begins and ends with their ability to run routes and read defenses shapes the way many people think about even our most dominant sports figures.

This especially affects black athletes, who are given even less freedom to speak their minds given longstanding stereotypes. Even on the field, black athletes are often described as having good instincts or having superhuman physical abilities, while their white counterparts are lauded for their intellectual acuity.

This attitude also evidences itself in the rhetoric people use to talk about athletes when they speak beyond the context of sports. People often assume that once a black player earns a certain amount of wealth, they lose their authority to speak on issues of inequality. LeBron’s millions of dollars did not, however, protect him from having the n-word scrawled across his house.

Nor did Serena Williams’s achievements in tennis prevent doctors from doubting her when she told them about complications after giving birth to her daughter.

It comes as no surprise, then, that there was a negative reaction by some when Marshawn Lynch was announced as this year’s Class

Day speaker. Some students thought, “Marshawn Lynch?

The football player famous for his unwillingness to speak to the media?” and wrote off the choice as misguided.

The writers say that they “do not mean to criticize this choice of speaker in particular, but rather to call attention to the opaque selection process for Class Day speakers.” Yet the bulk of their article focuses specifically on Lynch and their belief that he does not qualify to be a Class Day speaker. In the next paragraph, for example, they point out that Lynch doesn’t fit the past pattern of speakers “widely regarded as exceptional communicators.”

But it is sorely misguided to claim that because Lynch refused to play the sports media game — which usually just consists of athletes giving variations of the same canned answers — he has nothing to say at all. The writers may not come out and say it, but underlying their dismissive tone is the same sentiment that motivates other disregard for athletes. Moreover, their homing in on Lynch’s communication skills echoes a common racist stereotype of black people as inarticulate.

Lynch has done a lot outside of football to advocate for change. The Class Day committee emphasized in its

announcement that they did not choose Lynch just because of his skill on the field, but also because of his social activism. One of Princeton’s key values is service and community engagement, and Lynch embodies those ideals through his philanthropic work. As a first-generation college student himself, having attended the University of California Berkeley, Lynch can share experiences that many FLI students here can relate to.

We need to stop treating athletes as puppets or performers acting for our consumption. They are people, and they have interests and ideas outside of their sport.

The idea that a speaker has to have attended Princeton, or be related somehow to our campus, leaves out a huge swath of people who not only have ideas to share, but also bring a perspective outside the bounds of the Orange Bubble that can actually be more impactful. Lynch doesn’t have to have gone to Princeton to understand our values.

It should also be noted that film director Christopher Nolan gave the Class Day speech in 2015. He had no prior connection to Princeton, besides the fact that Batman dropped out of the school. It is in fact not the norm for an alum to give the Class

Day address, as a list of past speakers shows. Each speaker brings a fresh perspective as seniors prepare to enter the world beyond FitzRandolph Gate.

Princeton has a reputation, worsened by the media coverage of this latest op-ed, for being elitist and exclusive.

Perhaps we should do less wondering why the Class Day speaker has no connection to Princeton and more soulsearching about why many alumni of color, most notably Michelle Obama, have distanced themselves from our school. If we want to shed our image as an elitist institution and reflect our evolving values and diversifying campus community, we have to welcome ideas that don’t fit the “Princeton mold.”

Rather than writing Lynch off as a niche and unworthy selection by an unrepresentative minority of students, we should open our minds and embrace the opportunity to hear from someone outside the Princeton bubble. I believe I stand with many of my peers when I say I could not be more excited to hear what Marshawn Lynch has to say, and I am proud to put my name behind that.

Julia Chaffers is a sophomore from Wellesley, Mass. She can be reached at chaffers@princeton.edu.

Don’t whine.

Opine.

48 University Place

Thursday March 5, 2020

Sports

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S LACROSSE

Men’s lacrosse to face in-state rival Rutgers this weekend

By Nancy Tran Staff Writer

For Rutgers and No. 3 Princeton men’s lacrosse, it’s been a close two years. On March 10, 2017, the Tigers claimed a 15– 14 overtime victory on Sherrerd Field. On March 9, 2018, they fell 9–8 in Piscataway, N.J. This weekend, they (4–0) will face the Scarlet Knights (3–2) on Sherrerd Field again.

The Tigers are eager for redemption, and they’ve already gotten a taste of it this season. Last weekend, they defeated Johns Hopkins 18–11, avenging last season’s 14–12 loss. Senior attack and Princeton’s all-time leading scorer, Michael Sowers, put in two goals and seven assists. Following Sowers were senior midfielder Connor McCarthy with five goals, and sophomore midfielder Alexander Vardaro with four. Junior goalie Erik Peters accumulated 15 saves.

But despite the Tigers’ undefeated record, their No. 3 national ranking, the presence of superstar Sowers on the field, and last weekend’s ego boost, the team isn’t breathing easy.

“Rutgers is an outstanding team,” head coach Matt Madalon said. “The Princeton-Rutgers game has always

been a great game, a good rivalry. [We’re] two extremely competitive programs at crucial points in [our] seasons, and we expect another very tight game.”

He went on to reflect upon his team’s effort from the past few games.

“Right now, our offense is doing a good job in moving the ball defensively,” he said.

“We’ve got some good plays out of our defense, our goalie, and faceoff guys. We just try to continue to get better in each of our spots so that hopefully, when Saturday rolls around, we’re playing our best lacrosse for that week.”

After Rutgers, Princeton heads into Ivy League Play, beginning with a home game against Penn and an away game at Yale.

“Looking ahead,” Madalon said, “we’ve got two of the best teams in the country.

They’re two top-10 teams, and they’ve both been in national championship contentions over the last two years. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

We’ve got to have great weeks of practice, and we hope to match up well.”

Not only have the Tigers been showing their skills on the field this season, but they’ve been showing their

SHELLEY M. SZWAST / GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Senior Michael Sowers will drive the Tigers’ effort against the Scarlet Knights.

sense of service off the field as well. A few days ago, 40 players shaved their heads for Lacrosse for Life, raising $40,000 for the Boston Children’s Hospital.

“It’s just really remarkable,” Madalon said. “The la-

crosse community is so tightknit … and that’s as cool as it gets, to shave their heads and show support. For us to have 40 guys do it is just remarkable, and it was not mandatory by any means.”

Princeton will take on Rut-

gers this Saturday at 1 p.m. on Sherrerd Field. Then, on Saturday, March 14, Penn will make its way to Princeton to kick off the beginning of Ivy play. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.

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