The Daily Princetonian - Feb. 25, 2019

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Monday February 25, 2019 vol. CXLIII no. 16

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U . A F FA I R S

U. denies allegations of church manuscript thefts

ON CAMPUS

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Quillen *91, Hobson ’91 speak on the humanities, service on Alumni Day

By Marie-Rose Sheinerman Assistant News Editor

By Allan Shen Contributor

In its response to a legal complaint filed by the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the University has denied all allegations that it unlawfully possesses ancient Eastern Orthodox manuscripts and has requested to be awarded legal costs.

The original lawsuit, filed in December 2018, claimed that Bulgarian guerrillas illegally removed four Eastern Orthodox texts dating back to the Byzantine Era from a monastery in Northern Greece in 1917, which then made their way into the possession of the University.

The plaintiffs believe that the University’s possession of these manuscripts is therefore unlawful and have demanded their return.

In the legal document filed by the attorneys for the Trustees of the University on Friday, Feb. 22, the University not only affirmed its lawful possession of the manuscripts, but also asserted that it “is without knowledge or information necessary” to determine whether the plaintiffs were ever the texts’ legitimate claimants in the first place.

The document further states that evidence suggests two of the manuscripts in question “were gifted to St. Andrew of the Russians in 1877 – long before 1917.”

The University emphasized that “Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue” — which the plaintiffs See MANUSCRIPTS page 2

DENISE APPLEWHITE / OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Mellody Hobson ’91 was the 2019 recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Award.

Carol Quillen GS ’91 and Mellody Hobson ’91, recipients of this year’s top alumni awards — the James Madison Medal and the Woodrow Wilson Award, respectively — spoke on Saturday, Feb. 23 at the University’s annual Alumni Day, drawing an audience of alumni spanning generations.

Quillen, who serves as President of Davidson Col-

lege, spoke about the power of education in the humanities in a lecture titled “Sustaining Democracy Through Storytelling.”

One of the primary challenges she spoke of facing as a leader in higher education is the constant questioning of the value of the humanities.

She went on to recite the two conventional answers to this problem, then explained why she finds both unsatisfactory.

See ALUMNI page 2

STUDENT LIFE

USG discusses tighter budget, task force proposals

By Jacob Gerrish Staff Writer

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed a more stringent spring semester budget proposal, seven task force proposals, and various position appointments during its weekly meeting on Sunday, Feb. 24.

Treasurer Brad Spicher ’20 submitted a budget proposal for the spring semester. According to Spicher, because of increased spending last semester on the buses to the Yale football game, Fall Lawnparties, and the bonfire, the spring semester budget will be much tighter than usual.

Spicher is a photographer for the ‘Prince.’

The proposed change to the budget allocates $82,500 to Spring Lawnparties, compared to the $108,000 that USG spent on Lawnparties last Spring.

The Senate voted to confirm the budget proposal.

USG President Zarnab Virk ’20 introduced the Independent Students Task Force, a committee which aims to encourage communication between the ICC, the Co-op Coun-

cil, and a re-instituted Independent Students Association. Class of 2020 Senator Tania Bore ’20, however, expressed the idea that a permanent seat on USG might serve the interests of independent students better than an Independent Students Association.

“When I spoke with the independent students, they mentioned that they would actually like to re-route from an Independent Students Association to something on USG,” Bore said.

Vice President Chitra Parikh ’21 recommended the continuation of the Design Thinking Task Force, which will act to implement at least one initiative where people eating alone could meet others in the dining halls, and also will serve as a resource for all USG projects to draw on.

Class of 2020 Senator Andy Zheng ’20 proposed a Work-Study Opportunities Task Force that would seek to make more research assistant positions available for students on workstudy programs.

U-Councilor Aditya Shah ’21 and Class of 2021 Senator Elizabeth Bailey ’21 spoke on the Transportation Task

Force, which will look into bringing electric scooters to campus, improving the Weekend Shopper, and expanding the Thanksgiving buses to other breaks.

Then, U-Councilor Morgan Carmen ’21 spoke about the Sustainability Task Force and its plans to establish a center of sustainability in Frist Campus Center and to reduce waste at USG events.

Class of 2022 Senator Andres Larrieu ’22 discussed how the Transparency Task Force will continue USG office hours at which different students or faculty that represent particular interests on campus can come to ask the student body’s questions. Larrieu also raised the possibility of moving USG office hours to a more-trafficked location in order to increase attendance.

“I agree that you [should] make the marketing a lot better rather than focusing on the food expenses because we had some issues with that last

semester,” U-Councilor Rachel Hazan ’21 said. “Because we ordered twenty bobas and a hundred people lined up.”

U-Councilor Yousef Elzalabany ’20 presented on the Meditation Space Task Force and discussed the possibility of establishing meditation and prayer spaces in both the E-Quad and the planned residential college.

Following an introduction by the Student Group Recognition Committee Co-Chair Emma Parish ’21, the Senate decided to approve two new student groups: the Princeton African Investment Consortium and Princeton Mock Diagnosis.

The Senate also voted to confirm the following members: Henry Barrett ’22 as U-Councilor, Jonah Hyman ’20 as Parliamentarian, Patrycja Pajdak ’21 as Director of Communications, Thomas Johnson ’22 as Alumni Affairs Chair, Claire McCarriher ’21 as Executive Secretary, Laura Zecca ’20 as Chief Elections Manager, and Katherine French ’22 as Historian.

STUDENT LIFE

BRAD SPICHER FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Henry Barrett ‘22 was approved for a U-Councilor position.

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 awarded Oscar for Best Documentary Feature

Cap & Gown Bicker Chair resigns

By Allan Shen Contributor

Nicholas Kick ’20, who served as Bicker Chair of the Cap and Gown Club, has resigned from his position. Laura Zecca ’20 will replace Kick in the role.

According to an email sent from Cap officers to club members in the Class of 2021, Kick resigned from his position as Bicker Chair after learning of urgent news in his family.

“Because I know how critical this role is in the life of the Club and given the step [sic] change

In Opinion

in family commitments due to health issues, I have decided to put family first while ensuring the Club has what is needed in a Bicker Chair,” Kick wrote in the email.

“This means stepping down.”

Kick did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Princetonian made by email and phone.

After consulting with Cap’s steward, Dennis Normile, the officers indicated in the email that Zecca, the runner-up in the Bicker Chair election, will assume the position. The steward, an adult who is unaffiliated with the University,

Managing Editor Sam Aftel critiques students’ reliance on Tiger Confesstions as a forum to share intimate experiences, while contributing columnist Katie Goldman encourages her peers to work in retail.

PAGE 4

advises the club on administrative matters.

Given that the club bylaws do not include specific procedures about how the circumstance may be handled, the club officers offered a 12-hour period during which upperclassmen may submit objections to the decision to have Zecca take up the position.

Zecca, Normile, Cap and Gown Club President Polly Hochman ’20, Vice President Arielle Lawson ’20, and Graduate Board Chair Tom Fleming ’69 did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the ‘Prince.’

By Julia Ilhardt Staff Writer

On Sunday, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 accepted the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Vasarhelyi directed the film “Free Solo” with her husband, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, among others.

Aquaman actor Jason Momoa smiled and pumped his fist as he announced the award. This was Vasarhelyi’s first nomination and win.

“Thank you, National Geographic, for believing in us,” said Vasarhelyi in her acceptance speech, “and for hiring women and people of color. We only help make the films better.”

“Free Solo” followed the journey of Alex Honnold in climbing Yosemite’s famous 900-metre rock

Today on Campus 12:00 p.m.: C-PREE Seminar with Tim Searchinger: “When are Changes in Land Use Truly Good for the Climate?”

Wallace Hall 300

face, El Capitan, with no ropes. The film has grossed over $16 million, making it the second-biggest documentary of 2018.

“Thank you Alex Honnold for giving us courage and teaching us how to believe in the impossible,” said Vasarhelyi to the tuxedo-clad climber, who was across the stage.

Vasarhelyi also thanked her children, Marina and James, as she lifted her Oscar in the air.

At the University, Vasarhelyi concentrated in Comparative Literature. She has previously directed works for the New York Times, Netflix, and ESPN, as well as another rock-climbing based documentary, entitled “Meru,” in 2015.

“This film is for everyone who believes in the impossible,” said Vasarhelyi in her speech. “It was the work of an army.”

WEATHER

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The University has filed a response to a lawsuit that claims that the University is in possession of stolen Eastern Orthodox manuscripts.

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Monday February 25, 2019

Hobson: Service is the debt you owe society for this education ALUMNI Continued from page 1

According to Quillen, humanistic scholars often respond to criticisms of the humanities by arguing that their studies either help develop the talent necessary to live as a free human or provide their students with critical thinking skills.

Quillen, however, finds the first response to be both vague and elitist and mocked the second response for its claim that the humanities “have a monopoly over critical thinking.”

Instead, Quillen articulated humanistic studies’ central lesson as two-fold: intellectual humility and empathy.

In the case of the former, the humanities uniquely instruct that there are always more stories hidden within ones already told. In the latter, humanities teach the scholar to hold “empathy both for the dead of whom you’re writing and for the living for whom you write.”

Deriving this answer to the question of the humanities’ worth, Quillen said, required looking back to her research at the University.

As a graduate student, Quillen studied the Renaissance

humanists, and was particularly intrigued by what makes a group of people desire to emulate a past culture, particularly in a way that conceives of the culture as “simultaneously alien and exemplary.”

History professor Anthony Grafton, who advised Quillen’s Ph.D. dissertation, sat in the front row.

Quillen then reflected on our society’s increasing fragmentation.

“We are self segregating into camps. We prefer to eat, pray, study, and even board airplanes with people who look like us,” she said.

The self-segregation also translates into an unhealthy and willful distortion of others’ points of view, said Quillen. She explained that “classifying others into categories” and “wanting the clarity of litmus tests” has undermined one of the founding principles of this country — pluralism.

In trying to restore a healthy way of orienting ourselves toward one another, Quillen thought back to her study of the humanists, and their perception of foreign cultures as both “alien and exemplary.”

“We need to view each others’ perspectives as stories that need to be understood, rather than opposing positions that need be refuted,” she said, emphasizing the power of storytelling in building bridges.

After a rousing reception of Quillen’s speech and a brief intermission, Hobson, who currently serves as president of Ariel Investments, took the stage for her speech, titled “A Bright, Orange Guiding Light,“ on the meaning of service in all the forms it may take.

Hobson reflected on her relationship with the University as a black woman. “‘Exotic’ and ‘New Jersey’ don’t normally go together in a sentence, but when I first arrived to campus in the fall of ’87, New Jersey seemed so exotic to me,” she began. “I saw buildings named after people like Rockefeller and Forbes, and I have to admit … I felt like I belonged.”

Hobson looked back fondly on fully throwing herself into the University’s spirit as an undergraduate, from signing the Cottage Club bicker book that F. Scott Fitzgerald once signed to “walking on the same uneven sidewalks as Albert Einstein.”

Despite her profound love for the University’s traditions — she wore a bright orange dress and even mentioned that her favorite color is, indeed, orange — Hobson admitted that receiving an award named for Woodrow Wilson as a woman of color “requires some cognitive dissonance.”

“Despite the school’s colors, Woodrow Wilson failed to see that orange and black belong together,” she jokingly remarked, reflecting on Wilson’s well-known racism.

“I am not the first woman of color, however, to receive this award,” said Hobson proudly.

“When you’re the first, you’re also the only, and I’d rather be one of many.”

Weaving personal stories throughout her speech, Hobson shifted to a discussion of her view of service.

“Service is the debt you owe society for this magnificent education,” she said.

Quoting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ’76, a past recipient of the Woodrow Wilson award, Hobson added that service doesn’t have to mean charity, but rather “tangible service in the one-on-one sense.”

Hobson said that her hus-

band, Star Wars creator George Lucas, taught her to think of service in terms of scales — how can one do the most good for the most people? Lucas listened to her speech from the audience.

“Don’t just go retail, go wholesale in your service,” she recalled Lucas saying to her.

To Hobson, original thought ought to be highly valued in service, a lesson she feels her time at the University taught her. She recalled a preceptor in one of her courses who forbade the use of the phrase “to reiterate” in students’ comments.

“To this day, if I hear ‘to reiterate’ in a boardroom, I stiffen,” she said.

“Princeton’s motto gets at the true purpose of education,” continued Hobson. “You’re not here merely to make a living, you’re here to enrich the world.”

Despite Wilson’s legacy of racism, Hobson noted that his emphasis on the joy, not just the duty, of service, aligns with her views.

She used a torch as a metaphor for service.

“The torch doesn’t just illuminate the path, it also provides warmth to the holder,” Hobson said.

U. requests legal compensation over Eastern Orthodox lawsuit MANUSCRIPTS Continued from page 1

cited in their legal filing as evidence against the University — was published by the Department of Art and Archaeology and circulated by the Princeton University Press, an independent distributor.

The document also suggests that there is insufficient evidence to show that the assault on the Greek monastery in 1917 was perpetrated by Bulgarian troops, or that the stolen material included the manuscripts in question.

In the response, the University requested that the case be dismissed without prejudice, and that it be awarded costs “expended in defending this litigation.” The University has also requested that it be declared the owner of the manuscripts, and that it be awarded any other relief that the Court deems appropriate.

University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss deferred comment to the statement he relayed to The Daily Princetonian in a previous news story.

“Based on the information available to us, we have found no basis to conclude that the manuscripts in our possession were looted during World War I or otherwise improperly removed from the possession of the Patriarchate,” Hotchkiss said.

“We will continue to give prompt and meaningful consideration to any additional research and documentation provided, and we have encouraged those who believe they have any new information to contact us,” he continued.

George Tsougarakis, legal counsel of the plaintiffs, did not comment by the time of publication.

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Monday February 25, 2019

The Daily Princetonian

page 3

Global warming denier William Happer *64 appointed to climate panel

By Bill Huang Staff Writer

In a 2009 interview with the Daily Princetonian, University physics professor emeritus and avowed climate change denier William Happer *64 compared climate change science to Nazi propaganda, asserting similarities between climate change science and the pseudoscience that claimed that “Germans are the master race,” and that “the Jews are the scum of the earth.”

Now, the Trump administration has picked Happer as the chair of a panel that will seek to determine whether climate change poses a threat to national security.

Although Happer has no formal training as a climate scientist, he has nevertheless been vocal on the topic. Happer’s belief that carbon dioxide should not be viewed as a pollutant is reflected in two op-eds he wrote which defend the compound, one in 2012 and another in 2013.

In a CNBC interview, Happer said that “the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler — Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the Jews.”

In a later interview with the Guardian, Happer said that “there’s a whole area of climate so-called science that is really more like a cult.”

His fellow colleagues at the University disagree.

Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of Geosciences and International Affairs, claimed, “[many] studies have made a strong case that various aspects of climate change have an effect on national security” and that “with respect to climate science and scientists, [Happer] is not only

unknowledgeable but appears to have become unmoored.”

When asked about opposing scientific consensus, Happer wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that “I often think of the paper, ‘Hundert Autoren gegen Einstein’ (A Hundred Authors against Einstein).”

He then quoted Einstein’s adage, “if I am wrong, one scientist would be sufficient.”

Happer added that “I am especially proud of Princeton for providing a safe home.”

The call for a committee comes on the heels of a Pentagon report, the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment, which identified “negative effects of environmental degradation and climate change” as risks to global security.

In particular, the report states that “climate hazards… are intensifying, threatening infrastructure, health, and water and food security.”

The 2018 National Climate Assessment also underscored the potential consequences of climate change, predicting that “annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century.” In response to the projected cost to the economy, President Trump said, “I don’t believe it.”

The main purpose of the proposed panel would be to evaluate the conclusions of these two climate assessments.

Organizations such as the Center for Climate and Security have voiced opposition against such a committee, criticizing the move as politically motivated. An executive for the center added that “a rigorous independent panel of credible climate and national security experts to study the broader security

implications of climate on a higher level” would be excellent.

Claire Wayner ’22 described Happer’s appointment as “a huge step backwards.”

“I think it’s disappointing that Professor Happer is taking such a strong, politicized stance against a phenomenon widely accepted by 97 percent of scientists,“ said Wayner.

Although Wayner believes that, in much of his previous work, Happer “tries to present a balanced viewpoint,“ she believes his appointment will make consensus on climate change difficult.

As the Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics Emeritus, Happer helped pioneer the study of spinpolarized atoms and their applications in atomic

physics. He has served on the JASON advisory group since 1976, serving as its chair from 1987 to 1990, and was the director of energy research for the Department of Energy from 1991 to 1993. He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the University in 1964.

Happer currently serves on the White House National Security Council.

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Opinion

Monday February 25, 2019

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Tiger Confessions and our desperation for connection Sam Aftel

Managing Editor

I

n a recent interview with the Daily Princetonian, the anonymous founder of Tiger Confessions, a Facebook group for Princeton students, described the platform as a “a forum where students who have something on their mind can get something off their mind.” The founder added that the page enables students to express something they wouldn’t “feel comfortable talking about in person,” as posts in the platform are also anonymous.

The group, which has obtained more than 4,000 members (including myself), is, by all indications, a rapidly growing, Princeton student-specific, social media confessional.

Ostensibly, Tiger Confessions provides an important social outlet for Princetonians to air their grievances, share their thoughts on campus life, seek out emotional support, or simply interact with one another.

Yet on a deeper level, the anonymous platform’s popularity bespeaks the performative invulnerability and emotional repression of the University’s social culture. It seems that many Princetonians find Tiger Confessions a more effective source of therapy and community facilitation than their classmates, not to mention other in-person, non-anon-

ymous University resources, such as RCAs or Counseling and Psychological Services.

Many of the page’s posts are anonymous compliments to other students, as well as expressions of romantic love.

Other posts involve complaints about the absurd workload of Princeton life. And some are ideological, asserting that Princeton is too white or too rich (or both), highlighting the moral hypocrisy of Bicker, and so on.

Yet increasingly, posts have taken on a more revelatory, and sometimes darker, tenor.

Princetonians have confessed to still being in love with their ex, feeling like they don’t belong at Princeton, or experiencing loneliness and a desperation for sex and romance.

Others have admitted to feeling severely depressed and suicidal or enduring alienation, discrimination, and interpersonal violence or simply needing a hug.

While it’s a blessing that Tiger Confessions allows us to share these experiences and receive some level of peer empathy, the fact that the platform is seemingly the only outlet some students have to express what’s on their mind is disconcerting, if not heartbreaking.

Perhaps we naturally feel uneasy about being vulnerable with our peers or other resources of social support. But there also seems to be a unique, impenetrable invulnerability on this campus that is decidedly Princetonian in nature.

Based on my social relationships here, I have learned that so many of my peers feel isolat-

ed. They yearn for deeper, more sincere relationships, think they’re missing out on Thursday and Saturday nights, and wish Princeton’s social scene was more egalitarian, accessible, and humane.

Loneliness is certainly part of problem, but it doesn’t, in itself, explain Princeton’s unforgiving social dynamics. Princeton’s loneliness epidemic is compounded by the seemingly pervasive feeling that there’s a clear in-group and out-group on campus.

On any given Saturday night, the in-group Princetonians can always find a pregame and snag that sacred pass to Ivy — and when they get to the club, they always have someone to talk to.

In other words, they have the privilege of entering any social space and feeling like they belong.

Yet on any given Saturday night, out-group Princetonians are studying alone in their rooms, sleeping early, or caught between the impulse to go out and the impulse to stay in, because, really, would anything really change if they “put themselves out there,” as their peers or their parents often urge them to do, as if their being alone is a product of their own social laziness?

In an illuminating Tiger Confessions post from this weekend, one Princetonian described a night when they went to the Street, yearning for companionship. But ultimately, despite this student’s best efforts at connection, their night was defined by social rejection — because, for some, genuine warmth and friendship is inac-

cessible on Prospect Avenue.

At the end of their courageous post, the student explained: “… I just don’t understand why. I. Always. Have. To. Be. The. One. To. Make. All. The. Effort. In reaching out to people and [making] new friends. And [yet] perpetually feel like I’m still an outsider and not really part of some group. Like f*** this. Literally f*** this.”

Amen.

While many of us agree that experiences like this demonstrate the coldness of and lack of empathy in Princeton’s social scene, we seem reluctant to do anything about it — though any attempt at rectification may be futile, at best.

The institutional and cultural inertia at Princeton makes substantively changing the social landscape virtually impossible. Plus, enough Princeton students are in-group members, benefiting — at the expense of others — from the institution’s stratified social dynamics. Hence, many of these in-group Princetonians could scarcely care less about, or are simply ignorant of, the pain and exclusion their less fortunate peers endure.

So, for now — if not forever — many Princeton students who long for a more empathetic, demonstrably caring, other-centric, less cynical campus will remain confined to a single Facebook page to find any true level of intimacy and belonging.

Samuel Aftel is a junior from East Northport, N.Y. He can be reached at saftel@princeton.edu.

vol. cxliii

editor-in-chief

Chris Murphy ’20 business manager

Taylor Jean-Jacques’20 BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 trustees ex officio Chris Murphy ’20 Taylor Jean-Jacques’20

143RD MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Aftel ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Jon Ort ’21 head news editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news editors Linh Nguyen ’21 Claire Silberman ’22 Katja Stroke-Adolphe ’20 head opinion editor Cy Watsky ’21 associate opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Ethan Li ’22 head sports editor Jack Graham ’20 associate sports editors Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 features editor Samantha Shapiro ’21 head prospect editor Dora Zhao ’21 associate prospect editor Noa Wollstein ’21 chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21

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associate copy editors Jade Olurin ’21 Christian Flores ’21 head design editor Charlotte Adamo ’21 associate design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22 cartoon editors Zaza Asatiani ’21 Jonathan Zhi ’21 head video editor Sarah Warman Hirschfield ’20 associate video editor Mark Dodici ’22 digital operations manager Sarah Bowen ’20

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Opinion

Monday February 25, 2019

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Why everyone should have a job in retail Katie Goldman

Contributing Columnist

A

s we near the end of February, murmurs of “summer plans” are growing louder. As classmates announce their internships at major finance firms or enrollments in courses abroad, it’s easy to feel behind. Both of those plans are great ways to spend the summer. I believe, how-

ever, that when searching for summer opportunities, Princeton students often overlook positions that emphasize customer-facing service; one such example is the retail industry.

As part of the larger service industry, the retail sector requires interaction with customers on a daily basis. Working in the retail sector can provide many useful skills for future employment. In this industry, problems arise constantly.

Employees must think creatively, while also remaining calm and patient. These are

virtues that are beneficial to any job, regardless of the industry it falls within.

Princeton students come into contact with customerfacing workers every day.

Think of the chef who prepares your dumplings at late meal, the cashier who scans your purchases at the UStore, and the employee who swipes your prox in the dining hall.

After you gain experience in the retail industry, you have more respect for the workers who hold those jobs.

Last summer, I worked retail at a country club golf shop.

Some of the people I encountered were incredibly kind; frequent customers learned my name and interests. Others were less compassionate; they grabbed golf balls while shouting their member number without looking at me.

It is easy to pay no attention to retail workers; we are often preoccupied. We all, however, have the time to be polite. Just by looking up from your phone when you order an omelet and asking the cook behind the grill about his week, you can make someone’s day significantly better. Working in customer

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Marry Me

Daniel Te ’21

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service can make you more aware of how you treat customer-facing employees.

After my time working at the golf shop, I’ve been more conscious of how I interact with people working in retail. When I am shopping, I am careful not to mess up stacks of neatly folded clothes. I now understand how frustrating it is to watch clothes that you folded moments earlier get destroyed by a customer within seconds.

People often validate their mistreatment of those in the retail industry by telling themselves, “It’s their job.”

They think, “It’s their job to clean up after me, so who cares if I spill coffee all over the floor and make no effort to clean it? It’s their job to fold merchandise, so I might as well search through stacks of organized shirts in order to find my size and leave the clothing in a chaotic heap.”

If you take up the challenge and work in the retail industry, suddenly “their job” will become “your job.” Even if you do not plan to have a career in customer service, the experience can help you develop useful skills for future jobs and teach you to respect the millions of people who work in the service industry.

If you procrastinate like myself and are scrambling to find summer plans, I suggest you consider working in the retail industry.

Katie Goldman is a first-year from Western Springs, IL. She can be reached at kpg3@princeton.edu.

Monday February 25, 2019

Sports

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S BASKETBALL

Men’s basketball concludes successful weekend with Columbia win, 79–61

By Tom Salotti

Associate Sports Editor

Men’s basketball (15–8, 7–3 Ivy) finished off their weekend with the highest-scoring conference game so far this season, beating Columbia University (7–17, 2–8) 79–61.

Princeton still sits at second in the Ivy League, tied with Harvard (14–9, 7–3), and one win behind first-place Yale (18–5, 8–2).

Sophomore guard Ryan Schwieger, fresh off of Friday’s win over Cornell (13–3, 5–5) in which he scored a career-high 23 points, again led the team in scoring with 20. Sophomore forward Jerome Desrosiers recorded his first doubledouble: 14 points and 10 rebounds.

One minute into the game, Columbia took the lead with a layup from Randy Brumant. Princeton’s senior guard and captain Myles Stephens responded in style with a dunk, bringing the game to 2–2.

The game continued back and forth over the next four minutes, with the lead changing three times.

Columbia took back the advantage at 13:40 after Gabe Stefanini hit a three and brought the Lions to 13 points, compared to the Tigers’ 11.

First-year guard Ethan Wright hit a solid three pointer at 12:07 — his

first points of the game — to bring Princeton back into the lead at 14–13.

The two teams continued to battle for the lead for almost the entire remaining half.

Columbia saw its final, and longest, lead of the game at 4:23, after Stefanini hit a layup and brought the Lions to 26–21 over the Tigers.

Princeton pulled ahead with less than two minutes to go after a three-pointer from Desrosiers, followed by two foul shots from firstyear guard Max Johns. The lead changed five times in the first half.

The second half was not so competitive. Although Columbia got the first points of the half with a jumper from Patrick Tapé, Princeton quickly increased their lead and was ahead by 9 points at 17:26, 40–31. Back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore forward Sebastian Much and Schwieger put the Tigers up 54–40 with 11 minutes to go, a lead that Columbia was unable to shake for the remainder of the game.

More points from Schwieger, Desrosiers, and Stephens kept Princeton’s lead above 10 for the next few minutes. Wright hit a three with six minutes to go, bringing Princeton to 16 points over Columbia, 66–50. Significantly, a pair of

good free throws from Stephens at 3:53 brought Princeton to 71 points, the highest scored in a conference game so far this season.

Columbia’s Brumant scored the Lions’ last points with two foul shots only seconds later, capping

the team at 59. Schwieger built on Stephens’s momentum, dunking at 2:51 and hitting a three a minute later with the last points of the game.

The game finished out 79–61, a crucial win for the Tigers as the Ivy League tournament draws nearer.

Head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 was happy about the win, describing how the team came together to finish the weekend strong.

“It didn’t feel like a huge victory,” he said at the post-game press conference. “But more than a threepoint lead in this league is like a blowout.”

The coach praised the underclassmen who were crucial to Saturday’s victory. “When we were down four, we had three freshman and two sophomores on the floor, and we got the lead back,” he noted.

“We’ve needed them too… obviously, with what’s happened with our team in the last few weeks.”

The road to the championship is not easy for the Tigers. Three of the four remaining games are against the only opponents Princeton has lost to this season — Harvard, Brown (17–9, 5–5), and Yale. To qualify for the tournament Princeton must remain in the top four in the Ivy League.

When asked if the team has a chance to slip and fall like they did this time last year, the coach replied, “I don’t see that happening with this group. There’s something moving and I think they’re focused.

They know they want it.”

JACK GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Max Johns in Saturday’s game against Columbia.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Women’s basketball survives comeback attempt to beat Cornell, winning 75–46

By Jo de La Bruyere

Assistant Sports Editor

When the Princeton (14–9 overall, 6–2 Ivy) and Cornell (9–11, 3–6) women’s basketball teams met on Feb. 2, Princeton breezed past the Big Red to earn a commanding 75–46 win.

Friday night at home, the rivals faced off again. This time, victory did not come so easily.

The Tigers barely withstood a fourth-quarter comeback from Cornell, and the final 68–64 score was decided in the last seconds of the game.

Princeton knew heading into the matchup that to steamroll the Big Red again would be unlikely. Last time the teams faced each other, the Tigers were just emerging from a month-long break from competition. Their recent schedule has been far less forgiving — last night’s game marked their first of five in an eight-day span.

Cornell was also fresh off a 43–41 win against Yale, to whom Princeton suffered a bitter defeat two weeks ago. In all, said head coach Courtney Banghart, “we knew it was going to be grinded out.”

Banghart’s prediction proved true from the start.

The first period saw four lead changes, two tied scores, and a dominant performance by neither team. The highlight of the quarter came at the very end; Princeton trailed Cornell 14–11 with just under two minutes left on the clock.

Sophomore guard Carlie Littlefield put up a field goal, then assisted senior Sydney Jordan with her own. Cornell

fouled senior guard Gabrielle Rush on a breakaway, and she made both her shots. Junior standout Bella Alarie contributed two points of her own to round up the Tigers’ eightpoint run — and boost Princeton to a 19–16 lead heading into the second.

But despite that burst of excitement, Banghart was unimpressed with her team’s initial performance.

“Because we didn’t dive into the game, we were careless with the ball,” she said.

That criticism extended even to Alarie, one of the most reliable forces of Princeton’s offense.

“From the outset,” said

Banghart, “Bella wasn’t as dominant in terms of her positioning, in terms of her stance, and in terms of a presence — so she didn’t get as many touches, and we weren’t as focused at getting it to her.”

But when Princeton stepped back onto the court, it stepped up its game. As she had from the beginning of the game, Rush led the team’s scoring efforts. But also notable were the performances of some less familiar faces — like firstyear Lexi Weger. Weger scored eight points in her six minutes of playing time. The feat brought her even with Alarie in terms of total game points.

A buzzer-beating trey from

senior guard Qalea Ismail propelled Princeton to a 44–27 lead at the end of the second; by the end of the third, the Tigers had stretched the score to a 58–39 advantage.

An easy victory seemed in sight, but Cornell refused to accept defeat.

Big Red’s Laura BagwellKatalinich opened the fourth quarter with an eight-point run. Princeton’s first-year forward Kira Emsbo responded with six points of her own.

The score stood at 66–51; the clock wound down, and Cornell upped the pressure.

In the last six minutes of the game, the Big Red intercepted Princeton’s passes,

JACK GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

snagged their rebounds, and scored basket after basket.

And with 34 seconds left in the game, a field goal from Cornell’s junior forward Samantha Widmann slashed Princeton’s margin to two.

It seemed the perfect comeback, and one for which Princeton had no answer.

But with 11 seconds on the clock, the ball did what it had been unable to do all night: it found Bella Alarie. And Alarie did what she had been unable to do all night: dominate. A shot from under the basket gave Princeton a four-point lead. The game was over. The Tigers had squeaked by, but they had pulled it off.

But to Banghart, squeaking by was not enough.

“The effort was really disappointing,” she said. “ We’re playing for a championship.

That’s exciting. We’re playing for postseason. It’s the first time all year that all 13 players have been in uniform. There’s a lot to play for. And I thought our effort wasn’t sustained.

We didn’t have championship command. We didn’t hunt the way I want us to. It wasn’t our best outing.”

As for addressing Friday night’s flaws, Banghart has a clear plan of attack: “Bella needs to be dominant. Rush needs to make shots. Carlie needs to push the pace. Our pieces need to contribute.”

Banghart’s players will have soon have a chance to take her advice; women’s basketball faces Columbia (7–15, 3–6) in Jadwin Gym at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Maggie Connolly drives to the basket in Princeton’s win over Cornell.

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Men’s basketball scored 79 points on Saturday, their highest in Ivy League play this season.