The Daily Princetonian: November 17, 2023

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Friday November 17, 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 23

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New state law to require suicide prevention training for NJ universities

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

By Sonia Cherian & Abby Leibowitz

other support and resources. For employees, Carebridge counseling services are available 24/7 by calling (800) 437-0911.

News Contributor & Staff News Writer

Content Warning: The following article contains discussion of death and suicide.

The state of New Jersey will soon be requiring the University to provide annual suicide prevention training for all faculty and staff. The state will implement the training beginning in the 2024–2025 academic year.

On Oct. 19, Acting Governor Tahesha L. Way signed NJ A1176, a bill which will require all New Jersey universities “an-

University Counseling Services are available at 609-258-3141, and the Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 988. A Crisis Text Line is also available in the United States; text HOME to 741741.

Students can contact residential college staff and the Office of Religious Life for

See NJ page 3

ZEHAO WU / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Please send any corrections requests to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.

U. AFFAIRS

Eisgruber takes on three-year Being thankful association role, indicating without the people continued tenure at the University I’m thankful for

By Matteo Torres

News Contributor

In a moment of major turnover for the University administration, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 just took on a three-year appointment at the Association of American Universities (AAU). On Nov. 7, the University announced that Eisgruber was selected as the vice chair of the AAU. The AAU is a national organization based in Washington, D.C. and is composed of 71 of the U.S. and Canada’s leading research institutions. Many highly selective universities are represented, making the association important in representing the interests of such institutions in Washington.

In the wake of the overturning of affirmative action this summer, selective universities have a number of interests in Washington. Some areas of conflict may include an ongoing federal inquiry into legacy admissions and a proposed increase of the endowment tax.

Eisgruber, a constitutional lawyer, has seen an increased public role since the decision.

This past month, he spoke on a panel presenting a new report from the Department of Education to the White House calling on leaders in higher education to prioritize diversity on college campuses.

Eisgruber’s appointment as vice chair is the first segment of a three-part, three-year role. He is slated to serve as vice chair from 2023–2024 and then assume the position as chair from 2024– 2025, followed by a final year as past chair. The AAU executive board has historically consisted of 12 presidents and chancellors of the organization’s member universities. Eisgruber’s acceptance of this role provides an indication that he will continue to serve as the University’s president until the completion of his responsibilities at AAU. Eisgruber’s term was extended by five years in spring 2022.

He just marked his 10th year in his role as President. The period since the pandemic has seen a

deluge of resignations or retirements of University Presidents, including presidents at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT, and Stanford. Eisgruber’s commitment to the role comes as many of the administrators surrounding him, including the Provost, Executive Vice President, and Dean of the Faculty are new to their roles.

Eisgruber’s two immediate predecessors, Shirley Tilghman and Harold Shapiro GS ’64 also served as vice chairs and then chairs of the AAU, making Eisgruber the third University president in a row to have been selected for this position.

During Tilghman’s term as vice chair, she spoke at a roundtable on endowments and college costs, stating that endowments play a “critical role in making the American system of higher education the best in the world” by reducing costs for students and supporting research.

By Mackenzie Hollingsworth

Contributing Prospect Writer

For some people, Thanksgiving is the forgotten middle child of the holidays. Halloween has months of anticipation: watching scary movies, planning a costume, and decorating the front steps.

Christmas takes plenty of planning: buying gifts, decorating the house, planning Christmas parties. Thanksgiving is left in the middle as the holiday that people use as an excuse to eat a ridiculous amount of food without being judged.

I’ve always loved

Matteo Torres is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Thanksgiving Issue HUMOR

Whitman and Butler dining halls to recreate the first Thanksgiving dinner

by Contributing Humor Writer Sawyer Dilks PAGE 10

PROSPECT

GRAPHICS

Birthday candles in the Thanksgiving turkey

by Contributing Prospect Writer Connor Romberg

What we’re thankful for

by Head Graphics Editor Noreen Hosny

PAGE 17

PAGE 24

Thanksgiving. While my mamaw and aunt would run around the kitchen, I would try to find something to help with before eventually deciding to sit in the living room and chase the kids around instead. My papaw, dad, and uncle would be talking about sports or politics or anything else I didn’t particularly care to listen to. My family was together, but Thanksgiving wasn’t a very special occasion because of this — my family has always been See THANKFUL page 16

The Daily Princetonian

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Friday November 17, 2023 STUDENT LIFE

Generational African American students build a community on campus

By Sofia Arora & Miriam Waldvogel News Contributor & Assistant News Editor

Sajan Rhea Young ’24 has a connection to Princeton going back 250 years — but not because he’s a legacy student.

Young’s ancestors hail from Rheatown, a small community in eastern Tennessee that was named for Congressman John Rhea, Class of 1780. Rhea was one of more than 1,800 members of Congress who owned enslaved people.

“The ‘Rhea’ in my middle name actually comes from a place called Rheatown, Tennessee, where all of the slaves who were owned in that area lived,” Young said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.

Young is a Generational African American, a term that, according to the granddaughter of the person who coined the term, “implies descendants of enslaved people without having to have that in the name.”

Until recently, Generational African American students didn’t have an organization specific to their community on campus. That changed with the founding of the Generational African American Students Association (GAASA) one year ago.

The number of students from Generational African American backgrounds has been part of the national conversation in the wake of the overturning of affirmative action, focusing in on the moral responsibilities incurred by historic race relations in the United

States.

“I had a hard time finding a place for me as a Black person because [for] a lot of Black students here, their family or their ethnicity is from somewhere in Africa,” said Aunyae Romeo ’26. “I don’t know where I’m from.”

“Coming into Princeton, I immediately felt anecdotally that there weren’t a lot of [Generational] African American students on campus,” said Chris Butcher ’25, who founded GAASA after talking with peers at Harvard. Talking to other African American and Black students, he realized this was a widespread feeling and decided that the University needed a space for Generational African American students.

According to Butcher’s 2022 guest contribution in the ‘Prince,’ a leader of Princeton’s Black Alumni Association once estimated “that there are around 12 Generational African Americans per class at Princeton.”

In the past year, GAASA has served as a social and community-building organization for Black students, while eyeing larger advocacy on issues specific to Generational African Americans.

“We are really passionate about forming a safe space for students and for African Americans,” Butcher told the ‘Prince.’

In addition to hosting social events typical of other clubs, such as movie nights and karaoke, GAASA has built connections with similar groups at the University’s peer institutions.

On the weekend of Oct. 20, GAASA Princeton hosted a summit for GAASA chapters from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University. The weekend included a panel discussion on the African American student experience as well as professional development opportunities, such as a speed-networking event to connect African American students with internships.

“We spent a lot of time just enjoying each other’s company and building community across our campuses,” Butcher said.

“It just felt very warm,” said Romeo, the GAASA social chair. “I felt like, ‘oh my gosh, I’m finally in a room with a whole bunch of people who actually like know what it’s like to be African American.’”

“Another standout moment was the music,” said Makenzie Hymes ’26.

“There was this one event, the cookout, with early 2000s music. And there’s so much camaraderie, everyone singing along, and that was really incredible.”

Beyond the social events, GAASA advocacy is largely focused on the impacts of the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.

“We’re working on the [admissions] pipeline and trying to do our own part in correcting a lot of… issues that occur for Generational African American students,” said Young, one of GAASA’s political action chairs.

“There’s been some literature done here at Princeton that shows that, across so-

cioeconomic barriers, African American students are underrepresented in comparison to their diasporic counterparts,” Butcher said.

A 2007 study by Princeton professor Douglas S. Massey and co-authors found that 41 percent of the Black students at Ivy League schools identified themselves as immigrants, as children of immigrants, or as mixed race.

As of the 2023–2024 academic year, 8.6 percent of undergraduate students at the University are African American. The University does not release specific numbers identifying Generational African Americans or other identities under the classification of “Black.”

To address this, GAASA is in the process of conducting a research survey to estimate the number of Generational African American students on Princeton’s campus. The goal of the survey is to address the historical impact of slavery on education outcomes for Generational African American students at Princeton today.

“We want to bring that data to University Admissions and help them brainstorm new ways to recruit and retain African American students, especially after the overturning of affirmative action,” Butcher said.

According to the ‘Prince’ Frosh Survey, 11 African and 4 Afro-Caribbean countries are currently represented by international students in the classes of 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027.

The most frequently represented countries are Kenya (11 students), Ghana (10 students), South Africa (six students), and Tanzania (six students).

There are also a wide array of Black affinity groups on campus, including the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Princeton African Students Association (PASA), as well as smaller groups focusing on female, Caribbean, Nigerian, and Ethiopian and Eritrean students.

Current GAASA board members say they are focused on building a strong foundation for the organization so that it persists even after the founding board members have graduated.

“Because we’re new, we want to make this a legacy thing. I personally have a fear that after I graduate, what’s going to happen to GAASA?” said Romeo.

Butcher is careful to consider a long-term trajectory by “thinking about how the group is going to be sustained on campus after I graduate,” he said.

Building GAASA has “definitely taught me how to think about the implications of the messaging of our events. It shows the importance of learning how to articulate an issue without alienating others in the process of advocating for yourself,” he added.

Sofia Arora is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Miriam Waldvogel is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

COURTESY OF PRINCETONGAASA INSTAGRAM.

Students from GAASA Princeton, Harvard, Penn, and Cornell at a GAASA event hosted by GAASA Princeton on the weekend of Oct. 20.

Friday November 17, 2023

“I think [NJ A1176] will have a big impact, just because I feel that there isn’t necessarily a standard for professors caring about student mental health.”

NJ

Continued from page 1

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nually train … faculty and staff on ways to recognize the signs of depression and the warning signs and risk factors associated with student suicide, and on the referral of students to crisis hotlines and mental health screenings.”

At the bill’s signing, almost all New Jersey colleges were represented, including the Council of the Independent Colleges, which Princeton is a part of. Princeton students, staff, and faculty will be impacted by this bill as the University shifts its current suicide prevention education policies to comply with the new law. Way signed the bill as Gov. Phil Murphy was traveling.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) currently has no mandatory suicide prevention skills training for faculty and staff. Dr. Calvin Chin, the director of CPS, explained in an interview with The Daily Princetonian that the University offers an optional training to all community members called Princeton Distress Awareness & Response, which “teaches participants how to recognize and respond to students in distress.”

According to Chin, the University is currently “investigating the best platform” for delivering this new mandatory training. According to the text of the bill, “This act shall take effect [immediately] in the first full 22 academic year next following the date of enactment.”

While little research has been done into the relationship between mandatory staff training and suicide prevention, N.J. State Senator Joseph Cryan, a co-sponsor of the bill, said that the bill “does things differently” because it trains people that see students every day: staff and faculty.

Cryan told the ‘Prince’ that the bill largely emerged out of community advocacy, particularly because of the work of one family who lost their child to suicide at Stevens Institute of Technology after she stopped returning their emails and communicating with faculty at her university. The bill aims to ensure that

warning signs like these do not slip under the cracks.

Jodi Schottenfeld-Roames, a senior lecturer in the molecular biology department, shared her hopes for the mandatory training as a member of University faculty.

“It has to be interactive, it has to be engaging … it has to really hit on the humanity of it and not [be] a clickable series of pages that makes sure that you’ve gotten trained,” she said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ Schottenfeld-Roames also noted her desire to see counselor and student perspectives represented in the training.

Cryan said that the bill is “fluid.” According to him, each university is required to have individuals who are trained in suicide prevention who are prepared to train all faculty and staff annually.

He worries that anytime additional training is required, “there will be people that won’t want to take it.” Additionally, the bill requires a five-year study of university spaces, part of which entails building guardrails to prevent jumping off structures. Cryan mentioned that anything that requires changing landscape tends to see opposition.

Isabella Swartz ‘24 — leader of CONTACT Princeton, a PACE center project which trains students as “crisis intervention … and suicide prevention hotline” volunteers — is hopeful about the bill’s potential to improve student wellbeing.

She told the ‘Prince’: “I think [NJ A1176] will have a big impact, just because I feel that there isn’t necessarily a standard for professors caring about student mental health.”

“I’m pretty optimistic … even if it doesn’t fully transform the entire campus, if there’s just one more professor that just is more cognizant of how to handle the situations that can still have an impact … the smallest change can do so much,” she added.

Sonia Cherian is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Abby Leibowitz is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

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ON CAMPUS

At Whig event, Cornel West GS ’80 avoids topic of presidential run at University request

By Justus Wilhoit and Sofia Arora Assistant News Editor and News Contributor

The Whig Caucus, the leftleaning side of the the WhigClio debate society, initially advertised a “Presidential Town Hall with Cornel West.”

It was one of an impressive line-up of speakers by the Whig-Clio society this semester including Gen. Mark Milley ‘80 and Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. These high-profile speaker events are part of an effort to bring in more speakers that “challenge the current dialogue and status quo,” according to Whig Deputy Chair Emily Hove ‘26.

The event was renamed to a “Conversation with Cornel West” after the University raised concerns, said Hove.

Whig-Clio officials confirmed that the University expressed that if the event was a presidential town hall, more candidates should have been invited. As a result, the event, mediated by the Whig Chair Samuel Kligman ‘26, avoided the topic of West’s presidential run altogether.

Professor emeritus and progressive activist Cornel West GS ‘80 initially entered the presidential race as a People’s Party candidate, then switched to a Green Party candidate before ultimately deciding to run as an independent on Oct. 5. Most of his work centers around political philosophy in America, including his book “Race Matters.”

The University did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

“Dr. West is here in his position as an academic. He is not here on behalf of any presiden-

tial campaign or any presidential candidacy,” said Kligman, following a question asked by Young Democratic Socialists of America Co-Chair Abraham Jacobs ‘26 on how West’s campaign could destigmatize socialism.

Instead, a key point of discussion was on West’s repeated calls for the U.S. to cease their involvement in the war in Ukraine and clashes with Harvard’s former president over his pro-Palestine politics.

On Thursday, West explained that he believed ceasefires were necessary immediately in both conf licts, but a diplomatic process must follow to ensure that lasting peace is possible.

“Ceasefires are ways in which you stop the present suffering and then recount by means of diplomatic process, those who have been treated unjustly and viciously, have voice in that process so that their peace can be connected to justice,” West said.

West called for attention to be extended beyond Europe and the Middle East. “If there were cameras in parts of Africa and Asia and Latin America and a whole host of other places that were zeroing in on barbarity, we would see that over and over and over again,” West stated.

Kligman then brought West’s domestic politics to the forefront of the discussion, asking about West’s past statements characterizing America as a “racist, patriarchal” institution. West emphasized that America is a complex and diverse country: “[America] is variety, it is diversity, not just in terms of skin pigmentation, but in a whole host of other ways.”

West recounted how during his own time at Princeton 50 years ago, he was “one of the few chocolate folks among the white crowd” when he started as a graduate student in 1973.

“I got that thug in me, just like Tupac,” West said, as he explained how his family and his time at Princeton inf luenced his intellectual and moral values through virtues of courage and resilience.

Whig specifically urged students to break the mold.

“We don’t have enough courageous voices to speak for themselves and cut against all kinds of grains and lines and labels. Why? Because we want to be successful,” West stated.

When asked whether students should focus on making change now or focus on academics to make change through future careers, West said, “Both. Raise your voice.

Then go back to Firestone and go do your work.”

Makenzie Hymes ‘26 said that hearing West speak during what she describes as a “troubling time globally” was like a “breath of fresh air.”

“Dr. West’s messages invoking African American cultural and historical moments struck a chord and validated many of my interests, which are sometimes glazed over in the other academic setting,” Hymes said.

In a message to the ‘Prince,’ Kligman said this event was Whig-Clio’s largest turnout for a speaker event since 2018.

Justus Wilhoit is an assistant News editor, a contributor to The Prospect, and an assistant Audience editor for the ‘Prince.’

Sofia Arora is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

THE MINI CROSSWORD

By Mary Christian McCoy Contributing Constructor

“O nce From the Top ”

ACROSS

1 "Eureka!"

4 One upper limit?

5 Irwin, Jobs, or Martin 6 Zits, for example 7 Grp. for healthcare in most of the U.K.

DOWN

1 They're said after prayers 2 "To ____ and to hold" 3 Cut out 4 Scratch that!

5 Word before Juan or Marino

See page 12 for more

ISA YIP/THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

A Conversation with Cornel West hosted by the Whig caucus.

MORE ONLINE

scan to read more !

The Daily Princetonian

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Friday November 17, 2023

Supporter of resigned superintendent goes down on eventful election night BEYOND THE BUBBLE

By Abby Leibowitz & Hannah Gabelnick Staff News Writer & News Contributor

It was a major night for elected officials up and down the Garden State.

Local Princeton elections were dominated by a long-running controversy about the recent resignation of Princeton Public School Superintendent Dr. Carol Kelley, and an opponent of the superintendent won a seat on the board. Democrats dominated in deep blue Mercer County and notched important wins in tightly contested state legislative elections amid major wins for Democrats nationwide.

Supporter of the former superintendent loses in school board election Five contenders ran for three spots on the Princeton School Board. Beth Behrend won reelection for her third term, while newcomers Adam Bierman and Eleanor Hubbard won seats on the board. Incumbent Michele Tuck-Ponder was unseated.

There were 15,859 votes cast, with several major issues at the heart of the race including the termination of the contract of a Princeton High School principal, a bond referendum, a middle school math grade tracking program, and the resignation of the Princeton Public School Superintendent.

After three previous attempts to win a seat on the board, Bierman sold his “outsider” status. In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, Bierman stated that “the status quo needs to be fixed,” calling the previous board “myopic, insular, and too complacent for my taste.”

Bierman blamed the previous board for hiring Dr. Kelley, whose tenure he called a “disaster.” During her term, she dismissed a well-liked Princeton High School principal. There was also controversy about whether Kelley and

a consultant that she hired were focusing on equity in math at the expense of educational outcomes, a debate that has raged across the country. Kelley resigned at the end of October.

On Oct. 30, the Board of Education voted 7-1 to accept Dr. Kelley’s resignation. Tuck-Ponder was the lone “no” vote, while Behrend supported her resignation. In an email to the ‘Prince,’ Hubbard said, “Tuck-Ponder’s failure to win re-election reflects a widespread consensus that Dr. Kelley was not a good fit for our district.” Behrend previously supported Kelley in not voting to reinstate the Princeton High School principal.

Hubbard added that she will “take part in selecting a competent, steady interim superintendent as well as a permanent superintendent who will lead our district in a positive direction.”

Another topic of the election was the district budget. Bierman wrote that “PPS has the third highest spending per student of the 97 school districts in our peer group … we have spent over 200 million dollars on our buildings, which are still in poor shape.” Among Hubbard’s goals are managing school finances in light of state changes, in her words, “coping with the fiscal pressures imposed by the 2 percent cap on property tax increases.”

Princeton voters this election cycle approved a $12.9 million bond referendum that will provide funding for security and technology upgrades at the six Princeton public schools. The bond referendum will allow schools to receive security and camera upgrades, protective window film, and upgraded doors and locks.

Princeton’s town council races were uncontested, and David Cohen (D) and Leticia Fraga (D) won re-election.

Democrats dominate in Mercer County

Daniel Benson (D) defeated Lisa Richford (R) for Mercer County Executive with 69.0 percent of the vote. Benson is currently the assemblyman for NJ District 14, but decided to run for County Executive instead of the State Assembly. The result was unsurprising in a deep blue county.

Benson told the ‘Prince’ that he hopes to fix the county’s finances. He wrote, “I’ll put an end to fiscal mismanagement by hiring qualified staff who are subject to rigorous oversight.

We will put strong financial practices in place that put us on the right track.”

When asked how he will seek to impact the Princeton University community, Benson wrote that his administration will aim to upgrade the infrastructure throughout the county, expand bike lanes, fix roads and bridges, and expand transportation equity to ensure everyone can get where they need to go. He also said that he will prioritize clean energy by increasing the number of electric vehicle chargers and working to update the vehicles county workers use.

Incumbent John “Jack” Kemler (D) was re-elected as Mercer County Sheriff. He has been Mercer County Sheriff since 2010. This year, he faced opposition from Bryan “Bucky” Boccanfuso (R) and Drew Cifrodelli (L).

The County Board of Commissioners saw four candidates run: Lucylle Walter (D), John Cimino (D), Joseph Stillwell (R), Denise “Neicy” Turner (R), with the two incumbent Democrats prevailing.

Democrats running on abortion defeat Republicans in tightly contested legislative districts At the state level, all 120 seats in the N.J. state legislature were up for election. The Princeton area was tightly contested at the State Senate and State Assembly level.

In N.J.’s 16th Legislative District which encompasses Princeton, in-

Princeton brings top investor from MIT to run PRINCO OVERLINE

By Thomas Catalano News Contributor

The wait for the fourth president of the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) is over. Vincent Tuohey, who is leaving the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will serve as the next President, according to a University announcement on Nov. 6. He will succeed current PRINCO President Andrew Golden, who will retire on June 30, 2024 after a nearly 30-year tenure.

Tuohey will arrive at Princeton following more than 13 years of experience at MIT’s Investment Management Company (MITIMCo). At MITIMCo, he served as an investment director on the Global Investment staff, managing the Institute’s multi-billion dollar portfolio of funds and direct investments. This is not the highest position at MIT’s investment company — Tuohey serves under Seth Alexander.

MIT’s endowment is significantly smaller than Princeton’s — it currently totals $23.5 billion — but the two endowments followed a similar pattern of growth over the past 10 years, including a spike in 2021.

Picking an officer from another University follows a pattern: prior to working at PRINCO, Golden was the chief coordinating officer and portfolio strategist at Duke University’s Duke Management Co. Before working at MITIMCo, Tuohey was a Senior Associate at Littlejohn & Co., a

private equity firm located in Greenwich, Conn. He is also a decorated former captain in the U.S. Army, serving from 2002 to 2006 and receiving the Bronze Star Medal in Iraq, among other accolades.

Tuohay graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master’s degree in European studies, and from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. After his service, Tuohey earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

As Golden’s tenure as PRINCO president comes to a close at the end of this academic year, he will leave behind a legacy that boasts a nearly tenfold endowment growth during his time at PRINCO. In fact, the endowment reached a $37.7 billion valuation in 2021, with a 46.9 percent return for the year — the largest return rate since PRINCO’s establishment. More recently, the University’s endowment has endured an investment loss of 1.7 percent this year and 1.5 percent last year.

The endowment for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2023 was valued at $34.1 billion. It supports nearly all aspects of the University, particularly the financial aid program, research, the expansion of the student body, service programs, and outreach initiatives for first-generation, lower-income, veteran, community college, and transfer students.

Thomas Catalano is a contributing News writer for the ‘Prince.’

LIA OPPERMAN/THE DAIILY PRINCETONIAN

A sign outside a Princeton voting station.

cumbent Andrew Zwicker (D), defeated Michael Pappas (R) and Richard Byrne (L) for the State Senate seat, securing his second term as State Senator. The margin was 55.4 percent for Zwicker and 43.2 percent for Pappas.

He first secured the seat in 2021, when he became the first Democrat to win the 16th District’s Senate seat.

Zwicker is the Head of Communications and Public Outreach at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Democrats Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis won the multi-member General Assembly district in the Princeton area over Republicans Ross Traphagen and Grace Zhang. This will be Freiman’s second term, which he won with 31,294 votes and Drulis’s first term in the Assembly, which she won with 30,793 votes. Drulis will replace Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, the first person of color and first Democrat woman to represent the 16th district, who decided not to run for a second term. The two Republicans followed closely at 25,400 for Zhang and 25,126 for Traphagan.

Jaffer is an Associate Research Scholar and lecturer at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Zwicker, Freiman, and Drulis ran on a common platform slogan, “Turning today’s challenges into tomorrow’s possibilities.” The team focused their campaign on protecting women’s reproductive freedom, fighting for fair pay for frontline workers, keeping communities safe from gun violence, expanding the senior property tax freeze, and helping restaurants and small businesses with tax relief.

The Republicans focused on education, with Pappas citing “indoctrination in schools.” Traphagan criticized “overdevelopment,” or more housing developments in the area.

Zwicker, Pappas, Freiman, Drulis, Traphagen, and Zhang have not responded to requests for comment.

Both the State Senate and the General Assembly remained majority democratic with 25 Democrats to 15 Republicans in the Senate and 51 Democrats to 29 Republicans in the General Assembly.

Abby Leibowitz is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Hannah Gabelnick is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday November 17, 2023

page 5

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Black community in historically Black Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood shrinks

By Ryan Konarska & Meghana Veldhuis Staff News Writer & News Contributor

The Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, located north of campus along Witherspoon and John Streets, is an area with rich historical and cultural significance as Princeton’s historically Black neighborhood. Yet over the last few decades, the Black population in Witherspoon-Jackson has declined.

Shirley Satterfield, President of the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, told The Daily Princetonian that when walking the streets of Princeton, she can still recall the residents who used to occupy those homes in the past.

“I looked at the houses just the other day, and I said, ‘This is the house where Mr. Tim Taylor used to live.’ It’s now just in this place where this architect works,” she said. “I could just go up and down the streets and just name the people who used to live there.”

Princeton Councilman Leighton Newlin described the importance of Princeton’s Black community and the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood to the town, the University, and the nation at large.

“Witherspoon-Jackson is the story of the plight, struggle, and resilience of Black people in America and a significant part of the history and relevance of the municipality and the University,” he said.

The ‘Prince’ examined demographic data from United States Censuses going back to 1930 and Princeton High School since the 1980s to examine how the diversity of the town and its schools have changed over time. The data shows that Princeton’s Black community is indeed shrinking, both in Witherspoon-Jackson and across the town, though Princeton’s Hispanic and Asian communities have markedly grown. These trends raise new questions about how Princeton’s Black history can be preserved in the face of demographic change and how to enshrine the stories of Princeton’s Black community for future generations.

Demographic data shows mixed trends Data dating back to 1930 shows that Princeton’s Black community has shrunk in both numerical size and percentage of the population over time, while the Asian and Hispanic populations have grown dramatically in recent

years.

Princeton’s Black population was 1,862 in 1940 and stood at 1,742 in 2020 — though over this period, the white population nearly doubled in size from just over 9,000 to 17,446 in 2020. Princeton, despite a much lower overall population, had a larger Black population in 1940 than in 2020. While the town was about 16 percent Black in 1930, it is just over five percent Black today.

To many community members, the factors behind this demographic shift are clear.

Denyse Leslie is the Managing Director of the Paul Robeson House of Princeton, a community space and museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of athlete and activist Paul Robeson and the Black history of Princeton. In an email to the ‘Prince,’ Leslie wrote, “There is no mystery here. The cost of living in Princeton and the surrounding areas is increasingly getting beyond the reach of middle-class and poor Americans.”

Councilman Newlin also said that “market forces and gentrification have taken their toll on the neighborhood and people of color who were longtime homeowners.”

“No neighborhood in Princeton is affordable,” Newlin continued.

The historical demographic data does not paint a complete picture of how the town has changed over time, as the Hispanic and Asian figures were not reported until 1980. Since reporting began for these groups, the Asian population has grown from just under four percent in 1980 to over 20 percent today, while the Hispanic population has gone from just two percent to nearly 10 percent.

The Black population has remained stagnant for a century, despite the town’s massive growth, while the Asian population has gone from under 1,000 in 1980 to almost 7,000 today.

Princeton’s changing population: neighborhood to neighborhood The ‘Prince’ organized Princeton into nine unique neighborhoods to examine how racial demographics have changed from 2010 to 2020. By looking at Census data, it is clear that Princeton is becoming more racially diverse — though the effect varies across neighborhoods.

Only two neighborhoods in Princeton are primarily made up of minority groups. One of these is the WitherspoonJackson area, which is about 40 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic, 17 percent Black, and 11 percent Asian, according to the 2020 census. The neighborhood has become more racially diverse since 2010

mostly due to increases in the Hispanic and Asian populations in the neighborhood. Both the white and Black proportions of the population declined from 2010 to 2020.

The other neighborhood is North Princeton (the area along Route 206 heading North), which experienced a dramatic demographic change from 2010 to 2020. The neighborhood went from being 58 percent white in 2010 to 43 percent in 2020, while the Asian proportion of the population doubled from 17 to 34 percent.

Other notable shifts occurred in suburban West Princeton (the area West of Elm and Springdale Roads), which went from being 78 percent white to 61 percent, and the neighborhood surrounding Littlebrook School, which went from being over 80 percent white to just 68 percent.

Most demographic shifts across neighborhoods saw decreases in the white population and increases in the Asian population. The only neighborhood to experience a significant decrease in its combined Black and Hispanic population from 2010 to 2020 was Downtown Princeton (the area between Nassau and Paul Robeson Place). There, the Hispanic population fell from over 21 to just below 12 percent of the population, while the Black population remained constant at about 10 percent.

A long history of diversity in education continues Enrollment data from Princeton High School (PHS) show changing demographics as well.

In 1988, when records became available to the ‘Prince,’ PHS had a student body that was almost 80 percent white.

But that’s changed — in the 2022 school year, the racial breakdown of PHS was 49 percent white, 26 percent Asian, 13 percent Hispanic, and five percent Black.

About seven percent of students identified themselves as mixed-race.

However, the percentage of students at PHS who identify as Black has decreased over time. In 1988, PHS was nearly 15 percent Black. This figure fell to less than 10 percent by 2000 and dropped to below five percent in 2020. 122 students at PHS identified themselves as Black in 1988 compared to just 75 today.

This decline may be the result of a “Two or More Races” option, which was not tracked until 2009. However, even if every student who identified themselves as belonging to two or more races was counted as Black, the PHS student body would still be about three percent-

age points less Black than it was in 1988.

Princeton’s schools have a long tradition of integration and diversity, having been desegregated at all grade levels for over 70 years. Prior to 1948, Princeton maintained two segregated elementary schools: the Witherspoon Street School for Black students and the Nassau Street School for white students. Princeton High School has been integrated since 1916.

Princeton integrated its elementary schools in 1948 by grouping students across the two schools by grade level, not by neighborhood or race. This integration method came to be known as the “Princeton Plan” and was considered a success.

“It’s a darn good answer for small communities’ integration problems,” said then-Superintendent Chester A. Stroup in 1954.

The “Princeton Plan” was viewed as a successful model for integration, so much so that it was featured in a documentary on WNYW (then WNEW), an independent television station in New York City, in 1964.

Albert Hines, a lifelong Princeton resident and activist, said in a documentary in 1998, “We felt proud to be a part of that plan that everybody is picking up on … It must’ve been something good because it spread to other cities.”

Community members work to preserve history In the face of high housing prices and gentrification pushing the Black community out of Princeton, many community groups and organizations are working to keep younger generations and newcomers engaged with Princeton’s Black history.

“Princeton is a globally significant town and a marquis community for social change and impact in critically important areas,” wrote Dr. Joy BarnesJohnson, the Science and Racial Literacy Administrator for Princeton Public Schools, in a statement to the ‘Prince’.

“Black people and other people of color have always been part of that legacy.”

Engaging the majority-white Princeton community with the town’s Black history has been a difficult endeavor in the past.

“Our history has been told since our ancestors were enslaved, it hasn’t been known because many Princeton residents chose not to listen or read our rich and contributing journeys,” Satterfield wrote to the ‘Prince.’

Many local organizations are actively working to overcome these challenges.

The Paul Robeson House of Princeton is using the 125th birthday of athlete, activist, and scholar Paul Robeson as a push to increase its engagement with the community and raise awareness of Black history.

In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Leslie recalled how the House has partnered with local artists to create poems, quilts, and murals celebrating Robeson and Black history and has partnered with State Senator Shirley Turner (D-NJ-15), who represents Trenton, to make Robeson’s birthday a state holiday.

Dr. Barnes-Johnson wrote how she believed Princeton’s changing demographics make the work of the House and other community-based historical organizations more important than ever.

“In the 21st century, the message of humanizing treatment of all remains a critical message for Princetonians, especially as our demographics change,” she said.

Satterfield herself has been active in promoting Princeton’s Black history. As President of the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, Satterfield led the effort to create a walking tour composed of 29 historical mark-

ers where buildings of importance to Princeton’s Black community stand or once stood.

Satterfield drew a direct link from the demographic decline of Princeton’s Black community to efforts to preserve Princeton’s Black heritage.

“You can find very few African Americans in this community anymore.

That’s why I did 29 heritage plaques. So people will always remember that the houses they are living in were sustained

by African Americans who lived here for centuries,” Satterfield said.

Housing prices and gentrification pose challenges Community leaders consistently pointed to high housing costs as the primary reason for the decline of Princeton’s Black community.

“If we had money, we could stay here.

We don’t have the money. We’re the people who work for the people with the money,” said Satterfield.

The US Census Bureau states that almost 90 percent of homes in Princeton are valued at over half a million dollars, with 39 percent having values of $1 million or more. In 2014, these percentages stood at 78 and 29 percent, respectively, illustrating how housing prices continue to climb in the town.

With rising housing costs and displacement on the rise, gentrification is often invoked as a reason to halt continued housing development in Princeton.

“The wealthy, that can demolish a home and build new, find the Witherspoon Jackson Neighborhood — and other areas where Black and Brown people have historically lived — very attractive,” said Leslie.

In regards to what can be done to preserve Princeton’s diversity, Councilman Newlin stated that he is “looking for the Witherspoon-Jackson Development Corporation to create a structure to maintain long-standing African American homes for purchase or rental by lowincome families and individuals.”

Princeton’s efforts to make housing more affordable have been stifled by community opposition and zoning barriers. In 2020, the Affordable Housing Overlay Ordinance was passed by Princeton’s Town Council to combat the 2,000-person waitlist for affordable housing in 2019. Most of the lots proposed to be designated as Affordable Housing were in Princeton’s Jugtown historic district and were matched with over 1,000 signatures on a petition to limit the new construction, as it did not fit within the Princeton Historic Preservation Ordinance.

Satterfield emphasized how Black history will remain an integral part of Witherspoon-Jackson and Princeton more broadly no matter how the community changes.

“It is the hope and the determination that this cherished 20th-century historic district will be preserved to welcome change, but to remember that residents and the labor that made it possible for the present and future residents to learn and respect the historic WitherspoonJackson community,” she wrote.

“African American history is American history; it is world history; it is a history that will endure through the blood, sweat, and faith of our ancestors and descendants.”

Ryan Konarska is an associate Data editor and staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Meghana Veldhuis is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

page 6

Friday November 17, 2023

STUDENT LIFE

As web apps age, TigerJunction promises course selection with fewer glitches

By Ava Fonss News Contributor

Students eagerly planning for next semester’s courses now have a new app to craft their schedule. TigerJunction, created by Joshua Lau ’26, plans to integrate three different apps — ReCal+, CourseGenie, and ReqTree — into a single platform.

Using the application, students will eventually be able to plan their semester schedules, map out prerequisites, and create four-year course plans. ReCal+, the semester course planning tool, is currently the only functional portion available for users.

TigerJunction comes as some of the most popular applications on TigerApps — a platform run by Undergraduate Student Government (USG) for student-built programs — continue to age. PrincetonCourses, an app to view course reviews, and TigerPath, an app to map out degree requirements, were COS 333 projects in the spring of 2017 and the spring of 2018, respectively, while TigerBook, a directory with student pictures, is currently being rebuilt. Lau is also a developer for TigerApps. No-

tably, Lau’s app began as a COS 333: Advanced Programing Techniques project in the spring of 2014.

According to Lau, TigerJunction had about 400 users prior to the release of spring course offerings, and the application now has about 900 users.

The initial inspiration to create TigerJunction came from deficiencies that Lau noticed in ReCal, one of the most popular course selection tools among students. For example, many students have experienced difficulties loading ReCal in their browsers leading up to the course enrollment deadline. TigerJunction, however, intends to resolve these issues by using a serverless hosting style.

“The way ReCal is currently hosted is it has its own dedicated virtual machine, which means that once the resources of that machine fill up, it stops working and someone has to manually increase the size of the machine to make it work again,” Lau said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “When nobody is using TigerJunction, the server essentially does not exist, but when a thousand people are using TigerJunction at once, the server scales

up to meet the requirements of all of those users.”

Beyond resolving technical issues, Lau also incorporated additional features into ReCal+, such as searching by classes without schedule conflicts.

“The reason I started using the app was because it was very inconvenient for me to transition between multiple different sites while selecting my courses. TigerJunction provides a central location for the different sites I use like Princeton Courses, the registrar, and ReCal all combined into one,” said David Wang ’27, a user of the ReCal+ portion of TigerJunction.

Other users enjoy the ability to customize the interface of TigerJunction by switching to ‘dark mode’ and making their own theme.

“I love how you can turn on night mode and make the screen background dark,” Helena Richardson ’26 told the ‘Prince.’ “I also really enjoy the filters, and it’s less glitchy than ReCal.” Besides ReCal+, TigerJunction is also based on features from the existing TigerApps of TigerSnatch, TigerMap, TigerPath, and Princeton Courses. Lau saw an opportunity to

consolidate all their features in one app to make the student experience of selecting courses easier.

CourseGenie, the portion of TigerJunction that will allow students to create four-year plans based on their intended majors, minors, and certificates once it is released, was primarily inspired by TigerPath. While the first phase of CourseGenie will be similar to TigerPath, Lau said that the final version will allow students to filter out classes that students don’t have the prerequisites for and “recommend students courses they might enjoy based on courses they’ve taken before. According to Lau, an “AI-driven course suggestion” will also be incorporated into CourseGenie within the next few years.

“I think the CourseGenie part could be useful so that I don’t accidentally not graduate,” Alex Picoult ’26 said.

“By collecting data over the years about which courses students liked and which courses students didn’t like, as well as things like course ratings and evaluations, I want to create a system that essentially acts like an academic advisor,” he said. “It could ask students questions, and with

that provide them with courses that not only match their potential plans but also match what they might enjoy in a class.”

ReqTree, the third portion of TigerJunction, will help students visualize relationships between class prerequisites. ReqTree is also planned for release in January.

“Let’s say you want to take a certain certificate, but this certificate has a requirement that you need a bunch of prerequisites for. Right now, it’s hard to envision all of the prerequisites,” Lau said. “RecTree is going to visualize what your prerequisites are, so if you have your path, it will show what prerequisites you need to get to that path.”

Since TigerJunction’s launch, Lau has been working to incorporate feedback from users.

“Something I added very recently was integrated professors, so you can now see professors in the advanced search settings,” he said. “That was something one of my friends requested. I always want to be adding new features.”

Ava Fonss is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

DATA

Do residential colleges have enough custodial staff?

By William Neumann Contributing Data Writer

As campus has expanded over the past few years, Princeton has opened two new residential colleges, which feature more gender neutral bathrooms than their Gothic-style predecessors. An analysis

by The Daily Princetonian found that the number of custodians varies widely across the relatively equally-sized residential colleges.

According to Princeton Facilities website, Princeton custodians have a variety of roles for a salary of just over $20 an hour.

The job includes “performing routine cleaning duties, such as dusting, mopping, vacuuming, restocking, and refilling in different spaces across campus including restrooms.” The website also says that they may assist with snow removal activities and minor maintenance such as adjusting furniture.

Richard Brown, the Assistant Director for Building Services, wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince’ that “the custodial-staff-toresidential-college ratio can vary depending on the size of the college, the number of students, and the specific demands of the campus.” He added that custodial

staff often work in shifts and that “their scheduling considers peak usage times and critical cleaning needs, which may vary from one location to another.”

To analyze the levels of custodial staffing across Princeton’s residential colleges, we pulled data on the number of custodians in each residential college from the Facilities website as well as the numbers of freshmen and sophomores living in each residential college from the Residential College Student Facebook. Juniors and seniors are not included in these numbers because only a small percentage of them still live in the residential colleges, but if they were, the student-to-custodian ratio would increase with the addition of these upperclassmen.

Forbes has the highest student-to-custodian ratio with 83 students per custodian while New College West (NCW) has the lowest ratio: 26 students per custodian. Forbes likely has the largest studentto-custodian ratio because of the large number of private bathrooms that do not require custodial attention since students are responsible for private bathrooms.

However, Rockefeller College —where the vast majority of bathrooms are communal— has a ratio of 69 students per custo-

dian, meaning a custodian in Rockefeller serves more than two times as many students as a custodian in NCW. The University did not provide the ‘Prince’ with the number of bathrooms in each residential college. However, the ‘Prince’ was able to estimate the number of bathrooms in Yeh College by walking through the entirety of the residential college. Yeh College has a total of 113 toilets and 113 showers, indicating a total facility number of 226. Assuming every custodian is responsible for cleaning bathrooms, that means that each custodian is responsible for regularly cleaning roughly 23 bathrooms each week. Yeh has one of the lowest student-to-custodian ratios on campus, but this statistic could be explained by the number of gender neutral bathrooms in Yeh and NCW, which were completed in 2022.

Annie Wang ’27, a student living in Joline Hall in Mathey College which has 56 students per custodian, told the ‘Prince’ that she doesn’t “spend much time in [her] dorm or hall.” She also described how she sees the bathrooms as “clean, for what they are” and does not attribute any uncleanliness to understaffing.

Assistant Director of Building Services

Richard Brown emphasized that “it’s also important for students to take responsibility for the spaces they use,” noting that “simple practices like cleaning up after yourself, disposing of trash properly, and reporting issues can go a long way in keeping restrooms clean.” He added that “student groups, residence hall associations, and campus organizations can work together with the custodial operations team” to ensure cleanliness.

Recently, students in Holder and Henry Halls have experienced plumbing predicaments and unpleasant odors, which took several days to resolve. Holder Hall is a part of Rockefeller College, which has the most students per custodian among the residential colleges.

William Neumann is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday November 17, 2023 DATA

page 7

5 takeaways from Princeton’s tax returns

By Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko & Myles Anderson Assistant Data Editor & Staff Data Writer

Nonprofit organizations, including Princeton, must fill out the Form 990 – a tax form detailing finances for everything from total investment income to the highest-paid employees. The Daily Princetonian analyzed the University’s public tax records in search of intriguing data. Records include contributions to government organizations, assistance with financing homes for employees, and payroll of big-name professors.

Through further comparisons of Princeton’s finances to the 990s of peer institutions Harvard and Yale, we explored how Princeton distributes its substantial budget — from the roughly $400,000 spent on lobbying to the over $250 million earmarked for financial aid.

The highest paid professors are paid less than at Harvard and Yale The highest paid individual listed as a “professor” on Princeton’s Form 990 is David Lee GS ’99, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and the former Provost. His total compensation was $601,335, much lower than the highest paid professors at Harvard and Yale — both universities with endowments larger than Princeton’s, but also with larger student bodies.

Harvard’s highest paid individual listed as a member of the “faculty” was David Malan, professor of Harvard’s popular computer science course CS50, whose total compensation was $1,597,747, while Yale’s best compensated faculty member was Murat Gunel, chair of the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery, with a total compensation of $1,623,494. While there are professors who have higher total compensation, they have higher administrative titles, such as Dean or Provost.

Millions given in mortgage assistance to employees The University offers loans to its employees, typically in the form of mortgages. In the fiscal year ending in June 2022, Princeton reported loaning mortgages to twelve “key employees” or “officers,” with an average loan of just over half a million dollars.

In comparison, Harvard reported loaning money to five employees for the construction or purchase of a home. Each individual borrowed on average $750,000, higher than the average mortgage Princeton loaned. Yale issued loans to two individuals for the purpose of housing, though these individuals borrowed only $150,000 on average.

The average cost of a home in Princeton is $858,468, as compared to $980,849 in Cambridge and $278,476 in New Haven, according to Zillow.

According to University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss, these loans are part of a “program designed to attract and retain excellent faculty and senior staff,” and the program is typical for “educational institutions in high cost of living areas.”

The University offers multiple homeownership programs for faculty and staff. Its Standard Mortgage Program offers mortgages at 20 percent below the “prevailing local commercial rate for residential mortgage loans.” The Standard Mortgage Program is available for faculty and research scientists with three-year appointments or longer, as well as other higher-level em-

ployees. In order for a property to be eligible for the program, it must be located within nine miles of the main campus, though properties in Trenton are also eligible. Beyond the Standard Mortgage Program, Princeton’s Tenancy-in-Common program offers additional homeownership assistance, but only for tenured faculty and senior staff. It funds up to one third of the purchase of a home in exchange for the University owning a third of the property and collecting a third of the net sales proceeds or fair market value when the house is sold.

Donations to non-profits, three Universities, and the Triangle Club Princeton gives a number of grants to nonprofits and government organizations. In line with Princeton’s commitment to public service, these grants are largely to nonprofits and the local government. Princeton’s largest contribution was by far their contribution to the municipality of Princeton.

Princeton also donated to Princeton Public Schools, the Princeton Fire Department, the Princeton First Aid Rescue Squad, and West Windsor Township.

From 2014 through 2022, the University held a contribution agreement with the Town of Princeton, through which they contributed 21.8 million dollars to the town — according to a statement by Eisgruber, the purpose of the agreement was to affirm the “University’s ongoing support for the community.”

The 3.8 million dollars they reported in their 2021-2022 Form 990 was a voluntary contribution that the University made to the town beyond the agreement. The University made a similar contribution in 2022. The University’s voluntary contributions to Princeton town government made up 0.16% of its total expenses of $2,369,524,000 in fiscal year 2022. This calculation includes contributions listed on the Form 990 to the town government, Princeton Public Schools, and the Princeton Fire Department. Given that the Princeton municipal budget, which does not include public schools, totaled $67,213,266 in 2021, these voluntary contributions from the University made up 5.6 percent of the town’s budget.

Historically, there have been disputes over whether some of Princeton’s properties should be considered tax-exempt as they provide revenue to the University. Starting in 2023, some of the properties with revenue-generating activities, such as McCosh Infirmary and Frist Campus Center, have been removed from the tax rolls. To make up for the lost revenue to the town, the University will make PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) payments to Princeton Public Schools.

Princeton also donates to a number of education non-profits, such as Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) and some scholarship-granting programs.

In addition to a $304,000 contribution, Princeton also gave LEDA $662,479 for “conference services.”

LEDA hosts a tuition-free summer program at Princeton. Other sponsors of LEDA include McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, Former University President Shirley Tilghman, and the New York University School of Law. Princeton also contributed to three other universities: The University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College, and the American University of Beirut. All three of these donations were described as “con-

tributions.”

The only student organization outside of the University that Princeton contributed to was Triangle Club, to which it gave $178,340. A trustee of Triangle Club declined to comment on the contribution.

According to the University’s Office of Finance and Treasury, “As a general rule, the University does not contribute financially to other registered not-for-profit charitable organizations.” Hotchkiss, however, stated that “the University’s Department of Community and Regional Affairs reviews requests from local non-profits and looks to provide program support for organizations in the Princeton area who provide important services and resources to the community.”

He elaborated that “all contributions are evaluated to assure that they support the Princeton community at large.” The University also has “agreements with various government agencies regarding annual contributions,” such as the Municipality of Princeton. Harvard and Yale also made a number of contributions to charities and educational institutions, such as charter schools in New Haven and the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

More spent on financial aid for graduate students On the most recent Form 990 from 2022, the University reported giving $161,333,330 in tuition aid and $35,798,131 in non-tuition aid to undergraduates, for a total of

$197,131,461. Since then, this number has increased significantly; according to a 2023-24 press release, the undergraduate financial aid budget is now a massive $268 million dollars. Despite having almost twice as many undergraduate students as graduate students, Princeton gives about twice as much money in nontuition grants to graduate students as undergraduates. Princeton also allocates about the same amount towards tuition scholarships for each population – $161,333,330 and $147,004,642, respectively. Princeton guarantees full funding to every graduate student, meaning the University will cover both their tuition and living expenses, while for undergraduates, Princeton will meet full financial need.

Nearly half a million spent on lobbying Princeton also reports spending about $400,000 on direct lobbying expenses to legislative bodies.

Princeton’s lobbying efforts are handled by the University’s Office of Government Affairs. The Office of Government Affairs is headed by Gadi Dechter, the Vice President of Communications and Governmental Affairs. His role is to advocate for “the priorities of Princeton and higher education more broadly,” as well as to provide “strategic communications and federal relations advice to the President and other senior University leaders.”

The office monitors a number of issues, listed on their website as appropriations, fusion, higher educa-

tion policy, immigration, research and science policy, and tax. Since PPPL is a Department of Energy National Laboratory, the Office of Government Affairs monitors fusion policy. Immigration policy also impacts Princeton’s ability to recruit students and faculty from around the world, as such, Eisgruber has historically advocated for immigration policies, such as the continuation of the DACA program, that would enable more people, particularly students, to be able to immigrate to and stay in the United States.

According to Hotchkiss, the University’s lobbying efforts broadly attempt to “influence legislation through communication with members of a legislative body or a governmental official who is participating in formulating this legislation.” Specifically, the University lobbies for “support for federal agencies…that fund basic research,” “advocat[es] for policies that promote the University’s goals of attracting students and scholars from around the world,” and “press[es] for federal commitment to providing greater educational opportunities for all students, such as legislation to double the maximum amount of the Pell Grant for low-income students.”

Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko is an assistant Data editor for the ‘Prince.’

Myles Anderson is a staff Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

page 8

Friday November 17, 2023

INVESTIGATION

‘Our community has become a commodity’: How Princeton’s historically Black community is fading

By Charlie Roth Head Data Editor

Silas “Bud” Massey, Jr. doesn’t have much time to relax or chat on the phone. At 80 years old, after two brief retirements, Massey is back at work part-time as a driver at the Institute for Advanced Study. He says he can’t afford to retire.

Massey didn’t hesitate to say what forced him to go back to work: the Princeton-wide tax revaluation.

“I wasn’t getting that much from social security and my pension … I wasn’t making that kind of money,” Massey said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.

Massey has lived in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, Princeton’s historically Black neighborhood, for his entire life. When Princeton conducted a tax revaluation in 2010, he wasn’t expecting much change — however, his property taxes nearly doubled.

The Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood has a long and important history for Princeton’s Black residents as an eight-block island segregated from the rest of the town. Black people settled in what is now the neighborhood in the 1700s and the area expanded throughout the 1800s and early 1900s. The community had its own YM/YWCA and library. Many of the buildings are still standing, including Mt. Pisgah AME Church built in 1860.

The neighborhood has been the affordable centerpiece for the Black community in Princeton for over a century, according to an interview with Princeton Councilmember Leighton Newlin. At the neighborhood’s height in the 1950s, it had four churches, a hospital, and their own newspaper (the Citizen). But in the past few decades, residents say that the once tight-knit community has faded, along with the neighborhood’s affordability. “[Black people] don’t represent anywhere near the percentage of homeowners in this neighborhood now [than as we used to],” Newlin said. “The tax implications of that [2010] revaluation, I would say, seriously accelerated the gentrification of the neighborhood.”

After combing through hundreds of pages of tax records for the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood from 2007 to 2010, a ‘Prince’ investigation found that after the 2010 revaluation, property taxes in the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood increased by over $1,700 on average, nearly a 25 percent increase from the previous year. This came after taxes increased by $80 between 2007 and 2008 and $445 between 2008 and 2009.

“Black people can’t live in Princeton no more,” Massey told the ‘Prince.’ “Taxes too high. I don’t care what kind of job they get. Taxes too high for them.”

Because the tax records were not digitized, the ‘Prince’ manually entered tax values for the 393 properties in the neighborhood. Together, this totals nearly 2,000 manually entered individual data points.

For 12 of the cases, property taxes doubled from 2009 to 2010. One of those homeowners was Richard Jackson, who still remembers seeing what he owed in property taxes for 2010, more than a decade later.

“I was shocked,” Jackson told the ‘Prince’ in an interview. “But I’m trying to deal with it the best way that I can.”

The increases were concentrated on the streets with the most properties. On Birch Avenue and Leigh Avenue, where half of the residents

in the neighborhood live, property taxes increased by nearly 50 percent on average.

According to Neal Snyder, Princeton’s Tax Assessor, residents’ property taxes increased dramatically because the assessed value of their land increased significantly in the 2010 revaluation. Multiple factors contribute to a property’s value, but Snyder says that the most important is the market value of a property.

“We’re reviewing the accuracy of their property valuation,” Snyder told the ‘Prince’ in an interview. “Not the tax dollars that they’re paying for their property.”

Snyder said that the jump in property taxes was high because the properties were undervalued before the 2010 revaluation.

After the revaluation, property values in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood more than doubled on average, from nearly $150,000 to nearly $375,000. Still, residents had no way of knowing their properties were being under-assessed, and the tax increases in 2010 came as a surprise to many residents.

“We didn’t know why [the evaluators] increased it so much, and they said it’s because they hadn’t done an evaluation in such a long period of time, and it was needed, and that’s why it increased by so much. That shouldn’t be our fault,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s home, which used to belong to his grandmother, increased in value from $62,900 before the evaluation to $232,000 after the evaluation. His property taxes more than doubled from $2,282 in 2009 to $5,435 in 2010. He says he hasn’t made any changes to the home since the previous revaluation in 1996 and noted his frustration and confusion with the evaluation process itself.

Massey also expressed his displeasure with the revaluation process.

“They didn’t assess anything. That was just a bunch of bull,” he said.

Snyder said that the market for homes in Witherspoon-Jackson had increased considerably before the revaluation. “[Homeowners] didn’t have to do anything [to their homes],” Snyder said. “It’s just that the land value, the whole package compared to the last revaluation, went up considerably.”

One of the contributing factors to increasing market values is the increased interest in the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood because of its affordability, both from potential buyers and developers.

The same goes for home sales: if a nearby home is sold, its sale price affects the values of neighboring properties, according to Snyder.

With each high-value sale, the value of other properties in the neighborhood increases, creating a seemingly endless loop of property value increases that eventually are reflected in revaluations and corresponding property tax assessments.

Snyder emphasized that this change in market value is what affects property taxes. Home sales affect the neighborhood “whether they tear them down, or they rehab them, or just move into them. It’s whatever the market bears in that neighborhood,” he said.

Sale prices for property in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood have increased more dramatically than in the town of Princeton as a whole between 2000 and 2022.

Over the 22 year period, the average sale price has steadily increased in the neighborhood to more than five times its value in 2000, according to a ‘Prince’ analysis. This increase is greater than the average over the

full Princeton township, where sale prices tripled in that time, as did the average home cost in the United States.

Shirley Satterfield, the director of the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society, told the ‘Prince’ that there has been pressure on residents from developers to sell their homes.

“I get calls from contractors calling me all the time [asking me] do you want to sell your house,” Satterfield said.

The neighborhood also attracts investors looking to purchase a home, rent it, and later sell it for a profit, according to Eileen Logue, who invested in a home on Birch Avenue.

Logue, who lives in San Diego, told the ‘Prince’ that the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood fit her investment criteria perfectly.

Logue wanted to invest in a property in a “smaller town that had a university,” and noted that such locations would “have the culture that you wouldn’t get in most American small towns.” She said her family chose the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood because “it was the only smaller, more affordable part of Princeton … we just thought ‘oh, this could be up and coming.’”

Logue told the ‘Prince’ that she held the investment property for seven years. The value of the property increased by only $26,500 over that period, and she attributes the small profit to the housing bubble.

Satterfield, on the other hand, is living in a house originally built by her uncle and says she’s trying to keep her family’s homes in her family as much as possible.

“It’s really hard every time I pass these houses and see what’s happened to the houses for people who used to live in them,” Satterfield said. “Our community has become a commodity.”

Bruce Afran, a Princeton lawyer and professor at Rutgers, told the ‘Prince’ that he had a different explanation for why taxes increased so much after the revaluation. He represented Princeton residents who sued the township and borough of Princeton in 2011 after, the suit argues, the homes of lower-income families saw a tax increase while the most valuable properties saw a tax decrease. The plaintiff’s complaint argued that during the revaluation, the assessors “arbitrarily” grouped the wealthier homes with the lowincome homes, forcing the assessment to average the values of the drastically different properties.

“There was absolutely no reason to put the two in the same district.

They’re completely different communities,” Afran said.

A ‘Prince’ analysis found that property taxes increased in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, where properties were, on average, valued less than $150,000.

Taxes decreased by four percent in West Princeton, where homes had been valued in the multi-millions.

Though Afran and his clients originally wanted a new revaluation, the cost made it infeasible. Instead, they settled for new rules in future revolutions. According to the settlement, the town council now must approve the revaluation committee, instead of it just being the tax assessor’s decision, and the public can weigh in on tax districts and other decisions like contracts via public comments and meetings.

“If this happened again, where Witherspoon-Jackson was lumped in with the upper-class part of the community, people could immediately

go to court to seek an injunction to stop this process. But nobody could do that before, because no one knew about it until it was over,” Afran said.

“This will empower people in the community.”

Residents of the WitherspoonJackson neighborhood also attempted to curb market value increases by petitioning the town council to designate the neighborhood as an official historic district. The designation, which they received in 2016, restricted the types of modifications that could be made to the properties and imposed certain burdens on the upkeep and repair of the properties.

Other historic districts include Prospect Avenue.

Residents whose families have lived in the neighborhood for generations are leaving because they can’t afford to pay the increased property taxes on the properties, according to Newlin.

In her 2017 book on the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, “I Hear My People Singing,” former Princeton professor Kathryn Watterson wrote that residents are finding their homes less affordable and the option of moving more tempting.

She wrote that the “New Great Migration” is affecting younger families in Witherspoon-Jackson who may move “back south” for a lower cost of living and economic opportunities. But it also affects older residents who have lived in the neighborhood for decades.

“Older Witherspoon residents on limited or fixed incomes keep watching their tax bills go up and become more difficult to pay. The offers, which come in regularly on their properties, can be tempting as they approach end-of-life decisions,” Watterson wrote.

Those who do move may have a hard time coming back, Satterfield told the ‘Prince.’ She said that people who moved from their family homes have no way of returning if they want to. “[They] can no longer come back and be in these homes because of the taxes,” Satterfield said. “This used to be a redlining district … now this is prime property.”

Still, some older residents decide to stay — whether out of pride or to preserve their family history, among other reasons. Jackson and Massey both told the ‘Prince’ they take advantage of New Jersey’s senior freeze on property taxes, which allows citizens over the age of 65 to “freeze” their taxes.

“This was my mother’s house way back in the day,” Massey said. “I didn’t want anything to happen to it regardless, so I was gonna do whatever I could do to keep it. She did all she could do for nothing if we just settle out and move out.”

“When I move, I’ll be in that box.

They’ll carry me out of here. I won’t be walking,” he added.

“You know what they call that,” Newlin, sitting next to Massey, laughed. “The upper room.”

“That’s right!” Massey responded.

“This is where I’m gonna be buried at, right here.”

The effects on the WitherspoonJackson community Jackson said that the changes have affected the character of both the neighborhood and the relationships between neighbors. “​​The community is not the same as it used to be,” Jackson said. “The people who used to live here cared about their community. Now it’s a little bit different, where you have a lot of renters and people who come

and go.”

Massey spoke brightly of his childhood in Witherspoon-Jackson and how close everyone there used to be, but his tone darkened when talking about the community now.

“I don’t know nobody now,” Massey said. “I’ve been here all my life. I don’t know nobody in this town.”

“Well,” he laughed to Newlin sitting next to him. “I know Leighton.”

Newlin, who was part of the team that petitioned to make Witherspoon-Jackson a historic neighborhood, said that the designation has been a huge help in preserving the neighborhood, but the requirements that come with it could be difficult for people with lower incomes.

“In some ways, it has become more challenging, especially for the people that live in a neighborhood who are still of low and modest means and just trying to hang on after they were hit with that huge tax increase 13 years ago now,” Newlin said. “Many of us are just hanging on by the hairs of our chinny chin chin.”

Newlin described the neighborhood as the center of the Black community.

“In the early fifties when I grew up here in Princeton, the Princeton that I knew ended at Jackson Street … Everything that African Americans and Italian Americans needed in Princeton [was in the neighborhood],” Newlin said. “From butcher shops to the social clubs, to churches, to bodegas, to hair salons, to barber shops, to bakers, to candlestick makers, to the seamstress, and the domestic workers.”

Jackson was born and raised in the neighborhood and reminisced about his childhood in Witherspoon-Jackson.

“Everything was fun. It was peaceful. Everybody knew each other, everyone took care of each other … It was a good place to grow up,” he said.

Satterfield also grew up in the neighborhood, and likened it to a “Black Wall Street.”

“Every house was a candy store or a beauty parlor,” Satterfield said.

“This was our community and we didn’t worry about not being able to go to Nassau Street and shop. But we didn’t need to. We had everything in our community. All of that is gone now.”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad change,” she continued. “It’s just different. It’s just that we know how people with money can get what we can no longer afford.”

Newlin hopes the historic designation will slow both the jumps in property taxes, as well as the construction and development that often cause them. As a town councilmember, he says he is working to help people struggling in both Witherspoon-Jackson and throughout Princeton.

“I’m hopeful that some types of programs like financial aid help through organizations like the Witherspoon-Jackson Development Corporation, working with the University, and other avenues can be explored and initiated to help people that really need help,” Newlin said.

“Princeton is a gated community, and there are a lot of people who are struggling all the same to pay the exorbitant amount of taxes that are growing here all the time and need some kind of help to age in place, especially old people. And that’s something we’re working on,” he added.

Charlie Roth is a head Data editor and a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Friday November 17, 2023

The Daily Princetonian

This Week in Photos

Eight points: Princeton’s football loss to Yale in photos Despite the emotion and excitement, the Tigers lost against the Yale Bulldogs in this year’s football season, our photographers captured the raw emotion in the moment in this photo essay.

Ammaar Alaam & Ryland Grahm Contributing Photographers

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Hum r

Laundry rooms to be list-only on Tuesday before Thanksgiving

By Spencer Bauman Head Humor Editor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, many students are securing seats on trains, buses, and planes to return home. However, unlike previous years, students also need to procure “laundry list-spots” in order to finish their laundry before leaving campus for break. This comes as a result of a new campus policy designating laundry rooms in all dorm buildings “list-only” on Tuesday, Nov. 21, the last day of class before Thanksgiving break.

University Facilities explained in a memo sent to all undergraduates that, “following last year’s long lines and machine-hogging, students will need to get a spot on each laundry room’s list in order to use the washer and dryer.”

Following the memo, facilities staff noticed a shift in their interactions with students. Some explained that students are more friendly and grateful, now complimenting their outfits and thanking them profusely for their work.

“I feel like a Cap and Gown officer with a Capmandu pass an hour before the list closes. It’s crazy!” said one unnamed facilities worker.

Other staff members reported receiving gifts from students who seem to be “out of clean clothes” and “wearing the same stained

‘Class of 2024’ crewneck everyday”.

Additionally, students have already begun to trade their listspots, hoping to get both the best machines and best times.

“Everyone is bugging me because they know I got Washer #01 at 11 a.m.,” said Dee Terjent ’25, a resident in Henry Hall. “It’s the

closest washing machine to the dryers, so you don’t have to hold your wet clothes for a long time while transferring.”

Spencer Bauman is the head Humor editor and a member of the class of 2025. He can’t remember which laundry machine he put his clothes in.

JOSÉ PABLO FERNÁNDEZ GARCÍA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Whitman and Butler dining halls to recreate the first Thanksgiving dinner

By Sawyer Dilks Contributing Humor Writer

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

Whitman and Butler Colleges are collaborating to “recreate the first Thanksgiving” next Thursday in a way that is both “totally accurate” and “respectful,” according to a joint statement from the residential colleges.

“As a holiday that truly exemplifies American culture and values, we wanted to provide students with an immersive experience that they’ll never forget,” Cole Lumbus, Head of Dining Services for Whitman College wrote in a statement to The Daily PrintsAnything.

Following the closure of the Wu-Wilcox dining hall, Butler students had to turn to the Whitman dining hall for the closest sustenance.

“This Whitman welcome directly

parallels how the Native Americans graciously welcomed the Pilgrims to the new world,” Lumbus wrote.

Indigenous@Princeton told the ‘Prints’ in response, “That’s really not what happened at the first Thanksgiving” May Fleur, Head Dining services for Butler College, wrote in her own statement that, “Enriching students in our rich American history is a wonderful way for them to see what historical places like Princeton are all about. By recreating the

PAINTING BY JLG FERRIS, 1932 / LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. CC BY-NC

First Thanksgiving Dinner — a totally welcoming event that championed peace and equality — we hope students will likewise build a sense of community here.”

Indigenous@Princeton commented again, this time just sending a voice memo recording of a heavy sigh to the ‘Prints.’

In order to make the dinner as accurate to the time-period as possible, traditional dishes such as pies and mashed potatoes will not be present. Princeton Dining Services also noted that students will have to harvest all the ingredients necessary for the event themselves following a hike to the woods at the Institute for Advanced Study.

As a final note, Fleur emphasized to the ‘Prints’ that “respect for the heritage and culture behind Thanksgiving is at the forefront of our concerns. Before the meal begins, we will collectively recognize that it is being hosted on lands originally belonging to the students of Whitman.”

Fleur was also asked about whether the event would also recognize that the University itself was built on the indigenous land of the Lenni-Lenape people, but declined to comment.

Sawyer Dilks is a contributing Humor writer from the class of 2027. As someone of Native American ethnicity, he reminds students not to dress up for Thanksgiving, no matter how appealing the clearance sales at Spirit may be.

Hum r

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‘Saltburn’ is coming out in time for a family-friendly Thanksgiving

By Mya Koffie & Sophia Varughese Contribting Humor Writer & Associate Humor Editor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional. “‘Saltburn’ is a darkly luscious portrait of obsession and visceral wanting,” says Entertainment Weekly about this

year’s newest psychosexual thriller.

With “Saltburn” set to release to the public on Nov. 22, it’s the ideal movie to enjoy as you and your loved ones celebrate all you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The R-rated drama depicts the development of an obsessive male-on-male friendship over a steamy, rave-filled summer. “‘Saltburn’ is a sexual revolution that’s suitable for the whole family,” said the Coca Cola FreestyleⓇ section of

the AMC website. “So, this Thanksgiving, feast on some turkey, then feast your eyes on Barry Keoghan’s surprisingly adequate exposed penis.”

We spoke to some students about their opinions on the movie and its timely release date.

“Most of my extended family is coming for the premier. We’ve already booked out ‘Pleasure Emporium,’ our local movie theater,” said Hugh O’Brien ’27.

“Both of my grandmas’ favorite genre of movie is, after all, neuro-sensual nailbiter, so I know they’ll be into it.”

Xavier Alexandrius ’24, who requested we mention their major in French and Italian and certificates in both Jazz and Humanistic Studies, shared their thoughts on the movie after viewing the advanced screening at the Garden Theater. “This cinematographic realization is a serendipitous blend of all the finest aesthetic idiosyncrasies of ‘Euphoria’ and ‘Gone Girl.’ It’s a love-child with magnificent genes that controversially comments on the depths of the human psyche.”

“My family doesn’t get along that well, but after seeing ‘Saltburn,’ I think that this movie has real potential to help us forge deeper bonds this holiday,” said Maybelline Cronk ’25. “I’m really hopeful for what this film could mean for us.”

Mya Koffie is a first-year contributing Humor writer. They will not be taking either of their grandmas to see ‘Saltburn’ on Thanksgiving or anytime else.

Sophia Varughese is an associate humor editor who will be writing borderline illegal ‘Saltburn’ fanfics all Thanksgiving break. She doesn’t care what you think.

JEAN SHIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Honor Committee to pardon one violator for Thanksgiving

By Sophia Varughese & Ben Kim Associate Humor Editor & Senior Humor Contributor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

Taking inspiration from the presidential turkey pardoning that occurs yearly on Thanksgiving, the Honor Committee has announced they will also be pardoning one student accused of violating the Honor Code.

“As we give thanks this fall, we should also forgive,” said Chair of the Honor Committee Ross Ponsabiliti ’24. “In that spirit of forgiveness, we’re offering a second chance at a legitimate academic career to one lucky offender.”

Those eligible to be pardoned will include students reported for working together on group projects, exam-takers who misspelled the Honor Pledge, and confused first-years in COS126 who probably did nothing wrong.

The pardoned student will be selected based on a number of personal hygiene criteria. This will include observing the personality of their body odor and checking how thoroughly they brush their tongue.

“If I had known that we’d be pardoning someone, I would have made sure we convicted more students,” said Sophomore Class President Lee Derr ’26, appointed to a one-year term on the Committee. “There were at least 10 kids whose note sheets had suspiciously small handwriting on the ORF245 midterm.”

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

“I know I deserved to get Honor Coded for forgetting to thank my writing sem professor on my R2 acknowledgments page, but I have my fingers crossed that the righteous and benevolent committee will give me a second chance,” said Dee Seever ’27, who nervously asked if any of us were on the Honor Committee. “I’m excited for the Princeton community to

witness the generosity [of the Honor Committee] at the pardoning ceremony.”

The pardoning ceremony will be held over Zoom at sunset on Thanksgiving evening so the candidates and their families can spend their valuable vacation time worrying about the fate of their academic careers in the company of their loved ones.

Ben Kim is a junior and senior Humor contirbutor who is experiencing rapid and severe economic inflation.

Sophia Varughese is an associate Humor editor whose hemorrhoids have gotten quite appalling, if she may say so herself.

The Daily Princetonian

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“Pair Up”

By Aidan Cusack

Contributing Constructor

ACROSS 1 Off the cuff remark 6 What a tachometer measures: Abbr.

10 Trickle 14 Raucous 15 ___ Mountains, dividing line between Europe and Asia 16 Ready 17 Hot ___, counterculture clothing store 18 Grand chronicle 19 Epochs 20 Disapproving response 23 Business magnate 26 Point of convergence 27 Line with a single endpoint, in geometry 28 With 41- and 49-Across, multitasking, of sorts 30 What one studies for during reading period 32 ___ spice (rapper) 33 Professional occupation 36 Enclose, with off 39 Rub against 41 See 28-Across 42 Hair styles achieved by combing out natural hair 43 To be, in Lyon 44 1965 Temptations hit 46 Three: Prefix 47 "Taste" rapper 49 See 28-Across

Friday November 17, 2023

51 Kinda 53 Dry climate 56 "The Jazz Singer" actor 57 Cold War competition 60 With 12-Down, melodramatic TV-drama 61 Irish-American rock singer 62 Directed at a target 66 "It hurts!"

67 "I'm ___ you!"

68 Government issued security 69 Snitch 70 Functions 71 "___ weensy spider"

DOWN 1 Unwanted kitchen critter 2 Hit kids mystery series "Scooby-___" 3 Type of service 4 Ask for permission 5 Of one's own volition 6 Dull red hue 7 Marine crustacean similar to shrimp 8 Cartoon Mr. ___ 9 Character assasination 10 Tie 11 Stiffened post-death state 12 See 60-Across 13 Bothersome 21 "Frozen" princess 22 ___ mex 23 "Lightning never strikes the same place ___" 24 Luxury boat

25 Defuse a tense situation 29 Gloomy 31 Alternative to woof 34 Most widely spoken language: Abbr.

35 Tweak 37 Costume-less movie, perhaps?

38 Authorize, as a PDF contract 40 "Mean Girls" writer Tina 42 Distribute 44 Swedish chocolate featured in a lyric of Troye Sivan's "One of Your Girls" 45 Season 3 winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race"

48 Owner of Old Navy, Athleta, and Banana Republic 50 1998 Chicago Bulls Champion Joe 51 Reply to "Wanna race?"

52 Japanese era from 19261989 54 People worthy of veneration 55 Al _____ (firm pasta) 58 Detailed description: Abbr.

59 Hopping marsupials, informally 63 European start of the wk.

64 Aliens, for short 65 Turkish honorific

The Minis

By Mary Christian McCoy Contributing Constructor

“Hydra”

“Ben Times Ten ”

Scan to check your answers and try more of our puzzles online!

ACROSS 1 4 7 8

Wii character Name of many English kings 5 head turners?

Dept. in Frist and Jones

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6

Apple computer Annoy Driver's licenses, Abr. Day before Christmas or New Year's Nucleus material Craven or Anderson

ACROSS 1 5 6 7 8

10 dudes?

Disappear Bold and bright Baldwin of "S.N.L." From Mardi Gras to Easter

DOWN 1 2 3 4 6

Case for Dana and Fox Expert "The _____ of Caracalla" He owns Springfield's Leftorium Former U.S. Rep. Demings

Friday November 17, 2023

Opinion

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Reactions: Which professors should I follow?

Vincent Jiang, Christopher Lidard, Sophia Zuo, Eleanor ClemansCope, Prince Takano, & Wynne Conger Opinion Staff

R

ecently, The Daily Princetonian created a new metric for assessing Princeton professors’ public profile — how many times more googled a professor is than President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, colloquially known as the Bosworth Score. Considering the correlation of professors’ fame with their teaching and their work, we asked our columnists which professors’ work students should follow. We got recommendations for accounts people should follow on X, formerly known as Twitter, columns to read, classes to take, and podcasts to listen to.

Professor Jonathan Mayer ’09 is fighting the good fight in tech policy

By Christopher Lidard, Technology Columnist Bosworth Score: 3.9 While Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy has its share of tech policy experts who have risen to influencer status for their important contributions and expertise, there is one faculty member whose eminence in the tech world cannot be overstated even though he isn’t well known among undergraduates: Jonathan Mayer ’09, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs. After majoring in the department now known as SPIA as an undergraduate, he went on to be the first student to complete a joint Computer Science Ph.D./J.D. program at Stanford. Honing his professional chops as staff for then-Senator Kamala Harris and the Federal Communications Commission before coming to Princeton, his background is formidable.

However, it’s not his past resume that makes him worth following, but rather his timely contributions to hard problems in tech policy and his role in communicating those findings.

Whether it’s his interdisciplin-

ary body of research tackling issues like security, privacy, and disinformation, his public commentary on relevant societal concerns, or his public testimony before decision-makers in Washington, Mayer is committed to leaving the ivory tower behind and engaging with substantive tech policy issues with a solution-oriented approach.

Princeton is a special place for housing such a robust, formalized hub for tech policy research and commentary with such eminent faculty — students would be wise to keep track of the important contributions that Mayer and his colleagues are making on a regular basis to the tricky, pervasive problems in tech policy.

Christopher Lidard is a Technology Columnist and a junior majoring in Computer Science with a policy emphasis. He can be reached at clidard@princeton.edu.

Professor Eddie Glaude’s podcast is a call to action based in history and written for today

By Eleanor Clemans-Cope, Associate Opinion Editor Bosworth Score: 30.6 Professor Eddie Glaude ’97 is a towering figure in African American Studies, and in history and thought more broadly. His scholarship resonates profoundly with contemporary issues, and his insightful commentary on cable news shocks — he’s one of the only talking heads who always prompts viewers to engage in deep, sometimes uncomfortable reflection towards more nuanced understanding.

His podcast series, “History is US,” is a six-part audio documentary about Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction America, telling history that is critical for the present moment. In it, he tells us that our burden in this moment is “going beyond having difficult conversations across party lines and finding middle ground. We are called to imagine America anew, and that will mean … committing ourselves to the struggle to birth something new.” It’s a powerful call to action, especially for Princeton students, who are con-

stantly surrounded by demands to “have difficult conversations” and “seek truth” but not to act on those truths that they do find.

Glaude’s X account is also worth a follow — it’s like a glimpse into the unpolished inner thoughts of your smartest friend, but much more.

Eleanor Clemans-Cope (she/her) is a sophomore from Rockville, Maryland, intending to study Economics.

She spends her time making music with Princeton University Orchestra and good trouble with Divest Princeton. She can be reached on Twitter at @eleanorjcc or by email at eleanor. cc@princeton.edu.

Read the global observations of former Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah

By Wynne Conger, Contributing Columnist Bosworth Score: 9.1 From 2002 to 2013, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a scholar of postmodern African culture, ethnic and racial pluralism, and the philosophy of citizenship amid cosmopolitanism, was a professor at Princeton. A 2011 recipient of the National Humanities Medal, he remains active across a variety of social platforms post-Princeton.

His account @KAnthonyAppiah on X is rife with socio-political commentary on racism and partisan issues within the United States. His personal website includes hand-written poetry on his childhood in Kumasi, Ghana.

His Sunday New York Times advice column “The Ethicist” addresses moral dilemmas with remarkably comprehensive insight. However, perhaps most compellingly, Appiah is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. From the nuance of multiculturalism to sweeping presidential policy, from the doctrine of the European religion to the prophets of modern America, the contributions of Appiah are brimming with philosophic acumen and robust wit. Princeton students would do well to listen to what he has to say.

Wynne Conger is a freshman and prospective SPIA major from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She can be

JEAN SHIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The view through McCosh Arch.

reached by email at wc2918@princeton.edu Pay attention to Professor Ilya Kaminsky’s words on life in times of war

By Sophia Zuo, Contributing Columnist Bosworth Score: 3.2 Almost a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we should not forget the momentous impacts war continues to have on civilians both on the ground and across the globe, even if media coverage or community discussions begin to wane. For Professor Ilya Kaminsky, who teaches poetry and literary translation at the Lewis Center of the Arts, poetry is a vital medium to describe the indescribable during crisis, and remind the world to not forget the importance of language for those who cannot be heard.

Reading his work provides an invaluable perspective into the urgency of war in ways that cannot be expressed by a news article or academic thesis paper, thus shedding light on the humanity of those affected by it.

Hailing from Odessa, Ukraine, Kaminsky has been a dedicated and active supporter of amplifying Ukrainian poetry and literature. He has written two books of poetry: “Deaf Republic” and “Dancing in Odessa,” both of which have received international literary acclaim. Kaminsky is also heavily involved in the international translation of literature, as the co-founder Poets for Peace, which sponsors poetry readings across the globe to support relief work, and as an editor of numerous collections, anthologies, and books of international poetry including “Words Without Borders” and “Poetry International.”

Kaminsky’s work should not be cherished just because of how he writes about war, but ultimately how he weaves the rich cultural history of Ukrainian people throughout his poetry. As poems continue to be written in Ukraine and translated, Kaminsky serves as a bridge demanding us to see for ourselves how humanity survives during war: and we must not look away.

Sophia Zuo is a first-year contributing columnist from Hsinchu, Taiwan, and can be reached at sz5856@ princeton.edu.

Professor Robert P. George will inspire you to embrace civil discourse

By Prince Takano, Senior Columnist Bosworth Score: 306.7 Professor Robert P. George exemplifies Princetonians’ duty to serve our nation and humanity as a whole because of his commitment to the value of free speech and open dialogue.

In an era marked by increased polarization and divisive rhetoric, George stands as a beacon of hope for civil discourse and intellectual exchange. His career reflects a steadfast commitment to fostering a climate of openmindedness, where diverse perspectives are not only welcomed but celebrated. His dedication to creating a healthy environment

of open dialogue aligns perfectly with the core values of our University, encouraging students to broaden their intellectual horizons and engage in thoughtful, respectful discussions that will serve them well in their academic pursuits and beyond.

I encourage my fellow Princeton students to take his “Civil Liberties” course offered in the spring semester. Additionally, I urge them to explore his numerous essays and presentations, including his articulate case for restoring free speech in universities as well as his multiple candid discussions with Cornel West. His friendship with Cornel West is especially remarkable. Their public conversations and collaborations despite differing political philosophies demonstrates that it is possible to engage in rigorous intellectual debates while maintaining mutual respect and friendship, something that we should all learn from.

Prince Takano is a Senior Columnist from Los Angeles, Calif. He can be reached at takano@princeton. edu.

For a clear-eyed take on Indian politics and human rights, follow Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta

By Vincent Jiang, Columnist Bosworth Score: 1.2 Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta GS ’94 (@pbmehta on X) offers a clear-eyed and authoritative voice on Indian politics. He makes powerful observations on the democratic backsliding India is undergoing, its foreign policy vis-à-vis China and the United States, and the struggle for human rights both domestically and globally. In the midst of a “global recession” for democracy and human rights, paying attention to India is more important than ever, because the world’s most populous democracy has been one of the worst cases of democratic backsliding, taking a sharply illiberal turn towards Hindu nationalism, away from its secular and constitutionalist roots.

Every few weeks, Mehta reposts his columns from The Indian Express, which balances criticism of the Modi administration and other incumbents with an optimistic vision of what India could — and should — look like. Mehta himself is a powerful messenger on the basis of his background: Before he came to Princeton, he was ViceChancellor of Ashoka University, one of the best private universities in India. He resigned in 2019 after political pressure on the university to fire him over his public writings. He is committed to public service and has refused to be silenced, and every Princeton student should follow him to gain a deeper understanding of the situation unfolding in India.

Vincent Jiang is a Contributing Opinion Columnist and a junior majoring in the SPIA Department.

He can be reached at vincentjiang@ princeton.edu.

Opinion

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Friday November 17, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Princeton has a construction problem. Now it’s affecting the student experience.

Chloe Cresswell

Contributing Columnist

B

ehind the ivy-covered walls of Princeton’s Nassau Hall, the sounds of construction pierce through the normal hum and drum of everyday student life. Just a few feet away, the new art museum is being built, intended to open in spring 2025. The museum is part of Princeton’s 2026 institutional plan, a campus-wide expansion that aims to improve University infrastructure and increase the student body by 10 percent. Yet, amid mounting restricted areas and swaths of caution tape, Princeton’s quest for rapid growth is becoming a crisis: Construction is widening the existing chasm between student life at the bottom and top of campus.

Blocking off the major thoroughfares that connect the southern colleges to the heart of campus is a threat to the integrity of community living. Already geographically isolated, down-campus students are forced to navigate an ever-changing set of diverted pathways due to the construction of Hobson College.

This is more than a daily inconvenience. Historically, the up-campus/

down-campus divide was somewhat psychological. It is a little over half a mile from Nassau Street to Forbes, which, until recently, was the University’s southernmost college. It was simply the Princeton bubble that magnified this distance. However, as barricades are put up, the psychological is becoming physical. Along with inefficient routes and longer walk times, the campus’ sheer size post-expansion is resulting in an increasingly disjointed community. The larger campus becomes, the more disconnected down-campus students are from their up-campus counterparts.

Division culminated with the recent closure of Poe Field, a major down-campus meeting point during the warmer summer months. Bordering Yeh and New College West (NCW), Poe’s proximity to the new Coffee Club location and one of the most popular dining halls has made it a coveted spot for all Princeton students. Additionally, the field was used by clubs such as ultimate frisbee, all bringing footfall down-campus. Now under construction to install a new geo-exchange heating and cooling network, isolated down-campus students will have to wait until 2024 to feel reintegrated back into campus.

But the isolation goes further than construction separating down-campus from up-campus — the design of the new colleges also isolates students.

After the new colleges won the prestigious American Institute of Architects Award, University architect Ron McCoy described the site as a “small village, full of variety and richness of experience.” Despite the dance and ceramics studios adding vibrancy to the down-campus area, alienation is still the defining feature of life as a Yeh or NCW student. Both colleges are equal in size to Butler and Whitman, housing approximately 500 undergraduate students. The new colleges feel more like a big, separated city, rather than a series of small, independent dorm communities, like most other residential colleges, where rooms are generally grouped into stairwells with separate entrances.

Kira Newbert ’26, a sophomore in NCW, said that the “new colleges’ impersonality comes from their lack of history.” As a first-year in Yeh, I shared Kira’s sentiment: When I joined Princeton, I felt lost in a brand new community that lacked a definitive identity. Without a proper mascot around which to build character Yeh, consisting of mainly first-year students, felt

isolating and fostered a wholly different student experience to that of my friends in Mathey and Rocky. From the get-go, it was more difficult to make meaningful connections and assimilate into McCoy’s vision.

As Preston Ferraiuolo ’26 noted in a recent column for the ‘Prince,’ greater investment in TigerTransit would improve mobility between the bottom and top of campus. While this would provide a short-term solution for alienated students, a reduction in the rapidity of construction is urgently needed. Princeton’s strategy should not simply be a matter of growth at all costs, but rather one that focuses on community building and student integration.

If the University wants to foster community inside the new colleges and between down-campus and upcampus areas, they need to meet with students and create a construction mitigation plan. This could include pausing work on existing projects such as the rebuilding of the University Health Center and instead redirecting resources towards the completion of Hobson and adjacent buildings. Given its extensive disruption, mid-campus construction should be of particular focus. The Uni-

versity should temporarily halt work in and around Butler as well as Frist Campus Center, only restarting when students are off-campus for break. Reopening paths in these areas is crucial, as they provide the most direct route from the new colleges to Mathey, Rocky, and beyond.

Both the completed construction projects and those in progress fail to promote campus connection. Princeton’s construction conundrum is a hindrance to a cohesive university experience. Pausing current projects would particularly benefit new college students. By decreasing the mental and physical barriers of separation between down-campus and up-campus, those in Yeh and NCW especially would feel less affected by the buildings’ isolating architecture and lack of identity.

Chloe Cresswell is a sophomore from London, UK, intending to major in the School of Public and International Affairs.

She is a contributing columnist for the ‘Prince’.

Letter to the Editor: How we remember campus activism matters

David Chmielewski Guest Contributor

T

o the Editor: Although the recent article from The Daily Princetonian titled “Incidents in political speech at Princeton, throughout the 20th century” is an interesting dive into the archives of campus debates, it must be critiqued for its glaring omissions of racial justice activism and for failing to discuss the tradition of radical activism on campus. How we remember campus activism matters, and the current

piece’s narrow focus on free speech is reflective of a campus collective memory that needs to reconnect with more concrete histories of protest and contestation.

Focusing solely on free speech prevents us from truly reflecting on Princeton’s political and activist history. How can we talk about the history of politics on campus without discussing radical acts like the occupation of Nassau Hall to advocate for divestment from South Africa, a boycott of classes by the Association of Black Collegians to hold a memorial for Malcolm X, and the takeover of

Nassau Hall by Asian-American and Latinx students that led to the creation of ethnic studies departments?

Any history of campus activism is utterly incomplete without addressing questions of race, colonialism, and how students have grappled with these issues through visions for the future that exceed the status quo of the University (and the world).

Ignoring these vital histories, and discussing the legacy of campus politics through the myopic lens of the present obsession with abstract debates over free speech exposes just how limited political imagination

has become since past activism: why does the collective memory of campus now seem to take the gains earned by these protests for granted and forget that they had to be won through advocacy? These questions of how we remember Princeton’s past are not mere questions of historical or journalistic method; they are themselves political questions that impact how we understand our relationship to the University and the University’s relationship to the world. We must think critically about what and how we choose to remember.

Remembering these activist histo-

ries is essential to our present, as they remind us of a more radical history of student activism that stands in stark contrast to Princeton’s current reputation as “non-political,” captured in phrases like “the Orange Bubble.” They remind us that Princeton has always been implicated in the world, and debates on campus relate to very tangible consequences and situations. If we allow them, perhaps remembering these pasts can inspire us to imagine better futures.

David Chmielewski is a senior at Princeton University majoring in English.

Princeton’s luxury discourages public service

Frances Brogan

Contributing Columnist

T

here is no denying that the Princeton undergraduate experience is luxurious.

Free Tacoria seems ubiquitous at campus events. Residential colleges offer free massages during midterm week and free Broadway trips throughout the year. Some seminar classes include trips abroad that are fully funded, regardless of students’ financial aid status. These perks reduce the stressful, overwhelming nature of life at Princeton. But, these luxuries create a sense of entitlement, and alienate us from the vast majority of the world’s population. That entitlement discourages us from pursuing careers in public service.

The University’s amenities bolster wealthy students’ expectation of a high quality of life, while initiating lower- and middle-income students into the elite, moneyed class by introducing them to the life of luxury

that many will enjoy after graduation.

It might seem like this is egalitarian, breaking down the social divide within the class, but in practice, it facilitates the high-paying Princeton-toprivate-sector pipeline and suggests that the University is more interested in perpetuating privilege than producing more public servants and a more equitable society. Considering the University’s unofficial motto “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” this seems to contradict its expressed mission as an educational institution.

Some might also argue that we should receive exorbitant amenities at Princeton because of the high cost of attendance. But this is a misguided argument because only wealthy students are paying Princeton’s sticker price, given that the University’s financial aid is among the most generous in the country. And this perspective reflects a perversion of priorities — we should recognize an elite education, not an elite lifestyle, as the purpose of

a prestigious educational institution.

By having so many luxurious amenities available, we sometimes lose sight of that purpose.

There are significant negative effects to a culture of luxury. Attending a school where affluence is rampant and many students’ quality of life is so removed from most people’s reality can warp our expectations of what constitutes a comfortable lifestyle after college. Indeed, for many of us, our standard of living at Princeton can only be maintained post-graduation by acquiring a lucrative corporate job.

The popularity of the leap into the corporate sector is concretely reflected in students’ postgraduate outcomes: only seven percent of School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) majors land in the public sector, despite the program’s emphasis on public service. This phenomenon isn’t limited to SPIA, however: 30 percent of Comparative Literature majors go into business or finance, more than any other career path. Although making

money and serving humanity are a false dichotomy, The Daily Princetonian’s Senior Survey for the Class of 2023 reveals a correlation between high expected income and acknowledgement that one’s postgraduate plans are not, “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”

Of course, there are some legitimate reasons for Princeton to maintain an abundance of perks for students. Getting rid of campus-sponsored free food events means high-income students will be able to afford frequent takeout dinners where their lowerincome peers will not. This could engender an even more exclusionary social environment. The University could decrease its focus on luxury for all, while instead promoting equity by redistributing funds initially allocated to free food towards stipends for students receiving aid. Rather than spending equally on all students, Princeton should match the distribution of funds that are currently used for recreation based on students’ per-

sonal economic backgrounds.

It is essential for us to understand that the privileges and amenities Princeton afford us are not normal.

By being conscious of the opulence that surrounds us, we can avoid internalizing the belief that our degrees and academic achievements make us more deserving of a high quality of life. Being provided luxury for no reason other than the school we attend can not only foster a superiority complex, but disincentivize public service work. This reduces or eradicates any sense of obligation to serve the disadvantaged and estranges us from the world outside the Orange Bubble. If the University truly wants to realize its oft-cited motto, it should mitigate the normalization of luxury that takes place on campus every day.

Frances Brogan is a first-year contributing columnist.

Opinion

Friday November 17, 2023

page 15

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } vol. cxlvii editor-in-chief Rohit Narayanan '24

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African American studies is meant for everyone Siyeon Lee

Contributing Columnist

W

hen I ducked out of my 8 a.m. class at Morrison Hall because of a scratchy throat, I visited the first floor kitchenette and encountered a bulletin board with the photos of the recent concentrators in the African American Studies (AAS) department. Amid the collage of portraits, I was surprised to see how few non-Black graduates there were. When I returned to my class on racialized housing development, a classmate of mine made a memorable comment on our reading about the history of segregated housing: “I wish that anyone who doesn’t understand systemic oppression could read just a couple of pages of this book.”

Taking African American studies classes both at Princeton and before has, unsurprisingly, taught me many things about African American history — but it has also taught me an unfathomable amount about American politics, culture, and society in general. If a few pages of a book on housing discrimination was so transformative that it elevated someone’s entire understanding of systemic oppression, isn’t it a good investment for every student — Black or not — to pursue at least some education in the discipline? Though not pursued by most, Princeton’s African American Studies department is designed for everybody, and it equips all who partake in it with the critical skill set Princeton intends to instill in all of its graduates: a commitment and ability to serve humanity, regardless of chosen profession.

On campuses across the United States, African American Studies is dying: the total number of AAS degrees awarded in 2021 declined by 5.6 percent compared to the year prior. Why? In part, it is because “return on investment” has taken precedence over a degree’s intellectual merit. “Higher education [is] being pushed to demonstrate a kind of economic value,” says Jane Rhodes, chair of AAS at the

University of Illinois Chicago. “In my point of view, that’s deeply antiintellectual and that flies against the face of what a college education is supposed to do.” Rhodes is right — the primary purpose of higher education should be education itself, not the financial return that it can generate.

That is not to suggest that financial prospects are not important, but that the academic merit of degrees should not be wholly abandoned. But even from an economic perspective, the average income of an AAS graduate is comparable to the incomes of graduates with more popular majors like business or psychology.

So if a degree in AAS is a good economic investment, why aren’t more Princeton students — especially non-Black students — majoring or minoring in it? Beyond the calculus of economic returns, AAS suffers from the notion that its program is reserved exclusively for those who are directly or personally impacted by the content covered. But the aims of the AAS program are exactly the opposite: “Black life is so important in American politics, culture, and history, that in order to really be conversant [about] those things, you have to know something about [African American Studies] ... [but] it is still treated as an outlier in schools as a ‘specialized’ area of study,” said Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton’s AAS department in my conversations with her. “[AAS] was founded on the assumption that the study of African American history and culture, and of the role that race has played in shaping the life and the institutions of the United States, is central to an American liberal education,” reads the department’s program description. If both the AAS program description and professors have the intentions of teaching students the ability to grapple with American “life” and “institutions” — as opposed to isolated facts about a specific demographic — it logically follows that the department has a foundational purpose to educate everyone interested in said liberal aims.

Instead of conceiving of AAS as a department only for Black stu-

dents to learn about their history, we should recognize that studying African American history and culture enables Princeton students to learn to engage with their own and others’ humanity. African American Studies not only familiarizes us to the pain and suffering involved in American racial history, but also the art, beauty, and joy of a distinct and culturally rich demographic. What better way is there to become more humanistic — and in turn, “serve humanity” — than to deeply engage with both the joys and sufferings of communities that aren’t your own?

We learn what it means to be more caring, compassionate, and comprehensive through seeing how others have embodied these characteristics throughout history.

In turn, we adopt these characteristics into our own lives and are therefore more prepared for a variety of personal and professional challenges. For a non-Black Computer Science major, for example, you may think there is little value in pursuing African American Studies, but having a strong understanding of race and racial history could, for instance, allow you to better understand how robotic systems and AI can emulate human racial biases. Studying AAS can make you a more humanistic, more empathetic computer scientist, librarian, or analyst, better prepared to understand the social implications of your field of study — a skill transferable to various avenues for employment.

AAS is a valuable pursuit for everyone. The department offers a unique perspective on American history, current politics, and social life that is important and informative for everyone. The critical thinking and systemic analysis skills that one learns in AAS classes are useful for life across the board. As spring class registration begins, recall that serving humanity can start — if you so choose — with one AAS course at a time.

Siyeon Lee (she/her) is a first-year from Seoul, South Korea intending to major in Comparative Literature or History.

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Students rush to class as the weather changes the color of the leaves.

the PROSPECT. The Daily Princetonian

page 16

Friday November 17, 2023

ARTS & CULTURE

The return to ‘Wonderland’: a review of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Christopher Nunez & Chloe Lau | Contributing Prospect Writers

On the night of Oct. 26, millions of fans flocked to hear the opening notes of Taylor Swift’s newest release: “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” The album crashed both the Spotify platform and global records, garnering upwards of 180 million first-day streams on Spotify alone. Like many fans, we thought that the album was the rebirth of a snazzy, stunning pop “wonderland.”

The sensational production of the album extends to the cover artwork as well. While the original album cover depicts Swift’s red lips and a shirt with five seagulls, the re-recorded version shows Swift’s full face with a wide smile — and the same red lipstick — as five seagulls circle in the sky. To us, the birds represent the “flight” Swift has taken since the original release of “1989,” further elevating her personal voice and status in the music industry. The five seagulls also represent the five albums she released since “1989,” excluding any re-recordings: “Reputation,” “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” and “Midnights.”

Following the album’s release, Swift reclaimed all of her original “1989” pop songs. Aside from the already-released singles, “Wildest Dreams” and “This Love,” which were re-recorded earlier in 2021, Swift released nineteen new versions. Co-star Kendrick Lamar joined her re-recorded version of “Bad Blood,” adding a fiery, gut-punch rap verse about betrayal and revenge.

While her re-recorded tracks contain the same lyrics, there is a slight difference in Swift’s vocals and background instrumentation. For example, “Style” and “Shake it Off” open with less breathy, more controlled vocals, especially in the higher registers. Moreover, “I Wish You Would” has crisp backdrops with more synthesized beats. Swift’s improved vocal technique allows for a cleaner listening experience, but loses a bit of the original version’s passion.

Many Swifties feel partial to the original recordings. Others insist that it is a matter of comfort and that with time, the newly recorded album will have the same magical effect as the original. The battle between fans continues on whether or not the album has surpassed their expectations. In our eyes, with almost a decade of separation, the two albums are individualized works that can be appreciated in their respective nuances.

To complement the re-recordings, Swift has com-

mitted to revisiting previously scrapped songs and releasing them as “vault” tracks in her “Taylor’s Version” albums. Needless to say, Swifties are “enchanted” by them.

A favorite of the two of us, the first vault track ‘“Slut!,”’ is a dreamy encapsulation of falling in love while being cognizant of the misogynistic dating scene in the entertainment industry. Swift describes the intense turbulent sensation that makes her “lovestruck” and “lovesick” simultaneously, as well as referencing the necessity to keep her sentiments hidden due to scrutiny by the media. The light-hearted beats sustain through the forlorn lyrics that hint at the effects of paparazzi: “And if they call me a slut / You know it might be worth it for once.” The undertone of sexism lurks in the background, and Swift intentionally addresses that she is the one who will face negative attention instead of her lover. This song encapsulates Swift’s power as a singer-songwriter, portraying her strength and ability to rise above the backlash that she endures. There is an indescribable emotion attached to the song: one that can only be understood through listening to the track’s enrapturing tune.

Another favorite is “Now That We Don’t Talk,” a collage of longing thoughts after a breakup. The steady synth beats gradually build throughout the first verse to a boppy chorus, and the lyrics transition from woeful wonderings about the other person’s life to gaining clarity on the flaws in the relationship which were previously overlooked. Various Easter eggs in the lyrics are vast seas to dive into, such as Swift’s reference to her split from Harry Styles after their trip to the British Virgin Islands in a “mega-yacht.” The song’s airy “your loss” mentality is an empowering reminder to not overthink or agonize over failed relationships.

The mood becomes more somber in the vault track, “Say Don’t Go.” The lyrics begin with a reference to a metaphor from “Getaway Car” to describe an uncertain relationship. Rich imagery displays the fragility and precariousness of an increasingly one-sided relationship. While she waits anxiously in solidarity, her lover remains unresponsive, painting a picture of their relationship’s approaching doom. In one last attempt to find a reason to stay, the lyrics implore for any sign of a simple, verbal assurance. A music theory Easter Egg we noticed was that “Say Don’t Go” ends on a V chord (B) in the key of E Major, which does not resolve the song and gives a feeling of unfinished business.

KALENA BING / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Three Taylor Swift 1989 vinyls.

“Suburban Legends” is a severely underrated vault song that many fans claim to be underwhelming.

Despite its lack of popularity, the song is a sparkling and transcendental anthem that celebrates nostalgic feelings of yearning and belonging. Lyrics such as “I am standing in a 1950s gymnasium / And I can still see you know” create an indecipherable sentiment of lost wishes, regretful wishes, and lost promises.

The final vault song, “Is It Over Now?,” quickly skyrocketed to be a fan favorite. The song’s despairing lyrics present an image where Swift recalls past moments when she questions the integrity and permanence of her relationship. Lyrics like “Blue dress on a boat / Your new girl is my clone” utilize slant rhymes to craft whimsical devastation. Swift has an impeccable ability to inspire a feeling of relatability within her lyrics, juxtaposing despondency with nostalgia.

From the visuals of the cover artwork to the songs themselves, the album dazzles. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” presents an opportunity to return to Swift’s anthems of the past through the lens of her talent and perspective today. The artist’s everchanging musical landscape and continuous ability to grow define her as the artist of our generation. We can guarantee that this is “a new soundtrack,” and that you most definitely can — and will — “dance to this beat.”

Christopher Nunez is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Point Pleasant, N.J. Chloe Lau is a contributing Features writer for the ‘Prince.’

I still have the people I love, and no distance can change that.

THANKFUL Continued from page 1

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

close. It wasn’t uncommon for all of us, grandparents, aunts, and cousins included, to have dinner together.

However, Thanksgiving was the day that we reflected on that closeness, on the connection and care we have for one another.

Last year, I didn’t think that missing Thanksgiving would be as hard as it was. My family all called me and wished me a happy Thanksgiving, which I reciprocated.

I talked to different members of my family throughout the day, but everyone always had to get back to their own holiday gathering. My mamaw could talk for a minute, then had to get back to preparing the food. My aunt could talk for five minutes, but she had to get the kids ready to head to my mamaw’s. While they did include me, I couldn’t help feeling alone. It was the holiday that was meant to bring family together, and I was stuck 500 miles away in a

despondent dorm room.

I would usually rely on my boyfriend for comfort, but he was also at home with his family. One of the perks of going to school 100 miles from home is that you can go back more or less whenever you want to, so of course he was home for Thanksgiving. Yet, I was still in my dorm. I would like to say I was able to go out with my friends so that at least I had a meal with someone, but that would be a lie. In all honesty, I spent the day missing my family and wishing I could be home with them. I decided to work on a paper for a class I don’t remember now, and that was my holiday.

This year I will be in the same boat as I was in last year, except I will be stuck in an even sadder dorm (thanks, Forbes Annex). But I’ve realized that there’s no point in being disconsolate about not going home. Of course, I wish I could be with my family. I hate missing events: holidays, birthdays, or whatever. I always want to be home, but that’s not how life works. I’m just as capable of appreciating, loving, and being thankful for my family while at Princeton

as I am when I’m sitting at the table with them. In fact, I think being away from them physically makes me appreciate them more. When I’m away, I see how much it means to be able to chase my little sister around the kitchen or help my mamaw prepare the food. I hate being away for Thanksgiving, but it doesn’t change how thankful I am for my family.

So, there’s no point in sitting alone in my dorm this year.

Going for a walk, finding something good to eat (though nothing can compare to a home-cooked meal), or spending the day with a friend are all things I can do to celebrate the holiday this November. Sure, it’s in a different form from what it had been, but the meaning remains the same. I still have the people I love, and no distance can change that.

Mackenzie Hollingsworth is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Middlesboro, Kentucky. She is a member of the Class of 2026 and can be reached at mh5273@princeton.edu.

The Daily Princetonian

Friday November 17, 2023

Birthday Never was I candles in the understood, Thanksgiving until I turkey: Three withstood reasons why I love my Thanksgiving birthday

page 17

By Lina Lyssia Abtouche | Contributing Prospect Writer

By Connor Romberg | Contributing Prospect Writer

Holiday birthdays may initially seem like a disadvantage, especially for those whose birthdays fall in December and who may be handed a card that joyously says, “Merry Birthday!” However, I feel especially lucky (and thankful, of course) to have a birthday near Thanksgiving.

Although Thanksgiving historically falls on the fourth Thursday of November, my birthday falls anywhere from the fourth Wednesday to the fourth Saturday. So my family always clumps the birthday celebration into the Thanksgiving festivities.

Here is a banquet of reasons as to why I love my Thanksgiving birthday.

Reason 1: It is a feast (with presents) Many people celebrating their birthday are faced with quite the dilemma: what do you want to eat on your birthday? Thankfully, this decision has already been made for me.

Each year, I enjoy a table adorned with glazed turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, stuffing, a variety of casseroles, cranberries, buttered buns, and vegetables. My personal favorites are the stuffing and potatoes, which warm my soul. After the main course, there are pies galore, fruit bars, caramel with apples, and even more pies.

As if I wasn’t full enough, there’s always room for dessert, specifically birthday cake! My favorite of which is a marble cake with vanilla icing. After the feast, I only feel slightly sick, which is usually mitigated by opening presents.

Reason 2: All the other festivities — all for me, of course!

In my adolescence, I admit to being a little closedminded about how my birthday and Thanksgiving coincided. I remember naively saying, “Thanks for coming to my birthday!” as relatives streamed into the dining room to grab a plate.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving festivities is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. I hail from rural Wisconsin, so it does not take much to amuse me. Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, I was outright in awe of the grand spectacle. I distinctly remember gloating to my little sister; “Do they have a parade on your birthday, too?” She would roll her eyes, yet mine would remain glued to the television as I watched skyscraper-sized balloons of Barney, Shrek, and Hello Kitty glide across the screen. The parade remains one of my all-time favorite Thanksgiving traditions, and it truly is a birthday treat to watch the dancers, bands, and other performers put on a spectacular show each year in celebration of giving thanks. It is, of course, also some quality birthday entertainment.

Reason 3: The aftermath After most of the food has been eaten, the football games have been watched, and the relatives have left, there is a particular moment of tranquility that is quintessential to each one of my Thanksgiving birthdays.

My family and I pack up the leftovers, clean up the house, and cozily settle on the couch in front of the fireplace. Usually, we accompany this downtime with a cliché holiday movie. A few hours later, the leftovers are quickly broken into and the feast has begun again, only this time with less stress about getting food on the table for everyone, allowing for more time to be spent with family.

Thoughts of putting up the Christmas tree loom overhead — which are usually never acted upon due to the essential Thanksgiving nap. With the Wisconsin winter, snow usually swirls across the sky, giving a glimpse of the rest of the holiday season. The fireplace simmers down — and so does the chaos of the day — and all is well. There is an indescribable peace in these Thanksgiving birthday evenings, and these moments of serenity remain to be the most fulfilling part of these coinciding celebrations.

Connor Romberg is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Winneconne, Wisconsin.

Turquoise truths rushing towards me, usurp the clear lies that have already reached me.

I try to find answers in the sea, leading to shores of my motherland, where its reverberations set my blood alight with the history of my ancestors and the strife that lies therein. The once barren land ahead holds the sacred tears that my mother shed and that of her mother’s, and her mother before her, until the world became entrenched in their silence.

“My tears fall on deaf ears” was the only phrase they uttered.

The wind carried these words through the years, across an ocean, to a place called “Princeton University.” All my pursuits have been directed towards entering the gates of this institution and redefining what it is to be of Princeton rather than just from it. I succeeded in entering a realm that would afford me the opportunity to further my academic pursuits all the while leaving an indelible impact.

However, somewhere along the way the absence of a familiar presence troubled me. The hollowness transformed into an incessant ache that coexisted with anticipation for the future.

I reminisced about my path leading up to this point in my life. Standing at the threshold of the line delineating the beginning of the end, I watched as she — the girl I once was — left, withdrawn into the confines of my memory, never to emerge again.

I let her go, and now, I am reconciling with my decision as I long for she who wandered — who did not realize that the price of her endeavors was an identity conquered.

My tears are a confession to this plight. They are shed out of solidarity to my foremothers and attest to an inherent fortitude. The promise of my next chapter depends on shedding the last tear at the precipice of my journey and reconciling with what cannot be reversed or changed — only accepted — so that I can acquire the clarity necessary to answer a singular question: what is my purpose?

I came to discover my purpose years ago when I first visited Algeria — El Dzayer — the home of my ancestors. I forged a kinship with the land that had awaited my arrival. It spoke to me through the ripe figs and the sweet wind that provided respite from the smoldering sun.

For the first time in my life, purpose entangled itself in my soul like a granted prayer. I found it in the mountainous landscape of my mother’s childhood home, the crimson sunset, and the twilight tapestry above. Algeria permeated my soul as I did its heart. I was entranced by my motherland and loved it with a burning desire.

However, the desire of loving what once was comes with reconciling with what may never be.

When I came back to America, I no longer knew my purpose as I left it behind in my bled — my country.

Prior to Princeton, my purpose could be found in my grandmother’s warm embrace as she whispered comforting words into my hair, or my father’s callused hands when he came home from a long day at work to affectionately pinch my cheek, and even in the traditional Algerian food my mother cooks to give her bloodline an eternal life. In traversing an ocean, my parents sought the American dream and the opportunities they were never afforded. I became the embodiment of this dream that they sacrificed so much for. These experiences, both inherited and acquired, are salient aspects to my identity that now comprise who I am today. I was a woman of my people before I became a woman in my own right. As such, I bore a responsibility to honor those who preceded me by establishing a precedent: a precedent in which their unattained dreams would manifest through my voice. Yet, societal constraints impeded my efforts to integrate this into practice and, furthermore, retain a semblance of

COURTESY OF NOEL VALERO ’82 & ’86

Lina Lyssia Abtouche

familiarity.

When I came to Princeton this past summer for the Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI), I held an abundance of hope for what would be catalyzed during this fruitful experience and reflection over what, perhaps, would cease in its wake. I remember at the end of the first day when, alongside the people whom I now consider my friends, we bid farewell to our families.

In the middle of the parking lot adjacent to New College West, my mother refused to let me go as she held me tightly. Her tears fell down to join mine, descending to the vast abyss that unveiled the path that lay ahead of me. Our tears were the words we left unsaid, that have been buried deep within our souls: forgotten and abandoned. They aged and accumulated until the only truthful presence that remained was that of the silence embedded within our veins.

When our tears finally chose to part with us, we were liberated from the pain and despair that have tainted our purpose. One after another they came in waves carrying memories of joy and sadness alike. Our once heavy hearts surrendered these tears — these tangible pieces of the past — so that we could move on to a new beginning. This was the day where I completely crossed through the gates, where I knew that in

order to return to the sea I had to first emerge from the throes of adversity.

My purpose is derived from the truths evident in the sacred waves that merge the boundaries of two lands, as invisible hands encase my body, pulling me further away from my motherland. I saw my tears reflected in the irises of my mother’s eyes: the color of the fertile soil birthing nature, to nurture, to ensure my future. I am the reclamation of her voice, the embodiment of her dreams, and the catalyst for the future, whereby I speak on behalf of those underrepresented — who have guarded their tears — and empower them to release their burdens.

Because purpose is ever changing, while inherent to each of us. We are all here in the world, at Princeton, and among one another for a reason. We must help each other in realizing that in spite of the hardships that come, Princeton becomes what we become of ourselves. Because even if I was never understood, regardless of if I never return to my previous life, even if I lose it all, at least I withstood.

Lina Lyssia Abtouche is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Ewing, NJ and part of the Class of 2027.

The Daily Princetonian

page 18

Friday November 17, 2023

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Friday November 17, 2023

Sports

page 19

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FOOTBALL

Princeton football falls to Yale 36–28 in double overtime

By Hayk Yengibaryan & JP Ohl Associate Sports Editor & Sports Contributor

On a beautiful fall Saturday, the Princeton (4–5 overall, 3–3 Ivy League) and Yale (6–3, 4–2) football teams met for the 145th time at Powers Field for another rivalry matchup.

“We’re so fortunate to be a part of this amazing rivalry,” Yale head coach Tony Reno told The Daily Princetonian.

“Princeton’s got an amazing team …

I have so much respect for him [head coach Bob Surace] and his staff. These games always come down to the last play, and we’re fortunate enough to have made the last play.”

With a bonfire on the line, the Princeton community showed up in numbers.

On the other side, nearly 1,000 Bulldog fans made the trip down from New Haven, Conn., for the game. Both of these teams were eager to avoid elimination from the Ivy League championship, but only one emerged victorious from today’s matchup: Yale. The Bulldogs asserted their dominance over the Tigers on the field in double overtime with a final score of 36–28.

Prior to the game, the Tigers honored the 18 seniors from the Class of 2023. The senior class includes the likes of linebacker Ozzie Nicholas, linebacker Liam Johnson, quarterback Blake Stenstrom, and offensive lineman Jalen Travis.

“I’m super honored to have been a part of Princeton football for three years,” Stenstrom told the ‘Prince’ postgame. “I’m gonna miss the guys on this team, the relationships I’ve built with them. You can’t put into words how amazing my experience has been, it’s been a real honor, a blessing, and I’ll miss it for sure.”

The Bulldogs did not hesitate to demonstrate their offensive prowess early on. During the past five games, the Bulldogs offense — led by Offensive Coordinator Chris Ostrowsky and quarterback Nolan Grooms — was averaging 30 points per game.

“That’s probably the most talented team in the league,” Princeton head coach Bob Surace said. “They’re a veteran team, and they made some veteran plays.

We made more errors today on defense.”

Grooms led the Bulldog offense down the field and scored the opening touchdown within seven minutes. A 24-yard run by Grooms gave the reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year his second rushing touchdown of the season.

After the Yale touchdown, the Princeton offense settled in. Unfortunately for the Tigers, their first drive ended rather quickly. Princeton punted the ball from about midfield, successfully pinning the Bulldogs inside their own 10.

The Princeton defense forced a quick three and out and a Yale punt on the following drive, giving the Princeton offense the ball on the Yale 35-yard line.

On this drive, Stenstrom completed a quick checkdown on second and 10, running the ball five more yards to keep the chains moving to the Yale 30. Two plays later, on another second and 10, Stenstrom snuck a narrow cross route into the hands of junior tight end Tyler Picinic, who secured the ball for a first down.

Shortly after, a screen to junior wide receiver AJ Barber had the Tigers on the precipice of the endzone. Junior running back John Volker clawed his way into the endzone, and the extra point tied the game at seven. Following the score, the Princeton special teams kicked the ball past the endzone, giving the Bulldog of-

fense a fresh start on their own 25.

With a deceitful triple-option offense, Yale easily marched to the Princeton 31yard line as the first quarter expired. The quarter break proved vital, as Princeton’s

cessful extra point by the Tigers, it was 14–7 Princeton.

Hipa — who was ranked as a threestar recruit by 247 Sports coming out of high school — scored his first collegiate

were trying to survive in the Ivy League title race. Stenstrom was sacked once again by Larry, and with just under 14 minutes remaining in the game, Clark punted the ball back to the Bulldogs.

AMMAAR ALAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Despite the loss, junior wide receiver Luke Colella had a career high 121 receiving yards, highlighted by a 75 yard touchdown catch. defense gathered the energy to trump the Yale drive. First-year defensive lineman London Robinson forced a crucial fumble that was recovered by captain and senior linebacker Liam Johnson.

Throughout the second quarter, both defenses limited the other side’s offense, forcing punts over and over again. On the Tigers’ second drive of the quarter, Volker stampeded 27 yards and drew a personal foul to add 15 more on the play, putting the Tigers on the outskirts of scoring position. Unfortunately for Princeton, their offensive momentum fizzled out with a punt.

Grooms and the Yale offense clawed themselves toward midfield, only to be halted and forced to punt on their next possession. Princeton received the ball on their own 24-yard line. Following the recent trends, the Princeton offense was forced to punt yet again.

On a Yale third down, captain and senior linebacker Ozzie Nicholas sacked Grooms to force yet another punt. Stenstrom and the offense set up shop on their 17-yard line with 2:57 to go in the half. Stenstrom completed a quick 10yard pass and followed it up with a 22yard completion caught by the hands of Picinic. The Tiger offense dissipated shortly after.

Perhaps the highlight of the second quarter was when first-year punter Brady Clark pinned the Bulldogs on the one-yard line to prevent a no-huddle offense attack. This marked the seventh straight offensive possession that ended in a punt. The Bulldogs forfeited their drive and decided to run the clock into halftime, with the two sides tied at seven.

The Tigers began the second half with the ball after choosing to defer the coin toss. Right out of the gates, the offense started strong with a Volker rush for a first down. On the next possession, Stenstrom got a completion to set up a second and four. A roughing the passer penalty on the second down would put Surace’s squad in Bulldog territory.

On third and four at the Yale 37, Volker ran 36 yards to the one-yard line. After an illegal substitution penalty, sophomore quarterback Blaine Hipa rushed the ball in for a Tiger touchdown. After the suc-

touchdown. Hipa choosing the Tigers was a surprise to many considering he had interest from multiple Power Five schools and an offer from the Tennessee Volunteers. Hipa looks set to be the starting quarterback next season.

“I love Hipa, he’s a great player and he’s been so fun to play with these past two years,” Stenstrom said when asked about his backup quarterback. “He had some great plays today, and the future looks bright.”

His advice for Hipa was as follows: “Keep fighting, this game throws you a lot of punches and it can hit you in the head and knock you down, but you have to keep fighting.”

Grooms and the Yale offense received the ball after the Tiger touchdown but failed to get into opposing territory, punting the ball back to Princeton.

With the ball back in their hands, the Tiger’s offensive efforts were derailed by a string of penalties. The offense would get an incompletion on a third and 27 inside their own 10, forcing a punt back to Yale with 8:30 left in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs started the possession in Tiger territory after returning the punt 17 yards to the Princeton 48.

On second and nine at the Tiger 47, Grooms completed a 27-yard pass to wide receiver David Pantelis to put the Bulldogs in the red zone. On the following second down, Grooms found star wide receiver Mason Tipton to put his team inside the five. Running back Joshua Pitsenberger later bullied his way into the end zone to tie the game at 14 with 5:35 left in the third quarter.

On a second and eight from their own 41, Stenstrom was sacked by Yale defensive lineman Ezekiel Larry for a loss of seven yards. Unable to complete the third and long, the Tigers punted the ball for the seventh time during the contest.

Yale got things moving quickly after the failed Tiger possession. Grooms completed a pass to Tipton for 41 yards to put them inside Princeton’s territory.

However, on third down, Johnson would sack Grooms and end any hopes of a Yale score, forcing a punt from the visitors.

With 15 minutes to go, nothing had separated the two sides, as both teams

This time around, Grooms made good use of the field position his defense had awarded him. After a gain of six yards, Grooms completed a pass to Tipton to put the Bulldogs inside the red zone.

The following possession, it was Grooms once again to Tipton on a short route.

On third down, Grooms spotted wide receiver Joey Felton for a touchdown to make it 21–14 Bulldogs. This marked Felton’s second career touchdown.

“Mason [Tipton] and Nolan [Grooms] have played a lot of football together.

They really understand each other and where each other are and how to get open, when to get open. Those two guys have really developed an amazing relationship and have done an amazing job this season,” Reno told the ‘Prince.’

Stenstrom got the ball back at his own 25 and wreaked havoc on the Bulldog defense immediately. A flea-flicker led to a completion to junior wide receiver Luke Colella, resulting in a 75-yard touchdown for the Tigers. Colella has now scored in three straight games, but none were as big as this one against the Bulldogs.

“We’ve been in really tough games …

I’m proud of the guys, our guys fought,” Stenstrom told the ‘Prince.’ “Yale’s a really good team, and they deserve the win today. We didn’t play disciplined today and made some mistakes that hurt us.”

Grooms remained composed, as a completion to Tipton followed by a run

by Pitsenberger put the Bulldog offense inside the 30. In the following possession, Pitsenberger caught the ball off of a screen pass to put Yale in the red zone.

On third and one at the 21, it was Pitsenberger once again who ran through the Princeton defense and into the end zone, making it 28–21 Yale.

Once again, Stenstrom got the offense off to a strong start. On the first play of the drive, Stenstrom completed a pass to sophomore running back Dareion Murphy to give the Tigers a position at midfield. On second down, Stenstrom avoided the sack and ran the ball on the outside corner to get a first down for Princeton.

After running the ball on two consecutive possessions and faced with a fourth down, Stenstrom found Colella

for a first down inside the red zone. After getting sacked, the Tigers faced a third and 18 at the Bulldog 32. Stenstrom came out of the pocket and made a heroic completion to junior wide receiver Tamatoa Falatea, giving Princeton a first down.

At the Yale 13, the Tigers marched down to the four-yard line before being faced with yet another fourth down.

With a fourth and one, the Tigers would get the extra yard and the first down with just under 35 seconds to go. On the first down, Surace turned to Hipa once more. Hipa delivered, as he completed a pass to Colella. The extra point tied the game at 28, and the game headed to overtime after Yale elected to run the clock down.

During overtime, Yale won the coin toss and chose to allow Princeton to start on offense. On a third and six, Stenstrom completed the pass to Colella to put the Tigers within 10 yards of a touchdown.

After losing yardage, it was third and 13 at the 13-yard line. Stenstrom rushed for 11 yards, putting the Tigers in a difficult situation as they faced a fourth and two.

Surace opted to go for it on fourth down, but the Tigers failed to convert.

The Bulldogs got the ball at the 25-yard line looking to score either a field goal or a touchdown to end the game. On a fourth down, it was kicker Jack Bosman who missed a potential game-winning 35-yard field goal, taking the storied rivalry into a second overtime period.

The Bulldogs started the second overtime period with the ball and made good use of their opportunity this time around. A quick two-minute drive ended in a touchdown by Pitsenberger again.

The mandated two-point conversion was successful after a pass to Tipton.

Down 36–28, Princeton needed to score to keep their Ivy League title hopes alive. Hipa began the overtime period as quarterback and lead the Tigers inside the 10. On third and six, Volker tripped and set up a fourth and three for Princeton. A false start penalty pushed the Tigers back even further. The Yale defense came up big when it mattered most, stopping the Tigers and ending not only the game, but Princeton’s Ivy League title and bonfire hopes.

“We have a 24-hour rule,” Surace told the ‘Prince’ when asked about how the team will respond. “We’ve had some emotional wins and losses. You go to work the next day. We always correct mistakes the next day, and you move on to the opponent.”

Yale will have a chance to win a share of the Ivy League title when they host Harvard (8–1, 5–1) next Saturday in New Haven, Conn. The Crimson came away with an emotional 25–23 overtime victory against the Quakers (6–3, 3–3) today.

If the Crimson win next weekend, they will have sole possession of the title. If the Bulldogs win, the league may have three teams (Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth) win a share of the title.

The Tigers, meanwhile, will close out their season in Pennsylvania against the Quakers next Saturday.

Stenstrom would end by saying, “Football is a game that comes down to really close moments. The reason you love it is because you get to play in these awesome games. The reason it hurts so much is because you love it so much.”

Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

JP Ohl is a contributor to the Sports section of the ‘Prince.’

Friday November 17, 2023 WOMEN’S SOCCER

Sports

page 21

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Resurgent women’s soccer kickstarts NCAA tournament run with dramatic 1–0 win over Michigan

By Joe Uglialoro

Sports Contributor

On a frigid Friday night in Princeton, the women’s soccer team (9–5–3 overall, 4–2–1 Ivy) turned up the heat in a thrilling contest against Michigan (7–6–4, 3–5–2 Big Ten). Despite a 4–2 loss to Harvard last Friday that took Princeton out of the Ivy League tournament, the Tigers were given a second life on their season when they were selected for the NCAA women’s soccer tournament, an annual 64team soccer spectacle that every team aspires to reach. The NCAA rewarded Princeton’s stellar season in a stacked Ivy League with a 7th seed, pitting them against Michigan in a home contest at a packed Roberts Stadium.

When head coach Sean Driscoll named his starting lineup for the game, a few notable absences defined the discussion around the stadium. First team All-Ivy selections, sophomore forward Pietra Tordin and senior midfielder Aria Nagai began the game on the bench, as did sophomore standout and second team All-Ivy selection forward, Drew Coomans. Of the Tigers’ All-Ivy nominees, only senior defender and first team honoree Madison Curry started the game on the field.

In the first ten minutes of the game, Princeton and Michigan traded possessions as both sides searched for a foothold. The Tigers implemented a high press from the outset, giving Michigan a chance to open them up on the counterattack. Initially, the Wolverines did just that. In the fifth minute of the game, Michigan midfielder Jenna Lang darted inside the box and fired towards the right corner of the goal. Her shot rolled through uninterrupted, but ricocheted off the post and back into play, where it was soon cleared.

Just two minutes later, the Wolverines won a free kick on the left side of the box, which was once again successfully cleared by the Tigers. After a slip-up on the left side of the defense, Princeton senior center back Morgan Wiese broke up yet another dangerous Michigan attack. With Princeton’s impact subs still on the bench, the Wolverines continued to attack, winning three successive corner kicks in the 16th minute. Despite the frequent chances, Michigan only mustered one shot throughout the entire first half.

In the 24th minute, Princeton finally began to bring on their key substitutes. Nagai entered first, followed by Coomans and Tordin two minutes later. These substitutions riled up the already raucous Tiger faithful, who clustered behind the Michigan net and made their presence felt throughout the night.

Suddenly, a Princeton attack began to bombard the Michigan keeper with shots after struggling to break down Michigan’s back line. Senior striker Lexi Hiltunen broke free and sent a shot just right of the net, beginning the onslaught of shots. Minutes later, Tordin created a chance on the left side of the box and fired a shot towards goal. After a block from a Michigan defender, she won the ball again and sent a left-footed shot off the crossbar and out of play.

Coomans joined the effort next with a shot on goal, followed by another from senior midfielder Marissa Hart. Tordin then blasted a free kick towards the bottom left side of the net, but Michigan keeper Stephanie Sparkowski turned it away for a corner. Though these shots failed to reach their mark, they sent a very clear message to all in attendance: Princeton’s offensive firepower was not to be underestimated, and their ability to create

quality chances far outpaced that of Michigan. After sophomore forward Kelsee Wozniak fired yet another shot off the crossbar, the referee blew the halftime whistle and the teams left the cold for the locker room. The Tigers outshot Michigan 9–1 in the first half, but exited with nothing to show for it.

“I think our ability to maintain our style of play really propelled us forward,” Hiltunen told The Daily Princetonian. “The combination of playing our game, hard work, and focus allowed us to create a lot of opportunities.”

Though these opportunities had yet to bear fruit, the Tigers kept the pressure on throughout the rest of the game.

With the sound of yet another reverberating crossbar, the second half began the same way the first half ended. This time, it was Michigan defender Lilley Bosley who found the woodwork with a shot from the right of goal. Despite this scare, the Tigers remained steady across the back line and once again put the pressure on Michigan.

Though she’d already been active throughout the game, Tordin reached another gear over the rest of the second half. Running circles around the right side of Michigan’s defense, she was a source of constant trouble for any defender who stepped to her. Time and time again, she’d end up with a one-on-one matchup at the edge of the box and successfully take the ball down the side after feinting a move towards the middle. Her shots repeatedly scared Sparkowski, but her crosses made an even larger impact on the game. In the 51st minute, she found junior forward Heather MacNab inside the box, but an excellent clearance from a Michigan defender prevented further damage. Soon, a similar play would pay dividends for Princeton.

With just ten minutes left in the game, Tordin once again drove down the left wing. Her initial cross was blocked, but a poor clearance from Michigan sent the ball to Nagai, who also took advantage of the vulnerability of the left side of the box. Charging through the defense, Nagai rolled a cross through the box directly to the left foot of Hiltunen. Her left-footed effort was blocked by a sliding defender, but the ball rolled right back to her. Taking advantage of the space created by the slide, Hiltunen adjusted and slotted a right-footed shot into the back of the net to give the Tigers a longawaited 1-0 lead.

“I honestly just stayed on top of [the ball]”, Hiltunen told the ‘Prince’ when asked about her positioning for the rebound. “I knew something needed to come out of it.” With her second consecutive shot finding the net, Hiltunen has now scored in both of Princeton’s tournament games after netting a goal in the Ivy League tournament against Harvard.

To defend the lead, Driscoll once again went to his substitutes. Bringing on Wozniak and junior midfielder Kate Toomey allowed him to adjust to a more defensive 4–5–1 formation in which the midfield and defense were tasked with digging in and preventing Michigan’s attacks by any means necessary.

This defensive adjustment led to a far more choppy and violent game, which played directly into Princeton’s hands. Nagai received a yellow card for breaking up a Michigan counterattack in the 85th minute, followed by two yellow cards for Michigan minutes later.

Seeing the end in sight, the Tigers began to waste time, as Tordin’s repeated dribbles to the corner flag and multiple pauses for injuries allowed them to catch their breath and stifle Michigan’s momentum. After a

thumping clearance from Curry in the 90th minute, MacNab fended off three defenders in the corner and drew enough time off the clock to deny Michigan any chance of an equalizer.

As time expired, the Princeton bench rushed off the field, arms raised high in jubilant triumph. In the often brutal one-and-done NCAA tournament format, the Tigers fought to see t another day.

Waiting in the wings for the high-flying Tigers are the Texas Tech Red Raiders (16–1–4, 8–0–2 Big 12), whose regular season dominance earned them a national ranking at #4, as per NCAA RPI. Entering the tournament as the second seed in Princeton’s quarter of the bracket, Texas Tech won a close 1–0 game against Atlantic Sun Conference champions Florida Gulf Coast (12–4–5, 7–1–3 ASun) on Friday.

“Our mental focus needs to be a priority,” Hiltunen told the “Prince”, speaking about the upcoming game. “I believe if we withstand the mental challenges we have a solid opportunity to be successful.” She cited Texas Tech’s reputation for having a large number of hecklers at their home games as a reason to be prepared for the upcoming challenges.

Though Princeton will enter as heavy underdogs, their performance against Michigan will give them undeniable momentum as they fly to Lubbock and prepare for the upcoming game next Friday. Regardless of odds or seeding, the Tigers face the exact same challenge as the Red Raiders: win and they move on, lose and their season comes to an end. With Friday’s performance fresh in their minds, it would be foolish to write off these Tigers.

Joe Uglialoro is a contributor to the Sports section of the ‘Prince.’

ELECTRIC SPEEDBOATING

Princeton Electric Speedboating shatters world record for fastest electric-powered boat

By Peter Wang Sports Contributor

It was a historic moment when Princeton Electric Speedboating (PES) team’s boat, “Big Bird,” reached a blistering speed of 114.2 miles per hour, shattering the world record for the fastest electric-powered boat.

Princeton’s attempt on Oct. 26 surpassed the previous mark of 88.61 mph set by Jaguar Vector Racing — a professional racing group — in 2018. The record-breaking run occurred on Lake Townsend near Greensboro, North Carolina at an American Power Boat Association (APBA) sanctioned course. For an APBAsanctioned record, a boat must complete one kilometer in one direction, then, after a short break, complete the same kilometer in the opposite direction. The official speed recorded is the average speed of the two runs.

Piloted by professional hydroplane driver John Peeters, Big Bird clocked a speed of 111.08 mph on the first pass and 117.50 mph on the second run, averaging 114.20 mph, well over the previous world record. The run also topped an unofficial single-point speed record set by Vision Marine in August with a top speed of 116 mph.

The PES team is composed of over 40 undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom skipped class to prepare for and witness the event. Going into the day, the team felt confident in the boat’s record-breaking abilities.

“The previous day [of testing] had gone really well for us,” said Andrew Robbins ’25, CEO of PES, in an interview with the Daily Princetonian. “We were looking to break the Jaguar record right out the gate. In the first run, we wanted to go down, put out a pretty quick pass, and have everything go well.”

Robbins, a junior studying Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, serves as both president and CEO of the team, and is responsible for managing day-to-day operations for this project.

“We weren’t necessarily anticipating breaking [Vision Marine’s] unofficial record right off the bat,” stated Robbins. “It happened that the boat ran a little bit faster than expected, so we took both records in one go, which was awesome.”

“Faster than expected” turned out to be faster than any electric speedboat in history, and the team of students and supporters watching from the shore cheered in delight as they witnessed the culmination of their hard work. The team sought to break 120 mph on their following attempt, which then ended prematurely after the boat’s propeller shaft broke at the onset of the attempt. Nonetheless, PES finished the day as official world record holders and is eagerly looking forward to reaching even higher velocities in the future.

The team first started working on Big Bird in February, 2022. The engineering process consumed the next 20 months, as PES partnered with Black Sheep Racing, Flux Marine, and multiple other organizations to gather the necessary components for the boat. Robbins described the engineering process as a combination of known and unknown quantities.

“We [took] a couple [of] known quantities and put the best of each individual sector together. So in this case, we started with an existing Pro-Outboard hydroplane,” explained Robbins.

The hydroplane in question was a 14-foot, bright yellow gas boat with a blue stripe down the middle — hence the name Big Bird — built in 1993 by Ed Carlson, one of the most wellrespected and renowned hydroplane build-

ers in history. The storied hull was a “known quantity” for the team, as it had already set numerous gas records in the past.

The team’s engineers then worked with Flux Marine — a sustainable boating company based in Rhode Island — to develop an electric power train specifically tailored for the boat.

The biggest engineering challenge was the question of keeping the boat’s weight low.

“One of the big drawbacks of electric vehicles, particularly electric boats, is that the battery pack required to make them run for long duration is very heavy. And so in this case, our battery pack was about 330 pounds, and the boat weight was only about 975 pounds with the driver,” said Robbins. “Keeping [the weight] low and making sure that we’re able to get high discharge was probably our toughest feat, but [we had] a good team behind it.”

The team worked tirelessly throughout the year to put the boat together. Robbins credited J.W. Myers, owner of Black Sheep Racing, for being a great help throughout the entire process.

“We got in touch with J.W. through a friend of his, Mike Schmidt, who initially reached out to potentially use his boat, and he had put us in contact with J.W. thinking that, you know, he might have a boat for us,” stated Robbins.

Myers also played a large role in securing John Peeters, a personal friend with whom he had worked for over a decade, as the boat’s driver. “[Myers and Peeters] are a phenomenal team,” affirmed Robbins. “For us it was an honor and a pleasure to work with them, and they were just happy to be part of the project . . . They were a huge component [of the project]. Without them, it wouldn’t have been

possible.”

Peeters is the second-highest decorated boat racer in the world, with 61 records to his name. In another interview, Peeters stated, “I’m so lucky to be a part of this and to share in these accomplishments. This was a group effort, and that was so neat to me. They had a picture of a kid pumping his fist in pure joy, and you don’t get that every time. To capture it live was really special to see.”

With the record already under their belt, the Electric Speedboating team looks to the future to reach even higher speeds. The next goal? Not just breaking 120 miles per hour, or even 130. To Robbins, it’s 149.

“The next step is to go much faster,” Robbins told the ‘Prince.’ “We’ve got a custom hull that’s being built by Black Sheep Racing. J.W. [Myers] is heading that construction, and then we’ve got a custom battery pack being built

by Daneco Ltd. out of the UK, and that should increase our power by about 75%. The mark is to be in the high 140s. 149 is the goal.”

The number 149 is significant, as the APBA requires more stringent safety requirements at speeds exceeding 150 mph. While this may sound outlandish, Robbins believes the team has the resources and capability to pull it off.

As they work on engineering a newer and faster powerboat, the team is also preparing for other upcoming competitions. Their next confirmed event, the Promoting Electric Propulsion Race, is a five-mile race between different colleges that will occur from April 15-16, 2024.

“We’re really excited for that race,” said Robbins. “[Last year] we finished about three times faster than anybody else on the course, and we hope to extend that lead significantly this year. Hopefully, we’ll be raising the bar on the electric water speed record sometime

following that.”

PES’ commitment to electricity and sustainability is also of note, especially in such a gas-dominated boating industry. The club has been electric since its inception in order to participate in numerous college competitions, including the aforementioned Promoting Electric Propulsion Race. Being electric also has other benefits for the club, according to Robbins.

“We have found great success in the electric industry and it looks to be growing rapidly, so we are happy to be in the heart of it,” he wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “Being all-electric has helped us get more donors. One of the goals of the team is to promote sustainability within the marine industry and work to improve our waterways while going fast and having fun.

This goal is generally well regarded with potential team donors and partners.”

Though committing to fully electric boats has come with its fair share of challenges, the team has proved that they belong among the elite.

“When we started [this project], a lot of people said, ‘there’s no way you’re gonna beat that record, look at your competition’” Robbins said. “To be on the same level as Vision Marine is an honor and something that, if you think you can make it happen, you go for it. When we started this project, we told ourselves, well, we might try and fail . . . but it’s definitely worth going for.”

With a team of students like Princeton Electric Speedboating, anything is possible, even a world record.

Peter Wang is a contributor to the Sports section of the ‘Prince.’

page 22

Sports

Friday November 17, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FEATURES

Chasing excellence: The road to success for Marcus D. Stroud ’16

By Brian Mhando Assistabd Sports Editor

Walking into an awards ceremony for Dallas’s top business people of the year, Marcus Stroud ’16 was stopped in his tracks. A fellow attendee handed her used plate to him. Stroud, an honoree himself, was stunned.

“I’m getting an award just like Mark Cuban or David Bonderman, yet you’re handing me a plate?”

Moments of shock like these still permeate his life. But Stroud, a Princeton Football alum and venture capitalist, wants to show others that Black excellence is also general excellence.

“I would go to the Yankee Doodle Tap Room, and I would stare at those pictures in [the] Nassau [Inn],” he said, remembering how one of his unconventional routines motivated him as he moved into venture capital. “They would have alumni from Jeff Bezos to Michelle Obama to Meg Whitman. I would just look at those pictures all the time. And I would say, ‘Marcus, you should be on that wall.’”

Stroud began his career in business working for MarketAxess in N.Y. before he moved to Texas to work for Vida Capital. Though Stroud enjoyed his time at both companies, he wanted to push for more. Alongside his former roommate and best friend, Brandon M. Allen ’16, Stroud reached out to other Princeton alumni and coldcalled venture capitalists left and right. Armed with unwavering confidence and a Princeton degree, Stroud and Allen then co-founded TXV Partners, a venture capital firm focused on human performance and health innovation.

Stroud and Allen, both Black themselves, said they were determined to be seen as top venture capitalists regardless of their race.

As they were building their company, Stroud and Allen refused to accept any donations from DEI organizations.

“I don’t want you to give me money because of the color of my skin, I want you to give me money because you think we know how to invest the capital,” he said. “There has been systemic inequality in business for Black people, but when you’re a Black Princetonian, or you’re a Black Harvard [alum], or you’re a Black Yale [alum], you automatically have catapulted yourself to the top one percent, but it’s up to you to think like that.”

Stroud grew up in a small town in La. before moving to Prosper, Texas in middle school. In Texas, Stroud attended Prosper High School, where he played All-State level Linebacker defense for four years and led his team to two district titles.

Though Stroud was talented on the field, his mother pushed him to have a more well-rounded profile.

“My mom [was] almost definitely the biggest supporter, advocate, and voice for my dreams and helped me aspire to do bigger things,” he said.

In addition to pushing Stroud to look at top colleges, Stroud’s mother worked hard to ensure that her children were surrounded by inspirational Black leaders. When he was 14 years old, Stroud’s family hosted then future-President Barack Obama in their Texas home.

That moment served as a source of encouragement to further his educational and athletic careers at a top university like Princeton.

“I wouldn’t ever have dreamed of Princeton, or Stanford, or whatever if it wasn’t for Barack Obama and the influence he had over me.”

Now reaching for the Ivy League, Stroud’s recruitment process was far from seamless, and he even had to retake his SAT subject tests while his family went through an eviction. With all the challenges he faced during the application process, Stroud’s acceptance letter to Princeton took him by surprise.

“There was absolutely no reason

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

The journey for Stroud has been nothing short of remarkable. The once Tiger linebacker is now an influential business leader.

I should have gotten into Princeton. When my coaches came into my high school and told me I got into Princeton, everybody cried their eyes out, everybody. All my teachers were crying, all my coaches were crying, my family was crying,” Stroud recounted.

After facing adversity and emerging victorious, Stroud came to believe nothing could stop him from achieving his dreams.

“I knew the second I got into Princeton that there was absolutely nothing I couldn’t accomplish in my life. If I wanted to be the President of the United States, I can easily make that happen. If I wanted to run a Fortune 500 company, that’s going to happen.”

But at Princeton, Stroud faced further challenges. After living his entire life in the southern United States, moving north to N.J. alone was daunting and he turned once again to his mother’s advice.

“My mom always said, ‘Hey, this

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Stroud was a standout linebacker in high school.

is just the start. If you think this is tough, and you’re upset, you need to suck it up, because it’s only gonna get worse from here.’”

Stroud’s time at Princeton was challenging. During his first year, Stroud suffered a season-ending injury after only managing to complete one tackle the entire season. His second year was no better on the field, as Stroud made only two starts during Princeton’s 2013 Ivy League Championship season.

Stroud also felt out of place in the classroom.

“There’s a lot of stereotypes that I perpetuated myself. Nobody treated me like this, but I treated myself like the dumb football player from Texas.”

“My first couple years [at Princeton] I didn’t know who I was — I had lost my identity,” he recalled. “I was this person that I never recognized: a kid who was scared to take risks in classes, a kid who didn’t really want to branch out, and a kid who looked more at my problems than I did solutions.”

But by the end of his sophomore year, Stroud started to feel like he belonged in the Princeton community with the help of his teammates, coaches, and residential college dean.

“I was really fortunate to have teammates who really put their arms around me and were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be okay, we’re all going to be alright, we’re all struggling.’”

Though his first two years at Princeton were difficult both academically and mentally, Stroud views that time as some of the most formative years of his life.

“When you go through really tough things in life, it sucks in that moment, but then you realize, holy cow, I have the endurance, the understanding, and the empathy for this situation because I’ve entered it before.”

At the start of his senior year, Stroud recounted being more confident in himself than he ever had been and credited that resilience with carrying him to career suc-

cess. In 2020, just four years after graduation, Stroud became the youngest person ever to be on the Dallas 500, a magazine that highlights notable business leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area.

Now, as one of the major faces of venture capital in Texas, and informed by his past experiences, Stroud has set his aspirations elsewhere: advancing equity and inclusion in the venture capital market, just like he says his grandparents would have wanted him to do.

“My grandma and my granddad were very, very humble people: a school teacher, and somebody who worked at a factory and did custodial work on the side,” said Stroud.

“How do I honor them? By honoring more African Americans and helping them out. That’s what success looks like.”

“It’s not about what TXV is in five years or 10 years, or about the amount of deals or accolades that Brandon or I receive,” added Stroud.

“It’s all about how we elevate more Black people in this industry and finance in general.”

At TXV, Stroud and Allen routinely donate and sponsor programs that bring Black finance professionals together. Additionally, when choosing summer interns, they try to invite more women than men and at least two people of color.

But beyond donating and hiring interns, Stroud believes that his biggest responsibility is being a role model and figure of support for the next generation.

“I don’t care how busy my week is, I don’t care how busy my schedule is, I don’t care what I got going on in my life. If any Black student reaches out to me, I’m gonna get on the phone, I’m gonna sit there and talk, and I will do whatever I can to support them.”

“If we can do that for more Black students, especially Black Princetonians, there will be more successful outcomes for all of us.”

Brian Mhando is an assistant editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

Sports

Friday November 17, 2023

page 23

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } CROSS-COUNTRY

Men’s cross country takes gold at Regionals while women leave wishing for more

By Max Hines Sports Contributor

At the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals, the No. 16 Princeton men’s cross country team triumphed over 25 competing teams. While the women’s team did not meet their expectations, the lessons learned will carry over into the track season and the offseason.

“It’s a brotherhood”: Teamwork and experience lead to victory for men’s team Bendtsen. Kirk. Nisbet. Monte. O’Brien.

Led by these five, the Princeton men’s cross country team soared to victory, defeating 25 other schools at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals in Bethlehem, Pa. In a field with one other national top-30 team, No. 11 Villanova, the Tigers won by a large margin, as they took the lead at the 2,250 meter mark and never looked back.

Junior Nicholas Bendtsen paced the team to a fourth-place finish, with a time of 29:29.2 in the 10-kilometer race. All prior races were eight kilometers, roughly five miles, but the extra distance didn’t faze the Tigers.

“The jump from the 8K to the 10K is not that huge,” senior Anthony Monte told The Daily Princetonian. “We taper the mileage and we taper the workouts a bit more as we enter the postseason into the 10K just so we have the room for our bodies to take on the extra brunt that the extra 2K will hit you with.”

With fresh legs, seniors Jarrett Kirk and Connor Nisbet placed within a second of each other right behind Bendtsen, in sixth and eighth place overall with times of 29:31.5 and 29:31.6, respectively. Monte placed fourth on the team and 11th overall with a time of 29:47.0, and junior Daniel O’Brien finished two-tenths behind Monte in 12th place overall.

Thus, the Tigers scored 41 points in aggregate, well-ahead of second-place Villanova who had 73 points.

Notably, these times have only an 18-second spread between the first and fifth runners for the team, demonstrating the depth of talent in this year’s team and the success of their racing strategy.

“It’s the teamwork and camaraderie that’s the most important thing within our program,” head coach Jason Vigilante told the ‘Prince.’

Running so intensely also requires experience in how to pace, when to push, and where to make up ground. Monte ascribed much of the success to the team’s experience in racing and training together.

“We’re really old, like we’ve done this a lot.

So we worked a lot with our coach to figure

out exactly how … are we going to do it; it was much more planned out this time and we had a purpose behind every race, even through the early season,” Monte said.

Training and experience comprise only one half of the puzzle; the other half is the camaraderie Vigilante mentioned that goes into placing in such a tight pack.

“Our big strength this year … it feels like it’s a brotherhood and it feels like we’re making it a huge team sport when it doesn’t always have to feel like that, and other teams don’t have the culture that we’ve built,” Monte added.

The Tigers head to Charlottesville, Va., next week for the National Championships, where the team hopes to strike when the iron is hot and etch their names in Ivy League history.

“If we had a shot to get top ten as a team in the nation, this would be the team to do it,” Monte said. “Princeton hasn’t had a team this strong in about a decade… I don’t think there’s been a team in the Ivy League since … either the late ’80s or the ’90s, when Dartmouth was second.”

As Monte mentioned earlier, the “old” team this year, with all of Princeton’s top seven being juniors or seniors, is responsible for this window of opportunity. Along with race experience, upperclass students also have the most mileage in their legs, as Vigilante described the gradual training philosophy throughout a runner’s four years on the team.

“We put in plenty of mileage throughout the year and we’re very progressive about it. So a first-year athlete isn’t running very much, but by the time they’re up to their senior year, they’re all upwards of 90 to 100 miles a week,” Vigilante said.

The gradual year-over-year and throughout-the-season buildup strategies paid off Friday, and now the focus turns towards resting up for the championship race on Saturday.

Monte concluded, “We’ve got seven guys that have been working together for the last four years that are really tight, that are really close, and we think that this is the year for us to do something special.”

Fans can watch the team aim for a “special” cap to their season Saturday on ESPNU, starting at 9:30 a.m.

Women finish in sixth, but lessons and positives remain Entering the regional meet, the women’s team had their eyes set on a top-two finish, as the top two teams from each region advance to Nationals. However, Friday was unfortunately not that day for the women’s side.

With 140 points, the Tigers finished sixth,

The Water Cycle

By Austria Merritt Contributing Cartoonist

behind national No. 4 Georgetown, who won with 48 points. Penn State, Penn, West Virginia, and Villanova followed Georgetown in second through fifth, respectively. Senior Fiona Max led the team in 18th overall, finishing with a time of 20:20.6 in the 6K distance.

“We didn’t accomplish what we set out to do, which was qualify for nationals, but as sad as we could be about that, I think the mindset is more [that] we definitely had some good points of the season,” Max told the ‘Prince.’

Fellow seniors Maggie Liebich and Tsion Yared placed second and third on the team at 19th and 24th overall with times of 20:21.8 and 20:44.4, respectively. Junior Mena Scatchard and first-year Olivia Martin followed, in 35th and 44th, with times of 20:54.0 and 21:03.8.

“Our strategy going into the race was ‘you race the people you’re around’ to put yourself in a good position early on with Georgetown and Penn State,” Max said. “The race is basically won at the 3,200 meter mark; by that point, you kind of know where things stand, and so we wanted to go out hard.”

Planning and execution are two separate, difficult puzzle pieces, and the Tigers’ lack of experience in major races played a part in the finish.

“We have a young team right now; only three of us who raced yesterday have actually raced at Regionals before, so we have an extremely young team, and I think that plays

a huge part in that comfortability of racing up front and wondering if you can do it,” Max said.

Head coach Brad Hunt expressed his appreciation and admiration for the seniors, who led the team through an undulating season.

“Our seniors have continued to be just fantastic,” Hunt said. “They guided the way this entire time … they’ve just been so tremendously consistent and [it’s] just great to see them have that success continue to be that strong all the way from the start of the season to the end.”

Looking forward, Hunt continued “it’s just amazing to think about what a young crew we have behind them. They’re so talented and motivated to take the torch from this great senior class.”

An unexpected star, junior Mena Scatchard is among those prepared to carry the torch next year.

Scatchard “didn’t even run in our top twelve a year ago and now ends as an All-Ivy performer and somebody who’s consistent every time she’s raced for us,” Hunt said. “She’s had a tremendous breakout and [it’s] just marvelous to see her showing the younger crew where you start is not [as] important as how you progress, and I think she’s going to continue to be a wonderful leader for us.”

As one of the leaders, Scatchard will be responsible for maintaining the strong identity the team cultivated this season. Remarking on this strength, Hunt praised “the power of the

pack, kind of playing into the way that tigers hunt; our strength was the pack itself.”

The pack of young runners benefited greatly from the leadership of Max, Liebich, Yared, and the rest of the seniors, and Max offered a reflection on the effort that will lead to greater success.

“It’s back to the drawing board and trying to understand where we can get better, like physically more fit and mentally more fit,” Max said.

The upcoming indoor track season is another chance to build on physical fitness, and the sport of running as a whole presents a unique opportunity for competition to continue immediately.

With the potential for training and development to extend throughout the winter and spring, Hunt stressed the benefit of “having success on the track building off of your aerobic foundation of fitness and … how that track season goes into the next cross country season.”

As the calendar on cross country turns from 2023 to 2024, Hunt expressed confidence in his team and optimism for the future.

“That strength of the pack will take us to the next level,” Hunt concluded.

Max Hines is a contributing writer to the Sports section of the ‘Prince.’

page 24

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Friday November 17, 2023