The Daily Princetonian: December 1, 2023

Eisgruber doesn’t want to be the most interesting person in the room

By Sandeep Mangat Head News Editor

Next to the philosophy building, the 1879 Arch stands as the gateway between the core academic center of campus and Prospect Avenue.

On a Friday night in early November, students gathered there to listen to campus a cappella groups. Partway through the performance, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 arrived at the back of the crowd. For about half an hour, he gazed on silently, keeping his place at the back. Then, he slipped away, and the arch sing continued as the most popular groups took the stage. It’s not unusual for a student to report an Eisgruber sighting. His appearances also seem to be increasing in frequency. Just prior to that arch sing, Eisgruber had informally dined with

Under

students at Shabbat and joined them in discussion after at the Center for Jewish Life. A week earlier, he was seen holding court at Community Care Day, a new University initiative for student wellbeing that drew in thousands for free food on Cannon Green. Last week, he attended the Sunday matinee of the latest Triangle show. He has also given opening remarks at Whig-Clio, attended sporting events, and held another set of office hours.

Eisgruber might not be hard to find. Yet his profile on campus has been colored by the feeling that Eisgruber is “notably isolated,” as one longtime faculty member described him.

Last month, The Daily Princetonian sat down with Eisgruber to discuss his student engagement. In the interview,

water, Cloister risks closure

and floats sophomore takeover

By Sofia Arora News Contributor

“We are confronting a crisis, and it is not just possible, but likely, that absent significant aid from our alumni, Cloister will close its doors,” reads a email by the Board of Governors of Cloister Inn to Cloister alumni with the subject line “CRUCIAL: SAVE THE INN.” According to the email, with membership struggling to return to pre-pandemic rates, the club has had to use 90 percent of its reserve savings to stay open.

“In order to stay open through next year, we need to raise $250,000 by the end of this school year,” the Board of Governors wrote. Elsewhere, the email refers to “an aggressive fundraising goal by the close of 2023.”

The email raises the specter that absent significant fundraising, Cloister Inn, an eating club founded in 1912, will close.

Newly elected Cloister President Alexandra Wong ‘25 denied that the club was at risk of closure in an email to members. Referring to the email to alumni, she wrote, “The email had a tone of urgency for fundraising purposes, aiming for 250K in donations by the end of the year and suggesting closure if we didn’t reach this goal. Cloister will not be closing, regardless of whether or not it meets this goal.”

Cloister has one of the lowest memberships on the street and has

NEWS

Princeton-Iran ties again under scrutiny as Congress investigates research

struggled with investments in recent years. Cloister’s membership lags far behind other sign-in clubs like Terrace and Charter, both of which have extensive waiting lists.

Clubs have recovered from slumps in the past. For Cloister itself, in 1985, the club almost closed after recruiting only 11 new members during the sign-in period. In 1994, Cloister leadership staged a “takeover” by sophomores in order to revive lackluster membership.

But Cloister’s current financial crisis comes as eating clubs across Prospect Avenue have largely recovered from the pandemic and are preparing for next spring’s new members from the class of 2026, the University’s largest graduating class ever.

Beyond fundraising, the Board of Governors is inviting a “takeover” in which a large number of sophomores are invited to join the club, potentially drastically reshaping the club’s identity and culture. In the internal email, Wong wrote that current members will not “be pushed out from club culture” as a result of a takeover.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, Chair of the Graduate Board of Trustees Jose PincayDelgado ’77 wrote, “We had generally steady membership for 25 years dating back to February 1994, but the current down cycle started coming out of the pandemic.”

“We look forward to recruiting

a dynamic class this year,” Wong wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ She referred all other comments to the Graduate Board.

Cloister’s financial and membership situation

According to Form 990 tax filings for the fiscal year ending June 2022, Cloister made just over $874,000, compared to Charter’s $1.8 million. Charter also reported a net income loss of just shy of $12,000, while Cloister lost almost $270,000 in 2022.

In 2019, Cloister had a just $34 return on its just over $424,000 investment, or 0.008 percent. Cloister Inn also had the lowest net valuation of the Eating Clubs at $602,212.

According to the email to members, Cloister has 44 members. This makes it one of the smallest eating clubs on the street. The eating clubs that have faced membership struggles in recent years have almost universally been sign-in rather than bicker clubs.

Additionally, Cloister’s 2023 Street Week recruitment process yielded very few new members, according to an email obtained by the ‘Prince.’ Of the 86 spots Cloister gave out to new members in February, including 70 members of the Class of 2025, just 18 were listed as Cloister members in November 2023.

Six members of the Class of 2025 who were not listed on the initial new

INVESTIGATIONS

At Princeton’s Mpala Research Center, researchers grapple with a colonial legacy

By Miriam Waldvogel Assistant News Editor

For Kennedy Omufwoko, the Mpala Research Center represents opportunity.

“I was raised in a very humble background in the biggest slum in Africa,” Omufwoko said in a documentary produced by the University. “I don’t think I would have pictured myself even just finishing high school.”

After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Nairobi, Omufwoko got his opportunity to work at Mpala as a research assistant, studying butterflies. Soon afterward, he was admitted to Princeton as a Ph.D. student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB).

“The moment I was admitted to Princeton, that was the best moment of my life,” Omufwoko said in the documentary. “It was through Mpala that I was able to narrow down what I actually want to do.”

Deep in central Kenya, the Mpala Research Center is a preservation site and “living laboratory” of ecological and

biological research offering 75 square miles of unfettered access to African wildlife. Princeton is Mpala’s managing partner and has exerted significant influence over the institution for the last 30 years. Mpala is a frequent destination for University students and faculty and Princeton’s most important international venture.

Yet there’s a darker side to the center. By interviewing 20 Mpala researchers, visitors, administrators, and staff on multiple occasions over six months, in addition to conducting archival research from University, Kenyan, and historical sources, The Daily Princetonian sought to examine the dynamics of what researchers, professors, and historians, Kenyan and American alike, have called a colonial space.

One researcher, Fridah Mueni, works in local communities in Kenya with the Zoological Society of London. She visited Mpala in early 2022.

“There was this photo on the wall of the colonial setup with a white man on a horse whipping a Black person,”

See MPALA page 6

Please send any corrections requests to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.

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IT office steps away from reuse, sends 1,700 faculty computers for destruction

By Eden Teshome & Raphaela Gold Senior News Writer & News

The University has sent 1,700 computers to be destroyed since June 2023, according to University spokesperson Ahmed Rizvi in an email to The Daily Princetonian. In previous years, University-distributed computers were wiped and resold to members of the University community, non-profit partners, and the general public for lower prices. A new policy sends the devices to an e-recycling center, stepping away from reuse. Faculty are also now required to replace their devices every four years. Although this change was made in May 2023, several University websites continue to incorrectly claim that computers are sent to Resource Recovery where they would be resold. According

to Rizvi, the decision to destroy the computers was attributed to “an abundance of caution” relating to a backlog of aged machines that came in after the pandemic and worries that said devices may have malware that would activate upon an attempt to wipe them.

“It is surprising and disappointing that the University is destroying computers without at least being transparent about the policy,” wrote Professor Arvind Narayanan, director of the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), in an email to the ‘Prince.’

“There are well known methods to securely delete data, which is presumably what the University did previously. OIT should at least explain why they no longer consider that to be adequate,” he added.

The University provides computers to faculty members through its Faculty Computer Program (FCP). This year,

according to Rizvi, the University has provided almost 500 new computers through the program. The program was founded in 1996 to “refresh the computers of full professors, associate professors, and other select faculty members.”

There have been changes to the program recently. Since January, lecturers and visiting fellows are able to receive computers through the University. The University also banned computer customizations, and required that devices be returned to OIT every four years in order to be replaced.

Rizvi noted in a written comment to the ‘Prince’ that the four-year policy is currently a recommendation but will soon be made an official policy.

OIT Communications Director Milan Stanic wrote to the ‘Prince’ that the new requirement to purchase a new computer every four years is “because those with older operating systems, which

are not regularly updated with security patches, are more vulnerable to new security threats and exploits.”

Starting this June, disposal procedures have also changed in order to ensure information security. In the past, all electronics returned through the FCP went to Princeton’s Resource Recovery program. Resource Recovery serves as a surplus depot for out-of-use University equipment. Instead of disposing of old furniture, lab equipment, and technology, Resource Recovery sells their stock at reduced prices — available to members of the University community, nonprofit partners, and the general public.

According to Resource Recovery Coordinator Daron Groce, the Resource Recovery Center continues to receive monitors, phones, scientific equipment, and other items that are not computers. But as part of the recent changes aimed at IT security, all computers, laptops,

and tablets are now wiped by Princeton employees and shipped to Monmouth Wire Computer Recycling, a device recycling service based in Tinton Falls, N.J.

“Due to the risk to our systems and data,” wrote Stanic, “we do not — at this time — consent to reselling these devices for any purpose.”

According to Rizvi, once the University reaches “a steady state of consistent asset management, across all departments, for these devices, we will consider additional possibilities for reuse.” Until that undetermined date of “consistent asset management,” the University will continue to demand that these devices be destroyed.

Raphaela

“The BJL also produced very significant changes on this campus, and our interactions were very confrontational at times.”

EISGRUBER

Continued from page 1

he pushed back on the idea that he is inaccessible. He cited his many interactions with students, his ability to change his mind in a room with activists, and even opened up about his time at the University, a topic he has thus far been reluctant to broach.

Yet two questions hang over Eisgruber’s efforts to improve his public image on campus. Can he overcome what can sometimes be a stilted manner of interacting with community members? Moreover, does he even want to?

In the interview, Eisgruber laid out a vision of himself as more of a facilitator for the University community than its center. He made pains to stress that there are far more interesting people for students to meet on campus and that interacting with University administration was far from a priority for him when he was a student.

Eisgruber is running into the central question for all University presidents. The modern University has the financial resources of a small country and significant global influence. Any other organization of this size would be run by a CEO or politician who seeks to be a public figure. Yet University presidents are often former professors — a very different career — and also face pressure to lower their public profile out of concern that they become a liability to the University’s ideological neutrality.

Eisgruber has, at times, embraced his role as a campus ambassador and politician — defending affirmative action or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in Washington, for example. But, in the interview and more broadly, Eisgruber laid out his role to the internal community: as an administrator, not a politician.

***

In a profile published in the spring on the occasion of Eisgruber’s tenth anniversary in office, faculty and students remarked on his bureaucratic and impersonal approach to leadership.

“There are simply more folks between [Eisgruber] and you,” one faculty member said.

He is a president who has prioritized quantifiable metrics, having relied heavily on data in making some of the biggest decisions of his decade-long term.

It has been with this same technocratic manner that Eisgruber has approached his interactions with students. When inquired about Eisgruber’s public profile, the University responded with numbers.

“Between Aug. 29 and Oct. 5, President Eisgruber attended 11 student-focused events to which he was formally invited.

That does not include athletic events or other events he attended informally,” University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote in a statement.

“Over one five-day span in late September and early October, he attended no fewer than six student-focused events: three Pre-read conversations in the residential colleges, the home football game versus Columbia, the first-year families reception, and a Whig-Clio debate,” Hotchkiss continued.

***

When I spoke to him in mid-October, Eisgruber, clad in his signature orange tie and navy suit, stressed that there are ample opportunities for students to speak with him.

He noted in our conversation that his events with students are “rarely oversubscribed.”

“I’m not sure that they’re ever oversubscribed,” he added.

“Could another student drop by one of these coffee hours. Can they drop by one of these other meetings? Can they walk up to me when I’m at an athletic event or, or somewhere else? Those opportunities are there,” he said.

“Did you attend any of my Pre-read conversations?” Eisgruber asked me at one point.

No, I was forced to admit. I did not.

And though many students do meet Eisgruber at discussions focused on academic topics, including lectures at student clubs or, as he added in our discussion, at the Shapiro Prize dinner for high-achieving underclass students, Eisgruber pushed back on the notion that he only interacts with students in academic contexts.

He spoke about the types of conversations that happen in those settings; specifically, the Pre-read discussion. “I always say to the students. Look, you know, I’m here to talk about the book, but this isn’t a precept and it isn’t a seminar. It’s partly a chance to get to know you, and so we do introductions about backgrounds.”

Eisgruber, of course, was a professor, and people who have taken his classes have reviewed them warmly. “People go into [an academic career] for different reasons, but I wanted to because I wanted to teach and I’ve loved teaching throughout my career. So the time that I spend with students is a source of both joy and learning for me, and something that gets me excited about what it is that I do,” he said. ***

Some students have reported an appetite for more personal narratives from Eisgruber, given he was a student at Princeton.

“He’s an alumnus, just like many other past Princeton presidents, and I’m sure he has tons of experiences at Princeton

that could endear him to students,” one student said in a spring interview with the ‘Prince,’ adding that “it’s sad to me that I don’t hear about those.”

Aside from an oft-repeated story about his time struggling in a physics course, however, Eisgruber has largely avoided sharing his own experiences.

In the interview, Eisgruber discussed his time with eating clubs and the intricacies of navigating campus social life as someone who did not drink. “I was a member of what was then the sign-in Princeton Elm Club as a junior, and then I was independent as a senior,” he told me.

“I think part of what I understand is that Prospect [Avenue] and some of the social networks there are attractive to some students. They’re not attractive to all students. And a lot of what happened on Prospect [Avenue] was not attractive to me as a student. A lot of the gatherings that take place kind of presuppose that alcohol consumption,” Eisgruber said.

Eisgruber added that his distance from the Prospect [Avenue] scene has sometimes served him well in relating to the community. He recounted a conversation he had in 2016 with Muslim undergraduates, who discussed “how difficult it could be to be part of the social scene at Princeton” as students who didn’t drink because of religious convictions.

Eisgruber does not discuss his time at the University in this manner often. But rather than being an oversight, Eisgruber’s largely gated public image is a result of his seeming conviction that sharing those personal experiences isn’t important for his capacity as University president.

“I’m not inclined to think that I’m the most interesting thing in the room when we’re having a conversation,” he said.

As a student, he remembered, he was not interested in meeting administrators.

“Meeting with Princeton administrators was probably not in the top 100 things that interested me,” he said. He noted that he met with then-University President Bill Bowen GS ’58 once.

“There are thousands of interesting people to meet here and not enough time to meet them all, and there may be some who want to meet me and ask me a question about myself. I’m also not sure that the most interesting questions about me would be about my Princeton experience, but that’s up to individual students,” he said.

Eisgruber’s willingness to share — and cultivate a public profile in general — has fluctuated over the years. He discovered his Jewish heritage when he was provost and discussed it in depth, including as a guest on the student show, the All-Nighter, where he did a mock bar mitzvah.

He also emphasized in the interview

that there are aspects of his time here that he remains connected to, saying he is still close to his senior year roommates, who he met at Elm Club. “We continue to be in touch and got together in Boston last year,” he said.

***

An issue that has hung over Eisgruber’s tenure is his engagement with student activists. Some have claimed that he has not heeded their concerns, but at the same time, his term has been marked by significant progress on many key issues, notably including the question of divestment. So, can students change Eisgruber’s mind?

Eisgruber gave a number of examples of students doing so, but seemed most comfortable with private consultations with students on the issues.

He was initially reluctant to answer the question about activists who changed his mind.

“Regardless of the conversation that I have with a student, [it]’s confidential. So students can raise concerns with me, and I don’t feel at that point that I’m authorized to talk about that,” Eisgruber said.

When pressed, he pointed to the Armenian Society as a group that had recently brought to his attention the violence in the region, convincing him to move a preexisting commitment to attend a vigil organized by students. He also discussed Briana Christophers ’17, who advocated for Latine students and co-founded Project Welcome Mat, an online resource for first generation Princeton students.

“One of the points that she made at the time was about the iconography and the visuals that we had around the campus and about enabling students to see themselves represented in the campus around them, and it’s now become something that we’re doing a lot [of,] with additions to the University portrait collection, for example,” Eisgruber said.

Eisgruber specifically focused on Christophers’ ability to run a persuasive meeting to convince administrators. “I thought part of what was really effective about the meeting was that it was both well organized, simple, and warm in the way that it was conducted,” he said.

Later in the interview, Eisgruber returned to the question unprompted, “The Black Justice League [BJL], you know, also produced very significant changes on this campus, and our interactions were very confrontational at times.”

Eisgruber was harkening back to one of the defining moments of his presidency, but he also highlighted the private conversations that he had with the members.

“I had dinner with a set of the students in the group. One member of the group went on to become a young alumni trustee. We also had some much tenser interactions, including across this table, when

my office was occupied, and there is no doubt they changed my mind on a whole number of things,” he remembered.

Eisgruber mentioned that he felt criticism from activists was somewhat unfair. “I think there’s sometimes, in our view, the idea that if somebody doesn’t get the outcome that they want out of conversation that they say, ‘Well, I didn’t feel like that was the right interaction that I wanted to have.’ But we’re gonna have disagreements.”

Though the group constituted some of Eisgruber’s fiercest critics, many of the BJL’s recommendations have incrementally been adopted by the University. But Eisgruber’s reluctance to engage with activist groups publicly may contribute to the sense that he thinks of student groups more as sources of information rather than stakeholders to be contended with and convinced.

***

At the end of our conversation, Eisgruber remarked on the challenge of attaining community input at an institution where the stakeholders cycle out every four years.

“The fact that you’re here today, and some building’s going to get finished after you graduate, doesn’t mean that your views about that should be the deciding views about what happens. We’ve got a responsibility to decide for the long term and for much of what we do for the very long term,” he said.

The future of Princeton seems to weigh heavily on Eisgruber’s mind. At the outset of his tenure, a reporter for the ‘Prince’ characterized Eisgruber as a man unconcerned with cultivating his public image: “What’s important, [Eisgruber] says, is not his past but the University’s future.”

Eisgruber clearly also thinks that student input has a part to play in building the future that he wants. He emphasized that there are institutions in place for students to discuss what Princeton should be, including meetings of the Council of the Princeton University Community. Is there value to student interaction beyond the input they give on questions of University policy? Is one of the responsibilities of a University president to inspire and convince rather than only consult? If Eisgruber thought about these questions, he didn’t bring it up. He was focused on the next 20 years of Princeton’s growth and the best way for student input to facilitate it.

“We’re gonna listen to lots of input coming from lots of different directions gathered in lots of ways, and not just through conversations with me,” he said, “That’d be a very inefficient way to be able to get that information.”

Sandeep Mangat is a head News editor at the ‘Prince.’

Eden Teshome is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince’ and the head Podcast editor.

Gold is a News contributor at the ‘Prince.’

One of two USG presidential candidates suspends campaign, name will remain on ballot

By Alena Zhang & Nandini Krishnan

Contributor

Staff

Less than a day into campaigning, one of two candidates for Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president withdrew from the race. This leaves only one campaigning candidate for president for the first time since at least 2013.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, current Class of 2025 Senator Braiden Aaronson ’25, who announced his run for president yesterday, confirmed that he would be dropping out of the race. This makes Social Chair Avi Attar ’25 the presumptive USG presidentelect. However, according to Chief Elections Manager Alex Sorgini ’26, Aaronson will remain on the ballot.

In the statement, Aaronson referenced concerns about taking the position of USG president.

“This morning I decided to suspend my campaign for USG president. As president, I would have given my all to take care of our wonderful community, but I have recently come to realize I cannot sustainably take on the position at this time,” wrote Aaronson.

“I hope to improve our collective experience on campus in other capacities, and I appreciate everyone that has supported me thus far. I know that USG will be in good hands, and I hope that every student will continue to pay attention to this election because the president is only as good as the senate they lead,” he added.

Aaronson had initially announced his intention to drop out of the race this morning, confirming his intention to suspend his campaign in a statement late this afternoon.

With the news of Aaronson’s withdrawal, the race for president is the only election with just one campaigning candidate this election cycle. This is a sharp contrast to the typically uncontested race for Class of 2025 Senator, in which six candidates are vying for two positions.

Attar’s running mate, Srista Tripathi ’25, is running in an election for vice president against Chase Magnano ’25, who was affiliated with Aaronson. Magnano confirmed in a statement that he will still be running for the position.

“I respect Braiden’s decision to leave the race,” Magnano wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “Braiden and I were only nominally affiliated with one another. My campaign is going strong and I am excited to share my ideas with my fellow students.”

A third candidate, Warren Shepherd ’27, is also running for vice president.

After a USG announcement was sent on Wednesday, Nov. 22, soliciting candidates for seven uncontested spots, all positions except for USG president have multiple campaigning individuals.

Alena Zhang is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Nandini Krishnan is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

“We want [interested groups of students] to give us a wish list of proposed improvements to the clubhouse and service that we can fund”

member list in February are now Cloister members, indicating they likely signed in during the spring or this fall. Cloister continued to accept applications for rolling admissions following the spring sign-in period.

Plans for the ‘takeover’

The Cloister Graduate Board of Trustees and current undergraduate officers are also “aggressively campaigning to recruit large groups of students to join the Club,” according to the alumni email. They hope that the strategy of a “takeover” would revitalize Cloister in the long run by bringing membership to full capacity with new undergraduate leadership.

Pincay-Delgado added, “We want [interested groups of students] to give us a wish list of proposed improvements to the clubhouse and service that we can fund in part with this year’s alumni donations. Ideas we’re suggesting include upgrading our movie room & hot tub, planning fun off-campus trips, and booking live bands.”

Wong expanded on the idea in the email to members, writing, “it entails a discretionary ‘membership fund’ that potential members can submit proposals on using if a recruitment goal is reached.”

Cloister and other clubs have successfully staged sophomore takeovers in the past. Most recently, in 2019, Charter Club solicited groups of between six and 100 sophomores and juniors to join, asking them for proposals for “a new direction” for Charter. Previously, the club had been known for attracting engineering students. During the “takeover,” they heard suggestions about changes ranging from dining options to social events to financial aid. Charter Club has become increasingly popular over the past few years.

When Cloister almost closed in

1985, the club first installed its hot tub. Two months later, “the new group was thoroughly entrenched, with only one person remaining from the previous year’s membership, and only two who had joined during sign-ins.”

The Club also experienced a very similar situation exactly thirty years ago, when it faced a crisis of membership in the fall of 1993. Cloister leadership partnered with a group of sophomores interested in a “takeover” to plan a future direction for the Club. The eventual wish list of the alumni, otherwise known as “Innmates” of the Class of 1996, included longer meal hours and internet access for the Club.

“The members of the Class of 1996 are now revered among Cloister alumni. They’re the ones that transformed the club for a generation of members,” Pincay-Delgado wrote.

Pincay-Delgado also explained that in 1994, Cloister held another round of officer elections after Street Week so that new members could “immediately be candidates for top officer roles.” Club leadership plans to do the same next spring if membership grows significantly.

Wong wrote to members, on the other hand, the current members would not be pushed out of “informal or formal leadership.”

The email to alumni stressed that a takeover alone won’t be sufficient to save the club given that their dues would not be received by the club until fall 2024. This makes the fundraising goal critical.

“The fundraising is also meant to support the wish list of our new members as they define the next generation of Cloister,” Pincay-Delgado wrote.

The current generation of Cloister is evenly split between the Class of 2024 and 2025, with 20 members from 2024 and 21 members from 2025. Three members are graduate students or associate research scholars.

The club’s aquatic stereotype

The reputation of Cloister has varied over the years. Famous Innmates include Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan ‘81, Sirius Satellite Radio cofounder Robert Briskman ‘54, and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer ‘81.

In recent years, the common stereotype of Cloister members is that they are “floaters and boaters” — athletes on water sports like rowing and swimming. The ‘Prince’ cross-referenced the list of Cloister members with the rosters for men’s and women’s swimming and diving, water polo, and rowing teams, and found that just one-third of Cloister’s membership qualify as “floaters and boaters.”

Men’s heavyweight rowing accounts for about 14 percent of Cloister’s membership, while 10 percent were on the men’s swimming and diving team. No Cloister members were on the men’s or women’s water polo teams.

Similarly, over a quarter of men’s heavyweight rowers call Cloister home, the most among any water sport team. A fifth of men’s swimming and diving team members are in Cloister, while about 13 percent of women’s lightweight rowers are members of the club.

No members of women’s swimming and diving or either water polo team are also Cloister members. An important affinity group at the club is “Women of Cloist,” which highlights the gender diversity of the club.

The Board of Governors invoked a history of community at Cloister, while stressing the need for donations to keep it open.

They wrote, “we are reminded of the faithful bonds we have all forged at our home away from home, Cloister Inn.”

Sofia Arora is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

New Frist Health Center bolsters legacy of historic Princeton family

By Rebecca Cunningham & Tess Weinreich Assistant News Editor

In 1971, William “Bill” Frist ’74 had just $10 in his pocket when confronted by three chair-wielding assailants outside Princeton Inn College on a Sunday at 12:30 a.m. According to The Daily Princetonian, Frist, a brown belt in karate, successfully defended himself and sent two of the attackers sprawling. More than 50 years later, powered by several multi-million dollar gifts to his alma mater, Bill Frist and his family are creating a legacy and

presence on campus matching some of the University’s biggest names.

The University announced a plan to replace McCosh Health Center last week, funded by a “major gift” from Dr. Thomas Frist Jr., a billionaire physician-businessman and brother to Bill Frist, a former senate majority leader. The new health center will bear Thomas Frist Jr.’s name. The new facility will be more than twice the current health center’s size, and is expected to open its doors in 2025. It will sit opposite Frist Campus Center, named after Bill Frist, one of the most heavily-trafficked buildings on campus.

While Thomas Frist Jr. is not a Princ-

eton alumnus, the Frists claim three generations of Princetonians and rank among the University’s largest donor families. The recent gift comes alongside two other donations from the Frists to enhance student life and wellness at Princeton in the last 25 years. The Frists also claim close familial ties to Vanderbilt University, where Thomas Frist Jr. went to college, and contributed an “unprecedented gift” to help fund the construction of an $300 million athletics village in 2023.

The Frist family members that have attended Princeton include Thomas Frist Jr.’s sons, Thomas Frist III ’91 and William R. Frist ’93, and grandchildren Caroline Frist ’23 and Tommy Frist ’27. Jacqueline Frist, a third grandchild, started at Princeton in 2021 but transferred to Vanderbilt in 2022.

“Coming to Princeton was a life-changing experience for my brother Bill and various family members who have had wonderful experiences as students,” Thomas Frist Jr. told University communications.

The new health center will be a fourstory complex, built from a renovated Eno Hall and a major expansion to the south. According to Princeton Alumni Weekly, it will be designed to be “healing in character,” including “serene spaces, adjustable lighting and temperatures, and ... a winter garden.” The increased size of the new center will help to accommodate the growing undergraduate student body, which the University plans to increase by 500 students over four years. It will house medical services, health promotion

and prevention services, counseling and psychological services, and the sexual harassment/assault advising, resources, and education (SHARE) office.

These services are currently housed in McCosh Health Center. The current McCosh Health Center was named in honor of Isabella Guthrie McCosh, wife of President James McCosh. She has been described as serving as the unofficial Director of Campus Health Services during his presidency starting in 1868. As McCosh Hall, home of the English department, is named after President McCosh, the new health center, like the last, will share a name, but not a namesake with another prominent building on campus. McCosh Health Center has a prominent presence in Princeton pop culture, as a student taken to the center after a night of drinking would be termed “McCoshed.”

In an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) meeting this October, USG President Stephen Daniels ’24 suggested the location of the current McCosh Health Center might be used to revive a campus pub. This opens the possibility that a student drinking at McCosh may be “Fristed.”

The new health center will bolster the family’s legacy; however, the Frist name has signified “the absolute epicenter of campus” since 2000, when Frist Campus Center was completed. The family provided a $25 million donation to fund the student center. In a dedication speech, delivered on Oct. 20, 2000, former University President Harold T. Shapiro praised it as a “milestone in Princeton’s history.”

Dominating the center of campus, the Frist name will be associated with not only contributions to the University but also to the national scene as Bill Frist was leading political figure in the early 2000s. Bill Frist’s political career traces back to his University days. The first in his family to attend Princeton, he served as the vice president of his senior class and as a young alumni trustee from 1974–1978 and a university trustee from 1991–2001. He also gave the baccalaureate day speech in 1997.

Bill Frist returned to campus in 2003 to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society’s James Madison Award. As reported by The Daily Princetonian at the time, the Republican senator was met by 25 student protestors from from the Queer Radicals’ Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) and graduate student action group Another World is Possible, who objected to the senator’s voting record on LGBTQ+ issues. The changes in central campus are bound to have an effect on the community. “Our primary goal in making this gift is to make the Princeton family healthier in mind, body, and spirit,” Thomas Frist Jr. told University communications.

Rebecca Cunningham is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Tess Weinreich is an associate News editor at the ‘Prince.’

Mochinut and Ani Ramen close, reports note health code violations

By Amy Ciceu & Ethan Caldwell Senior News Writer & News Contributor

When Princeton students returned to campus this fall, the Nassau Street locations of Mochinut and Ani Ramen, two casual chain restaurants located near the Princeton Garden Theater, had closed after being open for less than a year. Other locations of each chain remain open.

Mochinut offered a variety of flavors of mochi donuts, riceflour batter-coated hotdogs, and bubble tea drinks. Ani Ramen served ramen bowls, rice bowls, and bao buns, among other Japanese meals.

The Daily Princetonian obtained routine inspection reports from the Princeton Health Department that found Mochinut and Ani Ramen to be in violation of numerous public health protocols designed to prevent foodborne illnesses. The reports also

found that both establishments had several risk factors that posed a danger to public health. Both restaurants were rated “Conditionally Satisfactory,” and it is unclear whether the health inspections and closure are related.

Representatives of the Montclair Group, which owns Mochinut and Ani Ramen, did not respond to a request for comment through a form on their website.

The report, based on a riskbased inspection of Mochinut and Ani Ramen on March 30, 2023, revealed that management and personnel were documented as being “out of compliance” with multiple metrics.

According to the report, “Kitchen staff [lack] knowledge of food safety basic[s]. All staff handling foods must be trained on food safety basic[s in] the next 14 days, as per the Princeton sanitary code.”

The report said that both establishments lacked preventa-

tive measures against food contamination in the handwashing department. While the report on March 30 noted that handwashing facilities were provided in bathrooms and were “convenient,” “accessible,” and “unobstructed,” handwashing itself did not occur in compliance with standards that require employees to do so “prior to work, after using the restroom.”

A follow-up comment summarizing the report’s findings recommends that employees review and implement basic hygiene practices.

The report summary references specific conditions within Ani Ramen and Mochinut that reflect a lack of compliance with various public health measures.

“Ice machine observed with heavy accumulation of dirt and filth,” reads one comment.

“Knife dirty to sight and touch,” reads another comment, corroborating the report that Mochinut and Ani Ramen were not compli-

ant in protecting food from crosscontamination by ensuring that all “equipment food-contact surfaces and utensils shall be clean to sight and touch.”

Mochinut and Ani Ramen were also found to be in violation of rules around how food itself is stored and handled. The “proper separation of raw meats and raw eggs” did not occur and food was not protected from contamination, nor were surfaces in regular contact with food sufficiently cleaned or sanitized.

According to the report, food was also in non-compliance and not properly labeled, nor was it “protected from contamination during preparation, storage, and display.” Furthermore, “garbage and refuse” were not properly maintained within the store premises and food temperature-measuring devices were not “properly calibrated.”

At the top of the risk-inspection report, the overall conditions

of Mochinut and Ani Ramen in terms of adhering to environmental health and safety standards are described as “Conditionally Satisfactory.”

When Mochinut and Ani Ramen first opened to the public in 2022, the risk-based inspection report that year reported both venues to be in compliance with standard protocols. Specifically, during a routine inspection conducted by the Princeton Health Department on Nov. 28, 2022, both of the establishments were deemed “satisfactory” in the report summary.

After hearing about the report and closings, Angel Tang ’27 said, “I mean, it doesn’t matter to me that much … I don’t think I need Mochinut every day.”

Amy Ciceu is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Ethan Caldwell is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

An aerial mock up of the new Frist Health Center.

Princeton-Iran ties again under scrutiny as Congress investigates research fellow

By Olivia Sanchez & Lia Opperman

Staff News Writer & Associate News Editor

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced on Thursday, Nov. 16 that it is launching an investigation into University research fellow Seyed Hossein Mousavian, amid allegations that Mousavian is using his position to advance the interests of Iran. 12 Republican committee members wrote a letter to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 with 10 questions to aid their investigation. No Democratic committee members signed the letter.

Mousavian, who was hired in 2009 as a Middle East Security and Nuclear Policy Specialist at the Program on Science and Global Security, was a prominent figure in the Iranian government prior to his 2007 arrest. He served as the Iranian ambassador to Germany from 1990 to 1997. From 1997 to 2005, Mousavian headed the Foreign Relations Committee of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. From 2005 to 2007, he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. He also served as Vice President of the Center for Strategic Research and worked for the Expediency Discernment Council’s Center for Strategic Research from 2005 to 2008.

In 2007, Mousavian was arrested following accusations from the Iranian president at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed Mousavian leaked information to European members of the 2003 to 2005 nuclear negotiation team which Mousavian was part of. Ahmadinejad was one of most hardline of Iran’s recent presidents.

In an email to The Daily Princetonian, Mousavian attached a list of responses to each allegation in the House committee’s letter. Regarding any continued connection with the Iranian government, Mousavian wrote, “I have not been able to go to Iran since June 2021 and I have not been engaged with any government including the government of Iran since the Iranian court convicted me in 2008.” He added that he was not able to attend his father’s funeral in Iran in November 2022.

Non-profit advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) called for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, and U.S. House Armed Services Committee into Mousavian’s appearance at the 2023

U.S. Strategic Command Deterrence Symposium, held by U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM).

“My talk at the US Strategic Command was all about peace in the Middle East and why the US should avoid wars and focus on peace and cooperation,” Mousavian wrote.

In February 2022, UANI also called for Mousavian to be fired from the University due to his attendance at the funeral of Qasem Soleimani, whom the U.S. military assassinated in 2020. Soleimani was an Iranian military officer who served as the head of the Quds Force, a division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) responsible for secret and extraterritorial military operations. The U.S. government classified the IRGC as a whole as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in April 2019, while the Quds Force was classified as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2012. The U.S. government labeled Soleimani a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in October 2007. Mousavian also appeared in an Iranian television program tribute to Soleimani.

In his email to the ‘Prince,’ Mousavian addressed his alleged support for Soleimani. He wrote, “This is a manufactured fake story created by certain lobbies in Washington which are interested in dragging the US to attack Iran, another disaster for the U.S. and the region.”

He explained that he was in Iran to visit his mother, who was hospitalized and later passed away around the same time former President Donald Trump had Soleimani assassinated. He added that as an academic researcher, he attended the funeral to see the public reaction to the assassination.

“Seven million attended Soleimani’s funeral in Tehran and 20 million in other cities in total,” he wrote. “This was clear evidence that Soleimani was very popular in Iran and this association added another layer to Iran-US hostilities.”

Frank von Hippel, a senior research physicist and professor emeritus of public and international affairs and a close colleague of Mousavian’s, wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that “this [current investigation] is more of a fishing expedition to see if they can find some dirt. I am afraid they will be disappointed.”

The investigation comes in the wake of University graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnapping in March by a militia linked to the IRGC while conducting research in Baghdad, Iraq. Princeton also reached a settlement in September with former

graduate student Xiyue Wang, who filed a lawsuit against the University for their alleged negligence during his forty months as a hostage in Iran. Two of the committee’s questions to Eisgruber ask about the University graduate students who have been kidnapped while conducting research in the Middle East. The committee wrote, “Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton doctoral student, is currently being held hostage in Iraq by Iranbacked militias. Has Princeton asked Mousavian to assist in Tsurkov’s release? Has Mousavian offered to use his contacts to try to free Tsurkov?”

The committee also asked about Wang, who was imprisoned for 40 months while conducting research in Iran. In the letter to Eisgruber, the committee wrote, “During Mousavian’s tenure at Princeton, one of its students, Xiyue Wang, was held hostage in Iran. Given Mousavian’s experience as a former high-ranking official with the government of Iran, did Princeton ask Mousavian to assist in any way for Xiyue Wang’s release? Did Mousavian offer to use his contacts to try to free Xiyue Wang?”

Mousavian was mentioned by name in Wang’s lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Mousavian and others “made the intentional decision not to utilize their political capital in Iran to assist Mr. Wang. Specifically, Mr. Mousavian was the former spokesperson for Iran’s nuclear negotiation team and a close friend of the then Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.”

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Mousavian asked Princeton’s attorneys to advise Wang’s wife, Hua Qu, “‘that [Mousavian’s] connection with this matter is the worst thing for Wang’ and to stress to Ms. Qu, ‘and others who communicate with Wang, that there should be no mention of Mousavian’s name.’ Mousavian ‘instructed that if his name comes up on a call with Wang, [Ms. Qu] and others should … say that Mousavian has nothing to do with this case and that [they] have had no communications with him.’”

Wang wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the investigation into Mousavian and the University’s connection to Iran, calling Mousavian a “regime agent.”

Mousavian wrote that his work at the University and how over the past two decades, he’s “used every opportunity to propose peaceful solution [sic] to the Iranian nuclear crisis and dialogue and engagement between Iran and the United States and with other countries such as Saudi Ara-

bia.”

“All my books, articles, speeches, and interviews during 13 years working at Princeton University are about peace, security, stability, and opposing wars and warmongering,” he added.

This is not the first time Mousavian has come under fire. In February 2022, a guest contribution from former Trump administration State Department officials in the ‘Prince’ called for Mousavian’s removal from his position at the University. In response, von Hippel wrote an opinion piece in the ‘Prince’ in defense of Mousavian, in which he wrote, “UANI’s attack on Dr. Mousavian should be understood for what it is: a hatchet job against a political opponent.”

Mousavian and von Hippel referred the ‘Prince’ to a letter that von Hippel wrote in September to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, and Sen. Roger F. Wicker (RMiss.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. The letter is in response to a letter that Rogers and Wicker published in the Free Beacon, a conservative news website, questioning Mousavian’s attendance at STRATCOM’s Deterrence Symposium.

In the response, von Hippel wrote, “Mousavian’s relationship with Iranian administrations has depended on the administration. He has cooperated with liberal administrations such as the one in which Zarif was Foreign Minister (2013–21). His relationships with hardline administrations have been more problematic.”

“We all know the sorry history of Senator Joe McCarthy’s recklessly false allegations against honorable people 60 years ago,” von Hippel added. “We are in another such era today. It is therefore critical that political leaders protect themselves from being misused by groups seeking to discredit their political enemies.”

In an email to the ‘Prince,’ UANI policy director Jason Brodsky wrote, “The presence of a former Islamic Republic official, who maintains ties to the regime, at Princeton for so long while Americans, and Princeton students, have been held hostage, is an outrage. Rewarding someone with such a position who presided over the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Germany when Iranian dissidents were murdered by the regime in Berlin is a stain on Princeton’s reputation.”

“This is not an issue of academic freedom, it’s one of national security. Princeton has not responded to the many concerns raised over the years regarding Mousavian, includ-

ing from UANI, which has called on Princeton to sever ties with him,” he added. “If Princeton’s motto is ‘in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,’ it must take action and address these concerns.”

In response, Mousavian wrote that “This another lie. The 398-page verdict is published and everyone can have access to it. The Berlin court verdict does not contain any direct or indirect allegations against me.” He added that German authorities never forced him to leave the country and that the court verdict was issued in April 1997, and his seven-year assignment as ambassador was terminated less than a year later in early 1998. “Since then, I have been a frequent visitor to Germany,” he added.

“However, a group of rogue elements at the Iranian intelligence Service plotted to assassinate me during my mission in Germany as the Ambassador, but they were unsuccessful,” he wrote. Later, the killing team were arrested in Iran and confessed that they planned to assassinate me in Germany during December 1996 Christmas holidays actually a few months before the Mykonos Court verdict which issued in April 1997.”

The ‘Prince’ was unable to independently verify these allegations.

This is also not the first time that the University has come under scrutiny for hiring professionals with ties to Iran. In August, the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) hired Robert Malley, the special envoy for Iran in the State Department. Malley was placed on unpaid leave from the State Department in June after his security clearance was revoked amidst an ongoing investigation into his handling of classified materials.

Nick Nikbakht, a businessman, made calls on X for the public to formally file complaints with the Committee on Education & Workforce to investigate the University for “harboring Mousavian” in September.

“When Princeton, a prestigious university backs these propagandists of the terrorist regime in Iran, their effectiveness of spreading propaganda to influential figures and policy makers in our American society increases,” Nikbakht wrote in a message to the ‘Prince.’

The University did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the time of publication.

Olivia Sanchez is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Lia Opperman is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Okeke-Agulu:

“Mpala, given its history and how it came down to the present management by Princeton, is deeply embedded in colonial history.”

finances, and institutional priorities and has promoted Mpala widely in its public materials.

Mueni recalled in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “I remember I just sat there and cried. How can this be okay in this day and age?”

Researchers who spent time at Mpala describe unequal housing conditions, a culture of separation between Kenyan staff and largely international visitors, and financial inaccessibility for Kenyan students.

Mpala administrators and supporters point to the research center’s community engagement initiatives and the number of Kenyan administrators. They say that current administrators at both Mpala and the University have taken key steps to ease the divides of the center’s past.

Mark Griffiths, a researcher studying colonialism and development at Newcastle University, also visited Mpala with Mueni. Earlier this year, the two published an academic paper that called Mpala a “distinctly colonial space” and urged Princeton to decolonize the research center.

“[Mpala] feels very much like those films depicting a time 100 years ago,” Griffiths told the ‘Prince.’

The oldest structure at the research center is the ranch house, an imposing colonial-style building a short drive from campus. Built in the 1930s, the ranch house has borne witness to Mpala from its evolution from a cattle ranch to an internationally renowned wildlife research center. The ranch house offers welcome comfort for important visitors after the hour-long drive from Nanyuki, the closest town, advertising “eight luxurious bedrooms,” electricity, hot showers, and Wi-Fi. Previous visitors include Prince Edward, now the Duke of Edinburgh, who stayed at the ranch house in 2010.

Maintaining this level of accommodations, coupled with specialized scientific research facilities, requires a small army of staff, typically hired from the surrounding towns to fulfill a variety of roles: drivers, security guards, cooks, guides, and others, totaling roughly 250 people. But while staff work to support researchers and visitors at the center, the housing for those that live on the campus is quite different, according to both students and researchers who spent time at Mpala. Set away just a couple hundred yards away from the campus, roughly 120 staff members live in a small village of oneroom huts. The residences have no running water or electricity. The staff village was built in the 1930s when Mpala was a colonial ranch owned by two European aristocrats.

Griffiths spoke about the symbolism of the colonial-era ranch at the historic heart of the research center. “That ranch house is part of the problem. It’s the centerpiece, but it’s not everything,” Griffiths said.

The question of the future of Mpala comes as universities across the country grapple with their past ties to racism and colonialism. The conversation around Mpala is unique in that it represents a current Princeton venture located directly in a postcolonial society.

“[Mpala] could be a test case for how an institution like our university can engage with Africa,” said Chika Okeke-Agulu, a Nigerian artist, a professor at the University, and the director of the African studies program, in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ Okeke-Agulu serves on the Mpala Advisory Council, founded in 2021 to engage local communities and promote more equitable research.

But some feel that the center has not done enough to move past its history.

“It definitely feels like, I don’t know, what I imagine Kenya might have felt like in the 1960s,” said Sally Goodman ‘14, who spent a year at Mpala as part of the Princeton in Africa program.

While technically separate entities, the University oversees Mpala’s operations,

“As the managing partner of this collaboration, Princeton sees its role as a steward of Mpala’s resources and an enabler of Mpala’s management,” wrote Aly KassamRemtulla, the University’s Vice Provost for International Affairs and Operations, in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ Born in Kenya, he manages the University’s relationship with Mpala and is the chair of the research center’s board of directors.

Mpala administrators have pushed back strongly on allegations of colonial dynamics. The current administrative team is entirely Kenyan.

Dr. Winnie Kiiru has been the executive director of Mpala since February 2023 and is the first Black Kenyan to serve in the role. In a November interview with the ‘Prince,’ she recounted the stories her mother told her about British colonial rule. “[She would talk] about how hungry the children were, living in colonial communities,” Kiiru said. “The white man would come around, checking our houses for whether we swept them or cleaned them, and then he would take hardtacks from my mother, who had no way of making an income.”

“That’s what colonialism is. It’s not a picture on the wall,” Kiiru added.

A colonial past

In 1930, Adolph Schwarzenberg of the wealthy German-Czech Schwarzenberg family married Princess Hilda of Luxembourg. Three years later, the two acquired a 999-year lease on 3,500 acres of Central Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau for farming. They called the land “Mpala” after the impalas that populated the area.

The Schwarzenbergs raised pigs and cattle and sold butter to British troops stationed in Kenya. They also had a small electrical power plant constructed to support an irrigation system for crops.

In his 1946 book “A Kenya farmer looks at his colony,” Adolph Schwarzenberg remarked on the growth of the farm to 7,500 acres, including the “many houses and buildings erected during the past few years.”

“Some of the houses are equipped with bathrooms featuring hot and cold water — rare conveniences in East Africa!” he wrote.

The legacy of the Schwarzenbergs at Mpala remains today in the remnants of a bridge, called Princess Hilda’s Bridge, spanning the Ewaso Ng’iro river on one of the main roads to the research center.

A Princeton alum eyed the land in 1952 — 11 years before Kenya would gain its independence — when Samuel Small ‘40 obtained the Schwarzenbergs’ holdings. The property in turn passed to his brother, George Small ‘43, after Samuel Small’s death in 1969.

George Small eventually expanded these holdings to more than 48,000 acres of land and formed the Mpala Wildlife Foundation (MWF) in 1989 to promote wildlife and ecological conservation. The same year, he approached the University and other partners about establishing a center for scientific research.

Today, according to Kassam-Remtulla, the land leases are held or controlled by the MWF, a nonprofit organization registered in the United States. While technically a separate entity, the University appoints the board members of the MWF, according to Kassam-Remtulla, and a majority of them have close Princeton ties.

Mpala in its current form opened in 1994 as a collaboration between the National Museums of Kenya, the Kenyan Wildlife Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the MWF, and the University. A Smithsonian spokesperson noted the organization does not have management responsibilities.

Kitili Mbathi is an Mpala trustee and the former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

“Kenya Wildlife Service manages the wildlife,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “They are involved in any veteri-

nary services that need to be undertaken on the wild animals, any permitting, any research permits relating to animals, any capture and coloring of animals.”

The ‘Prince’ was unable to reach representatives of the National Museums of Kenya in time for publication.

In 2017, at the behest of the other partners, the University became Mpala’s first ever managing partner, overseeing its institutional priorities, operations, and finances. In 2020, it also took on similar responsibilities for the land.

Mpala’s colonial past has been under the microscope as the community examines its role today.

“Mpala, given its history and how it came down to the present management by Princeton, is deeply embedded in colonial history,” Okeke-Agulu said. “There’s no denying that fact.”

Some of the remnants of Mpala’s time as a British colony persist. The grounds are still used for annual training exercises for the British Army, a practice started by George Small. Payments from the British government for use of the land — by some reports an annual fee of one million pounds — have formed a significant part of the research center’s budget. The army has also been responsible for building and servicing Mpala’s roads.

In a November interview, Kiiru said the research center has come to rely more on the University and its other partners for fundraising. “We think that very shortly we’ll be able to sunset that relationship with [the] British Army, simply because we will not need the money,” she said.

“I for one, frankly, cannot understand why the British Army should still be carrying out its operations at Mpala. It’s one of the first things that has to go,” OkekeAgulu said. “You have workers at Mpala whose parents and grandparents were among those that were murdered by the British Army,” he added, referencing the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s.

Yet, more overtly to visitors to Mpala, the colonial legacy is visible in the interactions between researchers and staff, as well as the differences in their accommodations.

A sharp division between scientists and staff

“They call Mpala a resort for scientists,” said Benjamin Muhoya GS, a graduate student in EEB at the University, “because [the staff] do everything for you. They cook for you … laundry is done for you. You just have to wake up and worry about the science.”

Nelly Palmeris is Mpala’s chief operating officer. “We’re in a very remote place, so ensuring that everything is provided for a researcher or a student in that kind of setting means you have to have a lot of support in terms of staff,” she said in an August interview.

Researchers and visitors have a wide range of accommodations at Mpala.

Researchers have the option to stay in the bandas, or huts, dotting the campus, or houses with kitchens and bathrooms. There is also a library, a gym, and a lecture hall that seats 60.

Undergraduate students have similarly comfortable accommodations. One dormitory is allocated specifically for students from the University. A few miles from the main campus, other student groups stay in tents on Ewaso Ng’iro River, described by the EEB department as looking “out on to the river, much like an up market safari tent in a commercial safari lodge would do.”

According to Palmeris, 120 staff members also live at the Mpala campus fulltime. Much of the staff village was built in the 1930s as Mpala converted from a ranch to a research center and comprises a series of small one-room huts built in the style of rondavels, traditional circular dwellings. The huts do not have electricity or running water.

Mueni, the researcher who published on decolonizing Mpala, called the staff village “in a deplorable condition.”

“It’s housing that would have been comfortable 20, 25 years ago,” said Muhoya. “But compared with living standards right now, it isn’t fit for staff to be living in those kinds of conditions when they are the people who keep Mpala up and running.”

In a September interview with the ‘Prince,’ Kiiru attributed the current infrastructure of Mpala to the research center’s history as a cattle ranch.

“You just have to make do with what is here, but we recognize that now we’ve moved to another era where we are thinking more. We don’t have to make do with things that don’t serve our purpose,” she said, offering a scenario: “I need a driver. Where can he stay? The ranch has some abandoned housing, maybe we can use that.”

“Everything is very historical,” said Palmeris.

The remoteness of the research center admittedly poses a challenge for construction. The nearest town, Nanyuki, is more than an hour’s drive away, while Nairobi, the nearest major city, is more than four hours away.

“Conditions were habitable. It was not that bad, given the conditions of the remote environment,” said Moses Kioko Musyoka, who worked as a research assistant at Mpala.

Agustín Fuentes is an anthropology professor at the University who is currently helping to conduct a survey of the research center’s 48,000 acres. “The staff village is much better than some of the other villages around there, and much worse than others,” he said.

Three people with knowledge of Mpala said that housing was better in surround-

ing communities.

“In neighboring villages, some people actually do have comfortable housing with solar,” Muhoya added, although he said running water was more rare.

D. Vance Smith, a professor in the English department, grew up in southern Africa as a member of the (ama)Ndebele tribe and attended high school in Kenya. He said that the dynamic between staff and researchers at Mpala was also impacted by class, and not uncommon in Kenya.

“[This] is replicated in many other Kenyan-owned establishments in Kenya, from large ranches to middle-class households,” Smith said, referring to the experiences of staff at the research center. “The domestic help and the staff are cordoned off, they typically live in what most Kenyans refer to as the SQ, the servants’ quarters, which almost invariably are not as well-appointed as the houses.”

Kiiru, citing a facilities assessment report conducted in 2022, told the ‘Prince’ that the Mpala administration is seeking to build a new staff village using University funds. She estimated that construction would begin in January 2024. Mpala administrators declined to provide the ‘Prince’ with the report.

The research center has also received funding from the University to address deferred maintenance, according to Kassam-Remtulla, Palmeris, and Kiiru. ***

While there were some opportunities for interaction — visitors recalled soccer games with staff near the village, for example — the division between researchers and staff has extended to the dining area. Researchers, students, and visitors alike have access to three hot meals a day at the campus cafeteria, which also provides coffee and tea. This is also where members of the administration eat.

According to multiple sources who spent time at Mpala, staff members have traditionally been expected to eat in their own cafeteria and are generally not given access to the researchers’ cafeteria unless they are invited.

Muhoya noted that the policy is not as clear-cut. “There isn’t a clear line of when or which type of person you can invite to the canteen,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s for good intentions, but it creates that visible divide for somebody who hasn’t been in Kenya, or even somebody who is Kenyan.”

Multiple visiting researchers attributed this custom to the fact that visitors received funding for their research projects that covered the requisite fees to stay at Mpala, including their meals. As employees of the research center, staff members were not funded in the same way.

Kennedy Leverett ‘20, who majored in EEB, spent her junior spring at Mpala and said that Princeton students did not interact much with staff members. “That was a

BETHANY MARIEL SULIGUIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Friday December 1, 2023

weird thing that I picked up on,” she said. “We would see them … but they did not eat with us.”

According to Mpala administrators, staff and researchers are now allowed to eat in both cafeterias.

“We’re trying to build this community between research and staff in a way that is seamless,” said Palmeris.

The inequalities at Mpala are notable given that the research center is considered one of the world’s finest for large-scale ecological and biological experiments.

“We are part of humanity, we are part of society”

Mpala is home to a remarkably rich array of wildlife, including 550 bird and 100 mammal species. Live cameras maintained by the research center capture glimpses of hippos basking in a pond, two giraffes drinking together, or even a lioness hunting and killing a zebra.

The research value of Mpala is enormous as it effectively serves as a scale model of the wildlife environments researchers seek to study, yielding significant results in livestock protection, large mammal extinction, and tracking climate change. For Princeton students, particularly those in EEB, Mpala is also a major site for thesis research.

“For budding scientists from all over, it is a really valuable experience to be living in this place that for most of us is unlike anywhere that we’ve spent time before,” said Goodman, the former Princeton in Africa fellow.

Beyond the research, Mpala representatives say that the center is active in the local community.

Geoffrey Mwachala is the chief scientist of the National Museums of Kenya and a Mpala trustee.

“Right when the Mpala research center was started, an underlying principle was that this is not going to be an isolated laboratory. We are part of humanity, we are part of society. So we have continuously maintained an engagement with the surrounding communities,” said Mwachala in the University documentary.

In response to the severe drought beginning in the Horn of Africa in 2020,

Mpala began providing meals to 1,200 students at 16 schools in surrounding communities, administrators said. The research center also funded the drilling of a borehole for clean water in the nearby village of Lekiji, which also supplies the local primary school. The project was completed in October.

More broadly, there have been initiatives to increase the number of Kenyan scientists at the research center, such as the George Small Foundation scholarship, which began in 2014 to support local students in high school and technical education. According to Mpala administrators, the scholarship has supported 33 high school and 14 college students.

The hope is that some of these educational opportunities also lead to more diversity at Mpala itself. Among researchers, there are divided opinions about the diversity of researcher nationalities.

“[At Mpala], I can talk to somebody doing health, somebody doing social science, somebody doing ecology … it provides a great ground for people like me,” said a Kenyan researcher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with the ‘Prince.’

Yet three Kenyan researchers told the ‘Prince’ that opportunities at Mpala are inaccessible for some Kenyan students due to prices for accommodation.

The cheapest price for an East African student, 30 United States dollars per day (4,450 Kenyan shillings), provides dormitory housing. Rates can reach as high as $55 per day (8,160 Ksh) for lodging in a house, provided that the student is from an affiliate institution of Mpala. These rates are subsidized compared to those for international students, which range from $45 to $70 a day.

“No Kenyan will be able to pay $30 without another external source of funding, and those are rare … not only in Kenya but also in East Africa,” said Muhoya, the Princeton graduate student, estimating that college graduates earn $300–400 (45,000–59,300 Ksh) a month.

At the University, undergraduates in the EEB department are eligible for up to $2,500 in funding for thesis research for projects like travel to Mpala. More broadly,

The Daily Princetonian

graduate students and researchers in the United States may apply for institutional or governmental grant funding to offset personal costs.

“It is completely out of reach … the majority of Kenyans cannot afford to finance themselves through Mpala,” said the Kenyan researcher.

In response to Mpala’s difficulty with recruiting Kenyan researchers and students, Kiiru pointed the ‘Prince’ to informal partnerships with four Kenyan universities: Karatina University, Egerton University, Jomo Kenyatta University, and Dedan Kimathi University. “[These partnerships] assist us in identifying suitable students to participate in the research projects,” she wrote in a September email.

The partnerships are in the process of being formally established by the research center.

Karatina University, Egerton University, and Jomo Kenyatta University did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for Dedan Kimathi University told the ‘Prince’ in October that their partnership was being officially finalized.

Is Mpala a colonial space?

While opinions on how to address Mpala’s history differed, the researchers, students, professors, and historians the ‘Prince’ spoke to broadly agreed that the research center had colonial dynamics, while Mpala affiliates disputed the characterization.

“Has the amount of stuff Princeton has extracted from there [Mpala] for their students and their faculty been equivalent to what Princeton has contributed and put back in? That’s the story of the global north-global south,” Fuentes said. “This sort of parachute science, extractive science, is problematic, even though there’s good cases at Mpala.”

Mbathi, the former head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service and Mpala trustee, disputed the description of Mpala as colonial as “very inaccurate,” pointing to the fact that Kenyans comprise the current management, as well as a large portion of the board.

“Although [Mpala] came into being during a colonial period, it is certainly post-colonial in its operations today,” he said.

“’Colonial’ basically refers to a place that lacks freedom, that is not sovereign, that is run and managed by external forces that stifle the freedom of that space,” said Kiiru. “That’s not the space that I am in.”

Researchers called for a variety of different investments, including additional funding and training from the University.

Fuentes proposed extending the opportunity for a Princeton education to Kenyan researchers at Mpala.

“We should develop — if not direct Princeton credit — then credits affiliated and established by the Kenyan national education system,” he said. “So, [researchers] get the kind of quality training … that goes on their transcripts that they get the benefits for, because that will get them jobs that will give them more opportunities for research.”

A non-Kenyan researcher went as far as to call for Princeton to largely withdraw from the research center.

“I would want Princeton to feel more like a funding source rather than a decision-maker,” they said.

Others have pushed back against the suggestion that the University should take a step back.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to say that, no, Americans shouldn’t be doing research at Mpala. I think the experience of learning about other places is really important,” said Goodman, the former Princeton in Africa fellow.

“If you remove Princeton and [the] Smithsonian Museum from Mpala, you’re likely looking at an imminent collapse of an important site of knowledge production,” said Mueni, citing the influx of students and researchers brought by both institutions.

Historical land injustice is also a particular problem in Laikipia County, where Mpala is situated. According to The Elephant, a Kenyan news organization, 40.3 percent of the land in Laikipia is owned by only 48 individuals or entities. However, acknowledging those histori-

cally dispossessed from Mpala’s land is complex, according to Smith, the English professor who grew up in Kenya. “Land statements in the Kikuyu highlands are very difficult because very often, you end up with competing claims,” he said, adding that a land acknowledgement would constitute a legal or political assertion to the land.

The next 30 years

Undoing disparities at Mpala won’t happen overnight. But several prominent University figures spoke favorably about the research center’s trajectory, especially given the administration of Kiiru.

“Kiiru has come in and really is making the decisions and deciding where money gets spent … that’s a radical change,” Fuentes said.

“In the past three years, the University has begun to make good efforts at addressing key problems and issues that have been endemic at Mpala,” said OkekeAgulu.

“We’ve now done away with the ranch. We are now a research center … creating a space where people can move, mix, and enjoy a space that doesn’t discriminate [against] anybody,” said Kiiru.

Mpala is also beginning to grapple with its history at a time of Africa’s increasing visibility on the global stage. The first part of a New York Times series, released in October, predicted that the rapidly growing population of many African countries, including Kenya, will “radically reshape their relationship with the rest of the world” in the next 25 years.

“Here’s an opportunity for Princeton to be in front [of], as opposed to behind, every other major institution,” Fuentes said.

In the wake of major improvements and questions about Mpala’s future, the legacy of divisions at the research center persists.

“One thing we can’t run away from is history,” said Mueni.

Miriam Waldvogel is an assistant News editor at the ‘Prince.’

Ani Ramen head cook reveals rat underneath his chef’s hat

By Spencer Bauman Head Humor Editor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

Following Ani Ramen and Mochinut’s recent closures due to health code violations, many students and Princeton residents are left wondering what led the Princeton Health Department to deem the restaurants “Conditionally Satisfactory.”

We at the Daily PrintsAnything examined pages of health reports, health codes, hours of kitchen staff’s Instagram stories, and gallons of used mop water in order to determine the main cause of the restaurants’ closures.

According to inspection reports, “Everything seemed normal, except the head cook kept jerking around back and forth in the kitchen. It didn’t seem like he knew where he was going or what he was doing.” The report continues, “The only thing that raised any red flags was that all kitchen staff were speaking in thick French accents, even

though it’s an East Asian restaurant in New Jersey.”

The report further reads, “Finally, as we were about to leave, [the cook] stood in front of a wall-mounted lamp, and we saw the silhouette of a rat underneath his chef’s hat.”

The rat, who was fired from Tiger Noodles over ten years ago due to similar violations when a buildup of “white powder” was found in the dry storage room, is a seasoned chef in the town of Princeton. Students have reported seeing the rat running between Nassau Street and Holder Hall, where they assumed the rat lives.

Neither the cook nor the rat responded to a request for comment.

The ‘Prints’ was able to speak with one anonymous Ani Ramen employee, who said they were “excited to see what the rat achieves in life,” noting his “enormous potential” and “discerning palate.”

Shared Suffering

By Raina Maldonado | Contributing Cartoonist

Spencer Bauman is the head Humor editor and thinks that this would make a really funny movie. He can be reached at sbauman@princeton.edu.

ZEHAO WU / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Ani Ramen on Nassau Street.

“P re P Talk”

By Aidan Cusack Contributing Constructor

1 Introductory letters?

5 See 18-Across 10 Dog from "The Wiggles" 14 Operator of weather.gov 15 Shinbone

16 Roman road

17 Some classic computers

18 With 5-Across, a real wise guy

19 Nine-digit IDs

20 *Like mankind's first inventor?

23 Party invite inits.

24 Florida-to-Maine dir.

25 Hold back

26 *Like the needle of a noiseless phonograph?

30 Many a kilt

31 Chasm

32 And so on: Abbr.

35 "Othello" villain

36 Gave a hoot

38 Hair removal brand

39 Actor Sheridan of "Ready Player One"

40 Assistant

41 See eye to eye

42 *Like many a forest fanatic?

45 Fictional world in a wardrobe

48 Prefix with planet or skeleton

49 3.25 percent of whole milk

50 *Like tourists at Big Ben?

54 The sun, for one

55 Weather

56 ___ Star State

58 "Je t'___" ("I love you," in France)

59 Like a boring seesaw

60 Get bigger

61 More, it's said

62 Contents of the Svalbard Vault

63 Insects that outnumber humans 2.5 million to 1 DOWN

1 Nickname for a young Darth Vader

2 Host of seventeen cooking shows and specials including "Worst Cooks in America" and "Boy Meets Grill"

3 Reached adulthood

4 Girl Scout's accessory

5 Patron saint of grandmothers and cabinet-makers

6 Less spicy

7 Help with a crime

8 Deep-pocketed

9 Win first place

10 Threw a coin in a fountain, maybe

11 Metaphorically lost

12 Things producing red hair or blue eyes

13 "r u kidding me?!"

21 Very pixel-dense, as a TV picture

22 Klingon on the Enterprise

23 Hasbro toy with blue "pull" handle

27 Madre's hermano

28 White heron

29 Tool for pool

32 Shuck it!

33 Made bunny ears, maybe

34 Colgate rival

36 Fortresses on high ground

37 There was much of it in Shakespeare

38 Greenpeace, e.g., for short

40 Have ___ (be connected)

The Minis

By Bryan Zhang Staff Constructor

41 Nowhere to be found, colloquially

42 Accustoms

43 Took note

44 Does well with spreadsheets?

45 Type of passage you can't read or cross

46 Man's nickname that sounds like two letters of the alphabet

47 Wanders

51 Root cause?

52 Hoisted, nautically

53 2018 Literature Nobelist Tokarczuk

57 Cries of disgust

The University needs more transparency in how it funds religious life

Christie Davis Contributing Columnist

There is no doubt that the United States values religious liberty: Freedom from government-established religion is, after all, a key right in our Constitution’s First Amendment. American universities like Princeton, which often present themselves as bastions of free thought and intellectual exploration, play a pivotal role in safeguarding this fundamental right. The relationship between religious beliefs and higher education is a multifaceted issue, encompassing the protection of students’ and faculty members’ religious expression, the accommodation of diverse faiths, and the separation of church and state within the academic realm.

An exploration of the legal precedents applicable to public universities enables us to gain a deeper understanding of the delicate balance that Princeton must strike between religious freedom and secular values. Such an analysis also reveals the University’s lack of transparency re-

garding how the allocation of alumni and University funds towards religious organizations prevents the student body from fully knowing if they are being treated equitably. Without such crucial knowledge, Princeton’s student body is unable to accurately assess if their freedom of religion, specifically their protection from the government giving preferential treatment to one religion at the expense of others, is being upheld.

To determine if Princeton is doing enough to uphold this religious freedom, we must first understand Princeton’s individual relationship to the First Amendment. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment prohibits religious discrimination in public universities. For instance, in Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that the University of Virginia’s denial of funding to a Christian student magazine, while providing funding to secular student publications, amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and set the precedent that public universities must maintain viewpoint neutrality when allocating funds or

resources to student organizations.

Although Princeton is a private university, its corporate status as a nonsectarian — or secular — institution does not grant it the “ecclesiastical exception” possessed by other private, religiouslyaffiliated institutions which allows them to ignore certain non-discrimination laws on the federal and state level. So while not bound by the First Amendment as public universities are, Princeton is still held accountable by legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and Title IX, applicable to the University due to its acceptance of federal funding.

According to its own Non-Discrimination Statement, Princeton cannot discriminate on the basis of religion. In relation to student groups, this means Princeton must facilitate the representation of diverse belief systems in a manner that does not give preference to one organization over another. It seems that Princeton is fulfilling its mission: The Office of Religious Life (ORL) represents major world belief systems on campus, and, in tandem with the Fred Fox Fund, doles out grants that “help registered student orga-

nizations present religious and cultural programming on campus,” ostensibly extending the reach of an already equitable university religious environment. However, it’s the exact nature of that funding where things get murky.

The issue lies in that we cannot see if Princeton is actually distributing funds equitably or the degree of influence they wield on the quality of religious life. We can observe that student-run religious organizations have ample funding primarily sourced from large contributions, a portion of which may come directly from the University or through their allocation of alumni funds. The presence and potential influence of such large financial transactions emphasizes the need for more financial clarity from the University on those transactions’ exact role in the University’s religious life. But Princeton itself doesn’t provide any accessible data about how much of their alumni donations and school funding goes towards on-campus religious life and to which organizations. By openly disclosing information about alumni donations and funding allocations, Princeton can demonstrate its

commitment to accommodating a broad range of religious perspectives and supporting the spiritual well-being of its students. This ensures that all groups have access to the necessary resources to facilitate their activities and provide services to their members. While it is easy to simply trust that Princeton is doing the right thing, further financial clarity and honesty would ensure accountability. Transparency about alumni donations to student-run religious organizations at Princeton University is essential for promoting fairness, inclusivity, accountability, and ethical compliance. It aligns with the values of an institution that cherishes liberty and ensures that all students have equal access to resources and support, regardless of their religious affiliations. Ultimately, such clarity can contribute to a more harmonious and supportive campus community.

Christie Davis is a first-year contributing columnist for the ‘Prince.’

Recognize women’s athletic achievements with a bonfire too

Abigail Rabieh Head Opinion Editor

Princeton’s proclivity for celebrating excellence in sports with fire is the result of an evolving tradition. In the late 19th century, the bonfire started as a way to celebrate a baseball win that occurred over summer break, but has shifted in meaning over the years. It became an opportunity to generate hype for the football season and is now a way to recognize the football team’s wins over Harvard and Yale. Now, it’s time for the bonfire to make another evolution: To recognize the not-so-new era of female excellence in sports, Princeton should institute a bonfire tradition to celebrate a Big Three win for a women’s sports team as well.

The first bonfire celebration seems to have been held in September 1896, when the student population decided to celebrate the baseball team’s win over Yale that past spring. It was conceived as an opportunity to formally channel the campus’s enthusiasm, as the win had occurred when most students were away from campus. First-years gathered wood from local areas and built the bonfire over the cannon behind Nassau Hall in the hours leading up to the event. The speaker at the celebration noted a desire to see the success of the spring rounded out by a football victory over Yale that fall.

Subsequent iterations of the bonfire have celebrated winning the 1911 baseball championship and the football team’s victory over Yale in 1919 at which the men were celebrated for their “determination and fighting spirit, that same

spirit which led every man on the team to enlist in the service of his country.”

Today’s bonfire looks quite different: The most recent bonfire, in 2021, commemorated beating Harvard and Yale’s football teams, with speakers referencing the joy of a post-COVID return to “full Princeton life.” Across the decades, the bonfire has adapted to the needs and the desires of the contemporary community.

But in its current form, the bonfire is not accomplishing that goal. Celebrating only the football team sends the message that football is Princeton’s most important sport; that their successes, and only their successes, are worth the entire school’s attention, and that they take priority over both other men’s teams and all women’s teams.

The bonfire, like many Princeton traditions, developed long before women

were admitted to the University as students. This isn’t a reason not to continue using these celebratory formats, but it is worth rethinking their utility in the context of the modern campus landscape. It’s time to develop these traditions to recognize those communities that have only been included in Princeton’s later eras. Why should only male success be celebrated with fire?

Female athletes haave been representing Princeton in competition since 1970 — it’s time to put community money, effort, and commitment into celebrating their wins. Although any women’s team could be appointed as a bonfire-earning one, I propose that we officially institute a policy of another celebratory bonfire when the softball team wins their series against both Harvard and Yale during their season. This stays true to the original practices of the bonfire tradition:

celebrating a bat-and-ball-using sport. Furthermore, it would spread out the bonfire joy across the year, getting the community invested in sports across the seasons.

As an opportunity to channel community energy and spirit, the bonfire is a powerful tool to mark important Princeton sports developments. This would be a wonderful way to uplift a women’s sports team and would turn a tradition that continues a legacy of prioritizing male athletic accomplishments into an inclusive way to honor teams based on their success alone in a pursuit that brings everyone together: beating those lesser-ranked schools.

Abigail Rabieh is a junior in the history department from Cambridge, Mass. She is the head Opinion editor at the ‘Prince’.

Why is everyone here ‘middle class’?

Siyeon Lee Contributing Columnist

While scrolling through the “finances” section of the Daily Princetonian’s freshman demographics survey for the Class of 2027, one statistic caught my eye: Of the freshmen coming from families who made more than $500,000 annually, 44.6 percent considered themselves “upper middle class.” I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the word “middle.” As a general rule, if your family income is higher than double the median income of your region, you probably belong to the upper class. In a country where the median income is around $75,000, there is nothing middle class about earning more than half a million dollars a year. So, what compelled nearly half of the respondents to say they were in that income bracket?

Beyond the subjectivity of the word “middle class,” there is a lack of selfawareness that comes from Princeton students’ unwillingness to engage in cross-class discussions and acknowledge their own privilege. This leaves Princeton graduates not only lacking a realistic understanding of class in our blatantly class-restrictive society, but also results in a general misconception

of what an “average” or “middle class” lifestyle looks like. To address this issue, we should actively reject this outof-touch definition of middle class, and also engage in more intentional crossclass conversations, such as extending the Princeton, Money, and Me orientation program.

While there are many ways to define middle class, including both social and economic factors, it clearly doesn’t apply to those in the top five percent of America’s income earners, as nearly half of this year’s Frosh Survey respondents whose families earn over 500k annually suggested. Just because “middle-classness” is difficult to define does not mean anybody can claim it.

But like most rich people in the United States, wealthy Princeton students aren’t willing to admit that: “Americans might more readily classify themselves as bipeds or carnivores, or proclaim their sexual orientations, than define themselves as patricians, plutocrats or gentry,” Michael T. Kaufman wrote in his 1989 New York Times article. To be a part of the vaguely defined American “middle class” is to escape the aristocratic labels that all good patriots abhor. This has been framed as the “mythology of the ‘everyman’” — since class hierarchy does not fit in a nation built upon ideals of freedom and egalitarianism, “major class distinctions [are]

often seen as a violation of ... national creed.” Americans’ hesitancy to accept their class, then, contributes to many Princeton students’ misidentification of their own class.

Princeton students’ inability to define middle-classness also appears to stem from our inability to discuss class openly. It’s no secret that some Princetonians come from backgrounds with vast financial privilege and some do not. But Princeton’s efforts to minimize the impacts of such class differences with financial aid for programs and services beyond just tuition and room and board have instilled a false sense that class division as a whole ceases to exist. It’s much easier to distort what the middle class means in a financially abundant, egalitarian vacuum. As a result, discussion about class is avoided and we feel average among our peers. Everyone here is lumped in with the quintessentially American, hard-working middle class, both because of the artificiallyconstructed equitable nature of campus and so that wealthier students don’t feel that privilege is what got them here to begin with.

Princeton may ensure our economic background does not impede our learning and leisure, but this must be done with the awareness that our post-Orange-Bubble lives will not take place in a financially equalized utopia. How will

we go on to serve humanity if we lack a realistic understanding of the deep class divisions that profoundly affect the lives of its members?

Combating a lack of awareness of class on campus involves two important steps. First, we must actively reject the claims of a “universal middle class,” and second, we must further engage in crossclass conversations — for instance, by revamping the Princeton, Money, and Me orientation program. The former is relatively simple: Refrain from calling yourself middle class when you aren’t. We can more fully understand economic status only when we fully acknowledge it. This also involves realizing that having privilege in and of itself doesn’t make you a bad person — after all, you have no control over whether you are born into wealth or not. Wealth isn’t something to be ashamed of, and if you are ashamed of your wealth, lying isn’t the way to assuage your guilt.

Secondly, we need to have more institutionalized conversations about money at Princeton. The current Princeton, Money, and Me program, an orientation event designed for incoming freshmen, involves hearing various presenters of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds speak of their undergraduate experience at Princeton. Though I see value in the existing program, its brevity makes it difficult for students to engage in a

more extensive conversation about class and socioeconomic status. Extending the event to a year-long program — perhaps through monthly advisory group meetings to discuss various source materials or events related to class diversity — rather than a one-time occasion could encourage conversation, provide an avenue to build community, and allow students to keep engaged with this topic. Most importantly, it would remind students of Princeton’s financial utopia and the false sense of a shared economic class it can create. It’s no myth that isolated communities brew isolated worldviews: Growing up in a privileged community makes you less aware of the privilege you have. But Princeton is an intentionally curated body made to break those false conceptions. We reflect diverse lives, ideas, and beliefs, but also, economic backgrounds. We can’t share what we’ve gleaned from our differences without recognizing the differences to begin with. Acknowledging and learning from our class differences makes us better, more empathetic individuals at Princeton and beyond — so let’s embrace it, rather than fear it.

Siyeon Lee (she/her) is a first-year from Seoul, South Korea intending to major in Comparative Literature or History.

vol. cxlvii

editor-in-chief

Rohit Narayanan '24

business manager Shirley Ren ’24

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

president Thomas E. Weber ’89

vice president

David Baumgarten ’06

secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07

treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90

assistant treasurer

Kavita Saini ’09

trustees Francesca Barber

Craig Bloom ’88

Kathleen Crown

Suzanne Dance ’96

Gabriel Debenedetti ’12

Stephen Fuzesi ’00

Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05

Michael Grabell ’03

Danielle Ivory ’ 05

Rick Klein ’98

James T. MacGregor ’66

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14

Tyler Woulfe ’07

trustees ex officio

Rohit Narayanan ’24

Shirley Ren ’24

147TH MANAGING BOARD

Kalena Blake ’24

Katherine Dailey ’24

Julia Nguyen ’24

upper management

Angel Kuo ’24

Hope Perry ’24

Strategic initiative directors

Education

Kareena Bhakta ’24

Amy Ciceu ’24

Financial Stipend Program

Genrietta Churbanova ’24

Mobile Reach Rowen Gesue ’24

DEIB Chair Christofer Robles ’25

Sections listed in alphabetical order.

’24

Walworth ’26

’26

Kasper ’26

head copy editors

Jason Luo ’25

Nathalie Verlinde ’24

associate head copy editors

Tiffany Cao ’24

Naisha Sylvestre ’25

head data editor

Elaine Huang ’25

Charlie Roth ’25

associate data editor

Ryan Konarska ’25

head features editors

Paige Cromley ’24

Tori Tinsley ’24

associate features editor

Sejal Goud ’25

head graphics editors

Noreen Hosny ’25

Katelyn Ryu ’24

head humor editor Spencer Bauman ’25

associate humor editors

Sam McComb ’25

Sophia Varughese ’26

head news editors

Sandeep Mangat ’24

Isabel Yip ’25

associate news editors

Lia Opperman ’25

Annie Rupertus ’25

Tess Weinreich ’25

head newsletter editors Olivia Chen ’26

Sidney Singer ’25

head opinion editor

Abigail Rabieh ’25

community opinion editor Lucia Wetherill ’25

associate opinion editors

Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26

Christofer Robles ’25

Ashley Olenkiewicz ’25

head photo editor Jean Shin ’26

head podcast editor Eden Teshome ’25

associate podcast editor

Senna Aldoubosh ’25

Vitus Larrieu ’26

head print design editors Avi Chesler ’25

Malia Gaviola ’26

head prospect editors

Kerrie Liang ’25

Claire Shin ’25

associate prospect editors Isabella Dail ’26

Joshua Yang ’25

head puzzles editors

Joah Macosko ’25

Simon Marotte ’26

associate puzzles editors

Juliet Corless ’24

Sarah Gemmell ’24

Jaeda Woodruff ’25

head sports editors Nishka Bahl ’26

Cole Keller ’26

associate sports editors

Diego Uribe ’26

Hayk Yengibaryan ’26

head web design and development

editors

Ananya Grover ’24

Brett Zeligson ’24

associate web design and development editor

Vasila Mirshamsova ’26

147TH BUSINESS BOARD

assistant business manager,

director of sales

Aidan Phillips ’25

business directors

Benjamin Cai ’24

Jessica Funk ’26

Gabriel Gullett ’25

Andrew He ’26

Tejas Iyer ’26

Daeun Kim ’26

Jordan Manela ’26

chief technology officer

Roma Bhattacharjee ’25

software engineers

Anika Agarwal ’25

Pranav Avva ‘24

Carter Costic ’26

’27

Li ’26

Liu ’27

Avi Chesler ’25 Malia Gaviola ’26

Vivi Lu ’26

Lengthen time between classes

Aidan Gouley Contributing Columnist

As Princeton’s campus has rapidly transformed, defined by extensive construction and considerable expansion, cross-campus commutes have grown longer, and students have found themselves increasingly short on time. It has become increasingly clear that “passing time,” the existing 10-minute gap between classes, does not work for Princetonians. Imposing significant limitations on everything from course scheduling to in-class engagement, it comprehensively affects the student experience and leaves students increasingly unable to participate in the intellectual moments that define a collegiate experience.

On Sept. 29, the Undergraduate Student Government Academic Committee proposed changes to passing time that, if implemented, would take effect in 2025 and would seek to mitigate the effects of construction and campus sprawl. The University should increase passing time to twenty minutes to respond to increased construction, reduce existing barriers to interdisciplinary education, allow for increased engagement with instructors and peers, and improve in-class learning quality.

Increasing passing time would provide students with new opportunities to engage their professors and TAs. With additional time to move between classes, students can spend more time after class to ask questions, clarify points of uncertainty, and discourse with their instructors. Beyond enriching the quality of in-class learning by mitigating stress-related lack of focus (as when preparing for a sprint across campus at the end of class), it would provide students the opportunity to go above and beyond. Critically, this intimate exchange of ideas, inquiries, and answers, even in that short period, constitutes organic learning that enriches intellectual growth. Passing time, at first look, seems a mere logistical matter, but it possesses the potential to significantly affect those critical day-to-day moments of a Princeton education.

have to worry about this is while rushing desperately from class to class and appointment to appointment. Increasing the time between classes ensures that students will have sufficient time to engage with and enrich the University’s vibrant intellectual environment.

With construction at Princeton dramatically reducing pedestrian mobility and accessibility, expanding passing time is critical to ensuring students can navigate campus without being late to class. The University, currently pursuing its ambitious 2026 Capital Plan, is set to add some 3 million square feet of building space. On track to continue into 2027, with several projects underway concurrently, construction has transformed how students traverse campus. Princetonians have to navigate construction detours, many of which, used by trucks and other construction vehicles, are hardly pedestrian-friendly. While the University released a Campus Map app for alternative wayfinding, the issue of increased travel time remains, and students should not have class time impinged upon because of time-consuming detours.

Since construction is critical to meeting Princeton’s institutional priorities, the University should ensure that scheduling reflects the new reality of the student experience and accommodates the longer detours necessitated by construction. The grand scale of the 2026 Capital Plan, which sets Princeton on a course for the development or use of all of the University’s land from Nassau to south of Lake Carnegie, means students will not merely face an increased number of obstacles but a more sprawling campus to navigate. If 10 minutes is inadequate as it stands, expansion further consigns existing policy to inadequacy.

pleted in 2025, it will draw a larger share of the student population further east and down the campus consequently passing on the costs of lengthy commute times. Policy must, therefore, reflect the emerging reality of campus sprawl.

A larger campus presents a considerable — but resolvable — barrier to interdisciplinary education. With the University’s south and eastward expansion over the decades, students face lengthy commutes between classes, particularly BSE concentrators. The distance to the E-Quad is considerable. For students seeking to balance the humanities and sciences, such as AB pre-med students, commute times that potentially impose on class time constitute a considerable challenge. Therefore, the time increase would eliminate yet another obstacle facing students hesitant about interdisciplinary study and encourage them to pursue a proper liberal arts education. The University has energetically sought to ensure that BSE students receive a proper liberal arts education by emphasizing the humanities. Doubling passing time would be essential to realizing that goal. Insofar as Princeton believes interdisciplinary education facilitates immense individual growth and thoughtful, effective problemsolving, it should not be impeded by a long walk.

Robert Mohan ’26 Kok Wei Pua ’25

project managers

Julia Cabri ’24

Jason Ding ’25

Bibiane Kan ’26

Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26

Shravan Suriyanarayanan ’26

My Ky Tran ’26 Brian Zhou ’26

’26

Rupertus ’26

’26

There are far too many things to do at Princeton, and while the University would want us to take advantage of more of them, there is simply not enough time for it all. The last place students should

The need for laboratories and science buildings has increasingly pushed the University’s geographical center eastward across Washington Road. As it stands, the trip from the northern part of campus, East Pyne Hall, to Frick Chemistry Laboratory takes at least 13 minutes. Therefore, even absent construction, crossing campus in the existing 10-minute window is simply infeasible. With a greater number of buildings east of Washington already, constraints on mobility have increased. Insofar as the ES and SEAS building is set to be com-

The University’s strategic priorities are ever-present. Expansion, construction, encouraging the liberal arts, and fostering organic intellectual engagement sit prominently among them. Construction and the mobility challenges it poses will doubtless endure insofar as they are critical to realizing those goals. The University has indeed faced considerable growing pains, of which increased class-to-class travel times pose a particular — but easily resolvable — challenge. With greater focus on both the sciences and interdisciplinary education and fostering a campus environment well-suited to the modern University, lengthening passing time to 20 minutes enables the realization of the full potential of a Princeton education.

Aidan Gouley is a first-year from Fairfield, Conn. intending to major in Politics. He is a contributing columnist at the ‘Prince.’

Reactions: What should we learn from the New Jersey elections?

In the Nov. 7 elections all 120 seats in the New Jersey State Legislature were up for grabs, with many local mayoral and town council races also featured on the ballot. Many of these elections had a direct impact on Princeton or neighboring municipalities. We decided to ask our politically inclined columnists to reflect on the recent elections and chronicle a race, ballot, or result that they found particularly impactful.

Princeton connections pay off as Zwicker romps to reelection

By Vincent Jiang, Columnist

Democrats across New Jersey had a good night last Tuesday, but it was a particularly good night for incumbent State Senator Andrew Zwicker (D), who won re-election by defeating Republican challenger Mike Pappas. The race in the 16th Legislative District (LD-16), which includes Princeton, South Brunswick, and parts of Hunterdon and Somerset County, was a rematch between the two Central Jersey candidates, who had first squared off against each other two years earlier in the 2021 general election.

This time around, Zwicker substantially improved his margin of victory, with preliminary results from The New York Times indicating a blowout 56 percent to 43 percent win compared to a narrow 52 percent to 48 percent win in 2021. Simultaneously, incumbent Roy Freiman (D) and newcomer Mitchelle Drulis (D) were elected to the New Jersey Assembly, securing an all-Democratic delegation to Trenton for another legislative term.

In addition to serving as state senator, Zwicker also oversees science education programming at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and he has previously served as a part-time lecturer in the Writing Program and a faculty advisor for first-years and sophomores in Rockefeller College. Those Princeton University connections paid off in the form of a small army of undergraduate students from Princeton College Democrats, who knocked on over 1,000 doors over the course of the fall semester in four canvassing efforts in order to help keep LD16 in the Democratic column and return Zwicker to Trenton with a strengthened electoral mandate.

LD-16 has traditionally been a Republican-leaning area. Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who gave Governor Phil Murphy a run for his money two years ago, had served several terms in the 2010s as an assemblymember from LD-16. However, the district has shifted towards Democrats in recent years, particularly as abortion rights became a more salient issue in state politics. Pappas’s staunch opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, became a repeated target of attacks in the final weeks of the campaign. Republicans hit back with a message emphasizing lower property taxes and paren-

tal rights in education, but it wasn’t enough to prevail against a strong statewide Democratic performance.

And perhaps that’s a second way in which Democrats’ “Princeton connections” are paying off — or rather, their increasingly strong performance with highly educated voters who are disproportionately likely to vote in midterm and off-year elections. Increasingly, the Obamaera narrative that Republicans win in low-turnout elections and Democrats win in high-turnout races seems to be completely reversing, as educational polarization has totally reshuffled the two parties’ coalitions. Zwicker’s win not only reflects the work that Princeton undergraduates pitched into the campaign, but is also a microcosm for how highly educated voters as a whole are realigning across the nation.

Vincent Jiang is a columnist and a junior majoring in the SPIA Department.

The electoral enigma of education

By Wynne Conger, Contributing Columnist

The campaigns of candidates in local, state, and national elections should reduce their focus on contemporary hot-button issues. In recent years, America has witnessed an upsurge in provocative rhetoric, perhaps most notably on the topic of “parental rights.” The phrase “parental rights” has risen to prominence as a recurring and schismatic presence across the political stratosphere. Among Republican Party representatives and senators, it has become a dog whistle indicating a desire to obstruct instruction on sex education in secondary schools. The term makes frequent appearances in partisan debates, digital propaganda, and even legislative rhetoric in the new GOP-endorsed 2023 Parents Bill of Rights Act, which aims to expand parental access across all institution curricula. However, in the New Jersey 2023 elections, its presence was evidently unwelcome. Democratic candidates like Sen. Vin Gopal (LD-11) of Monmouth County were able to capitalize on this sentiment among New Jersey voters.

Earlier this year in June, Republican challenger Steve Dnistrian to Gopal argued that “Democrats … are insisting that parents not be part of the discussion if kids express questions about being LGBTQ.” Four months later on Nov. 7, Dnistrian lost to incumbent Gopal in the State Senate District 11 general election. Gopal’s win was significant for a number of reasons: despite the competitive nature of the moderate district, Gopal won by 20 points, and his victory allowed ticket mates Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul to flip two Republican seats in the state assembly. Along with a plethora of other Democratic candidates, Gopal credits his success to the central issues of his campaign:

promises of tax relief and abortion access. In his opinion, his challenger’s focus on the “petty issue” of parental rights detracted from his campaign’s prospect of victory. As Gopal states, “Voters did not want to hear about … attacks on our teachers and saying inappropriate things are happening in our schools … They want to talk about the issues that matter.” As opposed to the bipartisan tendency to incite voters with contentious issues, Gopal’s focus on substantial and long-term issues more accurately reflects the wants of American voters.

Wynne Conger is a first-year and prospective SPIA major from Bryn Mawr, Penn.

‘Ed the Trucker’ Durr comes to screeching halt in state senate race amid outlandish comments

By Brian Hegarty, Contributing Columnist

With the victory of former Democratic State Assemblymember John Burzichelli, Republican State Senator Ed Durr was ousted from representing New Jersey’s third district after only one term. Durr, a truck driver with no prior political experience, mounted a nationally famous upset over then-Senate President Stephen Sweeny, a Democrat whom Durr himself described as “the second-most powerful person in the state of New Jersey.”

Crediting Trump’s unexpected rise to the White House as inspiration for his campaign, Durr found success in 2021 by capturing headlines with a gaudy persona, but his recent loss suggests that building momentary acclaim with flashy remarks is not a viable strategy to ensure lasting political success. The same antics which once helped Durr rise as a Republican figurehead have now turned GOP candidates from other districts against him and seem to have constructed a swift political downfall.

In a 2020 Facebook post on abortion, Durr claimed that “A woman does have a choice! Keep her legs closed.” In March of this year, he told Politico that he found his words crude and that “I’m not a perfect man. As far as I’m concerned there’s only one perfect man, and they crucified him, didn’t they?” Yet, when asked about the post by NJ PBS on last week’s Election Day, he responded, “That’s a lie, ‘cause I didn’t do it … that was not me.” As for who made the post, he said, “I don’t know … I’m not concerned with the whole past because that was before I was even a senator.” These comments have led to a slew of Democratic TV ads against him and forced Republicans to distance themselves from Durr.

Durr is no stranger to controversy. In a tweet from 2019, he called Islam “a false religion” and its prophet, Muhammad, a “pedophile,” and in 2021, it was reported that a post from Durr’s Facebook account “compared

COVID-19 mandates to Jews being exterminated in the Holocaust.” Durr’s erratic rhetoric, when placed in direct competition against Burzichelli’s decades of lawmaking experience, might have ensured an abrupt political collapse. In an era where inflammatory remarks get disproportionate media attention, we can clearly see that divisive and inflammatory remarks, while perhaps momentarily eye-catching, do not necessarily lead to sustainable political success.

Brian Hegarty is a first-year from Milton, Massachusetts.

Democrats kept control in Trenton, but are they bringing anything new to the table?

By Preston Ferraiuolo, Columnist

Last week’s statewide elections brought victory for New Jersey Democrats, who held onto majorities in both houses of the State Legislature. In the words of Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, it was a “big night for Democrats.” Statewide, there was a looming concern that Republicans would gain seats or even flip one of the houses — something that hasn’t happened in 20 years. GOP candidates campaigned on President Joe Biden’s rising unpopularity, as well as national “culture war” issues like the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. Democrats, in response, defended their side in the “culture wars,” adding vocal appeals for abortion rights. October brought further fears of a GOP takeover with Democratic Senator Robert Menendez’s indictment and the resulting loss of public confidence in N.J. Democrats.

However, N.J. Democrats’ worst fears never materialized. The party gained seats and solidified its control in Trenton. But that raises the question: what now? Democrats have held a majority in Trenton for the past 20 years. This latest campaign cycle focused not on policy issues and what the Democrats can do to improve life in the Garden State, but was instead a defensive campaign. Both sides stoked the fires of division without offering much change.

What will Democrats bring to Trenton this time that they haven’t already? New Jersey faces lower GDP growth (almost half of 2021), environmental concerns, and aging infrastructure like the New Jersey Turnpike, which can’t keep up with the state’s growing commuter population. Did Democrats bring these issues up on the campaign trail? Of course not. They focused on sound bites to beat down their Republican challengers. Unfortunately, the 2024 national elections are again likely to be centered around the “culture wars.”

Therefore, New Jersey must urge its legislators to do their jobs to create policy that improves the lives of the residents (and college students) of the Garden State. Trenton influences many aspects of our lives at Princeton, from en-

vironmental regulations to public safety policies to, of course, our beloved Dinky. Democrats in Trenton: what are your plans to help Jersey this term?

Preston Ferraiuolo is a sophomore from Brooklyn, New York, intending to major in the School of Public and International Affairs.

School Board faces a challenging road ahead in the wake of a turbulent year at PHS

By Thomas Buckley, Contributing Columnist

This year’s local elections saw the most recent blow struck in the ongoing battle in the protracted fallout over the dismissal of Princeton High School Principal Frank Chmiel ’98 in March. Chmiel’s departure ignited a fierce debate in the local Princeton community that ultimately led to the resignation of Superintendent Dr. Carol Kelley in October. On Election Day, voters elected Adam Bierman, a Kelley opponent, and further unseated Michele Tuck-Ponder, the only School Board member to vote against accepting Kelley’s resignation.

Besides dismissing Chmiel, parents had criticized Kelley for allegedly “spen[ding] hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds on outside consultants [who] are pushing ideological agendas.” Particularly controversial was the district’s employment of Dr. Eric Milou, an advocate of “detracking,” or keeping students with different ability levels in the same classes. Local parents have consistently argued that such a policy unfairly disadvantages high-performing students and sparked a vigorous debate over what constitutes “equity” in Princeton Public Schools. This fight is situated within the broader context of similar battles across the country as parents, teachers, and administrators wrestle over the future of education. The new School Board must move beyond intensely personal drama and get down to the business of education.

With Chmiel likely to sue the district for wrongful dismissal, this saga will likely remain front of mind for many of our neighbors in the Princeton community. The School Board will have the challenge of replacing critical local leaders while attempting to preserve continuity for Princeton Public Schools and its students. To succeed, the School Board must move beyond the personal and work for the good of the district. With the specter of the last six months hanging over them, that is certainly easier said than done.

Thomas Buckley is a sophomore from Colchester, Vermont.

Princeton provides Ukrainian and Russian scholars two years of protection

By Lauren Blackburn Contributing Features Writer

Yana Prymachenko helped her 67-year-old mother flee her home in Chernihiv as Russian forces advanced through Ukraine in March 2022. They packed into a car with complete strangers, bringing only important documents, a laptop, and their cat. “I left all my life behind,” Prymachenko said. She arrived at Princeton six months later after receiving help from the organization Scholars at Risk. Prymachenko is now a visiting research scholar in the Department of History, having left the Institute of History of Ukraine.

Around the same time, Evgeny Roshchin prepared to leave Russia after refusing to endorse a pro-war statement at his previous institution, the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) in St. Petersburg. Roshchin is currently a visiting research scholar at Princeton in the University Center for Human Values.

The University has granted temporary positions to 10 Ukrainian and six Russian scholars since the beginning of 2022. Individual academic departments and programs made the decision to sponsor scholars at risk and have provided most of the necessary financial support.

“Each scholar was given the opportunity to be here for up to two academic years,” University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian. “After that, they may seek other placements in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere.”

Princeton’s history of supporting scholars at risk — defined by Hotchkiss as “an academic, artist, writer, or public intellectual who is escaping persecution” — dates back to the 1930s when Oswald Veblen, a mathematician who had just moved to the Institute for Advanced Study, convinced the University to shelter Jewish scholars persecuted by Nazi Germany. In recent years, the University has also welcomed scholars displaced by Hurricane Maria and has hosted Afghani scholars after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, providing them with professional development support in addition to a short-term position.

‘In their classification, I should be destroyed.’

Many of the recently-arrived scholars lived in active conflict zones. Prymachenko and her mother only escaped Chernihiv after it had already been besieged for several days.

“From the very beginning, my mom didn’t want to leave her home,” Prymachenko said. Her mother had lived there almost all her life, and it took their street being hit to convince her to flee.

“The Russian army shelled this residential area, and it was 28 people just killed at this point,” she said. “It was like 200 meters from our house.”

Many of the people killed were waiting in a long line at the pharmacy because of shortages caused by the war, Prymachenko said, adding that the blast felt like an earthquake and that it destroyed most of the windows in their building.

“It was really awful,” she said, “and after that, my mother told me, ‘Okay,

we need to move out.’”

They spent five days driving to the Polish border. The trip normally takes seven hours, but the constant shelling resulted in traffic jams and forced them to take detour after detour. After crossing the border on foot, friends helped them find a temporary apartment in Warsaw.

Prymachenko said she was especially scared during their escape because she believes Russia has likely included her on a list of Ukrainians to be killed immediately upon being found, given her history of activism against Russian propaganda since Russia’s seizure of Crimea — a peninsula that the United States and European Union still consider to be part of Ukraine — in 2014. In a letter sent to the United Nations in February 2022, the United States stated they held credible information showing that Russian intelligence organizations were compiling lists of targets in Ukraine. Since then, news organizations have reported that Russian troops have hunted Ukrainians by name. Government officials, activists, and journalists are common targets.

The 2014 attack made Prymachenko decide to become actively involved with “counterpropaganda” efforts against Russia — work that made her afraid she was on the Russian list of targets. Her goal was to demonstrate that Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine is unsupported by reality, using her specialization in history.

“We [Ukrainian historians] couldn’t just stay aside,” Prymachenko said. “We needed to do something.”

She continued her civic activism until she had to leave Ukraine last year. “In their classification, I should be destroyed,” she explained, adding that others who feared they were on the list tried to hide their identity.

Prymachenko said she doesn’t know where she will go after her time at Princeton ends next summer, but she hopes to stay in the United States or Canada. She would still be in danger if she returned to Ukraine.

“Because if Chernihiv were occupied, I couldn’t survive,” she explained. “They would look for people, those who are activists.”

‘Every day, my Facebook has an elegy.’

Iuliia Skubytska, a visiting research scholar in the Program in Judaic Studies supported by the Humanities Council, was working for the War Childhood Museum in Kyiv when Russia expanded its invasion in 2022. Her job was to supervise the collection of interviews with Ukrainian children and adolescents who had been affected by the war since 2014.

She arrived at Princeton in September 2022, but found it difficult to work. “One of the side effects of the invasion was that our cognitive abilities were not exactly the best,” Skubytska said. “By the time I arrived here, I was barely figuring out everything around me. Just arranging my daily life was quite an effort.” She credited her colleagues with helping her to adjust.

Skubytska said that she did not want to talk about certain experiences of her escape from the Russian advance, explaining that the war still impacts her even now that she is physically far away from the vio-

lence. “The end of the war is nowhere near in sight,” she added. “And that’s a huge psychological burden to bear.”

Most of Skubytska’s friends and family members have stayed in Ukraine, and many have joined the military. “A ton of Ukrainians feel this survivor’s guilt,” she said. “This is something that weighs heavily upon us — that somebody is dying right now, is being killed right now, for me to be safe, for my parents to be safe.”

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has reported that over 9,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since February 2022, and in August, U.S. officials said that total military casualty numbers are approaching 500,000. “We live in a situation where I read news about people dying every day,” Skubytska said. “Every day, my Facebook has an elegy.”

She noted that it is important to hear about these deaths, even if it makes it more difficult to focus. “We read the news because that’s respectful to the dead,” Skubytska explained. “Very often there will be stories about our fallen soldiers, and it is respectful to them to read their name and to read their story.”

Like Skubytska, Oksana Nesterenko, now a visiting research scholar in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), found it difficult to work even after coming to Princeton. “My first year [here] I was not like a normal person,” she said. “I was traumatized, definitely.” She credits her colleagues and supervisors in SPIA with supporting her as she adjusted to her new life, though she may have to readjust to another situation after the spring semester ends.

Therapy helps Skubytska work through some of the trauma, but there is always more. “There isn’t a way to deal with it,” she said. “At some point you basically develop certain adaptation mechanisms. It is important to recognize them because you might become less empathic. You might react less, you might read the news less.” She said she doesn’t think these are good ways to respond to the war. She added that she worries people are already forgetting Ukraine as time passes and other conflicts emerge.

Skubytska will again teach JDS324: Trauma and Oral History — Giving Voice to the Unspeakable next spring. She said her goal is to help people learn how to listen to traumatic experiences and then communicate with those who have not been exposed to similar circumstances. “Because it’s very hard to communicate to those who never have gone through anything like that,” Skubytska explained.

‘We have to speak out.’

Roshchin, the visiting research scholar at the University Center for Human Values, was born in Russia and spent most of his life there. In February 2022, he was the head of the faculty of International Relations and Politics, the political science school of RANEPA.

Roshchin said he opposed the war from the beginning, calling it “a huge crime” because of his strong belief in human dignity and human rights. “I didn’t want to be part of it in any way,” he said. “And like many other Russian scholars and citizens, I spoke out.”

On March 4, 2022, Russia enacted a law criminalizing protests against the war. The punishment includes up to 15 years of jail, and many Russians have faced imprisonment and abusive treatment since. Alexandra Skochilenko, a 33-year-old St. Petersburg musician and artist, recently received a seven-year sentence for placing stickers with anti-war messages over price tags in a grocery store weeks after the law was passed. The Washington Post reported that she faced sexual aggression and cruelty in jail as she waited for her trial.

Roshchin said he refused to endorse the idea of making a collective pro-war statement on behalf of RANEPA at a council meeting of school administrators later that same March, instead suggesting to release a call for peace. Roshchin had already signed anti-war petitions by this point, and one administrator warned him to retract his signature to avoid facing criminal charges.

“I indicated that I wouldn’t change my publicly voiced opinion, [that] this is what I hold dear and this is what I believe in,” Roshchin explained. “Instead, I resigned to protest.”

The war had reduced the number of flights out of Russia, and Roshchin began looking for tickets as soon as he resigned. He told his superiors that he was going to withdraw from public life and rest even as he secretly made plans to leave the country. He flew to Istanbul, Turkey, two weeks later with only one checked bag. His wife and two daughters, ages 9 and 4, took another flight. They left behind their home, their car, most of their belongings — almost everything except their dog, Greta.

Roshchin and his family arrived at Princeton in August 2022. His research focuses on how free speech may be limited in academic environments by institutions or government interference, or by the fear of it.

“I focus on self-censorship, on the voice of dissent, and what it actually means to leave one’s community,” Roshchin said. “We have to speak out.”

He said his protest against Russia’s invasion happened naturally. “It’s not that I trained myself and thought of doing something heroic,” Roshchin explained. “It’s just that the circumstances and [my] inner values and ideals came together. And that explains [my] choices made.”

Roshchin hopes to start a new position at another English-speaking university when his time at Princeton ends next year to make the move as easy as possible for his daughters.

“Kids switching their linguistic school environment to something else — that might be very stressful,” he said. “Because they just adapted to this environment.”

‘I can continue to be useful to my country.’

“Oksana, look, Russia closed the sky. So you need to wake up, we need to pack our stuff, because the war is going to start in a couple of hours.”

This is how Oksana Nesterenko remembers her 70-year-old father waking her up at 1 a.m. the night Russian forces attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine in February 2022. She fled with others and now specializes in anti-corruption in SPIA.

Like Prymachenko, Nesterenko said she fears that her name is on the

Russian list of targets due to the nature of her work. She is the former cofounder of the first interdisciplinary Master Program in anti-corruption in Ukraine and the Eurasian Academic Anti-Corruption Network. She added that the war has been constantly on her mind since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

Many Ukrainians have now lived in uncertainty about their safety and future for almost an entire decade. Even now, she said she doesn’t know where she will be next year after her time at Princeton ends. Nesterenko said she avoided buying her own car and apartment in Kyiv where she had been working since 2015, because she worried that both would be destroyed if the war expanded. The war did reach her in 2022, and she had to leave nearly everything behind.

She packed documents and photos, but there was no time to bring her clothes, books, or even food and water. At 5 a.m. she woke up her 6-yearold son, and the trio began a five-day journey to western Ukraine. Bombs fell on the city as they drove away.

“I’m going to remember this all my life,” Nesterenko said. “I was paralyzed, I almost couldn’t move. Because maybe in one moment I’m not going to be alive.”

She joked that while some people say they have a phobia of swimming or flying, she’s “scared of only one thing: missile attacks.”

Russian missiles continue to hit Ukrainian cities, and Nesterenko said that she will not take her son back home until the war is over. Her father, who also moved with her to Princeton, wants to return, but she is not willing to take the risk. Nesterenko said that she could not handle the constant fear of another missile attack.

“It’s not normal when people literally understand that tomorrow they can die [at] any moment,” she said. “I was crying, crying, crying, because you cannot go to the shelter for every alarm. We don’t have a safe place ... It’s so scary.”

Nesterenko is part of a joint project between the University’s Innovations for Successful Societies program and Kyiv’s Anti-Corruption Research and Educational Center that is titled “Rebuilding Ukraine Corruption Free.”

The goal of the project is to put anticorruption tools into place, including by training officials, to prevent corruption as Ukraine rebuilds after the war.

“I can continue my research, I can continue my job, and I can continue to be useful for my country,” Nesterenko said. “Because Princeton provides me with these facilities, I can sit down, I can analyze information, I can do papers, I can be an advisor for the Ukrainian government. Why? Because I can relax and focus on my job.”

Each of these scholars expressed gratitude to Princeton for providing them with two years of safety to continue their research and writing. The fighting in Ukraine remains intense, and many still don’t have a safe home to return to. Next year, they may be forced to thank someone else.

Lauren Blackburn is a contributing Features writer for the ‘Prince.’

the PROSPECT. ARTS & CULTURE

Princeton students found first Fashion Institute of Princeton

By Annie Wang and Matthew Suh Contributing Prospect Writers

Princeton students sport a range of fashion styles on campus. Whether students are dressing up for eating club formals or just walking to lecture, fashion serves as a form of expression on campus. However, in the past, there hasn’t been a premier fashion organization with a voice on campus. Nadine Allache ’26 and Bahia Kazemipour ’26 are hoping to change this by forming the Fashion Institute of Princeton (FIOP). Established last spring, FIOP hopes to shift the way we consume fashion by becoming an outlet for exploration, design, and entrepreneurship.

Kazemipour is a prospective anthropology major and is receiving a entrepreneurship minor. To her, fashion means “how you express yourself, what you value, how you want to convey beauty, and how you want to transform norms.” She also says that college has allowed her to experiment with new styles. Her desire for unique-

ness and creativity drove her and Allache to create FIOP. FIOP’s mission is to establish a platform for people to be heard — they host events and provide students with the tools to embark on career paths not just in fashion, but also entrepreneurship in general.

FIOP has already begun to offer Princeton students opportunities in the fashion industry. This past summer, FIOP featured the brands Ella Rue and Mlance. While Ella Rue features colorful and playful styles that reflect spring and summer attire, Mlance’s pieces tend to have neutral tones and simple patterns. Both brands work to prompt slow fashion alongside FIOP. The stylistic distinction between Ella Rue and Mlance Design reflects FIOP’s creative inclusivity, as the organization hopes to appeal to various people while showcasing what the fashion industry has to offer.

FIOP also offers interactive experiences in the fashion industry, including networking opportunities and speaker events with notable figures. Kazemipour and Allache hosted the first Design For All Conference in NYC on Nov. 11, 2023. The conference featured stu-

dents from Princeton, Parsons School of Design, and New York University. Guest speakers in business and fashion, including Google product manager Taylor Laub and photographer Gregory Scaffidi, provided insight about their professions to students.

When asked about future plans for FIOP, Kazemipour said, “I know that a business is only defined by how people interact with it. Although Nadine and I have specific goals for the club, I am happy with the trajectory of FIOP if the student-members are getting something out of it.” Both founders of FIOP said they look forward to continuing the annual Design For All Conference in NYC and hope to host guest speaker events at Princeton.

Annie Wang is a contributing writer for The Prospect from West Virginia.

Matthew Suh is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Santa Barbara, Calif. He is a junior majoring in SPIA.

Princeton Pianists Ensemble keeps audience on their toes

Under golden lights, the crisp opening notes of “I See the Light” reverberate in a full Richardson Auditorium — starting from one piano, and ending with five concert grand Steinways. For the next hour and a half, the Princeton Pianists Ensemble (PPE) enraptured, entertained, and elated both classical and pop fanatics in the audience with music from Mozart to Super Mario Bros.

As one of the few student-run music groups independent from the Princeton Music Department, PPE exhibited its multifaceted repertoire in its eleventh concert season on the evening of Nov. 17, which consisted of original student arrangements.

The pianists emerged onto the stage in concert black, blending in with the monochrome pianos. Disney’s “I See the Light” and Shostakovich’s “Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2 - VI. Waltz No. 2” began with a single melody rising from the hushed silence, leaning into the clichés of a classical beginning. As an increasing number of nimble hands danced in unison, dynamics grew, tempo increased, and chords thickened into a polyphonic climax. In the third piece, the twists began.

During the popular ballad of “Golden Hour” by JVKE, the pianists were at the peak of the soaring chorus when Kalu Obasi ’25 jumped up from his piano, slid his neighboring pianist off the bench, and launched into a brief whimsical detour of flowery chords and arpeggios.

The stage glowed vibrant shades of red, yellow, and blue as five students returned, each adorned with a Super Mario Bros. headpiece. The upbeat theme transformed the stage into a video game, and at the finale, Obasi (now with a red Mario hat) brought a melodica behind the piano and began playing the staccato main tune.

PPE’s never-let-them-know-your-next-move arc continued in the second half of the concert after a mid-act by the a capella group Roaring 20s. During the flying theme from “E.T.,” pianist Amy Liu ’26 casually stood up and plucked on the inner strings of the Steinway, with all the correct notes (Easier said than done, if you’ve ever tried telling the inner strings apart).

For the next piece, Kellen Cao ’26 and graduate student Anthony Coniglio combined Debussy’s “La fille aux cheveux de lin” — a lighthearted French prelude that translates to “girl with the

flaxen-colored hair” — and “Minstrels,” which portrays devious court jesters vying for the king’s attention. Debussy’s more well-known Impressionistic music is embodied in the first piece with flowing chords and arpeggios. Meanwhile, the medley tells the story of the jesters attempting to capture the attention of the girl with flaxen hair. At one point in “La fille aux cheveux de lin,” Cao whipped out a jester hat and began the humorous disruption of the Minstrels’ theme. With tambourine tangents, Hi-Chew (a Japanese fruit candy) tosses, and dances around the stage perfectly synchronized to the rhythm, the five pianists played and acted the parts of jesters. The audience, perhaps playing the part of the flaxen-haired girl, filled the auditorium with laughter.

Amusement turned to awe with the Allegro movement of Mozart’s “Concerto for 3 Pianos and Orchestra in F Major,” which was rearranged for four pianos. Mozart’s fresh, festive exuberance shone through the seamless transitions between major and minor modes from one piano to the next.

As the last work on the program, the stage lights switched from an ominous mix of tan-

gerine and maroon for “Lord of the Rings” to a pastel palette of azure, lilac, gold, and pink for “How to Train Your Dragon.” The program describes the sagas as portraying the exhilaration of flight and bravery, with “the technically demanding runs aim[ing] to underscore the depth and emotive resonance within the grandeur of these beloved fantasy realms.”

PPE incorporated one final surprise for the standing ovation, rushing into a “La La Land” medley for the encore piece. While two pianists switched sides at each piano, the others danced in the background.

The holographic lighting mirrored the constantly changing, fleeting short piano compositions, just like an aurora. In those brief moments, the musicians’ hard work came to fruition, resonating as vivid flashes in each listener’s memory.

The emotional experience of eXpressions’ ‘Memento’

By Emma Cinocca

Writer

Amid the blink of the occasional strobe light, eXpressions Dance Company took to the stage on Friday, Nov. 17 with their Fall 2023 show. The evocative performance presented its viewers with a series of vignettes, many of which seemed to cope with remembrance, which fit nicely with the performance’s title, “Memento.”

Early in the show, three dancers in burgundy slips took the stage to Mitski’s “A Pearl.” At times, the stage cast them in pale spotlights, isolating the dancers from each other and from the audience. Their movements were a dichotomy of sharp beats and contrasting smooth gestures, conveying the emotional turmoil imbued in the song’s lyrics.

Later, dancers clad in short white dresses and veils portrayed a similar turmoil to Billie Eilish’s “Hap-

pier Than Ever,” this time seemingly portraying jilted brides. They began seated side-by-side, before launching into a similar recreation of Eilish’s story of betrayal, rage, and conflicted affection.

All throughout the show, dancers oscillated between moments of group coordination and solo features that highlighted the unique skills of each company member. They told stories through every aspect of the performance, from carefully-chosen costumes and emotive lyrics to the subtle use of facial expressions as they danced. I was invigorated by the performance — and for good reason.

Sometimes, movement in contemporary dance can lean into the abstract, a choice that is visually interesting but sometimes inaccessible to audience members with no dance background. “Memento” carefully avoided this pitfall, hardly seeming foreign or overly abstract. Each piece resonated with

an emotion that I felt I had experienced — even if only fleetingly — or at the very least one I could easily comprehend. I had watched the show unfold to recognizable tracks by artists like Lana del Rey, Mitski, Halsey, and Billie Eilish. It was easy to imagine how even those unfamiliar with dance as an art form could tap into the emotions tied to such familiar music to interpret the dancers’ potent performances. When the show was over, the crowd erupted with applause. Many of the audience members rose from their seats, rushing to the stage to congratulate dancers they knew. I, too, raced down. I said my “hellos” and made my way out, struck again by the title “Memento” as I exited the theater into the crisp November chill. A memento — something by which to remember a person or event. I had certainly left with an impression and memories of the show’s most stunning moments. The audience

had so generously offered applause and reaction throughout the performance that I found it hard to imagine anyone left without some kind of memento. An aptly chosen title, indeed.

Emma Cinocca is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a member of the class of 2027.

Chloe Lau is a contributing Prospect writer and contributing Features writer for the ‘Prince.’

By Chloe Lau | Contributing Prospect Writer

The Prospect 11 Weekly Event Roundup

By Audrey Zeng, Contributing Prospect Writer

Fall 2023 Student Reading

1

2023 Princeton Dance

Festival

Lewis Center for the Arts

Friday, Dec. 1, 8:00 PM

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2:00 PM

Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theater Center

Princeton dance students will perform choreography by internationally renowned choreographers, including Brian Brooks, Amy Hall Garner, and Bill T. Jones. December 3rd is a relaxed performance; house lights will be dimmed, there will be no strobe lighting, audience members allowed to vocalize and move as necessary. Devices for safety and comfort such as fidget and stress manipulatives are allowed, and some will be available for attendees to borrow. Tickets are $10 for students, and $12 if purchased in advance or $17 at the door for the general public. Tickets are also available through Passport to the Arts for Princeton students.

5

PUO and Glee Club Concert

Princeton University Music Department

Friday, Dec. 1, 7:30 PM

Saturday, Dec. 2, 9:30 PM

Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall

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Princeton University Orchestra, Princeton’s undergraduate symphony orchestra, and Princeton Glee Club, Princeton’s oldest and largest choir, are collaborating for two joint concerts. The groups will perform major works, including Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F Major. Tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for students. Tickets are also available to Princeton students through Passport to the Arts.

8

Program in Creative Writing

Monday, Dec. 4, 5 PM

Chancellor Green Rotunda

Students in the fall Creative Writing courses will read their works. Their reading features a wide range of genres, ranging from n poetry to screenwriting to fiction and literary translation. This event is free for the public; no tickets are required.

Conversation with Broadway director John Doyle

Music Theater

Monday, Dec. 4, 7-8:30 PM

Godfrey Kerr Theater Studio, Lewis Arts complex

In conclusion of John Doyle’s last semester as faculty in Princeton’s Program in Theater, Professor of Theater Stacy Wolf will interview Doyle about his directorial work and his time at Princeton. Doyle is a Tony Award-winning Broadway director best known for his productions of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals.

Boquitas Film Screening

Javier Guerrero (Princeton) & Juana Suárez (New York University)

Friday, Dec. 1, 6:00 PM

East Pyne Building 010

Los Perros / The Dogs (2017), directed by Marcela Said, will be screened in light of the 50th anniversary of the military coup against former Chilean president Allende and as part of a retrospective dedicated to Chilean actor Alfredo Castro. Castro’s work explored the cruelty of the dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989).

6

Princeton University Steel Band with Tiger Chunes

Princeton University Music Department

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2:30 - 3:30 PM

McAlpin Rehearsal Room, Woolworth Center

Students in Princeton University’s Steel Band, a course dedicated to teaching steel band performance from Trinidad and Tobago, will perform with Tiger Chunes, the University’s student-led steelpan ensemble. This event is free and unticketed.

Reading by Caoilinn Hughes Fund for Irish Studies

Friday, Dec. 1, 4:30 PM

James Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.

Caoilinn Hughes, author of “The Wild Laughter,” will read an excerpt from her upcoming novel “The Alternatives,” a family saga of three sisters who are brought together in a search for their fourth sister. Her works have won international prizes, including the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and the Collyer Bristow Prize. The reading is free for the public; no tickets or registration required.

10

Coffee Tasting

Coffee Club

Friday, Dec. 1, 1:30 PM

1967 Hall, Studio ’34

Barista Camilo Martinez will present coffee theory, followed by a coffee tasting. Coffee theory explores the variety of notes that can be extracted from different beans and combinations of flavors in coffee — for those who love their daily cup, this event is sure to be a treat. This event is unticketed and open to all students.

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Dugu

African Music Ensembles

Sunday, Dec. 3, 7:00 - 8:30 PM Lee Rehearsal Room, Lewis Center for the Arts

The show will feature afrobeats, desert blues, Congolese music, and urban mandingo groove, featuring guest artists Saidou Sangare, Jason Treuting, Wesley Rast, Anna Meadors, Roland Ouegraogo, and Christie Dossou. This event is free, unticketed, and open to the public.

Raaz: Secrets in the Shadows

Princeton Bhangra

Friday, Dec. 8, 8:00 PM

Frist Campus Center, Theater 301

Princeton Bhangra, Princeton’s competitive bhangra dance team, will perform high-energy folk dances originally from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Princeton Bhangra has performed on campus and at competitions across the US and Canada. This event is open to the public.

11

Artist-Led Workshop — MiKyoung Lee: Building Images with Mundane Materials

Princeton University Art Museum

Saturday, Dec. 2, 1:00 PM

Art on Hulfish

In conjunction with her exhibition at Princeton Art Museum’s Art@Bainbridge, MiKyoung Lee will lead a workshop on making art with recycled materials like twist ties and pipe cleaners. The event is open to the public, though registration is required and can be accessed through the Princeton Art Museum’s website.

FOOTBALL

Football ends season with a string of Ivy League awards

By Alex Beverton-Smith Sports Contributor

Although Princeton Football did not come away with a share of the Ivy League title, the Tigers still managed to have success in the end-of-season AllIvy football team honors, with a total of 10 players recognize.

On Tuesday, Nov. 21, the Ivy League announced the winners after the season ended for the Tigers and the rest of the conference.

Unsurprisingly, Princeton’s two appearances in the First Team All-Ivy came from senior linebackers and captains Ozzie Nicholas and Liam Johnson. The two combined for 187 tackles across 10 games this season. Ozzie Nicholas led the scoreboard across the entire Ivy League, having made 104 tackles total.

Nicholas and Johnson have been stalwarts in Princeton’s defense from last season to the present, marking the second consecutive year they have been recognized for awards. Johnson continued his streak of being in the First Team AllIvy, while Nicholas this year was voted First Team All-Ivy unanimously, the only Tiger to do so.

Nicholas also led the team with 4.5 sacks, and was the only Tiger ranked in the top 10 for sacks and tackles across the Ivy League. His impressive season was capped with over 100 tackles, which has not been done by a Princeton player since Zak Keasy ‘05, who recorded 127 tackles in 2004 and later played for the National Football League’s (NFL) San Francisco 49ers.

Princeton’s other Ivy award winners were sophomore defensive back Nasir Hill and senior offensive lineman Jalen Travis, who were recognized

in the Second Team All-Ivy. Honorable mentions were given to senior defensive lineman Jack DelGarbino, senior offensive lineman Nicholas Hilliard, senior linebacker Will Perez, junior wide receivers AJ Barber and Luke Colella, and first-year punter Brady Clark. Travis was also named to the Academic All-Ivy in further recognition of his ability off the football field.

Hill, a sophomore safety for the Tigers, was rightfully recognized for what has been an impressive season. Continuing his good form, Hill recorded 3 interceptions in the Ivy League, two against Penn and one against Harvard, both of which were in big games that the Tigers won. He also ranked

first for Princeton in passes defended with 8 and third for Princeton in tackles with 62. Offensive lineman Travis found himself once again in the Second Team All-Ivy for the second year in a row, despite having an injury that put him on the sideline for a

few games. Before the injury, Travis had a 91.6 overall PFF grade, ranking him first in the country for his position and thus, well above the competition. When he came back to the offensive line, the team scored 21, 28, and 31 points in their last three games against Dartmouth, Yale, and Penn respectively. A potential NFL prospect and a member of the Academic All-Ivy team, Travis managed to overcome adversity this season to end on good form.

Hilliard, another offensive lineman, had a strong season in his first as the starter at right guard. DelGarbino, a fellow senior and defensive lineman, also had a quality season as he led the Princeton defensive line in tackles with 51, averaging 5.10 per game.

Despite missing almost all of the last four games by injury, linebacker Perez got 38 tackles to his name, whilst also having standout moments against Bryant, Harvard, and Penn.

Clark, the only freshman recognized for Princeton, had a terrific first year as a punter, averaging 39.24 yards per punt which placed him 4th across the Ivy League. Perhaps his biggest moment came against Harvard, when he punted for 51 yards, pinning Harvard at their three-yard line, getting Princeton the ball and allowing them to score the winning touchdown on the next drive.

Several Tigers who had a good season didn’t make the list, but special mention should go to senior quarterback Blake Stenstrom, who was crucial in late touchdown drives against teams like Columbia and Harvard.

Alex Beverton-Smith is a contributor to the Sports section of the ‘Prince.’

Women’s basketball ranked No. 25 in latest AP Poll, men’s team continues to receive points

By Hayk Yengibaryan Associate Sports Editor

On Monday, the Associated Press released its weekly polls for men’s and women’s basketball. The Tigers entered the Top 25 for the first time since November 2022 in women’s basketball, coming in at No. 25 in the Week 4 poll. On the men’s side, the Tigers picked up 14 points in the poll.

“It’s great to get recognized,” women’s head coach Carla Berube told The Daily Princetonian in a phone interview. “I think we’ve put together a challenging early season schedule and have competed at a really high level for many of those games. The recognition is great, but there’s still so much work to be done.”

Women’s basketball (4–2 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) was last ranked in the November 2022 preseason AP poll, when they started the season at No. 24. Their Top 25 ranking this year came after a busy week, playing then-ranked No. 20 Oklahoma and No. 19 Indiana in Fort Myers, Florida. Princeton upset the Sooners on Thanksgiving before falling to the Hoosiers on Saturday afternoon.

“I don’t think it will change all that much,” Berube told the ‘Prince’ when asked about how the ranking will affect the team’s mentality going forward. “I think we know who we are and how we need to work on a consistent basis.”

Princeton has three players averaging double-digit scoring, with senior guard Kaitlyn Chen (17.0), sophomore guard Madison St. Rose (17.7), and first-year guard Skye Belker (10.3) all hitting the mark.

Coming into the season, Chen was named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. She has certainly not disappointed, captaining the Tigers to a 4–2 record. Belker — who scored 20 combined points in last week’s two contests —was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the first time in her career.

Women’s basketball will return to action on Wednesday evening at Jadwin Gymnasium when they host Seton Hall (4–2, 0–0 Big East). The

contest will not be a cakewalk for the newly ranked Tigers. The Pirates hosted the No. 6 ranked University of Southern California Trojans last week, and lost by just 10 points. The Columbia Lions, who finished as the runner-up in the Ivy League regular season last year, beat the Pirates by 11 on November 10th.

“We have to play much better,” Berube added. “That Indiana game was not our best. They are very talented and athletic and work extremely hard. We need to play disciplined and take care of the ball.”

Meanwhile, the men’s team (6–0, 0–0) is off to its best start in 26 years. Led by a starting five who all played a role in last year’s historic run to the Sweet 16, the team operates as a well-oiled machine on the court. The Tigers have not only won but covered the spread in the six games.

The core of senior guard and captain Matt Allocco, sophomore forward Caden Pierce, and sophomore guard Xaivian Lee are averaging a combined 50 points a game. Just this past weekend, Lee scored a career-high 30 points against Northeastern. This performance — along with 19 points at Old Dominion — earned the sophomore guard from Canada Ivy League Player of the Week honors.

In the most recent poll released this afternoon, the Tigers received 14 points. The last time the Tigers were ranked in the polls was at the conclusion of the 1997–98 season when the Tigers were ranked eighth in the country. This team was notably captained by current head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 and Steve Goodrich ’98, who led the team to a 27–2 record that season.

Men’s basketball will return to action on Wednesday evening when they hit the road once again to face the Bucknell Bison (2–4, 0–0 Patriot League) in Lewisburg, Pa.

The men’s and women’s teams have never been ranked simultaneously, and the beginning of the season shows promise that both teams may be able to deliver another historic season to Tiger fans.

Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’

PHOTO COURTESY OF @PRINCETONFTBL/TWITTER.

Princeton’s two appearances in the First Team All-Ivy came from senior linebackers and captains Ozzie Nicholas and Liam Johnson.