January 6, 2016

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Wednesday january 6, 2016 vol. cxxxix no. 127

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BEYOND THE BUBBLE

McGraw expands tutoring for reading period, finals

By Hannah Waxman staff writer

The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning will now offer Group Study Hall tutoring sessions during reading period and finals week, according to Geneva Stein GS ’14, assistant director of the McGraw Center.

The first tutoring session during reading period will be offered on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The sign-in for all study hall courses will be held in Frist 330, except sign-in for physics courses, which will be held in Jadwin Hall.

Stein noted that the center offered individual tutoring during reading period last spring out of an interest in extending its tutoring schedule, and the slots filled up almost immediately.

Stein explained that this semester, the Center wanted to try offering group study halls instead since the switch from individual tutoring to group study halls was because group study halls are more efficient in reaching greater numbers of students.

Until last spring, McGraw

study halls were closed during reading period and finals, and residential college tutors were not obligated to continue meeting with their students after the end of classes, according to Stein.

“Historically, the language around tutoring has stipulated that [tutoring] wouldn’t be available during reading period and finals, but that was really to protect the tutors,” Director of the McGraw Center Lisa Herschbach added.

Stein said that McGraw course liaisons – tutors who interact with professors and preceptors to ensure consistency between course material and tutoring– suggested the idea of providing help through study halls during the reading period and finals to her.

Marisa Salazar ’17, a course liaison, said she asked Stein why there was a rule that tutors could not work after Dean’s Date. She said that Stein investigated the matter and found that if tutoring were on a volunteer rather than a shift basis, it could be allowed.

Herschbach said that many tutors were available and See MCGRAW page 3

ORIGAMI

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

Eric Lander ‘78, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Lander ’78, innovator in genetics

By Abhiram Karuppur staff writer

Eric Lander ’78, valedictorian of his class and one of the biggest contributors to the Human Genome and Innocence Projects, is the founding director of the Broad Institute, a genomics research institution of MIT and Harvard.

Currently a biology professor at MIT, Lander was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of Our Time in 2004. He is also the co-chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

“Eric is all the Avengers rolled into one person,” University of Maryland, College Park physics professor S. James Gates, who

serves on PCAST, said. “He is able to frame overarching questions in such a way that show audiences where the problems are and point toward solutions.”

Educational Endeavors Lander’s brother, Arthur Lander, who is a biology professor at University of California, Irvine, said that Lander has always been driven and competitive since his high school days.

“He always wanted to be the best at everything and managed to achieve that in a lot of areas,” Arthur Lander said. “Eric had the ability to get other people to do a tough task for him and like it.”

Lander attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City.

During his high school years,

LOCAL NEWS

he was an International Math Olympiad Silver Medalist and the first place winner of the Intel Science Talent Search. Lander said that one of his friends encouraged him to look at the University because of his interest in math.

“Princeton had the world’s best math department and I was a math person,” he said. “I went down and visited, and Princeton was gorgeous and so much different than the New York I had grown up in.”

At the University, Lander was a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Lance Knobel ’78, former Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Prince,’ said that Lander single-handedly made the ‘Prince’ polling operaSee LANDER page 2 BEYOND THE BUBBLE

IAS rejects offers to preserve Gilbert Jr. Princeton Battlefield ‘09 deemed

By Annie Yang erty, we offered to buy the mentally fit, 22-acre Maxwell’s Field tract for $3.3 million, based on the The Institute for Advanced appraised value of property,” will stand trial Studies is moving forward he explained, noting that IAS Senior writer

University students celebrated holidays from all over the world.

U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

Federal budget changes not to impact U. aid

By Marcia Brown staff writer

While the recently passed increases to the federal budget for Pell Grant will not significantly affect current University aid programs, they would allow for greater academic spending nationwide, according to Director of Governmental Affairs Joyce Rechtschaffen ‘75.

Rechtschaffen is a former managing editor of the ‘Daily Princetonian.’

On Dec. 18, 2015, the Senate passed the The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 that approved a total of $1.8 million budget increases in funding for higher education.These increases include a 2.4% growth

in Pell Grants, a 6.7% growth in funds for minority science and engineering improvement, a 7.6% growth in funds to strengthen educational institutions, among other changes.

Rechtschaffen explained that the Pell Grant, a form of federal discretionary spending, will be bolstered by the recent budget increases. These grants increased 2.4 percent this year alone to $5,915 per recipient. The Pell Grant had been jeopardized by sequestration until Congress voted to raise the budget caps for two years, according to Rechtschaffen.

Rechtschaffen explained that increases in the Pell Grant’s budget, though important and significant for higher See AID page 3

with its plans to build housing on historic Maxwell’s Field after rejecting recent attempts of The Civil War Trust to halt construction by purchasing the property, according to Kip Cherry, vice president of the Princeton Battlefield Society.

The Civil War Trust is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation of America’s battlegrounds.

Alexandra Altman, communications associate for IAS, noted that IAS currently has all necessary approvals and permissions for the project and is moving forward with its Faculty Housing project on the Institute’s campus on Maxwell’s Field.

Jim Campi, policy and communications director for the Civil War Trust, explained that the Trust first requested to meet with IAS to discuss acquisitions in June 2015.

According to Campi, IAS rejected this request as well as the Trust’s subsequent attempts to arrange a meeting through third parties.

“In November, to further demonstrate our seriousness about acquiring the prop-

rejected this offer.

Campi said that last December, IAS also rejected the Trust’s second offer of $4.5 million, a price nearly 40% higher than the land’s appraised value.

He added that the Trust supports a stay on construction in order to give the state of New Jersey and IAS more time to explore alternatives.

The Trust’s offers are the most recent additions to an ongoing effort to stop this construction project.

Altman explained that the housing project meets a critical need for the IAS. She said that IAS has already situated site plans as far away as possible from the Princeton Battlefield State Park and conducted archaeological surveys to recover remaining artifacts. In addition, Altman stated that IAS will preserve 14 acres on the field for conservation.

Campi noted that though the IAS has offered this plan as a compromise, the 14 acres in question are not suited for construction and would not have been built upon regardless.

See IAS page 2

In Opinion

Today on Campus

Columnist Beni Snow argues that free speech protects even unflattering thoughts, and columnist Will Rivitz recommends talking to, rather than past, our intellectual critiques. PAGE 6

7 p.m.: Engineer Jason Walters teaches students about Kinect APIs and how to use Kinect in building projects in a development workshop hosted by Microsoft. Lewis Library Bowl 138

By Christina Vosbikian Senior writer

Thomas Gilbert Jr. ’09, who allegedly shot and killed his father Thomas Gilbert Sr. ’66 last January, has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial.

Gilbert Jr. could not be reached for comment.

In September, two courtappointed psychiatrists initially found Gilbert Jr. unfit to stand trial. This finding was challenged by the prosecution, led by Prosecutor Craig Ortner, who requested another opinion from its chosen expert, Dr. Stuart Kirschner of John Jay College. Kirschner’s evaluation held Gilbert Jr. as mentally competent to stand trial.

Kirschner did not respond to requests for comment.

In a New York Post article, Ortner said that Gilbert Jr. might suffer from mental illness but that this does not make him unfit to stand trial.

Ortner declined to comment.

Acting Supreme Court See TRIAL page 3

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Wednesday january 6, 2016

Lander made contributions to Human Genome Project LANDER Continued from page 1

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tion on par with some national polling organizations.

“We created the first Daily Princetonian poll,” Lander said.

“At the time, it was a new concept for newspapers to have polls, and the ‘Prince’ was one of the first to have one.”

Knobel added that though Lander was very humble, his natural brilliance made it very difficult for other students to be in the same class as him.

“There was never anything he did to show off or impress or make other people feel like they can’t keep up with him,” Knobel said. “He wore his brilliance very lightly, and he was a very good teacher.”

While at the University, Lander met his wife, Lori Weiner ‘78. Lissa Poincenot ’78, who was one of Weiner’s roommates, recalled meeting Lander for the first time during freshman orientation.

“He was funny and he talked about the pranks he pulled in high school,” she said. “I thought I had finally met one person who was normal, because he never made me feel that his brilliance got in the way of connecting with me as a human being.”

Poincenot added that she reached out to Lander to see if he would know anything about a rare genetic disease her son developed in 2008, not expecting to hear back from him.

“But a week later, he wrote to me asking how he could help and gave some ideas,” she said.

“I was amazed that he had time to get back to me about my son’s problems when he was about to solve the world’s problems.”

In 1978, Lander graduated from the University with a degree in mathematics. After graduating, Lander married Weiner, and then attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He obtained his doctorate in mathematics under then Oxford mathematics professor Peter Cameron.

Cameron said Lander’s doctoral work centered on coding theory, which dealt with sending messages through a noisy channel so that errors could be corrected. He noted that the work that Lander did lent other

biologists a different perspective when he was working on the Human Genome Project.

“His thesis gave him a very good grounding in discrete mathematics,” Cameron said.

“The human genome is discrete, since it is basically a very long word in a four-letter alphabet.”

Upon completion of his doctorate, Lander realized that he didn’t want to pursue a career in pure mathematics as the field was not suited to his personality.

“It’s a somewhat monastic career, and I’m not a very good monk,” he said. “I like doing things with other people.”

After speaking with former Wilson School professor Edward Tufte, Lander explored the possibility of using his math skills to teach economics.

Lander was then hired by Harvard Business School professor emeritus Howard Raiffa in 1981 to teach managerial economics, decision analysis, and bargaining.

“I didn’t know anything about managerial economics, but Raiffa figured that I would be able to learn it on my own,” Lander said.

After two years, Lander realized that he did not want to pursue a career in managerial economics and began to look for another field.

Initiation into Biology Lander’s foray into systems biology was spurred by his brother. Arthur Lander, who was at MIT at the time, recalled suggesting that his brother’s math ability could help advance the field of biology.

“I told him that biology is very much in need of people who are mathematically sophisticated, so why not give it a try?” he said.

Lander had been exposed to biology and genetics in high school and college. At his brother’s suggestion, Lander took some courses on neurobiology and took a leave of absence from Harvard Business School. He spent some time in the lab of MIT professor H. Robert Horvitz, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2002.

While at MIT, Lander became acquainted with then biology professor David Botstein in 1985, who was working on analyzing

DNA sequences to predict diseases people could contract.

Botstein said that he needed advanced statistical technology in order to advance his project, which required a mathematician who could perform the necessary calculations.

“Within a week, Lander had a rudimentary solution that would do the trick, and it did,” Botstein said.

Botstein was previously the director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at the University.

Lander said that after talking to Botstein and working with him, he became extremely interested in the field of human genetics.

“I dropped everything else I was doing and started working on human genetics,” he said.

“Within a week, Lander had a rudimentary solution that would do the trick, and it did...”

David Botstein

Genomics professor

Lander joined the Whitehead Institute, a nonprofit research and teaching institution in Cambridge, and became an assistant professor at MIT. In 1987, Lander received the MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1990, founded the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research.

MIT biology professor Chris Kaiser said that Lander made an excellent teacher because of his charisma and ability to explain complex topics in everyday language.

“Eric has the students on the edge of their seats,” Kaiser said.

“He is an amazing communicator of science.”

Erez Lieberman Aiden ’02, who completed his PhD under Lander, said that Lander wants his students to study innovative problems instead of commonplace ones.

Initiatives in Genetics In 1990, Lander launched the

largest contribution to the Human Genome Project.

Lander noted that prior to the sequencing of the human genome, it was difficult to look comprehensively at all of the genes and regulatory controls and develop the big picture.

“It would be like being plunked down somewhere in North America in 1650 and trying to find the Grand Canyon without a map,” he said. “Versus today, where if you were plunked down somewhere, you could use your iPhone with Google Maps.”

The Human Genome Project resulted primarily in the identification of 4,000 genes related to various disorders, such as cancer and chronic diseases, and has helped in the understanding of evolution and human migration.

Mark Guyer, who was the director of the Office of Human Genome Research in 1988 at the National Institutes of Health, noted that Lander was one of the intellectual leaders of the Human Genome Project.

University of Texas at Austin computer science and biology professor William Press explained that without Lander, there may not have been a Human Genome Project. Press was a former assistant professor of physics at the University, and is a current member of PCAST. “Eric convinced people of the feasibility and importance of the sequencing of the human genome,” he said.

After the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, Lander noticed that there was no permanent center to foster the kind of collaboration that the project had brought. He began talking to Harvard and MIT about creating a new kind of institute that would combine genomics, chemistry and big data to further research on curing diseases.

Lander launched the Broad Institute in 2004, which now has 2,400 associates. He noted that the institute has the distinction of producing the highest average quality of scientific papers in the world.

At the Broad Institute, Lander is currently working on assembling a library of DNA sequences used to determine a patient’s likelihood of contracting a particular disease. He developed a

molecular taxonomy for cancers, grouping different kinds of cancers based on the genes expressed by the different cancer cells and their responses to chemotherapy.

Lander also spearheaded an initiative in the 1990s for DNAbased criminal conviction.

While attending a meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Lander met two lawyers who tried preventing the use of faulty DNA evidence in a trial.

“The evidence they showed me was terrible,” he said. “But I was willing to teach the lawyers enough molecular biology to do a good job in the pre-trial evidentiary hearing.”

After hearing the testimony of the laboratory that completed the DNA evidence analysis, Lander, along with colleagues, agreed to testify against the use of the DNA to convict the criminal. The court eventually sided with Lander, leading to one of the first cases where DNA fingerprinting was disregarded.

“It was scientifically practical in principle, but was so abysmal in practice,” he said.

This trial led to the founding of the Innocence Project, where DNA is used to exonerate criminals. The Innocence Project declined to comment.

In 2008, Obama nominated Lander to serve on the PCAST as its co-chair. Lander recalled being summoned to meet with President Obama after Thanksgiving in 2008. Obama initially offered him a job in the administration, but Lander declined, since he was just about to launch the Broad Institute.

Instead, he agreed to co-chair PCAST. “PCAST is a spectacular group of individuals,” Lander said. “You have Nobel laureates and university presidents, which makes a great group.”

Other members of PCAST include Eric Schmidt ’76, the chairman of Google, and University physics professor Christopher Chyba.

“Eric single-handedly contributed to the security of our entire nation and helped prevent bioterrorism,” Gates said.

Outside of science, Lander enjoys traveling, hiking and spending time with his wife and three children, including Jessica Lander ’10.

Civil War Trust concerned about unreported wetlands on Maxwell’s Field IAS

Continued from page 1

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“This [parcel] might be sufficient for a site of marginal historic significance, but [Maxwell’s Field] is where the charge that decided the Battle of Princeton occurred,” he said.

Campi added that this charge was one of the rare instances in which George Washington personally led a charge against the British. He noted that the development proposed by IAS will be built where Washington’s charge first struck British lines.

“The Civil War Trust first learned about the threat to Maxwell’s Field through conversations with the National Park Service and the Princeton Battlefield Society,” Campi noted.

According to Cherry, the Society’s temporary restraining order to prevent IAS from beginning construction on

Maxwell’s Field expired on Nov. 6, 2015. In an attempt to halt the construction, the Society is proceeding with appeal processes with the Princeton Planning Board and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, she added.

Cherry explained that the Civil War Trust and the Battlefield Society began working together in 2014, when the Trust announced its decision to contribute to the acquisition of the D’Ambrisi property, land which was then added to the Princeton Battlefield State Park as part of its Campaign 1776 initiative.

Campaign 1776 is a subsidiary project and national initiative to preserve battlefields from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

In addition, Cherry noted that there have been concerns about wetlands that had not been reported to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

She added that the New

Jersey Senate’s Environment and Energy Committee held a hearing on Dec. 21 in response to assertions that the DEP might not have received full disclosure from the IAS about wetlands. Several witnesses, including Trust president James Lighthizer and State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, urged the DEP to review the situation.

Lighthizer and Gusciora did not respond to requests for comments.

According to Cherry, after the hearing, the Society met with DEP Commissioner Bob Martin and presented a case for halting the IAS from continuing construction.

Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

“For us, it is astonishing that an institution for higher learning would intentionally destroy a historical and educational resource of such extraordinary significance,” Campi said.

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Expanded tutoring to start this Wednesday MCGRAW Continued from page 1

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showed significant interest in offering support during reading period and finals.

Salazar explained that the new volunteer-based schedule gives tutors a lot more flexibility and the ability to offer meaningful assistance to students who want it. Tutors will still be paid for working during reading period, she added.

“For me, tutoring during Dean’s Date or finals is actually really rewarding because you’re helping people when they are most stressed,” Salazar said. “It’s really beneficial for the students because they get help closer to the time that they need it, and often when they are able to go.”

Stein explained that she sent out a schedule for tutors to select shifts during reading and finals period, and that 45 of the 130 tutors had already signed up. “[The system is] designed to fit everyone’s schedule, and it’s designed to be maximally helpful for people getting tutored, because it’s before their

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A CORGI CHRISTMAS

tests,” Sara Fridovich-Keil ’18, a McGraw tutor, said.

The McGraw Student Advisory Council also helped to organize the new expanded study hall schedule, according to Council member Patrick Flanigan ’18.

“Something that we’ve worked a lot for the Advisory Council is about scheduling tutoring for when it’s [the most impactful] and having more tutors when people tend to come more for studying and problem sets,” Flanigan noted.

Individual tutoring will not take place during reading and finals period, but will resume with the next semester, Flanigan said. Students who wish to have individual tutoring during reading period and finals should reach out to their Directors of Studies or Deans in their Residential Colleges.

Stein noted that there were challenges in matching the right time for students’ and tutors’ availability, but she was able to coordinate the timing of study halls with review sessions held by respective professors in order to maximize attendance.

Mental competency cannot be questioned again until after ruling TRIAL

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Justice for New York County and Supervising Judge of the New York County Criminal Court Melissa Jackson, who is presiding over the case, accepted Kirschner’s finding, ruled Gilbert Jr. fit to stand trial on Dec. 21, 2015.

“Despite the competing testimony of the experts in this case, the court finds the defendant competent to stand trial,” Jackson wrote of Gilbert Jr. in a decision issued Dec. 21 by the Manhattan Supreme Court.

Gilbert Jr.’s mental competency cannot be contested again until after a ruling is made, at which point the ruling on his competency may be appealed.

Jackson declined to comment, citing New York state law which prohibits judges from commenting on pending matters.

“The bar to competency is so low that even the most mentally ill are forced to go to trial, so we’re going to go to trial,” Alex Spiro, Gilbert Jr.’s defense lawyer, said.

In January 2015, Gilbert Jr. allegedly shot his father, who was giving his son $2,400 per month for rent and $600 for spending money and had announced plans to cut the sum to $400 per month. Gilbert Jr, who was allegedly in debt at the time of the dispute, allegedly visited his father’s apartment and requested that his mother get him a sandwich, forcing her to leave the room while he allegedly shot his father in the head on the day of the incident.

After being arrested in his home, Gilbert Jr. was taken to the 17th precinct in midtown Manhattan and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty at the time of his arrest.

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Congressional spending to benefit U. research funding opportunities AID

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education nationwide, will not have a tremendous impact on this campus because the University’s aid programs consist only of grants awarded directly to students.

She noted that 17 percent of the Class of 2019 received Pell Grants, and that the University’s average grant to the class of 2019 was $48,600 per year.

“We are in a pretty unique position at Princeton... Our financial aid is not found in very many or any other places, if you look at affordability,” Rechtschaffen said.

David Lopera ’19, a Pell Grant recipient, said that he doesn’t think the budget change in Pell Grants will significantly impact campus culture.

“If you get in to a school like Princeton, they make sure you can go,” Lopera said.

Rechtschaffen explained that Princeton is one of the most affordable schools according to multiple college rankings.

“Our financial aid budget dwarfs that [of the Pell Grant],” Rechtschaffen said. “The total scholarship budget for coming year is close to $141 million while the Pell Grants will number $3.3 million in aid to Princeton students.”

However, Rechtschaffen said the budget increase will allow for greater spending on funding for research at the Unviersity as well as increasing access to higher education for low-income students nationwide.

University faculty can also

expect better researching funding following these budget improvements, according to Dean of Research Pablo Debenedetti.

Debenedetti noted that the National Institute of Health, a government agency from which the University receives substantial research funding, was under budgetary caps in recent years. This restraint created a “hyper competitive environment” in which NIH only funded 15 percent of all research proposals after a rigorous evaluation process, he said.

According to Debenedetti, the University spends roughly $200 million in sponsored research each year. In the 2015 fiscal year, about 5 to 6 percent of funding for this spending came from industry support of University research while about 11 percent came from foundational support. Debenedetti explained that the remainder is supported by government agencies. He said that this breakdown in research sponsorship is comparable to peer research institutions.

The government agencies funding “is the backbone of U.S. research enterprise,” he said.

“Since the end of World War II, we’ve had a model where the federal government has provided most of the research funding. It has been a spectacularly successful model – the societal benefits have been enormous,” he added.

Rechtschaffen also noted that increases in funding to certain agencies have specific impacts for Princeton. For ex-

ample, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which studies fusion energy, is sponsored the U.S. Department of Energy and may anticipate an increase in funding.

The University also has internal competitions for research among faculty which provide roughly a million dollars of funding each year, according to Debenedetti. While the proposals are typically shorter than those submitted to government agencies, they are subject to anonymous peer review by University faculty.

For example, the University most recently funded research on 3-D footage of nematode brains that link neurons with motion and behavior.

Debenedetti explained that faculty members conducting research in the humanities are less dependent on federal spending, while graduate students in those fields are mainly supported by the University.

The Act also increased funding for federal college access programs such as TRIO and GEAR UP dedicated to aiding physically and socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals in higher education.

Pell Grants have increased 25 percent during President Barack Obama’s time in office.

Other initiatives like federal work-study and Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants remained steady in funding.

The American Opportunity Tax Credit, which includes up to $2,500 tax credit per a student for college-related expenses such as books, was also made permanent alongside the budget.

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Opinion

Wednesday january 6, 2016

Dean’s Date, and the magic of Princeton Newby Parton

W

columnist

HEN A friend of mine from Israel traveled to Berlin for vacation, she mailed me a postcard. The cover, a stock photograph of Brandenburg Gate, was pretty, but she uploads her own professional quality photographs to Facebook often. Hearing from her was pleasant, but she could have messaged me on WhatsApp. Really, technology has made the postcard obsolete. This, of course, is the reason her postcard was so special.

For there is something special, even magical, about anachronisms. When we imagine the past, we infuse it with magic.

King Arthur has the wizard Merlin. A medieval castle has an enchanted princess or a fairy-tale witch. The modern world, by contrast, is unmagical. If you want to tell a new story with magic, you must either set it in the past, like Pixar did with its film Brave, or create an anachronistic present. The wizards conceived by J.K. Rowling could have used email, a technology already decades old when Harry Potter started school, or a fax machine. Instead they handwrite letters, owl-delivered.

If you feel a faint magic on the campus of Princeton University, you can thank its many anachronisms. I feel it the strongest when I stand before the awesome Blair Arch: its four towers, its gargoyles, its analog clock. The letters MDCCCXCVI are cut into the stone, as if those alive in 1896 still used Roman numerals. Preceding the date are the words “ANNO DOMINI,” not because there was ever a doubt that the arch was built after Christ, but because Latin evokes a mystic era.

These anachronisms are the blood of the University. We shun the brick buildings of the sixties that do not call upon an Oxfordian prestige and praise the Collegiate Gothic buildings that do. We cling to the things that give us real age: Revolutionary War cannons, an alma mater from the 1850s, the name of a long-dead president. And we value tradition. Anyone who doubts it need only watch the students in front of Nassau Hall walk gingerly through the small side gates, avoiding the central one lest they fail to graduate.

Besides imbuing the University with magic, these traditions offer fun. Some, like the Nude Olympics, we have abandoned. Others, we try to preserve. Every Dean’s Date between 4:30 and 5:00, students gather in the courtyard of McCosh Hall. Originally we did this to cheer on and chuckle at our peers who, working up to the deadline, sprinted to turn in their final papers at the eleventh hour. The proliferation of email has nearly killed the tradition, but even as the sprinters dwindle in number to zero, you can still find the band playing in the courtyard on Dean’s Date as members of the student government hand seasonal drinks to a crowd.

The winter of my freshman year, I was a sprinter. My professor, like most others, had not required a hard copy. But my project included illustrations finished at 4:50, and, having no time to scan them, I had no choice but to submit them in person. The run was a highlight of my college career. My breaths were shallow, my pulse elevated. The band played a song like a soundtrack to an action movie. I felt alive.

Because my destination was an office in East Pyne, the crowd at McCosh, I am sorry to say, did not get to see my sprint. Instead they stood in a line waiting for hot chocolate and waiting for a spectacle that never came. The celebration, from the glimpse I caught of it, looked empty and artificial.

Now, I am not a Luddite. Technology is wondrous in its own right, and although it may take away our traditions, it gives us things of greater worth. The efficiency of email is more valuable than the magic of owl-delivered letters. But when the sacrifice in keeping a tradition is small, and the happiness the tradition brings us is greater, then we should sustain and cherish it.

Our Dean’s Date celebration is easy to rehearten. If you, reader, be a professor — or better yet, a department head — I implore you to require a hard copy of final course work. The history department requires this to no ill effect, although they do poorly by setting their deadline at 3:00 and bypassing the celebration. Set your deadline at 5:00 instead, and ask for a copy at your door. Students may grumble, but the fun of the sprint and the fun of watching it outweigh the small inconvenience. We can do without email for two days of the year if it means preserving the magic of Princeton.

Newby Parton is a sophomore from McMinnville, Tenn. He can be reached at newby@princeton. edu.

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R.I.P. activities we were known for Devon Naftzger columnist

I

N THE spirit of formulating a New Year’s resolution, I’ve been reflecting on how I’ve grown during my Princeton experience and where I want to find myself on graduation day in a few short months. As a result, I found myself being nostalgic thinking about activities I used to do. I’m sure most Princetonians can think of an activity they’ve — for lack of a better word — quit. Yet “quitting” has a negative connotation that I think is undeserved because it’s rarely out of sheer laziness that we choose to suspend an activity.

Whether it’s a varsity athlete who had to give up other sports to focus on one, or an artist or scientist who had to give up other hobbies too, I don’t think it should be frowned upon to deliberately quit an activity when we choose to spend our time in another way.

Over winter break, when I run into family-friends around town, they often ask how my music was going. When I tell them I don’t practice my violin and viola as much as I used to, they seem sad for me and ask if I regret my choice not to attend Juilliard. I explain to them that (99% of the time) I’m happy with the choice I made as a high school senior to expand my college education and career beyond music. Conversations about my progress with music make me feel judged, as if my choice not to pursue music is somehow wasteful or shameful. I almost made my New Year’s resolution to practice my instrument every day like I used to, but then I realized that practicing more is not what I want. I think I was tempted to make that resolution anyway because of the pressure I put on myself to live up to the expectations of my home and Princeton communities.

Some of us have stand-out skills that we can attribute our Princeton acceptance to.

Even when I came to Princeton Preview, it was clear that almost everyone I met seemed to have their own “thing” that they were the best at, but do we have an unwritten responsibility to stay committed to those skills throughout college? Does it make a difference if we did an activity because we loved it or because we knew that skill would help us get into Princeton? The way I see it, we don’t have an obligation to do the things that helped get us into Princeton. We do, however, have an obligation to ourselves to choose the activities that we find value or happiness in. Even students who were recruited to fill a niche position on a team are multifaceted; their acceptance is not retroactively contingent on what activities they choose to continue.

I remember how unfair some students thought it was for a varsity recruit to quit his or her sport after freshman year. While it’s ideal for recruits to remain committed to the sport they intended to play at Princeton, they may be pressured to stay on the team all four years but shouldn’t be ostracized if they have a change of priorities. If they no longer see the long-term purpose of training so hard on top of schoolwork or if they decide that it’s not how they want to spend their time, who are we to say what’s best for them?

Quitting is realistic and natural. In fact, I would even argue that making the choice to quit shows maturity and control over one’s future, especially if one is giving up something he or she is really talented at. Many of Princeton’s varsity athletes, singers, dancers, journalists, actors and musicians probably won’t become professionals. Whether we eventually quit those activities entirely or keep them as a hobbies, I hope our choice is a result of careful scrutiny and self-reflection.

We shouldn’t let ourselves feel guilty for choosing the extent to which we keep a talent or passion in our lives. This decision is just the first step toward lifelong learning that cultivates an interesting, rich perspective.

While we owe excellence to Princeton, Princeton also owes us whatever experience we seek. Yes, we shouldn’t make commitments we can’t keep, but we should use college as a time to explore and reach our fullest potential in more areas than our primary skill. To foster this, we should stop judging each other for abandoning activities that are no longer as important as they once were, regardless of talent. Our goals are allowed to change contrary to expectations, and once I accepted that, it became easier for me to be fully happy with my decision to play music for enjoyment instead of as a career.

In the age of specialization, our specialty may have helped open the door to a Princeton degree. However, our university doesn’t just graduate students who are experts in one field. We are supposed to be multitalented and add more to the Princeton fabric than just playing a great concert or throwing a winning touchdown. I like to think that many of us are Renaissance men and women who have more to offer than a single specialty.

So R.I.P. to the activities we were once known for. It’s important to consider the impact we wish to make at Princeton, but in 2016 I’d like to challenge every one of us to reflect and make sure we are spending our time doing what we want — not what others want for us.

Devon Naftzger is a politics major from Lincolnshare, Il. She can be reached at naftzger@princeton.edu.

this reading period Nathan pHAN ’19

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The case for greater participation in blood drives Beni Snow

guest contributor

I

HAVE spent more time with needles in my arm than I had anticipated in the basement of Frist Campus Center.

Two times were for the infamous meningitis shots, known for the ensuing arm pain. Apparently, that is the limit for most Princetonians when it comes to needles and Frist. More recently, however, I went to donate blood in that same multipurpose room.

To my surprise, while there were a decent number of people there, shockingly few were University students. After some quick counting and some assumptions based on apparent ages, I realized that most of the people donating were either University employees or local residents.

The absence of other students is ridiculous. The student body is made up of thousands of young, generally healthy people who are prime candidates for blood donation. Obviously, there are legitimate reasons that people cannot donate. Athletes may not want to endanger their training during their season.

People are disqualified from donating based on where they have travelled, with whom they live and many other reasons.

Even considering those exceptions, I would hazard that there are still several thousand Princetonians who are eligible and could easily make a difference.

After having several conversations about this with friends and fellow classmates, I realized that most students fall into one of three groups. You may find yourself in one of these groups.

There are some that want to give but are terrified of the process, whether it is having a needle in your arm, the concept of removing blood or the physical pain. I cannot say much that will change these people’s minds. Granted, the needle is smaller than people likely expect and feels more like a pinch than a shot, but if someone does not feel comfortable, that is their choice.

More often, however, I find those who claim they want to give, but cite feeling too busy or not having the time to get around to it. I understand the impulse. Yes, we are all busy and I do not think you should be trying to donate during finals week.

However, it is a quick, 30-minute procedure that comes with free food afterwards (the hallmark of any good University experience). The Red Cross even sends you a letter saying where your blood was used. It seems to me that the benefits of potentially saving a life far outweigh the slight inconvenience.

Yet despite the ease, a lot of people just do not get around to donating. This is where Princeton’s famous peer pressure could be useful. At Princeton, I have often felt the pressure to eat healthier and to study more, a phenomenon described by some columnists in earlier pieces.

Maybe this positive pressure could also be used to encourage friends to donate.

There are also those I have met who are clueless about the whole process: “Wait, Princeton has blood drives?”

For those who fall into this category: yes, they are held in either Frist or the Fields Center, and the next one is Feb. 15. More information can be found on the Red Cross’ website. “Wait, why don’t doctors just use artificial blood?”

Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

While scientists are working on it, for now, the only way for hospitals to have blood is if people donate.

Clearly, no one should be forced to donate. Clearly, a person’s bodily autonomy should not be violated, no matter how noble the cause. However, with so many students in such a great position to help, it’s a shame that so many choose to not to do such a simple thing with such potential to save lives.

Beni Snow is a freshman from Newton, Mass. He can be reached at bsnow@princeton.edu.