October 12, 2015

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Monday october 12, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 86

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In Opinion Columnist Bennett McIntosh discusses how we can both respect and revile Woodrow Wilson, and contributing columnist Iris Samuels shows how non-traditional students can bring interesting perspectives to campus. PAGE 4

Today on Campus 4:30 p.m.: Barney Frank, author and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, will be giving a public lecture, followed by a book signing. McCosh Hall, Room 50.

The Archives

Oct. 12, 1977 Physics professor Phillip W. Anderson GS ’53 received the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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STUDENT LIFE

U. launches Center on Contemporary China

CELEBRATION

By Andrea Ayala contributor

The University has launched the Center on Contemporary China, added China as a destination for the Global Seminar Program and appointed professor Yu Xie jointly with the sociology department and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies as a result of a recent effort to gear courses and programs toward contemporary China, PIIRS director Mark Beissinger said. Beissinger said that the hope is that the appointment of Xie will invigorate student interest in the current issues of China, and will make the University one of the leading universities in research on contemporary Chinese society. He noted that while the University previously had a number of classes related to China under the Department of East Asian Studies, there was only one person in the social science department actually teaching about contemporary China. “It’s one of the most exciting things here to happen in the University, in terms of the study of contemporary China and it will be a transformative factor in terms of the opportunities available to students to study contemporary China,” Beissinger said about Xie’s appointment. Xie said that the study of China is a very contentious issue and that there is such an influx of information and opinions about the rapid development of China today, especially from foreign scholars. He explained that he wants to bring a neutral, factual and empirical perspective to the study of contemporary China. “We will use quantitative information, such as population growth, economic growth and education and so on, to understand China using social science perspective and methodology,” Xie said. Xie was at the University of Michigan See CENTER page 2

JASPER GEBHARDT :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay, Consul General of India, New York, spoke at a celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s life. BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Alumni in startups on the rise in recent years By Shriya Sekhsaria staff writer

The number of University students pursuing careers in startups and technical services has increased substantially in the past decade, while participation in finance and insurance jobs has remained relatively steady, according to the Office of Career Services. The Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry has seen a 200 percent increase in alumni employees. For the Classes of 2006 and 2010, this sector hired between 7 and

9 percent of the graduating class. This number jumped to between 12 and 14 percent for the Classes of 2011 and 2014. Meanwhile, finance and insurance employment rates have fluctuated only between 11.5 and 12.9 percent in the past five years. Between 9 and 15 percent of the Classes of 2006 through 2014 have chosen to work in these industries, according to data from the post-graduation career plans survey from the University’s Office of Career Services. The timeframe for the post-graduation career plans survey was changed

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

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Zwicker runs for NJ state assembly

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News & Notes Harvard teaching program

By Kristin Qian staff writer

launches fellows

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education has launched Harvard Teaching Fellows, a program intended to expose recently graduated students to a new model of teaching, the Harvard Crimson reported on Friday. Along with institutions like Yale, Brown, Stanford and the University of Texas, Harvard is seeking to provide prospective educators with an alternative to Teach for America. Teach for America was founded by Wendy Kopp ’89 as part of her senior thesis. Harvard’s program hopes to provide more robust support for its teachers during and after deployment, an area critics have complained is lacking in TFA’s program. For example, while TFA has a six-week intensive training session for student teachers that has been criticized as overwhelming, HTF plans to begin preparing its students from the spring semester of their senior year and provide additional teacher preparation in the summer prior to deployment. Harvard president Drew Faust said that by launching the program Harvard could underscore the value of a teaching career while also giving excellent preparation for students.

from three months to six months, beginning with the Class of 2011. In the same year, the Office of Career Services began using the North American Industry Classification System as well as the Hoover’s Business Database for the survey. Director of External Relations and Operations Evangeline Kubu said that while there are students interested in finance and consulting, they are certainly not representative of the majority of University students. “The financial services industry has been recruiting at Princeton See GRADUATES page 3

COURTESY OF NEWSWORK.ORG

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Andrew Zwicker is running for New Jersey’s state assembly.

Andrew Zwicker, head of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Science Education Department, is running for New Jersey state assembly. The election takes place on Nov. 3. Of New Jersey’s 40 legislative districts, Zwicker will be running in District 16, which includes Princeton and towns in Hunterdon County, Middlesex County and Somerset County. Zwicker lives in Kingston, New Jersey, which lies in the 16th district. Zwicker, 51, is a physicist by training who came to Princeton in 1994 for his post-doctoral work on fu-

sion energy at the PPPL. Zwicker is also an American Physical Society fellow, writing seminar lecturer and President of the Princeton Chapter of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. “I congratulate Mr. Zwicker on his candidacy,” Jack Ciattarelli, one of Zwicker’s Republican opponents, said. ”I believe competition makes us better and I look forward to a spirited issues-based campaign.” Maureen Vella, Zwicker’s Democratic opponent, and Donna Simon, one of Zwicker’s Republican opponents, did not respond to requests for comment. Zwicker said that his platSee ZWICKER page 3

STUDENT LIFE

Senate introduces Dean of College, discusses academic requirements By Katherine Oh staff writer

The Undergraduate Student Government senate introduced Dean of the College Jill Dolan at its weekly meeting on Sunday afternoon. Dolan described the wide range of programs her office oversees, which include the residential colleges, admissions, financial aid, the office of international programs, and the McGraw Center. “It’s quite a large operation. There are 200 staff people,” Dolan said of her work at

the Office of the Dean of the College. “It basically touches on everything that has to do with the undergraduate curriculum.” Dolan explained that she and Vice President for Student Life W. Rochelle Calhoun are willing to work together for student advising across colleges and across departments. Both the academic side and the co-curricular or mental health side constitute a holistic student experience, Dolan explained. Dolan said that the administration has discussed possible changes to academic

distribution requirements, including considering the possibility of adding a computer science requirement or changing the foreign language requirement. The academic distribution requirements have remained the same for the past two decades or so, she said. While the exact timing for changing requirements is yet to be determined, Dolan said that the changes could follow a “stepped process,” with incremental adjustments over time. Dolan said that her office would continue to cooperate

with groups such as USG and the Council for Teaching and Learning. For example, USG has recommended changes to course evaluation questions, and Dolan said that her office was moving forward with those suggestions. USG president Ella Cheng ’16 also noted that the senate has a project committee focusing on the pass/D/fail policy, the members of which will be reaching out to Dolan in the future. Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. When asked about student

involvement, Dolan said that she has met with academics committee chair Ramie Fathy ’16 as well as University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 to discuss the best way for students to be represented. Dolan explained that the administration thought student focus groups would allow for as much feedback and engagement as possible. Undergraduate student representative of the Committee on Sexual Misconduct Allison Fleming ’18 said that the committee has worked See USG page 2


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Monday october 12, 2015

closely with WeSpeak in the past, and that this year they would work to analyze last year’s survey results. “As an undergraduate student, if students have any complaints or things they want heard in the committee, I’m one person to go to as well as Colleen O’Gorman [‘17],” Fleming said. Julie Chong ’17 of the Student Groups Recognition Committee presented a list of new student organizations that the committee had recently approved. The groups approved at the meeting included the Liar’s Club, a group that plays the game “Mafia” every week in Whitman, 1080Princeton for

video journalism and Genesis, a Christian group. U-Council chair Naimah Hakim ’16, who is also the Mental Health Initiatives Board co-chair, said that the board has been working with Sexual Health Advisory Board on “Stay Healthy Week,” which is this Monday through Friday. Hakim also said that the board will be meeting with Director of Counseling and Psychological Service Calvin Chin to discuss plans for this year’s mental health week programming. University Student Life Committee chair Kathy Chow ’17 said that the committee is planning an event to take place during late meal hours with different food items representing different parts of the world.

for 26 years and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Sciences. He is known for his empirical social science research on the demography of China and is currently conducting a general consumer survey on the country. Yan C. Bennett, the new manager of the CCC, explained that the purpose of this center is to gather faculty and students interested in contemporary China from a number of different disciplines, including politics, economics and environmental studies. The center will hold an annual speaker series, Bennett said, with the first talk being delivered by sociologist Don Treiman on Oct. 19. In addition to this, she added, the center will have workshops for graduate students and will host visiting post-doctoral scholars from Beijing University.

Xie explained that the CCC is unique because it will be completely interdisciplinary and will draw from all aspects of Chinese society today, including the country’s economic situation, political structure, educational system and household construct. The center will be instrumental in exposing the Princeton community to research-based information from local perspectives, he said. Beissinger said that the University has decided to invest heavily in the study of contemporary China partially because of the interdisciplinary nature of this center. “What happens in China affects the rest of the world in almost all significant domains,” Xie said. “So what happens in China today has huge consequences for the world. That’s why I believe that the educated person now should know something about China and about what’s going on in China.” Beissinger explained that PIIRS has also introduced Beijing as a sixth location for next sum-

mer’s Global Seminar program with Xie as the supervising instructor. The six-week course will bring together 15 students from Princeton and 10 students from Beijing University to attend lectures by various prominent scholars within the country. Beissinger said that the intention of the Global Seminar is to expose Princeton students to China, to make them more interested in China and to eventually encourage them to follow up on that interest by working in China or taking more classes on contemporary China. “All Princeton students will benefit from knowing something about China,” Xie said. To amplify the transformation that Xie is leading within the University, the CCC plans to add a number of appointments related to contemporary China within the social studies department, Bennett said. Beissinger said that the University will need to build a real group of faculty who focus on the study of contemporary China.


The Daily Princetonian

Monday october 12, 2015

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Number of graduates in finance remains relatively steady over past 5 years GRADUATES Continued from page 1

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for decades, and they have a long, established history here,” Kubu said. “So they tend to have very visible hiring processes in place, and sometimes, that may be driving the perception that most students are going into finance.” Pulin Sanghvi, executive director of Career Services, said that one trend that is emerging amongst the career choices of graduating classes is the popularity of technological startups and entrepreneurship in general. He added that companies in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry are much more able to create attractive opportunities for recent college graduates and to give them meaningful work to do. “I think [the increase in popularity of startups and tech companies] is because that sector of the economy has become structurally larger than any time in history,” he said. “There is innovation that is happening now in so many different areas that that part of the economy keeps regenerating itself.” Sanghvi said that startups are an extremely popular career choice because they allow students to graduate college and take on positions of significant responsibility very early. “Our alumni serve as powerful role models as students look to them as examples of what non-traditional paths can look like over time,” he added. Entrepreneurship professor Derek Lidow ’73 noted that increased media attention is another reason for the popularity of startups. “The media makes some successful entrepreneurs into sensations – they promote how much money is created by those entrepreneurs – so those are certainly things that attract students and many

others into wanting to be entrepreneurs,” he said, noting the media-generated profile is unrealistic because most successful entrepreneurs are not high tech billionaires. All other industry sectors employed less than 5 percent of the graduating class. “What we are experiencing anecdotally and what we expect to see happening as the economy continues to evolve is that our students will aggregate less,” Sanghvi said. “What will happen instead is that they will spread out across a much, much broader number of companies, industries, functional roles.” He added that despite the increasing popularity of the

“Our alumni serve as powerful role models as students look to them as examples of what non-traditional paths can look like over time.” Pulin Sanghvi

Career Services executive director

startup environment, there would always be a lot of interest in opportunities that have been traditional paths for University students because some of those platforms help students in learning skills. Shafin Fattah ’15, an economics major now employed in the investment banking division of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., said he first tried his hand in the financial industry through an internship during his junior summer. He explained that he wanted to see whether he liked the work and whether what he had heard about the industry was true. “I don’t know where the future would take me,” Fattah said. “It’s just the first few months at work – you don’t know how the rest of your

life will pan out – but yeah, I wouldn’t mind staying in the financial world.” Fattah noted that there was a strong negative stereotype about people in the financial industry. “A lot of people are thinking, like, you know, people who are going into finance are doing it for money or something,” he said. “You know there’s a very black and white picture portrayed by popular culture … which shows that it’s a really glamorous world and everything. That’s not really true.” Markus Brunnermeier, director of the Bendheim Center for Finance, said that the glamour factor is rapidly shifting to tech firms like Google and Apple. “Mark Zuckerberg and other tech gurus, and not bankers, are the heroes of young people these days,” he said. “Tech firms are changing our world, but they also need to solid finance knowledge to be successful enterprises.” Brunnermeier added that many interesting new developments at the intersection between finance and technology make the financial industry difficult to predict, and also have important implications for financial regulations and monetary policy. Brunnermeier said that the interest in the Program in Finance has remained relatively stable over the past few years, though the global financial crisis in the late 2000s caused a slight increase in the numbers. He attributed the uptick to curiosity in what had caused the Great Recession. According to Melanie Heaney-Scott, Academic Administrator for the Undergraduate Program in Finance, 82 students in the Class of 2015 received the finance certificate, while the Classes of 2016 and 2017 currently have 109 and 91 students enrolled in the program, respectively. According to statistics from the post-graduation survey for students enrolled in the program in finance, 59.6

percent students pursued careers in the financial industry while 7 percent went on to further their education. Lidow said his classes in entrepreneurship and design have always been very popular with students across majors. He added that student interest in these classes is growing beyond their capacity, leading to additional sections of classes like EGR 392: Creativity, Innovation, and Design. Lidow said it is much harder now for a University graduate to feel like they can have a positive impact on a large organization because large institutions have become complacent and risk-averse. “Large organizations build forces within them to resist change,” he said. “You know, Princeton is a place with a lot of ambitious students, a lot of talented students, a lot of students with tremendous capabilities. And how frustrating is it to go in and spend 40 to 50 years doing something that’s really not using all your talents?” He added that using best practices, a Princeton students’ chance of starting an enterprise that has a positive impact on the world can be beyond even 50-50, though this is unlikely in fields like technology which attract a large number of startups. “If you approach a startup using best practices, it is probably a less risky way to ultimately lead a high impact organization than rising through ranks of a huge corporation where your chances are measured in one in a thousand,” he said. Sanghvi noted that students who choose certain industries immediately after graduation are not signaling that they are going to continue to work in the same place forever. “We do not see students that are saying, you know, I’m joining a certain opportunity and I know that I’m going to retire in that opportunity,” he said. “What we see instead

are students that are thinking of this two- or four-year experience as a building block towards their longer term identity.” Sanghvi explained that students are also using their experience at the University as a laboratory to answer questions about themselves and to test different parts of themselves out. He said that the students are becoming increasingly mindful and intentional about how they can use different parts of their social, extracurricular, internship and academic experiences to shape themselves. Lidow said that, at least in the United States, a typical person has a 50-50 chance of being an entrepreneur within

“You know, Princeton is a place with a lot of ambitious students, a lot of talented students, a lot of students with tremendous capabilities.” Derek Lidow ’73 their working career, which is often beyond their control. “Throughout your career you will be faced with decisions on whether or not the place you work is the best place for you to practice your skills and for you to create positive benefits for you, your family and the world,” he said. Sanghvi said that the entire model in Career Services is shifting towards personalization and towards helping students figure out their unique passions, interests and identity. “I think the big story of this generation is that they are no longer really falling into categories as much as they are planning their unique paths that are defined by what they really care about,” he said.

Politics major Harsan Sidhu ’15 began working at Uber Technologies in San Francisco after working in consulting. “I really like the [startup] culture. I like waking up everyday and solving interesting problems,” he said. “And when I go to work, I know that what I’m doing is having an impact on real people. You know, I’m not building some like isolated process.” Sidhu added that consulting was too rigid for him. “It’s too suit and tie,” he said. “Like, you can’t call your manager ‘dude’. Like that’s very bad. Or ‘bro’. I called my manager ‘bro’ one time and he stopped me. I like tech — it’s more relaxed.” Zach Horton ’15, a philosophy major currently employed in the Investment Banking division of Rothschild North America Inc., said that he joined the financial services industry because it was the optimal field to learn business in the least amount of time. Horton is a former member of the Editorial Board of The Daily Princetonian. “I wanted to find another opportunity to learn, this time in the workforce,” he said of his choice of industry. “I figured that the field of finance, in particular, presented a unique learning opportunity because it’s incredibly fast-paced.” He added that even though the working hours are long and demanding, they are very rewarding in gaining good amounts of valuable experience. Horton noted that studying liberal arts was very helpful because it teaches students how to live, how to think and how to maintain sanity. “Sometimes in the ‘real world’, you’ll have to do some mind-numbingly dull tasks,” he said. “But studying the liberal arts instills in you a way of thinking that helps you get through the moments of toil, enabling you to see the bigger picture and understand ultimate ends.”

U. College Democrats canvassed town on weekend to drum up support for Zwicker ZWICKER Continued from page 1

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form is data-driven and evidence-based. Policy-making is not about hearty rhetoric, he said, but rather about what previous studies have shown and how to think like a scientist to come to conclusions. “I want to take a scientific approach to policy-making,” he said. “What that means in the end is using evidence to make decisions.” For him, Zwicker said, politics, public service and his work with education and outreach are all parts of the same whole. One of the problems state assemblymen will be facing, he said, is New Jersey’s local economy, which has not recovered from the recession. Compared nationally and to neighboring states, New Jersey is behind in every indicator from employment to economic growth, he noted. However, he added, New

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Jersey has a history of science and innovation and one of the best public school educations in the country. He noted that New Jersey currently has the highest density of scientists and engineers in the world, and said he hopes to bring both of those worlds, science and education, together. “My strengths and my background get at the heart of what I believe, really, is the path forward for New Jersey,” Zwicker said. He also said that he has the largest number of doctorate scientists in the history of all political campaigns on his staff. “The scientist in me loves this,” he said. Zwicker explained that he decided to run for Congress last year when former U.S. congressman Rush Holt announced his retirement. He ultimately lost to Bonnie Watson Coleman, but he decided, with the support of various Democratic Party state leaders, to try running at the state level in District

16. There have only been three physicists in Congress and Rush Holt, the former representative for New Jersey’s 12th district was the second, Zwicker said. He added that for 16 years from 1998 to 2014, Holt showed what a physicist could do in public service as an elected official. “Rush Holt showed me what was possible,” Zwicker said, adding that Holt was incredibly encouraging. Zwicker noted that Holt also started the science education department that Zwicker is now the head of and encouraged Zwicker to mentor young people in the area, which Zwicker said was a valuable experience. The Princeton College Democrats are also heavily involved in Zwicker’s campaign, Sam Russell ’18, campaign chair of the Princeton College Democrats, said. “We have a lot of politicians that do whatever their party tells them because that’s what their party tells

them,” he said. “Zwicker gives off an image of someone who legitimately enjoys what he’s doing, who legitimately enjoys science and technology, and he’s really honest about it.” The College Democrats canvassed town this past weekend, knocking on doors and reminding supporters to vote, Russell said. He added that he hopes that students are aware that there is an election coming up, especially since it is incredibly difficult to get college students to vote. Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, a New Jersey political expert, said that he thinks the election this time would not be close. Even after Princeton and South Brunswick were added in 2011, the 16th district remains a solidly Re-

publican district, he said. “Real politics doesn’t play out like you learn in ‘Intro to American Government,’ ” he said. “It is not an equal playing field, particularly in legislative races.” Regardless of how attractive a challenger’s platform may be, if the district is solidly Republican, the only thing he could think of that would take out an incumbent would be a scandal, he explained. Noting that this year’s general election will have a record-low turnout, Murray said the people voting will most likely be divided between die-hard Republicans and die-hard Democrats, with a skew towards the Republicans. Murray said that there is not much Zwicker can do about it, adding that this is a problem other challengers around the state have to

face. “It really isn’t a rejection of Zwicker’s platform; it’s just that there aren’t enough interested people to look at it,” Murray said. Democrats have a hard time because elections always happen on the offseason in New Jersey and people do not remember to vote, Russell said. Zwicker said he knows to expect a very low turnout election due to all the attention focused on the presidential campaign. He also noted that although District 16 has never seen a Democratic winner in its entire history, Democratic candidates have gotten closer and closer each time. Zwicker said he believes every student should vote, because every vote counts. “I would challenge students to vote,” Zwicker said.


On exorcising bigots

Opinion

Monday october 12, 2015

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Bennett McIntosh

EDITORIAL

columnist

W

oodrow Wilson is a saint of Princeton’s past. Woodrow Wilson is a villain and a bigot. These are not contradicting viewpoints — they are both true. How we deal with his century-old legacy has striking reflections in how we treat heroes and villains in the social media age, where saints and martyrs live and die in the 24-hour news cycle. It is easy to venerate or demonize, and we have done so for eons. Historically, many legends — Odysseus, Beowulf, Christ — were real historical figures, whose deeds and ideals were elevated by time and legend and social need to embody ideals their peoples valued until they became gods. Today, we still raise saints, and villains to oppose them, whenever groups define themselves. The United States is built on the legends of Washington and Ford. Princeton venerates Witherspoon and Wilson, Class of 1879. Even smaller tribes have their forefathers: OA leaders deify Rick Curtis ’79 and the Band honors its exemplars, Fred Fox ’39 and Tom Meeker ’56, with our own traditions, both solemn and silly. Immortals have always clashed in support of their mortals — think of the Gods fighting over Troy, or the martyrs of Christianity or Islam. Today, tribes connected by the web form around a hero, sanctify him in an echo chamber, find a dragon to slay and make battle — but all too often, the dragon is your neighbor. If you’ve heard of Twitter, you will be alltoo-familiar with its particular brand of public shaming. As Jon Ronson detailed for the New York Times Magazine this spring, a single tweet can ignite a worldwide firestorm of hate, resulting in jobs lost and lives ruined. One of the cases Ronson highlights is that of Adria Richards, who posted a picture of a man she overheard telling a “big dongle” joke at a tech conference, accusing him of perpetuating gender imbalance in technology. Warring digital tribes sprang up, with feminists howling for the man’s dismissal while men’s rights activists threatened Richards and her employer with digital and physical violence. Both Richards and the man she called out were fired, but neither tribe made any ideological progress by crucifying the other side’s martyr. After these controversies, the world moves on — the 24-hour myth cycle turns again, we forget Richards and her subject and begin venerating new heroes, exorcising new demons. But we leave the shamed trapped in myth. In casting them as heroes or villains, we forget their humanity. But human they are, and it serves no cause and fits no definition of justice that human lives should be ruined for human mistakes. We have seen a number of such cycles of rage on this campus. Tiger Inn played a convincing villain last year, with the self-parodying party theme “15th Century A.D. Ottoman Aristocrats and Sluts” and a joking email urging members to “boo Sally Frank” for her efforts to integrate the club. Gender bias is a real issue, but failing (as I did initially) to consider the possibility that irony may be lost when context is removed leaves us futilely slaying strawmen. Even University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 was caught on the wrong side of a myth cycle, when his statement last spring that “controversy” is “fundamental to the life of any great university” was willfully misinterpreted by protesters as saying that racism was fundamental to Princeton’s life. The TI and Urban Congo clashes were not 24-hour myths — even legends must slow down for Princeton, but we see in them the same regrettable emphasis of narrative over fact. The bare facts of Odysseus’ and Beowulf’s lives matter little, as death and time protected them from their exalters and their exalters from inconvenient truths. But problems arise when living people, such as Richards, are caught up in legends. Time is a slow-acting balm. It seems even 90 years since Woodrow Wilson’s death cannot swallow the man and allow the myth to live without pain. Wilson is rightly honored by a university celebrating values well worth celebrating: his meritocratic campaign against the Gentleman’s C, his hiring of the first non-Protestant faculty, his founding of the Graduate College and his efforts to break the elitist social monopoly of eating clubs have all greatly improved this school. And he is rightly condemned for his unjustifiable racism. How do we synchronize the great scholar and the bigot? With humility. Wilson is both saint and demon because he was human — imperfect, struggling to do right by an imperfect historical set of norms. We build community by honoring his highest ideals, so it is right that his name remains a part of this campus. And we build community too by recognizing and condemning his basest bigotry. For we, too, are human. This is not to say that all mistakes are equally forgivable. Wilson’s racist policies were more deliberate and harmful than Richard’s tweet. But when we think of legacies of our mythic figures, we would do well to recall their humanity and their context as well. So let Wilson be an exemplar of scholarship, a foil for tolerance and, lastly, a humbling reminder: we cannot live in this society of 24-hour myths without accepting the hero and the demon in every one of us. Bennett McIntosh is a chemistry major from Littleton, Colo. He can be reached at bam2@princeton.edu.

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Fewer course conflicts

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n the midst of the semester, balancing multiple heavy workloads is difficult for students; however, the challenges of maintaining this balance begin earlier than the first day of class. Specifically, choosing the correct combination of classes is often an unduly difficult task due to class scheduling conflicts. Undergraduate courses are not scheduled evenly throughout the day; rather, a majority of classes begin during the 11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. scheduling blocks. To increase the range of classes students can accommodate in their schedules, the Editorial Board recommends redistributing a portion of the undergraduate courses to other, less-trafficked scheduling blocks throughout the day. According to the course listing provided by the Office of the Registrar, a plurality of all undergraduate courses for the fall semester of the 2015-16 academic year begin at either 11 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. This grouping excludes 500-level courses designed for graduate students but, even after accounting for classes ultimately canceled, these time-slots encompass over 500 courses. Whenever a student enrolls in any class scheduled at any time, that choice excludes other courses scheduled during the same period; however, this effect is magnified during the crowded midday scheduling blocks. These blocks together contain over 50 percent of the classes offered in a week, and enroll-

ing in one course during these times prevents students from enrolling in the more than 100 classes scheduled at that same day and time. The preference for scheduling midday times is understandable. Courses scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. occur late enough in the day so that students are awake; therefore, students are more likely to attend. But this strategy can make taking some courses very difficult, especially when different departments vie for the same lecture and classroom space during high demand times. This effect is magnified for students in certain departments. For example, scheduling of economics courses is especially problematic. Despite the abundance of problems associated with the 11 a.m and 1:30 p.m. scheduling blocks, the course offerings listed by the Office of the Registrar indicate that the 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. blocks are underused. About 10 percent of undergraduate courses are scheduled for 10 a.m. and less than a quarter are in session at 3 p.m. Departments could use these times, which are neither unreasonably early nor unreasonably late, to offer courses currently offered during the course-dense 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. blocks. In fact, this change has already been implemented by the coordinators of the Humanities Sequence; after years of being scheduled at 11 a.m.,the course now meets at 10 a.m. Students explore the different

vol. cxxxix

offerings in the curriculum to fulfill distribution requirements or to engage in a new field; therefore, it will not be necessary to reschedule higher-level courses offered for students within specific concentrations. While the 1:30 p.m. block is convenient for accommodating three-hour seminars, a plurality of classes beginning at 1:30 p.m. during the 2015 fall semester are 80 minutes or less. Reallocating some non-seminar introductory courses to the 10 a.m. and 3 p.m blocks would offer students more choice in course selection without interfering with seminars. The Board recognizes that the Office of the Registrar already accomplishes an impressive logistical feat in organizing the undergraduate course schedule each semester. The process of allocating classroom space to hundreds of professors dispersed across numerous departments is distinctly challenging. However, implementing the Board’s policy recommendation to ease overcrowding of courses in midday scheduling blocks would render the valuable service of the Registrar’s Office all the more impactful. Jeffrey Leibenhaut ’16 abstained from the writing of this editorial. The Editorial Board is an independent body and decides its opinions separately from the regular staff and editors of The Daily Princetonian. The Board answers only to its Chair, the Opinion Editor and the Editor-in-Chief.

Anna Mazarakis ’16 editor-in-chief

Matteo Kruijssen ’16 business manager

EDITORIAL BOARD chair Jeffrey Leibenhaut ’16

Allison Berger ’18 Elly Brown ’18 Thomas Clark ’18 Paul Draper ’18 Daniel Elkind ’17 Theodore Furchgott ’18 James Haynes ’18 Wynne Kerridge ’16 Cydney Kim ’17 Sergio Leos ’17 Carolyn Liziewski ’18 Sam Mathews ’17 Connor Pfeiffer ’18 Ashley Reed ’18 Aditya Trivedi ’16 Kevin Wong ’17

139TH BUSINESS BOARD business manager Matteo Kruijssen ’16 head of outreach Justine Mauro ’17 director of client management Vineeta Reddy ’18

Game Day

Valerie Wilson ’18 ..................................................

director of operations Daniel Kim ’17 comptroller Nicholas Yang ’18 director of circulation Kevin Liu ’18

NIGHT STAFF 10.11.15 senior copy editors Winny Myat ’18 Omkar Shende ’18 contributing copy editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Njuguna Thande ’19 news Nahrie Chung ’17 Kristin Qian ’18 design Crystal Wang ’18

The case for the non-traditional student

Iris Samuels

contributing columnist

I

am a non-traditional student. I arrived at Princeton after two-and-a-half years of service in the Israel Defense Forces. During that time, I experienced a world in which there were no adults responsible for my well-being, but I was, rather, responsible for the well-being of other adults. Yes, I am legally allowed to buy and consume alcohol, and no, I do not abuse this right on a daily, or even weekly, basis. I have been here for just over a month, but in this time I have met students from many places around the country and the world, with varying interests ranging from astrophysics to anthropology. Some students here have surprised me in their level of maturity, while others have reminded me of my 14-year-old self. Missing, however, are the people who have arrived at Princeton through non-traditional paths, who have chosen to take time off to explore the world or their own backyard, who have spent some time working as waiters, cooks, writers, coders, travelers, farmers or dreamers in “the real world.” The students I have met so far seem to know only one occupation. They are professional students — people who have dedicated their entire existence thus far to learning – but they seem to overlook the idea that learning

can occur outside the traditional classroom. Don’t get me wrong – I love the classic idea of learning. I’ve spent the past two years picturing 10 students around a sturdy oak table, discussing the ideas at the heart of human existence. And that is just what I’ve been doing every Monday afternoon for my freshman seminar in philosophy. Perhaps because of my anticipation, I am doubly excited about this opportunity. That “sturdy oak table” image has been brewing in my mind for long enough that I would never dare waste a single minute sitting around it. Princeton would benefit from supplementing its student body with more people who have ventured away from the classroom before immersing themselves in its intense curriculum. We are all here to learn not just from our (wonderful) professors, but from each other as well. Wouldn’t we be better at it if we came from more varied experiences than a wealth of AP tests and high school club presidencies? It should be noted that Princeton has already initiated a response to this very issue. Every year, the Bridge Year Program sends up to 35 students to different countries around the world, where they gain experiences that are very different from those of a typical incoming Princeton freshman. But last I checked, there were 1,300 students in the incoming class,

which means that among Princeton freshmen, the likelihood of encountering those with non-traditional backgrounds is still pretty slim. I imagine a classroom in which students are just as likely to have come from a year of working on an organic farm as they are to have come from belonging to their school’s sustainability club; students who have worked in Silicon Valley for a couple years alongside first-time coders; students who have spent enough time being responsible for paying rent, cooking meals and holding a job to truly know the value of the Princeton privilege. The idea of being non-traditional is inherently difficult because it implies uniqueness. As humans, we crave resemblance between our peers and ourselves. We search for a critical mass of people who share our experience, who have been in our shoes and have engaged with the same ideas and conventions. Our comfort zone is always populated by those similar to us, but true learning, as we are constantly reminded — occurs outside of this zone. There aren’t many other IDF veterans on campus, or even many older freshmen, so I am distinctly different. This has caused me to feel lonely at times, but it has also afforded me the opportunity to have eye-opening conversations with people who had never consid-

ered the idea of dedicating a portion of their lives to serving their country. What kind of learning would be afforded if our conversation partners had come to Princeton after founding and running a company? Or if they had spent a few months working for a political campaign they believed in? If they had traveled across a continent? I believe our ideas of our place in the world and our ability to engage with culture in a critical way would grow immensely. I do not mean to encourage a society in which all young people enlist in an army or throw caution to the wind and buy a plane ticket to a distant country of their choice. But I do believe that varying backgrounds will enhance the lives of Princeton students both by contextualizing the Princeton experience of the non-traditional student and by affording the traditional student the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with people who are not fresh off the high school conveyer belt. At the very least, our student body would more aptly reflect the kind of diversity that exists outside of the Orange Bubble. The case for the non-traditional student, then, is the case for the adventurous learner, the critical thinker and the inclusive society. Iris Samuels is a freshman from Zichron Yakov, Israel. She can be reached at isamuels@princeton.edu.


The Daily Princetonian

Monday october 12, 2015

page 5

Strong defensive plays allowed Tigers to secure victory over Colgate FOOTBALL Continued from page 6

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

VINCENT PO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

After beating Colgate, the Tigers now will face off against Ivy League rivals for the rest of the season, starting with Brown next weekend.

Field hockey tops the Ivy League standings after playing Columbia FIELD HOCKEY Continued from page 6

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

next round of play. This Princeton team, however, is deep with offensive weapons. It’s also a team that, from freshmen to seniors, has shown poise in tough spots. After beating back an aggressive start to the second half by the Lions, the Tigers managed to get their offense going. Outshooting Columbia 6-4 in the period, they finally got their opportunity. It was one of their freshmen that proved the savior on the day — striker Nicole Catalino. Just four minutes away from suffering a Tigers loss, Catalino took the pass from senior striker Teresa Benvenuti at the top of the circle and sniped it in. Having forced the game into overtime, the Tigers needed just one more goal for the comeback victory. They wouldn’t have to wait

long — in the 72nd minute, Catalino came through once more, taking the assist from junior midfielder Cat Caro and finding the back of the net once more. On the defensive side,

“I think it showed that we are one unit... it’s something that’s going to be crucial going forward into the season.” Cat Caro

junior midfielder

senior goalie Anya Gersoff had two saves on the day. Gersoff continues to be among the higher-performing goalies in the league,

with 56 saves on the season and a .700 save percentage. With her sixth goal of the season (second most on the team), Catalino keeps her team at the top of the Iv y League standings, tied with Penn for first. Now, having concluded the homestand, the Tigers will start traveling for the first of a fourgame road trip. They take on the Brown Bears next Saturday in Providence, R.I., at 12:00 p.m. This game may have come down to the wire, but it is during these kind of games, Caro said, when the team bonds together as a unit, a trait that will be invaluable in the games ahead. “I think it showed that we are one unit. We don’t give up, we don’t turn on each other, we kind of use each other to look at each and stay as one unit,” Caro said. “It’s something that’s going to be crucial going forward into the season.”

Baseball alumni have big impact on Major League Baseball playoffs SHORTS

Continued from page 6

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

Blue Jays in Major League Baseball’s American League Division series, one can notice the impact of two Princeton alumni — Ross Ohlendorf ’05 and Will Venable ’05,

both members of the Rangers. Game 2 in particular saw both on display; Venable was first, picking up a broken bat single in the 13th inning. Ohlendorf was the hero of the game, as he struck out three Blue Jays in the bottom of the 14th to secure the win for the Blue Jays.

There’s another Princeton alumnus with a direct stake in the game as well. Mark Shapiro ‘89, a member of the football team during his time as an undergraduate, was in August named the president of the Blue Jays, starting his tenure at the end of the 2015 season.

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defensive back Khamal Brown and senior defensive lineman Evan Kappatos each had six tackles. Williams also made a great defensive play in the second half to help the Tigers seal the victory. In the fourth quarter, when the Raiders had pulled within 10 points of the Tigers, 30-20, and had the ball on the Princeton 24-yard-line after recovering a fumble, Colgate managed to get down to the 10-yard-line with a third-and-six to go for a first down. But Williams managed to break up the thirddown pass before Schlossberg blocked the fourth-down field

goal attempt. The Tigers will be looking to carry their success and

The Tigers will be looking to carry their success and momentum thus far into upcoming Ivy League play.

momentum thus far into upcoming Ivy League play, and the Tigers will next face off against Brown in Providence on Oct. 17.

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Sports

Monday october 12, 2015

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FOOTBALL

Tigers remain undefeated against Colgate

By Sydney Mandelbaum associate sports editor

The Tigers extended their undefeated streak to four games Saturday with an impressive win over the visiting Colgate Raiders, 44-22. The last two times Princeton started the season 4-0, in 2006 and 1995, the Tigers went on to win the Ivy League Championship. The Tigers’ victory was marked with a strong offensive showing, as they moved the ball a total of 556 yards, despite missing several notable players on offense to injury. The Tigers’ strong offensive showing against Colgate featured the most points the Tigers scored against the Raiders since 1988, when head coach Bob Surace ’90 played center on the Princeton squad, making this weekend’s win that much more exciting. Starting junior quarterback Chad Kanoff led the offensive charge, completing 25 of 41 passes for a total of 277 passing yards, along with 41 rushing yards on six carries. With senior running backs DiAndre Atwater and Dré Nelson both injured, junior running back Joe Rhattigan again played a large role in the offensive, totaling 66 yards on 12 carries, while freshman running back Charles Volker also left his mark, rushing 64 yards

into the Colgate end zone to score the final touchdown of the game. Senior wide receiver Isaiah Barnes caught a career-high eight passes for a total of 92 yards, while sophomore quarterback John Lovett rushed 14 times, recording 65 yards and a personal best of four touchdowns, with three in the second half. Lovett also caught four passes, totaling 38 yards, and completed two of three passes for 17 yards. The Tigers ran 90 offensive plays in Saturday’s win, more plays than in all but one game last season. The Tigers also went 11-for-15 on third downs. After Colgate scored a touchdown on the opening drive, the Tiger defense quickly kicked into gear. With just two minutes left in the first quarter and Colgate on Princeton’s five-yard line, senior linebacker Matt Arends blocked a field goal attempt to force a turnover. Junior defensive lineman Henry Schlossberg also blocked a field goal later in the fourth quarter, as the Tigers held the Raiders to only two scores in five attempts in the red zone. Junior linebacker Rohan Hylton led the Tigers with 11 tackles, while junior defensive back Dorian Williams followed close behind, with 10 tackles. Junior linebacker Birk Olson, senior See FOOTBALL page 5

VINCENT PO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Football remained undefeated against Colgate on Saturday with strong offensive and defensive performances across the field.

FIELD HOCKEY

Field hockey comes out on top against Columbia

VINCENT PO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The women’s field hockey team managed to claw past the visiting Columbia Lions on Friday.

By Miles Hinson associate sports editor

It was a clear, beautiful sky until thunderstorms decided to dampen the ground of Bedford Field. However, whatever the weather, rain or shine, there’s only one thing this Princeton field hockey team has known how to do as of late — taking down any team that crosses its path. The Tigers (6-4 overall, 3-0 Iv y League), tied for first in the Iv y League and ranked No. 19 in the NCAA, continued their winning streak on Friday as they

defeated the visiting Columbia Lions (5-5, 1-2). The win concluded Princeton’s three-game homestand, as they head onto the road with a four-game win streak. Nothing about this past game, however, came easy. Princeton managed to take the lead early off a goal in the 12th minute by junior back Hailey Reeves, but the Lions would come right back, equalizing six minutes thereafter. The Tigers would seize the lead once more off a beautiful run from freshman striker Sophia Tornetta. Senior striker Ryan

McCarthy caught her heading up the middle and laid out to dish it to her for the routine score, her fifth on the season. The Columbia team was undaunted, as the Lions amassed two goals to end the half. Princeton, despite coming out with a strong start, went into the half on the receiving end of a lightning-quick double counter-strike by Columbia. The Lions were able to put in two goals within a minute of each other to close the half, thus giving them a 3-2 lead as the teams prepared for the See FIELD HOCKEY page 5

Sports Shorts By Miles Hinson, Jack Rogers sports editor, senior writer

Men’s water polo After a two-week hiatus from competition, the men’s water polo team returned to competition on Saturday evening with a narrow 6-4 victory over Collegiate Water Polo Association rival Bucknell. The victory puts the Tigers at 3-0 since their return from the NorCal Tournament, after they defeated both Johns Hopkins and George Washington on the road two weeks ago. Two of Princeton’s three victories over Bucknell last fall were also by two-goal margins, and Bucknell continued to prove a worthy opponent Saturday evening with close back-and-forth action during the first three quarters. The Tigers held leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the first half, but eventually saw themselves tied at two apiece at halftime. It was not until the end of the third quarter that the Tigers saw their first two-goal lead of the game, when sophomore utility Connor McGoldrick found the back of the net with 15 seconds remaining in the frame to make it 5-3. Princeton’s scorers also included sophomore attack Jordan Colina, freshman utility Ryan Wilson, junior utility Jovan Jeremic and freshman driver Matt Payne. The Tigers return home next weekend to host the Ivy Championships. Princeton in the pros Football Princeton is a school wellrenowned for its academic prowess. But, save for certain prime examples like Bill Bradley ‘65, the average

FILE PHOTO

The men’s water polo managed a narrow victory over Bucknell.

sports fan may think they see Princeton alumni star more in investment banks that out on the field. This week, Tiger sports fans had more than one pleasant surprise when they tuned in last week to catch Monday Night Football. Caraun Reid ’14, star defensive tackle for the Tigers, has been making an impact with the Detroit Lions this season. While the Lions have started out 0-5, Reid got his chance to shine as he returned a fumble off Seattle quarterback Russell

Wilson for the touchdown. Reid’s touchdown was the first by a Princeton alumnus in 30 years. At Princeton, Reid was a three-time All-Ivy First Team honoree and was twice named to the All-America First Team. He was taken by the Lions in the fifth round of the NFL draft and was only the 14th player in Princeton football history to be drafted. Baseball As the Texas Rangers hold the lead over the Toronto See SHORTS page 5

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