February 6, 2015

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In Opinion Ben Dinovelli discuses the perceptions of rejection on campus, and the Editorial Board suggests changes to improve Bicker oversight. PAGE 5

Today on Campus 8:00 p.m.: Students from the Class of 2018 present various one-acts in opening night of the One Act Festival in Theatre Intime.

The Archives

Feb. 5, 1999 The University fails to make Black Enterprise Magazine’s list for the top 50 colleges for black students.

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PRINCETON By the Numbers

270

The number of people who responded to the grocery delivery service survey

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Gov. Christie under federal investigation

By Pooja Patel staff writer

New Jersey Governor and ex officio University trustee Chris Christie and members of his administration are the targets of a new investigation by federal prosecutors, the International Business Times reported on Thursday.

The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

The charges were brought after former Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor Bennett Barlyn was allegedly fired shortly after voicing objections to the decision of his superiors to dismiss his investigations into and indictments against political allies of Christie.

Barlyn filed a whistle-blower lawsuit and has told media outlets that he was given no reason for the dismissal, although he alleges that his superiors, who were appointed by Christie, fired him unjustly.

Investigators are still in the “exploratory stage,” according to the International Business Times, and it is unclear whether criminal charges will be filed.

Meanwhile, Christie has been emphasizing bipartisanship in his public speeches not

only in New Jersey but also on the national stage and many have speculated that he could be considering a run for the U.S. presidency.

“We need to renew the spirit and hopes of our state, our country and our people,” Christie said at the Statehouse in Trenton during the State of the State address in January. “We need a New Jersey renewal and an American renewal.”

Christie said the path to renewal necessitated bipartisanship and economic improvement, which he said had occurred during his tenure. He also said there was a need for the country to address national issues he did not believe were being remedied.

Although media speculation has been rife, Christie has not made a formal announcement on whether he is running for president and did not make definitive remarks about seeking the Republican nomination during his State of the State address.

However, Christie has made the first move toward entering the Republican primary for the 2016 presidential race by forming a political action committee and hiring advisers and other staff, according to See CHRISTIE page 2

STUDENT LIFE

Grocery delivery service begins pilot program

By Zaynab Zaman staff writer

News & Notes Harvard professors banned from sexual relationships with undergraduates In response to schoolwide Title IX policy changes on the issues of sexual and gender-based harassment across the nation, Harvard banned its professors from having sexual relationships with undergraduates this week.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which oversees Harvard undergraduates, emphasized that the rule regarding teacher-student relationships needed to be clearer — specifically, the language now explicitly forbids undergraduates and professors from engaging in romantic or sexual relationships.

The restrictions also apply to lab workers and dissertation advisees.

Under the previous policy, Harvard’s policy was more vague, only specifying that relationships with “one’s students” are inappropriate — suggesting that relationships between professor and student were prohibited if the student was in a professor’s class, but not necessarily otherwise.

The University, along with its peer institutions, was also found in violation of Title IX regulations last year in November.

The University and the Office for Civil Rights implemented a resolution agreement in order to review the revised policies to ensure compliance with Title IX.

PHOTO COURTESY OF POLITIFACTS.COM

The Special Occasions Agency and University Student Life Committee recently partnered to pilot a new grocery delivery service on campus this week, according to Special Occasions chair Jean Wang ’16.

The program is geared toward students in independent housing, allowing them to place online orders to the SOA and then receive their groceries shortly thereafter.

The only grocery store currently available to order from is Wegmans, mainly because Wegmans offers a comprehensive list of products on its website, Wang explained. She added that the program is considering Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market as later options, but those grocery stores do not have detailed digital interfaces, she said.

Interested students will select a price option on the SOA website, ei-

ther for $15, $50 or $75. They will then compile a grocery list from Wegmans website and email it to the SOA. Depending on the option they select, they will pick up their groceries from the SOA office or have them delivered to their dorm for an extra charge, Wang said.

The idea was originally created by Carly Jackson ’16, a member of the USLC. Jackson explained that she was on the USG dining policy committee for the 2013-14 year, but moved to the USLC once the dining policy committee closed. The USLC asked her to start a project related to dining policy, so she said she came up with the idea after thinking about what current students might be interested in. Jackson contacted the Student Agencies to inquire about potential collaboration and eventually connected with the SOA. Jackson said that the SOA expressed interest in helping to develop the

grocery delivery project because the agency provides various delivery services itself, for items such as flowers or baked goods. She added that if the pilot is successful, the SOA will likely end up executing all of the deliveries and most of the technical aspects of the program.

The pilot began this week because enough students expressed interest in the program, Wang explained. The SOA had sent out an interest survey in November, and approximately 270 people responded, many who expressed willingness to pay $5 to $10 as a surcharge for each delivery. Students who expressed interest were invited to participate in the pilot.

One of the most crucial aspects of the program is student interest, Wang explained.

“We’re going to need a critical mass of students for this to really get up and running,” Wang said. “The more people there are, the more we can spread out the costs, and the better we

can serve everyone.”

Wang explained that the SOA is still trying to figure out the right price points for students, and how many groceries they might want. If many students order a high amount, the price options might expand to $100 or $150. The SOA is also exploring how to approach getting the groceries themselves and whether there is high enough demand for perishable food or toiletries to include these items in the service.

It is unclear as to whether grocery orders can be placed weekly, bimonthly or even once a month, Jackson added, though once a week appears to be the popular choice among students.

Wang noted that the pilot, likely lasting a few weeks, will be crucial in helping the SOA to figure out the answers to many of these questions and gain important feedback. The program is only allowing 20 or so students to participate currently, alSee FOOD page 3

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Shepard ’87: Ethnobotanist, Emmy winner Panel discusses Charlie Hebdo

By Christina Vosbikian staff writer

Not many botanists can claim to have won two Emmy Awards, but Glenn Shepard ’87 can.

Shepard, an ethnobotanist and medical anthropologist whose research focuses on the indigenous peoples of South America, once worked with the Discovery Channel on a film that ended up winning two Emmys. He currently works in Brazil at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, a research institution and museum, where he is continuing his decades-long research on health status, ecological knowledge and cultural change with several indigenous tribes.

Since 2003, he has collaborated with Rainforest Flow (formerly House of the Children), a nonprofit organization that has been installing ecologically friendly, slow-sand filtrated, gravity-fed water systems to provide clean drinking water to indigenous villages in the Peruvian Amazon.

Nancy Santullo, founder of Rainforest Flow, first met Shepard through a biologist who knew Shepard in Peru when the two were doing research in Manú National Park.

“I needed to connect with him since I was thinking of doing work in Manú with indigenous cultures,” Santullo explained. Empowering the indigenous people to be “healthy stewards of the land” is a large part of the work See PROFILE page 3

By Ruby Shao Associate News Editor

Professors in the French department discussed the humor found in Charlie Hebdo, a French satire magazine, at a panel discussion on Thursday afternoon.

“It is very literally adding fuel to the fire. This is a newspaper that understands its political responsibility, and its responsibility as a newspaper promoting freedom of expression is to be irresponsible,” French assistant professor Katie Chenoweth said, adding that France possesses a long history of political satire and especially satirical cartoons.

On Jan. 7, Islamist masked gunmen entered Charlie Hebdo’s Paris offices, killing 12 people including the head editor, cartoonists and police officers.

The attack came in retaliation for the magazine’s publication of cartoons mocking the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch later claimed responsibility for the shooting, which represented the deadliest terrorist act COURTESY OF RAINFORESTFLOW.ORG

See LECTURE page 4

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The Daily Princetonian

Friday february 6, 2015

Media Studies Exhibition Presenting the Media Studies Exhibition - the culmination of Visual Arts students’ curated works from fall, on display now at the Lucas Gallery.

TIFFANY CHEN & YICHENG SUN :: PHOTO EDITORS

Though no formal announcement, Christie moves to enter presidential race CHRISTIE Continued from page 1

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the Chicago Tribune. Christie’s formation of the Leadership Matters for America PAC on Jan. 26 allowed him to begin raising money immediately.

Christie called his PAC “a group of people who want to be supportive to me,” according to USA Today.

Christie faced scrutiny from The New York Times on Feb. 2 about allegedly allowing taxpayers and foreign governments to pay for luxury accommodations and other benefits while traveling as governor and as a U.S. attorney.

Omar Wasow, assistant professor of politics, said it was unclear how some of the negative press Christie has received, also including the Bridgegate controversy in which the George Washington Bridge was allegedly closed by Christie’s aides for political purposes, will affect his presidential chances.

“Bridgegate hurt his prospects to be the Republican nominee, but among the larger Republican base, he’s still enormously popular,” Wasow said.

“Other recent revelations, such

as spending on travel, may over the course of the time prove even more meaningful than the bridge issue.”

Wasow was interviewed before the latest investigation by federal prosecutors was reported.

He added that Christie’s chances depend on how the public perceives his history.

“He’s a formidable candidate with a lot of baggage,” Wasow said. “It’s unclear which of those two aspects of his candidacy will prevail.”

Paul Frymer, associate professor of politics, said Christie could not be ruled at this stage in the process.

“There are constantly new front runners and people being knocked off,” Frymer said, referring to potential 2016 presidential candidates being written off by the media. “Barack Obama was knocked off at this time in 2008.”

Frymer was also interviewed before the latest investigation was reported.

On Jan. 24, Christie joined Republican hopefuls Sen. Ted Cruz ’92 of Texas, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Govs. Rick Perry of Texas and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas at the Iowa Freedom Forum Sum-

mit. He reiterated his opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights to the conservative crowd.

Christie has been hitting key election states aside from Iowa as well, including Ohio and Florida during the month of January alone.

Within New Jersey, however, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, Christie’s approval ratings are at one of their lowest points in four years. The poll found that 46 percent of voters approve of the governor while 48 percent disapprove.

“It’s the traffic nightmare that never ends for New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie,” a statement accompanying the poll said. “He was doing fine until one year ago.”

Federal prosecutors interviewed Christie at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton in January about Bridgegate.

Frymer said Bridgegate could ultimately hurt or not hurt Christie.

“It’s something he’ll have to address,” Frymer said. “But most candidates have something they’ll have to address in this form, what matters more in diffusing the situation is how well they address it.”

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Shepard won Emmys as anthropological consultant Pilot to help guide PROFILE expansion of service Continued from page 1

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

that Santullo participates in.

“I saw a project in a village outside the park [Manú National Park] and said, ‘We’ve got to do a project inside the park,’ ” Shepard said. “I set it up, and they just finished installing full tap water systems in September with this clean, sand-filtered water and composting-flush toilets. There are three total villages that now have this clean water system. It’s helped to drop the parasite loads by almost half, and diarrhea episodes with children have gone from about seven to one per year.”

In that same region of Peru, Shepard has been documenting and publicizing in a series of articles in the international media the worrisome situation of the isolated Mashco-Piro tribe. The Mashco-Piro were massacred in the 1890s by the notorious “King of Rubber,” Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald, and have since taken up a nomadic life in the forest, avoiding all contact with outsiders.

Recently, however, several different Mashco-Piro groups have become increasingly aggressive with nearby settled villagers, invading their lands and demanding food and supplies. It is unclear whether they are being forced out of their territories by illegal loggers or whether ecological disturbance has affected their traditional food supply.

“Nobody knows what’s going on, but they’ve been attacking villages,” Shepard explained. ”The Peruvian government doesn’t know what to do with

these people. In Brazil, there’s a whole group of anthropologists, indigenous specialists, and doctors who specialize in how to prepare for the worst case scenarios of contact.”

Shepard has been promoting dialogue between the Peruvian government and Brazilian specialists to figure out the most effective response to this dangerous situation.

Shepard has also been working with a group of Kayapo Indians who expressed that they wanted somebody to film one of their festivals and to train them in filmmaking. “[The Kayapo] have pop singers who sing popular [Brazilian] dance music and even the Beatles in their own language,” Shepard said.

Shepard has plans this year to travel with Kayapo filmmakers to Nashville so that they can present their films.

A Princeton student with diverse interests Shepard’s interests as an undergraduate were wide-ranging.

He began college thinking he would pursue a degree in medicine, then archeology. At the suggestion of Peter Bogucki, the master of Princeton Inn College where he resided, Shepard participated in an archeological dig in Germany the summer after his freshman year. He then realized he might be better suited for cultural anthropology.

His sophomore year, Shepard became interested in medieval Middle Eastern medicine and started studying Arabic. One of his teaching assistants in Arabic was a graduate student in Near Eastern Studies who had worked

with a Bedouin group in eastern Jordan.

With funding from various on-campus sources, Shepard spent his sophomore summer living with a Bedouin tribe in Jordan on the border between Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia. He carried a letter of introduction from his teaching assistant to the sheik of the tribe to ensure a generous welcome. Shepard learned about Bedouin medicine’s healing rituals, which he would explore further as the topic of his junior paper.

“With that interest in somehow combining medicine with this interest in languages, that’s when I hit upon this area of medical ethnobotany,” Shepard said.

With the help and support of Dr. John Torbourgh, Shepard spent the first semester of his senior year in Peru on senior field project studying medicinal traditions of the Matsigenka people in their Amazonian village. His senior thesis, “Ancient Visions of Healing, Hopes for Modern Health,” explores medicinal plants, shamanism and witchcraft accusations as an expression of political and social rivalries between two different villages.

“I was archeology, then Middle East with Bedouin tribes. Next thing I knew, I was in Peru,” Shepard said. ”It was a whole series of encounters, but it was all based on me being at Princeton.

If I hadn’t been at Princeton, I would never have achieved all of that. I certainly would have been doing something very different.

It was all those sort of connections.”

Shepard graduated the Univer-

sity with an independent concentration which combined his various interests.

“I created an independent major, sort of combining anthropology with chemistry and botany and biology. I created my own program, calling it ethnobotany and medical anthropology and taking many courses in different areas,” Shepard explained.

He received a Labouisse Prize upon graduating and spent the next year in Peru continuing his research in native health in medicine, living and working in the remote Matsigenka communities of Tayakome and Yomibato in Manú Park. Shepard noted that this work would become the basis of his graduate research. He began his doctoral program at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1999 with a doctorate in doctorate in Medical Anthropology.

Shepard received popular acclaim when the Discovery Channel film “Spirits of the Rainforest,” on which he worked as an anthropological consultant, won two Emmy awards in 1994.

“The Discovery Channel was interested in doing a film about Manú National Park. They wanted to have some specialist who worked with the indigenous people, and so they got in touch with me,” Shepard said.

Shepard is currently working on a book about shamanism, botany and sensory experience entitled “Sorcery and the Senses,” while continuing his work with different indigenous groups of the Amazon. Since 2011 he has blogged regularly about his fieldwork and travel experiences at “Notes from the Ethnoground.”

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FOOD

Continued from page 1

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lowing the SOA to try out the program on a small scale and resolve any technical problems and logistics, Wang said.

The SOA and USLC aim not to make a profit but rather to increase the options for students who are independent, Jackson explained, adding that she is part of the independent dining plan and is aware that there are few cheap supermarkets in town. The initiative will focus on making the service affordable for students, specifically with as

low a surcharge as possible, according to Jackson.

Andrew Chung ’18 explained that he is considering going independent at some point and is excited about the grocery delivery services launch.

“I have always been unsure about going independent, but this really incentivizes anyone with even a little interest,” he said.

Jackson noted that though there are many elements involved in creating the service, a future planning meeting between the USLC and the SOA will help clarify the true status and long-term chances of the program.

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Friday february 6, 2015

THE STREET

YICHENG SUN :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

With Bicker complete, Prospect Avenue is calm before the storm of pickups and initiations this weekend.

Professor notes changing attitudes surrounding immigrant groups LECTURE Continued from page 1

in France since 1961. In the aftermath of the killings, vigils and demonstrations in support of uncensored speech sparked debates about freedom of expression, religious extremism and tensions among various groups in French society.

The panel’s goal was to help create a broader context for thinking about the attack and the issues that have been raised as a result of the attack, Master of Wilson College and English professor Eduardo Cadava said.

Associate Professor of French and Italian Andre Benhaim described Charlie Hebdo as an “anarchist newspaper” that was born in the wake of Marxism.

“They don’t discriminate between targets,” he said. ”Any representative of what they abhor — religion, use of power — is a fair target.”

Chenoweth provided evidence of Charlie Hebdo cartoons satirizing many religions, including one picture that represented the sacred books of Christianity, Islam and Judaism on rolls of toilet paper.

However, audience members suggested that Charlie Hebdo’s attacks on Islam might be considered more offensive due to Muslims’ disadvantaged position.

“It’s kind of clear in French society that not all groups are

treated equally, and so there shouldn’t be legal provisions about how you’re not allowed to say this or that about particular groups — but there should be self-imposed rules,” Emily Lever ’15 said.

Benhaim said the Charlie Hebdo incident points to the greater issue of immigrant assimilation in France, which is home to Europe’s largest communities of Muslims, most of whom hail from North Africa, as well as Jews.

Despite their shared experiences, Benhaim noted that Jews often become “the other for the other,” meaning targets for Muslims. He added that many Muslims feel rejected by France and respond by rejecting the country, but now feel more and more pressure to integrate into local communities, although he cited several popular television shows and movies as indicative of recent improvements in French attitudes toward both Jews and Muslims, as well as of the groups’ relations with each other.

“No one would test the French identity of these works.

The same does not go for part of French literature that is still characterized as Francophone literature, meaning literature that is written in France but not by people who were born in France,” he said.

Ironically, the Charlie Hebdo

attack revived the declining newspaper, according to Benhaim.

“They were known only by a certain faction of a very small portion of leaders in France, and they were actually economically and [journalistically] saved by those who wanted to kill them after the attacks,” Benhaim said.

The magazine released a Jan. 14 “survivors’ issue” that sold out across the country and will resume regular publication on Feb. 25.

In considering ways to prevent future incidents like the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Benhaim ultimately advocated for Muslim institutions and leaders to take on a greater role in the issue and to provide the new generation another model to identify with beyond religion. He added that increased representation of minorities will improve circumstances in France.

“The [media] landscape in France is completely foreign to the reality of the French multicultural society,” Benhaim said.

Approximately 30 people attended the event, entitled “Charlie Hebdo: Contexts and Conversation,” which took place in Wilson Blackbox on Thursday 7 p.m. as part of the Wilson College Discussion series. The Department of French and Italian co-sponsored the discussion.

YICHENG SUN :: PHOTO EDITOR

Princeton professors engage the audience in conversation about the significance of the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

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Opinion

Friday february 6, 2015

Recommendations for strengthening diversity at the grad school and beyond Letter to the Editor

S

ince we, concerned graduate students at Princeton University, published our last opposite editorial on the state of diversity in the Graduate School, there has been another unfortunate change to the administration. Diana H. Mitchell ’10 abruptly left her post as an Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Diversity during the middle of the academic year, not six months after her predecessor, Karen Y. Jackson-Weaver ’94. Typically the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity manages several retention efforts for Princeton students from underrepresented backgrounds. The recent changes to the Office bring uncertainty to the fate of these crucial programs.

These changes continue to raise concern, in both underrepresented minority graduate students and allies of diversity and inclusion.

While we understand that the Graduate School’s current administration is in a state of transition, we cannot afford even a semester of stalled progress or — worse — backsliding.

Even with a positive development like the organization of the Special Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by the Council of the Princeton University Community, we need progress now. While we are aware that efforts like the Task Force on Diversity function to open discussion on the environment at Princeton, we want to ensure that the climate for underrepresented minority graduate students — whether enrolled or prospective — continues to improve. To that end, we offer the following recommendations for the University community to consider: Continue to improve transparency between University administrators and the Princeton community in ways that illuminate climate issues while still protecting the identities of faculty, staff and students who make complaints against abuses.

Expand the mission of the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity, which should be accompanied by an expansion of its budget, as well as an expansion of staff that are available to work on this mission.

This will ensure that graduate students who have been historically identified as underrepresented minorities — blacks and Latinos especially — will not see an effective disinvestment under the expansion.

Implement diversity sensitivity training for the entire Princeton community, including faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, especially those engaged in teaching or assisting in instruction.

The Office of the Provost should help to financially support the Princeton Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, a program that is central to the University’s ability to fill its pipeline with black and Latino doctoral applicants, a number of whom enroll either at the University or at other Ivy League and Ivy Plus schools.

The Princeton community should establish clear metrics when hiring staff members who, as a portion of their University portfolio, are responsible for diversity. Administrators should have already demonstrated a clear commitment to promoting diversity in the past through actions such as establishing and supporting programming, interacting with students and more.

There should be an expansion of the staffs of the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, the LGBT Center and the Women’s Center, so that they might better serve graduate students.

Finally, the University should establish either a permanent council or a task force made up of University administrators, faculty, staff and students in order to continue dialogue on climate issues and to ensure that a broader, much more diverse set of voices has a say in the major decisions impacting diversity on Princeton’s campus.

We charge the Princeton community to help support these initiatives. Diversity is more than an issue for black and Latino graduate students; it impacts everyone. These issues affect people of various identities, including ability, class, faith, gender, nation, race, ethnicity and sexuality, and we also recognize that many black and Latino graduate students lie at the intersection of those identities. Our ultimate goal is to establish a campus where people are welcome regardless of the cultural and social groups either to which they belong or with which they identify. We charge the Princeton community with standing in solidarity and taking responsibility for the climate with us.

The below group of students sign this op-ed in order to make it eligible for publication in The Daily Princetonian: Kessie Alexandre, Shasti Conrad, Janeria Easley. Linsey Edwards, Eric Glover, Clifton L. Granby, Meagan GrantEugene Hillsman, LaTasha Holden, Vladimir Medenica, Iwa Nawrocki, Sophia Nunez, Richard J. Spiegel, Angelina Sylvain, Julia Wittes

page 5

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EDITORIAL

Bicker reform

T

his week, hundreds of sophomores participated in the annual spring Bicker process at the six selective eating clubs. One of the major problems plaguing Bicker is a lack of oversight, which creates difficulties for Bickerees who seek recourse when Bicker activities unduly harm or offend them. The Editorial Board accepts that eating clubs are institutions independent of the University and encourages each eating club to establish or strengthen internal accountability mechanisms. Without any system of accountability, Bicker clubs and their officers cannot take active measures to correct practices that make Bicker unnecessarily unpleasant for potential members.

Though Bicker is imperfect, its dominance in Princeton social life necessitates a better system to improve the process for Bickerees and club members. The Board believes that clubs can do a better job of clearly outlining what sophomores can expect before the Bicker process and clearly state Bicker boundaries to their membership. Clubs could communicate expectations in the form of an online guide sent to Bickerees or verbal instructions before Bicker activities begin. The process could additionally benefit from an anonymous feedback system with which sophomores could report deviations from these

expectations to club officers. The Board recognizes that each club has its own traditions and practices and encourages clubs to make sure that bicker activities do not deviate from approved practices due to poor oversight.

A more transparent process would give club officers the information they need to prevent future transgressions. Often times, the line between what activities are allowed and what activities are discouraged is blurred and eating club members accidentally cross the line. With clearer instructions before Bicker begins and a better reporting mechanism, officers can become more aware of what lines may have been crossed so they can clarify guidelines with offending members.

Making the system anonymous would improve the reporting rate, since sophomores would not fear reprisal for their reporting. Officers could easily ensure anonymity with a Google form or a similar platform. While a complaint could be traced back to its source, it would be incumbent on the officers to prevent this as much as possible. Additionally, any failings of the anonymous system would be outweighed by the overall improvement of the process. A high response rate would give clubs more opportunities to improve their Bicker activities, as well as determine the most pressing issues in their current processes.

vol. cxxxix

While some may contend that keeping complaints within the club would prevent any real change, the Board believes that an internal process is needed to account for differences between club traditions. Moreover, there does not exist an institution capable of providing effective or desired external oversight for the private clubs. The Board believes that the types of complaints that should be addressed are those that reflect deviations from officer and graduate board-approved bicker standards.

Defining the baseline of acceptable behavior would give Bickerees a better idea of what to expect, as well as what activities would not be acceptable and should be reported to club officers.

A more transparent delineation of Bicker boundaries would ensure that Bickerees understand the norms of the club to use as a baseline against their experiences during bicker. If clubs further institute an anonymous reporting system, they would be able to better prevent activities that fall outside of this norm. Bicker plays a large role in students’ lives, and it is the responsibility of the eating clubs to improve the system for present and future Bickerees.

Anna Mazarakis ’16 editor-in-chief

Matteo Kruijssen ’16 business manager

139th managing board news editor Jacob Donnelly ’17 opinion editor Benjamin Dinovelli ’16 sports editor Miles Hinson’17 street editor Lin King ’16 photography editor Yicheng Sun ’16 video editors Leora Haber ’16 chief copy editors Caroline Congdon ’17 Joyce Lee ’17 design editors Austin Lee’16 prox editor Rebekah Shoemake ’17 intersections editor Jarron McAllister ’16 associate news editors Ruby Shao ’17 Jasmine Wang ’17 associate opinion editors Jason Choe ’17 Shruthi Deivasigmani’16

The Editorial Board is an independent body and decides its opinions separately from the regular staff and editors of the ‘Prince.’ The Board answers only to its chair, the opinion editor and the editor-

let’s get creative Valerie Wilson ’18 ..................................................

associate sports editors Sydney Mandelbaum ’17 Tom Pham ’17 associate street editors Harrison Blackman ’17 Jennifer Shyue ’17 associate photography editors Tiffany Chen ’16 Christopher Ferri ’18 Sewheat Haile ’17 associate chief copy editors Chamsi Hssaine ’16 Alexander Schindele-Murayama ’16 associate design editor Julia Johnstone’16 Cailin Hong ’17 editorial board chair Jeffrey Leibenhaut ’16 Cartoons Editor Terry O’Shea ’16

NIGHT STAFF 2.5.15 News Linda Song ’18 staff copy editors Belinda Ji ’17 Imani Thornton ’18 Maya Wesby ’18

Making rejection more acceptable Benjamin Dinovelli opinion editor

O

ver Intersession, I did not f ly out to Cancun, explore the other side of the Atlantic, or even travel back home to Connecticut. I stayed on campus to prep for interviews. Scheduling several hours a day, I met up with friends to practice, went to the library, and read up on the infamous Case in Point. After hearing, time and time again, the tired trope about the importance of internships, I feared being that one junior who would enter the month of March with nothing to show for it, starting my career down the wrong path.

After one failed interview and zero future ones on the horizon, that fear started to become more and more of an ugly reality.

This article is not meant to be a pity party (although, I’ve never been opposed to a good party before). But it does suck; it sucks a lot. It’s hard not to view the rejection email (or worse,

the dreaded lack of one long after your friends have already been accepted) as a rejection of yourself as a person. After all, isn’t a resume literally supposed to be a description of “you” on a piece of paper? When others are walking around campus in suits, heading to the Career Center or Dinky Train to New York, it is easy to fall into the mindset that you’re the only one being left behind, while everyone else is experiencing success.

But we have to remember that’s not the case. At Princeton, it is easy to measure the metrics of success and failure on the accomplishments of others.

Cherry-picking the positive stories, we view our own failures as the exceptions, rather than the norm. We have to remember that’s not true. Granted, it is easier said than done. Over-hearing the conversations of people going over finance terms or listening to their self-congratulatory discussion of how they successfully estimated annual gas consumption for a consulting case question, while prepping for a superday or second-round, it is easy to get annoyed or dejected

about the internship process entirely.

However, in these times, it is important to remember that we are more than just the piece of paper, brief phone call, or one-hour chat that we have been judged by. And this is not exclusive to jobs and internships.

Whether it is bickering, auditioning for an acapella group, or trying to walk-on to a sports team, failure is never fun, and don’t let me try to convince you otherwise. With this week full of interviews and bicker, it is more prominent than usual. However, it is definitely a much more commonly occurring experience than we let ourselves think it is.

That said, it does not mean we should pretend that everything with failure is perfectly okay.

The worst thing we can do is to ignore our problems, tucking our failures into the emotional back pocket, never to be discussed again. We should talk about our failures, as much, if not more so, than our successes. Falling into the trap of blaming ourselves – running the hypotheticals through our head of “if only I had prepped that one extra day

or been a little more social, then everything would be different” – is not only false, but also dangerous. Convincing ourselves that we are the sole problem places a mental limitation on ourselves, potentially making things worse.

Princeton took a great step normalizing failure by launching the Princeton Perspective Project.

Although the site was officially established last fall, I feel that, at this point of the year, it is especially important to bring it up again. The site contains videos and stories of fellow friends and classmates, all of whom have gone through hidden issues of their own, yet are viewed as accomplished people. Listening to the experiences of others, it becomes easier to realize that we are much more than our accomplishments (or our mistakes). In the end, we cannot change what happened. But we can learn from our experiences, preventing our past from holding back our future.

Ben Dinovelli is a Wilson School major from Mystic, Conn. He can be reached at bjd5@princeton.edu.

Sports

Friday february 6, 2015

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Women’s Basketball

18

Princeton’s Ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll

20

Princeton’s Ranking in the USA Today Coach’s Poll

This year the Tigers were the first Ivy League team to be ranked in both polls at the same time

Dominating Performance

Dominating Players Blake Dietrick

ONE OF TWO UNDEFEATED TEAMS IN THE COUNTRY

5 Ivy League Player of the Week awards this season Averages 15.8 points, 4.9 rebounds per SR GUARD game 22nd Tiger to pass the 1,000 point plateau

#11

2 WINS AWAY FROM SETTING THE LONGEST WIN STREAK IN PROGRAM HISTORY

Annie Tarakchian

#15

PRINCETON TOPS THE IVY LEAGUE STANDINGS WITH THE CONFERENCE’S MOST POTENT OFFENSE AND DEFENSE

2 Ivy League player of the Week awards this season

JR GUARD/ Averages 10.2 points, 9.3 rebounds per FORWARD game

Michelle Miller

10 WINS THIS SEASON WITH A POINT DIFFERENTIAL OF AT LEAST 20 POINTS

One Ivy Lague Player of the Week award this Season Averages 12.9 points, 4.4 rebounds per JR GUARD game Second highest three-point field goal percentage (48.8) in the country

#34

Alex Wheatley HIGHEST THREE-POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE IN THE COUNTRY

#21

One Ivy League Player of the Week award this season

JR Averages 10.1 points, 5.0 rebounds per FORWARD game

19-0 CAILIN HONG :: ASSOCIATE DESIGN EDITOR

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