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Tuesday september 17, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 68
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In Opinion
Shruthi Deivasigamani argues against unpaid internships, and Kinnari Shah explores how our personal politics influence our decisions. PAGE 4
Today on Campus 10 p.m.: Study break for the class of 2017 to learn about on-campus resources. Whitman Dining Hall.
The Archives
Sept. 17, 1993 Cottage Club named in Miller ’93 negligence suit against the University and New Jersey Transit.
By the Numbers
7
Number of students transported for alcohol intoxication on Sunday, the day of Lawnparties.
News & Notes Drug possession case transferred to Prosecutor’s Office
the case of the undergraduate student charged with possession of illegal drugs by the University’s Department of Public Safety will be handled by Mercer County’s Prosecutor’s Office, a representative from the local Princeton Municipal Court said Monday. Joseph Gauvreau ’17 faced a routine court date on Sept. 10, after which his case was transferred to the prosecutor’s office because of the nature of the charges, according to the representative Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said they had yet to receive the paperwork for the case but noted that it would likely be received later in the week. The alleged drug remains to be identified and the testing process could take weeks, University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said. He confirmed that the case has also been referred to the University’s Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, which will conduct a separate investigation of the incident. - Associate News Editor Marcelo Rochabrun
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ACADEMICS
Duneier quits Coursera platform By Regina Wang senior writer
Less than a year and a half after the the University first began offering online courses through the massive online education platform Coursera, one of its first and most popular courses will be discontinued. Sociology professor Mitchell Duneier was an early champion of Cousera. His Introduction to Sociology course was profiled in a front page article in the New York Times last November and he even invited some of his online students to visit Princeton. He publicly left the platform this month after he was asked to license his content to other universities, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. As a for-profit company, Coursera hoped to use Duneier’s course content as
part of a blended format of online and face-to-face instruction that could help institutions save money. The platform landed deals earlier this year to offer licensed courses on 10 state university systems, including systems in New York, Tennessee, Colorado and Texas. Duneier’s decision to leave Coursera comes amid a national debate about the role of massive open online courses in traditional college education, especially in cash-strapped state systems that could use the licensed content to save money. But plans by MOOC providers, including Coursera competitor edX, to license their content have also met with resistance. In April, philosophy professors at San Jose State University sent an open letter to Harvard professor Michael Sandel, whose online lectures were See COURSERA page 2
WELCOME BACK BBQ
AURELIE THERAMENE :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The LGBT Center hosted a Welcome Back barbeque at Frist South Lawn at 4 p.m. on Monday.
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
STUDENT LIFE
Q&A: Republican Senate Candidate Steve Lonegan
Butler and Pace team up for service initiative
By Hannah Schoen staff writer
Late last week The Daily Princetonian spoke to Steve Lonegan, who is running as the Republican candidate for the late Senator Frank Lautenberg’s seat. He will face off against Newark Mayor Cory Booker in the special election scheduled for Oct. 16. Lonegan spoke about his agenda and expressed confidence in his campaign’s momentum. The Daily Princetonian: How do you feel your campaign has been going, and has your campaign been focusing on any specific constituencies or communities?
Steve Lonegan: The campaign is going extremely well. We’re very focused on the issues of the NSA abuse of power, assault on our individual liberty [and] the failures of the Obamacare system. […] You know, we’re just focusing on those issues. And of course, the president’s failed leadership when it comes to foreign policy in the Middle East is a big issue. So I think the three big issues are Obamacare, the NSA abuse of power — which also includes the IRS abuse of power — and of course our failed Middle Eastern policy. Secondary issues which we all support are just overall economic policy. The people we’re reaching out to
STEVE LONEGAN Senate Candidate
are the people we think are going to be voting. You know, of course, there’s a lot of different groups impacted by the failures. Every single one of us should be concerned about the NSA reading our emails and listening to our phone calls, and you know, now we learn they can break encrypted codes and read all of our See LONEGAN page 3
By Paul Phillips staff writer
Butler College will partner with the Pace Center for Civic Engagement in a new initiative to provide Butlerites with opportunities to become engaged with their local communities. The program, called Building Communities, aims to bring the Pace Center to the residential colleges. Building Communities focuses on four areas of community engagement: Housing, education, arts and culture and environmental sustainability. In the coming week, Butler College will host four evening programs focusing on one or more of these issues. The programs will include documentaries and discussions with experts
on the minority achievement gap. Students will also have the opportunity to sign up for a service trip on Sept. 20 or 21. The projects will include the “Greater Donnelly Documentary,” an opportunity to help make a documentary on the lives of teenagers in the Greater Donnelly neighborhood of Trenton. Another offering will be an “International Coastal Clean Up Day,” when students will help the Sierra Club to clean up New Jersey beaches devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Butlerite Alex Bi ’17 said that he would consider participating in the program. “I’m pretty proud to be a Butlerite and to have my See BUTLER page 2
ACADEMICS
Saitta ’14 discovers new way to distinguish dinosaur sexes By Elizabeth Paul staff writer
Evan Saitta ’14 discovered a new way to distinguish between male and female stegosauruses while completing his senior thesis research in central Montana this summer. Made possible by high-power CT scans of dinosaur stegosaur bone plates and comparisons with tibia bones, the discovery may provide the first evidence for female sexual selection in dinosaurs. Saitta has spent five summers working to uncover fossils at the Little Snowy Creek site. He said that he first observed the sex-specific differences between fossils two summers ago, but only confirmed his findings with CT scans this summer. “In paleontology there has been a very strong quest for finding something called
sexual dimorphism,” Saitta explained, describing the practice of finding differences between male and female behavior and anatomy. He explained that his research likely employed one of the highest-powered CT scans ever performed on any dinosaur fossil. Stegosauruses carry bony plates along their spine that form a protective “body armor,” which are generally broad and oval-like, Saitta said, but some of the bones his excavation crew recovered from the site were tall, narrow and pointed. He explained that he and his mentor, Nate Murphy of the Judith River Dinosaur Institute, were initially baffled by this difference in the plates but that he soon recognized that the differences between plates could suggest the sex of the individual stegosaur. See DINOSAURS page 3
COURTESY OF EVAN SAITTA
Evan Saitta ’14 poses with a fossil at the site of an archeological dig this past summer.
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Tuesday september 17, 2013
Butler leads Building Communities
COOKIES!
BUTLER
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MONICA CHON :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Murray-Dodge Cafe opened for the first time this school year on Monday to offer free cookies and tea.
residential college spearhead the effort,” Bi said. Master of Butler College J. Nicole Shelton explained that Butler’s Building Communities program brings the efforts of the Pace Center’s Living Service Initiative closer to students by integrating them directly into residential life. “One of the beauties of the Building Communities program is that we are helping provide services to the community but we’re also building a community at Butler,” Shelton said. Ryan Dukeman ’17, who also said he would consider taking part in the program, noted that the program “is a good mix of
community building and community service.” Pace Center Student Program Coordinator Keira Wilson explained that the Building Communities program continues the civic engagement begun by some freshmen through Community Action, but opens the opportunity for involvement to students of all years. Butler College and the Pace Center have assumed joint responsibility for the activities, Wilson said. She explained that Butler Residential Graduate Students have taken responsibility for the evening programs, while Pace has been instrumental in organizing the service trips with the Butler Advisory Board. In addition, 10 upperclassmen on the Building Communities Advisory Board are working with both the But-
ler College Office and the Pace Center, and will help to facilitate the evening discussions and service trips. “Often times we can get stuck in the Princeton bubble and think, ‘Oh, everything’s fine and great,’ ” Wilson said. “That’s not entirely true 10 minutes down the road where the idea of going home for a snack is not a real one.” Shelton noted the influence of the program on incoming freshmen, saying, “The idea is to get students thinking about service in the very beginning, and they will continue to be involved in service activities throughout the year.” “I think it sets the tone from the very beginning, Day 1 or Week 1 of Princeton for freshmen that this is what we do,” Shelton said.
Too early to determine Coursera’s success at Princeton, Adelman says COURSERA Continued from page 1
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slated to be used in a course offered in the California State University system. “Let’s not kid ourselves; administrators at the CSU are beginning a process of replacing faculty with cheap online education,” they wrote. Also in California, a bill aimed to offer MOOC content to students who could not register in popular courses was tabled in August. “I’ve said no, because I think that it’s an excuse for state legislatures to cut funding to state universities,” Duneier is quoted as saying The Chronicle. “And I guess that I’m really uncomfortable being part of a movement that’s going to get its revenue in that way. And I also have serious doubts about whether or not using a course like mine in that way would be pedagogically effective.”
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Duneier declined to be interviewed for this article. University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, who supports Coursera and sits on the platform’s board of advisors, said he sensed the nation’s pendulum on online education had swung from excitement to skepticism. However, Eisgruber said Duneier’s case stemmed from disagreement on how to use online education, rather than on the service itself. Eisgruber explained that he saw Duneier’s decision as part of an ongoing conversation about which forms of online education can help improve educational efforts. He added that Duneier’s decision was possible because the University’s agreement with Coursera explicitly allows professors to leave the platform at any time. Electrical engineering professor Mung Chiang, who offered ELE 381: Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes
through Coursera, also noted that Duneier’s decision did not necessarily ref lect an overall dissatisfaction with online education. “I don’t think Coursera is equivalent to MOOC, and MOOC is not equivalent to online education, so I think the issue is with a particular company policy like Coursera,” Chiang said. Chiang also noted that as far he knew, Duneier’s decision did not apply to any other University faculty involved with Coursera. Coursera initially reached out to Duneier with an individual offer, while the other participating faculty only work with the platform through the University. “I think, for other faculty participating in the online experiment, it’s probably a moot point,” he added. History professor Jeremy Adelman, who taught HIS 201: A History of the World since 1300 through Coursera while teaching the class to
University students last fall, said he saw Duneier’s decision as part of a larger-scale clarification about the role and limits of online education, rather than a disenchantment with the program. Adelman said he thought one of the main motivations behind Duneier’s decision was a refusal to participate in a movement that threatened to degrade the quality of education for California students, in reference to the tabled bill. While Adelman said he supported a creative role for Coursera in helping the California education system create more opportunities for its students, he wanted to see university faculty involved in that discussion, and early signs had indicated that California university faculty were not involved. Electrical engineering professor and vice dean of the engineering school Claire Gmachl, who taught ELE 208: Electronic and Pho-
tonic Devices through the Coursera interface, said that her interaction with Coursera differed significantly from the MOOC model since she primarily used Coursera to enhance her course with her in-person Princeton students rather than posting its entire content online. Gmachl explained that she used Coursera videos to allow students to review past lectures and come to class more prepared, but the online content could not replace the hands-on labs that took place in class. Although the specific situation Duneier faced was not shared by other Princeton professors, Gmachl shared the view that online education cannot replace personal classroom interactions. “It’s just half of the learning process. You put out the information, but the learning happens in the one-onone and in the small group interactions,” Gmachl said.
Eisgruber said he still believes online education done right can do important things, but how to do so without diluting the quality of education is still actively debated. “One thing I think is clear is that MOOCs are not a substitute for a residential undergraduate education that a place like Princeton provides but MOOCs equally clearly can provide some benefits to some audiences,” Eisgruber said. It’s too early to tell how successful Coursera was on Princeton’s campus, Adelman said. “We’re only a year into this experiment, so it’s hard to develop really strong judgments about whether this is a great success or a great catastrophe,” Adelman said. Currently, Duneier’s course is still listed on Coursera’s website, although it lacks a starting date. Nine other Princeton courses are listed.
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Lonegan: “Cory Booker and I are 180 degrees opposed on every issue” LONEGAN Continued from page 1
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bank records and healthcare records, probably even more than that. So I think this message resonates across party lines and even cleaves off a lot of Democrats who are worried about these things. DP: If you were to be elected to the Senate, what do you think you’d do to deal with these failures and these concerns that you and voters have? SL: Well first of all, I would’ve voted for the Amash amendment, which would’ve forced the NSA to destroy all of our phone records, emails. I would stop the NSA from being able to go after any American without probable cause, without having to go to a real court with public scrutiny [...] rather than this FISA court. [...] Look, we all want a government that’s going to protect us from terrorists, not a government that’s going to spy on our friends, our neighbors and our families. So that’s one area. On the Obamacare side, I think Obamacare, at a bare minimum, needs to be stalled for a couple of years, and at best defunded and repealed. DP: Any other agenda items that
are things that you really want to focus on, if you are elected? SL: I want to serve on the Finance Committee, Max Baucus’ Finance Committee. One of my big concerns is Dodd Frank, and the Dodd Frank bill impacts the financial sector in many, many ways. [...] We’re now learning how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is sharing records with the NSA on our financial histories, another intrusion into our privacy. I mean, we’re just not safe on any level in this country. Nobody, in anything you do, whether it’s your banking, your healthcare, your finances, your Internet activity, the websites you go to, where you shop — I mean, nothing’s secret anymore. You have no privacy at all. And that is extremely disturbing to me. DP: Why do you think you’d make the best senator for New Jersey? SL: Because I am passionate and committed to defending individual liberty. Because I have studied, learned and I understand the fundamental principles of free market economic policies, and that’s all driven by individual liberty. That’s privacy, that’s property rights, that’s the ability of every American to be successful and keep the fruits of their labor, and be, you know, free
of the strangleholds of big government. My opponent is a devotee, advocate and huge supporter of big government. He believes that government is the answer to all of our problems. I believe that government is the problem.
The number one issue I want them to remember is that when I vote on any single bill ... the number-one criteria I will have on every vote is, “Am I dispending your individual liberty?”
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Before concluding that the differences indicated dinosaur sex, Saitta said he and his colleagues first had to invalidate other possible explanations for the differences, like those that could stem from the differences between species, or between mature and immature stegosauruses. After concluding with a high degree of certainty that the two varieties of plates came from the same species — because they came from a single social group and because of similarities in the form of other bones across individuals — they decided to test whether the plate formation was simply an artifact of sexual maturity by using the CT technology at the Billings Clinic, he said. “When these animals reach sexual maturity they develop large vessels at the bottom of the plates,” Saitta said. They use these vessels to display the plates in order
to attract mates and fend off rivals. Saitta said CT scans confirmed that both varieties of plates were of sexually mature stegosauruses because both featured fully developed canals at the base of the plate. In addition to examining the plates, Saitta compared the tibia bones of corresponding stegosauruses in order to determine the sex of the individual. Saitta and his colleagues then observed the formation of what appear to be calcium deposits in the tibia of the remains of a stegosaurus with the tall, narrow plates. Because female dinosaurs typically develop calcium deposits in preparation for laying eggs, this plate formation could be a female characteristic, Saitta explained. Nonetheless, Saitta will perform further research to confirm that the plate distinctions indicate different sexes. By looking at bone samples on a cellular level, he will be able to determine the rate of growth of the bones to provide more
SL: The number-one issue I want them to remember is that when I vote on any single bill, the number-one measuring stick, the number-one criteria I will have on every vote is, “Am I dispending your individual liberty?” DP: To shift into some of the criticisms that Mr. Booker has made of you, he’s called you a “right wing radical.” How do you respond to that criticism? SL: You know, typical political rhetoric. You know, I am a little discouraged by the mean-spiritedness of that campaign, but you know, if I’m a right-wing radical, and Cory Booker and I are 180 degrees opposed on every issue, which we are, that makes him a left-wing liberal. Let’s have an election.
Steve Lonegan
DP: You’ve recently been endorsed by Senator Rand Paul. How do you feel about this endorsement?
DP: When the people of New Jersey are going into the voting booths on Oct. 16, what do
SL: Well, I’m honored. I mean, Rand Paul has been an absolute leader in fighting against the NSA abuse of power. He’s been the loudest voice in the U.S. Senate about the NSA intrusion into your email, your phone calls. [...] Nobody’s been a louder spokesman, nobody
Republican Senatorial Candidate
CT scans reveal sexual dimorphism in stegosaurus plates, tibia bones DINOSAURS
you want them to be thinking about?
information on the maturity of the specimens, he explained. Ecology and evolutionary biology professor James Gould, who specializes in sexual selection and met Saitta in a marine biology course, said that he was very pleased with Saitta’s discovery. Because it is typically very difficult to infer animal behavior from fossils, Gould said that Saitta’s research was intriguing and worth studying further. “This is absolutely the first evidence really of sexual selection of any sort, and certainly of female choice,” Gould said of the finding’s significance. While Saitta’s finding illuminates one aspect of sex differences between stegosauruses, Murphy explained that much more still remains to be discovered, such as stegosauruses’ lifespan and how quickly they reach maturity. “In paleontology when you get answers, it often provokes more questions,” he said.
has dragged this out into the public’s view like he has. And he’s also like me in [that he’s] an ardent opponent of entering into another war that we can’t afford. I will not support a war in Syria; we cannot go into Syria. Both Rand Paul and I have been, you know, major opponents of bombing Syria since day one, before there were any public opinion polls. So I’m very honored to have him on my side. DP: So how involved has Senator Paul been with your campaign so far? SL: Well that starts tomorrow. Coming into New Jersey, doing three events for me in a row, you know, a brunch, a lunch, a rally. He was on Fox News on Sean Hannity 20 minutes ago talking about my campaign. And he’s been on the radio the last couple of days on different radio shows talking about New Jersey, how important this election is. DP: While we’re on that subject, why do you feel that this election is so important? SL: This is a very rare occurrence. This is a special election; it’s a standalone election between two men on Senate issues, on all the biggest issues that are confronting the country today. [...] Cory
Booker and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum on these issues. Cory Booker supports the president’s use of the NSA, Cory Booker can’t decide where he stands on the war, it depends on what the public opinion polls [are] and what the Obama people tell him to say and Cory Booker says Obamacare is great. So we have a remarkable opportunity in New Jersey for voters to look at these issues, decide where they stand, and New Jersey is going to be a pivotal vote for the country. A win in New Jersey can set all these issues back big time. Even Republicans who are on the fence on funding of Obamacare, Republicans who are on the fence about the NSA or the war are going to have to think really hard when I win this election. DP: How do you feel like you’re going to gain ground there and win this election? What are your strategies for doing that? SL: By having a much stronger message, by having a very powerful, passionate base, by speaking out on these issues clearly, and as people tune in, we keep building up more and more momentum. We have enormous momentum already, but it’s getting more intense every day.
News & Notes Seven transported for alcohol intoxication on day of Lawnparties
seven students were transported for alcohol intoxication on Sunday, the day of Lawnparties, to either the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro or University Health Services. In contrast, four students were transported for alcohol intoxication on Saturday and one
on Friday, according to Department of Public Safety Director of Operations Stefanie Karp. In total, seven were transported to UMCPP and five to UHS. The number of students transported over the weekend remains the same as last Spring’s Lawnparties weekend. In the spring, the weekend includes two evenings of eating club Houseparties on Friday and Saturday in addition to
Sunday’s Lawnparties.
CORRECTION Due to a reporting error, the Sept. 16 article ‘Penn State ends Princeton’s 17-game win streak’ misstated the class year of Teresa Benvenuti. She is a sophomore. The ‘Prince’ regrets the error.
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Opinion
Shruthi Deivasigamani columnist
The plight of the unpaid intern
F
or students who’ve either put off the summer job search for far too long, or have been sent back gentle rejection letter after gentle rejection letter, the month before finals was when desperation set in. No longer just limiting themselves to the modest postings on Tiger Tracks, students scoured the web for anything that even vaguely resembled something they could do for a stretch of six-to-10 weeks over the summer. The vast majority of people will find something to do over the summer eventually, whether it’s an internship at Goldman in New York City, or an anthropology class to take at the local university. As students get increasingly desperate for something – anything – to put on their resumes, they become more willing to take on an internship that’s entirely unpaid. And because of this, many companies exploit student distress; knowing that most of the time, they’ll be willing to work a job deserving payment for absolutely free. The unpaid internship controversy has been brewing for quite some time now, sparked in large part by a series of disgruntled interns suing their former employers (Diddy and Fox Searchlight Pictures, for example) for giving them more work than should be expected of a 19-year-old and compensating them with nothing. The United States Department of Labor’s rules about unpaid labor are sensible in theory, but very difficult to enforce in practice. Basically, interns who receive more out of the internship than do their employers do not necessarily have to be compensated for their time. However, even despite the guidelines that the Department of Labor outlines to help determine whether an intern falls into that category, the entire affair seems to be shrouded in gray area. I think there’s an easy way to clear up the matter. If an intern isn’t actually doing anything, they don’t need to be compensated. Like shadowing a surgeon for several weeks. Learning how the ER works and what the hospital environment is like obviously benefits the intern more than the doctor, who might arguably even be slightly annoyed by someone following them around everywhere. In a situation like this, it’s pretty apparent that the intern doesn’t need to be compensated because, while they’re learning quite a lot about a possible career path, they aren’t contributing anything concrete to their employer in return. The gray area as it stands is that some interns who do do work — whether it be research in a lab or fetching coffee and filing papers — are compensated and others are not. This shouldn’t be the case. All interns who are benefitting their employer in any way should be paid at least minimum wage. The most notorious field to offer unpaid summer work is the entertainment industry. Because breaking into the field is so difficult, people see unpaid internships as a sort of due that must be paid. Last year, 20 unpaid interns sued Fox Searchlight Pictures for their stints as unpaid interns on the set of “Black Swan.” Though the movie went on the make over $300 million, the interns were never compensated for their work, which involved essential tasks such as making spreadsheets and drawing up purchase orders. They eventually went on to win the lawsuit. It’s clear here that even the courts view unpaid internships as unfair. Interns working on production sets are often asked to do menial tasks — getting coffees, doing rote paperwork — that don’t benefit them in any way. They aren’t even learning anything, which in theory is the main purpose of even accepting an internship. And if these interns are only given in return the possibility of breaking into a notoriously exclusive industry, that’s not enough. Unpaid intern work has become a way for larger companies to get free labor in return for absolutely nothing but a faint glimmer of opportunity that may or may not come. Apart from this simply not being a fair practice, unpaid internships also tend to discriminate against college students in lower income brackets. Many students on financial aid need to make money over the summer in order to fulfill the student contribution portion of their aid awards. While unpaid internships might be great opportunities in and of themselves, they are often out of reach for students who have an obligation to make a few thousand dollars to support their own education. This creates a cycle where only the more affluent are able to accept positions such as these and thus add it to their resume, which in turn allows them to find jobs more easily after graduation than students who had to work retail at the local mall to make money instead. Furthermore, most internships are located in a city. This, of course, means that many interns need to commute to work each morning and commute home each night. According to a Government Census, commuting into New York City from a 60 mile radius can cost anywhere from $150 to $250 per month, depending on the mode of transport. Interns are often set back around $600 for the whole summer just for getting to and from work. While it may be difficult for nonprofits and NGOs to pay interns a salary due to a lack of funds, they should at minimum pay enough to defray the cost of commuting — that would at least allow the student to work without losing money over the course of the summer. Any intern who contributes to their employers should be paid a reasonable salary regardless of whether or not they are receiving skills or knowledge in return. In most case, even minimum wage would let lower income students to accept a job that they may normally have to pass up. They can fetch double-shot soy lattes with ease of mind — even if they never get that promised recommendation from Quentin Tarantino, at least they have a modest paycheck. Shruthi Deivasigamani is a sophomore from Cresskill, N.J. She can be reached at shruthid@ princeton.edu.
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Personal politics and the death star vol. cxxxvii
Kinnari Shah
R
columnist
andal Graves on the construction of the second Death Star: “All right, look — you’re a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia — this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn’t ask for that. You have no personal politics. You’re just trying to scrape out a living.” —“Clerks” I never thought I’d open one of these with a quote from “Clerks.” But I’ve been thinking a lot about this scene lately. It started during my summer down in the South. You notice pretty quickly (or at least, it was my experience) that people down South love Chik-fil-A. I mean love it. And I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard someone suggest Chik-fil-A for lunch. In fact, the last time that franchise name came across my path was in 2011, the year of the Chik-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy. Remember that? It seems much longer than two years ago. But in a controversy-enveloped world, of course it feels like a long time ago. A quick recap of the facts: Chik-fil-A donates to the Winshape Foundation, which is Chik-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy and his family’s charitable endeavor. The Winshape Foundation had historically donated a portion of this money (in the millions) to various organizations that oppose LGBT rights. These donations came to media attention and
public response was strong. Thousands of citizens publicly boycotted Chik-fil-A restaurants, public officials reproached the corporation and corporate partners ceased their business relationships. On the other hand, thousands of citizens participated in a Chik-fil-A appreciation day as a show of public support. A USA Today poll by Whitney Matheson at the time showed 53 percent of people sampled as boycotting, while 43 percent of people responded that they would continue to eat the food and 5 percent were undecided. Since then, there have been several policy changes and Chik-fil-A has promised that its nonprofit arm would not contribute money to groups that oppose gay marriage. While Dan Cathy has his own opinions about LGBT rights, they are no longer supposed to be reflective of Chik-fil-A’s official corporate policy or actions. Since then, I think most of us have completely forgotten about it. But that controversy was the last taste that the franchise had left in my mouth. So there I was, in Houston, with people who absolutely love Chik-fil-A. And I couldn’t remember whatever happened with the whole has-been con-
troversy. I had to go look it up. I remembered a lot of talk about personal politics back when the whole hullabaloo had happened. We asked: To what extent do our beliefs play an active role in the decisions we make? Even this summer, though, when I said, “Remember that?” I got a few bewildered looks. People seemed to agree that personal politics should play a role in your decisions — but they didn’t seem to think that it should ever really go as far as actively not eating at Chik-fil-A. (Note: We suspended any debate about franchising and ownership for the sake of the other argument about personal politics). Then I watched “Clerks” (again).
And I got to thinking a lot about personal politics. I asked: To what extent do our beliefs play an active role in the decisions we make? The answer is simple. Most of us just aren’t willing to admit it. Collectively, we tend to make our decisions based on what’s convenient for us. Has the media told us what the right thing to do is? Has our friend or someone in class? When was the last time you really thought about what goes into making that product or what organizations that company funds? There’s probably a lot that we are party to that we don’t necessarily agree with. We don’t really tend to know the companies we do business with well. But we, as consumers, do business with a lot of parties. How are we expected to keep track of everything we come into contact with? It would be impossible. If we really knew more about what we use and consume, we’d probably have to suspend the way we currently live our lives, or at the very least reevaluate what we think our pseudo-strong beliefs are. No — I can’t definitively tell you that it would be reasonable for you to be aware of half of the businesses you interact with on a daily basis, to know things as seemingly innocuous as where your backpack material comes from. I’m not exactly sure what the answer is here. I just think it’s something worth thinking about for ourselves. To what extent do we let personal politics actively play a role in the decisions we make? To what extent should we make them actively play a role in the decisions we make? I don’t think we give those questions enough thought these days. Kinnari Shah is a chemical and biological engineering major from Washington, N.J. She can be reached at kmshah@princeton.
Pinocchio learns about oxidation warren katz ’14
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Luc Cohen ’14
editor-in-chief
Grace Riccardi ’14
business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 vice presidents John G. Horan ’74 Thomas E. Weber ’89 secretary Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Richard P. Dzina, Jr. ’85 William R. Elfers ’71 John G. Horan ’74 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy J. Minkin ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Carol Rigolot h ’51 h ’70 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas Widmann ’90
137TH BUSINESS BOARD business manager Grace Riccardi ’14 director of national advertising Nick Hu ’15 director of campus/local adversting Harold Li ’15 director of web advertising Matteo Kruijssen ’16 director of recruitment advertising Zoe Zhang ’16 director of operations Elliot Pearl-Sacks ’15 comptroller Kevin Tang ’16 director of subscriptions Elon Packin ’15
NIGHT STAFF 9.16.13 news Night Chief: Anna Mazarakis ’16 copy Oren Fliegelman ’16 Seth Merkin ’16 Alex Schindele-Murayama ’16 Michal Wiseman ’16 design Julia Johnstone ’16 Sean Pan ’16 Shirley Zhu ’16
Our forgotten radical James Di Palma-Grisi
R
columnist
obert F. Goheen. Aside from an infrequently-read plaque on a route far from any campus tours, though often walked by STEM students, and a library on the first floor of the McCosh Health Center, there are no obvious consecrations to Goheen, whom we might consider the patron saint of Princeton the modern research university. The only of our 20 presidents born outside of North America or the British Isles, though India was still under the British Raj at the time, Goheen doubled the size of the university and alumni donations (no coincidence) while increasing the budget by a factor of four. While part of a national trend, Goheen’s tenure saw Princeton — a campus built in no small part by enslaved African-Americans — recruit non-white males for the first time in its history. His term is considered the inflection point between the Princeton associated with applicationonly eating clubs and the Princeton associated with three dozen Nobel Prize winners, all but five of which — including Woodrow Wilson’s Nobel Peace Prize — were earned during or after the Goheen presidency. In the most recent installment of social progress, the Board of Trustees and President Eisgruber have unanimously endorsed a report, “On Diversity,” detailing new measures to increase racial diversity
in management, instruction and laboratories (including graduate admissions). From the report: “interpersonal interactions across racial lines most strongly related to cognitive development; nevertheless coursework, workshops, and non-racial interactions also had a significant impact.” That’s an odd construction — coursework is secondary to crossracial interactions? Yet it’s presented in the evidence, if we carefully define our terms. The report distinguishes between research testing university students and workplaces. University research “explores the effects of diversity on intellectual selfconfidence and critical thinking.” Consider that a university has little measurable product apart from the development of individual students. A nugget on graduate admissions advises: “The factors most correlated with doctoral attainment – research experience, creativity, and persistence.” Presumably these psychometric qualities are garnered during or shortly after the undergraduate years. The numerical findings show an interesting trend as well: non-white students’ grades improved when their roommate was white, but not the other way around. Some context might be helpful: recent evidence suggests over a third of U.S. students don’t improve on the cognitive scale at all during their undergraduate education, with nearly half standing pat after the first two years. This might imply majorityacculturated students of any race are more adept at playing the game which
leads to higher scores, while amassing little psychological development to show for it. While this isn’t a problem at Princeton, the findings are national, so the discussion must consider national context. Now, for the other side of the distinction: The workplace research, which “examines team performance and innovation.” A surprising finding, in the vein of the report, is that multiculturalism doesn’t improve results in the workplace. One might imagine that a workplace leaves little opportunity for discursive cultural expositions. If everyone is homogenized and pointed at a specific task by their employer, having an immediate focus might dampen philosophical cross-pollination on company time. The message is clear: engage in intercultural exchange as possible, since the benefits, and perhaps opportunities, diminish once employees are instrumentalized for the tasks of a workplace. In an argument popularized by another contemporary, Robert F. Kennedy, a quote in the .edu recap of the study encapsulates the sentiment of the report: “Only by drawing the best talent from every sector of society can we achieve the scholarly and educational excellence to which we aspire.” While the quote was proximally written by Eisgruber, it also genuflects towards a half-century of work towards the intangible and measurable benefits of multiculturalism. Tying alumni support to expansion and recruitment, the final word, “aspire,”
is a knowing wink at a recent fundraising program. Goheen also encouraged student participation in the University’s governing apparatus, meeting with a mass student strike in 1970. In the spirit of suggestion, I would make the following proposal: Create a transfer program for undergraduates. The epic nostalgia of alumni is evidence that a particular culture is formed here, binding people of diverse backgrounds together. What would a transfer student make of it, and more importantly, what would a transfer student contribute? This would change with each individual, but consider Princeton’s culture unique from other universities: this should scale with the cultural difference of a transfer student. Some consideration is given to non-traditional students for individual courses, but they have a limited impact on the general culture. Our main program for creating multi-cultured individuals, instead of different mono-cultured individuals, is the study abroad program. It is difficult to imagine a vacuum where there ought to be qualified students at other institutions not currently partner to the program. Would a transfer program be more radical than study abroad, given that the only distinctions are the quality of the institution — not the individual — and the duration of the exchange? James Di Palma-Grisi is a psychology major from Glen Rock, N.J. He can be reached at jdi@princeton.edu.
9/16/13 11:45 PM
The Daily Princetonian
Tuesday september 17, 2013
page 5
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Like sports? Write for the sports department!
Email: join@dailyprincetonian.com SHANNON MCGUE :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
The Tigers lost their first game on Sunday and will now try to get back on the win column against St. Joseph’s.
Shon plays last round at Princeton GOLF
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winner of that tournament, Annie Park of USC, at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in early August, Shon challenged Park all throughout the 18 holes. Shon matched her career best performance from the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2010, but failed to advance from the Round of 16 after falling to Park in the final hole. Shon’s outstanding year caught the eye of Golf World. On Aug. 29, the news outlet named her on their Top 50 Players to Watch list. At the Princeton Invitational this weekend, in her first appearance since that announcement and her last
appearance in a tournament at Princeton, Shon finished plus-2 to end the tournament in third place individually. Though Shon’s performance helped boost the women’s golf team to finish second overall, 12 shots behind Harvard, she said it’s been a long time since she’s hit the ball that wildly. “I think all around right now my golf game is not as sharp as I would like it to be,” Shon said. But for Shon, this year’s Princeton Invitational was not just about winning. “At the same time, knowing that my game isn’t all there, I was just trying to enjoy my last time playing in my home tournament,” Shon said. “It was a little emotional at the end, but all in all I’m
very happy. Coming down to the 18th hole, I was reflecting on all the good times I’ve had at the golf course here and all the good times I’ve had with my teammates. Even though the results aren’t exactly what I wanted, I really couldn’t be happier.” The Crimson’s Tiffany Lim claimed the individual title for the second straight time. In the contest, freshman Jordan Lippetz finished just behind Shon, shooting four over to tie for fourth. Fellow rookie Hana Ku finished at plus-11 to tie for 11th place, and sophomore Alexandra Wong shot plus-15 to take 17th. The team will now travel to Franklin, Tenn. on Friday to continue their fall season at the Mason Rudolph Invitational.
Sophomore utility also a great singer ON TAP
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Q: Most embarrassing song on your iPod? A: I have no idea. Every one of them is embarrassing. Q: Any good stories about your coach? A: Last year when we were playing at Navy’s pool, twice he almost fell into the pool. Once I had to save him. He was trying to walk over the corner, and he would slip a little bit. One time I had to actually hold him up as he kept going.
Q: Quirkiest teammate? A: I would definitely say [sophomore goalie] Alex Gow. He always has a great comeback. Every comeback he makes is just great. He always has something to say, which at certain times you don’t like and certain times you do, but I normally think he’s hilarious. Q: Any other particular dynamics or characters on the team? A: [Junior attacker] Drew Hoffenberg and [junior center] Kayj [Shannon] are always together. They like to cuddle in the corner of the quad they’re in. And Kunu [se-
nior utility Tyler Amina] is really good at scaring the freshman. Very good scary persona. He’s a really nice guy, but good at being scary. Q: What’s your greatest talent outside of water polo? A: I’m unbelievable at singing, probably the best on the team, much better than [freshman utility] Lachie [Kermode]. Q: Is there anything we should be talking about? You’re not secretly an incredible tap-dancer or something? A: You can write that too. Singing and tap-dancing. You got me.
Q: Was he grateful? A: Nah, he just kept yelling at whoever he was yelling at. Apparently in the past he has fallen in before, so at least we saved him from that. Q: Best part about being an athlete at Princeton? A: The close-knit group you get when you come in as a freshman. We’re a really close team, and we stay close on the offseason. Our nickname for ourselves is H2Omega because we’re like our own fraternity. Q: Worst part about being an athlete at Princeton? A: Practice. In the morning, especially. Q: How do you make yourself get in the pool in the morning? A: The coaches say we’re in by this time, and then everyone stands around, they get mad, start yelling and we all normally jump in or they push us in. There’s always a couple of stragglers at the end. Q: Have you ever tried to use sunscreen to be more slippery in the pool? A: It never happens on the East Coast, because it’s all indoors. When we go out west and we play, especially for us because we’re all pale in comparison to all the California guys who are always in the sun, we always put on so much sunscreen, and they always complain because we’re so slippery. So I guess it does work, but it’s not the goal; it just happens. Q: If you were going to do a different sport, what would it be? A: Swimming, because I’m terrible at anything on land.
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9/16/13 11:47 PM
Sports
Tuesday september 17, 2013
page 6
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } { Feature }
Shon looks to build upon historic year By Victoria Majchrzak Associate Sports Editor
JOSEPH LASETER :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior golfer Kelly Shon had a historic season last year, having the best season an Ivy League woman has had at the NCAA Championship.
{
On Tap
2013 has been a year of firsts for senior golfer Kelly Shon. Last April, Shon finished at plus-2 to win her first Ivy League Championship and with it, the honor of Ivy Player of the Year. And, after finishing in second place in her third appearance at the NCAA East Regional in May, Shon became the first Princeton women’s golfer to earn a bid to the NCAA women’s golf championship in 16 years. In Georgia, playing as
the only Ivy Leaguer in the tournament, Shon tied for 37th overall — putting her performance at first place all-time among women Ivy League golfers in the tournament. Shon noted that while at the tournament, she noticed how different her practice schedule was from her competitors’. “I think for a lot of these other girls that I saw at NCAAs, golf is their number one priority, and that’s a difference,” Shon said. When Shon played the See GOLF page 5
}
On Tap with ... Bradley Wachtell
By Crissy Carano
ever since.
senior writer
This week, the ‘Prince’ sat down with sophomore Brad Wachtell of the No. 15 men’s water polo team. Coming out of this weekend’s Princeton Invite undefeated, Wachtell chatted about team dynamics, the water polo brotherhood and his hidden talent for singing. Q: Where are you from, and what is it like there? A: I’m from LA. It’s always perfect. LA is the best. Q: How did you start playing water polo? A: I started in sixth grade because I was swimming with my brother, and swimming is very boring. I saw the water polo players practicing on the other side of the pool, so I gave it a try. I’ve been playing
Q: What is the most common misconception about water polo? A: There are no horses. I’m kidding. Most people don’t understand any part of it, so you have to start from the beginning. Especially on the East Coast. Q: Do you have any pre-competition rituals? A: I personally don’t, but our team normally has our team meeting, then we go back to the locker room, play some good, funny music and all get psyched up before we head out. Q: Do you have any specific pump-up songs? A: Some people are not going to like to hear this one but “Hey, What’s Going On” is definitely making a comeback this year. LILIA XIE :: ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Sophomore utility Bradley Wachtell played in 29 games last year, notching eight goals and four assissts in those contests.
See ON TAP page 5
Ivy League Championships by School 2012-13
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Penn
Princeton
is equal to one Ivy league championship
Yale KRISTEN COKE :: PRINCETONIAN DESIGN STAFF
This graphic shows how many Ivy League championships each Ivy League school won in 2012-13. Princeton leads the pack with 13 championships while Brown and Dartmouth each finished with none.
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