Competitive YAT election looms as Kirby, Masheke, Takeuchi advance

By Isabel Yip

Head News Editor

For 20 of the 23 candidates for Young Alumni Trustee (YAT), the election came to an end on Friday, when the University informed candidates that following the primary election, Caroline Kirby ’23, Mutemwa Raphael Masheke ’23, and Mayu Takeuchi ’23 would be moving on to the final round.

The final round will be open to voters from April 25 through May 17. Juniors and seniors along with alumni in the classes of 2021 and 2022 will be eligible to vote, in contrast to the first round in which only seniors voted.

Of the 1,306 eligible members of the senior class, 593 people voted in the first round, according to University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss. This puts participation at 45.41 percent of the class, roughly in line with typical participation in USG elections.

The student elected to the position will serve a four-year term on the University’s Board of Trustees.

by Assistant News Editor Bridget O’Neill

YATs are full members of the board, expected to provide perspective informed by their more recent experiences as University students. The individual selected for the position is prohibited from “advocating for a particular constituency or point of view,” as they take an oath to perform the duties of a trustee “faithfully, impartially, and justly.” Accordingly, candidates are prohibited from campaigning while the race is ongoing.

The primary election included 23 candidates from the Class of 2023. Notable candidates that did not make the final round include InterClub Council (ICC) President Sophie Singletary, USG Vice President Hannah Kapoor, and Claire Schmeller, who focused her short bio on her role as a Peer Representative working to reform the University’s Honor Code.

Caroline Kirby Kirby is a politics major pursuing a certificate in entrepreneurship.

Kirby was Vice President of Charter Club during a time when the club had a major resurgence, becoming one of the most coveted clubs on campus. In 2020, Charter had only 28 total members when spring recruitment came around. Today, students have to rank Charter first and attend multiple events for the club to get in.

Kirby is a frequent presence at Princeton athletics events, handling social media for the Athletics Department. She also gave tours of campus for Orange Key and founded TigerReport, a student sports broadcasting group. Kirby also ran a highlyattended spin class at Dillon Gym, which would fill up 40 minutes prior to its start time.

Kirby drew a connection between her different roles on campus, stating how they all introduced her to new people, especially in her role as an Orange Key tour guide.

“Princeton’s most powerful and valuable commodity is our vibrant, welcoming community, and helping to bring the next generation of Tigers here is what I am most proud of,” she wrote. “I have spoken with hundreds,

See ELECTION page 3

By Sophie Glaser | Assisstant Features Editor

On March 8, the University announced in an email to students, staff, and faculty that it would be installing security cameras “at all exterior doorways in undergraduate residential college buildings and dorms” by the start of the Fall 2023 semester. This was just the most recent development in a long-term discussion which has shown up in University Student Government (USG) presidential election debates, feedback sessions with administrators, and USG meetings. The debate over surveillance is not a new issue for Princeton.

Increasing campus security measures and monitoring by administrators in the wake of incidents on campus has been a trend since at least the late 1980s, while long-term requests for increased campus lighting have often been deprioritized. The Daily Princetonian looked back at the history of campus surveillance, and the controversies that it has sparked. University opts for

Locks Over Lighting

In 1989, after two violent assaults on female students at Princeton, an ad hoc group of students and University administrators was created to discuss campus safety. The group’s mission was “examining the need for such measures as installing locks in dormitory entryways and improving lighting on campus.”

An informal survey that year by the ‘Prince’ noted that 54 percent of women at the time responded that they “did not feel safe walking around campus alone at night.”

According to the ‘Prince’ survey, students wanted more campus proctors, employees who monitored campus, and increased lighting on campus, noting Prospect Garden as an area in which students felt unsafe. At the same time, the Campus Safety Committee considered locking doors to dormitories, subsequently discussing the issue for months before coming to a decision.

In May of 1990, it See LIGHTING page 14