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Tuesday october 8, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 83
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In Opinion Morgan Jerkins weighs our moral obligations in relation to free food, and Lea Trusty discusses finding her academic passion. PAGE 4
Today on Campus 7:30 p.m.: Ezra Klein of the Washington Post speaks about why Washington is horrible. Whig Hall.
The Archives
Oct. 8, 1993
Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, is awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature.
By the Numbers
2004
The year the grade deflation policy was approved.
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
Faculty to rethink grade deflation
Eisgruber ’83 calls committee to examine grading policy By Anastasya LloydDamnjanovic news editor
The University’s controversial grade deflation policy — which stipulates that no more than 35 percent grades given out in any department should be A’s — will come under review over the next year, the University announced Monday morning. The review of the grad-
ing policy comes only three months after new University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 took over from former University President Shirley Tilghman, and also on the same day Eisgruber began a tour that will take him to three continents in order to introduce himself to alumni. At the first of these events, held on Monday night in New York City and moderated by University Trustee and jour-
nalist Charles Gibson ’65, Eisgruber noted that grade deflation was the number one issue raised during an initial ‘listening tour’ during the early stages of his presidency. He also acknowledged that Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye had told him that the grade deflation policy might be affecting the admission yield, since the policy has become part of Princeton’s image for applicants.
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
However, Eisgruber said in response to one of Gibson’s questions that the committee’s formation was not an admission of the policy’s failure. “It’s an admission that after 10 years of discussing a policy that I think has had two admirable objectives — and moved us in an appropriate direction — we should be thinking about whether or not we can learn anything from the experiences we’ve had,” Eisgruber
said in New York. Eisgruber was not available for comment Monday, according to his assistant, Mary DeLorenzo, who said Eisgruber was in meetings all day before traveling to New York for the alumni event. In an April interview with The Daily Princetonian immediately following his selection to be the 20th University president, See DEFLATION page 2
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Eisgruber ’83 defends grade deflation, legacy admissions By Teddy Schleifer senior writer
NEW YORK — University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 defended the high percentage of legacy applicants that earn admission to Princeton on Monday evening in an address to University alumni at the midtown Sheraton Hotel that proved to be the most candid unveiling of his presidential platform to date.
The event was the first of 13 visits Eisgruber will make to alumni around the globe over the coming academic year and about 1,200 alumni — ranging from the Classes of 1945 to 2013 — attended the event. In an hour-long onstage interview with former ABC World News anchor and current University Trustee Charlie Gibson ’65, Eisgruber also explained his worries with
the University’s grade deflation policy, elaborated on his plans to expand the size of the student body and admitted to Gibson that he feels uncomfortable talking about himself. On Monday, the University also announced a committee to review the grade deflation policy. Eisgruber also previewed a slogan that he hopes will define his presidency: “More See EISGRUBER page 3
TECH TALK
On the Blog ARIEL FUTTER :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Lizzy Bradley reviews HAIM’s “Days are Gone.”
Maen Rashid Areikat, chief representative of the delegation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, spoke on campus Monday.
PLO leader: Palestine cannot make more concessions to Israel
News & Notes Parking enforcement officer fired for allegedly taking bribes
a town parking enforcement officer was fired Monday after allegations that he overlooked parking violations in return for bribes, the Times of Trenton reported. Chris Boutote, who is also a retired Princeton Borough police officer, and another enforcement officer, John Hughes, were suspended last month after passersby reported certain cars with menus and shopping bags on the dashboards remained at metered parking spots downtown for up to 10 hours without receiving a ticket, while other vehicles were ticketed immediately. Meters in the area have a two-hour time limit. According to town administrator Bob Bruschi, Boutote received “goods” from car owners. He was terminated and will face administrative charges, but has not yet been levied with any criminal charges. Hughes will face administrative discipline, including a likely demotion and suspension. Bruschi told the Times that he does not believe the incident goes deeper than the one individual, but that police staff had been reminded of the policy prohibiting gifts and gratuities. According to the Times, state records indicated Boutote earned $48,109 a year with a monthly pension of about $4,400.
By Jacob Donnelly contributor
JENNY JIANG :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Steve Strauch, vice president of Product from Priceline, spoke at the Tech Talk series on Monday. U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
Newman ’78 to prioritize graduate alumni participation in new role By Joseph Sheehan contributor
New Alumni Council chair Nancy Newman ’78 will make increasing graduate alumni participation in alumni events one of her top priorities, she said in a recent interview with The Daily Princetonian. Newman was elected to replace Henry Von Kohorn ’66 two years ago, and in accordance with the bylaws of the Alumni Council, served as vice chair for two years
NANCY NEWMAN Alumni Council chair
before becoming chair this past summer. Newman is also now president of the Alumni Association. “In the alumni association, graduate alumni hadn’t been participating at the same level as undergradu-
ate alumni,” said Margaret Miller ’80, Assistant Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Director of the Alumni Council. “So another strategic focus was to engage graduate alumni at the same level.” Graduate alumni outreach will continue under Newman’s term most immediately through a conference for graduate alumni from Oct. 17-19. The event, titled “Many Minds, Many Stripes”, invites graduate alumni to See ALUMNI page 2
While Palestine continues to engage Israel in negotiations for an independent state, the nation cannot make any more territorial concessions, Maen Rashid Areikat, chief representative of the delegation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the United States, said in a Monday evening lecture titled, “Twenty Years After Oslo: Lessons Learned and Future Options?” “When we call for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, we are accepting a Palestinian state of 22 percent of what used to be historic Palestine,” Areikat said before a packed Dodds Auditorium. “So that was the historic compromise that we made … We cannot accept a compromise on the compromise. It would undermine the creation of a Palestinian state that would be independent, contiguous
and sovereign.” “We are prepared to engage with the Israeli side,” he added. “We would like to see an end to the conf lict, because we believe we Palestinians are paying the heaviest price.” Areikat identified several contributing factors to the failure of the 1993 Oslo Accords to secure a permanent resolution to the IsraeliPalestinian conf lict. The ambiguous language of the Oslo Accords, the failure to give “third party” nations a meaningful arbitration role, the deferral of critical issues during the negotiations leading to the accords — including control of Jerusalem, security concerns, border demarcation, refugees, settlement housing and the supply of water — and the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were all important setbacks in the peace process, he explained. Areikat contrasted Rabin with the current Israeli See PLO page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Faculty committee to consider recommendations to improve final exams By Anna Mazarakis staff writer
Changes could be coming to the University’s final examinations period. USG Academics Committee chair Dillon Sharp ’14 presented a
series of recommendations for the final examinations period to the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing on Friday. His proposals ranged from giving extensions for Dean’s Date assignments to creating a
faculty-student committee that could help formalize how Reading Period is utilized. “I was very happy coming out of that meeting,” Sharp said. “I think that they received the recommenda-
tions well and I think that they appreciated the values that each one had.” The recommendations presented at the meeting partly came out of discussions Sharp had with numerous administrators,
professors and residential college directors of study. Sharp also used data collected in a student survey completed by approximately 10 percent of the student population across class years and See USG page 3
The Daily Princetonian
page 2
Tuesday october 8, 2013
Eisgruber ’83 charges faculty committee with reassessing grade deflation DEFLATION Continued from page 1
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Eisgruber said he supported grade deflation, calling it the “grading fairness policy.” A committee of nine faculty members has been tasked by Eisgruber to reevaluate Princeton’s grading policies, taking into account student feedback on the policy and the impact it may have on their graduate school and professional school prospects, according to the announcement. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Clarence Rowley will chair the committee. Princeton goes it alone The grade deflation policy was put in place in 2004, under the auspices of former Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, in response to perceived grade inflation in certain courses. When applying to jobs or graduate school, students may attach a letter from the University that explains the grading policy. After Monday’s announcement, Malkiel said in an interview that she felt the policy had been successful in achieving its objectives of establishing an even-handed grading policy across departments and differentiating between very good and exceptional student work.
“I think the problem with that is that people — students, faculty and others — have not well understood the meaning of the 35 percent. The 35 percent is a guideline; it’s not a quota,” Malkiel said. “I think people have misunderstood the 35 percent as a quota, and that’s gotten a lot of people riled up.” No peer institutions followed Princeton’s lead in taking institution-wide measures to curb grade inflation. At the time of the policy’s adoption, University administrators had hoped that peer institutions would follow Princeton’s lead in taking an institution-wide approach to curbing grade deflation, Malkiel said, who said this made her disappointed. She explained that she had been in touch with her counterparts at four different “Ivy-plus” peer institutions — though she declined to identify them — sharing data and reports on the policy with them. The “Ivy-plus” label refers to the eight schools of the Ivy League as well as Stanford, the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of these universities, Yale, launched a committee in Feburary to examine the school’s grading policy. In spring 2012, 62 percent of
grades given at Yale fell within the A-range, the grading committee announced. In response to student protests, Yale administrators agreed last spring to add student representatives to the committee. Current Dean of the College Valerie Smith, who succeeded Malkiel in July 2011, said in an interview she thought the review of the policy was “definitely timely.” “I fully support the practice of having a faculty committee review policy, and so I’m open to whatever the committee recommends,” she said Monday. Smith told The Daily Princetonian in March 2012 that she had no plans to overturn the grading policy and that she agreed with the basic “assumptions” underlying the policy, such as the idea that grades should offer students feedback on the quality of the work they submit in their courses. However, Smith also indicated at the time that she would seek to reframe the campus debate surrounding the grading policy. “We want to figure out a more effective way of communicating the spirit behind the policy and expanding the conversation around grading and assessment,” Smith said at the time.
Newman ’78 replaces Von Kohorn ’66 ALUMNI Continued from page 1
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campus for a three-day weekend. It will feature remarks by General David Petraeus GS ’87 and journalist George Will GS ’68. Newman said her values as chair could be presented in the acronym CHEER, which stands for Celebrating, Honoring, Embracing, Engaging and Recognizing Princeton alumni and alumni volunteers. While Newman looks to continue the Alumni Association’s success, she said she is also alert to future pitfalls. “We really are the envy of other institutions,” said Newman, adding that “whenever there are tough times financially, there are tough times in terms of people being willing to give their time, as well. So we’re all going to navigate our situation and our economy. Princeton weathers those kinds of things extraordinarily well,
but we still need to be aware of the economy.” Newman has a long history of involvement with the University. After winning the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest academic award bestowed upon an undergradu-
“We really are the envy of other institutions.” Nancy Newman ’78
ate, Newman was named a Marshall Scholar and studied at the University of London before attending Harvard Medical School. Newman is now a professor of ophthalmology and neurology at Emory University in Atlanta. Newman has volunteered
extensively throughout the alumni community, and served as a member of the board of trustees for 14 years. Those involved with the association say Newman has big shoes to fill: Von Kohorn, who served as chair for the past two years, left his mark on the association. “Henry was a wonderful president of the Alumni Association,” Miller said. “His two years were really focused on bringing more alumni into volunteer activities around the University. He was all about inclusion, and so many of the things the Alumni Association did in the past two years were about engaging alumni in different ways.” Von Kohorn, who declined to comment, held conferences and targeted events to reach out to specific demographics, such as the “She Roars” conference for women undergraduate and graduate alumnae. The new vice chair is Jeffrey Wieser ’74.
While Smith said that students and faculty had discussed their concerns about the grading policy in private conversations with her before, she said on Monday that she did not know where the impetus for policy change had come from. When asked about the potential consequences of a change in grading policy for students’ post-graduate prospects, Smith said she could not offer any prediction before the committee had looked at the data and made its recommendation about whether to change the policy. In his charge to the committee, Eisgruber wrote that “concerns persist that the grading policy may have had unintended impacts upon the undergraduate academic experience that are not consistent with our broader educational goals.” The committee Rowley, the chair of the committee, said he was approached by Eisgruber last week, and explained that the committee would seek, in the course of its review, to determine whether the objectives that originally motivated the policy were appropriate and, if they were, whether the current policy achieved those objectives in a way that produced “the fewest side effects.” “We will be looking at every available source of data that we can to determine whether the policy is meeting those objectives and whether it’s the most effective policy to do so,” Rowley said. After reviewing available data about the effect of the grading policy, the committee will make its recommendations to University faculty, likely in the form of a report, he explained. He said the committee has not yet met and has not yet set internal deadlines for reviewing different aspects of the policy. “I understand different faculty have different views toward the policy,” Rowley said.
“I personally have found it constructive to have a guideline for what one should aim for, but I see as just that, a guideline, not a quota.” The other members of the committee include economics professor Henry Farber, German professor Devin Fore, molecular biology professor Alison Gammie, English professor William Gleason, classics professor Joshua Katz, computer science professor Brian Kernighan, geosciences professor Bess Ward and sociology professor Robert Wuthnow. Associate Dean of the College Elizabeth Colagiuri will serve on the committee as staff. Student concerns Undergraduate Student Government president Shawon Jackson ’15 said he was “very excited” that Eisgruber is taking time to review the grading policy, adding that “it’s important for [Eisgruber] to make sure that we’re doing things as effectively as possible.” Jackson noted that pursuing a review of the policy had not been one of the USG’s top priorities. “I think that any reevaluation of the grading policy would have had to come first from the administration,” USG Academics Committee chair Dillon Sharp ’14 explained. “It’s not news to anybody that the students would support the formation of this committee.” While Jackson said that he could not speak to the specific concerns Eisgruber may be referring to, one unintended consequence of the current policy is confusion over the grading standards. “One of the biggest concerns that I hear is about whether the purpose of a grade is to see how you’re doing relative to the standards set in the course or to see how you’re doing relative to your peers,” Jackson explained. “For example if the initial standard is set at 90 percent is A-minus but the major-
ity of students in that course get an A-minus, does that mean you curve the grades such that some get a B or B-plus, or does everyone get an A-minus?” Despite the absence of undergraduate representatives on the committee, Jackson said that he appreciated that Eisgruber expects the committee to consult various constituents of the Princeton community. “I do hope that the faculty committee will do a survey with students, or hold focus groups or do other sorts of things to figure out what the opinion is, and if the committee decides not to do that — which I don’t foresee happening — then USG will approach the committee to see if we can give student input,” Jackson said. According to Sharp, one of the biggest unintended byproducts of the policy is its “psychological impact,” which, at times, has been negative. “The fact of the matter is that not everybody is going to get an A,” Sharp said. “So you have these kids who were incredibly smart in high school — and are still incredibly smart here — who, when being compared to their peers, their intelligence is not necessarily reflected in their grades.” Additionally, Sharp said that the policy has perhaps shifted the focus of the Princeton experience to grades, which is something that does not necessarily align with the “broader educational goals” of the University to which Eisgruber referred in his charge. “What you’re learning and what you’re experiencing before you even see your grades — that’s the important part,” Sharp said. “At the end of the day, grades are such a minimal part of the Princeton experience.” News Editor Patience Haggin, Associate Editor for News Catherine Ku and senior writer Teddy Schleifer contributed reporting for this story.
SERVICE IN STYLE
T HE DA ILY
Someone take your ‘Prince’? Get your fix online.
www.dailyprincetonian.com
KATHRYN MOORE :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Students browse the jewelry selection at Service in Style’s Bella U Jewelry Sale at Frist Campus Center Monday.
CORRECTION Due to an editing error, the Oct. 4 article “U. faculty and alumni discuss fossil fuel divestment at NYC panel” incorrectly stated that current PRINCO president Andrew Golden participated in the panel. He did not; former president Randall Hack ’69 did. Due to a reporting error, that same article misstated the position of Carl Ferenbach III ’64 within PRINCO. He is a current director. Due to incorrect information provided to The Daily Princetonian, the Oct. 3 article “Booker runs, buys ice cream for voters” incorrectly stated that Representative Rush Holt attended the fundraiser at the home of PRINCO president Andrew Golden and his wife Carol. Though Holt’s attendance was announced prior to the fundraiser, he did not attend the event. The ‘Prince’ regrets the errors.
The Daily Princetonian
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 3
PLO’s Areikat: Palestine cannot accept “a compromise on a compromise” PLO
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ARIEL FUTTER :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
A packed audience saw chief representative to the Palestinian Labor Organization Maen Rashid Areikat’s lecture on Monday in Dodds Auditorium.
Gibson ’65 presses Eisgruber ’83 at alumni gathering EISGRUBER Continued from page 1
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students. More service. More socioeconomic diversity.” Frequently leveraging information Gibson said he knew due to his role as trustee since 2006, Gibson said at the outset of the interview that his objective was to get Eisgruber to say something controversial. Asked whether it was fair that nearly 30 percent of legacies were admitted last year while the overall admission rate was 7.4 percent, Eisgruber said the higher admission rate for legacies was “about right.” “It’s a recognition of a special bond that Princeton has with its alumni and it matters so much to the University,” Eisgruber said. “That preference is literally a tie-breaker in cases where credentials are about even.” Eisgruber also elaborated on his decision to launch a review of the University’s grade deflation policy. The University President acknowledged that the grading policy may dampen the University’s admission yield and that it may affect students’ postgraduate opportunities. He cited an unnamed Harvard Business School study that, he said,
“raised a lot of concerns.” He did, however, note that he “has not seen evidence” that demonstrates a deleterious effect. Eisgruber has said the policy was the main gripe he heard on the listening tour he has conducted over the past few months, Gibson noted. Eisgruber, however, denied Gibson’s suggestion that Monday’s announcement was a “tacit admission that it’s failed.” “It is an admission that, after 10 years of discussing a policy that I think has had two admirable objectives — and moved us in an appropriate direction with those objectives — we should be thinking about whether or not we can learn anything from the experience that we’ve had,” he said. Eisgruber confirmed that Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye believes the grading policy is a reason why some students ultimately decide to turn down an offer at Princeton. Another issue that arose on the President’s listening tour, he said, was the prospect of increasing the size of the University’s undergraduate student body. Starting with the Class of 2011 and the opening of Whitman College, the University increased the size
of the each class from 1,200 to 1,300 students, following a report that recommended the construction of a sixth residential college. Eisgruber noted the University would expand again at some point. “Given the talent that’s available to us, we have a moral obligation as a university to educate more students if we can do so without diminishing the quality of the Princeton experience,” he said, and added that it is a question of when the University will expand, not if it will at all. Eisgruber confirmed Gibson’s observation that the new President is not “terribly comfortable” talking about himself. Gibson then asked Eisgruber whether he considered himself a “person of faith.” “Let me tell you what I believe and you can tell me whether you think I’m a person of faith,” he answered. After explaining that he sees himself as a “non-theistic Jew” who believes that the world is “ethically ordered,” Gibson and Eisgruber agreed that the new president is a person of faith. Eisgruber’s parents never told him and his sisters that they were Jewish, and Eisgruber didn’t learn his true heritage until his forties.
Gibson’s first question was why Eisgruber believed he’d been chosen as the new president. When Eisgruber answered that he did not want to think about that, Gibson pressed Eisgruber bluntly: “Did you want the job?” Gibson pointed out that Eisgruber told The Daily Princetonian during the presidential search that he didn’t consider himself a candidate for the job. Then, Eisgruber had said he would have been very happy to remain on the faculty. Another major policy conversation centered on the University’s efforts to improve campus socioeconomic and racial diversity. While Eisgruber argued the University has made great diversity gains within the undergraduate body, other populations — such as the faculty — haven’t shown the changes he would have liked to see. “We need to redouble our efforts there, and we will,” he said.
administration, praising him for always keeping Israel’s promises. He said the first statement current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu released after his 1996 election was that he would not adhere to the Oslo Accords. Throughout his speech, Areikat referred back to the themes of pursuing constructive negotiations and balancing Palestine’s newfound elevation in diplomatic status after being upgraded to a UN observer state in November. “The fact that we can, at any minute, apply to become members of all United Nations organizations has changed the dynamics in the Middle East,” Areikat said, adding that Palestine will now have the diplomatic leverage it has historically lacked in its relationship with Israel. Construction of Israeli housing settlements in Palestinian territory has been a particularly contentious point in relations between the two parties. Areikat remained firm in his stance against the settlements, calling them “illegal and illegitimate.” “This is … based on the international community position, on international law, on the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949,” Areikat said of his stance. “We are not changing our position,” he added. Despite Areikat’s discussion of the points of tension between the two parties, he nonetheless acknowledged there were commonalities between them. “An important agreement we both seem to share is that there will be no more interim agreements,” Areikat said. “The objective end goals of these negotiations are to reach the comprehensive just, and lasting peace that will put
an end to the conf lict and put an end to all claims between the two sides.” He added that the fact that the two parties have continued to talk despite incidents of violence against Palestinians by the Israeli Army indicates a break from the past. “No matter what happens, we will stay in the negotiating group,” he said. Areikat praised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, stating that Kerry knows the conf lict’s circumstances very well and “does not have future political ambitions.” Kerry has held seven to eight meetings with Palestine and Israel so far, and his multi-faceted “political, economic and security” approach is necessary to achieve a stable resolution to the conf lict, Areikat said. The political aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict indirectly reached Princeton in recent years. The Princeton Committee on Palestine sponsored a referendum in 2010 asking Dining Services to provide an alternative brand of hummus to its mainstay Sabra. Sabra is partly owned by the Strauss Group, whom the Committee alleged supported an Israeli Defense Forces brigade “accused of human rights abuses against Palestinians.” In response, the Center for Jewish Life released a statement that the “passage of the referendum would allow the referendum’s supporters to make a strong political statement about Israel.” The referendum failed by a vote of 1014-699. Areikat’s lecture was cosponsored by the Workshop on Arab Political Development and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton; the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia; and the Department of and Program in Near Eastern Studies.
Committee to evaluate take-home exams USG
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courses of study. Dean of the College Valerie Smith said the committee appreciated Sharp’s work and that he received “a very warm response,” but hesitated to discuss how the committee might respond. “I think that it would be premature to characterize the committee’s responses to individual recommendations until we’ve had a chance to think about them more closely and talk about them more,” Smith said. One proposal was to limit the time period for a takehome exam to a maximum of 12 hours from beginning to end. Any assessment longer than 12 hours, Sharp said, should be given as a Dean’s Date assignment. Sharp explained that there are only three sentences regulating the use of take-home tests in examination guidelines, which leaving a lot up to a professor’s interpretation.
“They’re kind of the Wild West of exams,” Sharp said in describing the tests. “A professor can put it whenever they want, they can do a lot with them, which is why professors like them. So part of this 12-hour limit thing is reining these in a little bit.” He also recommended that the period during which a take-home exam can be administered be lengthened, suggesting that takehome tests become available the Friday after Dean’s Date rather than the Monday after Dean’s Date. Sharp recommended that students should also be allowed to reschedule an examination if they are assigned an evening exam and another exam the next morning. Since students are currently allowed to reschedule exams that fall on the same day, Sharp argued that students should be allowed to reschedule consecutive exams that might cause a student to get little sleep and take the test at a disadvantage.
Sharp and the committee ran out of time during the meeting before the scheduling of finals examinations could be discussed. The Academics Committee recommended that the fall semester final examinations be placed before winter break rather than after, but the committee did not have time to discuss this recommendation. “The fall exams placement thing is always controversial, so that will need a whole separate discussion,” Sharp said. The committee will meet next in November. Smith said the discussion will continue at that point. “I think the committee is open to making some changes. I think if we weren’t open to making changes, we wouldn’t have had the conversation with him,” Smith said. Should the committee decide to make changes, Smith said, the changes would have to go through formal processes involving other committees.
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Lea Trusty columnist
Finding that special something
B
efore first arriving on Princeton’s campus last fall, I had subconsciously created a checklist with a million and one expectations for my four years here — meeting amazing people that I’d call friends for life, or discussing Thoreau under an oak tree. I admit that this isn’t the smartest thing to do, but with so many people telling me how amazing and life changing college would be, how could I not anticipate these experiences I was told were supposed to be happening? For the most part, a good chunk of these expectations have been met or will be. But one important one, one that is a bit more time-sensitive, has yet to occur. I am, of course, talking about finding the love of my life. I think I’m most disappointed that this hasn’t happened yet because it was the moment I could so vividly picture in my mind: I realize there are hundreds of options around me. I’m weighing them all, trying to be as rational as possible, when out of nowhere, my attention is grabbed. This one stands out from all the rest. I begin questioning everything I once thought I wanted, my goals and dreams have changed before my very eyes, and I can feel it in the core of my being that I have been permanently changed. Yes, I signed up for the ride, but I didn’t know it would take me to this terrifying, amazing place where I question everything I’ve ever thought about myself and my place in the world. This is what the moment of finding my academic passion would be like, or so I imagine. But in the past year I’ve been at Princeton, I have yet to find that one course by that one amazing professor which has hit me like a ton of bricks in signifying what I’m meant to do with my life. Don’t get me wrong; I know which areas of study are most interesting to me. When applying, the greatest allure of Princeton was the Wilson School. The idea of policy, creating effective change through analyzing all the results of the past, circumstances in the present and ramifications in the future, interests me because it is a conglomeration of so many areas of study. And I know that I want to help underserved communities, both in the United States and internationally. I want to be “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations,” and I find even knowing this is a blessing. But the romantic in me is simply waiting for a course to sweep me off my feet. Because even though I know I’m interested in policy, there are a million angles from which it can be approached. Moreover, even knowing I’m interested in international affairs and am planning to concentrate in Woody Woo, I’m left feeling strangely wary. I wonder if I’m choosing such a major because I think it’s safer than others that interest me, like English or Spanish and Portuguese languages and culture. I also wonder about the other possible paths I could take to achieve the end goal of helping underserved peoples — there are other available majors like sociology, or I could even study something completely different and find my way to the nonprofit sector later in life. Finally, I think on what my AP Psychology teacher in high school once told me, about how life’s possibilities for each of us are virtually endless. To keep our minds from being overwhelmed, he said, we tidily box ourselves into categories while rejecting all others. The idea of “one seminar to rule them all” changes then. It becomes less quixotic and acts more as a safety mechanism. You’ve encountered what you think to be your professional destiny. Thus, you can convince yourself that, after experiencing such a drastic alteration in your expected course, you’ve finally figured it all out. Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten relevant to this was over coffee with a friend and an awesome grad student we had sought out for a chat. He said, “Many people in Princeton are so concerned with the ‘what.’ And once they figure that out, they start creating a million different ‘hows.’ But I think the best thing you can do is know ‘why.’ If you know why you’re doing what you are, it all falls into place so much easier.” I may not know what I’m doing at Princeton or beyond. But I firmly believe in the why — “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations”—and that will be enough for now. Lea Trusty is a sophomore from Saint Rose, La. She can be reached at ltrusty@princeton. edu.
Opinion
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 4
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
Like a rodent Morgan Jerkins columnist
I
am a self-proclaimed rodent. My eyes are aglow when I see an email from the Free Food Listserv stating that there’s left over Indian food from Mehek or sandwiches from Olives. I try to control my excitement as the time gets nearer to when a study break is supposed to commence. If it’s food and it’s free, I’m there. In reality, I’m not a rodent. I’m simply an independent student who loves food. My other independent friends create strategies of how to take food and scurry away to return to their studies. But when one of my friends was on a mission to snag some ice cream from one organization on campus who was hosting a get-together, a member blasted my friend for her rudeness since my friend was not a member of the organization and therefore had no right to act like a vulture for food. And then I began to wonder: Is there a certain etiquette to picking up food from different
places? With the exceptions of the emails put out on the Free Food Listserv, are there any other places where picking up food is off limits? Sure, I know that when you go to information sessions for job recruitment, you shouldn’t just waltz right in there and grab something to eat. I’m talking about the events that are a little bit more low-key, the types of events where the interactions are more casual, such as study breaks and socials from organizations. I am fully aware that these organizations bring food to their events in order to lure people in, but herein lies the problem — the majority of the time, that is the only thing that lures people in. Once they get their plates of food, they walk out the door. Yes, I confess that I was one of those people. But now I am starting to regret those decisions because I never thought about just how hard members work to set up and run an event. If an event says “study break,” I, as well as other people, will treat it as such: Just a place to have a quick break. We grab food and drinks then dash out of there before anything even starts. If the event says “information session” then I am less likely to
vol. cxxxvii
attend because the event seems to be more formal. Trying to crash an information session just for food is the easiest way to have everyone in the room stare at you as you awkwardly make your exit. Maybe I’m taking everything a little too seriously. After all, a rodent doesn’t care which place it crashes for food. It doesn’t take into account how much effort may have been put into the preparation of food. But that’s just it — as cheesy as that analogy is, it doesn’t cut it anymore. I’m a student and member of this campus community. I don’t have to participate in every single place where I pick up food, but I should at least spare the time to pick my head up and not let the delicious smells of the food blind me. Even though my friend experienced that one isolated incident, the person who called her out is also a member of the Princeton community and just wanted someone to show more respect to her organization. Perhaps I need more balance: Don’t just take and take and take. Give a little bit. Morgan Jerkins is a comparative literature major from Williamstown, N.J. She can be reached at mjerkins@princeton.edu.
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 Kathleen Kiely ’77 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Richard P. Dzina, Jr. ’85 William R. Elfers ’71 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John G. Horan ’74 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy J. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Jerry Raymond ’73 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas Widmann ’90
137TH BUSINESS BOARD
First week vs. after
marisa chow ’17
..................................................
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
NIGHT STAFF 10.7.13 news Night Chief: Anna Mazarakis ’16 copy Julie Aromi ’15 Oren Fliegelman ’16 Natalie Gasparowicz ’16 Alex Schindele ’16 Michal Wiseman ’16 Dennis Yi ’16 design Debbie Yun ’16 Shirley Zhu ’16
Unless there’s consent Spencer Shen columnist
A
lcoholEdu has been part of Princeton’s smorgasbord of freshman orientation activities for several years, but this year the Class of 2017 had an additional online course to take before they set foot on campus. “Unless There’s Consent,” a program designed by SHARE to educate incoming freshmen on sexual harassment and abuse, is well-intentioned. Last year, when the results of a 2008 survey revealed that around 15 percent of female undergraduate students at Princeton had experienced “non-consensual vaginal penetration” during their four years here, there was anger, there was misanthropy and there was plenty of debate over what the administration could do to bring that number closer to zero. As of now, only the freshmen have taken “Unless There’s Consent” and there have only been five weekends for them to apply its lessons, so it isn’t really possible to gauge its effectiveness with hard data yet. However, it isn’t difficult to see how the program could have been created as a knee-jerk reaction to the uproar surrounding the survey’s results, instead of a long-term solution to a perennial problem. For a good comparison, all we have to do is take a look at the effectiveness of AlcoholEdu. It
might have some effect on how students choose to drink, and it’s hard to know what Princeton’s party scene would be like without AlcoholEdu. However, what we do know is that the kind of drinking that AlcoholEdu warns against occurs almost every Thursday and Saturday night, in rooms all over campus. AlcoholEdu might not be useless — it might be cutting the number of McCosh’d and PMC’d students in half for all we know — but it certainly isn’t effective enough to prevent the high-risk behavior it tries to discourage. The unfortunate reality is that there probably isn’t actually a way to completely suppress any student body’s tendency towards overdrinking, and the same is possibly true of sexual harassment. Like AlcoholEdu, “Unless There’s Consent” is a step in the right direction, as it represents at least a superficial investment in reducing the amount of sexual harassment and abuse that happens on campus. However, if the Princeton administration wants to be serious about preventing “non-consensual vaginal penetration” and similar behaviors, it needs to be willing to change the culture surrounding the Street, hookups, drinking and other smaller factors that contribute to the 15 percent figure, which many of us have already pushed to the back of our
minds. However, the issues that AlcoholEdu and “Unless There’s Consent” intend to tackle are problems at almost all colleges in the United Staes, so it is unlikely that Princeton’s administration can prevent its students from essentially behaving like typical college students. The root cause of the problem lies in the inability of an administration to change decades of accumulated “college culture” that revolves around drinking and sex, among other things. The same phenomenon happens with programs such as D.A.R.E. in middle schools and high schools, which does little to discourage students who are already using drugs from doing what they want. Many students have already been told what’s cool and what’s not cool by other students and popular culture, and no amount of AlcoholEdu-like initiatives is going to affect those perceptions once they’ve been made. The few colleges in the United States that have dry campuses don’t achieve that through any kind of administrative inf luence on the students; it is the students who actively accept a ban on alcohol and drugs. Whether Princeton’s administration tries strict rules and harsh punishments, like the Honor Code, or passive educational initiatives like AlcoholEdu (and presumably “Unless There’s
Consent”), it cannot actually alter students’ behavior significantly unless there’s consent from the students, so to speak. If even the legal ramifications of underage drinking or sexual assault can’t discourage students from engaging in those behaviors, then the administration has no hope of doing so either. For all the talk of consent and respect, a campus culture which embraces partying and drinking will inevitably result in some occurrences of “non-consensual vaginal penetration.” By going to the Street or a pregame, a student implicitly supports and accepts the same “college culture” that also spawned the idea of date rape. If we really want to prevent these situations from occurring, then we would need to reform the entire campus culture — the eating clubs wouldn’t hold any more parties, dorms would have to be substance-free and single-sex, and so on, with PSafe (or even the Princeton police!) strictly enforcing those rules. These might be extreme measures, but that’s what it would take for Princeton to truly prevent sexual harassment, non-consensual situations, high-risk drinking or anything else that is exacerbated by a party culture. Spencer Shen is a sophomore from Austin, Texas. He can be reached at szshen@princeton.edu.
The Daily Princetonian
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 5
Former Princeton star already a standout for Ippokratis Kos in Greece RASHEED Continued from page 6
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can do everything and she’s very professional.” According to Papouli, Ippokratis Kos was formed in 1978 and the women’s basketball team has played in the national league for the past three years, taking second place in the league last year. This is the first year that the team will play in the first division of the national league. “It’s like the same experience I had with Princeton — going to a program that was on the uprise and going into it making a statement,” Rasheed said. “So I had the chance to come and automatically make a difference and the coach told me I would be a huge asset and get a lot of playing time and be one of the main players for them, so obviously that’s enticing.” Princeton women’s basketball head coach Courtney
Banghart said she is proud of Rasheed’s decision, since she had to “go off the beaten path” that other Princeton students follow in order to find the career she wanted. “What Princeton does a really good job at is it prepares you for your next step, and, in her case, her next step was to play professional basketball,” Banghart said. “They’re building their team around her skillset, so she’s going to get lots of touches and she needs to — I mean the pro game is all about statistics.” Rasheed explained that her future is “unpredictable” at the moment as she builds her basketball resume. While she said she is enjoying her time in Greece and it would be “great” to stay, her stated goal is to work her way up into the Euro league. “Whatever opportunity presents itself, I’m looking forward to that but I know right now this is a great option and I’m excited to kind
ANANDA ZHU :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Niveen Rasheed ’13 had a great career at Princeton and has now gone pro in Greece. She hopes to eventually move up to the Euro league.
of expand my Euro basketball skills here,” Rasheed said. European basketball closely resembles basketball in America, the chief difference being that the shot clock is 24 seconds rather than 30 seconds. This change speeds up the pace of the game.
Rasheed added that European basketball is “a little more showy” and “a little more fun” since players like to “do little flashy things.” “I kind of like the faster pace game, and definitely I think my game is transitioning pretty well in this league,”
Rasheed said. For the time being, when she’s not on the court or in the gym, Rasheed gets to enjoy the Greek lifestyle: She goes to the beach, drinks coffee and enjoys late night gyros. “It’s weird, it’s exactly like the life of a student athlete
except you don’t have school, which is kind of a student athlete’s dream,” Rasheed said. “After practice you’re so tired, but you’re like ‘wait, I don’t have any homework due, I can just really hang out and not feel bad that I’m watching TV.’”
Sophomore talks minigolf, T-Pain, chucking clubs Mills brings lessons ON TAP from Carril to New York Continued from page 6
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DP: Which player on the women’s team is the most likely to f lip out on the course? AW: Most of the girls on the team are pretty mellow, and the guys are similar. I’d say I’m the hot head on the team, I sometimes have trouble controlling my emotions on the course.
AW: I’m kind of a badass at minigolf. My friends usually joke that they can crush me at minigolf, but I can obviously beat them playing with
“On one green I went down to read a put, and my pants ripped. I composed myself well ...”
DP: Any pre-match rituals? AW: Our team will always listen to T-Pain’s “Best Love Song,” as our coach just looks on and shakes her head. Individually, though, I have a pretty casual warm-up process. I’ll usually just go and hit some balls for a bit, take a few putts and say hello to some of my friends on other teams.
one arm. But I don’t actually minigolf that often. I’m around the sport so much that I usually shy away from doing it in my free time.
DP: How good are you at mini golf?
DP: Do you bring your own putter onto the minigolf course?
Alex Wong
AW: I usually bring my own putter, sometimes my own ball, too.
DP: How do you block out pressure that you feel in crucial moments of a round? AW: My coach back home is a mental coach, too, so we go through meditation exercises to block out the pressure. My routine is to just go into autopilot when I play. I’m pretty sensitive to pressure, so it can be hard to keep myself in check. DP: How often do you break your clubs (on purpose or by accident)? AW: I’ve gotten close, but I’ve never broken a club. One time my sister and I were doing a putting drill, and I just couldn’t get it right. I got so frustrated that I chucked my putter toward the freeway. Then I had to hop a fence and go get it.
DP: What are your thoughts on “Breaking Bad” coming to an end?
MILLS
Continued from page 6
“I would probably play something where you could be more physical, knock girls down.” Alex Wong
AW: I actually don’t watch “Breaking Bad.” I get a lot of crap for it. I nod and pretend to know what people are talking about when they talk about the meth, but haven’t actually seen it. I really like “Game of Thrones” and “Scandal.”
.............
that part of what I want to do is make sure that they’re successful people in addition to being great basketball players,” he said. “Virtually all the guys on the team have come in to sit down with me and talk about … what we need to do to be successful as a team and try to win a championship. But it’s also important for me to have conversations about what kind of support they need to be successful when they’re out in the real world, away from the Knicks.” Mills describes himself as a “players’ guy” and feels he can relate to the backgrounds of his athletes. One particular place he wants to make a difference is with 28-year-old shooting guard J.R. Smith, who
has received five separate NBA suspensions since 2006. Mills says even before he accepted the new job, Smith had begun seeking advice from Mills for improving his off-the-court issues. When questioned about Smith’s conspicuous absence from his otherwise active Twitter page, Mills dismissed the superstar’s notorious social media troubles as the reason. “Oh no, I just haven’t gotten around to following J.R.,” he said with a laugh. “J.R. and I have a great relationship, and I’ll have to go and make sure I follow him as soon as we hang up.” Just as he has to Princeton athletics and the principles they have instilled in him, Mills remained true to his promise — he was following @TheRealJRSmith within an hour of his interview with the
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Sophomore golfer Alex Wong played in six events last year. Her best finish was at the Low Country Intercollegiate.
Sports
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 6
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } { Feature }
A “players’ guy,” Mills ’81 joins Knicks By John Wolfe senior writer
Earlier this month, the New York Knicks announced that Steve Mills ’81 will replace Glen Grunwald as the team’s president and general manager. During Grunwald’s two-year tenure, the Knicks attained their two highest winning percentages since 2001 and ended a postseason victory drought of 13 seasons. Mills will pick up where he left off, hoping to send the team past the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2000. At Princeton, Mills majored in sociology and won two Ivy League Championships under the legendary Pete Carril before logging one season of professional basketball in Ecuador. From there, he spent 16 years working his way up the NBA’s executive ranks and was later named Madison Square Garden’s president and COO in 2003. Mills left the position in 2009 to join Magic Johnson Enterprises, where he worked until being called back to the Knicks. An active supporter of Princeton’s athletic community, Mills credits the professional success he has enjoyed to the preparation with which his alma mater provided him
on and off the court. “When you’re fortunate enough to be at a place where you can attack athletics with a tremendous amount of vigor, but at the same time be in a very stimulating academic environment — that’s a unique opportunity,” he said. One particularly strong source of knowledge for Mills was his head coach, 13-time Ivy League Champion Pete Carril. Mills believes that the same lessons Carril used to make his players successful teammates have translated to their professional lives years later. “[Coach Carril] taught us how to be disciplined,” he said. “He told us how to be honest and about looking at our deficiencies and trying to improve them.” Outside Jadwin Gymnasium, Mills sought counsel from Princeton faculty members — most notably professor Marvin Bressler of the sociology department. Bressler took a particular interest in mentoring the basketball team and the rest of Princeton’s athletes, striving to facilitate their academic and social transitions to college life. When Mills decided he wanted to return the favor by teaching a class of his own at Princeton, it was Bressler he
called to discuss his options. Hoping to relay the wisdom he had gained from his career to younger students and athletes as Bressler had once done for him, he taught a freshman seminar titled, “Dilemmas in Intercollegiate and Professional Athletics.” But educating Princeton freshmen — including current senior forward Will Barrett and senior guard Jimmy Sherburn of the men’s basketball team — is only one of the ways Mills has worked to remain involved with Princeton athletics. A current member of the Princeton Varsity Club’s board, Mills served on the search committee that hired head basketball coach Mitch Henderson in 2011. He frequently attends men’s and women’s basketball practices and plans on-campus visits to meet recruits. Grateful for the positive influences of Carril and Bressel, Mills desires to help young athletes succeed beyond the scope of their sport. This same perspective will guide his approach to leading professional players as the GM of the Knicks, where he hopes his impact will transcend the game of basketball. “[The Knicks] understand See MILLS page 5
COURTESY OF CHET GORDON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Steve Mills ’81 will take over as the president and general manager of the New York Knicks organization. Mills is leaving Magic Johnson Enterprises in order to take the position.
{ Feature }
Rasheed ’13 goes pro, goes Greek By Anna Mazarakis staff writer
Former guard Niveen Rasheed ’13, perhaps the best player in the history of Princeton women’s basketball, was sad when she left Jadwin Gymnasium for the last time. Unlike most of her teammates and classmates, however, Rasheed knew she wanted to keep playing basketball. After a long summer of training, Rasheed achieved her goal of going pro. On Aug. 16 the University’s athletic de-
partment announced that Rasheed had signed a contract to play professionally in Greece. Within two weeks, Rasheed was on a plane to Kos, a Greek island in the southeastern Aegean Sea near Turkey to play for the Ippokratis Kos team. “Everyone is amazing here,” Rasheed said. “They’re so nice, they definitely treat you not like a foreigner, but they bring you in like a family, which is amazing.” Rasheed is off to a good start with the team: In the first official game of the
season in Crete, her team won 71-68. Rasheed scored 19 points during the game, several points more than the 16.7 points per game she averaged during her final college season. “I wanted to find something that will be fit to our team, and it will be the star of our team and come play some two or three different positions in basketball,” Ippokratis Kos assistant coach Yanni Papouli said. “Niveen had these positive things that we were looking about.” As the assistant coach, Pa-
pouli showed videos of three potential players to the head coach, and the only player they both agreed on was Rasheed. Papouli said he was drawn to Rasheed because of the energy she brought to play the game and the energy she transmitted to her teammates. He was also impressed by how well she could run, shoot, score, rebound and pass. “She’s a very special athlete, a very special person,” Papouli said. “It’s like a blessing that we have Niveen. She See RASHEED page 5
MEN’S SOCCER
{
On Tap
On Tap with ... Alex Wong By Jack Rogers staff writer
Alex Wong is a sophomore on the women’s golf team. Playing in six events during her freshman year, Wong managed to shoot the lowest round of any Tiger in a team event on the season with a 70 at the Nittany Lion Invitational. She also finished in a tie for No. 8 at last year’s Low Country Intercollegiate. Alex sat down with The Daily Princetonian to talk about her best and worst moments on the course, her prowess at minigolf and her thoughts on the end of “Breaking Bad.” Daily Princetonian: Where are you from, and what’s the best part about it? Alex Wong: I’m from San Francisco, Calif. The best part about it is the diversity. There’s good ethnic food, and the people are really chill compared to the East Coast. DP: When did you start golfing? AW: I have a twin sister, and we got in it together when we were six or seven. We spent a lot of years golfing with our dad. We’d just bring our baby clubs onto the course when we were young.
DANIELA COSIO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s soccer team will host Drexel in its fourth home game of the season. The Tigers are 2-1 at home so far this season.
}
DP: If you could join a different team, what would it be? AW: I would probably join something where you could be more physical and knock girls around. Maybe soccer or basketball, but I’m terrible at both.
DP: What has been your best career performance so far? AW: There’s this really big tournament at home called the San Francisco City Championship. It extends three to four weekends in match play format, and all amateurs play in it. I started playing in the tournament when I was 11 and, when it was held at my home course during my senior year of high school, I won right before I left for college. DP: What has been your most embarrassing moment on the course? AW: Once I was playing golf with these two guys back home who were a big deal in high school. On one green I went down to read a putt, and my pants ripped. I composed myself well, though: I tied a sweatshirt around my waist and went on to beat them, of course. DP: Do you have a favorite teammate? AW: [Senior] Kelly Shon is somebody I really look up to right now. The way she balances herself and carries herself at practice makes her somebody who our whole team looks up to as our leader. DP: Weirdest person on the team? AW: [Junior] Mary Funk is probably my quirkiest teammate. She’s just a 5-foot, 100-pound ball of energy. I’d say I’m the weirdest person on the entire team, though. See ON TAP page 5
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Lea Trusty columnist
Finding that special something
B
efore first arriving on Princeton’s campus last fall, I had subconsciously created a checklist with a million and one expectations for my four years here — meeting amazing people that I’d call friends for life, or discussing Thoreau under an oak tree. I admit that this isn’t the smartest thing to do, but with so many people telling me how amazing and life changing college would be, how could I not anticipate these experiences I was told were supposed to be happening? For the most part, a good chunk of these expectations have been met or will be. But one important one, one that is a bit more time-sensitive, has yet to occur. I am, of course, talking about finding the love of my life. I think I’m most disappointed that this hasn’t happened yet because it was the moment I could so vividly picture in my mind: I realize there are hundreds of options around me. I’m weighing them all, trying to be as rational as possible, when out of nowhere, my attention is grabbed. This one stands out from all the rest. I begin questioning everything I once thought I wanted, my goals and dreams have changed before my very eyes, and I can feel it in the core of my being that I have been permanently changed. Yes, I signed up for the ride, but I didn’t know it would take me to this terrifying, amazing place where I question everything I’ve ever thought about myself and my place in the world. This is what the moment of finding my academic passion would be like, or so I imagine. But in the past year I’ve been at Princeton, I have yet to find that one course by that one amazing professor which has hit me like a ton of bricks in signifying what I’m meant to do with my life. Don’t get me wrong; I know which areas of study are most interesting to me. When applying, the greatest allure of Princeton was the Wilson School. The idea of policy, creating effective change through analyzing all the results of the past, circumstances in the present and ramifications in the future, interests me because it is a conglomeration of so many areas of study. And I know that I want to help underserved communities, both in the United States and internationally. I want to be “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations,” and I find even knowing this is a blessing. But the romantic in me is simply waiting for a course to sweep me off my feet. Because even though I know I’m interested in policy, there are a million angles from which it can be approached. Moreover, even knowing I’m interested in international affairs and am planning to concentrate in Woody Woo, I’m left feeling strangely wary. I wonder if I’m choosing such a major because I think it’s safer than others that interest me, like English or Spanish and Portuguese languages and culture. I also wonder about the other possible paths I could take to achieve the end goal of helping underserved peoples — there are other available majors like sociology, or I could even study something completely different and find my way to the nonprofit sector later in life. Finally, I think on what my AP Psychology teacher in high school once told me, about how life’s possibilities for each of us are virtually endless. To keep our minds from being overwhelmed, he said, we tidily box ourselves into categories while rejecting all others. The idea of “one seminar to rule them all” changes then. It becomes less quixotic and acts more as a safety mechanism. You’ve encountered what you think to be your professional destiny. Thus, you can convince yourself that, after experiencing such a drastic alteration in your expected course, you’ve finally figured it all out. Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten relevant to this was over coffee with a friend and an awesome grad student we had sought out for a chat. He said, “Many people in Princeton are so concerned with the ‘what.’ And once they figure that out, they start creating a million different ‘hows.’ But I think the best thing you can do is know ‘why.’ If you know why you’re doing what you are, it all falls into place so much easier.” I may not know what I’m doing at Princeton or beyond. But I firmly believe in the why — “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations”—and that will be enough for now. Lea Trusty is a sophomore from Saint Rose, La. She can be reached at ltrusty@princeton. edu.
Opinion
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 4
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
Like a rodent Morgan Jerkins columnist
I
am a self-proclaimed rodent. My eyes are aglow when I see an email from the Free Food Listserv stating that there’s left over Indian food from Mehek or sandwiches from Olives. I try to control my excitement as the time gets nearer to when a study break is supposed to commence. If it’s food and it’s free, I’m there. In reality, I’m not a rodent. I’m simply an independent student who loves food. My other independent friends create strategies of how to take food and scurry away to return to their studies. But when one of my friends was on a mission to snag some ice cream from one organization on campus who was hosting a get-together, a member blasted my friend for her rudeness since my friend was not a member of the organization and therefore had no right to act like a vulture for food. And then I began to wonder: Is there a certain etiquette to picking up food from different
places? With the exceptions of the emails put out on the Free Food Listserv, are there any other places where picking up food is off limits? Sure, I know that when you go to information sessions for job recruitment, you shouldn’t just waltz right in there and grab something to eat. I’m talking about the events that are a little bit more low-key, the types of events where the interactions are more casual, such as study breaks and socials from organizations. I am fully aware that these organizations bring food to their events in order to lure people in, but herein lies the problem — the majority of the time, that is the only thing that lures people in. Once they get their plates of food, they walk out the door. Yes, I confess that I was one of those people. But now I am starting to regret those decisions because I never thought about just how hard members work to set up and run an event. If an event says “study break,” I, as well as other people, will treat it as such: Just a place to have a quick break. We grab food and drinks then dash out of there before anything even starts. If the event says “information session” then I am less likely to
vol. cxxxvii
attend because the event seems to be more formal. Trying to crash an information session just for food is the easiest way to have everyone in the room stare at you as you awkwardly make your exit. Maybe I’m taking everything a little too seriously. After all, a rodent doesn’t care which place it crashes for food. It doesn’t take into account how much effort may have been put into the preparation of food. But that’s just it — as cheesy as that analogy is, it doesn’t cut it anymore. I’m a student and member of this campus community. I don’t have to participate in every single place where I pick up food, but I should at least spare the time to pick my head up and not let the delicious smells of the food blind me. Even though my friend experienced that one isolated incident, the person who called her out is also a member of the Princeton community and just wanted someone to show more respect to her organization. Perhaps I need more balance: Don’t just take and take and take. Give a little bit. Morgan Jerkins is a comparative literature major from Williamstown, N.J. She can be reached at mjerkins@princeton.edu.
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 Kathleen Kiely ’77 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Richard P. Dzina, Jr. ’85 William R. Elfers ’71 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John G. Horan ’74 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy J. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Jerry Raymond ’73 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas Widmann ’90
137TH BUSINESS BOARD
First week vs. after
marisa chow ’17
..................................................
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
NIGHT STAFF 10.7.13 news Night Chief: Anna Mazarakis ’16 copy Julie Aromi ’15 Oren Fliegelman ’16 Natalie Gasparowicz ’16 Alex Schindele ’16 Michal Wiseman ’16 Dennis Yi ’16 design Debbie Yun ’16 Shirley Zhu ’16
Unless there’s consent Spencer Shen columnist
A
lcoholEdu has been part of Princeton’s smorgasbord of freshman orientation activities for several years, but this year the Class of 2017 had an additional online course to take before they set foot on campus. “Unless There’s Consent,” a program designed by SHARE to educate incoming freshmen on sexual harassment and abuse, is well-intentioned. Last year, when the results of a 2008 survey revealed that around 15 percent of female undergraduate students at Princeton had experienced “non-consensual vaginal penetration” during their four years here, there was anger, there was misanthropy and there was plenty of debate over what the administration could do to bring that number closer to zero. As of now, only the freshmen have taken “Unless There’s Consent” and there have only been five weekends for them to apply its lessons, so it isn’t really possible to gauge its effectiveness with hard data yet. However, it isn’t difficult to see how the program could have been created as a knee-jerk reaction to the uproar surrounding the survey’s results, instead of a long-term solution to a perennial problem. For a good comparison, all we have to do is take a look at the effectiveness of AlcoholEdu. It
might have some effect on how students choose to drink, and it’s hard to know what Princeton’s party scene would be like without AlcoholEdu. However, what we do know is that the kind of drinking that AlcoholEdu warns against occurs almost every Thursday and Saturday night, in rooms all over campus. AlcoholEdu might not be useless — it might be cutting the number of McCosh’d and PMC’d students in half for all we know — but it certainly isn’t effective enough to prevent the high-risk behavior it tries to discourage. The unfortunate reality is that there probably isn’t actually a way to completely suppress any student body’s tendency towards overdrinking, and the same is possibly true of sexual harassment. Like AlcoholEdu, “Unless There’s Consent” is a step in the right direction, as it represents at least a superficial investment in reducing the amount of sexual harassment and abuse that happens on campus. However, if the Princeton administration wants to be serious about preventing “non-consensual vaginal penetration” and similar behaviors, it needs to be willing to change the culture surrounding the Street, hookups, drinking and other smaller factors that contribute to the 15 percent figure, which many of us have already pushed to the back of our
minds. However, the issues that AlcoholEdu and “Unless There’s Consent” intend to tackle are problems at almost all colleges in the United Staes, so it is unlikely that Princeton’s administration can prevent its students from essentially behaving like typical college students. The root cause of the problem lies in the inability of an administration to change decades of accumulated “college culture” that revolves around drinking and sex, among other things. The same phenomenon happens with programs such as D.A.R.E. in middle schools and high schools, which does little to discourage students who are already using drugs from doing what they want. Many students have already been told what’s cool and what’s not cool by other students and popular culture, and no amount of AlcoholEdu-like initiatives is going to affect those perceptions once they’ve been made. The few colleges in the United States that have dry campuses don’t achieve that through any kind of administrative inf luence on the students; it is the students who actively accept a ban on alcohol and drugs. Whether Princeton’s administration tries strict rules and harsh punishments, like the Honor Code, or passive educational initiatives like AlcoholEdu (and presumably “Unless There’s
Consent”), it cannot actually alter students’ behavior significantly unless there’s consent from the students, so to speak. If even the legal ramifications of underage drinking or sexual assault can’t discourage students from engaging in those behaviors, then the administration has no hope of doing so either. For all the talk of consent and respect, a campus culture which embraces partying and drinking will inevitably result in some occurrences of “non-consensual vaginal penetration.” By going to the Street or a pregame, a student implicitly supports and accepts the same “college culture” that also spawned the idea of date rape. If we really want to prevent these situations from occurring, then we would need to reform the entire campus culture — the eating clubs wouldn’t hold any more parties, dorms would have to be substance-free and single-sex, and so on, with PSafe (or even the Princeton police!) strictly enforcing those rules. These might be extreme measures, but that’s what it would take for Princeton to truly prevent sexual harassment, non-consensual situations, high-risk drinking or anything else that is exacerbated by a party culture. Spencer Shen is a sophomore from Austin, Texas. He can be reached at szshen@princeton.edu.
The Daily Princetonian
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 5
Former Princeton star already a standout for Ippokratis Kos in Greece RASHEED Continued from page 6
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can do everything and she’s very professional.” According to Papouli, Ippokratis Kos was formed in 1978 and the women’s basketball team has played in the national league for the past three years, taking second place in the league last year. This is the first year that the team will play in the first division of the national league. “It’s like the same experience I had with Princeton — going to a program that was on the uprise and going into it making a statement,” Rasheed said. “So I had the chance to come and automatically make a difference and the coach told me I would be a huge asset and get a lot of playing time and be one of the main players for them, so obviously that’s enticing.” Princeton women’s basketball head coach Courtney
Banghart said she is proud of Rasheed’s decision, since she had to “go off the beaten path” that other Princeton students follow in order to find the career she wanted. “What Princeton does a really good job at is it prepares you for your next step, and, in her case, her next step was to play professional basketball,” Banghart said. “They’re building their team around her skillset, so she’s going to get lots of touches and she needs to — I mean the pro game is all about statistics.” Rasheed explained that her future is “unpredictable” at the moment as she builds her basketball resume. While she said she is enjoying her time in Greece and it would be “great” to stay, her stated goal is to work her way up into the Euro league. “Whatever opportunity presents itself, I’m looking forward to that but I know right now this is a great option and I’m excited to kind
ANANDA ZHU :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Niveen Rasheed ’13 had a great career at Princeton and has now gone pro in Greece. She hopes to eventually move up to the Euro league.
of expand my Euro basketball skills here,” Rasheed said. European basketball closely resembles basketball in America, the chief difference being that the shot clock is 24 seconds rather than 30 seconds. This change speeds up the pace of the game.
Rasheed added that European basketball is “a little more showy” and “a little more fun” since players like to “do little flashy things.” “I kind of like the faster pace game, and definitely I think my game is transitioning pretty well in this league,”
Rasheed said. For the time being, when she’s not on the court or in the gym, Rasheed gets to enjoy the Greek lifestyle: She goes to the beach, drinks coffee and enjoys late night gyros. “It’s weird, it’s exactly like the life of a student athlete
except you don’t have school, which is kind of a student athlete’s dream,” Rasheed said. “After practice you’re so tired, but you’re like ‘wait, I don’t have any homework due, I can just really hang out and not feel bad that I’m watching TV.’”
Sophomore talks minigolf, T-Pain, chucking clubs Mills brings lessons ON TAP from Carril to New York Continued from page 6
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DP: Which player on the women’s team is the most likely to f lip out on the course? AW: Most of the girls on the team are pretty mellow, and the guys are similar. I’d say I’m the hot head on the team, I sometimes have trouble controlling my emotions on the course.
AW: I’m kind of a badass at minigolf. My friends usually joke that they can crush me at minigolf, but I can obviously beat them playing with
“On one green I went down to read a put, and my pants ripped. I composed myself well ...”
DP: Any pre-match rituals? AW: Our team will always listen to T-Pain’s “Best Love Song,” as our coach just looks on and shakes her head. Individually, though, I have a pretty casual warm-up process. I’ll usually just go and hit some balls for a bit, take a few putts and say hello to some of my friends on other teams.
one arm. But I don’t actually minigolf that often. I’m around the sport so much that I usually shy away from doing it in my free time.
DP: How good are you at mini golf?
DP: Do you bring your own putter onto the minigolf course?
Alex Wong
AW: I usually bring my own putter, sometimes my own ball, too.
DP: How do you block out pressure that you feel in crucial moments of a round? AW: My coach back home is a mental coach, too, so we go through meditation exercises to block out the pressure. My routine is to just go into autopilot when I play. I’m pretty sensitive to pressure, so it can be hard to keep myself in check. DP: How often do you break your clubs (on purpose or by accident)? AW: I’ve gotten close, but I’ve never broken a club. One time my sister and I were doing a putting drill, and I just couldn’t get it right. I got so frustrated that I chucked my putter toward the freeway. Then I had to hop a fence and go get it.
DP: What are your thoughts on “Breaking Bad” coming to an end?
MILLS
Continued from page 6
“I would probably play something where you could be more physical, knock girls down.” Alex Wong
AW: I actually don’t watch “Breaking Bad.” I get a lot of crap for it. I nod and pretend to know what people are talking about when they talk about the meth, but haven’t actually seen it. I really like “Game of Thrones” and “Scandal.”
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that part of what I want to do is make sure that they’re successful people in addition to being great basketball players,” he said. “Virtually all the guys on the team have come in to sit down with me and talk about … what we need to do to be successful as a team and try to win a championship. But it’s also important for me to have conversations about what kind of support they need to be successful when they’re out in the real world, away from the Knicks.” Mills describes himself as a “players’ guy” and feels he can relate to the backgrounds of his athletes. One particular place he wants to make a difference is with 28-year-old shooting guard J.R. Smith, who
has received five separate NBA suspensions since 2006. Mills says even before he accepted the new job, Smith had begun seeking advice from Mills for improving his off-the-court issues. When questioned about Smith’s conspicuous absence from his otherwise active Twitter page, Mills dismissed the superstar’s notorious social media troubles as the reason. “Oh no, I just haven’t gotten around to following J.R.,” he said with a laugh. “J.R. and I have a great relationship, and I’ll have to go and make sure I follow him as soon as we hang up.” Just as he has to Princeton athletics and the principles they have instilled in him, Mills remained true to his promise — he was following @TheRealJRSmith within an hour of his interview with the
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Sophomore golfer Alex Wong played in six events last year. Her best finish was at the Low Country Intercollegiate.
Sports
Tuesday october 8, 2013
page 6
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } { Feature }
A “players’ guy,” Mills ’81 joins Knicks By John Wolfe senior writer
Earlier this month, the New York Knicks announced that Steve Mills ’81 will replace Glen Grunwald as the team’s president and general manager. During Grunwald’s two-year tenure, the Knicks attained their two highest winning percentages since 2001 and ended a postseason victory drought of 13 seasons. Mills will pick up where he left off, hoping to send the team past the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2000. At Princeton, Mills majored in sociology and won two Ivy League Championships under the legendary Pete Carril before logging one season of professional basketball in Ecuador. From there, he spent 16 years working his way up the NBA’s executive ranks and was later named Madison Square Garden’s president and COO in 2003. Mills left the position in 2009 to join Magic Johnson Enterprises, where he worked until being called back to the Knicks. An active supporter of Princeton’s athletic community, Mills credits the professional success he has enjoyed to the preparation with which his alma mater provided him
on and off the court. “When you’re fortunate enough to be at a place where you can attack athletics with a tremendous amount of vigor, but at the same time be in a very stimulating academic environment — that’s a unique opportunity,” he said. One particularly strong source of knowledge for Mills was his head coach, 13-time Ivy League Champion Pete Carril. Mills believes that the same lessons Carril used to make his players successful teammates have translated to their professional lives years later. “[Coach Carril] taught us how to be disciplined,” he said. “He told us how to be honest and about looking at our deficiencies and trying to improve them.” Outside Jadwin Gymnasium, Mills sought counsel from Princeton faculty members — most notably professor Marvin Bressler of the sociology department. Bressler took a particular interest in mentoring the basketball team and the rest of Princeton’s athletes, striving to facilitate their academic and social transitions to college life. When Mills decided he wanted to return the favor by teaching a class of his own at Princeton, it was Bressler he
called to discuss his options. Hoping to relay the wisdom he had gained from his career to younger students and athletes as Bressler had once done for him, he taught a freshman seminar titled, “Dilemmas in Intercollegiate and Professional Athletics.” But educating Princeton freshmen — including current senior forward Will Barrett and senior guard Jimmy Sherburn of the men’s basketball team — is only one of the ways Mills has worked to remain involved with Princeton athletics. A current member of the Princeton Varsity Club’s board, Mills served on the search committee that hired head basketball coach Mitch Henderson in 2011. He frequently attends men’s and women’s basketball practices and plans on-campus visits to meet recruits. Grateful for the positive influences of Carril and Bressel, Mills desires to help young athletes succeed beyond the scope of their sport. This same perspective will guide his approach to leading professional players as the GM of the Knicks, where he hopes his impact will transcend the game of basketball. “[The Knicks] understand See MILLS page 5
COURTESY OF CHET GORDON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Steve Mills ’81 will take over as the president and general manager of the New York Knicks organization. Mills is leaving Magic Johnson Enterprises in order to take the position.
{ Feature }
Rasheed ’13 goes pro, goes Greek By Anna Mazarakis staff writer
Former guard Niveen Rasheed ’13, perhaps the best player in the history of Princeton women’s basketball, was sad when she left Jadwin Gymnasium for the last time. Unlike most of her teammates and classmates, however, Rasheed knew she wanted to keep playing basketball. After a long summer of training, Rasheed achieved her goal of going pro. On Aug. 16 the University’s athletic de-
partment announced that Rasheed had signed a contract to play professionally in Greece. Within two weeks, Rasheed was on a plane to Kos, a Greek island in the southeastern Aegean Sea near Turkey to play for the Ippokratis Kos team. “Everyone is amazing here,” Rasheed said. “They’re so nice, they definitely treat you not like a foreigner, but they bring you in like a family, which is amazing.” Rasheed is off to a good start with the team: In the first official game of the
season in Crete, her team won 71-68. Rasheed scored 19 points during the game, several points more than the 16.7 points per game she averaged during her final college season. “I wanted to find something that will be fit to our team, and it will be the star of our team and come play some two or three different positions in basketball,” Ippokratis Kos assistant coach Yanni Papouli said. “Niveen had these positive things that we were looking about.” As the assistant coach, Pa-
pouli showed videos of three potential players to the head coach, and the only player they both agreed on was Rasheed. Papouli said he was drawn to Rasheed because of the energy she brought to play the game and the energy she transmitted to her teammates. He was also impressed by how well she could run, shoot, score, rebound and pass. “She’s a very special athlete, a very special person,” Papouli said. “It’s like a blessing that we have Niveen. She See RASHEED page 5
MEN’S SOCCER
{
On Tap
On Tap with ... Alex Wong By Jack Rogers staff writer
Alex Wong is a sophomore on the women’s golf team. Playing in six events during her freshman year, Wong managed to shoot the lowest round of any Tiger in a team event on the season with a 70 at the Nittany Lion Invitational. She also finished in a tie for No. 8 at last year’s Low Country Intercollegiate. Alex sat down with The Daily Princetonian to talk about her best and worst moments on the course, her prowess at minigolf and her thoughts on the end of “Breaking Bad.” Daily Princetonian: Where are you from, and what’s the best part about it? Alex Wong: I’m from San Francisco, Calif. The best part about it is the diversity. There’s good ethnic food, and the people are really chill compared to the East Coast. DP: When did you start golfing? AW: I have a twin sister, and we got in it together when we were six or seven. We spent a lot of years golfing with our dad. We’d just bring our baby clubs onto the course when we were young.
DANIELA COSIO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The men’s soccer team will host Drexel in its fourth home game of the season. The Tigers are 2-1 at home so far this season.
}
DP: If you could join a different team, what would it be? AW: I would probably join something where you could be more physical and knock girls around. Maybe soccer or basketball, but I’m terrible at both.
DP: What has been your best career performance so far? AW: There’s this really big tournament at home called the San Francisco City Championship. It extends three to four weekends in match play format, and all amateurs play in it. I started playing in the tournament when I was 11 and, when it was held at my home course during my senior year of high school, I won right before I left for college. DP: What has been your most embarrassing moment on the course? AW: Once I was playing golf with these two guys back home who were a big deal in high school. On one green I went down to read a putt, and my pants ripped. I composed myself well, though: I tied a sweatshirt around my waist and went on to beat them, of course. DP: Do you have a favorite teammate? AW: [Senior] Kelly Shon is somebody I really look up to right now. The way she balances herself and carries herself at practice makes her somebody who our whole team looks up to as our leader. DP: Weirdest person on the team? AW: [Junior] Mary Funk is probably my quirkiest teammate. She’s just a 5-foot, 100-pound ball of energy. I’d say I’m the weirdest person on the entire team, though. See ON TAP page 5
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