Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Friday March 6, 2020 vol. CXLIV no. 25
Twitter: @princetonian Facebook: The Daily Princetonian YouTube: The Daily Princetonian Instagram: @dailyprincetonian
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
U . A F FA I R S
ON CAMPUS
Kate Stanton named head of McGraw Center
COVID-19 disrupts spring break travel plans
By Ergene Kim Contributor
By Zachary Shevin and Albert Jiang Head News Editor and Senior Writer
In light of the global COVID-19 crisis, students are reevaluating their spring break plans. On the evening of Wednesday, March 4, the University sent an email to all students concerning the spread of COVID-19, commonly referred to as “coronavirus.” The alert acknowledged that the University has a “limited capacity to provide locations for students to self-quarantine,” noting that certain student travelers returning to the United States “will have to do so at home.” The message also recommended canceling all non-essential travel plans over spring break, “especially if they involve travel to Asia or Europe.” “We expect significant numbers of students to cancel or postpone their spring break travel, and the University is prepared to support those students who choose to remain on campus,” the email noted. This announcement came two days after University President Chrisopher Eisgruber ’83 wrote a letter urging community members to take care of themselves, plan ahead, and stay informed — and a day after Governor Phil Murphy announced New Jersey’s first positive disease test result. Officials confirmed a second positive test in the state on Thursday, March 5. See CORONAVIRUS page 2
SORAT TUNGKASIRI / OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
Katherine Stanton.
Katherine Stanton, Associate Dean of the College, has been appointed as the new director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Having filled the role on an interim basis since July, she officially was named to the position in February. Stanton’s academic career began in 2003 after she finished her Ph.D. in Literatures in English at Rutgers University. Then she saw that the McGraw Center had an opening. “The McGraw Center posted a one-year position for Interim Assistant Director … so my very first job, the beginning of my professional career, was here at the McGraw Center,” Stanton said.
After one year as the Interim Assistant Director for the McGraw Center, she spent a few more years as Assistant Director, at which point she was responsible for leading the graduate pedagogy program. Stanton then moved back with her family to Cambridge, Mass., where she spent 10 years serving a host of different roles at Harvard University. She was first a Resident Dean of one of Harvard’s Houses, which she said are “analogous to the [residential] colleges here.” As Resident Dean, she lived in the House and was responsible for about 400 students. “I also taught in their Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality program, which I loved. It’s a great program,” See STANTON page 2
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Q&A with Sarah Kliff, health policy journalist By Sam Kagan
Assistant News Editor
Sarah Kliff, an investigative reporter at The New York Times, stands as one of America’s preeminent health policy experts. On March 4, Kliff participated in a discussion, which was sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School, entitled “Obamacare Turns 10: Where Does Healthcare Go Next?” The next day, she sat down with The Daily Princetonian to discuss COVID-19, the price of healthcare, and former President Barack Obama. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. DP: You gave a talk yesterday entitled “Obam-
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
acare Turns 10: Where Does Healthcare Go Next?” Where are we 10 years after Obamacare? SK: Yes, I think Obamacare is largely standing and intact, which was not guaranteed because, ever since it was passed in 2010, it’s constantly been facing threats of repeal from Republicans, from Supreme Court challenges. But it is working, and it’s become the base for what a lot of candidates in the primary want to build on to different degrees, ranging from Joe Biden’s public option to Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All system. I think it’s seen as largely standing and largely accomplishing its
goals, but also not doing everything Democrats wanted on healthcare, which is why you see this debate happening in the primary season right now. DP: In that spirit, are you of the mind that the next great step for American healthcare is building towards something like what Sanders proposes? SK: I think there’s certainly more work to be done on the costs of healthcare. I wouldn’t come out and say it’s like the Sanders plan or the Biden plan. I think we definitely do see as a lot of Americans struggling with their healthcare bills. I’ve written stories about band aids that cost
$629, or a single MRI that’s, like, $25,000. People are really struggling with those bills, and I think that’s why you see from Senator Sanders, from Vice President Biden, all these proposals that would go pretty far in extending the government’s role in healthcare and extending coverage to millions more Americans. I think it kind of grows out of the fact that one of the things Obamacare didn’t tackle was the unit price of healthcare. DP: I remember reading a story of yours about a band aid that costs that amount of money. How does that happen? See KLIFF page 3
ON CAMPUS
Journalists, professors talk Physicist Freeman J. Dyson dies at 96 about dangers of reporting By Allan Shen and Edward Tian
Associate Editor and Contributor
Associate News and Features Editor
On Thursday, March 5, a panel of University faculty members and New York Times journalists spoke on the increasing dangers reporters face around the world to a packed McCormick 101. The panel included Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs; Suzy Hansen, a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism in the Humanities Council; Carol Giacomo, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, as well as a visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism and a member of The New York Times’s editorial board; and Gary Bass, professor of politics and international affairs. Scheppele opened the conversation by discussing the recent proliferation of death threats toward journalists. In the United Kingdom, the number of annual recorded death threats against journalists has risen 14 times since 1980, Scheppele noted. “The existence of death threats changes the way news organizations cover things,” said Scheppele, ex-
plaining that security concerns in foreign countries Freeman Dyson, one of the last pressure many news bu- great theoretical physicists of the reaus into closing, mean- WWII era, who walked the Princing the reporters who stay eton grounds alongside the likes of are the ones most dedicated Einstein and Oppenheimer, died — “and frankly most opin- last Friday at 96. ionated.” Dyson’s career spans over seven Repressive governments decades from World War II, when thus use death threats to he was an operations researcher “cull the field” of journal- with the British Royal Air Force, ists and then paint the to his move to the United States, journalists who remain as where he developed a deep friendthe enemy, Scheppele add- ship with Richard P. Feynman GS ed. ’42, to his postgraduate work at the “Death threats also Institute for Advanced Study in change the subject – they’re Princeton, N.J. being reported on, as opDyson died at Princeton Mediposed to something else,” cal Center on Friday, Feb. 28, due she continued, adding that to complications following a fall, death threats lead to self- according to his daughter, Mia censorship and eventually Dyson. EDWARD TIAN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN have the power to “change Freeman John Dyson was born Freeman Dyson in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study in the the people who are at the in the small village of Crawthorne spring of 2019. table.” in Berkshire, England, on Dec. 15, Hansen then discussed 1923. His father was Sir George Dysthe decline of the free press on, a famed composer who became However, he found his stud- under the mentorship of Hans in Turkey under President the director of the Royal College ies interrupted during the Nazi Bethe. Dyson never completed his Recep Tayyip Erdoğ an’s re- of Music in London and fought bombings of London by the Luft- Ph.D. gime, citing her experience to keep it open amid the German waffe in 1940. Dyson, a committed At Cornell, Dyson struck a pivreporting and living in the bombings of the Second World pacifist in his youth, joined the otal friendship with Richard Feyncountry for over a decade. War. Dyson’s mother, Mildred, war effort as a civilian scientist man GS ’42, a young professor at She recalled journalists was a lawyer who later worked as a for the British Royal Air Force’s the time. in Istanbul placing cell- social worker. Bomber Command. “When I came to America I phones in refrigerators beA math prodigy, Dyson entered Dyson initially planned to study had never heard of Feynman, but fore holding in-person con- Trinity College, Cambridge Uni- physics in the Soviet Union after within two weeks I was his friend,” versations, as they knew versity, in 1941 to study mathemat- the war ended, but seeing a dete- Dyson said in a 2008 interview. their lines were tapped. ics. There, Dyson studied under riorating political situation, he deThat summer, Feynman inMany reporters have been some of the greats of 20th-century cided to move to the United States vited Dyson to a road trip across imprisoned indefinitely, physicists and mathematicians, instead. In 1946, he enrolled in the the United States, during which Hansen added. like Paul Dirac, G. H. Hardy, and physics department at Cornell Feynman discussed his newfound See REPORTING page 2
John Edensor Littlewood.
See DYSON page 3
University as a doctoral student
In Opinion
Today on Campus
In two pieces, student guest contributors voice their support for Marshawn Lynch as Class Day speaker.
5:00 p.m.: Actress Mj Rodriguez speaks at “Celebrating 50 Years of Undergraduate Women at Princeton University.”
PAGE 4
McCosh Hall 50
WEATHER
By Marie-Rose Sheinerman
HIGH
46˚
LOW
34˚
Rainy chance of rain:
100 percent