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Wednesday november 18, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 106
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } LECTURE
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
U. to continue study abroad programs in France
By Maya Wesby contributor
JASPER GEBHARDT :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Actress and transgender activist Laverne Cox spoke in Richardson Auditorium on Tuesday.
Cox discusses experience as transgender actress, activist
By Lorenzo Quiogue senior writer
The need for spaces for healing is one of the biggest needs of marginalized communities today, Laverne Cox said at a discussion on campus on Tuesday. Cox spoke as part of an event titled “Ain’t I A Woman,” an event that also included a conversation between Cox and Jill Dolan, the dean of the college at the University. Cox said she believes a large challenge that transgender women face is the point of view that people can only identify as
the gender they were assigned at birth. She added that the transgender community faces big problems today, noting that 41 percent of transgender Americans have attempted suicide, compared to only 2 percent of the rest of the population. Cox cited the work of Judith Butler, bell hooks and Simone de Beauvoir as feminist influences. She noted Judith Butler’s point that when Simone de Beauvoir said that one becomes a woman rather than being born a woman, nowhere was it said that the one who becomes a woman is necessarily female.
ACADEMICS
U. sees rise in graduate students from abroad By Nahrie Chung staff writer
Departments have seen a slow and steady rise in international — non-U.S. born and non-naturalized citizen — applicants and admissions since 2009 across doctoral, masters and non-degree graduate programs at the University, according to data made available by the University’s Graduate School. Over the years, a large portion of international students have gravitated toward programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields across the United States. There are similar trends at the national level, Rajika Bhandari, deputy vice president of
research and evaluation at the Institute for International Education, said. She added that engineering and business management degrees are most popular among international students in both graduate and undergraduate programs. China, India and South Korea are predominant countries in sending students to U.S. higher education institutions, with places like Saudi Arabia and Brazil easily jumping the ranks in the past decade, according to the IIE’s report. According to the Davis International Center’s annual reports, the international constituency of the graduate student body increased from See GRADUATE page 5
Cox spoke about the bullying she experienced as a child and explained that when her mother found out that she was being bullied, her mother asked her what she was doing to make her classmates bully her and why she wasn’t fighting back. “I started internalizing a tremendous amount of shame about that,” Cox explained. “I felt like it was my fault.” Cox said that she attempted suicide when she was in the sixth grade, because she was starting to be attracted to other boys and was afraid that she See COX page 4
The University’s study abroad programs in France will not be canceled in reaction to the Paris terrorist attacks Friday, Director of the Office of International Programs Nancy Kanach said. In the attacks, three teams of Islamic State members killed over 130 civilians and injured over 350 others at a concert hall, a stadium, bars and restaurants. Kanach said that the University’s response in keeping students safe was a prompt and effective one and added that no University students were harmed. OIP, the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life and the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Operations collaborated to make sure University students were safe, she said. “Together we responded and kept the University leadership up-to-date on what was happening,” she said. French and Italian departmental representative Efthymia Rentzou said noted that staff within the French and Italian department also stayed in touch with the five or six students in Paris whom
they personally knew after the attacks. She added that, as far as she knew, no student has ever felt unsafe enough that he or she withdrew from a study abroad program. “The risk level in France is, by all our security experts, not at the level that we would consider closing down programs. I’ve been monitoring what other schools are doing and what other programs are doing abroad. There’s, at this point, no plan to require people to come home or anything like that,” she said. Director of Study Abroad program Mell Bolen did not respond to a request for comment. Department representative for the Wilson School Christina Davis and Wilson School Associate Dean Nathan Scovronick did not respond to a request for comment. Comparative literature department chair Eileen Reeves did not respond to a request for comment. Kanach explained that OIP keeps track of where University students are overseas through the Concur tracking system, a tool used for monitoring student activity should students, for example, See PARIS page 3
LETTERPRESS
SUNNY HE :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Princeton University Letterpress held an open house on Tuesday for interested students.
LOCAL NEWS
Café, restaurant to open in Arts and Transit Neighborhood next year contributor
A café and restaurant are scheduled to open in 2016 and 2017, respectively, in the Arts and Transit Neighborhood near Forbes College, University Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget said. The restaurant will be opened at the same time as the
construction of a new facility associated with the Lewis Center for the Arts, Appelget said. The two buildings housing the café and restaurant have been a part of the Arts and Transit Project since it were first proposed in 2013, Appelget said. The Arts and Transit Project, which is slated for completion in 2017, has also in-
volved the relocation of the Wawa, the construction of a new Dinky station and the construction of new facilities associated with the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Department of Music. Appelget said that the Terra Momo Restaurant Group, which operates three restaurants in the Princeton area, was originally selected to operate the restaurant and café
but that the group has decided to step aside and not move forward in the project. “We had a mutually agreeable parting of ways,” Appelget explained. As a result, the University has reached out again to decide who the new café and restaurant operator will be, Appelget said. Co-owner of the Terra Momo group Carlo Momo de-
In Opinion
Today on Campus
Guest contributor Destiny Crockett responds to columnist Beni Snow’s column about the Christakises and freedom of thought, and columnist Lea Trusty argues that it is wrong for state governors to refuse to accept Syrian refugees. PAGE 6
4:30 p.m.: Brian Eugenio Herrera, author and assistant professor of theater, will facilitate a discussion on the experiences of people who identify as both Latinx and LGBTQA. Carl A. Fields Center.
clined to specify the reason behind the termination of the negotiation but said that he and the University could not agree on general terms. Momo added that the termination of the negotiation did not have anything to do with the difficulty of obtaining a liquor license, as the University had already purchased one. “Our negotiations were See CAFE page 2
WEATHER
By Claire Lee
HIGH
59˚
LOW
53˚
Cloudy with no chance of meatballs. chance of rain: 10 percent
The Daily Princetonian
Wednesday november 18, 2015
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U. to search for new operator for new cafe, restaurant CAFE
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kind of like our winter,” Momo said. “That expectation of winter and all the beautiful snow and all that and we were really looking forward to doing our beautiful project and then all of the ice and cold and wind set in, so there you have it.” Appelget said that while the selection process for a new operator is going on, the project has continued and has not been delayed. She said that the restaurant and café are currently going through various stages of construction. She added that the interior of the café and restaurant will be designed by the new operator when the new operator is found, but work is currently being done on the exterior of the buildings. Appelget added that the opening of the café will be determined in coordination with the eventual operator. Appelget said that the restaurant and café are ideally situated because they are close to McCarter Theatre and to the new Lewis Center facility. She explained that the café’s location allows people to get something to eat before or after attending a perfor-
mance or going to a rehearsal space in the Lewis Center. “I think the café and restaurant will be a great resource not only for students in Forbes but also for undergraduates and graduates, given the location of the café and restaurant,” Appelget said. “It’s in close proximity to several of the residential colleges, it’s intended to be something that’s distinctive and especially intended to be complementary to McCarter Theatre.” Ryan Born ’19, a resident of Forbes, said that he generally stays in Forbes because everything is far away. However, he added that since the restaurant and café would be a lot closer to many other places, he could see people going there if it does become as popular as the Wawa as a place to gather. Zara Jayan ’19 said she would probably go to the café about twice a week, adding that the café will be a nice place to work compared to Forbes library. “The addition of the café and restaurant will be another thing that Forbes can say it has,” Jayan said. “It’ll be a nice addition to the Forbes community at least. We can chant about it next year at Clash of the Colleges.”
LEILA CLARK :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Construction on the Arts and Transit Project next to Alexander Road is scheduled for completion in 2017.
T HE DA ILY
LOCAL NEWS
Enjoy drawing pretty pictures?
By Zaynab Zaman
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Simon concedes election, Zwicker elected assemblyman for 16th district staff writer
New Jersey Republican Assembly member Donna Simon conceded defeat to Democratic candidate Andrew Zwicker in the 16th District of the New Jersey Assembly Monday. Zwicker emerged on top Nov. 9 by 78 votes, after provisional votes were counted. Although Simon had the opportunity to ask for a recount of the votes until Nov. 18, she chose to concede the election. Simon did not respond to a request for comment. Zwicker had initially conceded defeat to Simon on Nov. 3, but a vote count the next day revealed that he was 29 votes ahead of her, and the final counting of votes in Middlesex County gave him a 78-vote lead. Zwicker
explained that the elections eventually reached a point where, statistically speaking, he felt that he had the upper hand over his opponent. He will be officially sworn into office on Jan. 12, 2016. Zwicker is the first Democratic candidate elected as a representative to New Jersey’s 16th Legislative District. The Democrats now hold 52 of the 80 seats, a majority in the New Jersey Assembly. Zwicker is currently the Head of Science Education for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and noted that though he will still be involved with the University, his involvement will have to drop below 100 percent. He will still be the head of science education, and will remain an advising fellow in Rockefeller College, he said.
He also noted that he will not be teaching a writing seminar for freshmen in the spring, but that is not clear as to what his involvement with the Writing Center will be after that. He explained that he is primarily looking forward to being the voice of the people of his district. “There is now a voice for evidence-based decision making, which is my central platform,” Zwicker explained. He noted that New Jersey currently has significant challenges, and that there will be a lot to do in terms of reforming them. However, he said is ready to begin working on them collaboratively. “I look forward to being a part of the solution,” Zwicker said. The elections took place on Nov. 3.
Wednesday november 18, 2015
U. study abroad students in France unharmed PARIS
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want to leave their assigned city for a weekend. Knowing where students are when they are abroad allows OIP to call, text and email them should an emergency situation occur, Kanach said. She noted that between Friday night and Saturday morning, about twenty messages were sent out to update students on what was happening. “Generally, in this situation I think we got a hold of everybody in a very timely manner,” Kanach said. She added that OIP offers counseling and has a 24/7 line for people to call if they felt that they needed any kind of assistance. “We’re very, very sorry about all the deaths and the chaos and the injuries that this whole event caused,” Kanach said. “We were relieved that our students weren’t involved, but obviously we feel really deeply saddened and shocked by what’s happened to the people who were in those locations where the attacks took place.” In order for students abroad to stay safe, it is recommended that they follow emergency policies as outlined by OIP, stay away from public demonstrations and stay vigilant, Kanach said. “Life is risky, and so we always worry, you know, about how they’re doing,” she said. “We’re hopeful that we prepare them well enough in terms of the kinds of orientations that we provide and some of the health and safety guidance that we give them.” Kanach also said that stu-
The Daily Princetonian
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LETTERPRESS
dents who are in the process of applying to study abroad in France next semester are free to talk to OIP about being comfortable and supported should they choose to go abroad, adding that at this point they have the choice of going or not. “These are personal decisions, and this is the nature, unfortunately, of terrorism,” Rentzou said. “The best answer to terror is to go on living as normal. And this is what people are trying to do in Paris.” A candlelight vigil called “Tossed by the Waves, But Does Not Sink: Vigil in Re-
“The best answer to terror is to go on living as normal. And this is what people are trying to do in Paris.”
SUNNY HE :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Letterpress Club is based in the Typography Studio in the Lewis Center and works throughout the semester to design, set and print posters and booklets in collaboration with departments and organizations on campus.
Efthymia Rentzou
sponse to Attacks on Humanity” will be held at the University Art Museum patio at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, organized by the Religious Life Council and the Princeton French Society and co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Student Government, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and many other student groups. The event is meant to be an interfaith and intercultural dialogue on the recent attacks that have occurred around the world.
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Wednesday november 18, 2015
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“Transgender is beautiful,” Cox says COX
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JASPER GEBHARDT :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Laverne Cox and Dean of the College Jill Dolan participated in a public discussion on Tuesday.
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would disappoint her grandmother, who had just passed away. She also noted her background as the daughter of a single, working-class mother in Alabama and noted the difficulties she had reconciling the way she felt with the societal attitudes in her community. Cox explained that she began to change her own misconceptions about transgender women when she arrived in New York for college, particularly in the club scene in New York City. “It was the first time in my life that my gender expression was looked upon as something that was valuable,” she said. She also explained the importance of intersectionality, the study of overlapping social identities, noting that there was not a universal experience of being black, of being transgender or of being a woman. “I stand before you here tonight a proud African American transgender woman, from a workingclass background, raised by a single mother,” she said. Cox noted that the flawed logic of the gender binary, or the classification of gender into two distinct forms of masculine and feminine, could not exist without gender policing, adding that there was an institutional pressure on people in society to police other people’s gender. She also noted that when it comes to activism, it is important to remember to target systems and not individuals, and cited a quote by Cornel West ’80, “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” Cox added that far too many transgender women experience the intersection of identity and oppression, noting
experiences in her life when she was catcalled, and the men who catcalled her subsequently realized that she was transgender. While she noted that she felt unsafe, she also said that she was very lucky that that was the worst of her experiences, adding that many transgender women experience far worse on a daily basis. Cox also emphasized the importance of Brené Brown’s concept of resilience to shame. “If someone can look at me and can tell that I’m transgender, that’s not only okay, that’s awesome, because transgender is beautiful,” she explained. Cox said that most of the bullying she experienced growing up came from members of the African American community, but emphasized that this was not because African Americans were more homophobic or transphobic. Rather, Cox explained that she believes that marginalized people tend to police each other, noting the adage, “hurt people hurt people.” Cox also noted the history of emasculating African American men during the era of slavery and explained that her bullies may have believed that she was both the result and a reminder of this emasculation. Cox added that the bullying she experienced as a child emphasized the need for spaces for people from marginalized communities to heal. “For me, the question becomes, ‘How do we begin to create spaces of healing so we don’t take our pain out on each other?’” she said. “If we just get to know people as people, all those misconceptions will melt away.” Presented by the Carl A. Fields Center, the Women’s Center and the LGBT Center, the event took place at Richardson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
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The Daily Princetonian
Wednesday november 18, 2015
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International students attracted to diversity of U.S. graduate programs GRADUATE Continued from page 1
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37 percent in the 2009-10 academic year to 40 percent by the 2014-15 academic year. In 2014, 56 percent of students in engineering programs came from abroad. The University’s natural sciences programs, compared to other academic areas, have witnessed the largest jump in international graduate students, having grown from 33 percent during the 2009-10 academic year to 41 percent in the 2014-15 academic year. Within roughly the same time frame, the overall international graduate student population in the United States increased from 690,923 – 3.4 percent of the total students in higher education – in 200910 to 886,052 – 4.2 percent – in 2013-14, based on an annual report published by IIE called “Open Doors.” In 2009, over 4,000 U.S. higher education institutions were hosting over 293,000 international graduate students; by the end of 2014, that figure had grown to nearly 330,000 students total. Though it is without professional schools, the University awards master’s degrees in finance, architecture, public policy, engineering and in the sciences of engineering and chemistry. The Wilson School offers two-year master’s degrees in public affairs and public policy, as well as joint-degree programs in partnership with other peer institutions. Jaime Beja, a first-year MPA student at the Wilson School from Mexico City, Mexico, said that he found the Wilson School attractive for its small faculty-to-student ratio and rigorous curriculum. “It’s very rigorous in terms of its quantitative material — economics, statistics — and the focus that it has, being a small school,” he said. Beja said that his cohort of first-year MPA students is the largest the Wilson School has seen so far, at 70 students total. Twenty-five of them are international students. The diversity of student perspectives and international experiences has proven enormously rewarding even in the first few months of the program, he said. “Learning from all these backgrounds and experiences… many of the domestic students have backgrounds and work in international countries, so that’s a great piece. You learn something new every day about another region, another country. It’s like a huge pot where everybody gives in some kind of way and we learn something. That’s amazing,” he said. As for the long-term future, Beja plans to return to public service in his home country. “I see myself in Mexico, giving back somehow what I’ve come to learn here, and mainly working in the public sector — either in the government or NGO,” Beja said. “My vision has always been to give something back through the government, particularly Mexico. It’s a country where a lot can be done. There’s been a lot of advances in the last decade, but the road is still very long.” Another first-year MPA student in the Wilson School, Rafael Almeida, from southern Brazil, said he applied to public policy programs after seven years’ work in various departments in the Brazilian federal government. Almeida said he had served in a number of capacities — from organizing health and education systems to combatting human trafficking and money laundering — and realized he needed more than a bachelor’s degree for the work he wanted to pursue. “My decision to go to graduate degree in public adminis-
tration and public policy was [because] I had hit a point in my career where I knew I had to acquire more skills — so my focus was on domestic policy but I knew I had to acquire some international affairs skills,” he said. “That is why I decided to apply to the top graduate programs and, of course, Princeton was one of them.” Almeida said he was drawn to the University’s deeply interdisciplinary approach to what is often a very practiceoriented degree. He noted that he appreciates the interdisciplinary aspects of the program that allow students studying in different areas, like international affairs, domestic policy, international development and economics policy, to work together. Like Beja, Almeida has discovered a community rich with diverse and wide-ranging policy backgrounds. “From the beginning I was really impressed about the experiences of my colleagues. They have had amazing international careers in Africa, Italy, South America,” Almeida said. “And of course not only international students because American students have a very vast international experience. This is an incredible community where we have been learning a lot from each other and there’s a sense of cooperation, a sense that we are living in this community but we are also very worried about how we can change aspects of reality when we leave this school. It’s a really
“From the beginning I was really impressed about the experiences of my colleagues. And of course not only international students because American students have a very vast international experience.” Rafael Almeida
graduate student
amazing, right-minded community.” Bhandari pointed to the quality of American universities as a selling point for many international students. “I think one of the things that most attracts international students is the very solid reputation of U.S. higher education, the reputation of high-quality institutions and the fact that students who are researchoriented are really attracted to the research facilities of U.S. campuses,” she said. “Students are also really attracted to the fact that the U.S. has a range of institutions — we have over 4,000 institutions: community colleges, small liberal arts institutions, large doctorate degree institutions. There is really something for everyone and every type of international student,” she said. Further, Bhandari said she observed that the intellectual, cultural and knowledge-based contributions that international students provide to the American campus are unmistakable. “I think one of the biggest contributions that international students make is to really globalize and internationalize the American classroom on campus, because keep in mind that barely 10 percent of all American students study abroad,” she said. “So for those who are not going abroad, if they have international students in their classroom, that’s going to be really mind-expanding for them to be able to sit next to students who are from another country and re-
ally learn about the different perspectives and cultures, and I’m sure the types of academic knowledge will be very different from their own.” For example, Beja noted that his pre-Wilson School experience working and living in a developing nation has allowed for an interesting contribution of knowledge and different perspectives among other students in his cohort. When it comes to the benefits of globalized knowledge exchange, certain social science disciplines have just as much to gain as engineering programs have historically. The economics department at the University is 75 percent international, according to the former department chair and economics professor Gene Grossman. In an address at the City University London’s Cass Business School, Grossman acknowledged the critical value added by foreign students and scholars. He said that, like in the natural science and engineering fields, the social science disciplines required international integration in order to promote the growth of new and creative ideas, the Times Higher Education reported last month. Grossman, who is on academic leave this year, could not be reached for comment. So Kubota, a fifth-year graduate student in the University’s economics department, said he believes that an increasingly “internationalized” trend within a discipline like economics simply makes sense. Kubota obtained both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Japan prior to coming to the University. According to Kubota, the University is ranked in the top five in the world for macroeconomics study, and he said the program’s excellence outweighed his general nervousness about life and language barriers in the United States. “Princeton is the best research university in the United States, at least in my area,” he said. Drawing a comparison to areas like sociology and politics, Kubota explained that macroeconomics has an inherent international aspect to its work that makes cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration easier than in other fields. “Economists share the same method, like mathematical models and statistical methods, to study the society, so it’s a kind of globalized field, like mathematics or physics,” he explained, then laughed. “We don’t need to use English so much because we can use mathematics.” Yuyang Fan, a fourth-year graduate student from China in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, said that his research advisors and partners directed him to the University’s program. “What made my decision to come here is really that the faculty are outstanding, the research facilities are unparalleled to other places, and very important is the people here — the students. You feel happy being surrounded by those people,” he said. “Back then, when I was applying, people coming to the U.S. for undergraduate was not a very common thing but it’s getting a lot more popular. [Now] you see people here and that’s not uncommon either. I can see that and that’s the trend: people are trying to come here earlier.” Almeida said there’s no mistaking what his experience as a graduate student at the University has meant to him. “I think I can speak for my colleagues in this: we are really amazed about how much attention we have in this school, and this is certainly a very unique feature in the Woodrow Wilson School,” he said. “Students can share experiences in a very close relationship, so it’s a really important aspect of our experience here so far.”
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We shouldn’t turn away Syrian refugees
Wednesday november 18, 2015
Opinion
page 6
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
Lea Trusty
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
senior columnist
T
here are probably very few people who have not heard of the tragedy that struck Paris this past Friday. As the horrific events unfolded and the number of lives lost continued to escalate, the genuine threat of terrorism — of ISIS — and the havoc it has been wreaking in the Middle East and Africa hit home. People of all nationalities took to social media to show their support for the French. Facebook let its users overlay the French flag over profile pictures. People began using hashtags like “#prayforparis.” It seemed that overnight, the world had come together in a moment of solemn solidarity. Still, even as I held France in my thoughts, I could not help but feel wary of what I knew was soon to follow on social media: xenophobia, mistreatment of Muslims and angry, confused people conflating ISIS as the face of Islam. I cannot imagine carrying my religion as a weight. I cannot imagine having to constantly declare why my faith is not inherently violent, even though Christianity has had its own share of violence throughout history. And I cannot imagine apologizing to the world for the detestable actions of others, even though I have nothing to do with them — even though those people have completely twisted my religion for their own vicious purposes. Yet, people forget this. Or rather, they choose to be ignorant of the fact that most of ISIS’s victims are Muslim— both in the hijacking of their faith and the lives of many who were taken or displaced. Over half of America’s governors displayed this as they declared they would not accept any Syrian refugees. States do not have jurisdiction over the process of accepting refugees, but even so, there are ways in which they can make refugee placement a more challenging process. This is despite the fact that refugees must already undergo a thorough screening before they are even let in. Yet if there is any group that we must have compassion toward in this moment of history, it is the displaced people of Syria. They have had to watch their home be torn apart by vicious civil war, during which a multitude of war crimes have been committed and chemical weapons used. In the midst of all this, ISIS has taken land and lives. As a result, millions have flown for safety. Together, countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have accepted over hundreds of thousands of these displaced Syrians. Compared to these numbers — and even the numbers of refugees European countries like Germany have accepted — the U.S. promise of 10,000 refugees in the 2016 fiscal year is miniscule. Less than 2,000 have actually been admitted this year, a number dwarfed by refugees of other nationalities. Therefore, if the argument is that we lack resources to accommodate these refugees, I am doubtful. However, the language used to oppose letting in refugees is more fearful and xenophobic than anything, to which I respond the people who we would admit have been suffering at the hands of the same terrorists who committed those atrocities in Paris. Turning our back on them now would not only display a complete lack of humanity, but it would also show that ISIS’s strategy of cultural divisiveness is a good one. The United States can behave in a number of different ways during times of international fear and crisis, but history tells us that we most often become prejudiced and intolerant and sometimes even violently act out against those about whom we have misconceived notions. Let’s not make this one of those times.
Pyne Prize nominations
I
write to solicit nominations for the Pyne Prize, the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate, which will be awarded on Alumni Day, Saturday, February 20, 2016. In thinking about nomination, I would ask that you consider the following description: M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize. A prize awarded annually to the senior who has manifested in outstanding fashion the following qualifications: excellence in scholarship, character and effective support of the best interests of Princeton University. Founded in 1921 in remembrance of the life and character of M. Taylor Pyne, Class of 1877, Trustee of Princeton 1885-1921, by his
cousin, Mrs. May Taylor Moulton Hanrahan, the prize is the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate. The prize consists of the income from this fund up to the prevailing comprehensive fee for one academic year. The prize winner will be selected by the President of the University, the Deans of the College and of Undergraduate Students, and the Secretary of the University. We are eager to receive nominations from members of the University community. Please send letters to pyneprize@princeton.edu by Tuesday, January 5, 2016. Kathleen Deignan Dean of Undergraduate Students
Dante’s Inferno Ryan Budnick ‘16 ..................................................
vol. cxxxix
Anna Mazarakis ’16 editor-in-chief
Matteo Kruijssen ’16 business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 vice presidents John G. Horan ’74 Thomas E. Weber ’89 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Richard P. Dzina, Jr. ’85 William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Kathy Keily ’77 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy J. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Jerry Raymond ’73 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas Widmann ’90
NIGHT STAFF 11.8.15 senior copy editors Megan Laubach ’18 senior copy editors Samantha Zalewska ’19 Arthur Mateos ’19 news Shriya Sekhsaria ’18 Maya Wesby ’18 Design Jessica Zhou ’19
Lea Trusty is a politics major from Saint Rose, La. She can reached at ltrusty@princeton.edu.
In response to “In the defense of the Christakises”
Destiny Crockett
guest contributor
T
o Beni Snow, who authored a recent piece defending the Christakises, and anyone else who conflates racism and a culture of antiBlackness with “freedom of speech.” When we justify racially offensive remarks, Halloween costumes and actions with “freedom of speech” in universities, we invoke the fatal flaw of conflating First Amendment rights with what should be considered “freedom of thought.” We also ignore the hard truth that much of what we attempt to protect under this guise is racist, and for students of color, it feels like hate speech. This is true at the University, but also for the broader conversation about what is considered inappropriate and offensive language and behavior. Freedom of speech, as we understand it from the United States Constitution, simply does not apply to students on the lush campuses of private universities. There are rules and regulations that keep students from, say, protesting in the classroom while a professor is lecturing, even if said professor is a bigot. The invocation of “free speech” on private campuses like Yale’s is simply false because our Constitutional rights do not apply in the same way that they would in a public space like a coffee shop or movie theater. It is also a big mistake to use language from the Constitution to reprimand people the Constitution was not even written for. Not only do we not have freedom of speech,
but students of color, particularly Black students, have little incentive to allow ourselves to be pacified with an argument based on a constitution that was drafted when African American people were enslaved — the Constitution was not written with people of color in mind. When it was drafted, my people were toiling to build this country with their own blood and tears and were treated like livestock — or worse. By telling us the Constitution states that people in the United States should be able to say whatever they want to say, you are willfully ignoring the history from which our people came and the ways that this history lingers in today’s institutions — academic and otherwise. Thus, defending racist behaviors (like dressing up as a particular race or culture, or more overtly, shouting racial slurs) with “freedom of speech” is fallacious and frustratingly false. But here is where even Snow’s call for freedom of intellectual thought ignores the essential historical and contemporary context of race in the United States: if your freedom of thought means that I, a Black student, do not have the luxury of feeling safe on a campus that I have worked my entire life to get to, it should have no place in universities or any other beloved institution. White privilege means that there is no way for people of color to wear Halloween costumes that play into the stereotypical images of white people — because white people benefit from having a variety of images of themselves. It means that white people can go into any costume store and find costumes
(likely created by other insensitive white people) that mock people of color. But when people of color dress up as white people, it typically involves princess costumes with flowing blonde wigs that don’t resemble their hair because desirable images of themselves are few and far between. And that does not stop at costume choices. There is no true “freedom” of thought or speech when one group has historical, political, social and socioeconomic leverage over the other. Snow and many others who share his beliefs on this issue cloak racism in a flowery phrase, calling it “diversity of thought.” He says people of color who call for “diversity” should remember that listening to all points of view, especially in universities, is essential. Yet Snow forgets that even the word “diversity” is for white people, as a numbers game to make themselves feel like noble citizens and pacify people of color who desire representation and inclusion. A genuine desire for diversity cannot come without the historical context of why diversity and inclusion is necessary in the first place. Snow says, on what he calls “censorship” in universities, “This censorship worries me far more than any racially or ethnically offensive expression ever will,” which prioritizes his (a cisgendered white male’s) worries about not being able to say what he wants or wear the Halloween costume he chooses over the very real need for students of color to feel safe on their campuses. Beni, you, as a white person who benefits from (gasp!) white
privilege, do not have to worry about many of the things students of color worry about on a daily basis, so your “worry” in this case is of miniscule value. Your peers do not tell you that you are only at Princeton because of affirmative action. People do not stop you on campus to ask you if you’re actually a student. You do not have the burden of being the only person with your racial background in a class in which a professor relies on you to do the impossible task of educating your peers on the beliefs of your entire race. White people have white privilege, which means their safety and feelings of belonging are not threatened in the way those of students of color are. Thus, your opinion on what students of color at Yale or any other institution ask of their peers and administration is moot. Beni, you simply lack the context you need in order to make the claim that freedom of thought should trump feeling safe at a school that doubles as your home. I emphasize safety because what seems to be merely offensive to a person whose country affirms the value of his or her life can be threatening to a person who has daily reminders that he or she is worthless in the eyes of the law and that the academic institution he or she is part of was not built for him or her. In a country that was stolen and built on the dead bodies of Native Americans and with the blood and tears of African Americans and continues to degrade and disenfranchise all people of color, there is no Halloween costume funny or cute
enough to come at the expense of people of color. In a country in which Black people are told daily how little our lives mean to this country, what is perceived as merely “offensive” are our reminders that, should you ever decide to act on (racist) beliefs that we perceive to be violent and hateful, there may not be justice for fallen Black bodies. Remember Dylann Roof? This instance wasn’t on a college campus, but he exercised his freedom of speech by all but worshipping the Confederate flag and everything it represented. This country is a precarious place to live for people of color — so if your freedom of speech or thought seems racist, we cannot take it lightly. Our lives may be in danger, and our country has shown that it does not care about how many Black and brown bodies fall. The notion that telling (white) college students not to mock students of color infantilizes students of color is almost laughable. As a university charged with educating all of its students, it is actually infantilizing to let white students graduate and go out into the world thinking it is acceptable to be bigots. You may be free to think and express what you want, but if those thoughts are rooted in xenophobia toward any marginalized group and lack an acknowledgement of your white privilege, you are not free from being perceived as racist and any consequences that may come from that perception. Destiny Crockett is an English major from Saint Louis, Mo. She can be reached at datc@princeton.edu.
Wednesday november 18, 2015
Men’s hockey falls to Dartmouth and no. 7 ranked Harvard, 3-0 HOCKEY Continued from page 8
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first period. Freshman forward Ryan Kuffner scored his first collegiate career goal off of a power play in the second quarter and senior forward Jonathan Liau scored Princeton’s second goal in the third quarter. The Orange and Black was unable to score in the fourth quarter though, and the Tigers came up just short in a 3-2 loss. On Saturday, the Tigers was once again unable to redeem
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themselves against the Harvard Crimson (4-1-1, 4-1-1). No. 7-ranked Harvard shut out the Tigers in a 3-0 loss, with two empty net goals to end the game. Despite the loss, junior goalie Colton Phinney was still able to make 39 saves in the game. Furthermore, Princeton’s 38 shots were the most the Tigers have shot in a game since March 2, 2013. Princeton will host St. Lawrence and Clarkson this coming weekend, with games at 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday at Baker Rink.
page 7
KATHERINE TOBEASON :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s hockey team fell to Dartmouth and Harvard in disappointing losses over the weekend.
Men’s cross country finishes fourth, Tigers compete at Penn behind three nationally ranked teams and PSU Invitational XC
Continued from page 8
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Men’s Cross Country With a total of 102 points, the men’s cross country team finished fourth in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional held in Princeton last Friday for the second consecutive time. Princeton was led by freshman Jeremy Spiezio, who was the first of the Tigers to complete the 10k race with a time of 31:21.2. He finished in 16th place and was followed by three seniors: Sam Berger at 31:28.5, Michael Sublette at 31:31.0 and Brett Kelly at 31.31.5. The final Princeton finisher to make the top 25 was freshman Steven Sum, who clocked 31.32.0. All five runners will earn All-Region honors for placing in the top 25. Patrick Tiernan of Villanova was the top finisher of the race with a time of 30:15.8, twenty seconds before the next best runner. The top three spots were taken by three nationally ranked teams: No. 15-ranked Georgetown with 44 points, No. 23-ranked Penn with 60 points and No. 22-ranked Villanova with 67 points. Spiezio, who was the top
finisher for the first time this season, was excited regarding his individual placement in the race last week. “I think I ran pretty well. I was really happy with my race,” Spiezio said. “It was pretty exciting to be up in the front pack in a college race. It was not something I expected to happen.” Regarding his opening season as a freshman, Spiezio was
“It was pretty exciting to be up in the front pack in a college race. It was not something I expected to happen.” Jeremy Spiezio, freshman
also content with his individual performance throughout the fall. “It had low points, but regionals was really a high point. Coming in, I expected to try adjusting and getting used to the academics here, training and a new team. Overall, I’m very happy.”
“We were pretty solid,” Spiezio said about his team’s performance this fall season. The Tigers finished in fifth place in the Heptagonal [Ivy League] Cross Country Championship earlier in the season and placed well in four additional races: the Princeton Invitational, the Wisconsin Invitational, the Princeton Interregional Meet and the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Meet, where Princeton finished first. The team did not earn a bid to the NCAA National Championship this Saturday at the University of Louisville in Kentucky because of its fourth place finish, yet Spiezio, nonetheless, expressed his pride for his team and the season. “We were really shooting for the stars and trying to qualify for nationals, and we had an outside shot,” said Spiezio. “We had to run very well and some of the guys on the back ends of the other teams had to have slightly off days for it to work and for us to get that bid to go to nationals. We ended up finishing fourth, so we were two spots out, but overall the guys went out there and ran their hardest. It’s definitely been a lot of fun and a good experience.”
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SWIM & DIVE Continued from page 8
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second in the 50-yard freestyle, and senior Bryon Sanborn, who swept the breaststroke individuals. Junior diver Nathan Macarewicz earned sixth place in the 3-meter and seventh in the 1-meter. The women’s team also finished second to Penn State, scoring 993 points to the Nittany Lions’ 1,094. Freshman Lindsay Swartz swam to an impressive first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Freshman Monica McGrath had top 3 finishes in all three distance events, placing second in the 200-yard freestyle and third in both the 500-yard freestyle and one mile. Other Princeton swimmers claiming top finishes included senior Nikki Larson, placing second in the 100-yard freestyle, third in the 100-yard butterfly and fifth in
the 50-yard freestyle, senior Beverly Nguyen, placing second in the 200-yard butterfly and fifth in the 400-yard individual medley, senior Liz McDonald, placing third in the 200-yard butterfly and fourth in the 100yard butterfly, and sophomore Madelyn Veith, placing third in the 100-yard freestyle. Many members of both the men’s and women’s team did not actually participate in the PSU invitational: seven members of the women’s team and four on the men’s team raced in the Minnesota Grand Prix, alongside the most elite swimmers in the nation (among them Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin and 19-year-old prodigy Katie Ledecky). Sophomore Corey Okubo turned out a particularly stellar performance, finishing third in the 400-yard individual medley and fifth in the 200-yard butterfly in one of the strongest fields nationally.
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Wednesday november 18, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 100
Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S AND WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Tigers see success at regionals By Miranda Hasty Contributor
Women’s Cross Country The women’s cross country team raced to third place with a score of 80 points last Friday at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, securing it a bid to the NCAA National Championships this Saturday. The Tigers finished after No. 10-ranked Penn State, who earned 60 points, and only five points behind No. 14 Georgetown, who accumulated a total of 75 points. Though Temple’s Blanca Fernandez claimed the individual title with her first-place finish with a time of 20:52.0, senior Emily de la Bruyere and junior Lizzie Bird took the second- and third-place positions, with respective times of 20:53.6 and 20:56.9. Senior Emily de la Bruyere didn’t contain her excitement over her placement in last week’s race. “It was a total surprise. My first reaction and my reaction through the race was ‘What is happening?’” said de la Bruyere. “We went out really slowly and at about one mile to go, Lizzie and I were leading the pack, just waiting for Georgetown and Penn State
to swallow us up, and then at one kilometer to go, I thought, ‘Well someone has to go, so it might as well be me.’” Other Princeton finishers include senior Kathryn Fluehr, junior Ally Markovich, freshman Brighie Leach, senior Kathryn Little and sophomore Melinda Renuart. De la Bruyere also expressed her pride for her team’s performance. “We did well. One of the great successes for our team this year has been performing consistently, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone performs her best everyday. We have met and exceeded expectations every race, and we did that again. We were projected to finish fourth; we finished third; we secured a bid. It was everything we were supposed to do and the tiniest bit more,” she said. Lizzie Bird, a junior from the United Kingdom, agreed with her teammate’s assessment of the team’s overall achievement. “We really just did what we needed to do. We came in third, which we knew would get us an at-large bid because we’ve had a consistent season.” Both Bird and de la Bruyere, two top runners for the Ti-
MARY HUI :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s cross country team finished fourth in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last weekend.
gers this season, also attribute their success and consistency to the team’s cohesiveness. Bird said, “We’ve been really coherent as a whole. The team dynamic this year is wonderful. I never really understood the whole team spirit idea before I came to the [United] States because at home, cross country is very much an individual sport, but here it’s really about the team. You go to nationals as a team. You can qualify as [an] individual, but that’s not really what it’s about.” Senior de la Bruyere not only applauds this unmistak-
able bond, but also the ability of her team to rise about preconceived expectations. “The team right now is the best team dynamic I’ve ever seen. Expectations for us were pretty low. We were not supposed to be this good this year, but [it] clicked and we happened,” she said. Bird and de la Bruyere have positive thoughts going forward. “Our coach [Peter Farrell] always says we have three goals in the season. One is to win “Heps” [Ivy League Championship], which we did. One is to make nationals, which we’ve done, and the third is to
Men’s, women’s teams excel at Penn Invitational
Tough weekends for both men’s and women’s hockey By Claire Coughlin contributor
Women’s Hockey
JACQUELINE LI :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s swim and dive team gave a strong showing at the Penn Invitiational, finishing second.
contributor
The Princeton swimming and diving teams made a splash this weekend at the Penn State Invitational at University Park, squaring off against Pennsylvania State University and the University of Connecticut. The men’s team finished second at 1,156.5 points, just behind host Penn State at 1,189.5 points and ahead of third-place Connecticut at 681 points. Individual Tigers turned out domi-
nant performances in the pool across the board. The men’s team clinched nine individual titles and swept all four relay events (the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard medley relay, 200yard freestyle relay and 400yard freestyle relay). Leading the way for the Tigers was senior En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, who churned his way to three wins in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Hu-Van Wright also swam in all four winning Princeton relays. Freshman Cole Buese had
Tweet of the Day “Every women’s fall sport won the Ivy Title at Princeton. To the ladies of Soccer, Vball, XC and field hockey -you’ve made Princeton proud.” Taylor williams (@ annabellyy5), senior forward, basketball
See XC page 7
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S HOCKEY
MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
By Michael Gao
do as well as we possibly can at nationals,” Bird said. As a senior, de la Bruyere hopes for the younger runners to gain experience. “I’m so glad the team’s made it. We have some younger women on the team, and it’ll be a good experience for them,” de la Bruyere said. The NCAA National Championships are scheduled to be held at the University of Louisville in Kentucky this Saturday at Tom Sawyer State Park. The race will be broadcast live on NCAA.com.
an outstanding performance as well, nabbing three impressive individual wins in the 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke and 200yard butterfly. The victory in the 400-yard individual medley was especially noteworthy, as Buese and sophomore Samuel Smiddy would make the race a thoroughly Princeton victory, going 1-2. Other Tigers winning individual titles include sophomore Ben Schafer, winning the 100-yard butterfly and placing See SWIM & DIVE page 7
The Princeton women’s ice hockey team (5-2-1 overall, 3-21 ECAC) competed in two close games this past weekend against Quinnipiac University (7-1-3, 3-12 ECAC) but was unsuccessful in clutching a win. The Orange and Black began the home-and-home series at Quinnipiac on Friday night at the TD Bank Sports Center. The Bobcats started the first period with great momentum, scoring their first goal at only 14 minutes into the game. The score remained 1-0 Bobcats until the third period, when freshman forward Karlie Lund scored a high shot over the glove of Sydney Rossman for the Tigers to tie the game. Senior goalie Kimberly Newell made an impressive 30 saves, but both teams went scoreless after the third quarter and the game ended in a draw. The next day, the Tigers set out to play the Bobcats once again, hoping for a more successful outcome on the historic Baker Rink. This time, the Tigers were the ones with the momentum at the start, maintaining a 1-0 lead for the first 40 minutes of the game. Junior forward Molly Contini scored her first goal of the season with the help of sophomore forward Kierstan
Stat of the Day
14th place
Princeton’s Katharine Holmes placed 14th at the Women’s Épée World Cup in Nanjing, China over the weekend, helping the United States finish third.
Falk. The Bobcats returned the goal at 7:31 of the second quarter, with freshman forward Taylar Cianfarano scoring their first goal of the game. The Bobcats came back strong in the third quarter, scoring two goals right off the bat with only one minute and 40 seconds in between each one. The Tigers called a timeout to regroup late in the game, but the Bobcats secured the win at eight seconds left with a goal from junior forward Emma Woods. Despite the difficult weekend though, freshman forward Karlie Lund received her second ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week honor. In her first season, Karlie Lund has already scored a total of eight points in eight overall games. The No. 10-ranked Tigers will travel to Canton, N.Y. to play St. Lawrence on Friday at 7 p.m. and to Potsdam, N.Y. to play Clarkson on Saturday at 4 p.m. Men’s Hockey The Princeton men’s ice hockey team (1-5 overall, 0-4 ECAC) did not achieve the success it was hoping for this past weekend. On Friday, the Orange and Black faced off against Dartmouth (24-0, 2-4-0) at Baker Rink. The Big Green came out strong immediately, with three goals in the See HOCKEY page 7
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