The Daily Princetonian: April 19, 2024

GRADUATE

Graduate students file for union election, marking last Ivy to do so

By

Graduate students seeking to unionize filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Friday afternoon, potentially making the University the last Ivy League school to have a recognized graduate student union.

The move by Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) comes two weeks after postdoctoral workers at the University filed for an NLRB election. If recognized, PGSU would

CAMPUS

be affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE), and become the largest union on campus. There are currently 3,225 graduate students enrolled at the University.

UE has also represented graduate workers at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The University agrees that a secret-ballot election is the most inclusive, fair, and secure method for those eligible to express their preference whether to be represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine

“It is important to note that by design, union representation would change some aspects of graduate students’ relationship with Princeton, and the University has concerns about how such representation would affect graduate students’ education and experience here.”

Gaby Nair GS, an organizer with PGSU, told the ‘Prince’ that a “strong majority” of graduate students had signed union cards. The threshold for

Black Princeton is fragmented. Let’s consolidate. Opinion

Luqmaan Bamba

Columnist

BSU, PASA, PCC, PEESA, PNSA, PABW, PBMA — call it the alphabet soup of Black student organizations. These are groups intended to cater to specific niches in the Black community and serve to represent its diversity. These organizations serve critical communitybuilding needs that Princeton’s diverse Black population needs. Yet, informal conversations with Black students reveal that these groups highlight the dissolution of Black union due to its fragmentation. This piece seeks to uncover this dynamic, suggest tips for increased cohesion amongst Black student groups, and propose a novel formal consortium model for the centralization of Black Princeton.

Black affinity groups are a crucial part of Princeton’s fostering of diverse communities. Nevertheless, students have revealed dissatisfaction with how isolating they can be. Indeed, the complicated nature

of Black identities makes this a more nuanced problem. In 2022, the Generational African-American Students Association (GAASA) was founded, seeking to create a space for Black students who are descendants of enslaved people. These were a “minority within a minority,” as Christopher Butcher ‘25, the founder and president of GAASA, remarked in a piece for the Daily Princetonian. Black students who were descendants of enslaved peoples held little direct personal connection to the African continent in a way that international, immigrant, and recently immigrated Black students do; they needed a space of their own to foster a sense of inclusion, Butcher argued. Though this specific demographic of Black students understandably desired to find a sub-community with shared experiences, this necessitated what constituted a break from the established Black Student Union, arguably the premier Black student organization on Princeton’s campus.

See CONSOLIDATE page 9

‘She’s such a builder:’ Kauanui appointed to Indigenous Studies professorship ON

By Elizabeth Stewart Assistant News Editor

In the Native Hawaiian culture, tī leaf leis are a symbol of protection and welcome, and professor J. Kēhaulani Kauanui keeps every lei she receives.

One of these leis was gifted to her by Ila Nako ’26, a student leader in Natives at Princeton (NAP), and two other Native Hawaiian students when the anthropologist visited campus last October.

During her visit, Kauanui, a Native Hawaiian who teaches at Wesleyan University, gave a talk on Hawaiian decolonization and feminism. She also met with Native American and Indigenous students about filling the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Professor of Indigenous Studies position at Princeton.

“I found the students dynamic, invested, really sharp — they asked such important questions. There’s a really exciting vibe,” Kauanui said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.

The Board of Trustees approved Kauanui’s appointment to this position last month. Effective July 1, she will assume positions in both the Department of Anthropology and the Effron Center for the Study of America.

While this hire ends the search for the Indigenous Studies professorship, first announced in December 2020, it is only the beginning of a continued effort to build up Princeton’s Indigenous Studies program at Princeton.

Anthropology Professor Ikaika Ramones said of the students’ gift to Kauanui, “[Students] took time to

’82 ALUMNUS GIVES HIGH POINTS OF HIS DAY, HAZING, IMPORT OF HALLS, AND DAILY CHAPEL

APRIL 16, 1929

gather together the day before and create something for her, by hand, with something that grew in the soil in Princeton.”

“I think that’s a pretty powerful symbolism of the potential of what can grow here,” he continued.

Growing Indigenous Studies Through the Effron Center

For the past several years, the Effron Center for the Study of America (previously the Program for American Studies) has housed several Indigenous Studies initiatives on campus. In 2020, the Effron Center funded the creation of a website for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton (NAISIP).

“To be in a space …where they’re bringing in cutting-edge researchers who are engaged in critical ethnic

studies within an American Studies context, and [who] understand the importance of Indigenous Studies — that is something that really excites me,” Kauanui told the ‘Prince.’

Effron Center chair Professor Aisha Beliso-De Jesús also confirmed that faculty is “working towards the launch of a minor in Indigenous Studies,” and plans to “prioritize future faculty appointments across the university within this vital field.”

According to Beliso-De Jesús, the process of filling the Indigenous Studies professorship was “thoroughly collaborative” between the Dean of the Faculty and various academic units, along with engagement from students, faculty, alumni, and community stakeholders.

Last fall, representatives from NAP and Native Graduate Students of Princeton (NGSP) expressed that

they felt “left in the dark” during previous attempts to fill the faculty position and did not have a formal role in the search committee.

“We’ve been more aware of everything this time, which has been so much better because it’s felt like we’ve both been involved in the process itself and also afterward we’ve been kept informed,” NGSP president Brandi Bushman GS told the ‘Prince.’

She added that Kauanui was particularly attentive to students’ interests during her visit.

“Kauanui was only here for a couple [of] days, but she really developed relationships with the Native Hawaiian students, specifically, and the Native community generally,” Bushman said.

Kauanui has taught in the Ameri-

This Week In History

In light of the prevalence of hazing incidents in recent years, resulting suspensions, and University initiatives aimed at eradicating these practices, The Daily Princetonian examines the account of a member of the Class of 1882 reflecting on his experience with hazing as an undergraduate. He recounted a culture of public violence and the once-notorious “Cane Sprees” involving the latest fashion of the era — the walking cane.

Workers of America,” University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.

Meghana Veldhuis & Miriam Waldvogel Assistant & Associate News Editors

AMMAAR ALAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN The Graduate College at night.

Ramones:

“She came with a boatload of expertise, but also a very attentive ear, which I think is a really good combination for something like this.”

INDIGENOUS

Continued from page 1

can Studies and Anthropology departments at Wesleyan University since 2000 and founded the school’s Indigenous Studies Research Network. She also served on the steering committee, as an inaugural council member, and as a co-founder of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

“She has really seen and helped build the field, not even nationally, but internationally,” Ramones said. When Kauanui came to visit, “it was like talking to someone who immediately already had her finger on the pulse and was just ready to get started,” he added.

Last fall, Bushman also told the ‘Prince’ that attracting professors to campus when Princeton does not yet

have a full Indigenous Studies minor or department could prove difficult.

“The Native community, more generally, is small, but we’re very present, and we’re very active,” Bushman said. “I think [Kauanui] saw a community on campus that is wanting to get work done, wanting to collaborate, and wanting to build something. She’s such a builder.”

Collaboration Across Departments

In her conversation with the ‘Prince,’ Kauanui emphasized her desire to collaborate with existing Indigenous studies initiatives on campus, including NAISIP and the Princeton American Indian and Indigenous Studies Working Group (PAIISWG).

“She came with a boatload of expertise, but also a very attentive ear,

which I think is a really good combination for something like this,” Ramones said.

“I know that there are other faculty across the campus who are interested and engaged in research pertaining to Indigenous peoples, and I’m really excited to be in conversation with them and to think about different initiatives that we might do together, whether it be workshops, conferencing, [or] research labs,” Kauanui said.

Specifically, she hopes to “do something bigger” with studies of global indigeneities and the LANDBACK movement.

Kauanui also mentioned several potential course offerings adapted from her work at Wesleyan, including Decolonizing Indigenous Gender and Sexuality, Indigenous Women and the Politics of Feminism, and a research course on the LANDBACK movement.

“The presence of the field on campus is just going to be much more of a thing than it’s been,” Bushman said. “In this past year, it’s already changed so much. It’s very exciting to know that it’s going to keep growing.”

“There’s a lot of potential and a lot of excitement,” Kauanui said.

Elisabeth Stewart is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Chebbi, Johnson, and Ugwonali advance to YAT general election

By Olivia Sanchez Associate News Editor

In an email to the 27 Young Alumni Trustee (YAT) primary candidates obtained by the Daily Princetonian, the Class of 2024 selected three candidates to continue into the general election: Aisha Chebbi ’24, Sydney S. Johnson ’24, and Chioma Ugwonali ’24.

The Young Alumni Trustee joins the Board of Trustees for a four-year term. The position was established in 1969 to appoint and represent recent undergraduate alumni. The YATs have the same full powers as the rest of the board and take the same oath to “faithfully, impartially and justly perform the duties of the office of trustees.”

campaigning and organized campaigning. According to the YAT handbook, this is due to the unique way in which the Board of Trustees functions.

In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Ugwonali expressed her gratitude for moving forward in the process.

The YAT election process has met controversy in the past due to its “no campaigning rule,” which prohibits candidates from issue-based

“I am flattered that my classmates see me as a strong candidate for this position, someone who can contribute positively to the future of this university. And I am incredibly honored really to be running alongside two other wonderful people who have been so active in the community in different respects,” she said.

Ugwonali also stated that she hopes whoever assumes the role of YAT will ensure “that belonging stays at the core of our mission as a University.”

“I definitely think I will be able to bring a perspective like that to the board — fostering belonging, cultivating belonging, and supporting each other,” she added.

Ugwonali works as an RCA in Butler College and serves on the University Mental Health Taskforce, Student Health Advisory Committee, TigerWell Grant Selection Committee, and the Community Care Day Working Group.

“I am grateful to have learned from and collaborated with many peers, staff, faculty, administrators, and alumni over the past three-and-ahalf years in the spirit of cultivating collective care,” she wrote.

“‘In the nation’s service and in the service of humanity’ rings loud in my heart, and I hope that each student feels emboldened to use their passions, their gifts, to do some good in the world,” she added.

In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Johnson also expressed her gratitude for advancing. “It’s truly an honor to move forward in the process for a position that will have such an expansive impact for current and future undergraduates, young alumni, and the University community,” she wrote. “I am thankful for all the campus experiences that have allowed me to meet and work with students across all class years, and look forward to what’s to come.”

Johnson, who serves as 2024 class president, noted that her time in the position “started it all.”

“It’s been an invaluable experience in terms of learning how to understand and represent a large body of people, liaise between students and administration, and to recognize areas for growth within my own leadership style,” she wrote.

“It’s taught me how important and special class identity is to the Princeton experience and beyond, and especially how each class has a different character and set of needs,” she added.

Having served as an RCA for New College West, Johnson also wrote that she values all of the smaller communities she helped create on campus. “As I graduate, I’ll remember the time I spent growing alongside my zees, the club volleyball team, fellow class officers, SPO majors, and more.”

Johnson also founded the Princeton in Hollywood undergraduate branch, which provides resources to students interested in the entertainment industry. Princeton in Hollywood brought Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight, to campus on April 6.

In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Chebbi, an RCA in Yeh College and one of the 2022-23 Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) Co-Presidents, described most of her time at Princeton as being centered around “taking communities and student voices, which typically fall along the lines of marginalization, and bringing together different people to foster dialogue around difference … to not just advocate for students but overall change institutional structures to make lasting impacts on student life and student well being.“ She named her time as MSA co-president as an important opportunity for her “to not only bear witness to the ways that the university needs to accommodate make more permanent, inclusive accommodations for cultural religious practice, but also to have these trusted conversations with university administration and then actually vocalize the needs of our students have that materialize into critical change.”

Last year was the first time Muslim students had permanent accommodations for the Islamic religious observance of Ramadan, and MSA ensured that students had pre-dawn meals and post-sunset meals.

“That … coalescing of student voices, University administration, and the experiences of so many others is something I hope to continue, were I to be the Young Alumni Trustee,” she said. Chebbi also told the ‘Prince’ that gratitude was the foremost emotion she felt about moving forward in the election process.

“Moving forward along with Chioma and Sydney is honestly a testament to the fact that Princeton is continuously evolving and adapting for the better to include more marginalized and underrepresented voices in its leadership,” she stated.

“I really feel like our class believes in that and I think that’s indicative of the fact that the three of us are moving forward. I have so much respect for both of them,” Chebbi added.

The unsuccessful YAT candidates can still serve their class as an Alumni Class Officer.

“The Class of 2024 will become an official organization of the University after graduation. Officer roles will be elected by your classmates this spring, and while those three moving onto the general YAT ballot are ineligible to run, the rest of you are welcome and encouraged to run for class leadership positions,” the email to the YAT primary candidates stated.

Voting for the general election will open on May 1, 2024. Members of the Class of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 are eligible to vote.

Olivia Sanchez is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’

CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Effron Center for the Study of America is located in Morrison Hall.

Nair:

“In some ways, we’re on the same wave as all of our peer institutions.”

UNION

an NLRB election is 30 percent.

PGSU was unable to provide a specific number of signatories to the ‘Prince.’

“We’re really looking forward to getting [an election] date … hopefully that process goes smoothly. We’ve seen it not go smoothly at some of our peer institutions,” Nair said, referencing unionization efforts at the University of Pennsylvania. There, graduate students initially filed for a union election in October, but were delayed by an NLRB ruling that declared roughly 300 students under certain educational fellowships ineligible. The union at Penn was set to vote this Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was rescheduled to May 1 and 2.

Princeton has been slower to unionize than some of its peer institutions. Apart from Penn, all other Ivy League universities have formally recognized graduate student unions.

“I think that we have less of that institutional history to draw on than some of our peer institutions,” Nair said, pointing to the legacy of union organizing at schools like Yale, where graduate students began pushing for union recognition in the 1990s.

However, she added, “in some ways, we’re on the

same wave as all of our peer institutions.” Graduate students at Vanderbilt, for example, are still in the midst of their card campaign.

PGSU first formed following the NLRB’s 2016 ruling that graduate students were entitled to collective bargaining, but paused efforts after the NLRB temporarily reversed its decision in 2019. In February 2023, more than half of graduate students had signed union cards.

PGSU has also taken a number of positions on wider campus issues, including supporting undergraduate protests regarding climate change, racial diversity, and Title IX from 2017 to 2019. During the pandemic, they petitioned the University to extend degree timelines, research deadlines, and accommodations for international students. After students returned to campus, PGSU partnered with the Disability Collective to advocate for remote learning options.

Miriam Waldvogel is an associate News editor and the investigations editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Stockton, Calif. and often covers campus activism and University accountability.

Meghana Veldhuis is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Bergen County, N.J. and typically covers faculty and graduate students.

By MC McCoy Staff Constuctor

Projects Board funding runs dry for Spring semester, student groups frustrated

By Bridget O’Neill Head News Editor

As the semester comes to an end, Project’s Board is also coming to the end of its semester budget. Several groups have reported receiving less or no funding in the final weeks of the semester, leading to speculation about the status of the Projects Board budget. The Daily Princetonian spoke with USG and Projects Board representatives, as well as student group leaders to understand how this happened.

Projects Board funding was a major point of discussion at the March 25 USG meeting. Projects Board Co-Chairs Ava Seigel ’26 and Joanna Tafolla ’26 led a 20-minute presentation, where they highlighted a significant increase in event requests over the years, averaging to over 20 requests per week, and a notable rise in funding requests above $750 this semester.

The USG Projects Board is responsible for distributing funds for student events. This year, the USG approved an overall budget of $645,047.21, of which $130,000 was allocated to Project’s Board funding.

During the last two weeks of March, student groups reported to the ‘Prince’ receiving decreased or no funding for events. Yet, during the March 25 meeting, the cochairs announced the introduction of a new pre-check process aimed at streamlining the approval process. For requests totaling $750 and below, groups would be allowed to bypass in-person approval interviews after a preliminary review.

Under the old system, groups submitted a Student Activities Funding Engine application by Monday at midnight, and signed up for a Thursday meeting with the Projects Board committee for events at least two weeks in advance.

Mya Ramhi ’26, treasurer of Princeton Caribbean Connection (PCC) said in an interview with the ‘Prince’ that she applied for funding for PCC’s biggest event

of the semester, Spring Carnival, and received $750. This number is significantly lower than funding they have received for similar events in previous semesters. In the fall semester, PCC received $7,000 for the Big Futures Caribbean Conference.

Ramhi says student officers prefaced the meeting by saying, “we have an influx of student events, so we may not be able to cover the event as much as we’d like to,” so she was expecting the decreased funding.

Hayk Yengibaryan ’26, co-president of the Armenian Society, told the ‘Prince’ that when he applied for funding the last week of March for a speaker event on April 24, they received only 20 percent of what they requested. He said the Projects Board committee explained to him that funding was limited and they were running low on funds.

“I was told that more money was requested in a week than all of last semester. Due to this, my student organization has had to spend a lot of time trying to get different funding sources and it’s been a much more difficult and time consuming process,” Yengibaryan said.

Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince’.

One group failed to receive a funding decision and reached out via email for the result, only to learn they would receive no funding. The student and group wished to remain anonymous.

“Unfortunately, due to the volume of funding requests we have received this semester and funding timeline compliances, we are unable to fund your request. Please consider applying to alternative funding sources such as academic departments if you need additional funding to be able to hold your event,” the email read.

Uma Fox ’26, treasurer of USG, shared in an interview with the ‘Prince’ that Projects Board saw an uptick in demand this semester. She explains USG is still trying to figure out the “cause” of this increase.

Fox shares that, given the

heightened demand, USG contemplated what to do should the Projects Board need more money.

“There was never a situation where we thought, ‘Oh, we’re not going to be able to fund Projects Board,’ but instead the question of what we need to transfer from something else,” Fox said.

USG ultimately transferred $10,000 from the USG’s specified travel fund, where they were seeing “less traction.”

As of Monday, the Projects Board has approximately $14,000 in spendable balance, according to Fox. “We’ve never gotten to a point where that was close to zero. It was always above 5k for the rest of the semester.”

Fox says she had heard from classmates that people believed the Projects Board had run out of money.

“When you look at the numbers … we have an allocated amount of $130,000 for projects per semester, which is a staggering number. So to then be like, oh, there’s only like $10,000 left for the rest of the semester sounds and feels really, like scary and dramatic,” Fox added.

Fox clarified that the service is first-come, first-serve, so most requests are fulfilled towards the beginning of the semester. This explains the lower amount of funds at the end of the semester.

Projects Board co-chairs Seigel and Tafolla wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince,’ “The Projects Board is nearing the end of its allocated funding for the year as expected. The Projects Board is still giving full consideration to each eligible request it receives and is supporting requests to the fullest extent possible.”

Fox also shared that the USG is looking towards possibly changing their relationship with the Projects Board so that the treasurer and USG Senate might take on a more “active role.”

Bridget O’Neill is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Assistant News editor Elisabeth Stewart contributed reporting.

Princeton updates pregnancy policies in response to federal regulations

By Rebecca Cunningham Senior News Writer

New proposed amendments to Title IX are changing the ways Princeton addresses student pregnancy.

In an email to undergraduate students sent on March 19, the University announced three changes to their policies and resources for pregnancy and childbirth.

The administration has updated its current Policy on Discrimination and Harassment to include a broader range of conditions related to pregnancy, and the school has adopted a new Student Pregnancy/Childbirth Accommodation Policy. They have also designed a new webpage that provides students and faculty with clear information about pregnancy and childbirth resources.

“Princeton University is committed to maintaining an inclusive environment that is free from discrimination and harassment,” the announcement stated.

These changes come amid a proposal from the U.S. Department of Education to amend Title IX regulations that protect against sexual misconduct and free expression of gender identity. While the Biden-Harris Administration intended to finalize regulations in May 2023, they have now been delayed twice.

“Pregnancy and childbirth were already included as protected characteristics in the Policy on Discrimination and/or Harassment but we are updating the policy in response to new federal regulations,” University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.

“Those regulations expand and clarify the definition of pregnancy and childbirth to include ‘pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or lactation’ as well as ‘medical conditions relating to’ and/or ‘recovery from’ these conditions,” Morrill continued.

The process on the federal government’s side began in 2022 “in celebra-

tion of the 50th anniversary of Title IX.”

A fact sheet released to the public summarized the changes, stating, “these proposed regulations will advance Title IX’s goal of ensuring that no person experiences sex discrimination in education, that all students receive appropriate support as needed to access equal educational opportunities, and that school procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment and sexual violence, are fair to all involved.”

The new Student Pregnancy/Childbirth Accommodation Policy, according to its website, was “implemented in the context of the University’s broader Policy on Discrimination and/ or Harassment” and will comply with the proposed Title IX amendments, as well as New Jersey state laws.

The policy further defines pregnancy and childbirth, provides information about available accommodations for students and faculty, and explains processes for confidentiality, record retention, and requesting leaves of absences.

The policy prescribes that any University employee, aside from those designated as confidential resources — such as Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education (SHARE), Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS), and chaplains at Office of Religious Life — who learns of a student’s pregnancy must share the contact information for the Title IX coordinator with the student.

The Title IX coordinator in turn is required to inform the student of the sex discrimination policy, available accommodations, “Options, if any, on a voluntary basis to participate in any separate and comparable portion of the University’s education program or activity; Options regarding a voluntary leave of absence; The availability of lactation spaces;” and grievance procedures for any potential discrimination complaints.

The policy notes, “Princeton Uni-

versity respects the sensitive nature of disclosing that a student is experiencing pregnancy or related conditions and works to provide appropriate accommodations for students while maintaining the highest level of confidentiality possible.” It also states that records including requests for accommodations, documentation of approved accommodations, and records of discrimination complaints will be retained for seven years.

The new website also includes information about scheduling options for quiet rooms that offer private spaces for breastfeeding and “other purposes.”

Morrill emphasized convenience as the primary reason for designing the new webpage.

“These webpages will allow students to more easily locate all available resources and determine which of those resources would be helpful to them,” she wrote.

When asked if students have raised concerns about pregnancy and childbirth resources previously, Morrill cited past collaboration between the administration and the graduate school.

“Over the years, students have raised points for improvements around the childbirth and adoption accommodation and changes have been made in response including the current Childbirth and Adoption Accommodation Policy [which] was adopted by the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School, after the Graduate Student Government (GSG) and Graduate School staff worked together on the proposal in 2018,” she wrote.

Despite these earlier revisions, one legal scholar at the graduate school, Dr. Saskia Stucki, reported her withdrawal from the University’s Fung Global Fellowship in May 2023 citing sex discrimination as the cause for her departure.

The University granted Stucki ten weeks of maternity leave and offered half of her original salary, which she argued would not be enough. She filed complaints with the University’s

Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, but her requests were ultimately disregarded.

Since students and faculty received notice of these changes, Morrill said that the University has “received only limited feedback … but that feedback from students as well as staff and faculty has been overwhelmingly positive.”

A member of Princeton Pro-Life interviewed by the ‘Prince’ expressed support for the changes.

“We’ve talked about this, because we’re really committed to building a culture of life,” Princeton Pro-Life President Nadia Makuc ’26 said, which she defined as a culture “where mothers feel supported enough to be able to have their children. Broadly, a culture of life is having a society in which there are the resources, the community, the values, such that every human life is valued,” she said.

Makuc noted that to whatever extent pregnancy during college and graduate school is possible, the University announcement represented a discussion regarding “this dichotomy

of being a mother and having a career.”

She explained that Princeton-Pro Life has held conversations about their values and balancing having children and starting a family with achieving career-oriented goals, which often conflict in an environment like Princeton’s.

“That’s not something that we can necessarily fix, but I think in my own time here, it’s been really helpful to just have conversations with other people about what’s beyond. What do I want for my life beyond using my degree in this way?” she added.

Princeton Students for Reproductive Justice (PSRJ) did not provide comment by the time of publication. Questions, concerns, and accommodations related to pregnancy and childbirth will be managed by the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration, along with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the Graduate School, and relevant academic departments.

Rebecca Cunningham is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

NJ AI Summit addresses University’s role in expanding AI statewide

By Miriam Waldvogel Associate News Editor

The University’s new AI hub took another step on Thursday with the first-ever New Jersey AI summit, hosted at Richardson Auditorium. Attendees ranging from University professors to corporate executives repeatedly emphasized the potential benefits and applications of AI, from sus-

tainable energy to finance.

“The AI hub advances two of Princeton University’s highest strategic priorities: helping to cultivate a robust regional ecosystem and accelerating AI innovation and education,” University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said while briefly introducing Governor Phil Murphy during the summit.

Murphy remarked that the University and New Jersey were going

“all-in” on AI “at an earlier stage than either institution may have traditionally jumped.” As with other speakers, he also highlighted New Jersey’s history in technological innovation.

“We are a state that has an unparalleled track record when it comes to unleashing gamechanging inventions, from the lightbulb to film to the transistor, and yes, even to culinary inventions like Hoagie Haven’s

Mac Daddy sandwich,” Murphy said. The Mac Daddy is a bacon cheeseburger hoagie with mac and cheese wedges, fries, honey mustard, and hot sauce.

In his remarks, Murphy also announced an extension of the state’s existing Innovation Fellows Program, which provides income replacement grants to young entrepreneurs so they can launch their own startups. The new program will specifically fund “AI-powered innovation” at the hub.

The AI hub was announced in December as a partnership between the University and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. In addition to research and development, the initiative will include AI ethics and workforce development.

Eisgruber has made building the University’s technical and engineering capacities a more recent hallmark of his presidential tenure, overseeing the expansion of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).

“You cannot be a great liberal arts university in the 21st century without having a great school of engineering,” he told The Daily Princetonian in November 2022.

In October, the University also

launched the Princeton Language and Intelligence Initiative (PLI) to primarily focus on large language models (LLMs). Provost Jennifer Rexford ’91 told the ‘Prince’ then that PLI would focus on issues that companies might not necessarily invest in, including researching governing LLMs and the role of AI in humanities projects. PLI recently awarded funding to 14 research projects in areas from wildlife conservation to African languages.

“AI raises urgent questions about our power structures, our government, and our economy, which society, as well as academia, must grapple with,” Sanjeev Arora, the director of PLI, said at Thursday’s summit. Brad Smith ’81, the vice chair and president of Microsoft, delivered the event’s keynote. Smith is a member of the Board of Trustees.

“What Netherlands was to printing press, NJ can be that to AI,” he said.

Miriam Waldvogel is an associate News editor and the investigations editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Stockton, Calif. and often covers campus activism and University accountability.

ABBY DE RIEL / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Nassau Hall, which contains space for the staff of the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration.

Graduate students gain seats on Faculty Committee

By Meghana Veldhuis Assistant News Editor

The University has recently announced, after a vote on Monday, April 1, that graduate students will now have seats on the Faculty Committee for the Graduate School.

This decision followed a faculty vote to allow graduate students into the four subcommittees of the Committee: Policy, Curriculum, Fellowship, and Student Life and Discipline. Currently, the subcommittees are made up of four or eight faculty members. Each subcommittee must have an equal representation of faculty members from each of what the University has identified as the four academic divisions: engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

The Policy, Fellowship, and Student Life and Discipline subcommittees are chaired by Dean of the Graduate School Rodney Priestley, and the Curriculum subcommittee is chaired by Deputy Dean Lisa Schreyer.

The announcement did not specify how students will be chosen or if these students will need to represent different academic divisions.

“Graduate students already have many ways to participate in shaping important dimensions of their experience at Princeton… But having them now sit on the governing subcommittees of the Graduate School expands that partnership. We look forward to working directly with students in this new way,” Priestley noted in the announcement.

STUDENT LIFE

However, Princeton Graduate Students United (PGSU) organizers Harry Fetsch and Gaby Nair shared their reservations about the announcement in an interview with the ‘Prince.’

“Ultimately, what we need is not only representation, but real power that comes with it,” Fetsch said. “When there are issues that are important to graduate students, we need to be able to advocate for them in ways that are backed up by more than just asking very nicely.”

Nair referred to the lack of specifics on the power graduate students will hold in the updated governance structure. “The announcement is really careful to make clear that the graduate student inclusion on these committees is in a policy-reviewing and recommendation-making facet, and so graduate student inclusion on the committees is not inclusion in the body of decisionmakers,” she said.

“The faculty and the graduate student members of the subcommittees will have equal weight in debate and decisions by the subcommittees,” Jennifer Morrill wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “Although almost no decision is made by a single subcommittee, as with any committee governance structure, the subcommittee’s work, recommendations, and advisement are regarded with deference and are often reflected in the final decisions.”

According to the announcement, “the four subcommittees of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School are responsible for reviewing and making rec-

ommendations on academic policies, curriculum, fellowships, and student life and discipline.”

These recommendations are then sent to the dean or the larger Faculty Committee, made up by the Directors of Graduate Studies (DGSs).

Fetsch stated that PGSU did not explicitly ask or lobby for this change to be made, but said that “this could very conceivably be prompted by the clear fact that graduate students are on the path to unionizing.”

Priestley stated in the announcement that the change was made in the belief that it “will strengthen graduate education at Princeton.”

“What kind of influence graduate students who sit on these committees will have is unclear,” Nair said.

Previously, GSG has highlighted the need for greater graduate student representation in decision-making. In his campaign, current GSG Vice President Christopher Catalano focused on

achieving parity and equal recognition for graduate students.

GSG did not provide comment for this piece by the time of publication, nor has it released information about a process to determine which students will serve on each subcommittee.

Meghana Veldhuis is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Bergen County, N.J. and typically covers faculty and graduate students.

Genrietta Churbanova, John Freeman named valedictorian, salutatorian

By Thomas Catalano Assistant News Editor

The University named Genrietta Churbanova ’24 as this year’s valedictorian and John Freeman ’24 as the salutatorian on Monday, April 15. The Daily Princetonian interviewed Churbanova and Freeman on their experience at Princeton, independent work and interests, and post-graduation plans.

Genrietta Churbanova

Churbanova, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and a two-time recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, is an anthropology major from Little Rock, Ark. who is also pursuing certificates

in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and Chinese language and culture. Her coursework and independent work tie together the “three main academic threads that I have at Princeton,” Churbanova told the ‘Prince.’

Churbanova is a heritage Russian speaker. Shortly after her birth in Arkansas, she moved to Moscow, Russia “until about six to seven years old,” she said. Churbanova took a gap year before starting at Princeton, during which she studied Mandarin in Beijing. She entered Princeton at the 300-level of Mandarin and has taken Mandarin every semester she has spent at Princeton, now at the 500-level.

Her senior thesis is titled “Taiwan’s Russians” and is an ethnographic study of the lives of Russian nationals residing in Taiwan. Churbanova conducted research for her thesis over the summer.

“I went to Taipei, Taiwan for about two months, and was interviewing both Russians who speak Russian and also Taiwanese people who study Russian,” she said. Churbanova described her summer research as her most meaningful academic experience during her time as a Princeton student. Her junior paper was an ethnographic approach to China-Russia border relations and was published in the Intercollegiate U.S.-China Journal.

Outside of her research and coursework, Churbanova is president of the student Society of Russian Language and Culture, a head fellow at the Princeton Writing Center, and a Mathey College peer academic adviser (PAA), according to the University press release.

“In my time at Princeton, I always really pursued what I loved,” she said. “So it felt like everything I did out of the classroom was really complementing what I did inside of the classroom.”

Churbanova is a former head opinion editor for the ‘Prince.’

After graduation, Churbanova will pursue a master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing as a 2024

Schwarzman Scholar.

John Freeman Freeman, also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, is a classics major from Chicago, Ill. receiving certificates in German and Hellenic studies.

A student global ambassador for the University’s Study Abroad Program, he described his study abroad experiences as his most meaningful academic experience during college.

Freeman studied the monuments and typography of Athens, Greece at College Year, located in Athens, during his junior spring semester. He traveled to Rome with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies during his senior fall semester.

“Learning in a Princeton classroom is incredible and very rewarding, but it still doesn’t replace that kind of connection you can get with Greco-Roman history when actually being in Greece and Italy,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’

He wrote two junior papers, one of which was motivated by his abroad experiences, about the repatriation of ancient art, which were published in undergraduate journals at Harvard University and the University of Oxford.

“To be actually able to go to the Acropolis Museum and see the way that the fragments were incorporated at the museum was really important to my junior paper,” he said. Freeman’s senior thesis on the

repatriation of Greco-Roman art is called “Complexities and Communities of Care: GrecoRoman Antiquities as Objects of Concern.”

The salutatorian address at graduation is traditionally given in Latin. Freeman did not take Latin in high school, but during the month of May of his high school senior year, each student chose an independent project. “I decided to teach myself Latin,” Freeman said. Though Freeman took Latin 101 and 102 during his first year at Princeton, he partook in a language program at the City University of New York Latin and Greek Institute that allowed him to place out of Latin 105 and 108 and into upper-level Latin courses.

Outside of the classroom, Freeman is a Whitman College PAA, a member of the Cap and Gown Club, a tutor in English and Latin, and former co-vice president of Disiac Dance Company.

Post-graduation, he will join a summer associate program at Sperling & Slater law firm in Chicago. While his senior thesis approached ancient art from a theoretical perspective, Freeman said, “I’m excited to approach these objects through the legal framework, which is why I’m thinking of a career in art and cultural heritage law.”

Thomas Catalano is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Princeton’s Graduate College.

COURTESY OF CHURBANOVA AND FREEMAN.

From left to right: Class of 2024 Valedictorian Genrietta Churbanova and Class of 2024 Salutatorian John Freeman.

Underclass students beware... fewer rooms remain as class sizes expand. Room Draw 2024 explained

By Vincent Etherton

In Spring 2023, there were 82 rooms remaining after upperclass draw ended. This year, there were 17.

On Monday, April 1, upperclass students began the draw process into the 696 rooms available on Princeton’s campus. The process started at 9:30 a.m. that morning and lasted through 1:48 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10. Room draw into residential colleges and for independent upperclass students was completed on Thursday, March 28, after room draw for New College West was repeated due to technical difficulties.

The Daily Princetonian downloaded multiple lists of the available rooms on the Housing Portal each day for the eight days room draw took place. Similar to last year, students significantly preferred fewer roommates.

Singles were once again the most popular room size, dramatically decreasing in number over the first four days. Upperclass draw began with 351 singles available to upperclass students on April 1. By the time groups solely composed of juniors began drawing on April 5, there were around 39 available. According to the available room lists, around three hours into the rising junior draw, no more singles were available.

“Our original plan was to stay [in our residential college],” Janny Eng ’25, who drew in a group ninth overall in the upperclass draw, said. “We wanted singles, and we thought it’d be our best bet,” she said. When she discovered the news that her group had randomly been assigned a good draw time, she noted that they “started looking at other areas on campus” and broadened her search for singles across campus.

At the beginning of the draw, Scully Hall and Pyne Hall had the first and second most rooms available respectively with 104 and 102 rooms available. The two halls were also the most popular among drawn rooms early on. Around half of the rooms in each hall were taken by the end of the third day — one full day prior to the beginning of the rising junior draw.

When looking at the first halls to run out of rooms, Scully Hall filled its rooms first followed by Dod Hall and Wright Hall — two halls considered to be in a more central campus location.

“The first thing — obviously avoid construction,” Ally Robertson ’26 said. “I wanted to be close to the Arc[hitecture] building … and close to Frist.” Within her draw group, “the one that wants [a room] more south on campus is an athlete.”

Robertson was on the final page of the room draw times list alongside five members of her draw group. They originally planned for two triples, but no triples were available at their draw time. At their draw time of 1:39 p.m. on April 10, the available room list had not been updated since 10:11 a.m. that morning.

“Construction is actually a pretty big factor,” Pippa LaMacchia ’26 said. “I have friends in upperclass [student] housing who are woken up at seven in the morning every day because of construction.”

LaMacchia drew with two others on the final time of the upperclass draw.

The average square footage of different room types was consistently smaller day after day. If an upperclass student was drawing a single on the last day they were available, the single was an average of 46 square feet smaller than those available at the start of the draw.

“Obviously I want a bigger room — but if I can get a single, that’s all that matters,” Robertson said.

Parker Hill ’25 and her two draw-mates utilized their first pick to get a spacious room in Wright Hall, notably a less popular hall. In weighing their options, the group “sorted by square footage.”

“We found out once we had the first [draw] time that so many good rooms are actually unavailable,” Hill said. “A lot of our senior friends that have great rooms, we looked them up and they were not on the list.”

For those who were unable or didn’t draw into a room during their draw time, the waitlist is accepting applications through the deadline of April 29. The order of the waitlist is determined by original room selection time and housing will be assigned around mid-July. Housing is guaranteed for all undergraduates.

Vincent Etherton is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

Princeton’s most popular fields have been reserved 1,520 times this semester. We broke it down.

By Vincent Etherton Contributing Data Writer

With the University’s extensive varsity, club, and intramural sports programs, Princeton students have no shortage of options for athletic field usage on campus, even as Poe Field remains under construction until the end of the summer. As the weather gets warmer, field utilization will only increase.

The Daily Princetonian examined the 5,306 reservations on seven multi-purpose athletic facilities made by both Princeton University Athletics and Princeton University Campus Recreation over Spring 2022, Spring 2023, and Spring 2024.

The Bubble over Powers Field, constructed at the culmination of each football season and taken down mid-spring, consistently maintains the most reservations year-over-year. The Bubble covers the entirety of Powers Field in Princeton’s Stadium, creating a climate-controlled environment for teams to practice year-round. This year’s final reservation before its removal was a varsity athletics practice scheduled by Princeton Athletics on April 8.

White Peff ’03 Field — the newest field addition to Princeton’s campus — has been the least versatile in its utilization, as all of its reservations this spring have been for varsity athletics.

Plummer Field, located east of Yeh College and New College West serves as the most versatile athletics field on the list serving a significant number of reservations from each department. Plummer

Field maintains the highest percentage of intramural sports reservations — 6.44 percent — while still having a strong club and varsity sports presence on the turf field.

“Plummer is commonly used for [outdoor] intramurals,” said Yeh Intramurals Activity Chair Caleb Williams ’26 in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “It used to be Poe Field that was used all the time and Dillon [Gym] for all the indoor sports.”

“The biggest benefit is giving people a break from the busyness of class,” said club Flag Football president Evan Alfandre ’25 in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “[People have] a lot of work going on, and just being able to forget about that for a couple hours every week is really valuable for me.”

A majority of reservations each year occur on weekdays. In 2024, the most reservations were made for Wednesdays, accounting for 282 of the total 1,520 reservations made in 2024 — almost 19 percent. Teams often hope to hold weekday practices allowing a busy Princeton student to forget about their impending deadlines for a couple hours and get some physical activity.

“[Intramurals] give us a nice study break, something different and also allows people to interact with others that they don’t know very well,” Williams said.

Over years, varsity reservations remained relatively constant, with the most varsity use on Sherrerd Field, Campbell/Finney Fields, and the Bubble. Outside groups are also able to reserve the fields.

“Seven to nine [in the evening] is the prime practice time and a lot of people tell me they don’t like our nine to eleven practice time… The fact that they’re giving the most valuable club sport practice time to an outside organization — it’s frustrating,” Alfandre mentioned. “And then when we’re outside on Campbell/Finney … it’s just frustrating because we are freezing and they get to use the indoor space,” he said.

During times of financial struggles for club sports, with teams declining invitations for games that are too far away, they also face difficulties at home with barriers to field reservations.

“I think one of the big issues with the process of how we make

reservations is that on the Google Form you just say when you want to practice,” Alfandre said, mentioning there are three slots where you rank the best times that work for your club. “I think it makes it hard for them [Campus Recreation] to actually get everyone what they want, which is why we probably end up not getting what we want.”

Campus Recreation did not directly respond to the complaints regarding the reservation system and said that they only have oversight when it comes to scheduling spaces in Dillon and Plummer Field.

Vincent Etherton is a contributing Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

“I t ’s A ll A bout P erce P t I on ”

By Maddie Feldman & Ryan Hunstein

Constructors

20 "Break a leg" or "horse around" 21 Word before gel or spray

World Wildlife Fund and Save the Children, e.g.

63 Kind of ... or a hint to 17-, 24-, 39-, and 54-Across

Mardi Gras capital, familiarly

Suffix with mountain

"___ Boot" (1981 film)

It may be held

Kevin, Stuart, or Bob, e.g.

Edge of a hat

Math operator that may be natural

Sanskrit term meaning "force"

and Hawthorne, e.g. 54 Radioactive sludge 56 Like most businesses 9 to 5 57 Loathe

to the audience

The Minis

By MC McCoy Staff Constuctor

editor-in-chief

Eden Teshome ’25

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

Kathleen Crown

Ryan Konarska ’25

business manager Aidan Phillips ’25

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

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

Eden Teshome ’25 Aidan Phillips ’25

148TH MANAGING BOARD

Naisha Sylvestre ’25

upper management vol. cxlviii

director of outreach

Lia Opperman ’25

Accessibility

Tess Weinreich ’25

Lucia Wetherill ’25

creative director Mary Ma ’26

strategic initiative directors

Christopher Bao ’27

Education

Charlie Roth ’25

Financial Stipend

Elaine Huang ’25

Sections listed in alphabetical order.

public editor

Abigail Rabieh ’25

head archives editor

Raphaela Gold ’26

Kaylee Kasper ’26

Associate Archives editor

Elizabeth Clarke ’27

head audience editor Paige Walworth ’26

associate audience editors Zach Lee ’26

Amparo Sanchez ’27

head copy editors

Nathan Beck ’25

Bryan Zhang ’26

associate head copy editors

Lindsay Padaguan ’26

Elizabeth Polubinski ’25

head data editors Andrew Bosworth ’26

Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko ’26

head features editors

Sejal Goud ’25

Molly Taylor ’25

associate features editor

Raphaela Gold ’26

head graphics editors

Luiza Chevres ’26

Noreen Hosny ’25

head humor editors Spencer Bauman ’25

Sophia Varughese ’26

associate humor editors

Sam McComb ’25

Mya Koffie ’27

head news editors

Bridget O’Neill ’26

Annie Rupertus ’25

associate news editors

Julian Hartman-Sigall ’26

Olivia Sanchez ’26

Miriam Waldvogel ’26 (Investigations)

head newsletter editor

Kia Ghods ’27

associate newsletter editors Victoria Davies ’27 Sunney Gao ’27

head opinion editor Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26

community opinion editor Christofer Robles ’25

associate opinion editors Thomas Buckley ’26 Wynne Conger ’27

head photo editors

Louisa Gheorghita ’26 Jean Shin ’26

associate photo editor Calvin Grover ’27

head podcast editor Vitus Larrieu ’26

associate podcast editors

Senna Aldoubosh ’25

Theo Wells-Spackman ’25

head print design editors

Avi Chesler ’25

Malia Gaviola ’26

head prospect editor Isabella Dail ’26

associate prospect editors

Russell Fan ’26

Regina Roberts ’26

head puzzles editors

Sabrina Effron ’26

Joah Macosko ’25

associate puzzles editors

Wade Bednar ’26

Lindsay McBride ’27

head sports editors

Cole Keller ’26

Diego Uribe ’26

associate sports editors

Tate Hutchins ’27

Hayk Yengibaryan ’26

head web design and development

editors

Yacoub Kahkajian ’26

Vasila Mirshamsova ’26

148TH BUSINESS BOARD

assistant business manager

Jessica Funk ’26

business directors

Gabriel Gullett ’25

Andrew He ’26

Tejas Iyer ’26

Jordan Manela ’26

chief technology officer

Robert Mohan ’26 Kok Wei Pua ’25 My Ky Tran ’26

project managers Jason Ding ’25 Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26

148TH TECHNOLOGY BOARD

Roma Bhattacharjee ’25

lead software engineer

Sanh Nguyen ’26

software engineers

Anika Agarwal ’25

Carter Costic ’26 Jessica Dong ’25 Vishva Ilavelan ’27

“There needs to be a restructuring of Black student groups by its current leaders and ODUS.”

CONSOLIDATE

Continued from page 1

For similar reasons, we saw the creation of SAIP (Society of African Internationals at Princeton) to cater to a particular niche in the Black community: international students. We also have PEESA (Princeton Ethiopian Eritrean Society), PASA (African Students Association), PABW (Princeton Association of Black Women), PBMA (Princeton Black Men’s Association), PCC (Princeton Caribbean Connection), and PNSA (Princeton Nigerian Students Association).

These are just the affinity groups. There’s a separate constellation of professional organizations and extracurricular groups ranging from dance to medicine. This fragmentation of the Black Princeton population presents issues of inclusion that transcend the formal organizations into run-of-the-mill social dynamics.

My informal conversations with students and observations of these groups reveal the contours of this disunity. Consider generational African Americans, international students, and immigrants of differing generational status — first or second generation immigrants. This third category — which I refer to as non-generational AfricanAmericans — dominates Princeton’s Black population at 41 percent and are those who can clearly point to ancestry tied to lands on the African continent. Broadly, these are the three most represented groups of Black Princetonians.

In light of the current boundaries in Black student groups, non-generational African Americans and generational AfricanAmericans will not always attend each other’s events. International African students are probably the more isolated group, feeling minoritized and unrecognized by the mainstream Black popu-

lation. In a nationwide study, the group members report feeling intraracial microaggressions caused by gaping differences in culture, ethnicity, and upbringing. Among a number of Black subgroups on campus, there is a mutual perception of exclusivity.

Indeed, the Prince reported last year on this disunity when announcing an alumni gift establishing an endowment supporting Black student groups. One black student leader stated, “we aren’t fully connected … sometimes it feels as if we’re in competition with each other.”

Alumni supporters of Black student groups have expressed their hope for unity, too. One alum shared, “I know that there are 10, 15 Black groups … which is wonderful, to have specialization. But in the end, we need to all come together.”

There are exclusive aspects of Black student organizing that can be systematically improved.

I applaud positive steps towards cohesion like the recent collaboration between SAIP, PASA, and BSU to engage in activism for humanitarian disasters and political violence in the Congo. The question is: what changes can be made to the existing dynamics among Black student organizations to foster greater exchange?

The consortium model can serve to answer this question.

A consortium model is a model that collates similar organizations into a single body. To achieve this, there needs to be a restructuring of Black student groups by its current leaders and ODUS. The existing Black Student Union, with its endowment, strong organizational design, and established relationship with ODUS and alumni organizations, would morph into a formal umbrella organization. Princeton’s Black student affinity groups would fall under its auspices.

An informal consortium of Black student affinity groups already exists and attempts to coordinate events and correspond

with ODUS as a collective. However, a more radical and more formal centralization is necessary, accompanied by significant changes to the bureaucracy and governing structure of these groups. This would additionally resolve much of the confusion that exists as to the focus of each group. For instance, there is a question of whether PASA caters to the same group that BSU has in its mandate — the entire Black diaspora. This question and others could be resolved by this model.

The American Whig-Cliosophic Society serves as a living example of the success of the consortium model. It governs Model Congress, Mock Trial, Debate Panel, and the International Relations Council. IRC then sponsors the Model UN team and two premier conferences: the Princeton Model United Nations Conference for high schoolers and the Princeton Diplomatic Invitational for college students.

This model serves to bolster the financial and institutional power of Princeton’s political student groups as a powerful presence on campus. Black Princeton should adopt this vision. This centralization could even mean a bolstered relationship with the trustees that could enhance the quality of these organizations’ offerings, increase funding for initiatives, and streamline resource sharing and collaboration.

A specific and elaborate policy proposal is beyond the scope of an opinion piece and is better left to more seasoned Black student leaders. But at the end of the day, thinking about how to foster greater community in both everyday lives and organizational practices enhances the strength and flourishing of the Black Princeton community.

Contributing Columnist Luqmaan Bamba is a first-year from Ghana and New York. He can be contacted at luqmaanbamba[at]princeton.edu.

Li ’26

Liu ’27

Liu ’26

Liu ’27

Pham ’26

Phillips ’25

Rupertus ’26

Wang ’26

Yeow ’26 (UI/UX) Brett Zeligson ’24

THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Ethan Cheng ’27

Avi Chesler ’25

Maki Flauta ’27 Malia Gaviola ’26

AND COPIED BY

Bryan Zhang ’26

Evan Wilson ’27 Vivi Lu ’26

Allowing YAT candidates to campaign is essential to preserving Princeton’s values

Thomas Buckley Associate opinion editor

This year, 27 seniors declared their candidacy for Young Alumni Trustee (YAT). The high number of candidates is hardly a surprise: As members of the 40-person board of trustees, Young Alumni Trustees have significant influence over the University’s governance, budget, and $34 billion dollar endowment. There is no doubt that YAT is the most powerful position that an undergraduate can run for, making it no surprise that YAT attracts some of the best talent from across the Class of 2024 to run. Despite the interest from candidates, only 22 percent of students voted in last year’s election, though this was an increase from the year before. This stands in striking contrast to USG elections, which typically attract the participation of

Abigail Rabieh Public Editor

The following is a column from the public editor. If you have questions or concerns regarding the paper’s coverage and standards or would like to see her cover a particular issue, please contact publiceditor@dailyprincetonian.com.

Iwas featured on Daybreak, The Daily Princetonian’s daily podcast, last Wednesday, where I spoke about my recent column on marriage and feminism in elite female circles. The episode continued with coverage of local weather events as well as a short report on developments in America’s offshore wind energy infrastructure and the four Princeton graduate students selected to study related projects in New Jersey. The episode ended with a 60-second brief on an Israeli airstrike that killed seven humanitarian workers in Gaza the previous day. Why was a reporter for the ‘Prince’ discussing an international event that — while serious and impactful — did not involve the Princeton community?

As Princeton’s campus newspaper, the ‘Prince’ reports on matters that pertain to the Princeton community. The ‘Prince’ does not cover sports teams that don’t wear the orange and black — unless one of their members did — and it does not publish stories about campuses, counties, or cities that do not contain Princeton — unless a Princetonian is a major part of that news. Yet in the Podcast section, international events are regularly discussed without any direct connection to the Princeton community.

about 45 percent of students. The student body is apathetic about YAT elections — even more apathetic than it is in general.

This is likely partially because of the election’s rules: the candidates aren’t allowed to do any “issuebased campaigning.” But this undermines the democratic process. Voters have no idea what they’re voting for, so many end up just not voting. These restrictions also undermine Princeton’s own commitments as a University. Disallowing the YAT candidates from campaigning on issues abridges their freedom of speech and stifles campus discourse, issues that President Christopher Eisgruber and the University care a lot about in every other context — just not this one.

Throughout his tenure in Nassau Hall, President Eisgruber has staked his claim as one of the most prominent defenders of free speech on college campuses. In his state of the University letter, President Eisgruber wrote that “free speech and academic freedom are the lifeblood of any great university and

any healthy democracy.” He has lectured on free speech as a progressive ideal. He has written in defense of Princeton’s strong free speech protections. So why does the University hold a different standard for these elections?

In practice, the election rule forbidding candidates from campaigning means that they are prevented from making statements “to represent or advocate for a particular constituency, issue, or point of view.” This clearly abridges their right to speak. A candidate who is passionate about mental health, addressing the climate crisis, or any other issue is barred from discussing these issues during their campaign. It also abridges other students’ right to listen and develop an informed opinion: free speech is not important only to protect the rights of speakers, but also to protect those of listeners. Just as candidates need to be able to speak candidly about their passions, voters should be able to cast their vote based on their values rather than just vibes.

In its efforts to justify its policy, the University argues that Trustees can undermine the working of the board “if they are perceived as beholden to a position they took while campaigning.” But in reality, this is an antidemocratic excuse for an anti-democratic abridgement of free speech: trying to avoid being “beholden to… position[s] they took while campaigning” is trying to limit accountability. By implementing this rule, the University is trying to prevent disruption of the Board by effectively limiting the mandate of the YAT to opining broadly on the student perspective, rather than having specific suggestions with a voter mandate behind them. By curtailing the speech of candidates, members of the Class of 2024 are left with few resources to form their own opinions of candidates outside of name recognition and an odd ‘Prince’ endorsement. This effectively reduces a highly consequential election to a popularity contest. This climate that is hostile to discourse is inherently toxic to

Keep it under the Bubble

It is not the role of a campus newspaper to attempt to drive campus conversation on a select set of world issues by simply amplifying the reporting of others. If the ‘Prince’ wants to cover issues beyond the Orange Bubble, it must make clear to its audience why these issues belong in the paper. Otherwise, its journalistic standards regarding its editorial scope must be called into question.

According to the Podcast section’s style guide, episodes of Daybreak include four sections: an interview with a ‘Prince’ writer highlighting their recent article, a report on local news, a story which relates to national news, and the international news segment. It tells staffers that “the stories we curate for Daybreak should always have some tie back into Princeton,” encouraging them to research any non-Princeton news in order to find a way in which a campus community may be impacted.

Head Podcast Editor Vitus Larrieu notes that Daybreak is an opportunity for the ‘Prince’ to curate a report of digestible news items that are relevant to a Princeton student’s life, whether there is a direct connection to Princeton or not.

“Daybreak serves as a start to our listeners morning, allowing them to get highlights of important coverage from our newsroom, as well as other stories that seek to give listeners a broader perspective, outside of the Orange Bubble,” he said.

It should go without saying that there are many issues that take place in the wider world which impact on-campus lives and seeking to tell those stories is an admirable goal. However, the ‘Prince’ does not possess the expertise nor the authority to detail these events appropriately. Instead of disseminating infor-

mation in an original way, with original reporting or storytelling that makes clear to Princetonians why the news is relevant to their lives, the short format of the podcast only allows for a host to share international news at a reduced and less nuanced level than has been reported elsewhere.

This blatantly violates the policy to which all other sections are held: content published in The Daily Princetonian must be in some way related to the lives, struggles, or experiences of Princetonians themselves. Such is the essence of a campus paper — not aiming to replace other media organizations, but striving to serve a small community through investigating relevant issues and highlighting thought-provoking ideas. The mission statement of the ‘Prince’ confirms these goals, declaring that its aim is “to not only offer a window into Princeton life, but also to share the perspectives of those involved in that collective life,” to tell “Princeton’s story,” and to “shine a light on all aspects of Princeton.”

But the ‘Prince’ almost always fails to make an explicit tie back to circumstances at Princeton. Analyzing the international news segments on Daybreak, a connection to campus communities is made only 35 percent of the time. While this is an improvement from last semester, in which international news was never made explicitly relevant to students on-campus, this is still a problem: there has never been a week this semester in which Daybreak completely fulfilled the ‘Prince’ mission of publishing stories that are related in a direct and clear way to campus or the Princeton community.

Larrieu also noted that Daybreak is meant to provide listeners with the information they need to participate in informed conversations around campus.

“By providing students with

civic engagement — as evidenced by the anemic turnout in each year’s Young Alumni Trustee elections. Instead of aggressively curtailing candidates’ speech, the University should live up to its values and lift its strict ban on campaigning. Firstly, it should stop censoring candidate statements and allow candidates to share their priorities for the Board of Trustees with the electorate. In addition, it should host a debate and afford potential Trustees the chance to sway their fellow students. Students should have the opportunity to develop an informed opinion about the candidates. Anything less is a disservice to the Class of 2024 and to Princeton University.

Associate Opinion Editor Thomas Buckley is a sophomore from Colchester, Vt. majoring in SPIA. Exercise your free speech rights by contacting him at thomas.buckley[at]princeton.edu.

up-to-date information about national and world news events, we help Daybreak listeners understand the context of their day in the world and inspire the kinds of conversations that make Princeton so special,” he explained.

Yet, to accomplish these briefs, reporters simply become regurgitators: since the ‘Prince’ does not have the scale and resources to report on international conflicts, these Daybreak segments simply tell listeners the stories already published elsewhere and can struggle to paint the full picture.

For example, on Feb. 5, the Daybreak included a report that the United States had “launched a set of retaliatory strikes against targets in Iraq and Syria.” Though the episode noted the United States was responding to Americans killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, it also noted that the attacks would continue in Yemen and focus on “Houthi-affiliated targets.” This brief report leaves out significant background information and many relevant details: failing to explain the complex relationship between Iran, the Houthis, and the Iraqi militia which claimed responsibility for the attack and ignoring the Israel-Gaza war and subsequent reactions around the Middle East, which is why the initial attack was conducted in the first place.

This is the danger of covering big stories in a brief format — difficulties and intricacies are flattened in order to make the story fit in its minute-long time frame, at the expense of giving comprehensive and truthful coverage. Furthermore, by choosing to cover one piece of international news per day, the ‘Prince’ also chooses not to cover hundreds of other newsworthy international items. This could perhaps be justified if Daybreak included an explanation as to how their international story

was relevant to the lives of Princetonians. Except, of course, these connections are rarely made. Listeners are left to wonder why the ‘Prince’ has picked this particular story to tell and are not given the tools to understand how it can help shape their day-to-day context at Princeton. Thus, the reporting is biased by its very existence: without a clear reason for picking stories, the ‘Prince’ determines which global problem is most pressing in an unexamined — and therefore unethical — way. Small-scale newspapers should not and cannot seek to replace legacy media organizations: rather, they should focus their resources on the limited community they serve in order to serve it well. The ‘Prince’ is the paper of record at Princeton, and its mission is to uncover the news that matters to those involved in the Princeton community to help them lead better and more informed lives. When it tries to tell stories which do not fit into this scope nor the scope of its resources, it necessarily changes — and lowers — its journalistic standards.

Princeton has a diverse, wide, and influential community that is frequently relevant to, and more frequently affected by, news that takes place off-campus. But the desire to highlight these stories cannot come at the expense of the newspaper’s role in its community. If the ‘Prince’ wants to become not only the teller of Princeton’s stories, but the determinator of which other stories Princeton should be paying attention to, it must provide justification for the choices it makes.

Abigail Rabieh is a junior in the history department from Cambridge, Mass. She is the public editor at the ‘Prince’ and writes to address issues of journalistic quality and ethics.

Reactions: Who would you pick for Class Day speaker?

Eleanor Clemans-Cope, Wynne Conger, Preston Ferraiuolo, Davis Hobley, Alex Norbrook & Vincent Jiang

Head Opinion Editor, Associate Opinion Editors & Columnists

This year, the Class Day speaker is Sam Waterston, an actor from Law & Order. Last year, Terri Sewell ’86 was the Class Day speaker although she had also spoken two months before at an event jointly hosted by Whig-Clio and Princeton College Democrats. In recent years, highprofile scientists (Anthony Fauci, 2022), comedians (Trevor Noah, 2021), and politicians (Cory Booker, 2018), have been the Class Day speakers. As we near Class Day, we asked our columnists: Who would you choose as the Class Day speaker?

Shawn Fain’s fire is what we need right now

By Alex Norbrook

“Are you willing to have faith and move that mountain? Nobody’s coming to save us.” With these words, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain prepared a crowd of auto workers for what would become a six-week rolling strike against all of the Detroit Three automobile manufacturing corporations — Stellantis NV, Ford, and General Motors — in September last year. Amid an unprecedented summer for labor organizing, Shawn Fain stook out as a pugnacious and innovative strategist, harnessing social media and employing gutsy strategies to coordinate a strike unparalleled in size and ambition. Fain led the strike to safeguard auto workers from a precarious future in which automation will eliminate many of their jobs, corporations will reap record profits while refusing to raise their wages, and low-paying temporary work will only become more prevalent.

Auto workers will not be the only ones facing these challenges in the decades ahead. In fact, they define the world into which seniors will enter after graduation: one rife with job insecurity, sky-high economic inequality, and avaricious corporations. More than ever, they need advice from someone like Fain — someone who’s not afraid to stand up to capital to protect labor, someone who recognizes that collective action is the only way forward. If nobody’s coming to save us, we need to learn how to save ourselves. That’s where Fain can help.

Alex Norbrook is a sophomore in the history department and an Opinion columnist.

Kim Stanley Robinson can help us imagine a climate future that doesn’t burn

By Eleanor Clemans-Cope

As the Class of 2024 prepares for life beyond the Orange Bubble, we must collectively pause to consider the defining

crisis of our generation: the climate crisis. The urgency of the moment cannot be overstated, and the choices that we make in the coming years will determine how humanity will fare in our lifetime. The science is stark. To have a 50 percent chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world must achieve net zero emissions by 2035, a mere decade from now. To increase those odds to 66 percent and limit warming to two degrees Celsius, the world must reach net zero emissions by 2069 — by the time we see our first grandchildren. In order to set this in motion, we need to start acting now. As the lead United Nations climate negotiator said on April 10, we have “two years to save the world.”

Our Class Day speaker should be Kim Stanley Robinson, the visionary science fiction writer of novels such as “The Ministry for the Future” and “New York 2140” gives a vision of the possible futures we face — a call to action and a reminder that the decarbonization choices we make today will echo through centuries to come. He’s not a doomer — he writes about what could happen if we fail to decarbonize, but also the future we could achieve if we succeed. He imagines buildings retrofitted to stand stories deep in water, unconventional monetary policy to incentivize decarbonization that have inspired economic research, the conservation of wide swaths of every continent on a scale that dwarfs anything attempted in the United States. Robinson seems to have unlimited roadmaps and a hopeful vision of a world where humanity pulls itself back on track.

In the end, the choice of a Class Day speaker is about more than a single speech. It is about the stories we tell ourselves and the vision we have of our place in the sweep of the history of humanity. Facing the challenge of the climate crisis, and creating a world with more justice while we’re at it, is going to require vision and imagination. Let us invite a storyteller that speaks to this time of crisis.

Eleanor Clemans-Cope is a sophomore in the economics department and the head Opinion editor.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg P ’01: a technocratic reminder to be in the service of humanity

By Preston Ferraiulo

It’s hard to find a sector where former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has yet to kickstart a revolution: fintech, politics, philanthropy, health advocacy, environmentalism, and more. Bloomberg spearheads Bloomberg Philanthropies, which, besides earmarking over a billion dollars to shutter 70 percent of American coal plants and contributing billions towards climate, cultural, and health causes inter -

nationally, is a large financial supporter of Princeton. The organization funds the Emma Bloomberg ’01 Center for Access and Opportunity. Demonstrating his commitment to the University’s equity goals, Bloomberg’s gift helps the center “advocate for and support first-generation/lower-income (FLI) and other historically excluded student populations.” Bloomberg stands for the values of many Princetonians: excellence in business, the arts, environmentalism, and equity. His belief in common sense and unifying politics is perhaps most needed today. Although not without his controversies, Bloomberg ran New York City as a managerial technocrat — he wasn’t afraid to cross party lines to secure the necessary experts to deliver for New Yorkers. As young Americans, an Ipsos poll found that nearly 75 percent of our generation feels our political system is broken. Bloomberg harkens back to a style of government that seeks to deliver first and score partisan wins second, a welcomed premise during a time of increasing polarization both here on campus and beyond. His perspective will inform future leaders listening during Class Day, not just in politics, but in business, the arts, medicine, environmental sciences, and more. We need a reminder of the value of technocratic leadership guided by results, not optics. On Class Day, Princetonians celebrate what they’ve learned, and a speaker like Bloomberg will remind us to use our education in the service of humanity.

Preston Ferraiuolo is a sophomore from Brooklyn, New York, majoring in the School of Public and International Affairs. He is an assistant Opinion editor at the ‘Prince.’

“You’re On Your Own, Kid”

By Davis Hobley

Taylor Swift is having a moment. She has been having a moment for almost two decades, but recently, she just broke numerous charting and touring records that other artists don’t dream of touching.

Swift would be the prime candidate to be Princeton’s next Class Day speaker. Her journey as a woman in the music industry has been challenging, dynamic, and inspiring, especially considering the success which she was able to reach following targeted attacks by other celebrities and the media since the start of her rise to fame. As she continues her Eras Tour, which is the first tour to gross over $1 billion in history, and gears up to release her newest album, she has reached a point in her career in which she is reflecting on the past and looking toward a new and exciting future, embodying the concept of Class Day.

Davis Hobley is a columnist for the ‘Prince,’ and a member of the Class of 2027 who intends to major in Neuroscience. He hails from Rochester, Mich.

A joy on Class Day: Dr. Joy Buolamwini

By Wynne Conger

In a century of technological innovation, Dr. Joy Buolamwini is an emergent voice for advocacy and equal representation in the field of artificial intelligence. As the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL), best-selling author of “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines”, and frequent TED Talk commentator on racial and gender biases in computational technologies, Dr. Buolamwini has gone above and beyond in the fight against algorithmic injustice and discrimination. Outside of her work in social activism and urging for effective AI governance, she also serves as a contributing member on the Global Tech Panel of the European Union. For her research on inaccuracies in facial recognition technology, Forbes has recognized her as being among the youngest Top 50 Women In Tech internationally. In a new era of technological progress, Dr. Buolamwini’s work remains a salient reminder for how all Princetonians must regard social activism: both in the service of

humanity and in the pursuit of civic excellence. Her extensive efforts to advance equity, social calls for change, and distinction in the tech sector will inspire the Class of 2024 to similarly rise to action — both in their capacity as a new generation of leaders and in their capacity as global citizens.

Wynne Conger is a first-year and prospective SPIA major from Bryn Mawr, Pa. She is an associate Opinion editor and can be reached by email at wc2918[at] princeton.edu.

For a man who meets the moment, Retired General Mark A. Milley By Vincent Jiang

There is no better speaker for the moment than former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and SPIA’s newest professor, General (ret.) Mark A. Milley ’80. A member of the great Class of 1980 and a proud alumni of the Princeton politics department and the Princeton Army ROTC Program, General Milley has devoted himself to a lifetime in military service, rising to the role of the CJCS in 2018 — the highest-ranked military officer in the armed forces and the most important military advisor to the president.

In that role, General Milley was pivotal in shaping U.S. policy during key moments of crisis such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, as well as navigating the most sustained challenge to American civil-military relations since at least the relief of Douglas MacArthur in 1951. Never afraid to remind soldiers and civilian officials alike that they swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” his voice would be absolutely invaluable for a class of graduating seniors as they prepare for their own careers in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.

Vincent Jiang is a junior in the SPIA department and a contributing Opinion columnist.

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Rep. Terri Sewell ’86 was the speaker for the 2023 Class Day.

From Hotspot to TigerJunction, student developers build apps to improve campus life

By Valentina Moreno Assistant Features Editor

Any Princeton student that wishes to enter Tiger Inn on a Thursday or Saturday night must present the formidable bouncers with the secret password: their Hotspot QR code.

Hotspot, an app launched in the fall of 2022 by three Princeton students, Ayo Oguntula ’23, Dylan Porges ’23, and Marie Sirenko ’25, has quickly replaced the printed list system for entering parties several of the University’s eating clubs.

Hotspot is just one of several widely-used, student-developed apps that aim to improve campus life.

While Hotspot is focused on Princeton’s social scene, TigerJunction, built by Joshua Lau ‘26, has helped students to prepare their academic schedules for fall course selection — an important tool, as TigerHub has faced technical difficulties in the past.

While most campus-oriented apps are created in COS 333: Advanced Programming Techniques, Princeton’s web application development course, some students

pursue such projects independently of the course. Many of these apps are centralized through TigerApps, a student-run organization that maintains and supports student-developed web applications on campus.

The creators of both Hotspot and TigerJunction spent months developing their applications independently, looking to enhance the student experience through technology. The Daily Princetonian spoke with the developers of these applications to learn more about the development process, how they help students, and what the future holds for these digital mainstays of the Princeton experience.

Identifying a Need on Campus

In November 2021, juniors Oguntula and Porges were looking for a designer for the beta version of their startup, Hotspot, and a mutual friend directed them to Sirenko, who was, at that time, a first-year. Hotspot was created as a solution to the “inefficiencies of the eating club system,” Sirenko explained. Hotspot — not to be confused with the University’s gray devices used to validate student proxes,

which bear the same name — is a tool for managing guests for social events. If an eating club is hosting a party, it can add its members to the event and give them the same number of guest spots. Then, guests use the QR code on their invitation to gain access to the event.

“The social chairs [of eating clubs] would be using five different platforms, like sending a Google form to put guests on the list,” Sirenko said. “They would send an email to publicize it, text about it in the group media, and have people check paper lists at the door. If it was a ticketed event, they’d have to use a fully different platform. With Hotspot, you can do all of that in one place.”

Hotspot is designed to manage the sweet spot between large, ticketed events and small, friend group functions.

“There wasn’t really something in between that space, where it had the functionality that you need [for an event], but had more of a casual, friendly atmosphere,” Sirenko explained.

As a first-year, Lau, a self-taught programmer and ECE major, was frustrated with ReCal’s outdated features. With TigerJunction, he looked to integrate multiple TigerApps used for course selection into one app. Lau released the beta version in the fall of 2023 and debugged it during Wintersession of this year. It officially became a TigerApp in the beginning of the spring semester.

Lau’s improved version of ReCal contains advanced search features, allowing students to search by distribution requirements, by courses that don’t conflict with ones already selected, by levels, and by ratings from Princeton Courses.

“A new puzzle to solve every single time”: Tackling the challenges of software development

While the Hotspot team had a strong vision for the function of the app, the beta version didn’t work well. Sirenko and the two developers redesigned it from scratch.

“We didn’t even use the same code, we kind of took the same feature ideas but completely remapped it so that it’d be userfocused,” Sirenko said.

When they launched again a year later, in the fall of 2022, they enhanced the app to include social features, allowing users to see what events their friends are attending or have attended. The app also has built-in privacy, hiding the activity of users that aren’t mutual friends.

As the designer, Sirenko was responsible for doing product research, communicating with users to determine their needs, and designing features in the app to fit those needs. Once she conceptualized what the app would look like, she created sketches and then mockups on Adobe XD.

Sirenko, currently studying neuroscience and art, applied the intersections of consumer behav-

ior and art to her designs.

“In connection to my academic background, I love to see the ways that you can apply principles like behavior and decision-making to a call to action in order to make apps very intuitive and humancentered,” Sirenko said.

After Sirenko completed her designs, the developers looked at a particular design feature, like buttons, and implemented the visual elements like the font color, height, width, and shadow effect.

Johnny Ramirez ’26, one of the group’s two front-end developers, explains he loves working on the static features of the app, while others, like animation, are more difficult for him from a technical standpoint.

“It’s been really cool working on the story feature,” Ramirez said. “After you go to a party, you can post pictures and upload them and see all your friends’ pictures. It was really funny because when we were testing it, [the team] took horrible selfies and we could see each other.”

Hotspot team members also use their own product to access the social scene on campus, informing their work on the application.

“I think we’ve benefited that everyone who works on the app uses it. It’s a living thing,” Ramirez noted. “It’s helpful because if anything pops up, either a friend or one of us will point it out and we can address it pretty quickly.”

Ramirez taught himself React Native, the framework used for the app, in high school. He also previously developed the mobile app for The Daily Princetonian, his first project.

“After [the ‘Prince’ app], I felt pretty confident in my skills, so I had a smooth transition into Hotspot,” Ramirez said.

Some of the features the team improved, for instance, were the placement of the QR code and event information. Initially, accessing the QR code at the door was a three-step process, making it confusing and time-consuming for users. Additionally, the team made the event information visible immediately after users open the app.

For Lau, creating Hotspot took three completely new attempts from scratch.

“The first attempt was my first attempt at making large-scale software, but it was a terrible mess. The second attempt was a little bit better, but then I decided to do it from scratch again. I arguably could have fixed it up and built on top of it, but in software development you can always restart wherever you are, because you never have a perfect code base. You have to just choose a moment where it’s good enough to build more advanced features on top of it,” Lau said. The product of Lau’s process, TigerJunction is the “ugly duckling of the TigerApps,” he said. It is the only TigerApp that uses Svelte as a framework, and the only one that did not begin as a COS 333 project.

“Most of the other apps coming

out of COS 333 are a lot more selfcontained,” Lau said. “They’re constrained by the class [timeframe], which does not allow students to take bigger risks,” Lau explained. “I initially planned to get this out in two months, but it’s been nine months [as of April 2024], and it’s still developing.”

Lau said the process of coding is starkly different from what most people envision.

“It’s a very iterative experience, going back and forth between coding and planning,” Lau noted. “You watch a hacker movie, and they’re sitting there going like, ‘I’m in’, you know, but that’s like 10 percent of the work — 90 percent is planning.”

While Lau had an ambitious vision for TigerJunction before beginning to program it, he radically changed his initial plans in the current version of the app.

“I drew out this giant diagram with everything it was going to be. Fifty percent of things have changed, 50 percent have stayed the same,” Lau said. “It’s always changing.”

During the seven or so months it took him to create and launch the app, Lau’s progress was nonlinear.

“Exams and losing motivation get in the way. In reality, its plan, execute, ‘oh no, there’s a bug, I’ll save that for later,’ let’s do the next feature because that’s more exciting than debugging,” Lau said. Since its launch, Lau has run into several roadblocks, which has forced him to always be vigilant over the app, especially during the add/drop period.

“I want to sincerely apologize to anyone who used the app during winter break, because you prob -

ably ran into one of the million issues at the time,” Lau joked. “But there was this thing where if you went into the application, and you had zero things in your schedule, it would just crash, which is bad because any new user immediately starts with zero.”

While debugging can be frustrating, Lau invites the challenge.

“[Debugging] is kind of like a new puzzle to solve every single time. It’s not like a p-set where you submit the solution, and if it’s wrong, you get zero points. If I can see it doesn’t work, I can try something different,” Lau explained.

Aside from TigerJunction, Lau is a developer for the TigerApps team, helping to onboard new apps which entails transferring databases, changing the hosting infrastructure, communicating with USG for any necessary funding, and fixing bugs. However, because TigerJunction was created entirely by Lau and is constantly in development he has maintained ownership over it, despite its status as a TigerApp.

“Pretty much like if I disappeared off the face of the earth today, no one can maintain it,” Lau said. “Like, it would just crash and burn at some point, probably during add/drop.

Looking ahead

Ramirez does not use Hotspot for his own eating club, Cottage Club. Beyond TI and Ivy, Ramirez says Princeton’s eating clubs have been slow to change their technologies.

“They have a lot of concern for what kind of features they would want to add,” Ramirez said, “but they’re also very hesitant to intro -

duce new technology when they already have a working system.”

Adding another eating club would not dramatically change the Hotspot’s business anyway, because many students on campus already use Hotspot. Instead, the team is prioritizing expanding to other campuses.

A year and a half after its launch, the application has grown to 9,000 users across 5 campuses. Most recently, Hotspot has added a ticketing feature the team launched for ticketed events at Yale and UCLA.

In the future, the team hopes to encourage more activity within smaller groups than eating clubs, like friend groups.

“We’ve had birthdays, but would love it if people hosted like a little movie night. We did a big revamp this summer in terms of the social features and have been seeing more of that [activity] so that’s something I’m excited about,” Sirenko explained. “Our main goal is to make Hotspot a place where people can spontaneously connect with their friends and do more fun things that they wouldn’t have done otherwise.”

When he’s not managing other students’ apps, Lau is working on improving and expanding TigerJunction. His next addition will be CourseGenie, which he plans to emulate TigerPath, a four-year course planner, but still integrated with Recal+. His ultimate goal is for TigerJunction to incorporate all TigerApps for course selection into one multifaceted tool, allowing students to view course evaluations, make multi-year plans, and set up notifications for open spots in full courses.

Lau plans to expand the features

of existing TigerApps, like TigerPath, in CourseGenie, allowing students to select multiple majors, as well as certificates and minors, to chart their progress and different potential paths. The app will feature a big table view, an easier way to search for classes, including information like distribution requirements, their rating, and how likely it is to fill. He also hopes this next stage of TigerJunction will be able to incorporate prerequisites to advise students on classes as a supplement to academic advisers, potentially integrating ChatGPT in some capacity.

“It won’t be good as an adviser who has knowledge in their field of expertise, but it will provide a different insight,” Lau said. “No adviser has actually read through the description of all 1400 courses across time and every single review they have.”

After dedicating 150 hours to coding TigerJunction, Lau is enthusiastic about coding for its potential to create solutions to problems he sees in the real world. On campus, that means providing students with a resource to support the development of their academic careers.

“I fundamentally don’t love to code,” Lau notes. “I love to make things. Software engineering is the easiest way to create a solution to a problem. You have the power to see a creation you want to see exist, no matter how stupid or big the idea is.”

Valentina Moreno is an assistant Features editor for the ‘Prince.’

This Week in Photos

Solar eclipse at Princeton

By Veena Krishnaraj,

Ryland Graham, Rodolfo Arzaga & Mary Christian McCoy Staff Photographer, Assistant Photo Editor & Contributing Photographers

RYLAND GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

An eclipse viewing held in the Whitman courtyard.

RUDY ARZAGA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Prominent University administrators also gathered to watch the eclipse in front of Nassau Hall.

VEENA KRISHNARAJ / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Students, residents, and visitors filled Palmer Square for the eclipse viewing.

VEENA KRISHNARAJ / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Astrophysical Sciences Department, the Council on Science and Technology, and the Office of Science Outreach provided solar eclipse glasses at Palmer Square.

RYLAND GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Students watched the eclipse in front of New South.

the PROSPECT. ARTS & CULTURE

The Spring Street Mural: Inspiring the Princeton community through public art

By Regina Roberts | Associate Prospect Editor

Located on the back of the store Village Silver, the once blank wall on Spring Street has become a canvas. The Spring Street Mural, coordinated by the Arts Council of Princeton (ACP), has displayed original art to the town of Princeton since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the summer of 2020. As a part of the ACP’s public art initiative, the blank space was first painted to both promote the community and beautify the area — its first mural was titled “Stronger Together.”

The idea for a mural on Spring Street originated with Maria Evans, the Artistic Director for the ACP, and Melissa Kuscin, the Program/ Marketing Manager. During the start of the pandemic, Kuscin and Evans were walking around town and noticed that the streets were unusually quiet. They knew that they wanted to utilize art to uplift the community but were not certain of a location until they found a blank wall in the middle of town.

“I saw that wall that is on the side of Village Silver on Spring Street, and I texted a picture to Maria,” Kuscin said. “It was a text between the two of us that was just like, ‘we need to do something.’ That’s where it all started.”

The Spring Street Mural’s rotation of artwork — with a new mural about every three months — sets it apart from other public art sponsored by the ACP. Since the idea was pitched as a rotating mural, artists do not paint their murals directly onto the building, but instead paint on a canvas that was built specifically for the project to facilitate painting new murals over old ones. ACP Executive Director Adam Welch believes that the mural rotation helps residents stay engaged with the artwork.

“When you first see something, you have an experience with it that is outside of the everyday, and it might slowly age and become less impactful,” he said. Therefore, the artwork

on the murals is designed to be topical, either featuring messages or pictures that relate to a theme. During election season in 2020, the ACP did “a vote mural, which was a lot of people’s favorites, because it was just right in your face, like a sign of the times,” said Kuscin.

Through the artist rotation, the ACP can also support more local artists. In the beginning stages of the project, the first few murals were made by the ACP mural team. Now, the ACP has created an open call on their website for artists to submit mural proposals. They primarily look for submissions from local or tri-state area artists. The ACP aims to provide spaces where local artists can showcase their work, especially since the Princeton area does not have as many galleries as major cities like New York or Philadelphia. “We want to make sure that the artists that are here get as much access as possible to those sorts of opportunities,” Welch said.

Since its first piece in July 2020, there have been ten different murals featured. Currently, “Blooming” by Amilli Onair, a Franco-American artist, is on display. The mural depicts two women with flowers facing each other. Onair’s artwork often features women and flowers, and the idea of two women facing each other is reflective of the Princeton community. “It feels really meant to be that [Princeton] would be the place where the two women were facing each other because I really do feel like within the community, you don’t ever do things by yourself,” she said.

The flowers on the mural are all from places Onair has lived, but she also points out that the variety of florals signify the diversity within the Princeton community. “I like to make things that go beyond the like, ‘Where are you from?’ ‘What do you do?’ It’s like, I’m from all these different places, I can take up all of this space, I can work with all of the people

COURTESY OF THE ARTS COUNCIL OF PRINCETON

“Stronger Together” was the first mural on Spring Street in July 2020. Its message was intended to uplift the Princeton community during the lockdowns.

around me that are from different places,” she said.

Onair applied for the mural through the ACP’s open call for artists. While she has painted in both New York and California, community murals are her favorite kind of work. “You can kind of tell that it’s something that the community really appreciates,” she said. After being accepted in mid February, Onair worked on a few iterations of the design then came to Princeton to paint the mural for two days before it was completed.

The Spring Street Mural is just one of the public art projects that the ACP oversees. Since its inception, finding places for public art has become even more important to the ACP in order to increase accessibility. “Public art just demolishes every barrier to entry. It is for the people, by the people,” said Kuscin. Even though the Arts Council building features a curated collection of art, the ACP believes that it is necessary to create art that intersects with community members’ daily lives. They emphasize that art does not need to be understood to be enjoyed.

Welch says that more ACP public art is underway with plans for a mural at the new Avalon Bay apartment complex and a totem pole supported by the National Endowment of the Arts that will be at an indoor location.

Four years since its first iteration, the Spring Street Mural continues to be a Princeton staple, with each new artist helping to uplift the community. Onair sees the impact of her work first hand. While finishing “Blooming” she was approached by a resident who she recalled saying, “I just want to let you know that I just had a really hard day, and I really needed to see this.”

Regina Roberts is an associate editor for The Prospect and contributing staffer for the Podcast section of the ‘Prince.’ She can be reached at rr8156[at]princeton.edu, or on Instagram @regina_r17.

Coffee Club’s pour-over review: the tastiest cup of coffee in Princeton

By Lulu Pettit | Prospect Contributor

On Sunday, April 7, the New College West Coffee Club began offering a drink deviating from their other offerings: pour-over coffee. The drink, available exclusively as a hot 12-ounce cup, uses a freshly-ground Ethiopian bean. It’s also the manifestation of a dream by Coffee Club’s Director of Coffee Education, Ned Dockery ’25.

To understand both the process of adding the new drink to the menu and the steps required to make it, I spoke to both Dockery and Katie Greppin ’26, a Head Barista at Coffee Club. Dockery explained that he wanted to expand beyond espresso drinks.

Saying that espresso “is just one way of brewing coffee,” Dockery “wanted to show people that there is this different method of brewing coffee.”

To make their pour-over, Coffee Club utilizes an alternative process from what they usually do to make their drinks. They heat water to a near-boiling point and measure out the exact amount of coffee beans they want. They then use an “immersion brew,” where the coarsely ground beans sit motionlessly in the hot water. Afterward, Coffee Club allows the water to run through the coffee grounds to brew the coffee in a percolation method, resulting in a single-dose cup.

Greppin affirmed that the process of adding the drink to the menu was largely attributed to Dockery, who ran a session teaching the Head Baristas the new method of brewing. Following this, the Head Baristas then assisted in training the rest of the Coffee Club employees.

I had the pleasure of trying the new pour-over drink this week, and it might just be the best cup of coffee in Princeton. Because of the unique pour-over process, there’s a slightly longer wait time than your typical coffee — you won’t be able to grab a quick drink and speed to your first class of the day. But if you take the time to sit down, maybe eat some breakfast while you wait, you will have fruity, delicious coffee in about eight minutes.

Upon first sipping the new drink, I was struck by its unusual sweetness. As a black coffee lover, I have come to expect a bitter aftertaste, but there was no bitterness to be found in Coffee Club’s new pour-over. The flavor was strong and rich with an intense fruitiness. Dockery explained that the fruitiness comes partly from the bean’s Ethiopian origin but also from a natural fermentation process, which involves letting the cherry encase the bean while it dries after being picked. The result was an almost tangy cup of coffee, flavorful

enough to be enjoyed thoroughly with or without milk and sweeteners.

At $4.25, the Coffee Club’s pour-over is certainly not cheap for a standard cup of coffee, but it is worth the money.

If the pour-over drink is commercially successful at the NCW location, Dockery noted that Coffee Club is hopeful to extend the item to their other location at Campus Club. He said that this specific drink is special because “for people who have only tried coffee… in the form of a latte or just typical black coffee that you get at the office … [pour-over] can really introduce [them] to the wide open world of what coffee can really be.”

Greppin echoed that opinion, stating that the pourover is worth the wait because it’s “an individualized cup of coffee … we make it to order for you right then and there.” So whether or not you consider yourself a coffee person, if you have a few extra minutes in your morning, take your breakfast in Yeh, or are willing or to head down to the new colleges give the pour-over a try. Its sweet, robust flavor might just surprise you.

Lulu Pettit is a contributing writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince’ who enjoys writing about food, movies, and local businesses.

Más Flow showcases legendary performance with ‘Leyendas’

By Natalia Diaz | Prospect Contributor

The Más Flow Dance Company honored legends of Latin music with their spring show “Leyendas,” which ran from April 11 through April 13 in Frist Theater. In the spirit of legends, the show presented its audience with stories and histories of the various music and dance styles that celebrate a valuable part of Latin culture.

Filler videos between performances also joined the storyline. The first video portrayed a group of students embarking on the strenuous journey to Princeton Record Exchange, after they lose internet connection. At the record store, they share various encounters with “customers” and “employees” who introduce them to different styles of Latin music. After each music style was introduced in a video, along with some anecdotes about its origins and social impacts, a piece mirroring that style was performed. The videos’ creative touches engaged the audience through comedic elements, with the sonorous laughter throughout the theater indicating that they were well received.

Dancers took the stage for the opening number, “Café y Orquídea,” an incredible piece that combined both cumbia and Mapalé styles. The dancers were costumed in long, flowy red skirts that were used to create movement during the piece. While Más Flow has often done popular bachata, salsa, and reggaeton styles of dance, they have tried to branch out in recent years to incorporate other culturally significant dances from across Latin America.

Publicity Chair Olivia Hoppe-Spink ’26 noted that the dance was a new experience, and told The Daily Princetonian that she had “never done something like that before.” The piece was also striking from the audience’s perspective. The dancers used their costumes as an accent to their remarkable skills, creating a beautiful exhibition on stage.

A particularly extraordinary part of the performance was when performer Sofia Sanchez ’27 was lifted and turned completely upside down by a fellow dancer. The amazingly impressive feat created anticipation throughout the audience as she was sustained in the air for an extended period of time. As the dance continued, Sanchez was once again

lifted by other dancers and swung through the air, adding to the movement and fluidity previously created with the motion of the skirts. The piece was very invigorating and enjoyable to watch.

Sanchez is an associate Audience editor for the ‘Prince.’

The night continued with an entertaining variety of dance styles, including tango, salsa, Brazilian funk, reggaeton, Duranguense, samba, milonga, merengue, flamenco, bachata and even hints of bellydance. I really enjoyed the Duranguense piece, titled “Las Chicas de Princeton.”

The dance was complete with colorful cowboy hats

and boots, which added to the amusement and light-hearted spirit. Additionally, “Dinámicas,” “Nos Vemos En La Calle,” and “Los MF Farolitos,” were incredibly fun pieces. In addition to the exceptional skills displayed by the performers, the expressions and lively attitudes of the dancers added to the energetic atmosphere of the stage, which extended to the audience.

High-spirited cheers, whistles, and laughs from the audience left me with no doubt of Más Flow’s impact. The dance community is clearly very strong and their bond only made the performance even stronger.

Hoppe-Spink said, “We call ourselves ‘La Familia,’ it really truly is like a family.” It was a pleasure to be a part of this family’s traditions. In telling us the “leyendas” that contributed to Latin American music and dance, Más Flow created their own legend, one that will continue for generations of students to come.

Natalia Diaz is a member of the Class of 2027 and a contributing writer for The Prospect. She can be reached at nd6595[at]princeton.edu.

From p-sets to papers: a reflection on my path to Declaration Day

On March 31, 2024, my friend and I realized that we had not officially declared our majors on TigerHub. We headed back to their room and settled into the cozy common room. It was incredibly anticlimatic as we both had expected a confetti graphic to appear. They were officially neuroscience, and I was officially English. While their

academic plans had slightly shifted, declaring neuroscience had been their plan for a long time, whereas we both knew what declaring English had meant for me.

While the declaration process was simple and straightforward, my path to declaring English was anything but. I applied to Princeton for chemistry and I spent my first three semesters completing the prerequisites. Adjusting to college and Princeton was

difficult as a first-generation, lowincome student, but I told myself that it was supposed to be hard, and that I would thank myself later. I was miserable in most of my STEM classes and struggled with belonging. I finished my first year exhausted and ready to do anything but chemistry during break. I spent the summer in Tallinn, Estonia for eight weeks, studying Russian through Princeton. While I was excited to return to Princeton and see my friends again, I dreaded the p-set packed schedule and anxiety-inducing semester. My sophomore fall semester was one of my worst semesters. I had friends and different communities on campus that I had lacked the year before, but I was completely burnt out and often too exhausted to even see them. In addition to my incredibly low energy levels, my anxiety levels were also the highest that they had ever been. Nothing was helping. One night, when neither my medication nor grounding techniques were calming a massive anxiety attack, I called my parents and asked them to take me home. Once we were home, my parents sat me down and expressed their concerns for my health. I remember my mom telling me that Princeton was like a toxic boyfriend to me, and that I should reconsider how I was spending my time here. That night, I realized that

something had to change.

I knew that a small part of me had always wanted to study literature, but I had convinced myself that I would never be able to get a job with a humanities degree. I was also deterred by shame. I was worried that my friends and my peers would view me as a failure, as someone who wasn’t smart enough to be a STEM student. There is, undeniably, a widely spread bias that surrounds the humanities. I also felt that I was letting down other women in STEM. It took many conversations with friends to realize that irrational fears were holding me back from what I genuinely wanted to do. This semester I was able to take classes that I wanted to take for the first time. My interest reflected in my class attendance and the effort I put in my work. Next semester, instead of battling through p-sets, I’m excited to become engrossed in a novel in a class like 19th Century Fiction and have a sense of belonging and joy in my academic experience.

Donaji Mendieta-Silva (she/they) is a member of the Class of 2026 and is a contributing writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’ They can be reached at dm4466[at]princeton.edu or on Instagram @donaji_ms.

NATALIA DIAZ / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN Más Flow dancers in billowing skirts perform on stage.

By Donaji Mendieta-Silva |

Contributor

The Prospect 11 Weekly Event Roundup

By Sam Dorsey, Prospect Contributor

Apertures: New Dance Works

by Mei Geller and Jasmine Rivers

April 18–20 at 8:30 p.m.

Hearst Dance Theater at Lewis Arts complex

Two new dance performances by seniors Mei Geller ’24 and Jasmine Rivers ’24 “question ideas of (in)visibility and imagine alternative openings beyond dichotomous structures of control” and “explore the interstitial crossroads of multiple identities and ideas,” according to the Lewis Center for the Arts. Geller’s “please don’t touch” centers on the tensions inherent in daily existence, while Rivers’ “both/and…” touches on aspects of multiraciality. This event is free and open to the public, and tickets are required.

1 2 3 4

5

Film Screening: ExShaman

April 18 at 7 p.m.

Princeton Garden Theatre

Directed by Luiz Bolognesi, this film follows a Christianized former Shaman seeking to revitalize his community after making contact with Brazilian authorities in 1969. The film will be introduced by Carlos Fausto, Princeton Global Scholar and Professor of Anthropology at Brazil’s Museu Nacional. This event is free and open to the public, and tickets can be acquired on the Princeton Garden Theatre’s website.

8

Mo‘o: Exhibition

by Kapili Naehu-Ramos

April 15–26 from 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Hurley Gallery at Lewis Arts complex

This senior exhibition by Kapili Naehu-Ramos ’24 in the Department of Art and Archaeology features fabrics, weaving, and poetry that come together to showcase Hawaiian stories and genealogy, all revering the feminine. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Princeton Annual Drag Brunch

April 20 at 2 p.m.

Frist MPR

Princeton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) is hosting its annual drag brunch featuring drag performer Monét X Change, a veteran of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. The event will feature further perfor- mances by Princeton students with music by DJ Mikey Mo. This event is free and open to members of the University community, though registration required.

So Soft You Can Barely Feel the Seams: Exhibition

by Emma Mohrmann

April 22–May 3 from 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

Lucas Gallery, 185 Nassau St.

Emma Mohrmann ’24 in the Department of Art and Archaeology presents her senior exhibition that in- terrogates the dual nature of seams: where two pieces can be torn apart or different pieces can be brought together. The exhibition uses Mohrmann’s hometown, St. Louis, Mo., to trace memory through the city and bodily skin, exploring “the tension between comfort and constriction, permanence and impermanence, and process and progress” according to the Lewis Center for the Arts website. This exhibition is free and open to the public.

6

Cultural Policy in the 21st Century: A Conversation with Rima Abdul Malak, Former French Minister of Culture

April 19 from 4:45–6 p.m.

Wallace Theater at Lewis Arts Complex

Sophie Meunier in the School of Public and International Affairs, Florent Masse in the Department of Italian and French, and Rima Abdul Malak, French Minister of Culture from 2022-2024, will hold a conversation on cultural policy in the 21st century. This event is free and open to the public and will be conducted in English.

The Walter L. Nollner Memorial Concert: Dream of Gerontius

April 19–20 from 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium

This performance by the Princeton University Orchestra with the Glee Club features Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, a story of a devout man’s soul and his journey through death. Gabriel Crouch directs the Glee Club and Michael Pratt directs the University Orchestra, featuring soloists Anthony Dean Griffey, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen ’15, and Andrew Foster Williams. This event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased on the University Ticketing website.

Near Eastern Studies Festival

April 18 from 4–8 p.m.

Frist Campus Center South Lawn

This cultural and arts festival sponsored by the University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies will feature Middle Eastern arts, crafts, food, music, and dancing. This event will feature a Tatreez (Palestinian embroidery) practitioner, a henna artist, performing artists, and educators. This event is free and open to members of the University community.

7 A Basement in Cleveland Ohio: Exhibition by Princeton Juniors

April 8–19, weekdays from 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

Lucas Gallery, 185 Nassau St.

“An exhibition of recent work by junior students pursuing a minor in the Program in Visual Arts and Practice of Art majors in the Department of Art & Ar- chaeology” according to the Lewis Center for the Arts. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

“Anxiety, Depression, and Music”

April 24 from 7:30–9 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium

This iteration of the Healing with Music series brings together pianist Jonathan Biss and Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Adam Haslett for a conversation and live performance focus- ing on anxiety, depression, and music. The performance will feature piano works by Schubert and Schumann and readings from Haslett’s novel Imagine Me Gone. This event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased on the University Ticketing website.

Campus Collections Outdoor Walking Tour: Residential Colleges Neighborhood

April 20 at 2 p.m.

Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals

A guided walking tour of Princeton University’s campus artwork led by a Princeton Art Museum guide explores different modern art pieces on campus. The tour will highlight works by Sol LeWitt and Maya Lin. Tours also include information on the designs, techniques, and materials that compose these artworks. The event is free and open to the public.

CLUB SPORTS

Club sports struggle to make ends meet with limited budget

By Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko Sports Contributor

“In my day, at the first Ivy League tournament, the team captain rented a U-Haul truck, and we put mattresses in the back of the truck. And the three officers sat in the cab of the truck, and the rest of us sat in the back … we slept in an ice hockey rink,” Stu Rickerson ’71, founding chair of the Princeton University Rugby Football Club (PURFC) Endowment recounted.

But fortunes have changed for the club that was founded in 1876. Today, the men’s and women’s rugby teams are supported by an endowment managed by the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), the same entity that manages the University’s multi-billion-dollar endowment. This spring, the team used these financial resources to travel across the Atlantic to Paris for their 2024 tour.

Yet, not all club sports, or sport clubs, have been as lucky. Nika Belova ’24, president of club tennis, noted that her team has to “decline any invitations that aren’t drivable,” while Jack Lichtenberger ’25, president of the club men’s soccer team, said that men’s soccer had to turn down a tournament at Rutgers recently, because “we don’t have the money to pay for refs.”

Across interviews with club sport captains, Sport Club Executive Council members, and Campus Recreation officials, The Daily Princetonian found that while club sports expenses have risen and more clubs have applied for Campus Recreation funding, the overall club sports budget has remained constant. Budget constraints for club sports teams have resulted in repeated funding issues, with some students reporting hundreds of dollars in out of pocket expenses to make up the difference.

Funding for club sports comes from Princeton Athletics, and funding deficiencies for sport clubs are not a new phenomenon.

Club sports fill out a budget request each spring to be submitted to Campus Recreation, who then decides how much of the request to fill. If clubs qualify for a national tournament, they are also able to apply for additional championship funding to help fund associated costs, such as travel, hotel, and entry fees. Sport clubs are expected to fundraise at least one-third of their Campus Rec budget to supplement income, raising money through a number of different methods: from working concession stands at varsity athletics games to receiving alumni donations.

For the first year after their inception, sport clubs maintain a probationary status, meaning that they do not re-

ceive any funding from Campus Rec.

As the directors of sport clubs, Evan Najimian and Ro Ramirez oversee the funding and operations of all 39 sport clubs, as well as summer camps and women’s varsity rugby. According to Ramirez and Najimian, Campus Rec works with an annual budget of roughly $125,000 to be allocated to all 39 sport clubs, or just over $3,200 per club on average.

“We work with a pretty hard number,” Najimian said. This fixed budget means that the addition of new sport clubs, or a budget increase for a club, necessitates a decrease in funding for other sports teams.

The tight budget for sport club operations is also the reason that sport clubs have a yearlong probationary period. “It’s for us to protect our established clubs,” Ramirez said. “If we have, let’s say, five clubs come in the first year, and they’re all getting money, they’re pulling from those established clubs.”

When funding runs dry

In April 2021, Lara Katz ’24 founded Princeton’s Club Curling team — a team she had been trying to start since before arriving at Princeton.

The team has come in second place at the College Curling National Championship two years running. Their success has been featured on both Princeton and Campus Rec’s social media.

Over her time in the club, however, Katz has had to pay several hundred dollars out of pocket to fund the club’s operations, just a microcosm of the funding shortage hamstringing almost all of the club sports teams.

In order to fund the club’s activities, including tournament travel and entry, the curling club turned to alternative funding methods. They began hosting fundraisers, teaching groups how to curl using their allotted ice rink time.

Last semester, the team’s ice time switched from Sunday afternoons to 11 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“I was the only person that was not in class during that time,” Katz said. “I could not teach people to play the game.”

They charged dues, signed up to work athletics events, and cut costs by sleeping in dorms instead of getting hotels.

Travel expenses began to accumulate when the University’s Risk Management department implemented a policy this year that undergraduates were not allowed to use personal vehicles to get to practices or events. This policy was implemented after teams had submitted their budget requests for the year. For curling, a team that had previously relied on using team members’ vehicles to cut costs, this meant they

had to rent vehicles without adequate funding. “That [threw] our budgeting out the window,” Katz said.

Other teams have taken issue with the change. Kaylee Kasper ’26, the Club Archery treasurer, said that she views the policy as a “big problem” with respect to club archery because the team has to pay “a good amount” to rent cars and “that limits your membership.”

Kasper is a head Archives editor for the ‘Prince.’

With their fundraisers gone and unexpected expenses, Club Curling has shouldered their financial difficulties. This spring, Katz ended up having to pay $508 out of pocket for a hotel room that was not reimbursed by Campus Recreation. The hotel room was needed for the team to attend a tournament that they hosted as a fundraiser.

Najimian cited curling’s lack of financial stability — particularly their indebted state — as the reason for Katz’s hotel reimbursement being denied.

“We can’t reimburse any money if there’s no money to be reimbursed from. We don’t want clubs to go further and further into debt,” he said.

The “limited pot”

Jack Lichtenberger is no stranger to club sports’ finances. As the president of the men’s club soccer team and member of the Sport Club Executive Council, he approves sport club funding requests and the development of new sport club teams.

Sport clubs attending national championships used to receive more funding as fewer teams applied for financial resources, but while more sport club teams apply for championship financing, the funding available for teams has remained constant.

Until a few years ago, many clubs “[didn’t] know that they [could] apply for championship funding,” Lichtenberger said. “There [was] no incentive for students to tell other students ‘Oh, you should apply for this,’ because then there’s less money, right?”

More teams have learned about the opportunity for championship funding as of late due to encouragement from Campus Rec. Ramirez noted, “I would certainly say that one of my missions this year coming in was to increase visibility and transparency on what funding is available to students.”

“It’s a double edged sword in the sense that we want to increase the visibility and the knowledge, but the more teams that apply, the less funding we have for that to be spread across,” he continued.

According to Lichtenberger, the Sport Club Executive Council has a “limited pot” to fund sport club championships. “It’s $12,500,” he clarified. Given the

number of sport clubs applying for championship funding, “we’re starting to get to a place where it looks like we might only be able to give each team $500.”

Curling, however, received $1,800 to attend their national championships this spring.

According to Lichtenberger, the unusually high amount awarded relative to other clubs was to alleviate the financial difficulties they had faced.

“Their three bank accounts collectively were at like negative $2,500,” Lichtenberger said. “We can only give them so much money. We did as much as we could.”

“At the end of the day, some of that cost is still going to come out of their pockets and that’s … not how the system should work,” he said.

Even after the probationary period ends, newer sport clubs still often suffer from a lack of financial stability, according to Sydney Johnson ’24. Johnson serves as president of women’s club volleyball and a member of the Sport Club Executive Council with Lichtenberger. “New clubs are always needing support,” she said.

When asked if certain groups are especially affected by funding issues, Johnson named the curling club, saying that “curling is a pretty expensive sport,” and that part of their financial distress stems from their young age, adding that “they’re just getting their budget.”

In addition, Johnson and Najimian each cited inflation as heightening the costs associated with sports equipment, because the total amount of funding for sport club teams has remained the same over the past few years despite costs rising.

Funding issues are not unique to club curling.

Reema Choueiri ’25, one of the presidents of the women’s club basketball team, said that “we’d do a lot more recruiting” if it weren’t for their limited budget. Eden Michael ’26, copresident of Princeton Running Club, a team that receives around $8,000 per year, said that the money given to them by the University was “unfortunately not [enough]” to cover all of their expenses. In some cases, the expenses become too overbearing on students, with Kasper saying that she had to drop the Club Equestrian team because their $500 per semester dues were “extremely expensive.”

Johnson, Najimian, and Ramirez all cited a desire for equity amongst sport clubs when awarding funding decisions. Johnson noted that some clubs “have a huge burden, because they serve a lot of people.”

The level of team participation factors into the amount of funding they receive from Campus Rec. “It’s really just how active they are as a club,”

Najimian said. He explained that a factor that influences funding decisions is that some clubs “only stay locally and host local teams,” while others “travel to compete.”

Johnson emphasized the value of the educational aspect of certain sport clubs. “If we’re thinking about clubs like running, they’re ginormous, right, and they have smaller portions of people who actually compete, but then they’re also basically open to anyone who wants to learn how to run,” she said.

“We do have 39 teams that we have to look after,” Najimian said.

“It’s about … making sure that we’re able to facilitate the bare minimum, at least, for all of our clubs,” Ramirez added.

“In a perfect world, we’d be able to cover everything they do,” Najimian said. “Unfortunately, it’s not.”

For rugby, their solution to how to fund operations was financial independence. In 1997, a group of alumni from the men’s and women’s rugby teams came together to found PURFC.  As Rickerson said, the goal of PURFC’s endowment is to “pay for things that the University didn’t provide and the students couldn’t afford.” This external funding, Rickerson said, allows a “more diverse group of players to get involved in a sport.”

When asked about how other sport clubs can seek to emulate the level of support and funding that rugby has created, Rickerson’s advice was to reach out to alumni. “Engage alumni, not just asking them for money, but asking them to come to games or come to your a cappella singing group or to come to Whig-Clio for a debate. And then talking with the alumni, because they want to find out what the student experience is for you all today,” he stated.

For an athlete like Johnson, who considered competing at the Division III level, but chose Princeton for its academics, club volleyball provides her with a space to continue her athletics where “you don’t have the stress of performing at the varsity level … but you still have that competitive aspect.”

Many captains also cited the community sports clubs generate. “Club sports are an important part of this campus, and campus life,” Lichtenberger said. “Everyone in a club sport … will tell you that it’s a very important part of their Princeton experience. And more money would make a big difference.”

“A little would go a long way.”

Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko is head Data editor and Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’

By the Numbers: Water polo and Track and Field flip flop

By Harrison Blank & Andrew Bosworth Assistant Sports Editor & Sports Contributor

Each week, Sports and Data editors analyze recent athletic competitions to provide analysis and insight on the happenings of Princeton athletics and individual players across the 38 intercollegiate teams at Princeton. Whether they are recordbreaking or day-to-day, statistics deliver information in concise ways and help inform fans who might have missed the action. Read past By the Numbers coverage here.

Princeton Tigers: April 4–April 10

Twenty-seven games and matches were played across 14 sports and eight U.S. states over the past week. Of the 17 games where only one team came out on top, the Tigers won 64.7 percent of matches and 63.6 percent of games within the Ivy League. This was a slight dip from last week, when the Tigers emerged victorious in 76.5 percent of matchups. Multipleday meets and tournaments are counted individually for each day of the competition. Competitions with more than one event or individual results such as golf and track and field are not included in our win percentage analysis.

If I Had Two Dozen Goals

Last Saturday, No. 17 women’s lacrosse trounced Columbia 24–12, the most goals in an Ivy League game in over 40 years. Junior attacker McKenzie Blake makes yet another By the Numbers appearance with five goals, and sophomore attacker Jami MacDonald scored a hat trick and doled out three assists as the Tigers doubled up the Lions.

Frenemies

Last week, sophomore jumper Georgie Scoot surpassed fellow sophomore and close friend Alex Kelly’s outdoor long jump record with a leap of 6.28m, but Kelly got her revenge down in Miami this past Saturday. She narrowly beat out Scoot in the triple jump with a distance of 13.02m to Scoot’s 12.84m. The two nationally-ranked Tiger jumpers are sure to continue battling each other for the rest of their time at Princeton.

Sublime Seventeen

The Tigers played three baseball games at Brown this week, winning the first and last of the series. In the first game, Princeton scored 17 runs for a final score of 17–8. Seventeen was the most runs scored by the Tigers against Brown since 2016 when the Tigers won 25–7.

Enchanting Eight No. 12 women’s water polo played three games this week in Pennsylvania, defeating

Michigan, St. Francis, and Bucknell, all teams within the CWPA conference in which the Tigers compete. With a five-game winning streak, the Tigers remain undefeated in the conference with an 8–0 record. Only two regular season games remain before the CWPA championships from April 26 to April 28.

“We don’t talk about the fact that we are undefeated but it is in the back of our mind for the end of the season,” Sophomore Shanna Davidson wrote to The Daily Princetonian.

Davidson had one goal against Michigan, four against St. Francis, and a hat trick against Bucknell.

“Our team has been thrilled with our recent success,” Davidson wrote. “Harvard and Michigan are our biggest rivals in our conference and we always play with so much energy going against them. It has been great to get some big wins vs. our biggest rivals this season, but we know that there is still work to be done. Winning only pushes us to work harder in the pool during practice and continue to have this success.”

Grass Is Always Greene-r

Sophomore thrower Shea Greene took first place back to Old Nassau during track and field’s visit down to the Sunshine State. Her sixth round throw catapulted her back in front with a distance of 50.88m, leading the competition at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational.

Hit Me Baby One More Time

Baseball knocked around Brown’s pitching staff for a total of 18 hits in their drubbing of the home team up in Providence, including two or more hits by six different Tigers. First-year designated hitter Jake Kernodle led the way with three hits, and sophomore pitcher Justin Kim earned his second win on the season with six innings and only three earned runs.

Sunshine Success

First-year sprinter Jackson Clarke blew past the elite competition at the track and field meet hosted by the University of Miami, winning the 200m race with a time of 20.77 secondsmeters.

All in all, it was a fair week for Tiger athletics, especially at home, with only one loss in Princeton. Spring sports are now in full swing and will continue conference play. Check back next week to stay updated on all things Princeton athletics — by the numbers.

Harrison Blank is an assistant Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’

Andrew Bosworth is head Data editor and Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’

COURTESY OF @PWATERPOLO / INSTAGRAM

No.12 Women’s Water Polo huddles up before their game against No.18 Wagner on the Tiger’s Senior Day on March 28.

MEN’S GOLF

Princeton Invitational champs: Men’s golf wins second tournament in a row behind Fantinelli’s big day

By Matthew Yi Sports Contributor

This past weekend, the Princeton men’s golf team looked to defend their home ground as they competed amongst 14 teams in the Princeton Invitational at the Springdale Golf Club. The Tigers had both an A and a B team participating in the tournament, accounting for two of the 14 teams participating. Aside from Brown, all of the Ivy League golf programs participated.

After the first 36 holes, it did not seem clear who would end up on top. However, the Tigers left no question on Sunday as they secured a convincing 12-shot lead over the second-place Howard Bison.

It took an impressive outing from sophomore Riccardo Fantinelli, who tied the modern program record for low score and low score to par since GolfStat started tracking these records in 1993–94, after shooting a 65 (-6) in the Final Round this weekend. Fantinelli’s performance on Sunday vaulted him from 11th to 1st, earning him a share of medalist honors alongside Howard’s Everett Whitten, Jr and Gregory Odom Jr.

“It took practice and some clutch putting to win,” Fantinelli told The Daily Princetonian. Fantinelli showed his composure on the green as he shot under par in six of the nine holes in the back nine of his outing on Sunday.

Princeton also had two more golfers place within the top 10. Senior Jackson Fretty finished in third with a final

stroke count of 208 (-5). Meanwhile, junior William Huang cooled off after a hot start and finished in ninth with a final stroke count of 214 (+1).

After round one, it looked like the Tigers would need to do more work as they stood two strokes behind co-firstplace Howard and Columbia. Princeton sat in third place overall after round one. Despite slow starts from Fretty and eventual champion Fantinelli, Huang kept Princeton in contention as he carded four birdies and an eagle en route to a 67 (-4) and was tied for second after round one.

However, it was not William Huang’s hot start that was the highlight of the round. Rather, it was first-year Charlie Palmer who had the highlight of the tournament, recording a hole-in-one in the par-3 13th hole.

“It was a surreal feeling,” Palmer told the ‘Prince.’ “Having my assistant coach as a caddy, I give all the credit to him.”

The ace from the first year kept him and the Tigers within distance as he finished the round with a stroke count of 75 (+4).

The slow start from the Tigers did not last long, as Fretty caught fire in round two.

“I was pleased with my putting and short game,” Fretty told the ‘Prince.’ Fretty birdied seven of the 18 holes as he paced the second round.

Fretty finished round two five strokes under par and vaulted to fifth place on the day with Huang and Fantinelli not too far behind him, respectively in seventh and 12th place.

The other two golfers, Palmer and first-year Tommy Frist, were outside of the top 25 after day one.

However, being one stroke behind first-place Howard, Princeton had to come out swinging in round three, and they delivered. After taking the lead, they never looked back. Paced by Fantinelli’s strong outing, Princeton collectively shot six under on the day.

Fantinelli shot six strokes under par and Fretty finished the round two strokes under par. After ending nine strokes over par on day one, Frist bounced back and finished with a one-under-par round

three showing.

“I’ve been working on my game and finishing one-under par was the highlight of my day,” Frist told the ‘Prince.’

Charlie Palmer continued his strong performance by finishing even on the day.

“My ball-striking was pretty good throughout the tournament and I had a holein-one,” explained Palmer as he continued his momentum through Sunday.

Palmer and Frist after round three jumped up the leaderboards to 22nd and 26th respectively. Huang cooled off in round three as he finished three over par.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do

before the Ivy League Championship,“ Huang said, further explaining that he hoped to work on his driving and putting approaches.

With the team win, Princeton now turns their attention to the Ivy League Championships, as they look to repeat as Ivy League Champions.

Taking place from April 1921st, the Tigers will head to Watchung Valley Golf Club in Watchung, NJ looking to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Regionals.

Matthew Yi is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’

The History of Hazing at Princeton: From Pistol Fights to Cane Sprees

By Laura Barnds Contributing Archivist

In 1929, The Daily Princetonian interviewed Dr. George Pierson, a member of the Class of 1882, after his return from a 35 year service as a missionary in Japan. He reflected on his time at the University, including hazing during his time as an undergraduate.

Dr. Pierson recalled an incident the year before he matriculated in which “one man was seriously wounded in an exchange of pistol shots during some horseplay between upper and lower classmen.” However, this turned out to be to Dr. Pierson’s advantage: since the pistol injury had taken place the year before his arrival, the University thus “managed to curb the severity of the hazing which was

in vogue, so when my class entered … we escaped comparatively unscathed.”

Dr. Pierson also described a Princeton tradition beginning in the late nineteenth century: Cane Spree. This annual event began in 1898, resulting from “an ordinance forbidding the newly arrived freshmen to sport canes, a fashion for the time.” If a sophomore saw a freshman using a walking cane, they would attack the firstyear student to try to take away their cane.

Cane Sprees then evolved from “uncontrolled wrestling” to “organized competition” between first and second-year students with weight divisions and over 15 events. Back in the 1900s, these hazing events were extremely dangerous, with one student passing

away during the competition.

The article reports that the Cane Spree of 1882 was “personal and bitterly contested.” Indeed, Dr. Pierson remembered that during this event, he “had his face pressed into the turf of the campus for a half hour, which was the punitive method of the sophomore who was his conqueror.” In Pierson’s day, “there were no fraternities or clubs … and practically all the students’ friendships, contacts and relationships were carried on through the medium of Whig and Clio.”

Although the University no longer observes rampant pistol fights or out-of-control Cane Sprees, hazing persists. In the 2022–2023 school year alone, 16 Princeton students were suspended for Greek life-related hazing events. Their violations included encouraging

pledges to “consume foods, liquids, and alcoholic beverages in a manner that risked physical and emotional harm” and “participate in physically and emotionally demeaning and/or dangerous conduct that placed the members at a substantial risk of physical injury and other harms.”

However, the University has taken action to curb hazing activities. For example, in March 2024, the University created the Hazing Prevention and Response Task Force, which will “work alongside the national StopHazing Hazing Prevention Consortium,” a “multiyear initiative to support colleges and universities in campus-wide hazing prevention.”

Laura Barnds is a contributing Archivist for the

‘Prince.’

PHOTO COURTESY OF @PRINCETONGOLF/X

The Tigers will look to repeat as Ivy League champions after the conclusion of the Ivy League championships that are set to be from April 19–21.