December 5, 2017

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Tuesday December 5, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 112

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } BEYOND THE BUBBLE

U . A F FA I R S

Supreme Rajasekar ’18 awarded Marshall Scholarship Court allows Trump’s travel ban

By Isabel Ting contributor

By Benjamin Ball contributor

COURTESY OF OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Shruthi Rajasekar won the Marshall Scholarship, whch allows her to study at any British institution.

U . A F FA I R S

U. students and alumni named Schwarzman Scholars

By Hannah Wang contributor

Joseph Tobin ‘14, Michael Shin ‘18, Rebecca Singer ‘18, and Shefali Jain ‘17 were named Schwarzman Scholars of the class of 2019 today.

In August of 2018, Tobin, Shin, Singer, and Jain will join 138 other men and women from around the world at Schwarzman College on the Tsinghua University campus in Beijing, China. The scholars will spend a year pursuing a master’s degree in their chosen course of study and developing a better understanding of Chinese history, culture, economy, and motivations through a cultural immersion experience.

Founded by Blackstone Group CEO and chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman, Schwarzman Scholars was designed in response “to the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.” The website notes that the foundation aims to “prepare the next generation of global leaders” by fostering collaboration and cooperation between China and other nations.

“Our next class brings together another group of young leaders who have demonstrated ability to bridge differences in background, professions, and perspectives through their leadership on campus and in the workplace,” said Global Director of Admissions Rob-

U . A F FA I R S

ert Garris in a press release.

“They will be a dynamic part of the Tsinghua community and through their very different career paths will help ensure peaceful and prosperous relationships between China and the rest of the world.”

Tobin graduated from the University with a degree in Spanish and Portuguese Literature and Culture and is currently an associate on Starwood Capital Group’s hotel acquisitions team; he wants to foster hospitality partnerships between China and the United States. Shin is a Wilson School concentrator who hopes to connect Chinese and Middle Eastern firms to cross-border financ-

U. Citizen Scientists return to D.C. for political advocacy contributor

COURTESY OF BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE

Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page, Jr., and David Spergel were publicly honored on Dec. 3 for their pioneering work on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the NASA satellite known as WMAP.

U. scientists share Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics associate news editor

On Sunday, at the NASA Ames Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif., 13 past and present University researchers were awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their “detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cos-

ing and expertise. Singer is pursuing a concentration in music and aims to deepen her understanding of Asia’s role in impact investing in order to better serve marginalized populations. Jain graduated with a degree in economics and is currently an analyst at Mongolia International Capital Corporation in Ulaanbaatar; she plans to study the utilization of technology and public-private partnerships in developing emerging economies.

The class of 2019 was selected from over 4,000 applicants, all of whom were rigorously evaluated on their academic and intellectual ability, leadership potential, and strength of character.

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

By Victor Hua

By Kristin Qian

See MARSHALL page 2

mos and the f luctuations that seeded galaxies,” according to a University press release.

Physics professors Norman Jarosik and Lyman Page, Jr., along with astrophysics professor David Spergel, were honored for their groundbreaking work on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a NASA satellite aimed to make cosmology measurements and under-

stand the properties of the universe. The award was shared with 22 other members of the WMAP team, which includes professor of physics and astrophysical sciences Jo Dunkley, a key player in the project, and nine former University postdoctoral researchers and graduate students: Chris Barnes GS ‘98, Rachel Bean, Olivier Dore, Eiichiro Komatsu, See PRIZE page 5

Young scientists’ research has a much larger impact on the political world than one might think, said Krupa Jani GS. Last Wednesday, Jani, the vice president of Princeton Citizen Scientists; 11 other graduate students; and two undergraduate students traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy organization, and members of the National Academy of Sciences, an organization composed of the country’s top scientific researchers, and 22 congressional offices.

This is the group’s second lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. While four of the students on this trip had attended the previous trip to D.C. in May, for the other ten students, this trip was their first experience engaging in political advocacy, according to Jani.

The trip was designed to help members of Princeton Citizen Scientists understand how their sci-

In Opinion

Today on Campus

Senior columnist Max Grear weighs in on recent local immigration protests and senior columnist Jessica Nyquist calls for students to take a Shabbat.

PAGE 8

6 p.m.: The Museum and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra present internationally acclaimed Dutch pianist Nora Mulder in a concert dedicated to the music of twentieth-century composer Henry Cowell. Art Museum.

entific research can affect public policy and motivate them to become civically engaged, noted Jani.

It served as a follow-up to a PCS-cosponsored Day of Action that was held on campus on March 6.

“Science is not done in a vacuum, and what we do in the lab has a much larger effect on the community than we may perceive,” Jani said. “It’s important for us to be able to communicate and engage with that community.”

To start off their advocacy trip, groups of three to four students visited the offices of several senators and representatives, including those of Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. According to Jani, the groups making these office visits each represented one of four categories: STEM education, science funding, energy and environment, and health care.

During their visits to different offices, each group began by presenting policy ideas on their designated topic to a congressional staffer; groups See ADVOCACY page 7

WEATHER

The US Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump’s travel ban on six mainly Muslim countries can now be fully enforced.

Seven of the nine justices have granted the Trump administration’s request to lift the injunctions previously imposed by lower courts that blocked the policy. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor ‘76 were the two dissenters.

The justices have now allowed the third version of the Trump administration’s travel ban to go into effect even while legal challenges against it continue, according to the New York Times. In October, federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii blocked major parts of the latest ban while legal challenges proceeded.

The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

The University has been opposed to Trump’s travel bans in the past. In February, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 joined 47 other college and university presidents from across the country in sending a letter to President Trump urging him to “rectify or rescind” his order. Serving as a “friend of the court,” the University filed amicus curiae briefs against the travel ban twice, first in March and then again in September.

Shruthi Rajasekar ’18 of is one of 43 students who was awarded the 2018 Marshall Scholarship. The scholarship allows intellectually distinguished young Americans to pursue a graduate degree in the U.K. and funds up to three years of study at any British institution.

Rajasekar plans to use the scholarship money to study at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, an independent music and dramatic arts school that was founded in 1880 in London, England and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

The scholarship, which is the only scholarship funded substantially by Her Majesty’s Govern-

ment, was created in 1953 as a token of gratitude to the U.S. for assisting the U.K. during World War II through the Marshall Plan, the American initiative to economically aid Western Europe rebuild.

The greater purpose of the Marshall Scholarship is to strengthen relationships between British and American people, their governments, and their institutions. Alumni of the scholarship include Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Neil Gorsuch, and the late 2008 Nobel Prize recipient Roger Tsien, a biochemist.

According to its website, university fees, cost of living expenses, annual book grant, thesis grant, research and daily travel grants, fares to and

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The Daily Princetonian

Tuesday December 5, 2017

Marshall sees most scholars since 2007

MARSHALL Continued from page 1

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

from the United States and, where applicable, a contribution towards the support of a dependent spouse are all covered by the scholarship. Eligibility includes United States citizens who hold a first degree from an accredited four-year college or university in the United States with a graduation date of after April 2015 and a minimum GPA of 3.7. Up to forty scholars are selected each year, but this year’s selection of scholars is the largest class since 2007, according to the British Embassy. Last year’s acceptance rate was 4.22 percent, with only 40 scholars selected from the 946 students endorsed by their undergraduate institution.

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The Daily Princetonian

Tuesday December 5, 2017

ON CAMPUS

Display recognizes victims of interpersonal and domestic violence

MAHO HAMADA AND SARAH SAKHA :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SHARE puts up display, lining eating clubs with luminaries to raise awareness for interpersonal and domestic violence and raise money for Womanspace.

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The Daily Princetonian

Tuesday December 5, 2017 ON CAMPUS

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Meet What You Eat: Students taste Vertical Farming produce

JULIET OH :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Vertical Farming Project held an event in Frist during Late Meal on Monday, letting people make their own salads.

U. researchers awarded $3 million PRIZE

Continued from page 1

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Michele Limon, Mike Nolta GS ‘02, Hiranya Peiris, Kendrick Smith, and Licia Verde.

The WMAP experiment began as a project over a decade ago, initiated by a team including late University professors David Wilkinson, to whom the probe is dedicated, and Robert Dicke.

With WMAP, scientists are able to detect changes in the cosmic microwave background, and explain what the universe looked like 13.8 billion years ago, according to Spergel, in a video presented during the awards ceremony.

At the televised ceremony, the award was presented by Sam Altman, the president of the startup seed funder Y Combinator, and Mayim Bialik, a neuroscientist and actress in “The Big Bang Theory.”

Previous winners of the Breakthrough Prize in-

clude former University biology professor David Botstein and physics professor Andrei Bernevig, who were awarded the prize in 2013 and 2015, respectively.

The Breakthrough Prizes, which were founded

by Sergey Brin, Yuri and Julia Milner, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Anne Wojcicki, also recognize scientists in the fields of life sciences and mathematics with $3 million prizes for each award.

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is specifically awarded to “individuals who have made profound contributions to human knowledge.”

“Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page, Jr. and David Spergel are brilliant physicists whose research has transformed our understanding of the age, shape, and evolution of the universe,” said University President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83, who was in attendance at the event.

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The Daily Princetonian

Tuesday December 5, 2017

ON CAMPUS

More white supremacist posters found on campus

HANNAH WANG:: CONTRIBUTOR

Two varieties of white supremacist flyers were found posted to various locations around campus.

By Hannah Wang contributor

On Dec. 4, 2017, two varieties of white supremacist f lyers were found posted to various locations around campus.

The first f lyer was titled “The Truth about ‘White Privilege’ and Jewish Supremacy’” and addressed a person named Linda Oppenheim.

It opened with the lines, “Hey Linda (((Oppenheim))), instead of inciting anti-White animosity with your lines about so called [sic] ‘White privilege,’ why don’t you discuss the real privilege in America? JEWISH PRIVILEGE.” An Internet search suggests that the “Linda Oppenheim” of the f lyer may be a resident of the city of Princeton, where she leads educational programs on practicing intersectionality in the Jewish community.

More racist and anti-Semitic comments could be found in the f lyer as one read on.

The second f lyer was formatted as an advertisement for a course at the University, titled “Introduction to White Studies: White Guilt and Reparations.” The f lier claimed that “[i]t’s time to examine the oppressor society, to study Whites the way they have studied colonized people for decades,” and that “‘Black Studies,’ ‘Asian Studies,’ and ‘Latino Studies’ is [sic] incomplete without a critical reconnaissance into the pathology and practice of Whiteness.”

The f lyer also used academic lingo specific to the University, such as distribution requirements, which all University students are familiar with.

The f lier lists the course mentioned above as “YTS 305/WHS 201 (SA),” provides a “Sample Reading List,” and suggests “Weekly Blackboard Posts and Weekly Reparations” for homework.

The Center of Jewish Life and the Department of Public Safety could not be reached for comment at the time that this article was written.

Tuesday December 5, 2017

The Daily Princetonian

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Jani: We saw that the political world isn’t that difficult to access ADVOCACY Continued from page 1

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

VICTOR HUA :: CONTRIBUTOR

Congress is currently meeting to pass a tax proposal that could adversely affect graduate education funding.

then received feedback from these staffers and worked to discuss the potential consequences of their ideas. Some offices were quite accepting of the ideas that the students presented, while other offices were more skeptical, Jani said.

“Most senators and representatives agreed that healthcare costs were too high,” Jani explained. “But there was pushback against ideas such as lowering tuition waiver taxes and funding solar energy policy.”

After the congressional meetings, the students met with Dr. Alan Leshner of NAS, chair of the Committee on Revitalizing Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century. The committee’s role in NAS is to identify programs

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and policies that suit the skills and training needed for today’s graduate and doctorate students to be successful, Jani explains.

The students discussed with Leshner what they thought was important for STEM graduate education.

The group consisted of students from several different STEM disciplines, including students from biology, engineering, and computer science backgrounds.

“I think this event really energized us, because we saw that the political world isn’t that difficult to access,” said Jani. “It was exciting to see people like Elizabeth Warren drive by us.”

Ultimately, Jani noted, the group returned from the trip more knowledgeable in policy and motivated to continue advocating for their ideals relating to scientific research.

Tuesday December 5, 2017

Opinion

page 8

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Whitman’s Architecture: A critique Gabriel Lipkowitz

guest contributor

T

en years ago, in 2007, Whitman College was built.

Designed by the British architect Demetri Porphyrios, this 250,000-square foot complex now houses 500 students each year, as well as a dining area and the Writing Center. Despite this prominent role in campus life, there is surprisingly little discussion within the Princeton community about Whitman’s architecture. Busy students and faculty walk, eat, and sleep in it without thinking deeply about the space itself.

This absence of critical ref lection must end. Now is the time to expose the stylistically deceitful, aesthetically unappealing, and morally dubious qualities of the architecture of Whitman College.

The architecture’s most glaring offense is its dishonesty. When Meg Whitman donated $30 million dollars to the University for the making of a new residential college, she asked for a 21st century revival of the late 19th century Collegiate Gothic style.

And that is what we got:

a confused set of buildings designed with highly-advanced technologies, yet pretending to belong to another era. “I am a medieval castle,” Whitman’s digitally-designed spires lie to those walking down Elm Drive. “I was built not ten, but one hundred years ago,” Whitman’s machinecut crenellations lead passersby to believe. Most of us today play along, allowing ourselves to be easily tricked by this stylistic deceit. This is shameful.

As students of an institution devoted to the pursuit of genuine truth, this is glaringly hypocritical. Instead, we must see Whitman’s architecture for what it is: a systematic attempt by the University and its donors to deceive a gullible student population, as well as thousands of drooling, camera-gripping tourists.

Try as it may to emulate a neo-Gothic style, though, Whitman is no aesthetic match for Blair Arch or the Chapel. It is a poor — albeit expensive — copy, at best. Lacking the intricate ornamentation of Rocky’s dorms, Whitman’s blank stone walls that face Elm Drive are a whitewashed grey, especially lifeless on a cloudy day. Immediate-

ly apparent to those who have eaten inside, Whitman’s dining area is vastly oversized. Lacking the proportions of Wu Hall or Forbes, this “Community Hall” makes the inhabitant feel uncomfortably puny. No less unattractive are the residential areas, comprising poorly-lit dorm rooms with narrow windows and overly dark wood f looring. These areas possess neither the playful personality of New Butler’s rooms, nor the touching antiqueness of Mathey’s and Rocky’s dorms. Perhaps most visually unappealing of all is the basement of Hargadon Hall. Exacerbating the effects of the writing seminars held within, the miniscule amount of natural light getting through Hargadon’s tiny windows feels suffocating.

Even more distasteful than its deceitful nature and lack of aesthetic appeal, however, is Whitman’s failure to ref lect Princeton’s core values.

The University’s mission statement professes “a commitment to welcome, support, and engage students, faculty, and staff with a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.”

Indeed, over the past de-

cade Princeton has become a truly international institution; the incoming class of 2021 represents 77 different countries. Contradicting this, however, is Whitman’s conservative, close-minded retreat into a medieval style. Imitating the English campuses of Oxford and Cambridge, this ref lects a worldview that is Anglo-Saxon centric. Drawing from the style of medieval society, it symbolizes inegalitarianism and class exclusion. Such associations may have been acceptable for the Princeton of the 19th century, whose admission policies ref lected those values. But not for our Princeton, of the 21st century.

These problems with Whitman’s architecture are undeniable. They may be difficult to accept for many, especially those Princetonians who have made Whitman their home. But they must not be ignored. Our campus deserves better. In the future, we must demand better.

Gabriel Lipkowitz is a junior in molecular biology from Charlottesville, Va. He can be reached at gel@princeton.edu.

Against ICE, and for all immigrants Max Grear

senior columnist

Can protest make a difference?

On the last Tuesday of November, I found myself in Hinds Plaza looking for a spot to sit and enjoy the unusually warm weather.

A large crowd was dispersing as I arrived, and I guessed there had been a rally. However, only when encountering a disturbing headline later on did I learn why this crowd had assembled: “ICE Arrests Came Hours Before Immigration Rally in Princeton.” As it turned out, federal Immigration Customs Enforcement had swept up four people along Witherspoon not long before nearly 200 of their neighbors rallied around the block to call on Congress to pass a clean DREAM Act by Dec. 8. The aim of this legislaiton would be to protect the recipients of the now-terminated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

That Tuesday afternoon, as I was walking from Hinds Plaza to Dickinson Hall and the crowd of protesters was casually chatting and heading home, the lives of four Princeton community members were being completely overturned. It would be impossible to find out exactly where these individuals are now, but if unable to pay a bond they are most likely being detained while they await removal hearings. The article from

the Princeton Patch did not make it clear whether the arrests inspired the rally.

The everyday violence of immigrant detention and deportation might be hard to grasp in abstract terms, especially since this system takes in hundreds of thousands of individuals each year and has only grown since Trump’s election. But the evidence of harmful, substandard conditions and frequent deaths in detention centers, where detainees are often cut off from access to family and legal representation, and the immediate danger that many deportees face, should compel us to grapple with the concrete, devastating human costs of detention and deportation.

We cannot forget that human rights violations are occurring not only in distant war zones but right here in our own state. New Jersey ranks among the top five states with the largest number of people in immigrant detention.

For example, a report on the Hudson County Jail in New Jersey, a county jail used by ICE to hold immigrant detainees, revealed a lack of outdoor space, nutritional food, and adequate access to family and legal representation.

The arrests by ICE of our own neighbors are a clear reminder that our town is vulnerable to the everyday violence of our country’s immigration system. Four of our neighbors were torn from their communities, homes,

families, friends, jobs. Reflecting on the events of Nov. 28, it’s difficult knowing how little distance and time separated the ICE arrests and the gathering of sign-waving protestors.

I don’t bring this up to shame those who participated in the Hines Plaza rally — I agree that the passage of the DREAM Act is incredibly urgent, and I wish that I had heard about the rally beforehand so that I could have attended myself. DACA was an incredibly important opportunity for 788,000 young immigrants, and its termination is a truly devastating blow for these individuals who have since feared that the information they provided to the government about their immigration status could now endanger them. As a community, we should lend our unequivocal support to efforts to preserve protections for DACA recipients — a struggle that is being led by one of our peers, María Perales ‘18, in a legal suit.

However, let the ICE arrests serve as a reminder that if we are ever going to truly “show up” for all the undocumented members of our community, we must do more than speak up for the rights of DACA recipients. Unless the four individuals detained were DREAMers, the DREAM Act would have done nothing for them even if it had already been passed.

We must, then, resoundingly assert that ICE, detention, and deportation

should not exist whatsoever. We must welcome all immigrants, including students, childhood arrivals, older family members, people with criminal records, queer and trans immigrants. This position, which refuses to make distinctions between “good” or “bad” immigrants, should serve as the basis for networks of direct action. We should not only express support for the DREAM Act but also pressure our University to divest from the corporations that detain undocumented people of all different backgrounds in dehumanized conditions.

Can we imagine a mode of collective action in which, rather than rallying several hours after a string of ICE arrests, community members were somehow immediately notified that federal immigration authorities were in town and began forming a crowd on the street as ICE agents were in the midst of knocking on doors and terrorizing families? What if, instead of simply carrying signs, protesters filmed and chanted down ICE agents until they left the community? It may sound unrealistic in the quiet and picturesque town of Princeton, but there have been plenty of cases of in which protesters have disrupted the work of ICE agents.

Organizations like the DREAM Team have done much to build action networks, but there is only so much that small groups of activists can do alone. It’s

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vol. cxli

Sarah Sakha ’18

editor-in-chief

Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Kathleen Crown William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Lisa Belkin ‘82 Francesca Barber trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73

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

NIGHT STAFF copy Lydia Choi ‘21 Rachel Hazan ‘21 Rachel Brill ‘19 Hannah Freid ‘21 design Diana Tang ’21

up to every community member to commit, unconditionally, to defending their undocumented neighbors and peers.

Max Grear ’18 is a senior columnist as well as a lead organizer of the Princeton Private Prison Divest Coalition.

Opinion

Tuesday December 5, 2017

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Why Princeton students need a Shabbat Jessica Nyquist

senior columnist

P

rinceton students, as long as I’ve been a student here, have suffered from the unbearable condition of cancelled plans — plans later decided to be too troublesome or plans never truly intended to be honored. Things invariably come up that make that brunch date inconvenient: a deadline, an allnighter, snow, a hangover.

We carry a plan-cancelling device in our pockets, and an “I’m so sorry!!!!” text almost feels guilt-free.

Princeton students need a little Shabbat.

Rachel Linfield ’19 has kept Shabbat – the Jewish Sabbath – her whole life, powering down before sunset Friday night and reemerging with a “sha-

vua tov!”, or a good week wish, Saturday after sunset. That’s 24 hours without phones, computers, Netf lix, Spotify, and even Dr. Java. That’s 24 hours of human time, alone time, book time, enjoythe-weather time, lookup-while-walking time. If you plan to meet Rachel for lunch Saturday at noon at RoMa, you’ll be there punctually, and she’ll be there waiting.

At Princeton, the ubiquity of unrealized plans is fodder for the most relatable jokes. “Let’s get a meal sometime” requires as little engagement as “what’s up” — merely a way to sound interested with no intention to exert effort. This is not to say that we don’t love our friends. Instead, we don’t feel the need to actively invest in them.

According to the University website, “nearly all” of us live with our 5,000 closest undergraduate friends on campus for all four years. We share bathrooms. We spend freshman and sophomore years arguing over which of 3.5 dining halls to share a meal in (Forbes only makes it to the bargaining table 50 percent of the time). We live around everyone we know. And sometimes, when the beds don’t unbunk, we live on top of each other too. How could we possibly invest more time in these people?

I think we fail to follow up on plans because there is no sense of urgency. When your sister visits for a weekend, you plan to spend every second entertaining her.

But when your roommate comes home, you hope si-

lently that she decides to take out the trash before she leaves again. We love our friends and we appreciate their company, but we take them for granted on a daily basis.

When Rachel describes her Shabbat traditions growing up, she recounts the way her family would huddle around board games, cook together, and walk to a neighbor’s house to socialize more. When I remember my own weekend family time, I picture an instance in which we all happened to be home at the same time — glued to the TV or to the computer or to our phones making other plans. We spent time in parallel while the Linfields spent time engaged with each other.

We live at school, so naturally, we conf late school with life. Adja-

cent cubicles in Firestone replace coffee dates. Sitting next to each other in ECO100 is evaluated as 50 minutes spent together.

We all need a little Shabbat — a time to commit to focusing on one thing at a time. We need to commit to spending time with friends instead of spending time around friends while writing our JPs and catching up on Game of Thrones and running on the treadmill. We need to commit to making plans intentionally. We need to feel comfortable taking a break from work in order to take care of each other, and in doing so, take care of ourselves.

Jessica Nyquist is a junior in computer science from Houston, Tex. She can be reached at jnyquist@princeton.edu.

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Tuesday December 5, 2017

Sports

page 10

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S BASKETBALL

Difficult schedule for men’s basketball results in rocky start to the season

By Chris Murphy associate sports editor

After last Saturday’s performance in South Beach against the Hurricanes, the Tigers’ winning percentage fell to .286. Now, with many games still left in the season – the Tigers have more than half of their non conference games left plus their entire Ivy League schedule – the Tigers have plenty of opportunity to improve their record. However, for the average onlooker of Princeton basketball, a 2-5 start for last season’s Ivy League champi-

ons would raise an alarm.

This season, perhaps the best explanation from the slow start comes from their tough early season schedule.

Heading into this year, Princeton wanted to challenge themselves with a harder schedule to better prepare them for Ivy League and – if they were to make it – NCAA Tournament opponents.

However, the Tigers may have bit off more than they could chew in terms of opponent toughness.

Below is a table comparing their non conference schedule from last year to this one:

There are a couple of things we can immediately take away from this table: In regards to the slow start, the Tigers are not that far off pace from where they were at this time last season. This simply reinforces the idea that the Tigers have nothing to worry about at this point in the season; they were at the same place last year and still had a tremendously successful year.

This season, the Tigers are playing more games at neutral sites, at other schools, and at invitationals.

Princeton added Butler University, University of Miami, University of Southern California, and other high profile teams to their road

slate this season. The additional invitationals show that Princeton’s national reputation has increased.

The number of top 40 teams played – almost all of them on the road – has jumped tremendously this season for Princeton. Playing a hard season will help them in the long run, even though the immediate results are not as promising.

While last season’s strength of schedule was good, the current strength of schedule they have would currently sit as one of the nation’s toughest. The Tigers have played three teams with two losses or less and have a few more top teams lined up. If Princeton continued playing opponents with

this high of a record, it will be tough sledding all season. Fortunately, things will even out when conference play begins, as most of the Ivy League teams will probably have a couple of losses already under their belt.

If the season were to end today, their RPI (which combines strength of schedule with current record and creates an output and stands for rating percentage index) would be quite ugly. Their RPI of 260 is in the bottom 20% of the entire NCAA. This will improve as the Tigers get more wins, but for now their RPI is hurting at the expense of playing tougher teams.

Adjusted scoring margin tells us how the team is doing against its schedule compared to the average team. Last season, we can attribute the Tiger’s success to the fact that they were 8.1 points better than the average team in their shoes. This season, they are sitting at five points worse than the average team. While not overly troublesome, that -5.0 means that they should be at least doing a little bit better than they are now, especially if they have lofty goals for March.

Although the Tigers have been struggling, this challenging outof-conference schedule has no effect on Ivy League standings.

Credit Princeton for challenging themselves, which will hopefully help it come conference play. As for the rest of the nonconference schedule, the team will need to start winning if they want to get that RPI up and have a better chance at being considered an at large contender for a postseason tournament should they need that.

But because it is only December, Tigers fans have absolutely no reason to panic about the current state of affairs.

FENCING

Princeton fencing goes undefeated at Vassar Invitational

By Claire Coughlin

associate sports editor

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

The Women’s fancing team really showed their strength in their second day of competition of the season at the Vassar Invitational this weekend.

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The Princeton men’s and women’s fencing teams, along with five other schools, were welcomed by Vassar College at the Walker Field House for the 2017 Tradition Multi-Meet this past Sunday. Both Tiger teams were extremely successful, going undefeated against some of the nation’s very best competition. It was a two-day tournament, but the Tigers only joined in for the second day of competition, fencing in four dual matches against Sacred Heart, NYU, Penn State and the host Brewers.

On the women’s side, freshman épée Tatijana Stewart and sophomore épée Farrah LeeElabd co-led Princeton with 11-1 records, while senior foil Taylor Chin went 9-0. Aside from the duals against Penn State, almost every match for the women ended in a landslide victory for the Tigers. Overall, the team beat Sacred Heart 25-2, NYU 24-3, Penn State 15-12, and Vassar 24-3.

Among the men’s teams, the level of competition was definitely more equal than the women’s teams, but Princeton

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872 points “Congratulations @PuTigerFootball’s Chad Kanoff on winning the Bushnell Cup for Ivy Offen- The Princeton women’s swimming sive Player of the Year!” and diving claimed the win at the Princeton Tigers (@ PUTIGERS), Football

Big Al Open this weekend with a score of 872 points.

still managed to end the day of fencing undefeated. Freshman saber Daniel Kwak led the Tiger men with a 10-2 record, followed by an impressive 9-3 record from senior saber Edward Chin. Sunday was also a battle between brothers, as junior épée Michael Popovici matched up against Penn State freshman Nico Popovici. It was a thrilling dual that resulted in a 4-4 draw and officially ended when Michael Popovici finally got the winning touch in overtime. Épées Wesley Johnson, Daniel SitbonTaylor, Popovici and Wesley Yuan took turns substituting as sabers because the Tigers only traveled with two to the match. Penn State proved to be the Tiger’s most difficult competition, with the team losing all three matches by one point only. In the end, the Orange and Black beat Sacred Heart 17-10, NYU 16-11, Penn State 14-13, and Vassar 18-9.

The Tigers have only competed in one other tournament this season and will not compete again until February, when the teams will travel to South Bend, Ind. to compete at the Northwestern Duals hosted by Notre Dame.

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