December 11, 2018

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Tuesday December 11, 2018 vol. CXLII no. 116

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U . A F FA I R S

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

ZACHARY SHEVIN :: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

University Architect Ron McCoy describing the Lake Campus plans at Monday’s CPUC meeting.

Journalist Maria Ressa ‘86 has turned herself in to Philippine authorities following charges of tax evasion.

CPUC addresses Ban the Maria Ressa ’86 Box, discipline proposals turns herself in following charges

By Zachary Shevin Contributor

Once again, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 argued against Ban the Box initiatives at the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) meeting.

University administrators and campus partners also presented on potential changes to academic integrity discipline.

Details of the expanded campus, like specific new buildings, were also discussed.

Held six times each year, CPUC meetings are an official platform for students and community members to discuss initiatives with University officials.

In Monday’s meeting, Eisgruber maintained his stance that the University should continue asking about conviction status in the undergraduate admissions process.

“We hold people accountable for the actions that they have taken, while at the same time seeking to get students from all kinds of groups within society,” Eisgruber said.

“But when there are students, for example, on our own campus who cheat or who hurt others in what they do, we don’t regard that as a ‘perspective’ that we want more of on campus,” Eisgruber said.

“Those are grounds for, actually, removing students from the campus. And that’s why

we take these actions very seriously when we make the decision about whom to admit and who not to admit.”

In his arguments, Eisgruber said the University recognizes “various kinds of bias” in society, and said that’s why the University asks for undergraduate applicants’ race in a holistic admissions process.

However, he said, the University does not see these biases as a reason to “simply excuse or disregard evidence of misconduct.”

Eisgruber did note that prior conviction status does not necessarily rule out an applicant.

He mentioned, as he did in See CPUC page 2

By David Veldran Contributor

Last week, journalist Maria Ressa ’86, the founder and CEO of the online news organization Rappler, turned herself in to Philippine authorities to face tax evasion charges.

On Nov. 9, the Philippine government announced charges against Ressa and Rappler, alleging that the company failed to declare $3 million it received from a 2015 investment by philanthropic investment firm

Omidyar Network. Ressa claims she and her company are innocent, and she joins other journalists in branding the charges as retribution for Rappler’s criticism of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte and his government.

On Monday, Dec. 3, Ressa posted bail (about $1,100) after being arrested upon her return to the Philippines. Met by reporters at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, she emphasized her innocence See RESSA page 5

ON CAMPUS

CLAIRE SILBERMAN :: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed speaking during his lecture in Whig Hall.

By Claire Silberman Contributor

According to former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul ElSayed, individual moral leadership is increasingly important in a world that revolves around institutional validation.

The 34-year-old politically progressive activist wove together anecdotes

about his patients and family members as he recalled his career trajectory from medical residency to academia to public service.

Earlier this year, El-Sayed sought the Democratic nomination to become the first Muslim governor of Michigan.

“Leadership is not working your way up an institution,” El-Sayed said.

“Rather, leadership is the

capacity to accelerate. You are either changing the direction or you are changing the vector force.”

El-Sayed emphasized the significance of individual responsibility in shaping institutional policy.

He noted that while progress is valuable, it’s important that institutional goals and personal vision align.

El-Sayed said he emulates the leadership style of his grandmother, who taught him how to listen, empathize, and meet people where they are.

As a medical intern striving to be his “grandmother’s doctor,” El-Sayed noticed structural f laws in the health care system that prevented patients from getting the best possible care.

El-Sayed recounted a time when his superiors failed to administer a CT scan to an alcoholic patient with a head injury. After the woman suffered withdrawal symptoms and her condition worsened, the team of doctors eventually learned the woman had HIV, diabetes, and a bleeding pelvic mass. After treatment, the woman was discharged, See EL-SAYED page 3

COURTESY OF MICHAEL GRAZIANO

Professor Graziano performs with his orangutan puppet Kevin.

Psychology professor Graziano performs ventriloquism, music

By Katie Tam Staff Writer

Today, during the last 15 minutes of the last lecture in NEU 200: Functional Neuroanatomy, psychology professor Michael Graziano ’89 introduced a special guest lecturer — Kevin, his orangutan puppet.

“I was ready to take notes,“

In Opinion

Today on Campus

Contributing columnist Katie Goldman criticizes the University for a Red Bull advertisement on campus, and contributing columnist Ben Gelman argues that climate change requires political solutions. PAGE 6

5 p.m.: Naomi Klein will discuss her bestselling book “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” in a conversation with environmental activist Ashley Dawson.

McCosh Hall 50

said Hadar Halivni ’22, a student in the class.

“Then he pulls out this monkey puppet and starts doing ventriloquism, and he was really good at it too,” Halivni continued.

From exploring mysterious brain regions using “quick and dirty” models to studying “bubble wrap” See GRAZIANO page 4

WEATHER

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed tells anecdotes of health care, political representation

F E AT U R E

HIGH

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Tuesday December 11, 2018

Eisgruber: We hold people accountable for actions they have taken CPUC

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the previous CPUC meeting, the possibility of restructuring the question “in ways that may mitigate some of the negative effects.”

“Where there are possibilities that people may have engaged in serious kinds of wrongs,” Eisgruber added, “we’re not simply going to ignore that evidence.”

Following the discussion on Ban the Box, at least 25 students left the meeting.

Afterward, Dean of the College Jill Dolan presented an update on the Academic Integrity Reconciliation Committee.

The committee was charged to make recommendations following reports on last year’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Honor Code referenda from the Honor System Review Committee (HSRC) and Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline (COD).

Some committee recommendations involved standardizing punishment processes. Right now, the Committee on Discipline and the Honor Code have the power to assign different penalties for similar offenses.

Dolan mentioned the possibility of standardizing Committee on Discipline and Honor Committee penalties, and said that students should receive the same punishments from the Committee on Discipline and the Honor Code for similar offenses.

Dolan also pointed out that the Academic Integrity Reconciliation Committee is looking into an expanded array of possible penalties for infractions. Both a one-semester suspension and the possibility of a “reprimand” are under consideration.

Dolan said she hopes the implementation of some recommendations will rid some of the “anxiety and confusion” of a “mystified” process of the past.

“The point is to acknowledge that there’s a difference between writing over time in an exam and doctoring an exam,” she said. “We want to be very aware of the differences and suggest that, perhaps, they demand a different kind of penalty.”

Currently, the minimum penalty for any Honor Code infraction is a one-year suspension.

Dolan also mentioned her hopes to ease the process of reentering the community after suspension, saying that she sees the process as an “attempt at restorative justice.”

Caleb Visser ’20 asked Dolan whether she feels calendar reform would ease the implementation of a one-semester suspension. Dolan replied that “everything will be easier” with calendar reform, though the two issues have been considered separately.

Other committee recommendations revolved around education, and Dolan emphasized transparency.

“We need to do a better job educating both students and faculty about the expectations and procedures,” she said.

Specifically, she said faculty must be clear on what it means to end an exam and how to clarify their expectations for students.

The committee expects to forward recommendations to Dolan, Dean of the Faculty Sanjeev Kulkarni, and Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun by the end of January 2019.

University Architect Ron McCoy also presented on the University Campus Plan, put together between 2014 and 2017.

McCoy called the plan, “a framework to guide campus

development over the next 10 years in the context of potential needs and developments over 30 years and beyond.”

Prior to this generation of campus planning, he said, the University has focused on central campus.The University looked at the full extent of their land in the new plan, according to McCoy. McCoy also laid out highpriority architecture projects, including a new residential college, and announced the architects hired for each project.

The construction of Perelman College, according to the presentation, will be headed by the architecture firm Deborah Berke Partners. The plan notes that the site allocated for the construction of Perelman College, south of Poe Field, “could accommodate a second college in the near or longer term.”

Other high-priority projects include the Lake Campus Plan, including a flyover over Lake Carnegie and Lake Campus Graduate Housing.

The Lake Campus Plan also includes a relocated soccer field, racket center, and softball facilities across the lake.

Those athletic facilities, currently north of the lake, will be relocated to make room for the new residential colleges.

The Lake Campus Master Plan will involve the firms Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP and James Corner Field Operations, the landscape architecture firm famous for designing and constructing the High Line in New York City.

The plan also includes new and improved facilities for teaching and research in engineering and environmental studies. Ennead Architects, the firm hired to construct those new facilities, has built engineering facilities at Vassar College, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, and Stanford University.

Additionally, the plan includes a new building for University Health Services on Goheen Walk and a new University Art Museum at the site of the existing museum.

In his presentation, McCoy also pointed to the plan’s emphasis on sustainability. According to his presentation, the University is aspiring to be completely carbon neutral in 30 years, with new buildings designed to meet high sustainability objectives.

Without interruptions in fundraising, McCoy said he expects the campus changes to be made by 2024.

Visser, a Wilson College RCA, asked McCoy about how the additional residential colleges will affect disparities in living conditions on campus, noting the difference in living conditions in Wilson and Butler College.

McCoy, and others involved in the project, pointed out that though much of the plan’s focus is on expansion, it also directs funds for restoration.

Amanda Eisenhour ’21 asked McCoy why the University chose for American Campus Communities (ACC), a for-profit third-party company, to own and manage the Lake Campus Graduate Housing.

McCoy pointed toward the ACC’s “operational expertise.”

Another faculty member involved in the project said he expects this expertise to help keep rent prices low for graduate students, since the facilities will be constructed and managed in a cost-effective manner.

The Dec. 10 CPUC meeting was held in Betts Auditorium.

CPUC meetings are open to all members of the University community, and the next meeting will be held on Feb. 11.

The Daily Princetonian

Tuesday December 11, 2018

El-Sayed recalls feeling like there wasn’t a place for him in US politics EL-SAYED Continued from page 1

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and, a few weeks later, ElSayed found her lying on a subway car.

“The system is not geared to care for people who need it most,” El-Sayed said. He noted that as a physician, he could never systematically better the options and the opportunity for society’s most marginalized.

However, El-Sayed’s experience in medicine taught him how to ask the right questions — a lesson he carried over into his political life as he grappled with how best to advocate for improved medical care as executive director of the Detroit Health Department.

“I had never run for office, my name was Abdul, and I was 32 years old when I kicked off the campaign.

I didn’t decide to run because I really coveted the office,” El-Sayed said. “But at some point I realized that if the things I wanted to do in any of these institutions were conditioned by the political forces at play, then I wanted to be a part of setting that agenda.”

El-Sayed’s political agenda was defined by his programs, which provided every child in the city with a free pair of glasses, tested all schools for lead in the water, and multiplied city funding for public health tenfold.

When El-Sayed began his run for governor, his candidacy grew to represent something larger than himself.

As a Muslim American, El-Sayed recalled feeling like there wasn’t a place for him in politics.

“I believe deeply in the work of representation. I know what it’s like to look up and say there is no one who looks like me, prays like me, and understands my experience in public office,” El-Sayed said.

But at the same time, he lamented the overemphasis on his identity.

“The subtext of my run in the media was ‘Muslim guy running for governor,’” he said. “It wasn’t that I was a doctor seeking to implement health care for everybody, build a system that wasn’t beholden to corporations, and make sure that people own a living wage.”

El-Sayed summed up his hopes for the future of political engagement.

“Our politics is about a conversation about who we are and who we want to be,” El-Sayed said. “We have to move beyond simple identification and we have to be moving into a politics that is focused on the moral and human work of empathy.”

This lecture took place at 5:30 p.m. in Whig Hall and was sponsored by Princeton University Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.

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Tuesday December 11, 2018

Graziano: Multiple interests don’t take away from each other GRAZIANO Continued from page 1

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neurons through a ventriloquist’s dummy, Graziano fully embraces subjects he loves — no matter how disparate. While others build a “brand name” with the work they are known for and stick to it, Graziano said he prefers to “move around” and seek novel paths of inquiry.

At the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Graziano is known for his research on consciousness. But he’s also known for penning novels and children’s books, composing quartets and symphonies, and picking up ventriloquism with his orangutan puppet Kevin.

“It gets really boring after a while,” Graziano said. “I run out of interesting, new, creative ideas and want to do something else.”

Studying the brain has been more or less constant for Graziano, however. In kindergarten, when his teacher asked each member of his class what they wanted to be when they grew up, Graziano said “a neurobiologist.”

As an undergraduate at the University, Graziano fostered a passion for neuroscience, but also for physics, creative writing, and music. When it came time to decide what to do professionally, Graziano reasoned that he couldn’t be a composer and do neuroscience in the garage. So he did the opposite.

After graduating in 1989, he moved to Cambridge to pursue a graduate degree in brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. While there, he commuted every weekend back to the University to continue his research on campus. Graziano described waking up

at 3 a.m. to take the train to Princeton, which he said was an “arduous” experience.

Eventually, Graziano left MIT to continue graduate studies full time at the University in the Department of Psychology. His research probed a mysterious brain region whose function was unknown to scientists at the time.

Graziano’s work revealed that the region was responsible for the experience of “peripersonal space,” or the space around you.

Sometimes called a “personal bubble,” this space affects how we move, how we perceive objects, and how we interact with other people.

Stimulation in certain regions of this space trigger responses in the brain.

The dominant theory of the motor cortex at the time was a “roster of muscles,” or the notion that each section

of the brain controlled the motion of a specific part of the body.

Graziano’s new findings replaced the “roster of muscles” with a roster of “meaningful movements.” Instead of controlling specific parts of the body, groups of neurons instead controlled complex sequences of action — for example, stimulating one spot triggered a bending of the arm, a movement of the hand to face, and an opening of the mouth. “Bubble wrap” neurons, as Graziano called them, were one type responsible for encoding defensive behaviors.

“We began to see what was going on in much more vivid color than we had before,” Graziano said. “You could trigger very specific, complex behaviors out of the motor cortex.”

At this point, Graziano had investigated how the brain monitors the space around the body and how the brain monitors the body.

Then, he turned to how the brain monitors itself — that is, how consciousness and awareness are formed.

“You could say it’s the final step,” Graziano said. “How does the brain represent itself? How does it represent what is going on in its own internal processes?”

The brain basis of consciousness has been the focus of Graziano’s research since 2010. His work stems from the idea that the brain attributes subjective awareness to other people. In other words, we perceive other people to be conscious agents distinct from inert objects or machines. According to Graziano, this allows us to create intuitive models of others and predict their behavior.

Graziano often uses the analogy of his puppet Kevin to explain this concept in lectures and talks. Puppets like Kevin seem to be conscious, Graziano said. This is because we are generating a model of a mind and projecting that model on to Kevin.

According to Graziano, projecting the same model onto ourselves and others is what constitutes the brain basis of consciousness.

“We treat each other like ventriloquist puppets, in the sense that what we see is just an object with a f lappy mouth and sounds coming out,” Graziano said. “Our brains, our social machinery, is building this elaborate model of consciousness and attributing it to that object.”

Graziano has written several books on his research for popular audiences, including “The Space Between Us: A Story of Neuroscience, Evo-

lution, and Human Nature,” published last December.

He has also written multiple children’s books, as well as works of fiction for adult readers. His children’s books, which include “The Last Notebook of Leonardo,” which won the Moonbeam Prize for Pre-Teen Fiction in 2011, are authored under the pseudonym B.B. Wurge — a super-intelligent orangutan who lives in an elevator in New York City.

Both his works for children and adults have been described as surreal and bizarre, a trend which started with the first story he wrote in the sixth grade. The plot, Graziano said, centered around an ancient Roman village, which was destroyed in an explosion triggered by marijuana brownies.

“It’s deliciously absurd,” Graziano said of his fiction.

Graziano also composes music, performances of which he posts on his YouTube channel. Although Graziano has been playing piano since the age of three, he always preferred composing to performing. He studied music composition and orchestration, and even considered becoming a music major in college. While a student at the University he described himself as constantly “haunting” the practice rooms of Woolworth Center of Musical Studies, hammering away at the dilapidated Steinway pianos.

When Graziano’s son was three years old, he began to pick up ventriloquism to entertain him. Graziano got hours of practice while playing with his son, who loved the act.

His interest in ventriloquism led him to Kevin, who initially accompanied him on book tours and readings, acting as B.B. Wurge’s “nephew.”

Later on, however, Kevin took on a life of his own.

Working with Kevin sparked his interest in consciousness and led him to his subsequent research on models of awareness.

This kind of movement of ideas from one field to another is what motivates Graziano’s work.

“If you work on multiple interests, they don’t take away from each other. In some ways, they synergize and you gain a lot from working on different kinds of projects,” Graziano said.

Graziano says he is simply pursuing what he loves to do.

“Follow your interests.

That’s what I do,” Graziano said. “I do neuroscience because it’s incredibly interesting. Which is the same reason I do anything else.”

Tuesday December 11, 2018

Ressa: I am holding my government accountable for calling me a criminal RESSA

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and noted that these charges stem from the Philippine government’s misclassification of Rappler as a “stock brokerage agency” instead of a news organization.

Rappler tweeted a video of Ressa being interviewed in the airport, in which she expressed that the arrest warrant made her feel “vulnerable.”

“But I think that’s the point, right?” Ressa said in the video. “The point is for the government to actually make you feel its power and that it can do what it wants to do, including bending the law to the point that it’s broken.”

Throughout the eightminute video, however, Ressa maintained a confident tone. She added that she was optimistic about winning the legal battle with the Philippine government in the long term.

“I am going to hold my government accountable for publicly calling me a criminal,” she said.

“We’re doing nothing but good journalism. We’re serving our public. Let us continue to do so,” Ressa later added.

Ressa’s work has recently garnered the praise of several journalistic and human rights advocacy groups, and she has used this attention to speak about Rappler and issues for journalists at large. On Nov. 21, she received the 2018 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, conveying in her acceptance speech the importance of speaking out without shame.

“We at Rappler decided that when we look back at this moment a decade from now, we will have done everything we could: We did not duck, we did not hide,” she said.

She has also received prestigious awards such as the Golden Pen of Freedom from WAN-IFRA, the Knight International Journalism Award, and the Free Media Pioneer Award from the International Press Institute.

Even as she faces these charges, Ressa continues to speak out politically. She has discussed similarities between Duterte and President Trump, noting that only a week after Trump used the term “fake news,” Duterte borrowed it to refer to Rappler. She also said the White House’s attempt to revoke Jim Acosta’s press credentials was akin to Duterte’s ban of journalists like herself from Malacañang Palace, where the president works and resides.

Ressa has also been critical of technology companies such as Facebook, describing the role they play by allowing the dissemination of falsehoods and propaganda.

Ressa did not respond to requests for comment from

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William Englund, a Washington Post editor who currently teaches a journalism course called “Covering Hostile Governments” at the University, spoke about Ressa’s impact in journalism.

Describing her as “very brave” to stand up to Duterte’s pressure, Englund supported her claim of innocence. He also referenced a recent trend in which authoritarian governments have put financial pressure on news organizations, citing examples in Russia and Hungary.

“The government claims that … [Rappler] should have registered as essentially securities brokers [before receiving an investment from the Omidyar Network], which she argues, very plausibly, is ridiculous,” he said.

He did share some of Ressa’s optimism for Rappler, noting that Duterte “is probably bluffing, to some extent, and might himself buckle when faced with genuine resistance.”

Founded in 2012, Rappler has only recently been at the center of conf lict with the Philippine government.

In 2017, the organization was investigated for a complaint of “cyber-libel” and later had its license revoked by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several individual Rappler employees have also been targeted, being banned from the presidential palace and even receiving rape and death threats.

For now, it is uncertain what Ressa’s fate will be and when — assuming the government pursues the case —the judicial process will begin.

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Opinion

Tuesday December 11, 2018

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Advertising unhealthy habits at the C-Store Katie Goldman

Contributing Columnist

L

ast week, I noticed a giant Red Bull display in the Frist Campus Center C-Store that included the message: “Shaping up your GPA? Red Bull gives you wings.”

This statement was accompanied by an image of a student papier-mâchéing essays and tests into the shape of an “A+” while drinking a Red Bull. I was shocked. Although the University claims to be committed to the mental and physical well-being of its students, one of its convenience stores clearly promotes unhealthy habits and unrealistic expectations.

The C-Store is open until extremely late at night. It closes at 3 a.m. on Thursdays and Fridays; all other nights it is open until 2 a.m., except for Saturday nights — when the fewest students are studying. Students are often working late at Frist.

Should the University sell Red Bull (in packs of four cans) so

late at night — and imply that this unnatural energy source will improve grades?

The research conducted on the possible health risks of energy drinks has been inconclusive.

The World Health Organization warns that “increased consumption of energy drinks may pose a danger to public health, especially among young people.” The main reasoning behind this is because of the high level of caffeine and taurine in Red Bull.

The National Health Service cautions that too much caffeine consumption can lead to a variety of health issues, ranging from type two diabetes to negative neurological and cardiovascular system effects. Mayo Clinic also claims that excessive caffeine can increase heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, and anxiety levels. The long-term effects of taurine have not been adequately studied.

Students should not develop a routine of using Red Bull, or any source of caffeine, in order to get their work done.

Regardless of the health effects of Red Bull, the advertisement in the C-Store is a reflection of a deeply rooted issue at the University: the unrealistic

expectations placed on students.

The image of a girl gracefully papier-mâchéing dozens of papers on a life-size “A+” that stands on nearly two dozen books promotes unachievable perfection.

Students should not feel compelled to buy a pack of four Red Bulls in order to “shape up their GPAs.” Princeton classes are challenging. The student body comprises bright, talented students; not everyone can get an “A+,” and not everyone should expect to.

It is not healthy to place such high expectations on oneself, yet many Princeton students still aim for perfection. While it is hard to eliminate the need for perfection in the minds of individuals, the University should not contribute to this unrealistic expectation.

While this ridiculous advertisement was created by Red Bull and was likely tacked onto the display by the employee who delivered the boxes, no one at the University thought to take it down. Although the administration likely did not think much of this seemingly minuscule advertisement, it serves as an ironic representation of what seems to be expected of Princ-

EMILY ERDOS :: HEAD OPINION EDITOR

eton students; an expectation contrary to the University’s ostensible priority of mental and physical health.

Princeton students already exert enough pressure on themselves — we do not need advertisements in University stores adding to our stress. In order to be accepted to Princeton, one must work hard and achieve in high school. University students have extremely high standards for themselves; although I’m in my first year, I have already heard countless conversations between students about essay grades, test scores, and GPAs. Clearly, students are already conscious of their grades — perhaps too conscious. We do not need the University to further push these unhealthy expectations.

Not only should University students not feel the need to consume Red Bull or other caffeinated products in order to succeed academically, but “academic success” should not be equated to “A+’s,” as is portrayed by this advertisement. Learning should be about more than the letter grade that ends up on your transcript.

This superficial view of education is not what the University claims to be about. Princeton’s informal motto is, “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.” The University seeks to educate individuals in a holistic manner, creating graduates who will contribute to the greater good of society.

Nowhere in Princeton’s motto does it mention creating gradeobsessed students who will sacrifice their physical and mental health for a high GPA. While the University may not have created this advertisement, it should pay closer attention to the messages it displays across its campus.

It is impossible to eradicate Princeton students’ unhealthy habits — such as the use of energy drinks to compensate for sleep deprivation — and unrealistic expectations for perfect grades. These are decisions made by individuals, and often deep-rooted issues that are part of many college cultures. While it would be unreasonable to ask the University to eliminate these problems, the University certainly should not further embed them into the minds of its students.

Katie Goldman is a first-year from Western Springs, Ill. She can be reached at kpg3@princeton.edu.

Dancing through mediocrity Leora Eisenberg

I

Senior columnist

wish I could express to you how bad I am at dancing. I recently bragged to a friend of mine that someone had f latteringly told me that I “had moves.” He was stunned.

“That’s a lie,” he said.

A lie, albeit a well-intentioned one. And it stroked my bruised ego. For the last 10 years or so, I’ve been in and out of various dance classes, from tap and jazz in elementary school to Israeli folk dancing in summer camp. I love dancing: It’s invigorating, exciting, and fun. I do it when nobody’s watching.

But I suck.

When I spent the summer of 2017 in Tajikistan, I spent a minimum of six hours a week in grueling dance classes. But it seemed as if no matter how hard I tried, I was still terrible. I couldn’t

help but compare myself to everyone around me. The instructors didn’t regularly correct them.

But there was still nothing I wanted more than to be good at dance. So when December 2017 rolled around, I made a resolution to learn to ballroom dance in 2018. I didn’t think that it would be possible, but I was ready to give it a shot.

I wandered into the beginners’ tango class at the beginning of the semester. And the first five or six classes were stressful: I was struggling with the footwork, and I felt like a klutz with every partner I danced with. I cried in class several times because I was so deeply embarrassed.

Ten months later, however, I glide across the dance f loor with relative ease — and, more importantly, confidence. I am still not the best dancer in the room. In fact, I’m still pretty mediocre. So what’s changed? How come I love tango so much — and how come I’ve excelled in it, in a manner of speaking?

Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, describes something like the change I underwent in his recent piece for The New York Times, “In Praise of Mediocrity.” “There is also a real and pure joy, a sweet, childlike delight, that comes from just learning and trying to get better,” he writes. “Looking back, you will find that the best years of, say, scuba-diving or doing carpentry were those you spent on the learning curve, when there was exaltation in the mere act of doing.”

And that’s just it. After five terrible weeks of class, I realized that I didn’t have to be the best in the class. I wasn’t dancing competitively, and I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. I was in class because I liked learning to dance — and then dancing. And that’s it.

Wu makes the argument that in today’s world we’ve become ever more fearful of pursuing hobbies because we’re afraid of failure — or rather, we’re afraid of not being the best. This is es-

pecially true at a place like Princeton, where we’ve become accustomed to being the best. Sure, a lot of us have hobbies — singing, soccer, archery, and, of course, dance — but they are so often competitive or performed for the sake of excellence. It’s fairly rare that I see someone doing something just “for the sake of doing” — just because they love doing it, and not because they want to necessarily excel at it.

I go to tango because I love dancing. I love learning how to become a better dancer — but I have no aspiration to compete. I love the experience of moving across the dance f loor with my partner — but I don’t really care if the people around me see.

The fact is that, even after many hours of dance class, I’m still not a particularly good dancer. And I’m okay with that.

vol. cxlii

editor-in-chief

Marcia Brown ’19 business manager

Ryan Gizzie ’19

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 trustees ex officio Marcia Brown ’19 Ryan Gizzie ’19

142ND MANAGING BOARD managing editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Sam Parsons ’19 head news editor Claire Thornton ’19 associate news editors Allie Spensley ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news and film editor Sarah Warman Hirschfield ’20 head opinion editor Emily Erdos ’19 associate opinion editors Jon Ort ’21 Cy Watsky ’21 head sports editors David Xin ’19 Chris Murphy ’20 associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Jack Graham ’20 associate street editors Danielle Hoffman ’20 Lyric Perot ’20 digital operations manager Sarah Bowen ’20 chief copy editors Marina Latif ’19 Arthur Mateos ’19 Catherine Benedict ’20 head design editor Rachel Brill ’19 associate design editor Charlotte Adamo ’21 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19 head photo editor Risa Gelles-Watnick ’21

NIGHT STAFF copy David Veldran ’22 Sumanth Maddirala ’22 Celia Buchband ’22 design Austin Lau ’22

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

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Opinion

Tuesday December 11, 2018

page 7

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

The politics of sustainability Ben Gelman

Contributing Columnist

W

ith the release of the dire new National Climate Assessment over Thanksgiving break and the beginning of COP24, the latest round of international climate negotiations, this week, the topic of environmental protection has never been more timely.

Even on campus during the recent Undergraduate Student Government elections, many candidates stressed their commitment to sustainable practices, and I can attest to one Senate candidate’s giving me a detailed pitch as to just how he would revamp the University’s recycling program.

However, many of our conversations concerning this issue are centered around the wrong ideas.

We often opt to emphasize personal choice and initiative as the keys to resolving our climate troubles, rather than the large-scale regulations and advancements that our elected officials must implement in order to have any chance of mediating global warming’s impact. These policy-centered solutions are far more necessary than anyone’s individual choices.

Whether or not someone is environmentally responsible today is seemingly determined by to what extent they recycle or refrain from eating meat or drive fuelefficient vehicles. This attitude makes the problem seem overwhelming and unsolvable, which contributes to a general feeling of despondency about our planet’s future. Our generation seems to be resigned to the fact that the earth is doomed due to our inability to curb our unsustainable habits.

If there is anything I gathered from the National Climate Assessment, how-

ever, it’s that the problem we face needs a much larger, structural response, one that can only be delivered by those with the power to change governmental policy. According to the United Nations, we only have about 12 years before rising temperatures create disastrous conditions such as more f looding, droughts, and animal extinctions.

Preventing such catastrophes requires massive societal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a result that while already difficult to achieve, is extremely unrealistic if we only rely on individual goodwill and our capacity to be convinced by the science. Rather, the future of the planet depends on politicians and their willingness to support broad measures that will reduce the adverse effects of climate change, including policies such as carbon taxes, investment in clean energy, and cap and trade policies.

In the United States, political reform presents an

enormous challenge. Unlike in other Western democracies, our administration does not accept the overwhelming scientific evidence that supports the occurrence of climate change. The President does not even believe his own administration’s climate report and appointed Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, to lead the EPA, before he resigned due to corruption allegations. My home senator, Ted Cruz ’92, has denied global warming and criticized efforts to combat it. Our politicians’ tendency toward climate denial has many causes, such as corporate inf luence in Washington and the fact that many of them do not belong to the generation that will have to deal with the most adverse effects.

Unfortunately, due to their status as powerful elected officials, the environmental decisions of people like President Trump and Sen. Cruz matter much more than yours or mine. This being the case,

if we really want to have meaningful conversations about how we are attempting to prevent the potential catastrophes caused by global warming, our focus shouldn’t be on our individual practices. Instead, we should look at how we are working to put people in power who accept the gravity of the situation and are willing to do something about it. In my case, candidates’ positions on global warming was one of the most important factors for me in the recent elections.

While of course any change in personal behavior that reduces one’s carbon footprint is admirable, focusing on these smallscale adjustments is not the most effective method to contribute to environmental causes. When it comes to fighting climate change, how you vote matters much more than how you recycle.

Ben Gelman is a first-year from Houston, Texas. He can be reached at bgelman@ princeton.edu.

how to spot a civil engineering major ellie shapiro ’21 ..................................................

Sports

Tuesday December 11, 2018

page 8

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Women’s hockey extends unbeaten streak to 12 with 2 weekend wins

By Owen Tedford

Senior Sports Writer

This past weekend, the women’s hockey team (9–2–3, 8–0–2 ECAC) traveled to play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (6–9– 4, 4–4–0) on Friday evening and Union (2–14–2, 0–7–1) on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers extended their unbeaten streak to 12 games with a 5–2 win on Friday and a 4–0 win on Saturday. These results saw No. 6 Princeton maintain its position atop the ECAC and its position in the USCHO national rankings. This 12-game streak ties the program record set in 2015–16 and is the highest in the country.

In Friday’s game, Princeton’s five goals all came from different scorers. The Tigers got out to a quick 2–0 lead in the first quarter off goals by sophomore forward Shannon Griffin and sophomore forward Sarah Verbeek. RPI scored next in the second period before Princeton added another two from sophomore forward Sharon Frankel and junior forward Carly Bullock, the Tigers’ leading scorer. After another RPI goal, Princeton had the last word with a goal by freshman defender Mariah Keopple. Sophomore goalie Rachel McQuigge, who was named the ECAC Hockey Goalie

of the Month for November, had a quieter night compared to her last few outings, only having to make 16 saves.

On Saturday, multiple Tigers scored goals, only one of whom, Bullock, had also scored the previous night. The other three goals came from junior defender Claire Thompson, sophomore forward Annie MacDonald, and freshman forward Sarah Fillier, last week’s ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Week. Junior goalie Stephanie Neatby, who started all of last season, played for the first time this season on Saturday. In her return, Neatby faced 15 shots and saved them all to earn a shutout.

Senior forward Karlie Lund also had a great weekend, with two assists in each game.

Princeton’s strong offense, which coming into the weekend was among the top five nationally with an average of nearly 3.5 goals per game, was on display this weekend. What really makes the Tigers’ offense so good this year is not only the number of goals scored, but the number of different players who score regularly. This weekend, Princeton had eight different scorers, including six underclassmen.

The Tigers are now off until the end of the month when they will host Merrimack (11–6–2) in a two-

game series in Princeton. Merrimack currently sits in fourth in the Hockey East standings with a 7–6–1 conference record. This past weekend, they beat No. 10 Boston College for the first time in program history. They won

1–0 behind a 51-save performance from goalie Samantha Ridgewell.

Merrimack, like Princeton, is off until then.

Both games will be played at 3 p.m. at Hobey Baker Rink on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31. The games will

be available for streaming on the Princeton Athletics website. After these games, the Tigers will have two consecutive weekends on the road, first against Harvard and Dartmouth and then against Cornell and Colgate.

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Maggie Connors ’22 recorded a total of three assists in Princeton’s wins over RPI and Union.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Alarie ’20 leads team against Quinnipiac

By Alissa Selover Sports Writer

Saturday evening, the Princeton women’s basketball team (3–7, 0–0) defeated the Quinnipiac Bobcats (4–5) in Jadwin Gymnasium, 54– 42, to add another win to its non-conference schedule.

Junior forward Bella Alarie, the 2018 Ivy League Player of the Year, made her comeback after an injury. Alarie scored 16 points, 19 rebounds, five blocks, two steals, and two assists during this game, solidifying the hashtag that the team’s Twitter account gave her, #BellaBuckets. This was Alarie’s 21st double-double in her career at Princeton. She is currently two double-doubles behind Ellen DeVoe and Margaret Meier for second place in Princeton’s record. Alarie was rewarded for her excellence on the court by being named Ivy League Player of the Week yesterday for the 10th time.

Sophomore Carlie Littlefield also played an important role in the win with 16 points, five rebounds, and three steals. Littlefield has scored double digit points in eight out of the 10 games the Tigers have played this season. Littlefield has been a consistent force for the Tigers during the times that Alarie was injured and together they have proven to be powerful. Senior Gabrielle Rush also scored double digit points, contributing 11 to the scoreboard.

The Tigers shined from the free throw line against Quinnipiac, with their team percentage sitting at .778, while Quinnipiac went .500 from behind the line. Little-

Tweet of the Day

“Max West ’19 wrote a book that was published in June of 2017 about his 2 1/2 years in Singapore’s Naval Special Forces called ‘How to Forge a Frogman’” Princeton Baseball (@ putigerbaseball)

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Bella Alarie ’20 had 16 points and 19 rebounds in her season debut Saturday.

field went four for four while Rush, as well as senior Sydney Jordan, shot 75 percent from the line. Alarie also contributed, with 71 percent of her free throws made Saturday evening. Defensively, Alarie led the team. With her career-high of 19 rebounds — nine offensive and 10 defensive — she was able to set the Tigers up to score more.

Jordan contributed six rebounds and Rush added four to the stats. The Tigers also caused 21 Quinnipiac turnovers, the highest number of turnovers ever by the Bobcats. The Tigers also held the Bobcats to their lowest total score, 42, since March 7, 2016.

The Tigers finished the first quarter up 14–7. During the second half, Quinnipiac made their comeback as they were trailing by five and went on a 7–2 run to tie the game at 19 with three minutes left in the first half.

At halftime, the Tigers regained their lead 23–21.

As the second half started, the Tigers began to pull away from the Bobcats, with the score hitting 28–21 early on.

Quinnipiac didn’t give up and closed the score within two, 30–28, before the Tigers took a strong 12-point lead, making the score 42–30 as the third quarter came to a close. Halfway through the fourth quarter, the Tigers were up by nine, 47–38, but only allowed four more points from the Bobcats as Princeton scored seven more to finalize the score at 54–42.

The Tigers will play Monmouth this Tuesday, Dec. 11, in West Long Branch at 7 p.m. before heading back to Jadwin to face Marist on Saturday, Dec. 15.

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Junior forward Bella Alarie earned her 10th Ivy League Player of the Week award for her season debut against Quinnipiac.