May 8, 2019

Wednesday May 8, 2019 vol. CXLIII no. 60

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STUDENT LIFE

ZACHARY SHEVIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

BENJAMIN BALL / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Students made posters accusing Princeton’s Title IX process of opacity.

Over 70 students gather for Title IX protest

By Zachary Shevin, Claire Silberman, and Benjamin Ball Assistant News Editor, Associate News Editor, and Head News Editor

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on May 7, six student activists walked up the front steps of Nassau Hall to deliver a list of demands related to the University’s Title IX policy to the University administration.

Outside, over seventy protesters carried signs and chanted, “In the service of survivors, fix Title IX,” nearly drowning out the moments of conversation indoors. Throughout the day, blankets, backpacks, and posters laid scattered across the lawn in front of Nassau Hall as students staged a sit-in to protest the Title IX office’s handlings sexual misconduct complaints.

From the protest’s beginning at 10 a.m. to the time of the walk-in,

sit-in attendees crowdsourced and deliberated over the list of eleven demands via Google Docs and Forms.

The list detailed how the students believed the University’s Title IX procedures could improve.

Suggestions included the creation of a “comprehensive document detailing the Title IX process,” the hiring of a “group of full-time professional social workers independent of the Title IX office, Share [Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources & Education], and Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) to help survivors navigate the Title IX system,” and “the immediate departmentalization of the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies.”

Additionally, protesters have demanded “the immediate dismissal of Regan Crotty as the Title

STUDENT LIFE

IX coordinator, and the review of Michele Minter as Chief Compliance Officer of Title IX.” Originally, protesters considered calling for Minter’s immediate dismissal as well but eventually decided against doing so.

“I was really amazed at how collaborative of a process it was,” noted participant Chase Hommeyer ’19. “It wasn’t that a team of leaders decided what demands were best for everybody.”

Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun told several of the protesters that although the University would respond promptly, the initial response would not necessarily address all of their demands.

Ultimately, Aisha Tahir ’21 said that the group decided to think about radically reforming University policy and aimed to “reach for

the stars” with their demands.

“We can’t compromise before we go to the negotiating table,” one student said during the drafting process.

“We’re not the ones being unreasonable. The University is being unreasonable,” another participant added.

Around 3 p.m., the students decided to sort their demands into three overarching categories, “Transparency and Accountability,” “Procedural Changes,” and “Campus Culture.”

Maya Aronoff ’19 was vocal during the discussion and said the demands proposed by the organizers are “really great.” As a Residential College Advisor (RCA), Aronoff said she feels very strongly about the demands centered around shifting campus culture and preventing assault from occurring in

U . A F FA I R S

the first place.

“Something’s clearly broken about the way things are happening because we have such high rates of sexual violence,” Aronoff said. “When we have a more transparent process, and we have a more clearly defined process, and we have a more equal process, everybody benefits and the campus becomes safer for everyone involved.”

Later, six students, Hommeyer, Madeleine Le Cesne ’19, Rebecca Sobel ’19, KiKi Gilbert ’21, Malka Himelhoch ’21, and Erica Dugue ’21, were escorted into Nassau Hall and received by Calhoun. All six either helped lead the demonstration or had previous experience dealing with the Title IX office.

Rebecca Sobel ’19, who presented the list to Calhoun, said the group demands that the list be reviewed See TITLE IX page 3

ACADEMICS

CPUC meeting discusses Sommers room draw, ban the box ’20 wins Staff Writer

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Approximately 100 students chanted “Ban the box!” as the walked out of the meeting onto Frist’s north lawn.

The latest monthly meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), which took place on Monday, had an agenda packed with a wide variety of presentations and became the site of a large-scale student protest.

The CPUC meeting kicked off with a Q&A session, during which representatives from Undergraduate Housing issued an apology for the mishandling of room draw and stated that the department was ac-

tively looking into both the source of the problem and a viable solution.

When The Daily Princetonian asked about a claim that Housing had already conducted analysis of the situation, undertaken in response to a student complaint, the representatives said that they needed more time to clarify the results of that analysis before they could release them.

The Q&A quickly segued into a walk-out protest when Michaela Daniel ’21 read a statement on behalf of “Ban the Box,” a campaign See CPUC page 4

SPEAR holds walk out, teach-in for ban the box Neuroscience professor OBITUARY

By Haleigh Gundy Staff Writer

On Monday, May 6, approximately 100 students chanting “Ban the box!” walked out from a meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) in a protest led by Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR).

The “Ban the Box” movement seeks to eliminate the conviction history question on undergraduate student applications for admission to the University. On campus, the campaign has been largely directed by SPEAR. The University

In Opinion

is now considering adding a variation of “the box” to the graduate student application as well.

Fifteen minutes into the meeting, the crowd of students left Betts Auditorium, where the CPUC meeting was taking place, and walked to an outdoor area in front of Frist Campus Center, where they listened to two speakers — Dameon Stackhouse, a formerly incarcerated activist, and Dannelle Gutarra Cordero, a University writing program lecturer.

Several students participating in the walkout received warnings See BAN THE BOX page 4

Columnist Claire Wayner argues against Princeton’s excessive T-shirt giveaways and the waste they create, and senior columnist Liam O’Connor questions the University’s preferential treatment of athletes in admissions. PAGE 6

emeritus Gross dies

By Katie Tam and Allan Shen Senior Writer and Staff Writer

Charles Gordon Gross, a professor emeritus of psychology at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI) and pioneer of cognitive neuroscience, died at age 83 in Oakland, Calif. on April 13.

Gross is best known for his discovery of neurons that fire in response to recognizing complex stimuli, such as hands and faces.

His research formed the basis for

modern cognitive and social neuroscience and showed that the brain has special machinery for handling specific demands.

Michael Graziano ’89 GS ’96, now a University professor of psychology, first fell in love with psychology while taking one of Gross’ classes as an undergraduate and went on to complete his senior thesis in Gross’ lab. He also returned to the University to complete his doctorate and post-doctorate work.

See GROSS page 3

Today on Campus 4:30 p.m.: Sacramental Liberalism and Ragion di Stato Bowen 222

Goldwater

By Allan Shen Staff Writer

Grace Sommers ’20 has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, an annual award established by the United States Congress in recognition of outstanding undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.

A resident of Bridgewater, N.J., Sommers is concentrating in physics and pursuing certificates in applied and computational mathematics, applications of computing, and Roman language and culture.

Sommers is one of the 496 winners of the 2019 Goldwater Scholarships who were selected from 1223 students nominated by 443 academic institutions.

Sommers said that she is currently interested in theoretical condensed matter physics. She intends to pursue a Ph.D. in physics after graduation and eventually a career in academia.

Established in 1986 in honor of former U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, the Goldwater Scholarship recognizes undergraduate students who have performed outstandSee GOLDWATER page 4

WEATHER

By Hannah Wang

HIGH

68˚

LOW

51˚

Partly cloudy chance of rain:

10 percent

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The Daily Princetonian

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ZACHARY SHEVIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Wednesday May 8, 2019

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

BENJAMIN BALL / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

ZACHARY SHEVIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Daily Princetonian

Wednesday May 8, 2019

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Protesters waited through thunderstorm in front of Nassau Hall TITLE IX

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by 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 8, and that President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 make a commitment to honor the proposals.

Though she said she did not expect a warm welcome, Hommeyer noted that she expected being able to either tape or slide the demands on or under Eisgruber and Minter’s office doors, but the six students were not permitted beyond the lobby.

“We can certainly give you a response,” Calhoun said to the protesters. “It is unlikely that we’re going to give you a response that will respond to all of your demands.

We’re just receiving them, and we’re giving you the honor of taking them seriously and reviewing them.”

Hommeyer said she considers this response unacceptable, considering that “there aren’t that many demands.”

“We asked her if President Eisgruber was there. She said he was out of town, and as soon as we started asking, ‘Where out of town? Do you know what business he’s con-

ducting?,’ she became frustrated with us,” Hommeyer said.

Madeleine Le Cesne ’19 was disappointed but unsurprised by Calhoun’s response.

“I felt like I was a scolded child, but she was also smiling. It was bizarre,” she said. “I am skeptical that the University is going to [implement] the demands because they always find a way to skirt around real change and protect their reputation.”

The University has told students that they can stay outside of Nassau Hall until 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 8, but that they are not permitted to sleep outside.

“The University takes seriously its mission to support the free expression of all views and we absolutely support and defend the right of students to participate in peaceful protest activities such as the sitin outside Nassau Hall,” University spokesperson Ben Chang wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “We remain committed to the values and standards we share to ensure everyone in the community is heard, respected, and cared for.”

Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne was present at the protest but declined to

comment to the ‘Prince.’

Protesters began to sign up for shifts in order to keep people outside of Nassau Hall for the entirety of the night. With rain projected overnight, protesters began collecting umbrellas and tarps around 8 p.m.

At dusk, students gathered for a meeting to reflect on Tuesday’s sitin and discuss short and long term plans going forward. The group floated the idea of a tiered reaction system, depending on the University’s reactions — with potential protests, including hourly demonstrations on the steps of Nassau Hall on Wednesday and lining the streets of the P-Rade at Reunions, circulating a no-donation pledge among alumni.

Around 9:15 p.m., it began to rain. At 9:35 p.m., the University issued a “Lightning Warning” via TIGERALERTS, advising students to “seek shelter inside the closest building immediately,” and to “avoid standing under tents.”

The protesters also plan on repeatedly emailing Eisgruber until 11 a.m. tomorrow. The template email to Eisgruber demands his “commitment to executing each of our eleven calls for reform, in a

public statement to the students, faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees of this university, by 11 a.m. on the morning of May 8th” and includes a link to the demands.

As of Tuesday night, the protesters had received legal counsel from a Title IX lawyer who suggested that some of the demands — namely those which asked for compounded violations (those which deal with racist/(cis)sexist/ homophobic/ableist/transphobic violence) to “be considered with[in] an intersectional framework” and those which asked for more transparency — could be in violation of federal Title IX law.

“Despite the fact that we are focusing on reforming Title IX, that doesn’t mean that Title IX is the only part that’s broken,” Sobel said.

“Specifically about the cases that don’t fall under Title IX, we’re talking to legal experts about how to navigate that ... Those are ongoing conversations.”

The demonstration comes in the wake of multiple other Title IX protests over the course of the last month, including “Title IX protects rapists” graffiti found in different locations on campus and a protest outside of Firestone Library.

The protest also follows the creation of a GoFundMe campaign to pay for the fine an anonymous student received for the initial graffiti.

Within three hours, the campaign surpassed its goal of $2,723. As of now, the fundraiser has raised nearly $4,000 for the student.

“Her rapist is not facing any punishment, but the University decided to put all its effort into disciplining her for the writing she was doing,” Hommeyer said.

“It showed that the University cares more about protecting its fancy buildings instead of actually protecting and supporting its students.”

Hommeyer reached out to three University officials, Calhoun, Dean of the College Jill Dolan, and Dean of Rockefeller College Justine Levine, hoping they would take a personal stand against the University’s punishment.

“Jill Dolan responded saying, amongst other things, it is important that the University take defacement of public property seriously,” Hommeyer said. “Of all the things she thinks we should take seriously, defacement of public property is the one she chose to respond to my email with.”

Graziano: He was 20th century’s most successful neuroscience mentor GROSS

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“He was a brilliant mentor,” Graziano said of Gross. “The most successful neuroscience mentor of the 20th century.”

Graziano said that part of Gross’ success came from his openness to new ideas. He said Gross was deeply invested in all of the work in his lab, which spanned multiple fields and projects. When Graziano became a faculty member, he continued collaborating with Gross, whose office was right next door to his own.

“He didn’t do agenda-driven science,” Graziano said. “He let people think out their own ideas and pursue their own interests. He encouraged people to find their own scientific legs.”

Prior to Gross’ contributions, scientists believed that individual neurons are triggered by and fire in response to simple shapes and lines.

They believed an ensemble of these neurons then work together to encode an intricate visual stimulus – in the case of a face, for instance, one neuron might respond to eyes, an-

other to a nose, and so on.

Gross’ research revealed that individual neurons in the inferior temporal cortex can respond selectively to complex stimuli like hands and faces, rather than simple spots, slits, or edges. Furthermore, specific neurons can only be triggered when presented with entire faces, not just fragments of them.

These ideas were highly unconventional when Gross first presented them. It would be more than ten years before researchers began attempting to replicate his results, which are now some of the most well-established in the field.

Gross was born in Brooklyn, NY on Feb. 29, 1936. He graduated as a biology major from Harvard University in 1957, and in 1961, he received a Ph.D. in ethology from the University of Cambridge, which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship.

Gross began his pioneering work at the MIT in 1961, performing singleneuron experiments with monkeys.

At first, he and his colleagues tried stimulating the primates’ visual systems with bars of light. After that approach failed, they tried using images of hands, and later faces, as

stimuli. When the monkeys were shown these images, their brains responded strongly. The findings Gross made are applicable to a variety of sub-fields, including visual learning, memory, perception, and pattern recognition. Throughout his career, he authored more than 300 articles and several books, including “Brain, Vision, Memory: Tales in the History of Neuroscience” in 1999 and “A Hole in the Head: More Tales in the History of Neuroscience” in 2009.

“He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of neuroscience,” said Alexander Todorov, a professor of psychology at the University.

In 2009, Gross married Joyce Carol Oates, the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, whom he met through mutual friends in the summer of 2008. Four years later, he transferred to emeritus status himself, although he continued to teach a neuroethics course until the fall of 2018.

In addition to being a dedicated scientist, Gross was a passionate traveler, making trips throughout his life to Antarctica, Brazil, Cuba, Mongolia, Uganda, and many other places. He was an accomplished pho-

TOM ALBRIGHT / OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Charlie Gross (left) and Tom Albright GS ’83 traveled all over the world together, including visiting Antarctica in December 2016.here for photo.

tographer, displaying his photos at art exhibitions and in living rooms of friends and colleagues.

Asif Ghazanfar, another professor of psychology at PNI, frequently traveled with Gross.

“Charlie was an amazing traveler,” Ghazanfar said. “He wanted to understand things intimately,” rather than frequent typical tourist destinations.

“He knew the right way to travel,” Ghazanfar said. “It was always an adventure.”

Michael Littman, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University, worked with Gross and Graziano while Graziano was a Ph.D. candidate. He remembers Gross for his careful planning and meticulous experiments.

“He was very serious and thorough,” Littman said. “No stone was left unturned” in designing experiments or analyzing results.

Although Gross was careful in communicating the implications of his work, he was sometimes misattributed for having proven the existence of so-called “grandmother cells,” which individually respond to a specific face. For example, one neuron might respond to your mother,

another to your father, and another to your grandmother. Recently, this idea has been expanded to the concept of the “Jennifer Aniston neuron” – a neuron that fires only when a person sees a picture of Jennifer Aniston.

Gross did not support this theory.

Rather, he advocated for a population-based model, in which a group of cells responds to faces in general. Under his theory, the cells then modulate their activity in response to specific faces.

Gross’ colleagues remember him for his unique approaches to problems and his congenial spirit. Todorov recalls that despite Gross’ incredible accomplishments, he always stayed down-to-earth and willing to listen and learn from others.

“He was a great role model and created very close relationships with colleagues, graduate students, and others,” Todorov said.

Littman agreed, recalling Gross’ “quick mind and great humor.”

“He had this very expansive, energetic, generous personality,” Graziano said. “He filled up the room with this incredible amount of vibrancy and cheerfulness.”

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Wednesday May 8, 2019

Eisenhour ’21: U. doubled down on unjust criminal punishment BAN THE BOX Continued from page 1

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of potential disciplinary action, removal from the site, and arrest from Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Jarrett Fisher after they refused to move from the front of the auditorium. The students were warned that it is regulation for protestors to remain in the back of University events.

Amanda Eisenhour ’21, one of the co-presidents of SPEAR, said the protest was a culmination of five years of organizing.

“The University, instead of engaging seriously with our demands, doubled down on the use of the unjust criminal punishment system by reinstating the question about the conviction history on the graduate school application, and by making adjustments to the undergraduate application questions that not only do nothing to mitigate the deterrent effect, but actively reinforce a false and inconsistent binary between misdemeanors and felonies,” she wrote

in an email statement to The Daily Princetonian.

In an email statement to the ‘Prince,’ University spokesperson Ben Chang said, “The University takes seriously its mission to support the free expression of all views, and we absolutely support and defend the right of students to participate in peaceful protest activities such as those at the CPUC and the teach-in.”

He deferred the rest of his comments to Dean of the College Jill Dolan’s statements to the ‘Prince’ and to statements made by President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 at the CPUC meeting.

According to the event’s Facebook description, the purpose of the walkout and teach-in was to “[s] how the administration that we are NOT backing down.” “[T]he question about conviction history on our application relies on a racist, classist system and further silences the voices of one of the most marginalized communities by deterring them from applying to our institution,” read the event description.

Stackhouse spoke of the disadvantages that “the box” brought upon him when he applied for jobs and internships after completing his prison sentence. He emphasized the importance of fighting for change on the issue.

“Rules can be changed. Rules will be changed,” he said. “But we need collective efficacy to make sure that it happens.”

Stackhouse expressed support for causes ranging from stronger, well-balanced education within prisons to increased opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals.

“There has never been a movement that didn’t cause a problem,” said Stackhouse, before concluding by thanking the group for their support.

Following Stackhouse’s speech, Gutarra Cordero, whose scholarship focuses on the intellectual history of the Caribbean, discussed pervasive theories of scientific racism and their long-term implications on policing and law-making.

Gutarra Cordero explained that, in the past, criminologists were of-

ten taught that “criminals could be identified by their — and I quote — ‘ape-like’ characteristics.”

“The eugenics movement was just as interested in validating a racialized understanding of criminology as it was in controlling narratives about intelligence,” Gutarra Cordero continued.

According to Gutarra Cordero, perceived criminality and racism intersected when Carl Campbell Brigham ’1912 GS ’1916, a former University professor whom Gutarra Cordero called a “eugenicist,” created the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Gutarra Cordero believes the test was intended to be a “premeditatedly biased testing” meant to “safeguard American intelligence.”

Gutarra Cordero followed her explanation of the scientific racism of criminology and the education system by explaining the various ways in which she believes keeping “the box” upholds racialized violence and inequality.

“To keep the box is to enable … the silencing of the voices and the intellectual production of incar-

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

cerated and formerly incarcerated individuals,” said Gutarra Cordero.

“While this University was not built for many of us, today Princeton has the opportunity to ban the box and take positions against the forces that oppress us outside and inside the Orange Bubble,” she added, before imagining how an unfairly incarcerated young boy might have been a student in her class this past semester.

Numerous students, both from SPEAR and outside of the organization, gathered for discussion after the two speeches.

“It doesn’t always have to be direct action,” said Kavindya Dalawella ’22, a SPEAR member, after the event. “Just being educated on the issue and being able to talk to other people is important.”

Noam Miller ’21, another SPEAR member, added that there is more to the issue than banning the box, noting that more student action is required to take on the entirety of the prison-industrial complex and the forces that he said work against the underprivileged and communities of color.

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Minter: Currently no formal plan to address Title IX concerns CPUC

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advocating for the rights of formerly incarcerated individuals and condemning the University administration for remaining complicit in perpetuating systemic racism and classism.

“We will not have one more moment of peace as long as you continue to obstruct justice,” Daniel said, referring to the presence of a criminal history question on the University’s supplemental undergraduate application.

Ban the Box has been brought up by members of Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR) at multiple CPUC meetings throughout the academic year. President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 has continually asserted the University’s commitment to a “holistic approach” to ad-

mission, backed by the Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid (CUAFA).

When Daniel finished her statement, she and dozens of students occupying the auditorium walked out to attend a teach-in, chanting “Ban the box! Ban the box!” Several SPEAR members stayed behind, holding signs with slogans such as “Ban the Box” and “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”

They were told to move to the back of the auditorium, so that they would not obstruct the view of other audience members.

The Q&A was capped off by a question about Title IX protests and the punishment of a student who had been leaving graffiti around campus, to which the University Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity and Title IX coordinator Michele Minter responded that there was currently no “formal plan”

in place to address prevailing concerns.

Following the Q&A, Associate Professor Blair Schoene, Chair of the Resources Committee, delivered a presentation about the committee’s decision not to recommend that the University divest from private prison companies or affiliated contractors.

Reminding the audience that the University has only ever taken divestment action twice, once on apartheid in South Africa, and once on genocide in Sudan, Schoene maintained that the issues surrounding private prisons were too complex for a straightforward divestment recommendation.

Professor Angela Creager, Chair of the Committee on Naming, went next, discussing the most recently named space on campus – Rivers Way, a driveway between Firestone Library and the Andlinger Center for the Humanities.

Rivers Way is named after Robert J. Rivers Jr. ’53, a distinguished surgeon who was one of the first African-American undergraduate students to attend the University and was also the first African American elected to serve as a University trustee.

Next, representatives from the Ad Hoc Committee on Calendar Reform unveiled their plans for “Wintersession,” a two-week period between the end of winter break and the beginning of spring semester that will be instated once the revised academic calendar takes effect.

The representatives envisioned a series of on-campus programs, centered around topics ranging from service to career development to art, that would give students the chance “to explore and to fail” at new endeavors without putting anything at stake.

Dean of the College and act-

ing Dean of Admission Jill Dolan and Dean of the Graduate School Sarah-Jane Leslie GS ’07 presented the statistics from the University’s latest round of admissions. Dolan underscored the unprecedentedly high proportions of female to male admitted undergraduate students, while Leslie drew emphasis to the declining numbers of international students applying to masters programs at the University.

Graduate Student Government President Noah Apthorpe GS presented on the initiatives that GSG had taken over the past year to improve the quality of life for the graduate student body, such as communitybuilding social events and increased programming to address and bring awareness to mental health.

This month’s CPUC meeting was held on May 6 at 4:30 p.m. in Betts Auditorium in the Architecture Building.

Wednesday May 8, 2019

The Daily Princetonian

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Scholarship awards up to $7,500 in tuition, fees, room, board GOLDWATER Continued from page 1

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ing academic work in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering and plan on pursuing careers in one of those fields.

The Goldwater Scholarship awards up to $7500 in tuition, fees, room and board.

Since the award’s inception, Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 92 Rhodes Scholarships, 137 Marshall Scholarships, 159 Churchill Scholarships, and 104 Hertz Fellowships, among other distinctions.

In addition to winning the Goldwater Scholarship, Sommers has also been the recipient of the Freshman First Honor Prize and the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize.

Mariangela Lisanti, an assistant professor in the physics department, advised Sommers on her first junior paper, which studied the behavior of dark matter within the context of the growth of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Lisanti expressed that she

was not surprised by the news of Sommers winning the Goldwater Scholarship and remarked on her student’s exceptional work.

“Grace is definitely one of our star students,” said Lisanti. “Both her academic accomplishments and research accomplishments certainly merited the award, so I was really happy that the selection committee agrees with that.”

Sommers said that she chose to work on the project on dark matter because of her “really good advisor,” referring to Lisanti, and that she enjoyed working with both physics equations as well as programming and running analyses.

“From retrospective as an undergraduate who wants to do theoretical physics, the learning curve is kind of steep, so often times people would have to work in a lab, which I didn’t want to do,” said Sommers, “so computational work is a pretty good bridge to do something that’s not a lab.”

Herman L. Verlinde, the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics and the chair of the Department of Physics, advised

Sommers on her second junior paper, which studied the Ising Model, a mathematical model describing magnetism that — at a critical point with added interactions — can produce a phenomenon resembling gravity.

“She really gets to the bottom of the question,” stated Verlinde. “I know if she goes graduate school, she’ll continue to stand out.”

Verlinde also noted that the scope of Sommers’ second junior paper is greater than what is usually studied in a junior project.

In addition to Lisanti and Verlinde, Sommers also thanked some of the other mentors who have impacted her. She thanked Branko Glišić , associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Rebecca Napolitano, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering; Oren Slone, an associate research scholar at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science; Lyman A. Page, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics; COURTESY OF GRACE SOMMERS and Silviu Pufu ’07 *11, an assistant professor of physics.

Sommers is concentrating in physics and pursuing three certificates.

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Opinion

Wednesday May 8, 2019

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Why is athletics so special?

Liam O’Connor

Senior Columnist

A

courtroom battle in Boston recently busted Harvard’s admissions process wide open. As the public awaits the judge’s decision on affirmative action, few have paid much attention to the leaks of the advantages beyond race that Harvard bestows upon high school seniors.

Athletes with the first or second highest academic ratings on the admissions scale have an 83 percent acceptance rate, the Harvard Crimson reported. Non-athletes of comparable ratings have a 16 percent chance at acceptance. Princeton likely has similar statistics.

Coaches can’t guarantee admissions to athletes.

But the schools can send out Likely Letters months ahead of regular applicants.

They say that “a candidate is ‘likely’ to be admitted,” according to the Ivy League’s website.

Ivy Coach, a private college consultant, said on its website, “a Likely Letter is the equivalent of an offer of admission.” While they’re not limited to athletic recruits, they undeniably play a significant role in securing their spots.

Former University President William Bowen GS ’58 concluded in “Reclaiming the Game: College Sports

and Educational Values” that the Ivy League often lowers academic standards to recruit players.

Once on campus, he found that athletes lag behind their peers in classes and focus on sports at the expense of other college opportunities. “Many students not admitted clearly could have used these resources to [a] much fuller advantage,’’ he wrote.

Some of my friends who are recruited athletes have told me that they avoided particular classes or challenging concentrations because they would interfere with their sports schedules.

They felt that Princeton let them in on their physical skills first and academics second, so they reasoned that they should fulfill their obligation to the former.

If I were in their shoes, I’d do the same. Passing up a game to study my own interests would seem selfish if the Tigers were expecting my skills to help them beat the Yale Bulldogs.

But this response raises the bigger question as to why the Ivy League values athletes in the first place.

In other words: What makes athletics so special — more than any other extracurricular activity — that it deserves special admissions procedures?

“Collegiate athletics throughout the country teach athletes valuable life skills, and most importantly, add a whole new dimension to student bodies,” a Princetonian writer once argued. He himself was a

walk-on water polo player.

It’s the typical defense that players and coaches give whenever someone questions sports.

In the writer’s view, balancing world-class academics with world-class athletics was impressive. He continued, “perhaps athletes might get by with a lower academic record, but this is designed to acknowledge that playing sports at a high enough level to be recruited will detract from time spent doing homework and studying for tests.”

Yes, that is extraordinary.

But all of what dancers do or balance is equally extraordinary. And quizbowlers.

And community volunteers.

I know debaters who spend about the same amount of time preparing for top tournaments as athletes in their daily practices.

None of them were held to lower academic standards.

They didn’t receive ingrained advantages for their extracurricular activities in admissions — at least not publicly. Nor should they.

By creating a recruitment process, the Ivy League is making a value judgement on pastimes.

“I can guarantee that all of our students are held to an equal standard,” President Chris Eisgruber told “CBS This Morning” last year. “It’s tough to get into Princeton. It’s tough to get into our other Ivy colleges, regardless of what group you’re from. But everybody gets a fair shake.”

Oh really? Anyone who doubts that athletes get a

vol. cxliii

significantly advantaged shake should look to the recent college admissions scandal.

America’s wealthiest parents bought athletic preferences at elite schools — including Yale — for their children. Clearly, this status holds sway in admissions unlike all else. The parents didn’t seek music, speech, or underwater basket weaving preferences.

Ending recruitment won’t kill athletics. I’m currently studying abroad at Oxford, and there’s a vibrant sporting culture here, despite the school’s lack of recruitment.

If I asked random students on High Street how their college’s team is doing in rowing or rugby, I’d be more likely to get a detailed response from them than by asking Princeton students about their football team.

Oxford admits everyone on their academic talents.

It has still attracted Olympians, and I’ve met some people who will one day join their ranks. The British have a system that creates athletic opportunity — accessible to all — but reminds undergraduates that they’re students first. We should learn from them.

The spirit of amateurism that the Ivy League claims to uphold ought to be vested in walk-on club sports, not recruited varsity teams.

Maybe then we can put the “student” back in the phrase “student-athlete.”

Liam O’Connor is a junior geosciences major from Wyoming, Del. He can be reached at lpo@princeton.edu.

editor-in-chief

Chris Murphy ’20 business manager

Taylor Jean-Jacques’20

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 trustees ex officio Chris Murphy ’20 Taylor Jean-Jacques’20

143RD MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Aftel ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Jon Ort ’21 head news editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news editors Linh Nguyen ’21 Claire Silberman ’22 Katja Stroke-Adolphe ’20 head opinion editor Cy Watsky ’21 associate opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Ethan Li ’22 head sports editor Jack Graham ’20 associate sports editors Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 features editor Samantha Shapiro ’21 head prospect editor Dora Zhao ’21 associate prospect editor Noa Wollstein ’21 chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 associate copy editors Jade Olurin ’21 Christian Flores ’21 head design editor Charlotte Adamo ’21 associate design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22 cartoon editors Zaza Asatiani ’21 Jonathan Zhi ’21 head video editor Sarah Warman Hirschfield ’20 associate video editor Mark Dodici ’22 digital operations manager Sarah Bowen ’20

NIGHT STAFF design Isabel Hsu ’19 copy Wells Carson ’22 Isabel Segel ’22 JOE SHLABOTNIK / FLICKR

The University’s football team plays at Palmer Stadium.

Wednesday May 8, 2019

Opinion

page 7

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Stop giving out free T-shirts Claire Wayner Columnist

H

ackPrinceton shirts from 2016.

Four new Wilson College Council long-sleeved shirts with their CustomInk tags still on them.

And the worst offenders — piles of Clash of the Colleges t-shirts, worn once before being tossed away by jaded freshmen who couldn’t care less about the falsified residential college rivalry.

These were some of the many branded Princeton tees that had been donated to the EcoReps clothing swap this past Saturday. As I hauled bag after bag of students’ unwanted shirts, shoes, and accessories to Frist for the swap, I wondered whether there could be anything done to combat this spirit of wastefulness in America’s irresponsibly consumerist economy. Princeton itself, I realized, is a top contributor to the problem.

While most of the donated items were unbranded items that weren’t associated with Princeton, a fair number of the t-shirts were recognizable freebies from past events.

Clearly, if the t-shirts ended up in the donation bin, students either never really wanted or liked them in the first place or felt like they (especially seniors) couldn’t wear them after leaving

campus. To minimize this reckless disposal and waste, Princeton needs to stop giving out free shirts or at least place severe limits and regulations on the trade.

For starters, let’s examine residential college gear. As freshmen, we are forced to accept and wear Clash of the Colleges t-shirts. Assuming a cost of $4 per t-shirt, that’s almost $6,000 for enough tshirts for each freshman — for a shirt we will wear only once. OK, that’s a drop in the bucket in terms of Princeton’s budget, but imagine the amount of money spent on gear alone at every residential college. Forbes has an annual gear budget of about $30,000 (learned from my time spent serving on the College Council), and they are just a twoyear college. Couldn’t this money be put to better use?

Princeton is trying to buy our happiness (what’s new?) with free clothing. But if the dollar amounts don’t get to you, consider the highly exploitative manufacturing practices for which the fashion industry is notorious.

Investigations have uncovered that t-shirts are often produced in Bangladeshi factories where workers earn as little as $68 a month. Let’s not forget the more deadly accidents like the 2013 factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that killed 1,134 works and in-

jured over 2,500.

Even if the garments are produced responsibly, each t-shirt has an enormous environmental footprint. It takes 2,700 liters (just over 700 gallons) of water to make just one shirt (that’s enough water for one person to drink for 2.5 years), with each garment having a carbon footprint of 15 kg of CO2 over its lifetime.

From the cotton that has to be farmed to the transportation around the globe, there is nothing benign about your t-shirt.

Princeton has a responsibility to reduce its carbon footprint (and get to carbon neutrality by 2046), so it must begin considering the environmental impact of all of its activities, including giving out way too many free garments to students who, at the end of the day, are going to throw much of it away at move-out. In an effort to reduce giveaway waste, therefore, the University could implement a couple of straightforward policies that ensure that people who get a clothing item want and use it.

For starters, all residential college gear should be optional. Students should be sent a registration form which they can fill out only if they want an item, but if they don’t like the gear option that fall or spring, they can simply not fill out the form. This will

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Jonathan Zhi ’21

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help to limit the number of duplicates that remain by the end of the year (for our Forbes giveaway this spring, we’ve given out only 15 percent of the baseball hats we ordered).

Second, to allow residential gear items to be reused in future years, the gear should not be branded with the class year. Once I move out of Forbes next year as a sophomore, for instance, I don’t know if I’ll want to wear the t-shirt I got as a freshman, especially after I graduate. By having a circulating “bank” of t-shirts that are washed and reused by new students every couple of years, residential colleges can cut costs and avoid having to reorder new shirts every single year. Students who love their residential college shirts can have the option to keep them, but if you’re going to throw it out anyway, at least having the option to return it to be reused would save a significant amount of resources.

Third, all student groups and University departments ordering t-shirts should consider using more environmentally friendly companies.

My employee t-shirt for being an EcoRep at the Princeton Office of Sustainability is sourced by American Soil Organic, a company that uses 100% U.S.-grown organic cotton. Each shirt comes with a unique identifier code that

allows the recipient to track online their shirt’s journey from growing the cotton to manufacturing to delivery.

My shirt, for instance, was made with cotton grown in Texas and New Mexico before being woven in the Carolinas.

But the best way to reduce both financial and environmental costs is to stop producing the t-shirts in the first place. When planning an event, think like Marie Kondo: do you really need to give out a free shirt? Instead of throwing free shirts at all participants, organizers should give registrants the option of deciding whether they want a shirt or reconsider whether the money could be better spent on higher quality food or smaller giveaways with less of an environmental impact, like stickers.

At the end of the day, most people on campus have way too many t-shirts. Princeton as an institution needs to stop encouraging this practice of bestowing free garments on its unwilling students — by making clothing optional and sustainably sourced, the University can work to lessen its carbon footprint and reduce the buckets of t-shirts that end up thrown away at the end of each year.

Claire Wayner is a first-year from Baltimore, Md. She can be reached at cwayner@princeton. edu.

Wednesday May 8, 2019

Sports

page 8

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Three-peat: Women’s lacrosse beats Penn for third straight Ivy championship

By Nancy Tran Contributor

For the third consecutive year, Princeton women’s lacrosse (14–3, 6–1 Ivy) finished the season as the Ivy League tournament champions. On Friday, the No. 1 seed Tigers defeated Cornell to set up a finals matchup with Penn (12–5, 5–2), the same day the Quakers upset Dartmouth in the semifinals. On Saturday, Princeton pulled away from Penn in the second half to earn a 13–9 win and tournament championship. .

The game started with a draw control by Penn but after a turnover by senior defender Alex Argo, the Tigers gained control, allowing junior attacker Tess D’Orsi to score the first goal. In spite of the quick point early on in the game, the first half had both Princeton and Penn fighting for a lead. By the end of the period, the Tigers and Quakers were tied 6–6.

“Penn’s a really great team,” head coach Chris Sailer said. “It was an evenly matched first half.”

Going into the second half, D’Orsi put another one in the net for the Tigers,

and from then on, Princeton took the lead. For the rest of the game, Penn fell short and was never able to catch up to the Tigers. Princeton took home the trophy, winning 13–9.

“I thought we played great in the second half,” Sailer said. “I was really proud of our kids for that and we did a good job offensively, and defensively we made some adjustments that frustrated [Penn] a little bit, and we played really good lacrosse all over the field including at the center draw.”

Leading the Tigers to victory was Kyla Sears with two goals and five assists.

The sophomore attacker also took home the honor of Most Outstanding Player in the tournament.

“Kyla is just such a great lacrosse player. First of all, she’s incredibly skilled and has really good awareness and attacking mentality.

This weekend she really did it all for us. She was fast on breaks, had some great individual moves on goal, and had fantastic feeds,” Sailer praised.

Senior attacker Elizabeth George was also a huge contributor of the game with five goals and one assist.

D’Orsi had a total of three goals, followed by senior midfielder Kathryn Hallett, senior attacker Julia Haney, and senior attacker Allie Rodgers, who each put one in the net. Sophomore goalie Sam Fish had a total of nine saves.

Winning not only the Ivy League Tournament but also an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the Tigers have put themselves in

a good position for the last leg of the season. Having earned the seventh seed in the tournament, Princeton will host Wagner this Friday at Sherrerd Field.

“I think everybody knows in NCAA, it’s a whole new ball game. Everybody enters the tournament at the same place, zero and zero and it’s win and advance or if you don’t win your season ends,” Sailer said. “So, there’s an

urgency about every single game because it has the potential to be your last game of the season and you’re going to play really good teams all the way throughout. For us, the focus stays the same.

It’s just improving everyday at practice, putting in the time to prepare really well for our competitors, taking the field with confidence, and trying to play our best game on game day.”

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Women’s lacrosse beat Penn in the Ivy tournament final Saturday.

Tiger women’s tennis earns NCAA tournament win, falls in second round WOMEN’S TENNIS

By Elan Zohar Staff Writer

Coming off a dominating run, winning 13 of their last 14 matches, and going undefeated in the Ivy League for the second consecutive year, the women’s tennis team came in with a full head of steam going into their 10th NCAA Tournament in school history. As the sole Ivy League representative, the 34th-ranked Tigers f lew across the country to Seattle last weekend, defeating No. 27 Northwestern 4–1 and then falling to No. 10 University of Washington on their home court.

The team’s 19 wins for the season ties for the second best in school history, and its victory over Northwestern marks their first tournament win since 2014.

Princeton’s regional matchup with Northwestern proved that, despite its extended break from play after the end of the Ivy season, its Ivy League-winning momentum was very much still there. The Tigers were able to jump out to a 1–0 lead thanks to the team’s performance in doubles.

The sophomore combination of Nathalie Rodilosso and Stephanie Schrage won its doubles set 6–1, soon to be followed by the first-year/senior duo

of Brianna Shvets and Nicole Kalhorn, who won 6–4.

Next came singles play, when Princeton was able to win three of their first four matches, clinching the win. The three wins came in Princeton’s 3/4/5 singles slots, where firstyear Grace Joyce, junior Clare McKee, and senior Nicole Kalhorn all won in straight sets over their Northwestern opponents.

This performance made it evident that despite the cross-country travel, the Tigers had no problem adapting to their new environment.

“I think everyone handled the long f light well,” Shvets said. “We were able to have a day to get a feel for the courts, so we were able to stick to our routine.”

Next came the tenthranked Washington Huskies, who handily defeated Army West Point 4–0 in their first-round match.

Playing in Seattle against the top-ten ranked Huskies proved one of Princeton’s most challenging matches of the year, but a win was necessary if they were to advance to the third round. It seemed, however, that the Huskies had too much firepower for the Tigers to handle.

Doubles play came down to the wire, but Schrage and Rodilosso fell just short in the deciding

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Women’s tennis went to Washington during its NCAA tournament run.

match, losing 5–7 in the tiebreaker after coming back from being down 5–3 in games.

“It’s being down in those big moments when sometimes you feel like the only option you have is to go for it — and that’s what brought us back into that doubles match. It was a disappointing loss but probably made me and my partner Nathalie even more motivated to get after it in singles,” Schrage said.

Down a point, Princeton had to win four of its next six matches — a tough task for any team,

regardless of ranking.

Washington was able to close out the match, winning three singles matches in straight sets and sending the Tigers home.

Despite its secondround exit, the Princeton women’s tennis team exceeded expectations in their 2018–19 season.

On their way to an undefeated Ivy League season, the Tigers had four All-Ivy League honorees, and coach Laura Granville won her fourth Ivy League Coach of the Year title in the award’s fiveyear history.

With a relatively young

Stat of the Day

12

Men’s volleyball finished No. 12 in the final American Volleyball Coaches’ Association poll, its second-highest finish ever.

team, the Tigers seem poised to make even deeper tournament runs in the coming years.

“We all want to continue to build on the momentum we created this year. We have more freshmen than usual coming in next year, and I know they’re going to be a strong addition to the team. I think those two things combined will put us in a great position next year, and if we keep putting in the work that got us to the second round of the tournament this year, next year we can go even further,” said Schrage.

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