February 23, 2017

Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Thursday February 23, 2017 vol. cxli no. 13

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } U . A F FA I R S

Independents seek better living conditions

By Kevin Agostinelli staff writer

After stepping into the Scully kitchen to prepare her dinner, only to find yet another mess of unwashed counter tops and remnants of food left by non-independent students, Arlene Gamio ’18 was fed up.

Gamio expressed their frustration with the present state of affairs of independent students on Feb. 4, calling on their fellow independents to voice their grievances through submissions to their survey posted on Facebook.

The University cannot expect students to be independent while at the same time not providing the resources to make this option feasible, Gamio said.

“It is not a coincidence that many independent students are low-income and first generation,” they explained. “As a lowincome, first generation student of color, being independent was the most feasible option for me.”

Gamio is not the only independent student ready for some change. Cailin Hong ’17, a member of the Independent Students’ Advisory Board (ISAB), said that many of her independent friends identify as low-income, or were at least concerned enough about finances that cost-saving motivated their decision to choose an independent eating plan.

These comments have come into a new light after President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 released his annual letter on the State of the University, sent out to students on Feb. 15, which

highlighted the rapid increase in socioeconomic diversity as a result of recent University initiatives and the University’s need to “ensure that [students with disadvantaged backgrounds] have the financial and other support required to thrive at Princeton.”

The ISAB published a survey Nov. 22, 2016, asking independent students to share their opinions about independent housing, as well as any suggestions that they had for improving the system.

The survey received 102 responses.

When asked why they chose to go independent, 50 percent of students’ answers included financial reasons or mentioned the more expensive prices of eating clubs and other dining hall options. Around 25 percent of the responses referenced a preference for going independent instead of joining the eating club culture for different reasons. The final 25 percent included reasons of convenience and students’ desires to cook on their own and eat more healthily.

The most prevalent complaint among independent students surveyed was a lack of apartment-style independent housing, a concern among more than 50 percent of respondents. Several students in the survey criticized the current room-draw system that allows non-independent students to draw into Spelman Hall — the highly coveted apartmentstyle dorm on campus — while many independent juniors are left on waiting lists.

See INDEPENDENT page 5

COURTESY OF THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Spelman is one living option for independent students.

U . A F FA I R S

IMAGE BY SAMUEL OH

Thomas Graham spoke on U.S.-Russia relations on Feb. 22.

Speaker advocates for friendly U.S.-Russia relations under Trump administration

By Samuel Oh staff writer

According to Yale Senior Fellow Thomas Graham, it seems that people in Washington, D.C., are “intent on preventing any serious engagement with Russia, absent Russia’s complete capitulation on a number of issues that are of importance to the United States.”

The lecture, hosted on Feb. 22 by the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, looked at the future of U.S.-Russian relations. Graham gave the lecture after being introduced by program director Serguei Alex Oushakine.

Speaking in front of an audience of Princeton locals, University students, and professors, Graham began his lecture by challenging the views of Russia being fed to the public and asserting

the detrimental effect they have on international relations.

“Contact with Russians [has] become suspect in some way, and efforts to work with the Russians to find solutions in our differences have been construed as selling out to the Russians,” Graham said. “It is particularly dispiriting for people like me who have engaged in this relationship for well over 25 to 30 years.”

Graham noted that the United States must approach Russia for a relationship that also balances U.S. interests, even though current policy makers construe any discourse with Russia as neartreason.

Graham labeled the five challenges facing the United States today: keeping the liberal national order, maintaining strategic stability with nuclear weapons in

mind, managing the rise of China, maintaining the security of Europe, and curbing world terrorism. Graham argued that the U.S. requires the cooperation of the Russian Federation to effectively combat many of these challenges, especially European affairs.

“We have to do something that we have resisted doing in a serious way for so many years, and that is engaging the Russians in discussion in what the new European security architecture might look like,” Graham said. “We need to have a discussion on the principles that undergird the European security order.”

Graham also pressed the audience to consider the cold relationship between the United States and Russia from the Russian point of view, highlighting the comSee GRAHAM page 3

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Princeton Charter School sued

By Sarah Hirschfield & Jeff Zymeri include Princeton, Franklin staff writers Township [Somerset], Red Bank, and Morristown.

On Feb. 16, the Latino CoAttached to LCNJ’s comalition of New Jersey (LCNJ) plaint was LCNJ Director filed a complaint against the Frank Argote-Freyre’s sixth Princeton Charter School letter to the New Jersey Act(PCS) with the Department ing Commissioner of Educaof Justice’s Civil Rights Divi- tion, Kimberley Harrington. sion and the Department of In the letter, Argote-Freyre Education’s Office for Civil expressed his disappointRights. ment in PCS. In a press release that ex“This school has fostered plains the filed complaint, a segregated learning envithe LCNJ urged these two ronment in Princeton with departments “to investigate regards to race, ethnicity, segregation at the Princeton socio-economic status, EngCharter School and to review lish language proficiency, state policies that permit and students with special charter schools to serves as needs,” Argote-Freyre wrote. ‘enclaves of segregation.’”

Argote-Freyre went on to According to the LCNJ, com- urge Acting Commissioner munities that have become Kimberley Harrington to “enclaves of segregation” deny PCS’s application to ex-

pand because the school has not “provided a viable means of addressing their persistent segregation.”

The complaint explains that Princeton Charter School will employ a weighted lottery system in its admissions process under the new plan. However, ArgoteFreyre argues that it is entirely ineffective in accomplishing its intended effect of increasing diversity. He also claims that “an identical lottery implemented last year by the HoLA Charter School of Hoboken led to a decrease in the number and percent of low income students at [that] school.”

Paul Josephson, President of the PCS Board of Trustees, See PCS page 2

NEWS AND NOTES

Crockett ’17 and Trad ’17 receive ReachOut Fellowships Associate news editor

Destiny Crockett ’17 and Nicolas Trad ’17 have been selected to receive the Princeton ReachOut 56-81-06 Fellowships for yearlong public service projects.

Princeton ReachOut 56-8106 is a public service endeavor spearheaded by the Classes of 1956, 1981, and 2006. The organization “provides fellowships for a year to outstanding graduating Princeton students who take the less traveled path out of the University,” said Jon Wonnell ’81 and Martin Johnson ’81, the co-chairs of the ReachOut.

Crockett, an English major, received the ReachOut domestic fellowship. After graduation, she will be working with Girls for Gender Equity NYC to “design and execute a two-tier black feminist reading series for black girls who are in middle and high school and who attend predominantly black, low-income schools with high rates of suspensions and school arrests.”

Crockett will work with the Urban Leaders Academy in Brooklyn to implement her reading series, and the main goal of the initiative is to “improve [the girls’] reading and

critical thinking skills, and to improve their sense of belonging and self-confidence.”

Crockett will be using works

by Gloria Ladson-Billings, Monique Morris, Ruth Nicole Brown, Aimee Meredith Cox, and Ming Te-Wang as part of the curriculum for the program. She added that she plans to use the writings of black women like Nicki Minaj and Janet Mock for the reading series as well.

Trad, a Wilson School major, received the ReachOut international fellowship, where he will be working at Zithulele Hospital in South Africa to “ensure

continuous access to essential medications in the ten clinics” around the hospital.

Trad’s goal is to develop and implement a mobile technology platform to address medication shortages in the area. He hopes that “his project will become a model for tackling medication distribution problems that are pervasive in the South African health care system.”

Each year, the ReachOut organization usually awards one domestic and one international fellowship worth $30,000 each, which provide for living expenses throughout the year.

This year, the organization re-

In Opinion

Today on Campus

Guest contributor Matt Błazejewski talks mental health, and Jack Bryan gives a call to action to help refugees.

PAGE 4

10 p.m.: The Princeton Social Impact Conference begins today at the Lewis Library.

ceived 12 proposals.

“We were impressed in every case by the students’ strong records of public service both on campus and elsewhere, the passion the applicants brought to their projects, the careful research that has gone into the written proposals, and their excellent performance at our oral interviews,” Co-Chair of ReachOut’s committee Jim Freund ’56 said.

Last year’s ReachOut fellows, Farah Amjad ’16 and Clarissa Kimmey ’16, are working in the New York City Mayor’s Office and the Civil Rights Corps, respectively.

WEATHER

By Abhiram Karuppur

HIGH

68˚

LOW

51˚

Foggy. chance of rain:

20 percent

The Daily Princetonian

page 2

T HE DA ILY

Latino Coalition of New Jersey accuses Princeton Charter School of creating ‘enclaves of segregation’ PCS

The best place to Write Edit Opine Design Produce Illustrate Photograph Create

on campus.

join@dailyprincetonian.com

CORRECTION The Opinion column “Grad students: Vote yes to prison divest” was misattributed to Marni Morse; columnist Max Grear is the author of the piece.

The Daily Princetonian regrets this mistake.

Thursday February 23, 2017

Continued from page 1

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

vehemently denied a number of these claims as being factually incorrect.

He said that under the current open lottery system, “everyone’s chances are equal. Our requirement is to seek to enroll a cross section of the community and for the last twenty years we have done that.”

Josephson then explained that despite its ethnic diversity, PCS “recognizes that [they’re] not serving as many of the socioeconomically disadvantaged families as is part of [their] mission and our goal.”

Josephson explained the weighted lottery system that PCS plans to begin using.

“The state authorized the use of weighted lottery on behalf of all charter schools,” he said, “and we’re seeking to implement that as soon as we possibly can.”

In the first year of conducting the weighted lottery, both the HoLA Charter School of Hoboken and the Red Bank Charter School “found a significant increase in the number of applicants of a socioeconomically disadvantaged background seeking entry into the school,” Josephson said.

Josephson explained that the state’s decision was granted just before the lottery was set to take place.

He said that outreach last year was not the same as it is this year and that these schools have notified PCS of

a marked increase in interest.

“We have to expect a similar effect here,” he added.

“It is very easy to understand that weighting the lottery in the way we propose is certainly not going to hurt matters,” Josephson said. “I simply don’t understand the opposition of people who come to somebody who is saying ‘I want to give an advantage to a particular group of students and families deserving of that advantage’ and say we shouldn’t do it because we know it won’t be effective. What would they have us do? Nothing. That’s just wrong.”

“The Princeton Charter School has proposed no strategy for increasing the percentage of Limited English Proficient or special needs students at the school,” Argote-Freyre wrote to acting Commissioner Harrington in his letter.

Deputy Director of LCNJ Lazaro Cardenas agrees.

“Nothing really has been done to alleviate the segregation,” Cardenas said. “The numbers don’t ref lect an effort to remedy that.”

“Efforts on their part should be targeting the population,” Cardenas explained. “Expansion will magnify the segregation that exists today.”

Josephson rebuts these claims by explaining PCS’s attempts to recruit students of different backgrounds.

“We would like to have access to the district’s pre-kindergarten program, to talk with those families. The district will not allow us into those classrooms or to communicate with those families,” Josephson said, adding that their only option is “blanketed mass mailings.”

Head of PCS Lawrence Patton also responded to this complaint.

“Unfortunately, this is exactly the same baseless complaint this same organization has filed against other charter schools in Monmouth and Middlesex counties in recent weeks,” he wrote.

“The pattern is obvious — the organization identifies a high-performing charter school with a pending expansion request with the New Jersey Department of Education and in the days before a decision is rendered, puts out a press release alleging civil rights violations,” wrote Patton in a statement. “This tactic is clearly designed to improperly inf luence the Department’s decision on the school’s expansion request while defaming the school and its families in the process.”

The complaint comes soon after a lawsuit filed by the Princeton Public Schools.

The lawsuit claims that PCS violated New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act, better known as “The Sunshine Law,” when the school’s Board of Trustees voted to amend its charter and increase its enrollment capacity without opening the meeting to the public.

“In 1999, the Princeton Charter School had almost the same percentage of Latino students as were enrolled at Princeton Public Schools,” the compliant stated. “As of the 2015-16 academic year, however, only 3 percent of the Princeton Charter School’s students are Latino versus 13 percent of the school district’s enrollment.”

“From 2007-08 until the current academic year, the Princeton School District has educated nearly 1,400 Limited English Proficient students while the Princeton Charter School has educated only one Limited English

Proficient student,” according to the complaint.

The LCNJ also claims in their complaint that PCS educates fewer students from low-income backgrounds.

Only one percent of the charter school students qualify for free or reduced price lunches, according to the LCNJ complaint. This, to the LCNJ, is an example of the school’s lack of diversity.

Josephson responded by pointing to his prior comments, adding that the LCNJ is not credible.

“This group has absolutely no history in education matters until six months ago when it became active in Red Bank,” Josephson said. “Suddenly, in the last few months, this organization has filed five complaints with the Department of Education.”

“It’s particularly ridiculous that [the LCNJ] has chosen to pick on a group such as this considering it is a dual immersion school,” Josephson said, referring to the HoLA Charter School of Hoboken. “What is the dual language you may ask? Spanish. You could not ask for a better example of a school that is promoting the principles of diversity and inclusion.”

“I call that a coordinated campaign,” he added. “I’m a first Amendment lawyer and everyone in this society has a license to speak. The real question is credibility and this group has no credibility.” “[LCNJ has] filed federal charges alleging that they know what is going on in these schools based on nothing other than press reports,” said Josephson. “I don’t know who is behind this campaign but I can tell you that I do intend to find out.”

By the end of his letter to Acting Commissioner Harrington, Argote-Freyre made one other request of her, calling on her “to close the Princeton Charter School because of a pattern of segregation spanning a decade.” He ended his letter by announcing once again that he is very much open to meeting with Harrington and discussing these matters further.

Josephson responded that it will be “a sad day for the community for families not to have an option like [PCS].”

He also said a rejection of PCS’s application to expand would be quite detrimental by preventing the school from continuing to better its academic programs and increase diversity.

According to the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), if the OCR determines they have jurisdiction to investigate the claim, they will contact LCNJ and “the agency that is the subject of complaint will begin an investigation.” The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has a similar process.

As for the petition to expand, PCS is awaiting the acting commissioner’s decision.

PCS states on its website that its mission is “to provide its diverse student body the best possible education by focusing on the fundamental academic disciplines in an atmosphere that affirms academic achievement and that develops strong character.” The decisions to come may test this mission statement.

Thursday February 23, 2017

The Daily Princetonian

page 3

Graham: We need to understand that in Russia-U.S. relations, less is more GRAHAM Continued from page 1

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

plexity of Russian affairs and the possible hypocrisy found in some U.S. endeavors in world politics.

“We also need to admit to ourselves that Russia is too complex and our understanding of Russia remains too shallow for us to engage directly inside Russia in a constructive way.” Graham observed. “We also need to understand that much of our talk about democracy and human rights has come at a

cost ... especially since we as a nation in recent years have not shown a shining example of democracy at work. So, who are we to tell the Russians how to run a country?

We have to back away a bit.”

Graham finished by recommending that the new U.S. administration take three steps of slow reconciliation with the Russian government, including the reopening of channels of communication lost after the Ukraine crisis, destroying the bubble of anti-Russian hysteria in Washington, and persuading anti-Russian

hawks to understand the benefits of Russian engagement to U.S. interests.

“We need to understand that in Russia-U.S. relations, less is more.” Graham said. “But that less cannot be less than zero, which is where we are now. So what is that minimal amount? That small amount we need to do in order to move forward?

That is the challenge we face today, and one would hope that in the not-too-distant future that we would finally come to the conclusion that we need a policy, we do need to engage, and we ought to

have sufficient confidence in our own abilities to engage in a way that doesn’t sacrifice or compromise our fundamental principles and have a good chance of making the world a better place for us, for our allies, and for the Russians as well.”

Graham’s lecture ended to applause from the audience.

Oushakine expressed the promising nature of the new narrative on U.S.-Russian relations.

“I think it is a very promising and pragmatic approach against the hysteria happening in both Russia and the

U.S.,” Oushakine said. “We need to understand that the relationship between Russia and the United States needs to be taken into account to solve the crises in Ukraine and Syria. It is a helpful departure from mainstream western commentary on Russian relations today.”

Graham’s lecture was held in the Louis A. Simpson International Building at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 22, and live-streamed on the University’s Media Central page.

Opinion

Thursday February 23, 2017

page 4

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

I stand with you

vol. cxli

Matt Błazejewski

guest contributor

Editor’s Note: This column discusses issues and events that might be traumatizing, or triggering, for some, namely suicide.

“

Hi, Honey. I haven’t heard from you in a while and wanted to see how things are going,” my mom texted me one afternoon. “Shaking in bed,” I replied.

I don’t remember much about that October afternoon.

What comes back to me are only blurry memories of working with a friend in Marquand Library until for no apparent reason, I broke down in tears. The first month of my freshman year had been a quick downward spiral into the depression, anxiety, and panic attacks for which I had been treated during my sophomore and junior years of high school.

The campus on which I had spent years growing up with my brothers no longer felt like a wonderland, but instead an unrecognizable and unfamiliar place that others expected me to call home.

I had never felt any urge to end my life until that moment.

Even though I had been going regularly to Counseling and Psychological Services for appointments and my parents knew how I was feeling, it still wasn’t enough. Had my mom not texted me, I know what

would have happened. I had already convinced myself that no one would notice if I was gone.

The months following those texts were a haze of commuting from home to campus for classes. Each morning, my parents would drop me off in the University Store parking lot. They would watch helplessly as I trudged back to my dorm, slowly working myself into a panic as I anticipated the worst that would happen that day.

I spent that spring recovering and finally broke my silence about my struggles with depression and anxiety the following summer. I realized that my next three years at Princeton had to be different if I wanted to make it through college alive. Only my parents and one close friend knew the full extent of what my first year at Princeton had been like, and I was tired of feeling like an impostor for answering with “good” when people asked me how I was doing.

In January 2015, my friend committed suicide in the dorm room next to mine. I called my parents three to four times a day for the next two weeks, sobbing as I explained how she still returned to me in my dreams. It was through grief counseling at CPS that I no longer saw myself as just a student merely passing

through Princeton, but as an agent for change. I committed to dedicating the remainder of my time at the University to sharing my own story by challenging the stigma associated with mental health issues however I could and encouraging other students to be vulnerable with each other.

Some days are inevitably worse than others. I returned to CPS this year after winter break, during which another friend committed suicide, I underwent a major surgery, and my grandmother passed away. My counselor and I have talked about what it is like to be a Princeton student while living with a profound sense of guilt. Not a day goes by that I don’t wake up and wonder how I, even after all I have gone through, failed to see the warning signs. My family and friends have reminded me not to feel guilty because it can be hard to see what others are hiding behind their smiles.

As much as I understand this reasoning, the cruel reality is that I survived, and two of my friends did not. This is something I know I will have to live with well beyond graduation.

Though I wish it were not the case, a story like mine is not uncommon, especially here at Princeton. After working for three years on the Me Too Monologues, a

performance piece created out of anonymous student submissions related to their own experiences with mental health, I have gained an acute understanding of how students struggle.

I invite you to see the performances of the Me Too Monologues this weekend and take advantage of this opportunity to engage with these issues that consume our emotional energy but are rarely discussed. So much work remains to be done, and yet, in conversations with dozens of underclassmen, especially with my own ’zees, I am hopeful that Princeton’s next leaders can and will work towards a campus in which mental health issues are no longer stigmatized.

The irony is not lost on me that I could only appreciate life after I came so close to losing my own. For those who might be experiencing feelings of helplessness and hopelessness like the ones I have described, please feel free to reach out to me. And to my fellow survivors: know that I stand with you — and others do too.

Matt Blazejewski is a senior from Trenton, N.J. He can be reached at mpb3@princeton.edu.

Claudius Trump Nero tashi treadway ’19 ..................................................

Sarah Sakha ’18

editor-in-chief

Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 vice presidents John G. Horan ’74 Thomas E. Weber ’89 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Jerry Raymond ’73 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas J. Widmann ’90

141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Megan Laubach ’18 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 Head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 news editors Abhiram Karuppur ’19 opinion editor Newby Parton ‘18 sports editor David Xin ‘19 street editor Jianing Zhao ‘20 photography editor Rachel Spady ‘18 web editor David Liu ‘18 chief copy editors Isabel Hsu ‘19 Samuel Garfinkle ‘19 design editor Rachel Brill ‘19 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Nicholas Wu ’18 associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Claire Coughlin ’19 associate street editor Andie Ayala ’19 Catherine Wang ’19 associate chief copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 editorial board co-chairs Ashley Reed ’18 Connor Pfeiffer ’18 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ‘19

NIGHT STAFF 2.22.17 copy Katie Peterson ‘19 Daphne Mandell ’19 Stuti Mishra ’20

Defining America Jack Bryan

columnist

I

n 1939, the United States turned away 900 Jewish refugees on the MS St. Louis fleeing Nazi Germany. The ship returned to Europe, where around 250 of its passengers died in concentration camps. Though their bodies were burned on European soil, their blood was on the hands of the Americans who refused them entry.

Now, history is repeating itself.

The first month of the Trump presidency has seen nativism and xenophobia sweep across the United States. The foremost expression of this fear was the executive order

halting the United States’ refugee program for 120 days and indefinitely suspending the Syrian refugee program.

Syria is now in its sixth year of civil war. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of war in 2011. We are facing a decision today similar to the one we faced in 1939.

Now is one of those times when America has the chance to define itself. What are we for? Or better, who are we for?

Inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty is a poem by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched

refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.”

America must answer the call to the “tempest-tost” as we have bitterly failed to do thus far. Let us not repeat the lessons that history has taught us. As in 1939, the United States today has both the means and the opportunity to provide aid. This is a time when we must put humanity before America, personhood before nationhood. If America is to truly become great, then we must cling to these words and embark on a journey of selfless vulnerability.

Our capacity to resist tyranny depends directly on our willingness to shelter those who flee it.

Princeton: Let us not take lightly that we are tomorrow’s leaders. Not

only that, but many of us have the opportunities to rub shoulders and have conversations with the leaders of today. We sit in one of the most privileged positions in the world — attending the top university in the nation brings with it responsibility, just as the United States’ position as a global power does. You have spent your entire lives being told that you can change the world. Now change it.

Jack Bryan is an English major from Lindenhurst, Ill. He can be reached at jmbryan@princeton.edu.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday February 23, 2017

page 5

T HE DA ILY

Enjoy drawing pretty pictures?

Like to work with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign?

Join the ‘Prince’ design team! join@dailyprincetonian.com :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Daily Princetonian is published daily except Saturday and Sunday from September through May and three times a week during January and May by The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., 48 University Place, Princeton, N.J. 08540. Mailing address: P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542. Subscription rates: Mailed in the United States $175.00 per year, $90.00 per semester. Office hours: Sunday through Friday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telephones: Business: 609-375-8553; News and Editorial: 609-258-3632. For tips, email news@dailyprincetonian.com. Reproduction of any material in this newspaper without expressed permission of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., is strictly prohibited. Copyright 2014, The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Princetonian, P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542.

Apartment-style dorms, kitchens top list of student concerns INDEPENDENT Continued from page 1

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

40 percent of independent students surveyed said that they do not live in Spelman even though it was their top choice for room draw. More than 80 percent of students surveyed wanted more dorms like Spelman, which is the only apartment-style dorm on campus and is widely seen as the most coveted independent dorm.

According to Director of Housing Dorian Johnson, increasing the number of rooms for independent students is not currently a priority. Johnson said that statistics show that each year, there are leftover rooms in the independent draw that are placed into the regular upperclassman draw, indicating an adequate supply of independent-style housing.

Yet, Johnson did note that students have reached out to Housing and Campus Life administrators and requested more resources and assistance for independent students. He noted that student focus groups were convened as part of the Board Plan Review project this past fall to discuss both independent living environments as well as all current University dining options.

University administrators are hopeful that some of the data collected from these discussions

will help steer the University in the right direction in order to provide more dining options for students, Johnson said.

According to the ISAB survey, one suggestion offered by a large number of independents is cheaper and more local grocery shopping. Around 40 percent of independent students surveyed consider the most important unaddressed issue to be the lack of affordable groceries and fresh produce in Princeton and at the University, as well as the lack of transportation options to obtain groceries without a car.

“I think generally the living and cooking conditions are great, but my main problem is grocery accessibility,” said Annie Lu ’17.

“The Saturday Shopper is nice, but it takes like two hours to actually get anything, and it’s hard to carry everything back to the dorms.”

One independent student in the survey suggested the construction of an on-campus food mart mediated by campus dining, which orders in bulk for fresh produce, that would decrease University food waste, increase ease of grocery access, and “generally make being an independent more reasonable and enjoyable.”

Independent student Hajrah Hussain ’17 believes the University can be much more savvy

with the policies for independent students. The University could allow them to use their two mealswipes a week for a “pseudo-grocery” shopping option where independents could have to-go boxes at the salad bar. Hussain added that the University could also allow unused swipes at the dining hall to accumulate for later usage.

Director of Media Relations John Cramer reiterated that Tiger Transit runs weekend buses to grocery stores, but he maintained that student concerns regarding grocery-shopping operations are being examined.

In terms of kitchen access, Dorian Johnson explained that the rooms in independent room draw are all near “full kitchens” — kitchens that include an oven, stove, refrigerator, and microwave, to provide access to kitchens that support full meal preparation.

Yet Gamio noted that one of the major issues surrounding independent students is that too many of the full kitchens are open to all students. As a result, they said, many independent students have been forced to clean up after student groups and nonindependent students in order to adequately cook their food.

According to the University’s Independent Student Guide (ISG), only Pyne Hall and Lock-

hart Hall are “limited access,” available only for independent students.

Johnson added that the ISG was written by students and provides many resources, including information such as tips about kitchens, cooking and recipes, and where to buy groceries.

Many independents stated that the ISG needs serious updating from its update in 2009, mentioning the restaurant/food page, renting off-campus, sustainability conversations, health and wellness, cooking classes, and other possible areas for improvement.

For low-income independent students specifically, Gamio added that the University should create opportunities to buy cheap cooking supplies and certain dorm room appliances. Currently, many of these items are exchanged among independents via “Free and For Sale” on Facebook, not through Universityaided media.

To improve the sense of community among independent students, many independents surveyed suggested the establishment of more co-ops and a change in University policy that would allow independent students to join any co-op without any restrictions.

One independent student surveyed said that the lack of a meal exchange option for independent

students isolates independents from their friends, particularly those in eating clubs who do not have guest swipes.

Isolation of independents can be detrimental to their mental health, especially when they may already feel separated or excluded, the student reported. This isolation seems to go against Princeton’s stated goals of ensuring that everyone feels included, comfortable, and safe on campus, the student said in the survey.

For Bennett McIntosh ’16, however, the biggest obstacle facing the independent experience is the culture.

“It’s kind of perverse that cooking for yourself, something any 21- or 22-year-old should be capable of, is the exception rather than the rule at Princeton,” McIntosh said. “I don’t know if that’s the work-hard-play-hard culture or what, but independent life never felt like it was part of the ‘Princeton Experience,’ whatever that’s supposed to be.”

While they continue to raise their concerns to the University and push for improvements, independent students will continue to do what they do now: communicate with and help one another through listservs, and get by on their own.

Keep yourself informed on the go!

Follow us on Twitter:

@Princetonian

Thursday February 23, 2017

Sports

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

MEN’S BASKETBALL For the ninth time in program history that the Princeton men’s basketball team started the Ivy League season this weekend 10-0. Of the other eight previous teams to make 10-0, three saw their bids end there. One bit of history is on the Tigers’ side in its bid for 11-0, with Princeton having won seven in a row in Columbia’s Levien Gym. The Tigers are now on a 13-game winning streak, one of three teams in the nation to do this in their conference.

IMAGES BY TIFFANY RICHARDSON

Tweet of the Day “Make it 13 in a row! #PrincetonHoops is on a roll!” @PrincetonHoops basketball

Stat of the Day

13 games A 13-game winning streak has Princeton Men’s Basketball as one of just three conference-unbeaten teams

Follow us Check us out on Twitter @princesports for live news and reports, and on Instagram @princetoniansports for photos!