October 5, 2017

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Thursday October 5, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 80

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NEHA CHAUCHAN AND KRISTIN QIAN :: PRINCETONIAN STAFF

The new Lewis Center fot the Arts has its grand opening this weekend, accopmanied by a Festival of the Arts.

Festival of the Arts to celebrate opening of new Lewis Center this weekend Contributor

The transformation of the former Dinky station’s location to a state-of-the-art performance center for the University is complete. The Lewis Center for the Arts, replete with 146,000 square feet of space for students in theater, dance, music, and the visual arts, will become a brand new arts hub.

“We want the new buildings and the neighborhood around them to become a place where the University and the town and others intersect together, and we

expect that will be around artistic performance and around the open spaces that exist there,” said President Christopher Eisgruber ’83.

Designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Lewis Center is composed of three buildings: the Wallace Dance Building and Theater, the Arts Tower, and the Music Building.

Its opening celebration begins Thursday. The Festival of the Arts, which will take place Oct. 5–8, will cater to this spirit of collaboration between the arts. Several interdisciplinary performances will be featured, from a

ON CAMPUS

kinetic lighting installation The dance building in- dubbed the ‘Forum,’ an 8,000 accompanied by the Princ- cludes a black-box steel the- square-foot open space that eton Laptop Orchestra and ater which seats 150 people connects all three buildings. other music groups, to a and other dance theaters Pressing the elevator button sculpture tour accompanied within a concrete frame. starred and marked with an

by Sō Percussion.

The cylindrical concrete “F’ takes visitors there. The Featuring talented alum- and stone tower embedded Forum draws its light from ni, professionals from out- in the Arts Tower, according vast skylights set into the side the University commu- to Steven Holl Architects, is floor of the reflecting pool nity, and current students, a nod to Blair Arch, and the in the plaza directly above the festival will be a true music building boasts a sus- it. The dancing light “brings showcase of the limitless pension of resonant wooden a spirit of joy and creativity creativity that the Lewis practice rooms on steel rods. to that space that augments Center can help express.

The latter exhibits wonder- what the different depart“I think [the Festival will] ful acoustics particularly ments are trying to do in also show people the differ- suited to instrumental mu- their programs,” said Yaffe. ent ways these spaces can be sic.

Yaffe explained that the used,” architect Noah Yaffe The architects of the Lewis spirit of collaboration persaid. Yaffe was one of two se- Center also incorporated a vades the underground comnior partners on the project. spacious underground area See LCA page 2 BEYOND THE BUBBLE

U. affiliates win physics Nobel prize

COURTESY OF MIT.EDU

Reiner Weiss, former U. postdoctoral researcher ZACH GOLDFARB :: PRINCETONIAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Roxane Gay speaks about her comic for Marvel.

By Hamna Khurram and Regina Lankenau Contributors

Roxane Gay talks superheroes, social justice

By Ivy Truong Contributor

Roxane Gay said in a talk on Wednesday that she broke tradition in writing the story of two black women who love each other for Marvel.

As her lecture showed, however, she broke tradition long before that.

“I knew what the rules were, I knew that whatever I was going to do, I was going to be breaking rules,” she

In Opinion

said.

Gay, associate professor for English at Purdue, New York Times contributor, and best-selling author, published her first comic in November, “World of Wakanda,” a prequel to the “Black Panthers” series. Prior to that, she had written extensively on a variety of issues and across genres, including “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body” that discussed fatness See GAY page 3

Guest contributor Noah Mihan suggests solutions for a broken bicker system and columnist Leora Eisenberg pleads for a more empathetic campus. PAGE 4-5

Rainer Weiss, who was a postdoctoral researcher at the University, and Kip Thorne GS ‘65 received the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday. They received the award “for decisive contributions to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory detector and the observation of gravitational waves” according to a press release by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Weiss will receive half of the prize money, while Thorne was jointly awarded the other half of the prize money with Barry Barish, another LIGO collaborator.

“Early on, both Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss were firmly

convinced that gravitational waves could be detected and bring about a revolution in our knowledge of the universe,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in the press release.

Both Weiss and Thorne spearheaded work at LIGO, a collaborative project that seeks to measure and understand gravitational waves.

The observatory is a largescale physics experiment to built to detect gravitational waves. The first gravitational waves were detected at LIGO in 2015.

While at the University, Weiss completed cosmological studies research under the mentorship of Robert Dicke. Thorne worked in a research group with John Archibald Wheeler, which is where he first became interested in the study of black holes.

Weiss left the University to take a faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964, where he is now a professor emeritus of physics. Thorne took a research fellow position at Caltech after receiving his doctoral degree, and eventually became Professor of Theoretical Physics. He is now The Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus at California Institute of Technology.

Today on Campus 9 a.m.: A Festival of the Arts at Princeton: Opening Weekend.

Celebrate the opening of the new Lewis Center for the Arts complex by enjoying concerts, plays, readings, dance performances, and more. Lewis Center for the Arts.

U . A F FA I R S

McCarter Theatre receives $500,000 grant

By Emily Spalding senior writer

In a substantial contribution to the performing arts community, long time New Jersey theater supporter Betty Wold Johnson gave the McCarter Theatre a $500,000 challenge grant on Sept.

28, according to an official McCarter Theatre press release. Johnson’s challenge grant, which requires that matching funds be raised, is a contribution to the ongoing Campaign for McCarter, a fundraising effort to support the future of McCarter Theatre with an ultimate goal of $15 million.

“What’s significant is the sheer size of [Johnson’s] generosity… This is a big thing for McCarter, and it’s really a wonderful gift for her to give,” Tom Miller, the director of public relations for McCarter, said when discussing what this grant will mean for the future of the Princeton-based theater.

The new Lewis Center for See MCCARTER page 3

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Thursday October 5, 2017

Idea for project in works since Tilghman’s presidency LCA

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mon space, too. Similarly, sharing artistic ideas among the University’s departments will be easily bolstered in this synergistic space.

“In many ways, the Forum serves as a kind of social condenser that allows for maximum exchange between people,” Yaffe said.

The Center is an unmistakable manifestation of the University’s dedication to the arts on campus, according to President Eisgruber. It is a significant step for an institution where the arts have been gradually gaining ground for decades.

The 22-acre Arts and Transit Neighborhood where the new Lewis Center is located includes the arts buildings and two restaurants, both of

which are converted Dinky train stations.

Construction of the complex has been in progress for three and a half years. Its conception, however, came long before that. It was under President Emerita Shirley Tilghman’s leadership that the idea for the Lewis Center came about.

“The motivation for the Lewis Center really began with conversations that I had almost as soon as I was appointed president, even before I took off, with students in my own department, in molecular biology, who were involved in the arts,” Tilghman said. “They literally poured into my office to tell me how challenging it was to pursue music and dance at Princeton.”

Not long after that, Tilghman set up a committee of faculty, staff, and students to assess the University’s arts

programs. After some analysis, the panel “made it clear that we needed to make a very significant investment in the performing and musical arts,” she said.

Princeton University Orchestra conductor and Director of the Program in Musical Performance Michael Pratt was a member of this panel.

To him, the Lewis Center is a fulfilled promise. It is also “an extraordinary expression of the commitment that Princeton University, that the administration, that the trustees, feel towards artistic expression.”

“Ever since Shirley Tilghman announced this initiative more than a decade ago now, we’ve seen a continuing increase in the number and caliber of students coming in with very strong interests in the arts, and we’ve seen continued growth in student activity,” Eisgruber explained.

The creation of opportunities for students to engage in the arts has been a need at Princeton for decades now, according to administrators, students, and alumni.

Dan Teager ’83 recalled his own experiences with the arts on campus. As a trumpet player in the jazz band, he and his colleagues pursued their musical interests largely independent of the University. Indeed, Teager says his development as a musician was “in spite of Princeton,” rather than by means of it.

“To have more spaces on campus where people can do more things, and encourage them to make their own music ... I’m delighted to see it,” Teager said. He referred to the older spaces for performers and artists on campus, such as the Woolworth Center for Musical Studies and 185 Nassau Street, as inadequate for student needs, explaining that he wishes the complex had existed during his time as a student.

The Woolworth Center “served all the purposes that it needed, but it’s also getting old,” said Kristin Hauge ’18.

“It’s also nice to have this new building now because there’s better rehearsal spaces, better practice rooms, better pianos, which a lot of people are excited about, including me.” Hauge also appreciated the extra recognition that the new Lewis Center for the Arts affords the music and other performing arts departments.

The University’s formal arts education development, as well as support for extracurricular activities in the arts, have taken another

massive step forward with the opening of the new Lewis Center, as students gain space not only for the academic study of art, but also for its practical expression and implementation.

“There’s now going to be even more space for rehearsal and performance,” Eisgruber said. “I think this will support the students who are artists on the campus right now, and it will attract even more to the school. And I think it means opportunities both for those who have various serious commitments in the arts, and think of that as a very important part of what they do, and also other students who just want an experience with the arts while they’re here.”

Orchestral performers, dancers, and other artists on campus have already started to make use of the resonant wooden practice rooms and Steinway pianos populating the buildings of the Lewis Center, as well as its many other offerings.

“The true hero is Peter Lewis of the Class of 1955,” Tilghman noted, adding that Lewis was the “angel investor” who gave the financial contributions that made the Lewis Center possible.

Those planning to attend the upcoming Festival of the Arts can visit its website at lcaopening.princeton. edu for a detailed schedule of events, maps and parking information, and email updates.

“To have the campus alive with artistic expression brings light into everyone’s life,” Pratt said.

ON CAMPUS

Kevin Kruse leads talk on racial and political atmostphere of US

By Linh Nguyen Contributor

Silent Sam is the supposedly innocuous name of a statue erected on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus in 1913.

Its benefactors, however, had less than innocent intentions upon donating the statue of the Confederate soldier, labeling it as a tribute to the cause of the Confederacy and the beginning of the Civil War. On Oct. 4, a handful of students congregated on campus at Rockefeller College to address the racial and political atmosphere of the country, particularly in light of the recent events in Charlottesville.

History Professor Kevin Kruse, an expert in 20th century U.S. history whose research focuses on segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, led the discussion. As a UNC Chapel Hill alum, it is not surprising that Kruse is especially perceptive of racial issues throughout the country.

Kruse opened the conversation by discussing the repercussions of Charlottesville and the cyclical nature of history.

“There’s a certain historical amnesia,” Kruse said.

He went on to analyze the dangers of romanticizing historical figures known for their advocacy of civil rights.

Eventually, Kruse directed the conversation toward Ivy League privilege and the obligations that accompany it. He emphasized that even in the University students’ orange bubble, it’s paramount that we stay aware of world affairs.

“You can’t understand any of American history if

you don’t understand the intersections of racism and politics,” Kruse said.

“These dialogues are vitally important.”

The students in attendance expressed positive opinions about the discussion, emphasizing the benefit of Kruse’s historical perspective.

“Kruse’s talk reminded me that it’s easy to forget, in the midst of things, that what happened in Charlottesville this summer plays a part of a larger, continuous problem in the United States,” Kevin Romero ‘18 said. “White supremacy has existed since the beginning of the American narrative, and Charlottesville not only brought it to the surface, but also challenges us—college students and everyone really—not to let it fall through the cracks this time.”

Tori Gorton ‘21, a student from the United Kingdom, found the talk eye-opening and educational as an individual unacquainted with the dark details of American history.

“It was fascinating for me to hear about the ugly history of race and politics in the country and how this is still such a pervasive issue in the U.S. despite how much progress appears to have been made,” Gorton said. “I found the dialogue about the contemporary race issues to be particularly important as the professor highlighted ways in which we, as college students, could tackle racism in our day-to-day lives as well as in whichever careers we go into.”

The talk took place over dinner in the Rockefeller College Private Dining Room at 6 p.m. on Oct. 4.

Thursday October 5, 2017

Gay: I knew I was going to be breaking rules GAY

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“from the inside.”

To a packed room, Gay began her talk with prepared remarks before moving into a discussion with Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies, and, later, a question and answer session with audience members.

She began by talking about the comic, the confusion she initially felt, and her realization that she would be the first black woman to lead a Marvel project. Not only that, but Gay would be putting black queer women — the main characters Ayo and Aneka — in the center of the story.

“Comics are a genre that has long been considered a domain of white men,” Gay said. “Rarely are people of color written into superhero narratives, and rarely are women of color written into these narratives, and rarely are women of color writing these narratives themselves.”

According to Gay, this narrative is about two women falling in love, though they are bound to Black Panther, the king of Wakanda. The two are lethal killers, servants to the leader of Wakanda, and their biggest problem, Gay noted, would end up being their love for each other.

“When you’re the first, you have no choice but to be excellent or you will be the only,” she said. “It’s an uncanny burden.”

Despite the burden, Gay explained, it wasn’t in her nature to play it safe. She told Perry that, while growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, she couldn’t play it safe — almost solely because of her identity as the daughter of Haitian immigrants in a Midwestern city.

The Daily Princetonian

“Nobody thought that a girl like me could be from the place I’m from. People have this idea about blackness, that it only exists in urban centers, and that it only exists in one form,” Gay explained. “There’s a multiplicity to blackness. And so having always been on this outside looking in, it has always given me the — I don’t know if it was courage or stupidity — to go against the grain when needed,” she said.

At the same time, she tells students in the audience that it’s not their problem to provoke change alone.

“You can’t be constantly woke because you need to sleep,” Gay said.

After the speech, Samantha Adelberg, a graduate student at the Woodrow Wilson School, said this additional emphasis on self-care while pursuing social change is what stuck out to her.

“I think that’s something, as a graduate student, is important to remember and for every student of color on campus to remember on campus. For me, it was a reminder to look out for one another and be a support for one another and take a break when we need a break,” Adelberg said.

The audience reaction was overwhelmingly positive, giving Gay a standing ovation.

“I was very overwhelmed and excited. I experienced a lot of emotions from this program, simply because of the courage and tenacity she had in the delivery and the messages that she talked about, calling out structures and systems even here,” Princeton Theological Seminary student Brenton Miles Brock said.

The talk took place in the Carl A. Fields Center around 7 p.m.

Miller: Challenge will motivate others to support campaign MCCARTER Continued from page 1

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the Arts complex, which will house music, theater, dance, and visual arts, is in close proximity to both McCarter and Berlind Theatre, solidifying the presence of the arts not only at the University, but also in the town community.

Miller hopes that Johnson’s gift will catalyze more active involvement from town members with the arts. “[The challenge grant] goes a long way to helping us achieve the goals of the campaign, but it’s also another motivating factor for other people that may be interested in supporting the arts here at Princeton to take that move and be a part of the campaign,” Miller explained.

The McCarter education department, in-school resi-

dency programs, and outreach partnerships with local nonprofits are some of the many possible recipients of this funding, Miller said.

“We try to look at [McCarter] as a public resource and a place where the community can come and feel comfortable visiting, so we try to give back to the community as much as the community has given us through a lot of our programming,” he said.

“It’s not just what we see on the two stages. There’s a lot of work going on in the community that may not be evident if you’re just coming in and seeing a show,” Miller added.

Each year, the 87-year-old theater hosts over 200 music, theater, and dance performances and other events, according to its website. In addition to performance, McCarter offers opportunities in play development, education, and community volunteering.

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Thursday October 5, 2017

Opinion

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Bicker: Its problems and how to fix them Noah Mihan

guest contributor

A

nother Bicker season has come and gone, leaving some students overjoyed and some crushed. For some of those students, bickering was a way to increase their social status, to be part of a club that everyone wants to get into. During the year, the thought of Bicker nags constantly in the recesses of their minds.

Students actively try to hang out with members of clubs, even at the expense of their old friend groups.

Every social interaction with a member of a selective club is just that much more important, more consequential. But I’m willing to wager that most students who bickered, like me, were just looking to be able to eat with their friends.

Strange, isn’t it? That even after getting into one of the hardest Universities in the world, we must apply again just to sit in the same dining hall as our friends. The Bicker clubs have discussions at the end of the Bicker process where your friends can vouch for you, your enemies can spite you, and the other 150 more-or-less strangers vote on how

much they want you in the club. When I was hosed, I heard through the grapevine that while I had good, touching support from my friends, my chances were dashed by two members who didn’t really even know me and yet said they didn’t want me in the club. As one of my best friends put it, “your social life is decided by complete strangers.” That is just so fundamentally wrong.

Now, I’m not here to say that it’s realistic to end eating clubs or even Bicker. I’m here to propose a solution. The reason why Bicker is so harmful is because of what it decides. It decides possibly the biggest part of your social life: your meals. Meals are essential to everyone’s experience at college. In fact, it’s when a lot of friendships are made and solidified. However, to deny some students entrance to what is essentially a cafeteria with their friends in it is insane. It’s fine for clubs to have tryouts, Greek life to have rush, etc. because those are not essential. Not everybody dances, wants to join a frat, or plays tennis. But meals are something everyone shares.

There are two relatively easy steps I have to mend anyone else from being

hurt or completely shut off from their friends. The first involves meal swaps.

As we all know, meal swapping is time intensive, hard to plan out, and doesn’t even start until October 9. Instead of that system, there should be sign-up lists to eat at various clubs on the Street. Obviously, since the food is better at some clubs, these lists would have caps on them, but lets be honest, most people would sign up just to see their friends.

Then, the greatest power of Bicker would be taken away — the power to keep friends from easily seeing each other for meals. Being a member of a club would still mean one can go to members nights, events, etc. It’s just that the meals would be essentially out of the equation.

The other step I am proposing has to do with Bicker itself. Every club should have positive-only Bicker. “But what if there’s someone I really hate that wants to join the club?”

Then tough luck. If someone walks into a club with 200 people in it, there are bound to be a lot of people they are friends with, but there are also bound to be people who don’t like them.

If that person really is as bad as you say, then others probably already know

about them or have had the same bad experiences with them. You should be judged completely on your positives, not on the opinions of a few.

It’s probably near-impossible to end the system of eating clubs and Bicker. No matter how much people complain about it, they will still go out in the Street in droves this spring to put themselves out there and be judged on their character by complete strangers. I’m sure everyone would agree that eating clubs themselves really segregate the campus. Athletes in Cannon don’t mix with the politics majors in Tower, engineers in Charter don’t mix with the internationals in Ivy. That’s not what college is supposed to be like. You’re supposed to mingle with people different from you, not huddle among your own kind. But hopefully, if implemented, these two rules would drastically reduce the impact of clubs, especially Bicker clubs, on students. Everyone at college should be able to eat with their friends whenever they want to.

Noah Mihan is a junior studying civil and environmental engineering and can be reached at nmihan@ princeton.edu.

WASS up with you Nathan Phan ’19

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vol. cxli

Sarah Sakha ’18

editor-in-chief

Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Kathleen Crown William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73

141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 associate news editors Kristin Qian ’18 Claire Lee ‘19 head opinion editor Nicholas Wu ’18 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Emily Erdos ’19 head sports editor David Xin ’19 associate sports editors Christopher Murphy ’20 Claire Coughlin ’19 head street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 associate street editors Lyric Perot ’20 Danielle Hoffman ’20 web editor Sarah Bowen ’20 head copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 associate copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19

NIGHT STAFF copy Elizabeth Parker ’21 Arthur Mateos ’19

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The Daily Princetonian

Thursday October 5, 2017

Leora Eisenberg columnist

A

s a Princeton student, in between dinner dates and study sessions, you sometimes find yourself completely alone. Maybe you have a phone in your hands, maybe a good book, or even a piece of homework to distract yourself with. Other times, you’re alone with your thoughts, but you look to your left and right: you see couples lovingly gazing at each other, best friends sharing secrets, and acquaintances sharing opinions on the problem set. You see so many people having fun with each other. And as you look at the invisible people next to you, you wonder: are you the only one who is totally alone?

Frank Bruni, in a column for the New York Times, recently described this phenomenon, titling it “the real campus scourge.” He reports that nearly 60 percent of college students reported feeling “very lone-

Don’t let others be lonely

ly” in the past year, and 30 percent over the past two weeks. While these numbers seem shocking at face value, they make sense. If, for example, any current sophomore ever felt lonely during their freshman year (which is very likely, given the lack of connections one has at the beginning of college), they’ve felt lonely over the past year.

I think back to myself last year as a freshman, calling my parents regularly and crying to them that I had no friends. Talking to someone I didn’t know in the dining hall was terrifying. Small talk at social gatherings, especially at the ones where upperclassmen didn’t talk to me, was daunting. Putting myself out there to clubs — where I was most likely to be rejected, but also likely to make friends — was beyond mortifying.

On a campus like Princeton’s, where we are all so concerned with grades, internships, and jobs, friendships are yet another source of stress. Who to talk to?

How to talk to them? At

Letter to the Editor: On President Eisgruber’s response Bryan Cockrell ’08

guest contributor

T

o Christopher Eisgruber, President of Princeton University: Since the November 2016 U.S. elections, you have written several public statements and letters regarding immigration.

On Nov. 28, 2016, recognizing possible threats to DACA under the future U.S. president, you wrote that campus authorities would “not disclose private information [such as citizenship status] about our students, faculty, or staff to law enforcement officers unless we are presented with a subpoena or comparably binding requirement.” On Jan. 29, 2017, in response to the executive order to ban refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days and from seven nations with Muslim majorities for 90 days, you reiterated: “We do not disclose private information about our students, faculty, or staff to law enforcement officers unless we are presented with a valid subpoena or comparably binding requirement.” I doubt that these statements provide protection or reassurance to people in especially vulnerable situations, as they basically admit that you are willing to cooperate with agencies that have a track record of dramatically endangering people’s futures.

I agree with the letters that were published in The Daily Princetonian by Jessica Sarriot and Danel Padilla Peralta last year that rightly demanded a greater commitment from you and from Princeton. I hope that you, as a constitutional scholar, remember that you are placing confidence in the same constitutional framework that today legalizes slavery or involuntary servitude of people as punishment for a crime and that has led the United

States to currently have the highest rate of incarceration of any country in the world. These laws have been designed to protect you and me, as white people. I ask you to think of people before you think of laws. As an alumnus of Princeton (’08), I question the motto “in the nation’s service,” coined by Woodrow Wilson, whose words also were hailed in “The Birth of a Nation,” and your repeated appeals to nationalism, routinely supporting immigration through the lens of productivity and the contributions immigrants bring to the United States as echoed in your recent letters to politicians on Aug. 30 and Sept. 5.

In addition to encouraging you to think of people as humans and not of people as producers, I ask, “whose country?”

The borders you preserve when you uphold the United States as a nation are the same borders that make it difficult for people to pursue new lives, to escape trauma, to reconnect with their loved ones, and the same borders that support settler colonialism, which is the foundation of the United States.

Let’s imagine and create a world without borders.

Many of us are in the United States as settlers: you, me, and people in perhaps very different situations who are caught up in the “colonial projects,” as Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang write in “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” that include “coerced immigration from nations torn

by U.S. wars or devastated

by U.S. economic policy.”

Recognizing the enormous privileges that you and I have as white settlers, I urge you to act “in the people’s service” and not “in the nation’s service.”

Sincerely, Bryan Cockrell ’08

what event? These questions ran through my mind all of last year. Every time I sat at a meal table with upperclassmen, I silently hoped that they would talk to me. They usually didn’t — they probably didn’t even think to do so — but had they asked me how I was or what I wanted to major in or even what my name was, I wouldn’t have felt that I was sitting at a table for one, full of other people. A certain upperclassman from a musical group I was in never looked my way when I passed him. I probably just wasn’t even in his consciousness; that said, his actions didn’t make my consciousness feel too valued, noticed, or, frankly, welcome on campus.

This isn’t to chastise upperclassmen; they have moments of loneliness, too.

The report that Bruni mentioned didn’t just apply to freshmen. I’ve had juniors and seniors whisper to me that they never made any good friends in college, or that they usually eat alone.

And it’s sad that we usually

don’t do anything about it, despite the fact that we have all felt lonely at some point, probably in the not-toodistant past. Yet, we sometimes brush aside those who experience it or don’t help them through it. We prefer to stick to people we already know rather than let someone know that they have been, in fact, noticed, and that their presence is valued and welcomed.

It shouldn’t take a University policy change to get people to be nicer to each other; it should take, rather, empathy and compassion, which can be sparked through campaigns and posters. Maybe it’s worth hanging up signs around campus — we do, after all, have awareness campaigns for gender and sexuality and mental health, issues pertinent to large segments of the campus population, but why not loneliness — an issue that has affected almost everyone?

We have the Princeton Peer Nightline, which provides a space for people to talk to others if they feel

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lonely. But we don’t have the infrastructure to remind people that they have an obligation to help their fellow students out when they feel like they don’t have a single friend in the world.

We haven’t developed the programming or signage to remind people to think about someone besides themselves — because, maybe, the student next to you doesn’t have anyone at all.

We don’t always know who exactly is suffering from these feelings, but it never hurts to walk together with someone new to class, start a conversation with the underclassman in choir, or (gasp!) sit next to someone new in the dining hall. Full disclosure: it takes courage, gall, and nerve to do some of these things — but if you can help someone feel a little less alone, it’s worth it.

Leora Eisenberg is a sophomore from Eagan, Minn. She can be reached at leorae@ princeton.edu.

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } WOMEN’S SOCCER

No. 6 Tigers continue to dominate opponents with stellar defense

JAMES CURRAH :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The No. 6 Tigers have taken the world of soccer by storm this season. After a hot start to the season in which they defeated ranked opponents NC State and Wake Forest - both on the road - the Tigers have continued their success into the beginnings of conference play. They currently sit at 10-1 and have won 4 in a row as their longest road trip of the season comes to an end this weekend at Brown. The Tiger defense has been the focal point of the season; currently one of the best in the nation, the Tigers have given up 2 goals all year and have already posted 9 shutouts on the season, including four in a row. Princeton is currently the frontrunner to win the Ivy League and a dark horse candidate to make noise in NCAA Tournament.

Tweet of the Day “When you send that late night “you up?” text and you see the three dots ” AJ Glass(@ AJ_Glass), Football

Stat of the Day

.182 GAA The women’s soccer team has a .182 goals against average so far this year, which is 2nd best in the NCAA

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