The Daily Princetonian: December 8, 2023

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Friday December 8, 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 25

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Princeton first-year passes away overnight

By Bridget O’Neill Assistant News Editor

Content Warning: The following article includes mention of student death.

Students can contact residential college staff and the Office of Religious Life for other support and resources.

First-year undergraduate Sophia Jones ‘27 passed away last night, Nov. 29.

A campus message from Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun sent this morning shared the tragic news, describing it as “unexpected.”

“Our entire community is impacted by this tragedy and our hearts are heavy. We share our deepest condolences with So-

phia’s family and friends,” the message said.

The email shared information for a university gathering to “gather, reflect, and support one another” which will be held at 7 p.m. tonight in the residence of Yeh College Head, Yair Mintzker, located on the first floor of Mannion Hall. It adds that Deans from the Office of Religious Life, counselors from Counseling and Psychological Services, and residential college staff will be available at the gathering.

An email sent to members of Yeh College from the Head of the College, Yair Mintzker, and Dean of the College, Alexis Andres, described Jones as “intelligent, kind, thoughtful, and funny.” Mintzker and Andres noted that in addition to being

By Miriam Waldvogel Assistant News Editor

Last week, a group of students and faculty released a petition calling on the University to disassociate from companies with ties to Israel’s military activity and presence in the occupied West Bank and blockade of Gaza. The petition also calls on the University to develop affiliations with Palestinian “academic and cultural” institutions, while dissociating from corresponding Israeli institutions.

Organizational signatures on the letter include the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Princeton Faculty for Justice in Palestine (PFJP), and the Alliance of Jewish Progressives (AJP). Other groups not primarily known for pro-Palestine activism also signed on including the Native Graduate Students of Princeton, the South Asian Progressive Alliance (SAPA), and Ellipses: Slam Poetry.

The letter is at least the sixth time in the last 20 years a group including undergraduates, graduate students, and professors have launched efforts for the University to divest or dissociate from companies tied to Israel. This includes two petitions in 2002 and 2014, two unsuccess- ful referendums

in 2010 and 2015, and the Caterpillar Referendum in 2022.

Max Weiss, a professor in the history department and member of the recently formed Princeton Faculty for Justice in Palestine, read the letter’s demands during a protest on Friday, Dec. 1 in front of Nassau Hall. While featuring similar themes and chants to the two previous pro-Palestinian protests, this demonstration, at roughly 120 attendees, was noticeably smaller.

Separated by fencing, a group of pro-Israel counterprotestors organized by Elazar Cramer ’25 and other students stood holding signs for a fundraising effort tied to the actions of the protestors. Matching donors agreed to provide a specific amount — between 50 cents and $3 — for certain chants, actions, or signs such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “you’re committing genocide.”

“I love Princeton and feel that a small group of instigators are trying to move it from an academic space with healthy discourse to a divisive and draining space where attacks on my identity as a Jew and a Zionist are normalized,” Cramer wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’

The rally also featured speeches from a Palestinian student and students in the AJP, as well as the New York and New Jersey chapter of the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, also known as Samidoun.

Samidoun, which advocates for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, has been alleged by Israel to have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States. In Germany, Samidoun was banned for organizing a celebration of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

SJP and PCP, two undergraduate groups who promoted the event, declined to comment on the rally, including Samidoun’s involvement.

“When Palestinians are oppressed, boycott, sanction, and divest,” protestors chanted during the rally.

According to Cramer, Friday’s rally raised over $3,500 from 40 donors to be donated to the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center and the relief fund for Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the Israeli communities that was most devastated by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

The counterprotestors were also vocal, singing songs and chanting slogans such as “Am Yisrael Chai.”

This marks a notable contrast from previous pro-Israel counterprotests on campus, in which organizers stressed that students should be silent and not engage with proPalestinian demonstrators.

Friday’s demonstration, the third since Oct. 7, also marked the See RALLY page 3

Bridget O’Neill is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Opinion

ON CAMPUS

About 120 rally to kick off sixth push for Israel divestment in past 20 years

a “serious student” interested in the natural sciences and history, Jones was a highly trained dancer and an “accomplished outdoorswoman.” Jones was involved with Princeton University Ballet.

“Losing a member of our college community is really hard.

Know that you are not alone,” the message read, adding that they encourage students to stop by the Yeh College Office today to talk. The message also shared that Members of the Yeh College Staff will be available in Grousbeck Common Room in Yeh College from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. today for those wishing to gather and remember Jones.

Princeton’s ECO 100 teaches market mythology over economic reality Eleanor Clemans-Cope

Associate News Editor

A

s students walk into their first ECO 100: Introduction to Microeconomics lecture at Princeton, they are unknowingly stepping into a classroom where economic theory trumps economic reality. The tenor of the first lecture is that markets can generally be trusted and government usually gets in the way. This perspective, emphasizing the superiority of the free market, is the inevitable result of unrealistic assumptions that are taken for granted for most of the semester: that economies generally run on perfect competition, are composed of rational actors, people have complete free choice, and prices accurately reflect value.

These assumptions construct a worldview that isn’t even a general representation of reality and inherently lean towards a free-

market capitalist ideology. This has dramatic implications for our understanding of the role of public policy.

In economics education, there’s a hidden battleground where theoretical assumptions clash with real-world complexities, and professors have to decide how and when to acknowledge nuance. In ECO 100’s second lecture, a curious assertion illuminated this conflict: the notion that a minimum wage above the “market” price of labor necessarily leads to a significantly higher level of unemployment, a notion that a wide variety of economic studies reject.

The reality about this is wisdom born of Princeton intellect. Back in 1994, then-Princeton professors David Card and Alan Krueger published a seminal study challenging the conventional wisdom of that time. They found no negative effect on employment when New Jersey raised its minimum wage See ECONOMICS page 11

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

INSIDE THE PAPER

NEWS

A new version of the College Republicans struggles for an identity

by Assistant News Editor Julian Hartman-Sigall PAGE 4

DATA

VP candidates want to change the academic calendar. Here are the facts.

by Contributing Data Writer David Shao and Assistant Data Editor Andrew Bosworth PAGE 6

OPINION

Learning to burst the Orange Bubble

by Contributing Columnist Sarah Park PAGE 8

PROSPECT

SPORTS

Underrated no more: Late Men’s basketball completes Meal’s astounding meal choices 11-point comeback to beat

by Assistant Prospect Editor Furman in last-second thriller Russell Fan

by Sports Contributor Joseph Uglialoro PAGE 14

PAGE 16

The Daily Princetonian

page 2

Friday December 8, 2023

STUDENT LIFE

Hundreds apply for van certification as clubs plead for drivers

By Andrew Bosworth Assistant Data Editor

On Nov. 4, the Princeton Club Curling president Lara Katz ’24 emailed the undergraduate student body in need of a van driver: “We will rent a car and provide you food, lodging, and eternal friendship. you can curl if you like but not necessary, we do have a full team of curlers just no van-certified drivers lol. if you are our van-certified driver, we won’t have to take a Greyhound bus and Uber all weekend :)” Several recent emails sent to Hoagie Mail suggest there’s a demand for van-certified drivers. With no van certification exams for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, student organizations have had difficulty traveling to competitions and events.

The Curling Club, which took home the silver medal at the USA Curl College National Championship, is one of several groups to request van-certified drivers from the community, offering incentives to the tune of Katz’s pledge of taking drivers “out for ice cream or coffee or broccoli or even dinner if it’s not too $$.”

Since Jan. 1, 2023, the Risk Management office has received 525 applications for driver authorization, with 75 percent of these for driving vans. Risk Management only began tracking requests for different vehicle types in 2023.

“From Spring of 2020 through Spring of 2021, Risk Management did not authorize any new drivers,” Director of Risk Management Karen Bradley wrote

in an email to the Daily Princetonian.

The 196 undergraduates applying for van certification this year account for about four percent of all undergraduate students.

An approved van driver is required to drive all University-owned vans as well as any vehicles rented by specific clubs and organizations. For University Club Sports, CampusRec provides Enterprise CarShare vehicles for transportation to or from off-campus practices and competitions, but will only rent vehicles for those with van certifications.

In an email sent to Club Sport officers on Aug. 18, Assistant Director of Campus Recreation for Sport Clubs and Summer Camp Ro Ramirez wrote, “Registering as an approved driver, passing the online test, and completing your behind-the-wheel test are all requirements for transporting yourself and others using University approved vehicles.”

Club Curling was bringing teams of new members to Rochester, N.Y. and Boston, Mass.

“We did have a person in that group going to Rochester, a freshman, who was interested and willing to get vancertified,” Katz wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “He signed up to take the test and for whatever reason couldn’t get an appointment until the last day of the trip. That’s why I sent the email.”

Three individuals responded to the email but ultimately backed out for different reasons. Two Curling members going to Boston secured appointments and received their van certifications be-

fore the competition. Club Curling did not succeed in finding a driver for Rochester.

On Nov. 6, the Princeton Debate Panel sent a similar email to undergraduate students seeking a van-certified driver, also providing accommodations in exchange for transportation, writing, “If you’re van-certified, please consider joining the debate team on a road trip to Brown University this weekend! We have a van and will be happy to pay for your accommodations, meals, etc.”

An email sent to the Princeton University Climbing Team on Nov. 26 by team captain Anna Neznamova ’25 included a form to sign up for an upcoming competition. The final question on the form asked, “Are you van certified?” with three answer choices below: “Yes,” “No,” and “No, but I will do the super short training ASAP.” Neznamova stressed the importance of having many van-certified team members.

“We’re limited by the amount of people who can drive vans,” she said.

“I think right now on our team, we really only have three people that are vancertified… So, it’s very important for us to get more people to be certified.” Neznamova said that an increase in team attendance at competitions allows for more members to become involved in the sport and include more of the team.

To become a van-certified driver, students and faculty or staff must be in possession of a permanent driver’s license issued by a U.S. state or territory or Canadian province. No licenses from

other countries are acceptable.

According to Risk Management, “If you have a history of moving violations or driving under the influence, it is possible that you will not receive authorization to operate a University vehicle.”

A motor vehicle record must also not show that one has had “six or more traffic violation points; a chargeable accident within the past 24 months; or a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or other major violations.”

Once initially approved by Risk Management, undergraduates must pass an online test by scoring 70 or more. For vans and cars, undergraduate students must then schedule an additional behind-the-wheel exam with the Department of Public Safety. This exam occurs in a large van in a course located in an off-campus parking lot. The exam requires weaving between cones, both forwards and backwards, as well as pulling into and reversing into a tight parking space and parallel parking.

“Many of the students who are requesting authorization to drive are from out of state and not used to the rules and ways of New Jersey roads (i.e. circles and jug handles),” Bradley wrote.

“Many [applicants] have only been driving for a short period of time — some less than a year — or did not drive frequently at home. Some are, unfortunately, pressured into volunteering to drive even though they are uncomfortable doing so.”

As the vehicles used by many clubs for transportation are often different

and larger than those students drive at home, Risk Management believes a series of exams that allow drivers to practice driving in a controlled environment is beneficial.

“Driving a van is a very different experience than driving a regular sedan, not only due to the size difference,” Bradley wrote. “The center of gravity is different. There is a potential for the vehicle to tip over if a turn is taken too quickly or sharply. Backing the vehicle up should be done with a spotter as opposed to with just the driver’s eyes… Students are encouraged to ask [their experienced instructor from the Department of Public Safety] questions and become truly comfortable with the different experience during the session.”

Neznamova had a “fun” experience taking her exam. “We did some training by going around obstacles and then driving backwards,” she said. “I feel like they [Public Safety] taught me other driving skills that I didn’t know before.”

The opportunity for free ice cream or broccoli from the Curling Club may be in the past, as Katz wrote: “Looking at our calendar for the rest of the year, we’ve got at least one van-certified driver signed up for every event, so we shouldn’t have anything to worry about, it was just a struggle for our newbie weekend.”

Andrew Bosworth is an assistant Data editor for the ‘Prince.’

U. AFFAIRS

Princeton program sponsors internship with Adjaye-affiliated firm despite sexual assault claims

By Amy Ciceu Senior News Writer

Content Warning: The following article contains discussion of sexual assault.

Each year, hundreds of students take jobs abroad through Princeton’s International Internship Program (IIP). One of the internships offered this year is a position with Adjaye Associates, a globally renowned architectural firm based in Accra, Ghana.

Sir David Adjaye, the head architect of the firm, was initially recruited to design the University Art Museum, which is currently under construction and slated to open in spring 2025. The internship has not been listed in past years.

However, this summer, The Financial Times reported on a series of sexual assault allegations against Adjaye, all leveled by three women who had worked under him at various points in time. The allegations range from incidents involving sexual assault and coercion to racial insults and controlling behavior.

The women who raised the allegations are currently being represented by a human rights and whistleblower organization. Adjaye has denied these allegations.

In response to the allegations, the University distanced itself from Adjaye, going so far as to omit any mention of the architect from the art museum’s official website, which had previously declared Adjaye the principal architect responsible for the art museum’s forthcoming innovative design. Other universities and institutions similarly severed ties with Adjaye after the concerning accusations came to light.

In view of the controversy surrounding Adjaye and the ensuing public responses, the Daily Princetonian contacted the Office of International Programs (OIP) for comment regarding their decision to pursue a partnership with Adjaye Associates for the 2024 IIP currently on offer. Michelle Tong, the OIP Communications Director, explained the process that was followed to ultimately incorporate the architectural firm into their summer internship program offerings.

“The International Internship Program office provides extensive advising for students and works directly with internship partners and providers throughout the internship process to make sure that the environment is conducive to the kind of transformative learning IIPs are known for,” Michelle Tong, the OIP Communications Director, wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’

Undergraduate students eager to gain global career-related and academic experiences over the summer regularly seek out internships through the OIP, which offers a host of programs located all around the globe. In particular, the OIP IIP allows students to apply for internships based in a broad variety of countries, including in Spain, Morocco, Singapore, India, and Cyprus, to name a few. The OIP partners with various international businesses and organizations across a wide range of industries, such as business, technology, healthcare, public policy, and more.

According to Tong, the partnership with Adjaye Associates was initially forged by a student, who ostensibly enjoyed their internship experience to such an extent that the OIP decided to adopt the internship as part of its

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Princeton art museum, from where the rabid aggressor emerged.

IIP offerings.

“The International Internship at Adjaye Associates began as a ‘Create Your Own’ internship proposed and carried out by a Civil and Environmental Engineering [CEE] major. The student reported that they had an excellent experience that confirmed their interest in architecture,” Tong wrote.

“The IIP staff routinely works with the partners that host successful student-initiated internships to turn them into an IIP opportunity; it is an effective way for the IIP program to build out student opportunities. This also

helps IIP respond to growing student interest, and we have many students interested in architecture,” Tong wrote.

While the OIP did not mention any plans to stop offering the IIP with Adjaye Associates, the art museum addressed the accusations against and its work with him in a July statement.

“We find the nature of the accusations enormously troubling.

With construction so far advanced, most of our work with Adjaye is behind us. We have a responsibility to all the people involved in this project and all those who will benefit from it

to see it to completion, and we remain committed to shaping a museum that is welcoming, engaging, and educational for all,” Gengo wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’

The building that Adjaye designed has been retained by the University.

Staff News Writer Abby Leibowitz contributed reporting to this article.

Amy Ciceu is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday December 8, 2023

Protestors: “When Town officials push back on Palestinians are oppressed, boycott, community petition against sanction, and divest” further development

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first significant intervention by the University, which told organizers beforehand that amplified sound would not be permitted.

At the beginning of his speech, Weiss used a megaphone before being directed by two free speech coordinators from the University to stop using it. While the University prohibits the use of amplified sound outside during weekday business hours, previous pro-Palestinian protests on campus made extensive use of megaphones.

“We received complaints following previous rallies that the amplified sound had interfered with the ability to conduct classes and University business,” University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’

Beyond the rallies, the petition marks the first explicit statement of demands regarding the University’s endowment and investment positions. The letter broadly defines the types of companies and institutions subject to dissociation, including those that “profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, occupation, and apartheid policies.”

“There is currently no way to differentiate between the institutional, economic, or political foundations of rule in the State of Israel, on one hand, and the regimes of siege in Gaza and military occupation in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, on the other hand,” Weiss wrote to the ‘Prince.’

Weiss, who will be teaching HIS 267: History of Palestine/Israel next semester, has been involved in proPalestinian activism on campus for nearly a decade. In 2014, he was one of five faculty members who wrote a petition to the University calling for divestment from companies that “contribute to or profit from

the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the continued siege of Gaza.”

But numerous petitions in line with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campus in the last 20 years have failed to significantly move the needle on University policy. The first petition came in 2002, when students called on the University to divest its $100 million investment in companies with ties to Israel.

In 2010, undergraduates failed to pass a referendum to offer alternatives to Sabra hummus in University retail locations as part of the BDS movement. “Ask most Princeton students on campus about Sabra hummus and they will probably roll their eyes,” a reporter for the ‘Prince’ wrote at the time.

In 2015, an undergraduate referendum calling on the University to divest from companies involved in Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank also failed.

But even successful referendums are non-binding when it comes to University policy.

In the spring of 2022, the University declined to take action on the contentious Caterpillar Referendum, which called for a University boycott Caterpillar equipment.

The referendum passed according to the bylaws of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) constitution but there was ambiguity over how abstentions would be counted.

The sustaining power of this most recent petition, which has garnered 484 signatures as of initial publication of this article, will remain to be seen. However, attendees at Friday’s rally were determined.

“We’ll be back. We’ll be back,” they chanted.

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

THE MINI CROSSWORD

By Abby Leibowitz Staff News Writer

A political group terming itself the Princeton Coalition of Responsible Development has drafted a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures opposing the Municipality of Princeton’s Master Plan. Princeton’s Planning Board prepared the plan, which guides the municipality’s growth and development and informs its zoning, land use decisions, and infrastructure.

Town administrators and elected officials have pushed back strongly against the claims in the petition. Louise Wilson, the chair of the Planning Board, told The Daily Princetonian in an interview that the petition is “alarmist and replete with falsehoods” and that there are parts of the plan that can be confusing or misinterpreted if taken out of context.

The petition, released on Nov. 16, claims that the changes implemented by the Master Plan will alter the “beautiful green spaces and historic charm” that make Princeton attractive to visitors. The petition also argues that property taxes in the town are too high and raising them would burden residents, that more development would exacerbate traffic, and that increasing density as the plan proposes “will do nothing for affordable housing.”

The petition comes amid concerns over the rising costs of the town and community opposition to changes in parts of the town classified as “historic districts.”

Back in October, Councilmember David Cohen wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that “there is a vocal minority who are scaremongering and spreading misinformation about what is in the plan.”

In a published FAQ document, the Planning Board wrote, “importantly, the proposed plan does not contain or recommend any mandate to change the character of any neighborhood; it recommends allowing more of what already exists.”

Cohen added that the petition conflates large multi-family developments being built in town with the

Master Plan revisions when in reality, they are part of Princeton’s court mandated affordable housing settlement.

The petition equates the Master Plan to “unplanned development.”

Justin Lesko, the town’s planning director, wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that the petition’s concerns have already been expressed by Princeton residents through the multiple listening sessions held and that the Master Plan “gives a myriad of ways of addressing them through recommendations in each element in a well thought out way.”

Mike Head, a spokesperson for the Princeton Coalition for Responsible Development, told Planet Princeton that he started the group because residents felt planning board members were not listening to their complaints.

“We are concerned that is a rush to approve this. There doesn’t seem to be a reason why there is such a rush.”

“We believe that community involvement is crucial when making decisions that will affect us all so profoundly,” the petition reads.

Cohen pushed back against the claims in the petition, writing that “much of what we are proposing will work to mitigate, not exacerbate, the trends objectors worry about.”

Lesko wrote that the Planning Board certainly expected backlash.

Lesko encouraged residents to read the plan themselves, adding that “context is lost when just reading op-eds or petitions.”

Cohen expressed that some of the backlash might be because “change is hard, and people would rather pretend that it is possible to keep Princeton just the way it is.” Wilson attributed it to the nature of Princeton’s residents: “People care deeply and love a good debate.”

Wilson noted that in response to the petition, the Planning Board is adding some explainer text, repeating parts of the existing text, to the land use map and will point out again at the public hearing on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. that the plan does not “upzone properties to allow for increased density on each lot.” The board is also incorporating some suggested language, correcting

errors — typos, errors of omission, etc. —, and accepting recommendations from the Historic Preservation Commission and an independent historian.

A steering committee with representatives of the municipality, Princeton University, Princeton public schools, small businesses, as well as residents, was formed in April 2022 to advise staff and consultants, help connect the planning process to the community and provide direct input.

Beginning in early 2022, according to the FAQ document, each of Princeton’s municipal boards, commissions, and committees were consulted and encouraged to offer input into the plan.

Fifteen meetings with presentations and Q&As were held with neighborhood organizations, community groups, committees, and local merchants. Ten listening sessions were held: one online and nine in-person.

The first one was held at Frist Campus Center with the goal of hearing students’ concerns.

Cohen stressed the goals for the plan, emphasizing that “change is inevitable, and if we don’t plan for the change we want, we get change that we don’t want.” He referenced the trend toward rising prices in Princeton, expressing that it is “becoming a ‘golden ghetto,’ unaffordable to all but the top five percent and the (un)lucky few who qualify for subsidized affordable housing and are selected off the long waiting list for a vacant unit.”

Cohen says he believes that the changes proposed in the plan are in line with those being proposed in municipalities across the country and are the only way to create the kind of “Missing Middle” housing needed to accommodate income diversity in Princeton.

“A healthy functioning community should be able to house all who work in and contribute to the life of the community,” Cohen notes.

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

By Dashram Pai Staff Constructor

“Cold -Hearted”

ACROSS

1 *Bail on plans 6 Spot for boutonnières 7 Buenos ___ 8 "Enemies to lovers," for example 9 IRS figs.

DOWN

1 They're often found with drums 2 Villain hideaways 3 Splatter stopper 4 "Play for ___" 5 Otherwise

See page 7 for more

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Friday December 8, 2023

A new version of the College Republicans struggles for an identity STUDENT LIFE

By Julian Hartman-Sigall Assistant News Editor

Earlier this month, in advance of a number of state-wide elections, Princeton political groups took part in canvassing and outreach efforts to get out the vote.

Notably absent from these groups — which included the College Democrats, the Princeton chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America — was the College Republicans, which, unlike its left-leaning counterpart, did not organize any programming.

The group has historically had difficulty sustaining consistent activity levels, being reliant on strong personalities that occasionally cycle through the University to revive it at recurring nadirs on a campus that has a strong conservative ecosystem.

The well-organized and comparatively highly active James Madison Program was founded with a half million dollar donation from a foundation that aimed to “establish conservative cells” at “the most influential schools.”

The program is led by prominent conservative legal scholar Professor Robert P. George. The Princeton Tory is a conservative magazine with nine current undergraduates on its masthead that publishes far more than its progressive counterpart, The Prog. Other groups with primarily conservative memberships such as The Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC) have played significant roles in debates around free speech, a major issue on campus.

And yet the only explicitly Republican group, College Republicans, has long struggled to stay afloat. Does the difficulty of running the organization on campus speak to broader questions of campus apathy towards politics? Or does it instead speak to a modern conservative movement in which an organization focused on electoral politics has no place? *** I sat down with Jaden Stewart ’26, the new president of the club, in the Tiger Tea Room in Firestone Library on two occasions to talk about his ambitions for the club and what he sees as potential obstacles. In our conversations, Stewart was discernibly cautious, not answering some of my questions while often reiterating an openness to dissenting opinions.

He acknowledged there was a certain stigma associated with identifying as a conservative.

“It’s difficult to sell Republicanism as a brand,” Stewart said. “If you don’t really know a lot about public policy, it tends to be ‘Oh, Republicans, oh they’re racist, oh they’re sexist’. Whereas [to me] it’s more thinking about how we can use business to create opportunities to improve the lives of marginalized people.”

These concerns are not unique to Stewart.

According to Evan Draim ’16, who was the president of College Republicans for two years, a major obstacle to growing College Republicans on campus was the social stigma associated with identifying as a Republican. “[There was a] feeling that if people join College Republicans that it’s going to be a demerit in their social life or their [ability] to fit in elsewhere on campus,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince’.

He continued, “if identifying as a Republican is something that’s

going to ostracize you from your social network, you’re not going to do it.”

Alex Maugeri ’07, another former president of College Republicans, discussed the social repercussions of affiliating with the group. “It definitely hurts my prospects with some girls, I’ve noticed that,” he said to the ‘Prince’ at the time.

“Some girls are not too happy when they hear I’m the president of the College Republicans.”

A number of conservative activists on Princeton’s campus have drawn attention to the fact that this stigma around expressing conservative opinions has pushed students farther right in their political convictions and stilted free expression, notably in a column for the New York Times.

Some have pushed back against the argument that conservatives are unfairly marginalized.

“There is a stigma against being conservative, but I also think it depends, and I think some of that stigma is against the more heinous beliefs,” Nate Howard ’25, President of College Democrats, told the ‘Prince.’ “I’m in Tower; when we do bicker, like, no, I don’t want bigots in my eating club. And like, they may say, ‘oh, conservative views are marginalized,’ but like, which views, let’s unpack it, right? I don’t want people in my eating club that will make trans people feel uncomfortable.”

Although Stewart told me that he has not felt any stigma around identifying as Republican on campus, he was in our conversations sometimes cagey and often indirect regarding his political views.

He refused to articulate his position on any policy issues. He also would not tell me how many members there are of College Republicans.

Stewart would not engage on which candidates in the ongoing presidential primary he believes is most popular among group members, only sharing that he has had conversations with people who favor Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy.

After my first interview with Stewart, he sent a message in GroupMe to a group involved with College Republicans, telling them that a ‘Prince’ reporter was writing an article about the group and asking members to not agree to an interview with me. I reached out to over a dozen active conservative students on campus, asking to interview them for the article — none responded. *** “I think there’s this perception that our [Ivy League] conservatives are special, distinct, and extremely intelligent and thoughtful. And I actually think that they’re part of the same ecosystem that other conservatives across the country are a part of, and they’re subject to the same trends that are going on across the country,” Howard said.

As Stewart tries to resurrect College Republicans, he faces all the social challenges and competition from other conservative organizations faced by his predecessors. But, unlike his predecessors, hanging over College Republicans is now the increasing radicalization of the national Republican Party and, especially, lies about the 2020 election.

Earlier this month, Larry Giberson ’23 was sentenced to two months of incarceration, six months of home detention, and $2000 in fines for his participation

in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Stewart made sure to mention that he did not know Giberson nor had Giberson ever been involved with College Republicans.

I asked Stewart if he sees College Republicans as having to take a position on the legitimacy of that election. He responded “No, no.

There are people who identify as Republicans who take very different stances on that and our job is to cater to both of them.”

Stewart’s statement speaks to the challenges that an explicitly political group faces with a more radical Republican party. Some Republican students disagree with the election conspiracies being spread by Republican politicians and may prefer to engage with conservative ideas more generally. But for those aligned with politicians, priorities have changed from electoral politics to the culture war.

To Howard, the ongoing radicalization and shifting priorities of the Republican Party has distilled down into conversations among campus conservative groups, marking a sharp distinction between College Republicans and its left-leaning counterpart.

“I think a lot of progressives are very focused on doing things.

I think there’s a lot more interest in thinking about things on the right, not I think they’re more thoughtful necessarily,” Howard said. “I think [Republicans on campus] are much more focused on the national culture war stuff than winning elections, which I would also say is true of Republican politicians.”

This tendency was embodied by recent, vocal campus conservatives, notably including Stewart’s immediate predecessor, Adam Hoffman ’23.

In his time on campus, Hoffman dominated the conservative groups, bridging together both academic conservative groups and political ones. In addition to being the president of College Republicans, he was the Clio party chair and publisher of the Tory.

Hoffman has been able to extend his career in campus conservative activism into a role in the broader conservative movement.

As a student, Hoffman published with The National Review on campus issues. In his senior year, Hoffman wrote about the conservative movement in The New York Times, and he was invited on Fox News to talk about it. As of this summer, he works for the Ron Desantis campaign.

The ability to gain a broader platform for views, along with a campus environment less friendly to conservative ideas may have led to a lack of urgency surrounding engagement with more tangible local political issues, including canvassing. In other words, the understanding of what entails meaningful political involvement is very different from that of groups like College Democrats.

A desire to appeal to these national outlets may also influence choice of topics.

Last year, POCC invited the writer Abigail Shrier to speak about her book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.” Earlier this month, they hosted an event with Riley Gaines, a former swimmer at the University of Kentucky who, after tying for fifth place in an event with the transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, began advocating for banning transgender women from women’s sports.

Despite being the only conservative club that is explicitly political and nominally electoral, College Republicans has similarly focused its events thus far on discussing cultural issues.

One of the first events hosted by Stewart last spring was a screening of Candance Owens’s falsehoodridden documentary entitled “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.” The club also sent a group of people to Rutgers to volunteer at an event featuring Owens.

Stewart refused to discuss events in my conversation with him. According to people familiar with the club, College Republicans is planning a series of events about climate change, which will feature speakers who deny that humans have contributed to it. *** The College Republicans have also historically struggled with fostering political involvement on a campus that has, more broadly, harbored a sentiment of political apathy. The group has been reliant on a recurring stream of very involved students who have taken initiative to revive the club at its low points. The current version of the College Republicans is one with a substantially smaller focus on electoral politics.

The group was a very active presence in the early and mid 1990s, boasting 125 members in 1992, more than 60 of whom were actively volunteering for Republican campaigns.

But by 2002, College Republicans only had between 25 and 30 active members, reflecting a broader sentiment of political apathy on campus. David Brooks documented this in his profile, “The Organization Kid,” “There are a lot of things these future leaders no longer have time for.” Brooks also wrote about Princeton students at the turn of the millennium. “I was on campus at the height of the election season, and I saw not even one Bush or Gore poster. I asked around about this and was told that most students have no time to read newspapers, follow national politics, or get involved in crusades.”

The group kept growing in its membership and political activity, ballooning to 300 students in 2006, thanks to Maugeri, one of several presidents who successively breathed life into the organization. In the same year, the group undertook extensive campaigning efforts for candidates in New Jersey.

By 2008, College Republicans gained over 100 new members.

“There is a positive energy and enthusiasm within the Campus Republicans that is so refreshing,” Chloe Davis ’12 wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ at the time. “In a university where the majority of the student population supports Obama’s candidacy, it’s been really fun to be part of a group that is just as excited about the McCain campaign.”

For that election, College Republicans increased their canvassing efforts over fall break and led trips of dozens of students at a time to knock on doors in swing districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The insurgent Tea Party movement a few years later brought increased internal dissension to College Republicans, especially as the group’s membership and activity waned. The group was seen as aligned with the Tea Party, which led to calls for it to moderate.

By 2012, Draim arrived on campus to find a nonexistent College Republicans club.

“When I arrived at Princeton, the club was pretty much inactive and didn’t do much … it was such a small club that, arriving as a [first-year], I was basically handed the presidency of the College Republicans by the outgoing president when I arrived,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’

Draim took it upon himself to reinvigorate the club, focusing on “initiatives to kind of bring in people who were not already Republicans to the club, and give them an ability to learn more about what Republicans are really like, not the stereotypes that sometimes get perpetrated.”

He said, “We worked very, very hard to dispel that stigma by just being a fun place to be,” he said.

“Our unofficial slogan was ‘the best party on campus’ because we would bring people together to just have a good time.”

A contributing columnist for the ‘Prince’ once described herself at one of such pregames as “trying to dodge fireballs in clamorous political discourse over Fireball.”

College Republicans started downsizing again in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump. According to conservatives on campus at the time who spoke to the ‘Prince,’ the election created an environment in which students became less and less tolerant of Republicans, especially those who did not disavow Trump.

“Before Trump, people were kind of chill. You didn’t have this social witch hunt against rightwing people,” a former president of College Republicans who asked to remain anonymous said.

“After Trump’s election, things felt really hostile against right wing people … the social cost of being right wing on campus became exponentially higher, so that’s when [College Republicans] started dying.” Eventually, he said, “College Republicans essentially didn’t exist.”

“I was the mortician,” he explained, “preparing it for it’s funeral, and then it was saved by a guy who brought it back to life like Frankenstein: Adam Hoffman.’’

Hoffman did not respond to an interview request. But by all other accounts, College Republicans was more active when Hoffman became president than it is today. *** While he would not share any programming already undertaken by the group, Stewart said he was open to canvassing trips in the future. But, when speaking about his goals, he said, “College Republicans is and really should be a place where people who dissent from the Democratic orthodoxy can really come together.”

Ryan Spaude ’16 served as the vice president of College Republicans for two years while an undergraduate. Now, he is a Democrat, and he let out a disappointed sigh when I told him that College Republicans is not, as a group, opposing Trump.

“At the end of the day,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince,’ “It’s the campus wing of a political party that doesn’t believe in democracy.”

Julian Hartman-Sigall is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday December 8, 2023 U. AFFAIRS

page 5

Jamal sketches alternative to institutional neutrality in sit-down interview

By Elisabeth Stewart News Contirbutor

Institutions of higher learning are facing a question: what is the role of the university in highly contested political debates?

The ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza and responses to it on American college campuses has spurred increased discussion about institutional neutrality, the idea that universities should refrain from taking positions on contested issues. The idea has seemed attractive to some as universities have struggled to craft statements on the ongoing conflict.

As free speech advocates argue for universities to be more cagey on statements, in an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Amaney Jamal, dean of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), presented a vision for universities to be facilitators in crafting meaningful dialogue, arguing for engagement rather than strict neutrality.

Jamal, a Palestinian-American, recently co-wrote a guest essay published in The New York Times with Keren Yarhi-Milo, her counterpart at Columbia.

“Universities should not retreat into their ivory towers because the discourse has gotten toxic; on the contrary, the discourse will get more toxic if universities pull back,” they wrote.

They continued this conversation at a Nov. 28 event moderated by University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83.

Jamal’s view presents an alternative to strict institutional neutrality, which calls for administrators to take a step back on contested issues. Jamal has been criticized for taking positions in her official capacity in the past. In 2022, Jamal sent a memo following the not-guilty verdict of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who shot three men during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis. “I fail to comprehend the idea of a minor vigilante carrying a semiautomatic rifle across state lines, killing two people, and being declared innocent by the U.S. justice system.

Yesterday’s ruling sets a dangerous precedent,” Jamal wrote in the memo.

Jamal came under criticism from members of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC), who criticized “the implications of a University administrator, speaking in her official capacity, promulgating to an entire community of students her moral evaluation of the outcome of a highly publicized and controversial trial.”

Members noted the potential for Jamal’s memo to discourage students from expressing opposing views.

In the recent interview, Jamal defended the right of administrators to speak both in their capacity as faculty and in their roles as administrators.

“So when you think about administrators like myself, what our role is in the University, in general, the first primary objective of our roles is always to foster engagement on certain topics,” she said.

Jamal did use the term neutrality, but in a very different way than is traditionally understood in free speech circles, describing it as defining a space where diverse perspectives are welcome.

“We are neutral in that we want the dynamic conversation to happen here. We want to educate, but we want to be able to pull in those different perspectives,” she wrote.

So what kind of engagement does Jamal expect from administrators to foster an environment of open debate? Jamal was optimistic about the academic side of the University, and its potential to be the space for debate on contested issues.

“We have a lot of experts here in the school who work on this issue. A lot of our experts are being summoned to Washington D.C. to discuss this issue. A lot of our students care about it.

Why don’t we have a specific program on promoting peace for specifically the Palestine-Israeli conflict, since we have such great expertise?” she said.

She suggested that students involved in activism could engage in the academic debate, thereby “building on that momentum of student activism and passion, but trying to channel it now into sort of concrete measures moving forward,” she said.

She noted the potential for students to write their junior papers and theses on the issue.

Yet nationally, the attention is on student activist movements and

clashes with counter protestors rather than the academic debate. While the confrontational nature of the clashes has been more muted at Princeton, protests and rallies have still drawn the most attention.

Jamal described a role for the University to play in moderating the activist scene as well. Jamal told the ‘Prince’ that this entails providing students with historical context, specifically during protests, when discourse is reduced to simplified chants and slogans. She referenced the need for conversations surrounding chants such as “from the river to the sea,” which has faced backlash.

Jamal said that the chant “probably emerged outside of the Palestinian territories, in the diaspora, and there’s different interpretations and definitions around it right now.”

“The way it was historically understood was that it was calling for the annihilation of the State of Israel,” she said, adding that the way activists are using it now is to say that “we want freedom for Palestinians within the the Israeli state or Palestinian-Israeli states, though it’s not about annihilation. But that’s not how people are hearing it, so this is why we need a conversation.”

When asked why she believed there to be fewer confrontations between opposing student factions on Princeton’s campus, compared to some of its peer institutions, Jamal cited a smaller campus size. But she also tied the campus environment back to academics and the role administrators and faculty members played in continued efforts to “foster dialogue across this ‘divide,’” including SPIA’s “Conversations About Peace” discussion series in collaboration with Daniel C. Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies.

In addition, Jamal said that Princeton has had more “Muslim-Jewish cooperation” on campus.

“Structurally, for the longest time, as the Muslim student population was growing, the University was slow to bring on halal foods, so a lot of the Muslim students used to go to [the Center for Jewish Life] and probably still do, because kosher is also halal,” she said. “Muslims would be in the dining hall at CJL, and just by vir-

tue of just being in the dining space, people would become friends. That’s another element of the Princeton on-campus presence and dining hall experience that I think enhances collaboration among the student body.”

Jamal described a “rupture” in that relationship in light of recent conflict.

“But it’s a different type of rupture.

I’ve been here for 20 years. Sometimes when we had crises you’d see the divide be along Jewish versus Muslim, or Arab versus pro-Israeli Jewish students,” she said. “Now, the number of different groups is more dynamic and more diverse, which also means we need to think about new ways of fostering engagement.”

Jamal remained optimistic about the ways that the academic apparatus of the school could bridge those divides.

“It’s sort of understood that students might be more emotional [right now], might be driven to go out and chant and say things, and they might be screaming past one another or not listening to one another. But at some point, this is going to die down a little bit, and where are we going to be?

What is our role as an institution to make sure that we can sort of capture those sentiments and move into something positive that fosters that analytical, policy-oriented engagement?” she continued.

“My point there has been ‘why don’t you do something in neutral space that’s not what’s traditionally seen as the pro-Israeli space, or the pro-Palestinian space, but something neutral and around an event about how do we foster peace?’” she said.

In general, Jamal was skeptical about the quality of the discussion at the protests and in the media.

“Everything has been reduced to zero-sum understanding of this conflict,” she said.

“The more sort of unhinged voices have taken over this conflict and the silent majority around the bell curve has been silenced and pushed off stage,” she said. “I think this is a moment where we want to reclaim our possession on the stage.”

She cited the 2022 Caterpillar referendum as a positive example of student activism, as it was, in her view, centered on students educating themselves to form their own opinions.

Jamal herself has had to contend with outside actors, after Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF), an off-campus group, sent a truck with the message “DEAN JAMAL: WHY DO YOU CODDLE ANTISEMITISM?” Though the executive director of the group issued an apology to Jamal, saying he had sent the truck to pressure Jamal to condemn the Oct. 7 attack without knowing she had done so a week prior, she requested the ACF apologize publicly.

When asked about the incident, Jamal said that the “worry, as for any administrator, is you don’t want outside groups with political agendas coming to impose their will on college campuses in the United States.”

“That worries me because we in the University need to be able to do our job first and foremost, which is to educate and offer a diverse set of perspectives without trying to be conditioned by outside groups,” she said, highlighting the potential of the University environment itself.

Ultimately, Jamal sees the role of educators and administrative leaders as being central in pushing students to engage with each other with reason rather than provocation. She tied this idea to the reality beyond college campuses in her conversation with Yarhi-Milo, citing the central role of academic collaboration in the genesis of the Oslo Accords and the beginnings of the Arab-Israeli peace process in the 1990s.

“It started with Israeli academics going to the West Bank to visit Palestinian academics in their home [when] it was forbidden to do so. Then Palestinians visited Israeli academics in their home, crossing the border into Israel, when it was outlawed.”

With a week of programming organized by pro-Palestinian student groups ahead, including multiple teach-ins culminating in a “kick-off” rally in front of Nassau Hall this Friday, Dec. 1, the test of whether Jamal’s strategy of engagement can promote the type of debate she wants, will once again be put to the test.

Elisabeth Stewart is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

STUDENT LIFE

Teshome ’25 to prioritize community relations as 148th editor-in-chief

By Thomas Catalano & Ava Fonss News Contributors

On Saturday, Dec. 2, The Daily Princetonian staff elected Eden Teshome ’25 as the incoming Editorin-Chief (EIC) of the 148th managing board following two hours of platform deliberation in Betts Auditorium. For the first time since 2018, only one candidate ran for Editorin-Chief.

Teshome, a history major from Ellicott City, Maryland, currently serves as Head Podcast Editor, in addition to being a senior News writer and a member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee. Her responsibilities as the senior-most producer and leader of the podcast team includes editing content as well as developing the creative side of this multimedia section.

In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Teshome elaborated on her vision for the coming year, which prioritizes a plan for increasing engagement between the surrounding community and staff writers.

“My main vision for the ‘Prince’ is that we become more of a community-informed paper, and I want us to scaffold out our reporting through

a beat system,” she said. “I hope that reporters connect with members of the community and really build deep ties that are not necessarily based in just reporting, but also based in a relationship that extends past the transactional needs of a reporter’s role.”

Referencing a beat system, Teshome discussed connecting writers to a particular community or focused area in which they can develop deeper relationships. The system is meant to enhance reporting as well as contribute to more specialized knowledge across the ‘Prince’ staff.

In addition to external reach and engagement, Teshome said she hopes to foster a more accommodating environment for the ‘Prince’ writers.

“Internally, I really want us to find a space for our staff writers,” Teshome added. “I want [them] to feel empowered to have a role at the ‘Prince’ and to feel that their expertise is really valued in our organization.”

Teshome’s platform also addresses the ‘Prince’s reporting on underrepresented groups.

“I think the ‘Prince’ has always needed a push to really tell stories

that we typically haven’t told in the past, and what I specifically mean there is underrepresented communities,” she explained in an interview. “I wanted to really center that in what I want us to do next year.

That’s why I decided to run, and I hope that we will be able to execute that vision.”

Current editor-in-chief Rohit Narayanan ’24 said in an interview that he is confident in Teshome’s ability to lead the ‘Prince’ for the next year.

“I really think that Eden is going to do a fantastic job [with] making sure we’re building trust in the surrounding communities and also taking advantage of the incredible skill sets of all of the other people who are going to serve on her board,” he said.

“Eden is one of the most thoughtful and empathetic people that I know, and I’m always astounded by how able she is to really understand our readership,” Narayanan added.

“She’s done absolutely fantastic work with the Podcast section in the last year.”

Narayanan said he believes the unopposed nature of the election is a testament to the staff’s strong support of Teshome’s leadership and

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Teshome is pelted by newspapers by newsroom staff, as is tradition.

vision.

“I think the fact that Eden was the sole candidate demonstrated the broad consensus that we have at the paper around her ideas and the really bold, innovative plans that she has for the next year,” he said.

Reflecting on his own tenure as editor-in-chief, Narayanan believes that substantial progress has been made with increasing engagement and accessibility.

“We’ve really emphasized over the past year that every story should not just be written for the sake of writing

it, but should be providing unique value to the community and written in a way that allows people to engage with the ‘Prince’ without having to have followed every past story we’ve done or be deeply invested in some niche topic,” he said.

Teshome will officially assume her role as editor-in-chief on Jan. 1.

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

Ava Fonss is a contributing News writer for the ‘Prince.’

page 6 DATA

The Daily Princetonian

Friday December 8, 2023

Princeton Varsity Club raises record $5.3 million during annual donations drive

By Hayk Yengibaryan & Bryan Wang Associate Sports Editor & Contributing Data Writer

The last year has been a special one for Princeton athletics. From men’s basketball’s historic run to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament to wrestler Patrick Glory ’23’s national championship, it was nothing short of an incredible year for fans of the Orange and Black — who showed their support this past Tuesday during the 10th annual Tiger Athletics Give Day (TAGD).

TAGD is held each year on Giving Tuesday in an effort to raise money for not only the 38 varsity teams on campus but also the club teams that keep the Tiger spirit alive outside the classroom.

This year’s TAGD broke the giving record for the 10th consecutive year, raising $5.3 million.

“I firmly believe that there is no better studentathlete experience than the one at Princeton, and Tiger Athletics Give Day is a prime example of the shared experience that connects our current student-athletes to the alumni and friends who have paved the way,” Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack ’00 said in a statement.

Mack went on to say, “There is tremendous energy and passion around Princeton Athletics every day, but TAGD is at another level in terms of the support for our student-athletes and programs. We are so grateful for the continued leadership of our Princeton Varsity Club [PVC] Board of Directors, who continue to provide the year-over-year bonus funds to help boost the competitive spirit among our programs.” Princeton Varsity Club is a booster group for Princeton athletics.

The rowing team had an overwhelming majority of donors, with over 1,100 people donating to the program, which has been one of the most successful programs on campus consistently.

Last June, both the women’s and men’s lightweight teams claimed national titles at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Regatta.

The football team, which has the largest roster on campus with over 100 student-athletes, had 348 donors.

While the football team did not have as many donors as some would have expected, they did

raise nearly $500,000. The track team raised the most money, raising over $500,000 and getting an extra $10,000 in bonuses for finishing first in their pool.

As an incentive to encourage as much participation as possible, the official TAGD website has live leaderboards and places sports into different groups. There are two leaderboards: one for the number of total donors and another for the amount of money raised. By placing first in their group on either leaderboard, a team is eligible for potentially another $10,000 in bonus funds.

These bonus funds are provided by the PVC Board of Directors, who over the last 10 years have allocated nearly $2 million in bonus funds to teams.

Additionally, each team had a goal this year to exceed their nine-year average amount of dollars raised. Every single program met this goal with the golf team beating their nine-year TAGD average by 331 percent. Every program received an additional $2500 bonus for meeting the goal, with the golf program getting an additional $5000 on top of that for exceeding the average the most.

While the rowing team did have the most donors, the average donor donated under $300. The golf team had fewer than 200 donors, but each donor donated on average over $2500, paving the way for the golf team to exceed all donation expectations.

“Additionally, TAGD would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our student-athletes, coaches, staff, Friends Group leaders/volunteers, and campus colleagues who worked tirelessly to make this day possible. I am appreciative of the effort everyone puts into TAGD to further enrich the championship experience in competition and on campus for Princeton student-athletes,” Mack said.

Mack ended his statement by saying, “Every gift makes a difference and is an investment in helping to develop and support the finest student-athletes and coaches in the world.”

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

Bryan Wang is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

DATA

VP candidates want to change the academic calendar. Here are the facts.

By Andrew Bosworth & David Shao Assistant Data Editor & Contributing Data Writer

The final exam schedule was a topic of debate among this year’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) vice presidential candidates. Warren Shepherd ’27 embraced “expanding student benefits,” including a critique of the academic calendar. Flyers found around campus sponsored by Shepherd read, “December 22 is too late. Shift the academic year a week earlier.”

Agreeing with Shepherd, candidate Chase Magnano ’25 argued at the debate that Princeton should move the academic calendar one week earlier. Shepherd highlighted the fact that students may be caught in transit near Christmas, citing the case of last year where, due to a snow storm, some students were caught in the airport.

Magnano noted that “flights will sometimes double or triple in price” during the holiday travel rush, while Srista Tripathi ’25 highlighted proposals she made as Academics Committee chair, such as making the final exam schedule available earlier so international students or students who fly home have more time to book tickets in advance. In the proposed model, students will be able to see final assessment dates when selecting courses, allowing students to better structure their final assessment schedule and plan their travel plans earlier in the semester.

In the wake of the debate, The Daily Princetonian broke down the aspects of the academic calendar, which does end later than any other Ivy League school.

Proposed changes to the academic calendar are not unusual to a USG debate — in his successful campaign for USG President last year, Stephen Daniels ’24 said he was open to a conversation about adding a week to the semester so students could not have classes during midterms.

The current academic calendar is relatively recent.

Before the 2020–2021 academic year, Princeton held fall semester finals after a short winter break ended.

Moving finals to before winter break in 2020 meant, in the University’s words, “a new space in January for different types of campus engagement and the first University-wide Wintersession was launched in January of 2021.”

Exams do seem to be getting later in the period.

For the past two fall semesters, Princeton final exams have been scheduled to begin on the third Saturday of December and conclude the following Friday. There are 32 more final exams in Fall 2023 than Fall 2022 and, on average, they are administered later in the exam window.

On Magnano’s campaigning Instagram page, he outlines four ideas included in his platform, the second on the list being “adjusting the fall schedule so finals are earlier.” Magnano said on Instagram, “It is unreasonable to burden us and our families with outrageously priced plane or train tickets because the semester cannot start 1 week earlier.”

At the vice presidential debate on Nov. 28, Shepherd agreed with Magnano and said, “I came up here as a freshman, I believe it was August 25. And I was up at college about two weeks later than all my counterparts. So I don’t know that this is really an impossible goal.”

Tripathi, the current USG Academics Chair, countered, “Oftentimes the faculty have their reasons for [maintaining the schedule]. If you think about the freshmen that come two to three weeks in advance prior to the school year beginning for orientation period, moving that one week earlier, and accommodating that with a faculty schedule and the staff schedule … seems a little bit unlikely.”

The ‘Prince’ examined the final exam schedules of Ivy League peer institutions, finding Princeton to be the last in the League to conclude its finals. Dart-

mouth college is on the quarter-system and finals take place mid-November and were thus not included in this analysis. Harvard and Penn final exams schedules could not be collected.

All Ivy Leagues except for Princeton and Yale have final exam periods lasting over seven days. Cornell is the only school where no final examinations occur on a date within the final examination period, on Saturday, Dec. 12.

Princeton has the last final exam in 2023 of Ivy League schools but is not last to start its semester.

Brown began classes one day after Princeton and Columbia while Harvard began on the same date as Princeton, Sep. 5. Cornell courses began the earliest of any Ivy, on Aug. 21, and Cornell final exams end the

earliest, not including Dartmouth.

At the debate, Magnano also compared the University’s final exam schedule to those of peer institutions, noting Princeton’s late start to winter break.

Shepherd noted that students may not be the only ones concerned about the late schedule, adding, “I believe many faculty prefer getting on Christmas break earlier as well.”

Andrew Bosworth is an assistant Data editor at the ‘Prince.’

David Shao is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday December 8, 2023

“Get Lit”

page 7

By Emma Simon

Contributing Constructor

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Opinion

page 8

Friday December 8, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Learning to burst the Orange Bubble Sarah Park

Contributing Columnist

W

hen I first arrived at Princeton, I thought my only obligation as a student was to try my hand at every opportunity that presented itself to me. In my mind, this meant taking the most interesting classes and meeting as many people as possible. It meant doing anything and everything I could ever want to do. To me, college was a time to be selfish. I worked hard to get here — why shouldn’t I make the most of it?

I’ve realized, though, that as

much as the University feels like the center of my universe, there is more worth caring about than just myself and my immediate surroundings. As much as the University has a community of its own, Princeton cannot disentangle itself from the surrounding town. Indeed, many of the reasons I’m excited for my next four years lie beyond Princeton’s campus.

I take for granted many of the things that I enjoy about the University. I often forget that the reason my bathroom is clean every morning and that I have food to eat for every meal is because of the people from the surrounding communities who work here. I find joy in newly

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The sun sets on Downtown Princeton, right across from Nassau Hall.

paved pathways on campus and boba at every other event, but it doesn’t register that it’s thanks to the community around the University that we’re able to enjoy them. In reality, every part of the University that makes it my home is tied to the community supporting it.

In fact, I owe it to Princeton, the town where I chose to spend my college years in the first place. The area was a big part of why my parents were happy to see me enroll here. Instead of spending the most influential years of my life in a terrifying megacity or the middle of nowhere, I’d be in a picture-perfect college town.

After coming here, I’ve seen how often students and administrators act like the town is a source of pride for the University, even when it has little to do with us and everything to do with the community around us.

The University’s website boasts about “the charm of Princeton,” creating an image of the town as an idyllic haven with “tree-lined neighborhoods.” Yet, all of this promotion occurs without any proposal of a deeper commitment to the town.

We Princetonians often fail to demonstrate care for the places or people beyond campus. We’re not exactly flocking to town events or vying to work offcampus. We don’t even mention the town beyond complimenting the color of the leaves and

complaining about how little there is to do. More often, we’re content to ignore the world outside campus entirely, even when it’s precisely the community around us that makes life here possible. The town is our home for four years, and it offers us so much that we need and enjoy; surely we can do so much more for the place we live in, no?

Some of us already do. The Pace Center lists programs that work with immigrants, schools, and conservation efforts. Other student groups, even those that are not centered around community service, integrate service into their clubs so that members can get involved with the community through their pre-existing interests. Princeton University Ballet heads a chapter of Ballet & Books, where students plan extracurricular activities for young children to improve their literacy. The Figure Skating Club leads a skating program with the Special Olympics of Mercer County. Even if it’s through their membership in a club, students gain a sense of responsibility towards the community, and the community benefits in turn. However, too few students participate in these programs and stay siloed within the campus’s walls.

It does not take being a member of a committed organization to contribute to the town; any number of personal choices can change the campus’s attitude of

ambivalence towards supporting the people who support us.

Students could take more jobs off-campus; we’d see and meet more of the town than most of the University ever would. It would also be more meaningful to serve the members of the community in roles that are not always noticed but nevertheless essential. There are classes at the Arts Council and Pure Barre that provide us with enjoyment while bringing us closer to the community’s institutions and its people. There are plenty of ways we can become closer to the town and local region. However, we don’t act on them because we’ve grown comfortable with the way things are.

Recognizing what this community offers us is the first step toward finding gratitude.

Acting on that gratitude is the first step toward giving a part of ourselves to the town in return.

There is a great deal to enjoy about our experience on campus, but that doesn’t mean we should seclude ourselves either.

There’s a wide world outside the campus we live in — a world to explore, contribute to, and leave our mark on. We can start with the one right outside the gates.

Sarah Park is a first-year intending to pursue a major in comparative literature. She is from Manila, Philippines.

Princeton’s mental health problem needs a bigger solution than Community Care Day Davis Hobley

Contributing Columnist

P

rinceton’s Community Care Day had everything from yoga to coffee to canoeing.

Hosted by the Office of Campus Life, the soon-to-be annual event sought to encourage “the entire campus to focus on rejuvenation, mindfulness, and communitybuilding” by organizing 24 free events for campus members to choose from. The day of events was framed as a relaxed way to bring about health and well-being on campus, especially during a stressful time of the semester. Though the event aimed to improve the mental health situation on campus, it fell flat due to disorganization, and, moreover, exposed the goal of sufficiently changing the state of campus mental health with a single day as overambitious and inadequate.

The day was a genuine attempt at helping to relieve some of the pressure students feel on a dayto-day basis here at the University. In fact, it was slightly successful in doing so, as it provided students with an opportunity to take a break from their coursework and engage in amusing activities.

Some of the most popular events, including cupcake deco-

rating, mindfulness crafting, and free coffee, were somewhat effective at boosting student morale short-term, but failed to change the pre-existing culture around mental health. . The lowstakes events made participants’ days more enjoyable, as they were able to partake in several community events and helped de-stress them during and after a difficult day of classes.

Events, such as Mindfulness Crafting, lasted for over six hours (from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and were near the center of campus at Campus Club. Given their easilyaccessible locations and hours, those interested were theoretically able to attend some of these events between classes.

However, there was also mass disorganization, and the day ultimately fell short of its goals.

Certain events providing free products, such as the free coffee event, were extremely crowded, making them overly time-consuming with long lines. Despite efforts by the Office of Campus Life — including an email from Dean Ian Deas sent two days prior —, many students did not know about the events’ times and locations. This was problematic especially given that certain events, such as drop-in hours at CPS, were held inside where passersby would not naturally stumble across them. Though there were yard signs with QR

codes linking to online information about the events of the day, many students were not aware of what or where they were.

In speaking to some of my peers about whether or not the University achieved its vision of rejuvenation, mindfulness, and community-building, most told me that the administration certainly tried, but one single day of events was not going to help fix the overall stressful experience of being a student at Princeton.

This points to a more fundamental issue with any event like Community Care Day: an annual event cannot and will not provide the deep changes that we need to improve student mental health, especially because the root of the mental health problems on campus aren’t merely a result of the lack of events like Community Care Day. Even within Community Care Day, Princeton acknowledged the need for real mental health services: there was an opportunity for “free Talk Friday CPS Drop-in Hours” in McCosh Health Center for students and a session on supporting students’ stress management for staff and faculty. But, in general, a lack of mental health clinicians, protective accommodations for students struggling with their mental health, and mental health education for staff perpetuate the mental health problems on campus.

To start substantively addressing the problem of student mental health, the University must focus on doing everything in its power to aid in addressing the mental health problems prevalent on campus. Events such as Community Care Day signal a step in the right direction, but many more substantive improvements need to be made. Some are relatively simple changes, such as ensuring every student is aware of resources like free Talk Friday drop-ins or adding additional education about mental health on campus beyond orientation.

Others may be more complex but necessary, such as expanding the

CPS staff to provide more opportunities for students to access counseling services as Princeton’s undergraduate enrollment increases. Student mental health on campus needs to be treated as what it is — a crisis — not as an issue the University can simply solve with an annual six-hour, disorganized event.

Davis Hobley is a member of the Class of 2027 and intends to major in neuroscience. He hails from Rochester, Mich.

COURTESY OF SAMEER KHAN / FOTOBUDDY

USG President Stephen Daniels ‘24 and President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83 smile and laugh at Community Care Day in October.

Opinion

Friday December 8, 2023

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

business manager Shirley Ren ’24

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

president Thomas E. Weber ’89

assistant treasurer Kavita Saini ’09

Kathleen Crown Suzanne Dance ’96 Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 Danielle Ivory ’05 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07

trustees Francesca Barber Craig Bloom ’88

trustees ex officio Rohit Narayanan ’24 Shirley Ren ’24

vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90

147TH MANAGING BOARD upper management

Kalena Blake ’24 Katherine Dailey ’24 Julia Nguyen ’24

Angel Kuo ’24 Hope Perry ’24

Strategic initiative directors

Education Kareena Bhakta ’24 Amy Ciceu ’24 Financial Stipend Program Genrietta Churbanova ’24

Mobile Reach Rowen Gesue ’24 DEIB Chair Christofer Robles ’25

head audience editor Rowen Gesue ’24

community opinion editor Lucia Wetherill ’25

associate audience editor Paige Walworth ’26

associate opinion editors Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26 Christofer Robles ’25 Ashley Olenkiewicz ’25

Sections listed in alphabetical order.

head archives editor Raphaela Gold ’26 Kaylee Kasper ’26

head photo editor Jean Shin ’26

head copy editors Jason Luo ’25 Nathalie Verlinde ’24

head podcast editor Eden Teshome ’25

associate head copy editors Tiffany Cao ’24 Naisha Sylvestre ’25

associate podcast editor Senna Aldoubosh ’25 Vitus Larrieu ’26

head data editor Elaine Huang ’25 Charlie Roth ’25

head print design editors Avi Chesler ’25 Malia Gaviola ’26

associate data editor Ryan Konarska ’25

head prospect editors Kerrie Liang ’25 Claire Shin ’25

head features editors Paige Cromley ’24 Tori Tinsley ’24

associate prospect editors Isabella Dail ’26 Joshua Yang ’25

associate features editor Sejal Goud ’25

head puzzles editors Joah Macosko ’25 Simon Marotte ’26

head graphics editors Noreen Hosny ’25 Katelyn Ryu ’24

associate puzzles editors Juliet Corless ’24 Sarah Gemmell ’24 Jaeda Woodruff ’25

head humor editor Spencer Bauman ’25 associate humor editors Sam McComb ’25 Sophia Varughese ’26

head sports editors Nishka Bahl ’26 Cole Keller ’26

head news editors Sandeep Mangat ’24 Isabel Yip ’25

associate sports editors Diego Uribe ’26 Hayk Yengibaryan ’26

associate news editors Lia Opperman ’25 Annie Rupertus ’25 Tess Weinreich ’25

head web design and development editors Ananya Grover ’24 Brett Zeligson ’24

head newsletter editors Olivia Chen ’26 Sidney Singer ’25

associate web design and development editor Vasila Mirshamsova ’26

head opinion editor Abigail Rabieh ’25

147TH BUSINESS BOARD assistant business manager, director of sales Aidan Phillips ’25 business directors Benjamin Cai ’24 Jessica Funk ’26 Gabriel Gullett ’25 Andrew He ’26 Tejas Iyer ’26 Daeun Kim ’26 Jordan Manela ’26

Robert Mohan ’26 Kok Wei Pua ’25 project managers Julia Cabri ’24 Jason Ding ’25 Bibiane Kan ’26 Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26 Shravan Suriyanarayanan ’26 My Ky Tran ’26 Brian Zhou ’26

Donations should not be conditional on student speech Jackson Baldrate

Contributing Columnist

I

n the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, many wealthy donors have pulled or threatened to pull their donations to Ivy League schools. A non-profit organization founded by billionaire Leslie Wexler announced it is breaking ties with Harvard University, arguing that it cannot support an administration that has been “tiptoeing” around the issue of terrorist attacks.

Similarly, at the University of Pennsylvania, former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman condemned the university’s “silence” about the attacks, and said he would halt his family’s donations to the school. Princeton has largely steered clear of this controversy at the moment because of President Christopher Eisgruber’s forceful denunciation of Hamas’ attacks, as Aidan Gouley ’27 noted in a recent column. However, watching the monetary fallout of political turmoil at other schools should cause both donors and the administration to reevaluate how much influence wealthy individuals should have on Princeton’s operation and educational mission.

Donors can, and always should, have the ability to donate or withhold their money to any organization or university — it is their money, and they get to choose how to spend it. However, when evaluating the decision to make a donation, donors should not factor in student opinions on controversial issues. Rather, donors to Princeton and peer institutions must understand that the University’s commitment to free speech, free expression, and academic freedom will inevitably lead to students expressing views that donors don’t agree with. Rather than resent this fact, donors should be proud of the fact that they are donating to a university that prioritizes free speech and academic freedom.

The University’s gift policy states very clear guidelines on what donors can and cannot expect to influence with their money. Gifts to the University do not provide donors with any say over the use or administration of their gifts, and thus cannot be made in order to impact the direction of the university. This is good policy on Princeton’s part: In order to remain committed to

academic freedom, the administration cannot be beholden to the wishes of donors. Recent complaints have made it clear how crucial this policy is: A large donor argued in a recent article that Eisgruber has not fulfilled his wishes for how he wants his money to be used, expressing that he thought his donation made it so the University should prioritize his desires over their commitment to academic freedom. In order to avoid situations like these, the University ought to be wise about which donations they accept and ensure that all donors understand what their donation does and does not entitle them to.

It’s true, however, that universities fail to foster a commitment to academic freedom in their donors by issuing statements on various controversial social issues themselves — Princeton included. Princeton takes sides and adopts official positions on so many controversies (such as police brutality, the war in Ukraine, and affirmative action) that when it fails to adopt an official position on a controversy, or adopt positions that don’t align with donors, it causes problems.

Donors come to expect certain politics from the University and may believe that their donations further those commitments, becoming rightfully angry when those stances change or become inconsistent.

Further, by taking official positions on issues, universities such as Princeton indicate to donors and students alike that the preservation of free speech and expression is secondary to expressing the opinions of the administration. This process further stifles student expression by suggesting that the right answer has already been decided — no need for student input or critical thought.

It suggests that universities do not allow students the freedom to figure out the correct answer for themselves. This leads to donor unhappiness, as donors will come to believe that they support a school for its politics, not its educational commitments.

When Harvard and UPenn hesitated to issue statements about the Hamas terrorist attacks after making quick statements about police brutality and the RussiaUkraine war, donors assumed the worst and became incensed at the delay in condemning terrorism. Ivy League universities

147TH TECHNOLOGY BOARD

chief technology officer Roma Bhattacharjee ’25 software engineers Anika Agarwal ’25 Pranav Avva ‘24 Carter Costic ’26 Jessica Dong ’25 Vishva Ilavelan ’27 Austin Li ’26 Allen Liu ’27

Isabel Liu ’26 Joyce Liu ’27 Tai Sanh Nguyen ’26 Hang Pham ’26 Aidan Phillips ’25 Joe Rupertus ’26 Joanna Tang ’24 Caitlin Wang ’26 Shannon Yeow ’26 Brett Zeligson ’24

Jackson Baldrate is a first-year columnist from McLean, Virginia intending to major in economics.

THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Cindy Chen ’26 Ethan Cheng ’27 Avi Chesler ’25

Malia Gaviola ’26 Vivi Lu ’26 Haruka Nabeshima ’27

AND COPIED BY Jason Luo ’25

would better serve themselves by adopting the University of Chicago’s approach. Based on its 1967 Kalven Report, UChicago expresses the view that “the university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.” Using this approach, universities should remove themselves from controversies and allow the students to speak their minds and present their views.

Once a university demonstrates its commitment to freedom of thought among students, it can expect the same commitment in its donors in better faith.

Donors need to understand that Princeton students are growing, learning, and making mistakes as they go and Princeton’s job is to foster that learning and critical thinking. Princeton’s success at accomplishing its underlying mission of promoting academic freedom, which enables rigorous pursuit of the truth, should be the criteria donors use to determine whether to give money.

This should remain the criteria even if it means students will sometimes voice viewpoints that donors disagree with, and if students occasionally make statements that are emotionally charged, uninformed, and flat-out wrong. While donors, of course, have the right to withhold their money from universities because they don’t like what their students say, they would be better served by remembering the role of the university is not to solve political controversies, but to teach students how to think and problem solve for themselves. Donors honor Princeton’s mission by following the adage attributed to Voltaire: “While I disagree with what you say, I will defend to your death your right to say it.”

So far Princeton has dodged the donor controversy that has plagued other Ivies on the IsraelPalestine issue largely because of the administration’s forceful denunciation of Hamas. However, I believe that all universities that issue policy statements on every social issue do so at their own peril. As the controversy with Harvard and Penn has shown, issuing statements (or not) will eventually lead to problems with donors. Just because Princeton evaded donor unhappiness in this situation does not mean that they will avoid controversy with future issues. Princeton would better serve itself, its students, and its donors by remaining neutral on controversial social issues and letting students think and speak for themselves. Donors can take pride in the fact that by donating to a university that lets the students speak for themselves, they are serving Princeton’s commitment to academic freedom and the pursuit of truth.

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

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Opinion

Friday December 8, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Reactions: What does the future of the eating clubs look like?

C

loister Inn is inviting sophomores to launch a “takeover” of the club in order to revive lagging sophomore interest, while telling alumni that there is a risk the club may close. With the Class of 2026, the largest class to ever matriculate at Princeton about to join the clubs, Cloister’s situation speaks to the long-time recurrent cycles of signin clubs and also raises questions about the importance of bicker to the Princeton social scene. In light of these new concerns, along with conversations over recent years about the role that bicker plays in students’ Princeton experiences, we asked our columnists and some guest contributors to share their thoughts on what the future holds for Princeton’s eating clubs.

Decentering the eating clubs from the Princeton experience

By Ashley Olenkiewicz, Associate Opinion Editor

Princeton’s eating clubs, and the bicker process in general, are here to stay. Although many students have shared their dissatisfaction with the institution, the fact remains that a large portion of the student body joins an eating club, and many are happier doing so.

Trying to “abolish the eating clubs” is about as productive as arguing that we should abolish Ivy League schools because they’re exclusive and tons of perfectly deserving students will never have the opportunity to attend one. Instead, students should recognize that other opportunities give equal, or in some cases better, opportunities than eating clubs to find happiness in their college experiences.

Thus, students should decenter the eating clubs from their Princeton experience and focus on building community through more organic means, like by joining student organizations, playing sports, or finding joy in hobbies.

Perhaps the increase in class sizes over the next few years will lead to the creation of new bicker or competitive sign-in clubs, or maybe it’ll mean that more students are rejected from clubs than accepted into them, causing the popularity of sign-in clubs to grow.

That might lead to a more equal distribution of students across clubs, and hopefully help bolster the finances of clubs struggling with low membership. Alternatively, students may turn away from the street and look towards other forms of community. In our first two years on campus, we’re told repeatedly how awesome the eating clubs are, how important they are to your Princeton career, and how terrible it would be to not join one. I’m not disputing the value of eating clubs. It’s true, they offer a tight-knit community with traditions, events, and special opportunities for those who join. But these exclusive clubs are not the only way to find community or maintain friendships during our four years at Princeton.

Ashley Olenkiewicz is a junior in the School of Public and International Affairs and pursuing certificates in both Latin American Studies and Journal-

ism. She can be reached at ao8250@ princeton.edu.

The people have spoken — and they want selectivity

By Anna Ferris, Columnist The pages of The Daily Princetonian are frequently filled with calls to abolish many of the systems that prop up a University-wide culture often described as elitist and hyper-competitive.

From bicker to application-based clubs, Princeton students face rejection at every turn in their college careers. But, as the recent financial difficulties faced by Cloister Inn demonstrate, when push comes to shove, we tend to choose selective institutions over more open ones.

As last year’s statistics show, the increase in the number of students choosing to join an eating club mostly centered around more students choosing to join bicker clubs.

Why do we continue on this trend, even though we call for an end to competition culture?

It seems obvious that Princetonians actually like competition — regardless of what opinions they may publicly share. This is not a groundbreaking remark, but it bears repeating as we ask ourselves how a Prospect stalwart like Cloister would find itself in dire financial straits. The answer might lie in its sign-in status. Princeton students applied to the University in the first place knowing the low chances of gaining acceptance, but knowing even better the kind of social and academic validation attendance would confer. Since high school, we’ve demonstrated a preference for competition. It’s unsurprising that we’re loath to abandon this attitude once we get on campus. After all, if it feels good to be selected as a Princeton student from the massive group of applicants, it seems that it must feel even better to be further selected from within the Princeton pool itself. In short, selective institutions and systems make us feel special; they make us feel chosen.

In terms of the future, this trend suggests a rise in clubs either switching to a bicker process, or, like Charter, a form of selective sign-in. Whether by competitive or first-come-first-serve processes, we must simply hope that Prospect Avenue continues to offer the kind of community and kinship that generations of Princetonians have long celebrated.

Anna Ferris is a sophomore planning to declare a concentration in English and a minor in Values and Public Life. She can be reached at annaferris@ princeton.edu A shared financial structure could help eating clubs down the line

By Alex Norbrook, Columnist Cloister Inn’s financial woes merit worry. So does the lack of response from its ten eating club peers. If the eating club system hopes to survive in the long term, clubs ought to consider creating some sort of shared financial structure to prop up their struggling peers in times of need.

Cloister’s trouble started because of repercussions from the pandemic; it doesn’t signal some sort of systemic issue with eating club membership (indeed, many clubs seem to be thriving postpandemic). But that initial shock has now created a potential death spiral for the club, according to the statements of the graduate board.

Now that the student body sees its closure as possible, as the club’s graduate board warned, Cloister risks turning off the very students needed to keep its doors open.

Yet if Cloister could access a limited emergency fund, maintained by all of the eating clubs, it could buy time. Prospective members may be more tempted to join if they didn’t have to worry about an imminent closure of the club.

And if they do, they can stabilize the club’s finances, ensuring that the COVID-19 dip doesn’t turn into something more permanent. If the shock was temporary, so can be the solution.

In order to create such a mechanism, eating clubs could consider pooling together a fund, strictly for emergency use, to offset the damage from future shocks such as another pandemic. This sort of mechanism is important because future shocks could threaten many of the eating clubs on Prospect Avenue. At the very least, closure for even one club could risk overcrowding in others. Of course, such a fund would only be necessary in truly last-resort cases. Gifts from donors or sophomore takeovers might save Cloister’s skin and the skin of any eating club in a similar situation in the future. But a fund should be there in case those options fall through.

The number of eating clubs has gradually whittled down to the eleven we see today because of shocks like the one Cloister is responding to now. If nothing changes, that whittling trend is all too likely to continue in the long term. Even if Cloister spares itself in the coming years, another club might be in its position down the line. Clubs banding together to protect each other now saves closures in the future.

Alex Norbrook is a sophomore intending to major in History or Politics.

He can be reached at alexnorbrook@ princeton.edu.

Invest in alternative upperclass dining options, not more expensive eating clubs

By Madeleine Burns and Rakesh Potluri, Guest Contributors Cloister’s struggles with low membership highlight the problematic and exclusive nature of the eating club system. Students would rather join bicker clubs, simply because you must bicker to get in — the exclusivity makes them more desirable than sign-in clubs. As Princeton adds around 500 undergraduate students by 2025, demand for limited spots in bicker clubs will increase, creating a vicious cycle. To provide adequate dining and social options to the growing student body, Princeton needs to end this cycle.

First, Princeton should force the

CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

clubs to end bicker, which will remove the hierarchy of club desirability and the nasty culture of exclusivity. On top of that, however, Princeton should increase other upperclass dining options, such as co-ops and independent cooking opportunities, in response to the increasing student population.

This way, upperclass students can create organic, inclusive communities that do not require paying $10,000 per year to perpetuate social stratification.

Instead of shutting down coop-style housing and dining, the University should support and expand access to these options. Only one of the three new residential colleges (Hobson) includes a coop kitchen. The University should create or convert more spaces for co-ops, which provide communal dining and a social scene at a fraction of Prospect Avenue’s costs.

Princeton should also increase access to kitchens and grocery stores so more upperclass students can become independent. Apartmentstyle dorms increase convenience and create a community for independents, yet no apartment-style dorms were added in the new residential colleges. It’s imperative that the University add more dorms with kitchens so that independent students aren’t limited to only the voyeuristic rooms of Spelman Halls. Additionally, the University should take steps to improve access to grocery stores for independent students, such as decreasing the exorbitant costs of walkable options, expanding selection at the U-Store, and improving transportation to McCaffrey’s Food Market and other off-campus options.

Overall, Princeton has an incredible opportunity to shift the norms around upperclas student dining.

If they truly seek to “nurture inclusivity” and “generate community,” the University must take steps to diversify access to dining for upperclass students and foster communities outside of Prospect Avenue.

Madeleine Burns is a senior in the CEE department. Rakesh Potluri graduated with a degree in Psychology in 2023. They can be reached at mcburns@princeton.edu and rpotluri@ alumni.princeton.edu.

Bicker clubs offer a sense of belonging that can’t be found anywhere else on campus

By Francis Barth, Guest Contributor Eating clubs are an awful way to organize belonging. Bicker hurts so many people under the false charge of some meritocratic selection, and there’s no insurance for those left out of its matching process. Without bicker, sign-in clubs like Cloister struggle to offer the club-wide community sometimes found in their counterparts. And while the University administration seems to hold an anti-club bent, they’ve failed to provide sufficient alternatives for people seeking social outlets. They often note that eating clubs meet only some students’ ideas of a fulfilling social life, but it’s hard to justify the administration’s antagonism towards these clubs to the many students who desire exactly that form of social life.

After being double-hosed my sophomore spring, hurt and aggrieved, I met with an administrator in Nassau Hall to discuss the University’s take on undergraduate community spaces. She cited vacancies in Cloister, Quad, and other clubs as evidence that the student body’s demand for eating clubs is more than met by existing institutions. I’ve heard similar thoughts before, especially as we consider how eating clubs might adapt to an increasing undergraduate body. The aggregate demand for eating clubs is not the issue in question — the market isn’t for eating club spots at all. Huge numbers of students are looking for communities in which they can feel loved and valued, and only a few clubs have managed to meet that need.

It’s why some can go bankrupt, and why others can be the center of life for so many. The market is belonging.

I got into my current club my junior fall. My eating club has rejected me, made me feel awful, yet became a source of comfort, joy, and love. For so many people, eating clubs don’t offer belonging at all. But the need for belonging is vast, and while eating clubs don’t meet the whole need (and sometimes exacerbate the feeling of not belonging), they can provide real sources of community for many of their members. I went back because I couldn’t find what I was looking for anywhere else.

Francis Barth is a senior from NYC majoring in Spanish and Portuguese.

He directs the Pace Center’s English as a second language program, El Centro.

Friday December 8, 2023

Opinion

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Letter to the Editor: How the Office of Religious Life handles funds Allison Boden

Guest Contributor

The following is a letter to the editor and ref lects the author’s views alone.

To the Editor: I’d like to clarify some issues raised in the recent column entitled “The University needs more transparency in how it funds religious life.” It is not the case, as the column suggests, that alumni donations are given over to the Office of Religious Life (ORL) to distribute amongst religious organizations. Student religious organizations do their own alumni fundraising in-

dependent of the ORL; we play no role in the solicitation or processing of gifts. Anyone who wishes to know about fundraising by student organizations needs to ask them directly. The campus accounts of every student organization, religious or not, are reported in SAFE, the student organization funding portal. Organizations’ successful applications to the ORL for the small grants that come from our own annual budget are also recorded in SAFE. Additionally, the Fred Fox Fund, also referenced in the column, is not comprised of money that is given to the ORL to distribute but rather is an existing endowment, created

by the Class of 1939, that generates annual income. The ORL volunteers the administrative time of one of its staff members to support the committee that disburses the funds.

That committee is comprised of alumni from the Classes of 1978 and 2013.

As the column notes, student religious organizations receive generous support and as a result are thriving. We are endlessly grateful to the many alumni who make this possible through their donations, their time, and their prayers.

Alison Boden is the Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel.

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Murray Dodge Hall houses the Office of Religious Life, the new art museum stands behind it, still under construction.

“ECO 100’s market-capitalist assumptions rarely align with reality” ECONOMICS Continued from page 1

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compared to Pennsylvania, which didn’t. While the application of their methods has been debated, studies in the nearly 30 years since have confirmed the lack of association, a finding replicated internationally.

The work was so groundbreaking that in 2021, Card won a Nobel Prize in economics for studies including this one, an honor that Krueger unfortunately did not live to see.

The reason that the class ignores Princeton professors’ own seminal work is that ECO 100, like many introductory courses, relies heavily on neoclassical supply-demand analysis. This framework, which relies on assumptions (perfect competition, rational actors, complete free choice, and price reflecting value) leads to conclusions such as the idea that setting a minimum wage above the “market equilibrium price” disrupts the labor market, leading to

decreased demand for labor and increased unemployment. Yet these assumptions often diverge sharply from the messy realities of economic life.

Take the assumption of perfect competition. It’s a bedrock of neoclassical economic theory, claiming that no one company can set prices and that people can always choose the least expensive option. It has dramatic implications for policy: If competition is perfect, the “invisible hand” of the market will always reach the optimal allocation on its own. That means that any government intervention in the market would, by definition, be inefficient.

This is a worldview in which the free market reigns supreme as the most efficient system.

However, as Card and Krueger’s study showed, these assumptions often fall short in explaining the real world — in ways that have massive implications for public policy and economic inequality. Monopolies and oligopolies, irrational consumer behavior, constraints on free choice

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, home of the economics department.

due to poverty or lack of information — all these factors deviate meaningfully from the textbook models of market capitalism.

Of course, economic assumptions are important, especially in introductory classes, because they can simplify problems down to the 100-level.

But, as Professor Alan Blinder and co-author William Baumol say: an assumption can be “a useful abstraction from annoying detail or a gross distortion of the facts.” In order to be useful, economic assumptions must approximate reality.

Unfortunately for ECO 100, its assumptions are not like those of Newtonian physics, holding in all but extreme cases. ECO 100’s marketcapitalist assumptions rarely align with reality. In reality, monopolies and oligopolies reign. This assumption of rationality of actors is so frequently incorrect that there’s an entire field of economics — behavioral economics — dedicated to understanding what happens when rationality breaks down. In fact, a Princeton alumnus, Richard Thaler,

won a Nobel Prize for breaking this ground! There is often no free choice in the market — the stark reality is that 12 percent of Americans live in poverty: they do not have unconstrained consumer choices. And price only accurately reflects value very rarely. Just look at the negative “externality” of fossil fuel emissions from buying gas — neither you nor the gas company pay for the carbon emissions.

And in ECO 100’s course structure, “market failures” like the existence of monopolies and oligopolies — in other words, the real world — are only touched on in the final weeks.

In its current form, the class does not introduce students to microeconomics as a discipline, it uncritically teaches the principles of market capitalism.

Many of our most pressing public policy failures stem from these fundamental misunderstandings of economics. As Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway write in their book The Big Myth, the real policy debate is about “well-regulated capitalism

versus poorly-regulated capitalism,” where a minimum wage law is a canonical example of well-regulated capitalism. And academia is critical because, as they say, “ideas do not exist ex nihilo. They are developed, sustained, and promoted by people and institutions.” The ideas about the market that informed the policies that precipitated these disasters are propagated in ECO 100, a required prerequisite for majoring in the School of Public and International Affairs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. At UC Berkeley, introductory economics includes three weeks on market successes — enough to get the concept of markets and equilibrium — and ten weeks on market failures. And here at Princeton last fall, Professor Alan Blinder taught the introductory macroeconomics course, ECO 101, with a nuanced and accurate approach.

Blinder’s model is to teach theory and show applications at the same time, focusing on examples where theory broke down or had to accommodate novel risks, like the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic. The reason that we need economics to be taught this way is not just the theoretical value of nuance, or even the moral imperative to teach accurate information. This curriculum has real effects: Princeton students end up in positions of economic power and need to have the best, most rigorous, and most applicable education.

It’s time to change how microeconomics is taught in ECO 100. Beyond the narrow confines of market-capitalist dogma is a more realistic and necessary understanding of economic principles. As future policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs, Princeton students need an education grounded in both nuanced theory and the diverse and complex economic landscape beyond the fantasy of perfect capitalism.

Eleanor Clemans-Cope (she/her) is a sophomore from Rockville, Maryland intending to study economics. She spends her time making music with Princeton University Orchestra and the Triangle Club and good trouble with Divest Princeton.

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Features

Friday December 8, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

‘Welcome to Princeton, and welcome to the Millstone Watershed:’ Exploring Princeton’s backyard wilderness

By Raphaela Gold

Staff Features Writer

Underneath the Princeton Public Library flows a hidden river. Before Princeton was settled and developed, the river comprised the entirety of Spring Street, where the public library is now situated. Today, the river runs via a concrete culvert beneath the streets of town. If someone were to put their ear to the pavement of the library’s parking lot, they might hear the river burbling away beneath.

But this body of water is not contained underground. It empties out into the Millstone River, which feeds into Lake Carnegie and pours out on the other side past Route 1. In total, the river spans a distance of just under 39 miles, incorporating over a dozen tributaries and providing much of central New Jersey’s drinking water.

The river has a rich history as both a gathering place for central New Jersey’s Munsee Lenape communities and early European colonizers, who formed the Delaware and Raritan (D&R) Canal, which runs alongside and at one point crosses over the Millstone, in 1834 as a direct line of transport between the cities of Philadelphia and New York.

In 1902, Howard Russel Butler, Class of 1876, asked steel magnate Andrew Carnegie to provide the funds for a lake where the University’s crew team could have more space to practice.

Carnegie agreed, and by 1906, a dam had been placed at the confluence of the Millstone and the Stony Brook to form what we now know as Lake Carnegie. Now, some go through Princeton seeing only the lake, completely unaware of the river’s existence. Others, however, have been highly dedicated to exploring the Millstone’s topography, tributaries, history, and role in the Princeton area.

Water and language: members of the Delaware Nation connect with the River New Jersey’s Munsee Lenape communities have various traditions around the river and their own language to describe the wildlife environment it supports. At the annual Lunaape Language Camp in July 2023, Munsee-speaking language teachers and both Princeton University and Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) faculty and students gathered on Lunaapahkiing, or traditional Lunaape Lands, around Princeton. The experience included a half-day journey on the Millstone led by community members.

Among the travelers were language keeper and teacher Kristin Jacobs and her son Barry Stonefish of the Eelunaapéewi Lahkeewiit, the Lenape Nation of Moraviantown, Ontario, Canada. They returned to campus in early November for Princeton’s third annual Munsee Language and History Symposium.

Jacobs and Stonefish reflected on their experiences of the river and the importance of water in Lenape culture. “For us, what’s most important is that it always begins with life,” Jacobs explained. “Water is life. It’s what creates life. It’s important to always protect that, so we use water in our ceremonies, and it’s a whole other area of knowledge.”

As a language teacher, words are

especially important for Jacobs in describing natural entities. She noted that in the Lunaape language, some words are considered animate while others are inanimate, and many plants fall in the former category. There are also deep connections between many words and nature. Stonefish’s experience on the river was enhanced by learning the Lunaape names for the wildlife he was encountering as they traveled. “I rode with Nate, who works on the seed farm. The whole time, he was talking about plants, naming all the plants we saw, so it was a lot of fun,” said Stonefish.

For Jacobs, the whole experience stood out as meaningful. “The river journey was so beautiful,” she said.

“Getting over the fear of being in the kayak was tough, but there were a lot of people who were comfortable paddling, and eventually seeing people get in and go across that first little bit made it feel better.”

To help Princetonians and community members continue engaging with both the river and the Lunaape language, Jacobs suggested putting up signage displaying traditional words for various plants in high-traffic areas along the river. “They could put up signs with traditional words… and where the meaning comes from. I feel like that could be meaningful,” explained Jacobs.

The river as a watershed: historical and ongoing efforts for environmental protection As Jacobs noted, the Millstone is a life-giving force, and many are involved in its protection. Since 2005, Jim Waltman ’86 has served as the Executive Director of the Watershed Institute, an organization based in Pennington, NJ with the mission of keeping the water clean and healthy through a combination of conservation, advocacy, science, and education.

Waltman has had a life-long relationship with the river. He grew up in Princeton and later attended Princeton University as a biology major, where he joined the track team and often ran alongside Lake Carnegie and the canal.

Waltman spent his early career as a field biologist in the Galapagos Islands, but after earning his Ph.D., he went to Washington, DC for a six month internship where he “fell in love with policy and politics in a way I didn’t ever imagine.” After working as a Capitol Hill lobbyist pushing for environmental legislation for many years, Waltman moved back to Princeton and was reunited with the river of his childhood.

The Watershed Institute, originally called the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, was founded in 1949. Now, the institute is working on a number of initiatives, including trying to restore migratory fish by removing unnecessary dams along the Millstone, monitoring the river’s water quality, and working to combat HAB’s, or Harmful Algal Blooms, a type of cyanobacteria which endangers both wildlife and people. Staff and volunteers take samples of the river, involving local communities in the process of scientific testing and screening for toxins.

While Lake Carnegie is not dangerously toxic as of now, it’s “certainly not pristine,” according to Waltman.

“Like most bodies of water, right after a storm, a lot gets dumped into the water,” he said. In order to prevent this, the organization works with New Jersey’s municipalities to strengthen water regulation, particularly of polluted stormwater.

Although Waltman characterizes our current times as especially difficult due to the changing climate and distorted water cycles, he is proud of the progress the institute has been able to make over the course of its history. “Looking back, the Watershed has been involved in every major water law and federal doctrine in the state… so it’s quite a legacy,” Waltman explained. Part of this legacy includes encouraging young people to engage with the institute’s programs and inspiring them to become scientists, teachers, and environmental activists.

“It’s a great feeling, and a humbling one,” said Waltman.

Every fall, the Watershed Institute hosts one or more groups of Princeton Community Action and Outdoor Action groups. Waltman said that he always begins his sessions with Princeton students by saying, “Welcome to Princeton, and welcome to the Millstone Watershed.”

During one of his walking tours of the “hidden water of Princeton,” Waltman brought a group of students from the basement of the Princeton Public Library parking garage to Lake Carnegie. Waltman emphasized the importance of “getting those students to see when you walk around any place where the springs and rivers are, whether you’re in hills and valleys, or even if it’s an urban environment, even if it’s underground.”

Princeton professors and students engage with the river One Princeton professor who has a strong sense of the area’s “hidden water” is professor of Astrophysical Sciences Gaspar Bakos, who has declared himself the only Princetonian to commute to work by kayak, and harbors a dream to one day kayak all the way from the Millstone to the ocean.

Bakos has thoroughly explored the Millstone, even assigning his own names on Google Maps to its islands and banks. On one island, which he calls “Cormorant Island,” Bakos has found many beaver dams and has observed the beaver population cycles over the years. Bakos has also visited “Binocular Beach,” where his family went freshwater swimming, “Baby Banana Beach”, where he and his sons enjoyed a feast of bananas, and “Tire Beach,” where one can jump from a tire swing into the water. “Of course, it’s super dangerous, with floating debris everywhere. You never know what’s there,” Bakos warned.

In his travels, Bakos has often found himself entangled in thickets of lily pads. At times, he has been unable to proceed due to fallen trees and branches along the river. When he reaches such obstacles, Bakos simply hops out of the boat and hauls the kayak along with him. “My tactic,” Bakos explained, “is that I usually kayak as far as I can, getting totally exhausted, and then I go back. You can probably do about ten miles until it becomes very narrow.”

When Bakos first started traversing the river, he would bring a machete to clear the path in front of him,

but soon had to upgrade to an electric chainsaw. “It felt really weird when I was standing in my kayak with a chainsaw, cutting branches falling all around,” said Bakos. “One day, I actually lost a part of my chainsaw in the water and had to dive in to get it out.

And then I realized maybe this was not a good idea.”

As an astrophysicist, Bakos is particularly attuned to the nighttime wildlife of the river. When Bakos went kayaking at night, he noticed that bright lights from the hospital along Route 1 disturb the night environment. “I wish they could change that because this is a prime beaver area, and there are many, many beavers here whose environments are being altered.”

Bakos also hopes that in the future, there will be more opportunities for students to learn about the Millstone.

“I think what’s incredible about [the Millstone] is how little it’s known…

There’s no appreciation for this long slender patch of ecological landscape,” said Bakos.

Students have also been encouraged to appreciate the river through Princeton’s Outdoor Action (OA) program, which offers occasional kayaking and canoe trips. OA Program Coordinator Candace Brendler moved to Princeton this past May and got the chance to go canoeing on the river with a class in early fall. “It was a really lovely section of the river that is in a really unique location,” said Brendler, noting the diversity of wildlife in such close proximity to the highway Brendler has been paddling and rafting since she was in college and has always had an appreciation for rivers. “If you’re looking at a topographic view of the Earth, [rivers] are just like the veins… they’re the life-source,” she said. Through OA, Brendler hopes that she can “get more people to have positive experiences with the nearest body of water… to get more people to understand the value of rivers and hopefully better care for them.”

Director of the Program in Visual Arts Jeff Whetstone has created another opportunity for students to engage with the Millstone through a course he co-taught in Spring 2019 entitled “A River Runs Through Us.” Through the course, Whetstone hoped that students would realize “that they live in a hidden, natural and geologically unique environment. It’s perfectly visible, perfectly approachable, but no one knows that there’s a Millstone river running through campus,” said Whetstone, adding, “But all it takes for you to explore it, and it’s so easy to explore.”

Whetstone recounted the story of a day when the class was kayaking on the river and stumbled upon an abandoned beaver dam, which they proceeded to crawl into one by one on their hands and knees. “We just hung out there in the beaver lodge. You could still smell the beavers, and there was beaver hair all over the place,” said Whetstone. He added, “That was transformative for me because I had never done anything like that before.”

Whetstone was struck by how comfortable, protective, and communal the lodge felt. “It didn’t feel exotic anymore. It’s almost like crawling into the skin of the beaver to visit their home,” he explained.

In addition to entering beaver dens, Whetstone has seen wild swans and held a freshly laid Canada goose egg on the Millstone. He also reported seeing “15 snakes an hour” in April. Whetstone emphasized the importance of protecting this nature with which we are so closely linked. He explained, “If we protect this crappy suburban wilderness around us, it’s much easier to have the mindset of protecting some more rare and grand wilderness somewhere else,” adding, “To see the grand wildernesses of the planet may make you think that the wilderness you are in is not important. But the nature that you live in is the most important nature at the present moment.”

Whetstone believes that students should recognize that the river has many different histories, including an indigenous cultural history, a period of colonial cultural history, and a modern cultural history. “The river runs through all those histories. So there is a cultural thread as well as a natural thread, and we can use it as a kind of skeleton to develop more comprehensive histories of the land.”

This ties into Whetstone’s idea that landscapes are more than just settings.

“I think landscapes should be treated like characters, because they’re always changing, and they’re always influencing us… The Millstone should have a name on Princeton’s campus.”

Many of Whetstone’s students were deeply influenced by the course and maintained relationships with the river after their time as Princeton undergraduates ended. Maria Fleury ’22 took the course in the Spring of her first year and called it the best class she took. She reflected, “It was very impactful for me. It just completely shifted the way I related to Princeton as a place.”

Having grown up in an urban environment, Fleury was not fully comfortable interacting with animals at the start of the course. “Being on the river helped me engage with other creatures and understand their home,” she said.

Now completing a High Meadows Environmental Institute Fellowship at a climate science communications non-profit, Fleury still lives in Princeton and continues to appreciate her relationship with the river and the D&R Canal. “To me, rivers are just so powerful and majestic. I’ve had very emotional experiences and cried looking at the river,” said Fleury.

Amy Amatyah ’21 had a similar experience in the course, recalling how it opened her eyes to parts of Princeton’s campus she had never noticed before.

Amatyah was a junior when she took the class and had never visited the towpath before, explaining, “To me, the towpath wasn’t a place I needed to be for school… so I didn’t go. That class was a real awakening to learning to be present in the place where I am.”

Amatyah noted that the specificity of the course’s focus on the Millstone allowed students to talk more broadly about a sense of place. “It was never just about the Millstone or the canal, it was about learning to be alive where you’re standing,” she explained, adding, “There’s a really beautiful New Jersey, and I would say go discover it.”

Raphaela Gold is a staff Features writer at the ‘Prince.’

the PROSPECT. Friday December 8, 2023

The Daily Princetonian

page 13

ARTS & CULTURE

The power of PinkPantheress: a review of ‘Heaven knows’

By Christopher Nunez | Contributing Prospect Writer

Victoria Beverly Walker, better known as PinkPantheress, has had a whirlwind of a year. The twenty-two year old artist rose to heightened fame after releasing “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” with Ice Spice in February. After garnering over seven-hundred million streams on Spotify, the song remains a staple soundtrack of 2023.

Following this success, the artist has released multiple other tracks such as “Angel (From Barbie The Album)” and “Turn Your Phone Off” with Destroy Lonely. She even joined Troye Sivan and Hyunjin in his remix of breakout song “Rush.” With all of these releases, PinkPantheress had been hinting at her latest project: her debut album “Heaven knows.”

As a fan of PinkPantheress, I have been anticipating her debut album since the release of her first single “Break It Off” in 2021.

Her ability to transform common themes in a revolutionary way is aided by the playful beats that define all her short songs and her distinctive and highly delicate voice.

Immediately following the release of the album on Nov. 10, I was instantly enamored with all of its songs. “Heaven knows” is an exploration of the singer’s artistry that has not been delved into until now. While PinkPantheress’s music is characterized by its whimsicality, the usual themes her music explores are anything but joyous. The singer’s debut album draws upon experiences from her own life while creating a listening experience that draws fans in.

After listening to the entirety of the album,

I was struck by the diverse landscape of auditory manipulation. “Mosquito” is one of the lead singles from the album and rightfully deserves its prominence as a standout song.

A striking lyric that demonstrates PinkPantheress’s versatility as an artist is: “I was too young startin’ out, now I’m too scared that you might leave me / I feel like I’m still a child because I always cross my fingers.” By reflecting on her youth, she acknowledges the consequences of gaining fame when she was still figuring out the world around her. These honest lyrics complement the ringtone-like musicality and sharp background effects such as the sound of glass shattering.

Songs such as “Feelings” turn down the tempo of the album, paying tribute to the emotions that the artist grapples with on a daily basis. PinkPantheress once again refers to her youth as a contentious aspect of her success: “I realize that I’m peakin’ too early / But I don’t want that makin’ you worry / ‘Cause no one ever told me to wo-.” The melancholic bass and snare drum effect in the background draw from elements in both R&B and hip-hop. She crafts emotion within the juxtaposition of her lyricism and musical aurora.

PinkPantheress’s ability to draw from a diverse array of musical disciplines is once again evident in the song “True romance.”

The strumming guitar that opens the track conveys a common theme in her artistry: experimentation.

From the very first listen, my favorite song was “The aisle.” It first appears to be a cheerful tune that plausibly transports the listener to a heightened reality of bliss and fanciful encounters. However, there is a melancholic

CHIRSTOPHER NUNEZ / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

sentiment rooted in her despondent lyricism: “It’s one of those unfortunate things (Things) / That bad things always happen to me (To me).” This sadness is a contradicting force that complements the lullaby-like tune. She admits her true fears and hesitations in this album. In this song, she even continues to say, “I ruined all my friendships with you (With you) / And I think I’m runnin’ out of people to lose (To lose).” She does not hold back expressing her emotions.

PinkPantheress’s new album crafts a masterful sense of etherealness defined by nos-

talgic beats, yearnings to a return to youth, and deep reflection on her past, current, and future self. This album defines her in a way unlike any time before, revealing an unprecedented sense of authenticity that is remarkable from start to finish. If you have yet to listen to her new album, only “Heaven knows” why.

Christopher Nunez is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Point Pleasant, N.J.

A complex villain story, turned to film: a review of ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’

By Jessica Wang | Staff Prospect Writer When I heard that a “Hunger Games” prequel movie, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” was coming out to theaters on Nov. 17, I did what anyone would do: I joined the loan queue for the book by Susanne Collins at the Princeton Public Library and bought a ticket to see it in theaters over Thanksgiving Break.

I’m not a strict read-the-book-before-the-movie moralist, but with the dystopian lore of Collins’ Panem, I had to give the original source matter its due. My first impression of the book — it was long.

With over 500 pages divided into three parts, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” seems like a mini “Hunger Games” trilogy in itself. Yet, in contrast with the series, its plotline is more suited to the scope of one book. It follows only the 10th Annual Hunger Games, focusing solely on the villain arc of Coriolanus Snow, future President of Panem and enemy of Katniss Everdeen, as he mentors and falls in love with Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute and singer from District 12.

As I started the mighty book, I found it challenging to stay invested in Coriolanus’ story. The scenes of the prequel are action-packed, compressed, and narrated in an almost matter-of-fact, emotionless manner. I found that I simply couldn’t sympathize with the main character.

That’s the thing about “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”: Coriolanus isn’t likable. He’s narrowminded, selfish, cowardly, and morally gray. Almost every decision he makes can be pinned on financial, self-serving, and social climbing motives.

He uses his “friends” without lasting guilt, charming and turning his back on his fellow students Sejanus Plinth and Clemensia Dovecote when they

no longer serve his ambitions.

In fact, upon closer examination, some of his most outstanding acts of kindness and heroism can be traced to the influence of others: his cousin Tigris encouraging him to empathize with Lucy Gray, or Lucy Gray urging him to help a dying classmate.

His only winning trait is his loyalty to his family.

Everything he does is to preserve the sanctity of the fallen Snow name.

I get it. It’s a villain origin story. How do you inspire empathy for a villain? Some depict the villain as misunderstood, a lost soul, or a rebel shunned by a rigid society. Yet in Panem, we know that President Snow ends on the wrong side of good, so Collins faces the challenge of writing a character charming and relatable enough to carry the narrative yet selfish enough to become the cold-hearted dictator of Katniss’ world. To keep us invested, she turns to a story arc that can always hook an audience: falling in love.

Coriolanus’s love interest, Lucy Gray Baird, is far from the rebellious Katniss Everdeen. Gray is showy, determined, kind, and a little vain. Music is her comfort, not her weapon. She’s nowhere near innocent, yet with her tears she appeals to the “damsel in distress” narrative. As Lucy Gray’s mentor, Coriolanus easily slips into the protector role, giving her roses and promising to help her survive. Sparks fly.

But is it really love? Can they really know each other when they’re both acting a part to charm those around them? Can they trust each other when they’re both fighting for their own survival? I’m hesitant to call this a love story just because of a few electric kisses. At the very least, Collins’ plot effectively keeps the reader wondering if “love” can be Coriolanus’ salvation. She writes a character that isn’t quite likable or credible, but rather, perfectly

placed to be both a current protagonist and a future antagonist. We know where he ends up, but we have to know how he gets there.

As far as movie adaptations go, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” with Suzanne Collins as its executive producer, is astonishingly faithful to the book. Many key lines are drawn directly from the text, such as when Lucy Gray says, “Well, I’m not made of sugar,” and scenes are matched enough to be recognizable from the trailer. The action-packed scenes from the book transform into movie sequences which keep the audience on edge: you never know when someone might be viciously murdered, when a bomb might go off, when a snake might strike. The movie even manages to make clunky old-fashioned drones seem deadly.

The spots of comic relief from Lucky Flickerman — the weatherman and Hunger Games host — barely lighten the scenes of action and violence.

It’s not a movie for the little ones. But it is a movie for the fans. With its nods to the katniss plant, “The Hanging Tree”, and the infamous mockingjay, it’s clear that the prequel comes from the same world and mind as the “Hunger Games” series.

The few sneaky but significant changes between the book and the movie point to a pattern: the book’s characters were retouched to suit a wider audience and fanbase. Most notably, Coriolanus, played by Tom Blyth, improves dramatically. All of a sudden, he heroically runs to help his dying classmate of his own volition. He doesn’t abandon Clemensia after she gets bitten by snakes; she’s written out of the storyline. Plus, she was asking for it by trying to take credit for his work. Even his friendship and “brotherhood” with Sejanus is more believable in the movie. He becomes the handsome, charming, marketable movie hero.

Lucy Gray, in turn, is reshaped into the image of a rebel by actress Rachel Zegler. With her hard glares at the Capitol’s cameras and her defiant singing, she becomes the predecessor of Katniss Everdeen. Her emotions and her suspicions play out on her face, giving us what the book could not: Coriolanus, with his blindness and his pride, saw Lucy Gray as a lamb until the end, but Zegler reveals the inner edge that makes Lucy Gray a survivor.

The casting also includes disability representation not mandated by book canon. One of the tributes is an amputee, another has Down Syndrome, and another has an eye condition. Dean Highbottom is fantastically played by Peter Dinklage, proving that inclusive casting can apply to all roles, not just those meant for little people. Altogether, these are characters we can believe in, root for, and respect as protagonists, and with these changes comes the emotional investment that the book’s narrative lacks. The musical and vocal motifs surrounding Lucy Gray effectively tug at the audience’s heartstrings, and some of the more powerful scenes made me tear up.

“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a book that lends itself well to a visual format. If anything, it was satisfying to see the details come to life, from Lucy Gray’s rainbow dress to the beautifully decrepit arena to the sweeping majesty of the Capitol. The movie is vicious and bittersweet; it won’t make you laugh, but it may make you cry. The final dark twist and gorgeous visuals of the closing scene aptly set up Coriolanus for his future as President Snow, looking out as snow drifts over the city.

Jessica Wang is a member of the Class of 2026 and a staff writer for the Prospect at the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

page 14

Friday December 8, 2023

Shere Khan is Princeton’s premier co-ed acapella group, and so much more

By Laura Zhang | Contributing Prospect Writer The singing swells in the arch, reaching a crescendo of harmonies, claps, and rhythmic beats, only beaten out by thundering applause from the audience.

After the cheering clears away, a member shouts: “We’re Shere Khan, Princeton’s premier co-ed acapella group!”

Although this is the tagline of every one of their arch sings, Shere Khan encompasses a lot more. Formed in 1993 as a Disney a capella group, Shere Khan now covers a range of contemporary and pop music as one of the most established a capella groups on campus. Gabby Veciana ’24, who previously served as music director, described Shere Khan as having a more youthful feel compared to other a capella groups on campus.

“We’re way younger than everybody else [and] we have less establishment but I think that’s also kind of the spirit.

It’s the spunky young, pop music, new music,” she said.

John Slaughter ’25, the group’s current president, emphasizes how “we really pride ourselves on being one of the most open minded and one of the most fun” a capella groups on campus. Reflecting on why he decided to audition for Shere Khan, he recalled an email that was sent to him with “some guy in a Shrek cos-

tume, and it said: ‘do you like Shrek?’

Shere Khan had something a little bit weird that I really liked.”

Similarly, George Tidmore ’26, the current vice-president, reflected on how after he went to Tiger’s Roar during orientation, he was “just struck by how fun it seemed … they attracted the biggest crowd of friends. I just felt such an energy in the arch that made me want to audition.”

Shere Khan’s reputation for being an a capella group that emphasizes its members’ social experiences is reflected in the set arches that they perform every semester. Notable events mentioned

by Slaughter and Veciana include the Christmas Arch, where Shere Khan performs Christmas songs and gives out hot chocolate to the audience, and Reunions, where Shere Khan alumni meet current members over a barbeque.

Beyond arches, Allison Jiang ’26, the current music director, added that “some of my favorite memories from the group honestly are just moments in the Shere Khan room, which we call ‘The Womb,’ in Bloomberg. We [rehearse] for a while, and then it just kind of devolves into laughter, but it’s the kind of laughter you can’t recover from and then

COURTESY OF DANIEL WANG

you’re just standing there, everybody’s in on the joke.”

Shere Khan’s close-knit nature is evident in their semesterly “newb” (new members) arch sing where the newbs don large hats and wigs, perform solos, and are cheered on by current members.

Though the newbs sing their audition songs during this arch, Shere Khan has a set collection of songs for other arches. The process of choosing new songs is through senior solos, which are performed during Shere Khan’s senior arch — typically the last arch of the school year.

“During the spring, all the seniors will choose the song they want to sing … that means that there’s always a fresh source of repertoire coming in every single year,” Jiang said. “I feel a trend that people can fall into a capella groups is [that] they were founded decades before.

And the songs that they sing also feel like they were from decades before. But because of this system that we have, we’re always having new songs come in.”

Shere Khan’s flexibility in music selection is also due to the fact that it is not affiliated with Acaprez, a coalition of a capella groups on campus. Groups that are part of Acaprez are not allowed to sing the same song as another Acaprez group. “We don’t have those certain confinements … we’re singing what we want to sing,” Jiang said.

Despite this formal separation, Shere Khan is still very much connected to Princeton’s a capella scene. Recently, they collaborated with Old Nassoul in a joint arch sing. Slaughter similarly mentioned how “most of my friends are in other a capella groups. My roommate is in [the] Footnotes … so it’s very interconnected.”

As far as off-campus connections, Shere Khan boasts a close-knit alumni network. This year, Shere Khan celebrated its 30th anniversary with a show involving alumni. Jiang noted that they sang “Running to Stand Still” by U2 in “honor of an alum [who passed away quite young]. Everybody who was an alum in the audience was able to come on stage at the end of the performance and sing that song.”

Tidmore, however, offered a slightly

different perspective on Shere Khan’s alumni community. “I think it’s tough to say because the height of COVID and its disruption of student groups was right before I joined Shere Khan. There were a lot of changes that happened to the group and how it’s run. So I think there’s kind of a natural break in the alumni post- and pre-COVID, because there was less happening during that time.”

However, Tidmore added that “I think that as we return to a more normal life, more people will be able to strengthen our alumni community.” Similarly, Veciana mentioned how, when she was a sophomore, her friend in Shere Khan was “really afraid that it was going to die out because of COVID.” She worked hard to recruit people to ensure its survival, demonstrating how past and present members have dedicated themselves to keeping Shere Khan strong and alive.

When discussing the audition process for recruiting new members, Veciana said that “we try to make the audition process fun; we try to make it reflective of who we are as a group. We ask people as soon as they come into the room if they would rather perc or twerk for us, although they are not required to do either … we want to just like people and build community.”

Slaughter shared this piece of advice: “Just audition. I think auditions can be super intimidating. I was rejected for Shere Khan the first semester and other a capella groups that I tried to audition for, but then the second semester, I just felt more confident. I think rejection is just a part of a lot of things at Princeton.

And it just kind of sucks, but it shouldn’t let you be scared.”

Just knowing members of Shere Khan makes you feel like a part of its community. Going to arch sings transforms into not just appreciating good music, but laughing, having fun, and getting a taste of Shere Khan’s unique energy.

As George reflected, “I think the core of our group is enjoying each other while singing and making music, and the music is just a conduit for our joy.”

Laura Zhang is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Sydney, Australia.

Underrated no more: Late Meal’s astounding meal choices

By Russell Fan | Assistant Prospect Editor

At The Prospect, writers often review one of the many restaurants in town, from those that students frequent to some of the restaurants farther out. But we’ve overlooked late meal on campus, which remains one of the most popular options for students.

Some pick up a quick snack, like a Tico’s smoothie, while others order a more substantial meal, such as a burger. The variety offered at late meal is reliable in availability and consistent in quality. Though I have not tried everything served throughout late lunch and late dinner, I have tasted enough of it that I can recommend my top three choices, in no particular order, for anyone who still has yet to try Frist Campus Center’s late meal. These will remain as my go-to late meal choices, despite the fact that I’ll have to pay for them as an upperclass student next school year.

Taco Bar’s burrito bowl When I started frequenting Frist for late lunch this semester, the burrito bowl immediately became a staple in my repertoire of meal choices. My go-to order consists of a base of yellow rice and either chicken or chorizo (occasionally carne asada if available), with pico de gallo, guacamole, cilantro cream, and shredded cheese as toppings.

The first bite of the burrito bowl yields an explosion of flavors that satisfies my taste buds. The meat, whether it is the stringy chicken, spicy chorizo, or chewy carne asada, is extremely savory. The pico de gallo provides a bit of a kick and a tint of freshness. The scoop of guacamole and dash of cilantro cream sauce give the bowl enough condiments to complement the rest of the ingredients very nicely without making it soggy.

Each scoop of meat, rice, and the messy mixture of the salsa, guacamole, and cilantro cream fills me with a myriad of motley flavors and textures, ultimately comprising a wellbalanced, satiating meal. The decent proportion of ingredi-

ents given in the bowl make for it to be an optimal serving for lunch that isn’t so filling so as to make you overly drowsy for your afternoon classes.

Grill Station’s quesadilla Usually, I get the signature-blend cheeseburger combo from the Grill Station, especially on days when I am craving something more greasy and sizable. However, the quesadilla is certainly a top contender for best item from the grill. It is not as oily or indulgent as some of the other items offered on the Grill Station’s menu, but its enjoyability is still comparable.

When ordering, I alternate between chicken and steak as my choice of protein for the filling. The portion, I would say, does seem a bit smaller than what I would have usually expected in such a dish. However, the taste of it more than makes up for the quesadilla’s size. The chunks of meat strung up with the melted shredded cheese pair well with the firm, warm tortilla to provide the perfect bite. The delectable conglomeration of the savoriness of the meat and sharpness of the cheese, all encased in a lightly-crisped tortilla, is satisfying during a late-night study session.

I highly suggest having the quesadilla with guacamole and/or sour cream, as they pair well with the heartiness of the compressed meat and cheese inside the tortilla and augment their combined flavors.

Pizza Station’s pasta Many students enjoy late meal because of the grab-and-go nature of many of the items offered at the various stations in the Frist Food Gallery. Yet, I believe that the pasta, cooked on the spot at the Pizza Station, is a dish that is worth waiting for. After choosing a base sauce for the pasta to be cooked in, I usually only need to wait under five minutes before the made-to-order pasta is finished. A tray of seasonings from

which students add some spices or other condiments to their pasta is also provided.

My usual order is either wide rigatoni in vodka sauce or wide fettuccine in bolognese sauce, topped off with a generous amount of olive oil, pepper, parmesan cheese, and pepper flakes. All pasta orders come with a slice of garlic bread.

Whether the pasta is cooked in vodka or bolognese sauce, the pasta is consistently al dente. Each individual pasta is lathered in the chosen sauce, helping balance each bite between the chewy grain of the pasta and the mildly-flavorful sauce.

The seasonings enhance the savoriness of the sauce-covered pasta by contributing notes of spice and richness. The warm garlic bread goes nicely with the dish and is perfect for dipping into the leftover sauce at the bottom of the bowl.

This is certainly a comforting, hearty meal that warrants a nap right afterwards.

Russell Fan is an assistant editor for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’

RUSSELL FAN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Prospect 11 The Daily Princetonian

Friday December 8, 2023

page 15

Weekly Event Roundup

By Ivy Chen, Contributing Prospect Writer

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A Christmas Carol

McCarter Theatre Center Dec. 10 at 1 p.m.

Matthews Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center

Come watch a heartfelt performance of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, adapted and directed by Lauren Keating, as part of McCarter’s festive annual tradition. The play follows the classic holiday story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his journey through Christmases past, present, and future, teaching the importance of generosity and goodwill. Tickets are available for purchase at McCarter’s website.

Gaucho: A New Musical

Lewis Center for the Arts Dec. 8 & 9 at 8 p.m., Dec. 10 at 2 p.m.

Wallace Theater, Lewis Arts Complex

Set in nineteenth-century Argentina,“Gaucho” is a new musical written by Aaron Ventresca ’24 and his younger sister, Emma Ventresca, a sophomore at Yale. The musical, directed by Lecturer in Theater Nico Krell, tells the story of Marco, a young gaucho, who is torn between his family’s way of life and his dreams. Marco also grapples with the threats posed by technology to his rural community of San Antonio de Areco. You can get free tickets to this event via University Ticketing.

Staged reading of “Christmastown,” a new musical by Sydney Hwang ’24 Lewis Center for the Arts Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Donald G. Drapkin Studio, Lewis Arts Complex

Get in the holiday spirit by watching a staged reading of a new musical written by Sydney Hwang ’24! This piece is set in Christmastown, a North Pole town, with music inspired by carols, jazz, pop, and more. Exploring the theme of familial love, the reading tells the story of what happens to Christmastown when Mrs. Claus’s daughter, Clara, starts to dream about leaving. Reserve free tickets via University Ticketing.

House of Sound

“In the Company of Good Books: Shakespeare to Morrison” Guided Tour

Princeton University Library Open through Dec. 10 Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery, Firestone Library

This exhibition showcases Princeton’s collection of English literature across a vast period of time. From manuscripts to annotated pieces, inscribed books to archival samples, immerse yourself in a diverse selection of writing. This exhibition will also feature three original First Folios by Shakespeare and Toni Morrison’s handwritten manuscript drafts. This event is free and open to the public.

10 11

Department of Music Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.

The Forum, Lewis Arts Complex

This electronic music installation exhibition will feature works created by students in Princeton’s electronic music course, MUS314: Computer and Electronic Music through Programming, Performance, and Composition. This course is taught by Tom Morrison GS ’23, who has composed for leading new groups such as the Aizuri Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and Sö Percussion. This event is free and unticketed.

Princeton Bhangra Show

Performing Arts Council Dec. 8 at 8 p.m.

Frist Campus Center, Theater 301

Start off your reading period with high energy! Come watch a dance performance by Princeton Bhangra, a co-ed team performing bhangra — an energetic, upbeat folk dance with origins in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. The show is open to the public and tickets are available via University Ticketing.

The Holiday Show

Princeton Figure Skating Club Dec. 10 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 11 at 12 p.m.

Baker Rink

Embrace the cold this holiday season at Baker Rink! Princeton Figure Skating Club’s holiday show features solos, duets, and group numbers performed by the synchronized skating team and former national competitors, along with members of the club. Tickets are available via University Ticketing.

Princeton Creative Large Ensemble Fall Concert

Department of Music December 9 at 8 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall

Come for a night of jazz music, presented

by Jazz at Princeton’s Creative Large Ensemble. This group is directed and conducted by award-winning composer Darcy James Argue. The program includes music from the 1930s to the present day, with pieces by artists from Duke Ellington to Björk. Tickets are available via University Ticketing.

Annual Messiah Sing

Office of Religious Life Dec. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Princeton University Chapel

Come for the annual community sing-along of Handel’s Messiah oratorio, with organ, strings, and trumpet. Handel’s “Messiah” is based on the story of the nativity, as well as the crucifixion and redemption of mankind.

This program features soloists from the Chapel Choir. This event is free and open to the public.

MPP213 Final Chamber Music Concert Department of Music Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall

This will be a chamber music performance by students in MPP 213: Projects in Instrumental Performance: Chamber Music. In this course, students perform throughout the semester in chamber groups and are guided by faculty and industry performers. This concert features works by Schubert, Shoenfeld, W. F. Bach, Scherwenka, and Schocker. This event is free and unticketed.

Sinfonia Concert

Department of Music Dec. 10 at 3 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall

Sinfonia presents a program exploring themes of light, celebration, and holiday festivities. The concert includes a medley of Chanukah music, selections from “The Nutcracker,” the world premiere of “March of Dusk” by Adrian Thananopavarn ’24, performances by undergraduate singers Sarah Lekaj ’25 and Claire Dignazio ’25, and a performance by flute faculty Dr. Sarah Shin. Tickets are available via University Ticketing.

MALIA GAVIOLA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

page 16

Sports

Friday December 8, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S BASKETBALL

Men’s basketball completes 11-point comeback to beat Furman in last-second thriller

By Joe Uglialoro Sports Contributor

As Furman Paladins (4–4 overall, 0–0 Southern Conference) forward Garrett Hien hit a free throw to put Princeton men’s basketball (8–0, 0–0 Ivy League) down by ten points with 4:37 left in the game, Jadwin Gymnasium fell silent.

After an uncharacteristically toothless day for the Tiger offense, it seemed that the team’s undefeated start to the season may finally be derailed. Furman had outshot and outrebounded the Tigers by a wide margin, and shaky shooting from the team’s starters had prevented any sort of extended run. With no answer for Furman’s defense, Princeton seemed destined for their first loss, but their last-minute comeback victory to win 70–69 sent the crowd in Jadwin Gymnasium into a frenzy.

Entering Saturday’s game, Princeton had put together an impressive stretch of games that caught the eyes of fans throughout the nation. The Tigers had spent most of their time thus far on the road, and were coming off of Wednesday’s comeback win over the Bucknell Bison (2–7, 0–0 Patriot League). Prior to Saturday, the Tigers had played only one game at home, a 14-point win over Northeastern that came while most of the students were away for Thanksgiving break. With students now back from break, fans showed up en masse to give men’s basketball a raucous cheering section in Jadwin.

Princeton entered the game as sevenpoint favorites, but Furman was not to be taken lightly. Much like the Tigers, the Paladins won their conference championship last year before turning heads during March Madness. On the same day as Princeton’s underdog victory over Arizona last spring, the 13-seeded Furman team upset fourthseeded Virginia. Though the Paladins were off to a slow start this season, their proven talent meant they were not to be taken lightly as they made the trip to Princeton.

The game got off to a slow start, as a first-minute layup by sophomore forward Caden Pierce was the only offense Princeton found for the first seven minutes of the game. The Tigers struggled offensively out of the gate, with threepointers missing the mark and possessions stalling out on layups and missed free throws.

But the defense stepped up with solid man-to-man defense preventing the Paladins from getting much traction either. A trio of layups over the first six minutes gave Furman a 6–2 lead, with both sides struggling to convert contested shots. With 12:32 left in the half, first-year guard Dalen Davis hit a three to break the ice.

After Davis’ big shot, the Tigers finally found a rhythm for the next few minutes. During an 11–5 run near the middle of the half, senior guard Matt Allocco and sophomore guard Xaivian Lee each made a pair of layups, bringing the score to 16–11 Princeton. Lee’s layups became a constant theme throughout the game, with Princeton frequently turning to the guard to create offense as three-pointers continued to bounce off the rim. Despite his small size, Lee caused trouble for Furman’s defense as he drove to the hoop and tossed contested layups off the board and in.

As the half progressed, Furman clawed their way back into the game

COURTESY OF @PRINCETONMBB/TWITTER

Senior captain Matt Allocco sunk a game-winning three with seventeen seconds left on the clock. and built a small lead. Unlike the Tigers, the Paladins found some success from three as they erased Princeton’s lead.

A layup by Furman’s JP Pegues made it 28–27 Paladins as both sides left the court for halftime.

Princeton’s enormous struggles from beyond the arc defined the game to this point, with the team shooting a dismal 2-for-16 on three-pointers and only 34.4 percent from the field. Furman shot 40 percent from three and 48 percent overall, giving the Paladins the advantage in points. Thanks to decisive advantages in offensive rebounding, fouls, and turnovers, however, the Tigers overcame their poorest shooting display this season to stay in the game.

With both teams taking the court for the second half, Princeton quickly ran into trouble as the Paladins raced out to an 8–0 run for a 36–27 lead. What had been a lively student section became increasingly quiet as the game slipped further and further out of reach.

Pegues and forward Alex Williams made a series of key shots for the Paladins, and Princeton’s defense struggled to find a response. The Tigers also struggled to guard 6’9” forward Garrett Hien, whose size in the paint allowed the Paladins to create space around the rim for frequent trips to the basket.

Though they had seen similar size last year against Arizona’s seven-foot center Oumar Ballo, the size advantage proved problematic for the Tigers.

Though Princeton briefly battled back to cut the deficit to two after seven straight points from Pierce followed by a pair of free throws from Lee, the Tigers continued to miss the mark from the three as the Paladins built back their lead. Searching for offense, the Tigers continued to rely on Lee making contested layups and the defense doing enough to limit Furman.

With under three minutes to go, Princeton began to chip away at Furman’s 10-point lead. Allocco stole a pass under the basket from Williams.

Lee then raced up the court and found Pierce streaking up the left side for a contested layup. His shot fell, cutting a once-insurmountable Furman lead to 67–62. The home crowd roared, a sea of orange and black rising to their feet as Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson called a timeout.

What seemed like a blowout loss in the making suddenly became a dogfight for the Tigers, whose ability to battle back gave the game the feel of an instant classic. Princeton had now scored 20 points off turnovers to the Paladins’ two, suddenly erasing the shooting mismatch that heavily favored Furman.

Jadwin was suddenly rowdy once again, and no one had any plans to sit down.

“The crowd was huge for us,” Allocco told The Daily Princetonian. “We were able to make a few plays late to get them energized and they really showed out for us today.” As the seconds ticked towards the conclusion of the second half, the noise levels inside Jadwin crescendoed to a steady roar.

Out of the timeout, Furman put the ball in Pegues’ hands as he slowly made his way up the court, guarded tightly by Pierce. After a series of passes moved the ball around the court, Pegues’ moved to pass but pulled back. This ever-soslight moment of indecision provided enough time for Pierce to change the game once again, lunging forward and sliding on his back to secure a massive turnover. Still sliding, Pierce launched a pass to Allocco, who found Lee cutting to the basket for an easy layup. The score became 67–64 Furman with only two minutes left.

After a layup from Pegues made it 69–67 Furman, Pierce missed a layup of his own and saw the rebound grabbed

by Hien. Peters charged, tipping the ball off Hien’s outstretched hand for yet another Furman turnover. Allocco missed the ensuing three-pointer, but Furman turned the ball over again when Williams traveled driving to the hoop.

Princeton missed another three-pointer

with 17 seconds left, taking them to a brutal 3–30 on the day. However, Furman still could not get out of their own way and sent the ball out of bounds again to make it Princeton’s ball.

With just 17 seconds left, it was now or never for the Tigers, as Lee inbounded the ball to Pierce and got it back immediately. He attempted to drive to the basket for yet another contested layup, but was met by Hien. The missed shot traveled towards the baseline, where Pierce rebounded the ball. As his body weight carried him out of bounds, he hit the floor on one foot and somehow pivoted his body to find Allocco at the top of the arc. Allocco danced around an oncoming Furman defender, found just enough space to distance himself from Hien, and launched a three-pointer.

On a night where absolutely nothing was falling, Allocco could have easily yielded to the weight of so many missed shots and sent the Tigers home with a loss. But not this time. The ball soared through the air and met its mark, swishing through the net as the crowd exploded and the Tigers retook the lead, 70–69. They had only made four of their 31 threes, but suddenly that mattered a lot less when the 31st attempt went in.

Bedlam ensued as a last-second heave

by Pegues met just enough rim to roll away from the basket as the buzzer sounded. Tigers were everywhere, rushing off the bench to mob Allocco and embrace their teammates. Allocco shouted to the crowd, and his teammates stayed right beside him as they gathered at mid-court.

Turning up yet again in a huge moment, Allocco bucked the trend of missed shots that had plagued the Tigers until that point.

“We were due for a couple of makes, so that one came at an optimal time obviously,” Allocco told the ‘Prince.’

He credited Pierce for the play, thankful that his teammate had secured the tough rebound.

“He went up in traffic and found me,

so he really had the tough job. He made it easy on me.”

Lee, who finished the game with 24 points and six rebounds, was a massive part of the Tigers’ success on Saturday.

When asked about adjustments made by the team during the second half, he pointed to a key tactical change in the way Princeton ran their offense.

“We started to switch more onto ball screens as opposed to trying to set pindowns, so I think that worked well for us,” Lee told the ‘Prince.’

He also pointed to the Tigers’ competitive nature and will to win as a key factor in the outcome.

“All the Xs and Os can work out, but, at the end of the day, we made some plays, the ball bounced in our favor a couple times, and that’s what let us go on that crazy run at the end,” Lee said.

When asked about the growing hype around the Princeton basketball team, Lee expressed excitement for the season ahead and urged the fans to continue turning up.

“It’s nice to stay undefeated,” Lee told the ‘Prince.’ “The biggest thing is just not getting too high, not getting too low. Preparing for Drexel, it’s a clean slate, but we approach each game as if it’s the first one. Looking forward to that. Hopefully we have a nice crowd again on Tuesday.”

The Tigers are now 8–0 and one of only 16 undefeated teams left in Division 1 as of Saturday’s game. Princeton received votes in the last Associated Press Top 25 poll, putting them at 34th in the nation.

Next up for Princeton are the Drexel Dragons (5–3, 0–0 Colonial Athletic) at home this Tuesday at 7 p.m., a team riding high off of an upset against previously No. 18 Villanova.

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