Friday February 15, 2019 vol. cxliii no. 10
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STUDENT LIFE
Barry ’19, Jordan ’19 receive 2019 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize By Linh Nguyen Associate News Editor
COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
Annabel Barry ’19 is an English major, and Sydney Jordan ’19 is a philosophy major.
On Thursday, Feb. 14, the University Office of Communications announced that seniors Annabel Barry ’19 and Sydney Jordan ’19 have been named co-recipients for the 2019 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, “the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate.” The Pyne Prize was established in 1921 following the death of Moses Taylor Pyne Class of 1877, for whom the prize is named. A University trustee for 36 years after graduating, Pyne is also the namesake of Pyne Hall and the M. Taylor Pyne Professorship. Barry, an English major from Southport, Conn. with certificates in European cultural studies, humanistic studies, and theater, has received a number of other
awards during her time as an undergraduate, including the 2018 George J. Mitchell scholarship, the 2018 George B. Wood Legacy Junior Prize, the 2018 Princeton Bread Loaf fellowship at Oxford University, and the 2017 Tim K. Vasen Summer Research Award. Barry attributes the Pyne Prize and her overall success throughout her undergraduate career to individuals in her life both at home and on campus. “I’m filled with gratitude for this recognition, which I could never have achieved without the help of so many others,” wrote Barry in an email to The Daily Princetonian. “From my parents, and especially my mother, who was my first teacher; to professors and mentors who have made the effort to support my growth not only academically, but also See PYNE page 3
STUDENT LIFE
Gerwin ’19, Linfield ’19 awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarships By Yael Marans Contributor
Mikaela Gerwin ’19 and Rachel Linfield ’19 have been awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. The scholarship will fund Gerwin and Linfield’s pursuit of graduate studies next year at the University of Cambridge. Gerwin will pursue a Master of Philosophy in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, and Linfield will pursue a Master of Philosophy in Health, Medicine and Society. Gerwin is currently concentrating in history. She hopes to draw on her academic knowledge to work in the public policy world. In her work through the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) program last
summer, she encountered the connections between her historical knowledge and public policy interests. “I’m really interested in ... historical thinking, the knowledge itself and the tools, knowing that often what’s not written in the documents is just as important as what is written in the documents,” she said. In her biography on the Gates Cambridge website, she wrote, “I will study fourteenth-century bureaucratic documents, using paleographic and digital humanities methods to explore the local effects of the plague on class relations and JewishChristian interactions.” According to Gerwin, her undergraduate education has helped her refine See GATES page 2
COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
Mikaela Gerwin ’19 and Rachel Linfield ’19 have been attending Shabbats together since freshman year.
U . A F FA I R S
STUDENT LIFE
U. professors design MERMAIDs to study ocean seismic activity
Report ranks U. best LGBTQ+ friendly school
Staff Writer
Seismic recording stations, used to capture and analyze waves transmitted by earthquakes, have been limited to land usage since their creation. University professors have partnered together to push past that limit and take seismology to the depths of the ocean. Geosciences professor Frederik Simons and Professor Emeritus Guust Nolet created Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Drivers (MERMAIDs), which travel about a mile below the surface of the water. MERMAIDs use under-
In Opinion
water microphones to help seismologists capture the acoustic energy delivered by distant earthquakes through the ocean floor. Within 95 minutes of an earthquake, the MERMAIDs rise to capture the position of the earthquake using GPS and to transmit the seismic data. According to the Nature International Weekly Journal of Science, the underwater microphones, called hydrophones, record seismic P waves, which are “one component of earthquake waves that travel through the center of Earth.” Variations between P-wave paths highlight structural differences deep within the See MERMAIDS page 2
Managing editor Samuel Aftel analyzes sociopolitical ramifications of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s antiSemitic tweets, and assistant opinion editor Arman Badrei criticizes the Grammy Awards’ emphasis on an artist’s commercial success instead of merit. PAGE 4
Staff Writer
The University has been ranked the best LGBTQ+ friendly college by College Consensus, a website that compiles data across many college ranking sites. The published list of 25 colleges included schools from 16 different states. The University of Pennsylvania was the only other Ivy League school to make the list, ranking third. Two other colleges in New Jersey, Rutgers University and Montclair State University, hold the 20th and 24th spots. “There’s no one, simple way of defining what makes for LGBT friendly colleges, but there are some guidelines that can give an indication of their level of welcoming,” states the College Consensus website. “It’s a little objective and a little subjective,
and always open for debate.” Inclusion in the list is dependent upon the schools possessing LGBTQ+ friendly policy, such as housing and mental health resources. The rankings themselves are based on each college’s “Consensus Score.” College Consensus calculates this score by averaging together a Publisher Consensus, “a school’s average rating score from the most respected college rankings publishers” and Student Consensus, “a school’s average student review score from around the web.” In calculating a Publisher Consensus score, the website compiles data from a number of national and international college ranking systems, including U.S. News, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the Center for World University Rankings. The Student Consensus score is calculated through compiled data
Today on Campus 3 p.m. : Conversation with Poet and Playwright Lemn Sissay. Berlind Rehearsal Room, Berlind Theatre.
from a number of student review sites, including Cappex, My Plan, Niche, Students Review, and Unigo. The University received a Student Consensus score of 81.6 and a Publisher Consensus score of 85.6, yielding a College Consensus score of 83.6. All three of these scores represent the highest on the list. One student who chose to remain anonymous commented on the University’s LGBTQ+ community. “My perception before I came was that there would be very few students who were openly out, and, my freshman year, I found that to be very true,” the student said. “However, this last year I’ve found a lot more students who were out and who stood up for LGBT issues both interpersonally and on campus.” In the description of the University’s ranking, College Consensus mentions the LGBT Center. It also See LGBTQ+ page 3
WEATHER
By Nouran Ibrahim
By Aviva Kohn
HIGH
57˚
LOW
32˚
Cloudy chance of rain:
20 percent
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Friday February 15, 2019
MERMAIDs travel a mile below water’s Scholarship recipients to surface to capture acoustic energy study in Cambridge, UK MERMAIDS Continued from page 1
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Earth, since the speed of waves changes as they travel through different underground structures. The MERMAIDs have also revealed insights into how the Earth keeps itself warm, a mystery geophysicists have grappled with for years. According to the University Office of Communications, recordings of the MERMAIDs reveal that volcanoes on the Galápagos Islands “are fed by a source 1,200 miles (1,900 km) deep, via a narrow conduit that is bringing hot rock to the surface.” University geophysicist W. Jason Morgan proposed the existence of these conduits, known as “mantle plumes,” 38 years ago. However, deeper
investigations of them were limited, as the plumes were found deep in the oceans and away from any seismic stations. By capturing underwater seismic information, the MERMAIDs have helped Nolet and Simons more clearly understand how these mantle plumes function to capture the heat released from the accretion of the Earth billions of years ago. The MERMAIDs have reopened the conversation on the relevance and importance of mantle plumes to the maintenance of Earth’s temperature. The MERMAIDs’ findings pushed back on older models that suggest the Earth’s mantle releases heat quickly and frequently. “These results of the Galápagos experiment point to an alternative explanation: The
lower mantle may well resist convection, and instead only bring heat to the surface in the form of mantle plumes, such as the ones creating Galápagos and Hawaii,” Nolet explained to the Office of Communications. Nolet and Simon’s MERMAIDs continue to help other seismologists enhance their images of the inside of the planet and contribute to investigations of how Earth has maintained a fairly constant temperature over the past 4.5 billion years. Nolet and Simmons are launching about 50 more MERMAIDs in the South Pacific. They are working in collaboration with seismologists from the Southern University of Science and Technology in China and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
GATES
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............. her research interests. After taking classes in statistics, health policy, anthropology, hard sciences, and history, she feels equipped to move toward a more specialized area of study. “You see how your four years at this institution, or five in my case because I did Bridge Year, leads you to want to think and study this specific thing and go on beyond that and work with people and solve problems and do your part to make the world better,” she said. Gerwin shared that she feels lucky to attend Cambridge with Linfield, as the two have been friends since their freshman year. “I do feel very lucky that Rachel and I have taken classes together all four years at different points, and we have been intellectual partners for each other,” she said. “It’s a blessing to do a fellowship with someone who’s a close friend.” “Mikaela and I have spent most Shabbats together for the past four years, and I am excited to continue the tradition of attending Shabbat dinner together every week at Cambridge,” Linfield added in an email to The Daily Princetonian. Linfield, a concentrator in history of science, will focus her research on the medicalization processes of postpartum depression in the United Kingdom and the United States. “I am excited to study at Cambridge, and I am inspired by the amount of interest in reproductive health,” she wrote. She also has an interest in the efficacy of social movements in the evolution of medicalization. She plans to attend medi-
cal school, specializing in psychiatry. “I ultimately hope to obtain an MD and perhaps a Ph.D. with a focus on postpartum depression. I hope to practice medicine, research, and be active politically, taking what I learn at Cambridge and using it to help inform how to best treat women empathetically,” she wrote. Linfield has worked as a summer research intern at Children’s National in Washington, D.C.; Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics in the Bronx, New York; and Stanford University. She volunteers with Ascend Hospice at Princeton. A Gates Cambridge Scholarship from last year, Kaamya Varagur ’18 is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Music Studies. She is currently conducting a study on how lullaby singing can moderate stress levels of immigrant mothers with two- to five-month-old infants. Next year, Varagur will be attending medical school in Washington University in St. Louis. She noted that while Cambridge is extremely different from the University, she felt prepared going into the program. She was a neuroscience major at the University. “I think definitely the independent work focus of Princeton, especially junior and senior year, prepared me well for doing a masters that’s mostly research focused,” she said. “Writing a thesis definitely helped.” As for advice to Gerwin and Linfield, Varagur recommends that they engage with the Gates community. “From orientation onward, Gates does a really good job of bringing the scholars together, and that’s a really unique community to have at Cambridge,” she said.
Friday February 15, 2019
Holeman ’21: I wanted to be myself in all spaces LGBTQ+
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notes that the University “provides LGBT workshops regularly; addressing emerging LGBT issues on campus, and in the world.” While the core mission of the Center has always remained the same, its role has shifted over the years. “At the Center’s founding, there were still many students who did not feel comfortable coming out anywhere on campus,” said Director of the LGBT Center Judy Jarvis. “Now, there are still certainly people who aren’t out or are questioning, but the number of people who are visibility and vocally out on campus has certainly increased over the last 12+ years that the Center has been open.” The Center has become more involved in the creation of University policy, including a non-discrimination statement featuring gender identity and expression, as well as ensuring that trans-affirming surgeries and procedures are covered under the student health plan. Although she is proud of these accomplishments, Jarvis remains focused on the future. “Many of our trans and non-binary students and our LGBTQIA students of color in particular regularly face microaggressions and barriers
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on campus that their peers do not,” she said. “We should certainly celebrate the victories we’ve had, but not lose sight of what we still need to work on to make sure all LGBTQIA students feel a deep sense of belonging and connection to campus.” When applying to colleges, Jared Holeman ’21 noted that he looked more for a holistic LGBTQ+-friendly environment and not for specific LGBTQ+ centers or organizations. “I felt it was more important to have the ability to freely and genuinely exist as gay man, specifically a gay black man, in whatever I chose to do than to have a strong, united LGBT community,” he said. “I didn’t want a gay space so much as the ability to be myself in all spaces.” Holeman said that he has still experienced homophobia on campus, noting he has had to “cut a few people out” of his life due to their views on his sexual orientation. However, Holeman still considers his experience at the University to be mostly positive. “I don’t think Princeton is an amazing wonderland for the LGBT community, but I do believe we have a lot more opportunities than LGBT students on most college campuses … I’m from a pretty accepting place so I had a pretty high bar for LGBT inclusion, but I know people who came from far less inclusive places and think Princeton is a dream come true,” Holeman said.
COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.COM
The report praises the LGBT Center for holding regular workshops.
Pyne Prize is highest undergraduate award PYNE
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personally; to friends who consistently inspire me with their intelligence, passion, and kindness.” Barry noted that in the past three and a half years, the University has provided with her with numerous opportunities to leave her comfort zone and explore new passions, such as “volunteering off campus, traveling and studying internationally, designing sets and seeing them realized on the Berlind Theatre stage, [and] leading a publication.” “Having the resources and support to take creative and intellectual risks, and sometimes to fail, has contributed to my personal growth in ways I could never have foreseen,” Barry wrote. “I’m most proud to be part of an institution that encourages all of its students to make original contributions to the world, in such a variety of forms.” After graduation, Barry will begin working towards a master’s degree in philosophy and literature, funded by the George J. Mitchell scholarship, at University College Dublin. According to the press release, Barry’s long-term professional goal is to become “a literary critic and nonfiction writer with a career in academia.” A philosophy concentrator from Manassas, Va., with a Near Eastern Studies certificate, Jordan has demonstrated herself to be a prominent leader on campus, having served as the Undergraduate Student Government Diversity and Equity Committee chair, a Community Service Inter-Club Council representative, a Princeton University Chapel deacon, and a Student-Athlete Wellness leader. Jordan has extended her commitment to service even beyond campus, volunteering at the Tren-
ton YMCA after-school sports clinic and for Habitat for Humanity with the Princeton Varsity Club. Apart from her academic and service-oriented responsibilities, Jordan has played on the varsity women’s basketball team since her first year, winning the Ivy League Tournament championship with her teammates in 2018. While competing in Australia in 2016, Jordan and her teammates also led a leadership clinic at the Meriden School and a youth sports clinic at the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community Center. In the University press release, Jordan called her teammates her “family away from home” who have supported her academically and personally since the beginning of college. Furthermore, she expressed gratitude to the “mentors, professors, faith leaders, and coaches” who “offered up their time and advice to help [her succeed]” and ultimately receive the Pyne Prize. “Receiving this incredible honor will serve as a constant reminder that the Princeton community believes I can make a difference,” Jordan added. In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Jordan recognized that beyond the exposure to “some of the most inspiring people [she’s] ever met,” her time at the University has given her a plethora of opportunities to grow as an individual. “It has provided me resources and support to travel the world, and helped me grow and serve my community,” Jordan wrote. “I am so grateful for these opportunities, and for the people who made them possible.” After graduation, Jordan plans to either join a nonprofit through the University’s AlumniCorps Project 55 Fellowship or work at a law firm as a paralegal or legal assistant, with long-term plans of attending law school.
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Opinion
Friday February 15, 2019
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Mac Miller and why the Grammys are irrelevant Arman Badrei
Assistant Opinion Editor
I
love Mac Miller. Rather, I loved Mac Miller. Malcolm James McCormick went by a lot of names: Easy Mac in his rambunctious teenage years, Mac Miller during his career’s most influential times, and even the peculiar Larry Fisherman — a pseudonym from when he worked as a producer. Each name represents a developmental phase in his career and a progressive elevation in his musical skill. His style, flow, and sound developed and matured through each album. His work is truly representative of his life. His work was representative of his life, until Miller died by suicide at the age of 26 last September. That’s why seeing his album, “Swimming,“ and other amazing works in the category, lose to Bronx rapper Cardi B’s “Invasion of Privacy” was disheartening, painful, and emblematic of what the Grammys have succumb to in recent years: utter commercialization. It is an outright disrespect to not only Mac Miller but also to other nominated artists and their craft. “Swimming” was rap in a delightful and sometimes an emotionally heartbreaking fusion of technical skill, masterful production, and meaning. Mac Miller scored a 78 on Metacritic compared to an 84 for “Invasion of Privacy” by Cardi B, an 86 for “Daytona” by Pusha T, an 80 for “Victory Lap” by Nipsey Hussle, and an 85 for “Astroworld” by Travis Scott, which were fellow nominees. From a critical perspective, other albums outperformed Cardi B’s work. But Miller’s power comes from his emotional draw and true connection he had to fans. I’ll never forget when I first listened to Miller’s album. Sitting on my bed-
room floor, leaning against my bed at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 2, I waited for the clock on my lock screen to flip to midnight. I opened Spotify, searched for Mac Miller, and listened. I stayed up for the next hour listening to what I thought was the best album of the year, shocked that each song was even better than the last. On this 13-track record of soulful, melodic, and fantastically produced music, Miller changed his tone, compounding his jazzy rap style from his last album, “The Divine Feminine,” and transforming it into a deeper, introspective, and undeniably pensive feel in the last five songs. The album’s name — an aspect of the art often underutilized by artists — also proves amazing. Miller signals the idea of swimming: his laborious, tiresome battle against substance abuse, addiction, and breakup to stay afloat, to keep treading water, and to keep going in life. It was painfully clear this was a means of catharsis — or an attempt at catharsis — for Miller. And fans resonated with it. His honest and mumbled, mellifluous singing is easily relatable but not basic or cliché. Therefore, Mac’s suicide hit me hard. I shed tears for him, but also for the fact that the world would never get to hear him make music again. That’s why I’m so frustrated with the Grammys. The Grammys chose not to celebrate an artist who invested much of his life — Miller has been rapping since the age of 15 — into a genre that has witnessed his transformative growth and evolution. An artist who made an extremely qualified album to win the award. And, yes, an album that would be the last of a memorable yet deserving artist. Instead, they went with the commercial success of powerhouse rapper Cardi B. While I don’t have any major issues with her as an artist or her album, the record is lackluster at best. I felt its commercial sales spoke to its win more than
its content (every song on “Invasion of Privacy” went either gold or platinum) — but “Astroworld” still had 147, 494 more project units sold than “Invasion of Privacy.” Nonetheless, I applaud Cardi B for having dominated the mainstream rap scene since first seizing her moment with “Bodak Yellow” in 2017. She’s solidified herself not just as the Queen of Rap (sorry, Nicki Minaj) but also as a major player in the industry, regardless of gender. However, I wouldn’t go as far as to say she had the best album in the genre by any means. The Grammys are chosen through a seemingly transparent process by the Recording Academy, composed of music creators, including artists, engineers, producers and songwriters. However, given the history of the awards show, there’s obviously more than meets the eye. Take the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, for example, when Bruno Mars’s “24K Magic” beat out Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!,” Jay-Z’s “4:44,” Kendrick Lamar’s “DAMN.,” and Lorde’s “Melodrama.” Mars’s heavily radio-played album was, in the eyes of the Recording Academy, more deserving of the award than musical masterpieces in other genres geared more for the consumer and not the machine that is the music industry. Macklemore’s almost-insulting win of Album of the Year with “The Heist” over Kendrick Lamar’s social commentary masterpiece of “To Pimp a Butterfly” at the 56th annual Grammys perfectly encapsulated this false logic, too. Commercial success is celebrated by the Grammys, as they spit in the face of true artistic effort. Many artists have skipped the Grammys in the past for various reasons. Notable industry leaders like Jay-Z, Kanye West, and R&B star Frank Ocean have passed on the show in the past, citing the Academy’s un-recognition of hip-hop and an outdated voting system.
Drake attended this year with an agenda for change. He slammed the institution while giving his speech for winning Best Rap Song for “God’s Plan,” a speech that was also cut off by producers when they believed he made a “natural pause.” Drake argued that fan interaction and local influence signify success, not a gold trophy of a gramophone: “You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you’re a hero in your hometown,” he said. “You don’t need this right here. You already won.” Maybe Drake’s right. The more I think about it, believing that he is right is the most satisfying solution to this apparent upset. I, and any music listener out there, don’t need the Grammys or the Recording Academy to tell me who it thought put out the best album of the year. Because when it comes down to it, music, like all art, is subjective. Having a forum to decide what piece of work was the best sounds like a decent celebration and showing of respect to an artist who works diligently at their craft. But in execution, the idea falls apart. Fans are upset, artists feel robbed, and the disconnect between industry and artist grows. The Grammys are irrelevant and unnecessary given their numerous flaws. If Princeton has taught me anything so far, it’s to question institutions in an effort to better them. And I seriously question the Grammys, and I hope my discontent and the discontent of countless other fans and artists motivate a change in the nature of the show. Music is a personal experience. Mac Miller demonstrated that fact to his fans. In our hearts, we know what his album signifies. And the fans of Cardi B know what her work signifies, too. Don’t let someone or something tell you what has value. Screw the Grammys — for now, at least. Arman Badrei is a firstyear from Houston, Texas. He can be reached at abadrei@ princeton.edu.
vol. cxliii
editor-in-chief
Chris Murphy ’20 business manager
Taylor Jean-Jacques’20 BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 trustees ex officio Chris Murphy ’20 Taylor Jean-Jacques’20
143RD MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Aftel ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Jon Ort ’21 head news editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news editors Linh Nguyen ’21 Claire Silberman ’22 Katja Stroke-Adolphe ’20 head opinion editor Cy Watsky ’21 associate opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Ethan Li ’22 head sports editor Jack Graham ’20 associate sports editors Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 features editor Samantha Shapiro ’21 head prospect editor Dora Zhao ’21 associate prospect editor Noa Wollstein ’21 chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 associate copy editors Jade Olurin ’21 Christian Flores ’21 head design editor Charlotte Adamo ’21 associate design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22
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Opinion
Friday February 15, 2019
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Congresswoman Omar and conservatives’ weaponization of anti-Semitism Samuel Aftel
Managing Editor
F
irst-term Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first Muslim-American women to serve in Congress, has been harshly criticized from both sides of the aisle in Congress for her suggestion, via Twitter, that U.S. politicians’ staunch support of Israel is motivated by monetary donations they receive from a Jewish lobbyist group. Democrats and Republicans have accused Omar of blatant anti-Semitism for allegedly exploiting the trope that Jews use money to inf luence international affairs. Undoubtedly, Omar’s tweets were immoral and erroneous. The U.S. political establishment’s predominant support of Israel has little to do with the supposed financial inf luence of Jewish lobbyists. Rather, the unbreakable American-Israeli alliance stems primarily from U.S. national security interests in the Middle East and the Christian right’s self-interested promotion of Israeli supremacy in the region. Consequently, many U.S. politicians have white-
washed Israel’s brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories. In short, Omar was wrong to propagate a heinous anti-Semitic trope. But her congressional colleagues’ stern condemnation of Omar is disproportionate to her wrongdoing, and it confounds the fact that the Trumpian alt-right itself has consciously peddled anti-Semitic conspiracies. President Trump reportedly once said: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” The incident is one of many documented examples of Trump’s virulent antiSemitism. Hence, Trump’s call for Omar to resign is laughable. If anyone should resign over promoting antiSemitic tropes, it should be the president. Likewise, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has cryptically promised to take punitive “action” against Omar for her tweets. Yet McCarthy once tweeted that three rich Jewish men were trying to sway the 2018 midterm elections, writing: “We cannot allow [George] Soros, [Tom] Steyer, and [Michael] Bloomberg to BUY this election!” Beyond Republican hypocrisy, the wholesale, disproportionately severe con-
demnation of Omar ref lects the increasing and dangerous conf lation of anti-Jewish hatred and legitimate criticism of Israel’s militarism. Such conf lation, often consciously deployed by cynical conservatives, serves to chill any hint of pro-Palestinian political discourse. On college campuses especially, a free, productive, respectful, and yet provocative exchange of ideas regarding the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is essential. Substantive academic examinations of Palestinian grievances mustn’t be confused with anti-Semitism. Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, has been castigated, including by Temple’s board, and fired from his contributory position at CNN for a statement he made while giving a speech at the United Nations about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Hill asserted: “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” which some erroneously interpreted as an anti-Semitic call to wipe out the state of Israel. The fact that Hill’s statement supposedly warranted vehement condemnation, and even loss of employment, is deeply disturbing. Condemning the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinians and its sociopolitical exploitation of Jewishness to justify this
oppression is decidedly distinct from leveling hatred against Jewish identity and culture. In the same way, it isn’t anti-Catholic to criticize the Catholic Church for covering up pedophilia or Islamophobic to criticize the brutality of the Saudi Arabian government. As students and scholars, we must be able to differentiate anti-Jewish hatred and discrimination from a legitimate intellectual assessment of the Israeli government’s policies; condemning harmful policies and ideologies of religiously affiliated institutions — the Israeli and Saudi governments and the Catholic Church, for example — is separate from attacking an individual’s religious identity. Of course, for many, the Israeli-Palestinian conf lict, for better or worse, transcends the intellectual. The conf lict is decidedly emotional, as it has raised fundamental questions about the destiny and self-determination of two historically oppressed populations. I understand this emotionality firsthand. My dad was raised Jewish; my late grandfather, a Romanian Jew, was a Holocaust survivor; and the Nazis slaughtered my great-grandparents at Auschwitz-Birkenau. My dad has explained to me that my grandfather was staunchly pro-Israel, be-
lieving that Israel, which was established after the Second World War and the Holocaust, was the Jewish people’s final chance to live free of ghettos and genocide. I am proud of my Jewish heritage and have been shaped in part by the knowledge that I come from a lineage that has been butchered by Nazi anti-Semitism. In fact, I feel indebted to my ancestors for their existential sacrifices. Needless to say, Auschwitz is a long way from Princeton. My Holocaust-terrorized ancestry compels me to fearlessly confront hatred and oppression wherever it is sourced, including from the Israeli government. And the emotional and religious significance of Israel must not blind people — especially those of us at institutions of intellectual responsibility — to Israel’s increasing, cruel occupation of Palestinian life, and the de facto funding of such occupation by the United States. While actual anti-Jewish hatred of all forms, and from all sources, must be condemned, the existence of anti-Semitism doesn’t change the reality of — or excuse — Israel’s violent abuse of Palestinians. Samuel Aftel is a junior from East Northport, N.Y. He can be reached at saftel@ princeton.edu.
Ivy leaks show what matters in Bicker Liam O’Connor
Senior Columnist
R
ecently, I proved with demographic data that the Street is socioeconomically segregated and that sports teams feed into certain eating clubs. The recently leaked subset of Ivy’s 2017 Bicker cards now explain why my findings are right. They initially don’t seem that bad compared to some of the horror stories that students have told of other clubs. Aside from a few repugnant remarks, members’ comments were polite. Seventy percent of leaked scores were 4s and 5s. For that, I’ll give Ivy a 5 on classiness. But the devil is in the details. Dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find the story of how identities and secret networks get students into exclusive clubs. The subset of cards repeatedly show that members were cognizant of bickerees’ races, families, affiliations, and socioeconomic levels. These factors may have affected their scores. “I think he’d be a positive addition to the club, especially as an affiliated African-American man,” a card said (Score: 4). Another discussed the value of a female Asian American prospective. A member described one bickeree as a “rich white girl.” There were few 1s, though women received twice as many as men. On the other hand, men had 40 percent more 2s.
Ivy members might look past affiliations when getting to know their fellow clubmates— as multiple cards stated— but they pay attention to them when evaluating sophomores. “If you have a set bicker quota of Zetes or whatever PLEASE keep him as like #1,” a card said (Score: 5). References to fraternities and sororities dotted the documents’ pages. One card mentioned that a student, “rushed and got into saint A’s.” Varsity athletics were a frequent subject. “He’s the classic rower type we in Ivy love,” a card said (Score: 5). Another added, “make ivy row again” (Score: 4). How, where, and by who a person was raised seems to matter — or at least impresses interviewers. Ivy members discussed bickerees’ upbringings multiple times. “[REDACTED] grew up in Princeton (went to school in Lawrenceville),” began a card (Score: 4). The Lawrenceville School’s boarding costs currently total $66,360 per year. A different card said, “[REDACTED] has a really cool background. He went to Eton and knows [REDACTED]” (Score: 5). Eton College’s annual fees exceed $52,000. Interviews also discussed the Spence School, Phillips Academy Andover, and other elite private schools. These bicker cards mentioning private schools had an average score of 4.1. Members also spoke of sophomores’ families and hometowns. “The [REDACTED] family is beloved by Nashville,” a card said, “the [REDACTED] are widely known as
decent and honest people (the kind you’d want to bring home to Mama).” “Her parents are extremely impressive,” another card said (Score: 4). There was talk of one bickeree’s father being a Yale professor and another’s girlfriend whose father is a high administrator at Notre Dame (Scores: 4, 3). “We discovered we went to high school on the same street in NYC,” a card said (Score: 5). This connection isn’t too extraordinary because Ivy has the highest percentage of members from the Big Apple and the five largest U.S. cities of any club on the Street. Bickerees whose bicker cards mention New York City had an average score of 4.4, and bickerees whose cards mention Los Angeles averaged 4.2. Wealth doesn’t buy happiness, but it can buy experiences to discuss during Bicker. Among the conversation topics were golf, skydiving, and cruising, all of which scored highly. We can’t know whether those bickerees came from aff luent backgrounds. But it’s more likely than not that they did, given that wealth makes it easier to access these activities. Although having a friendly personality is necessary in any interview; members emphasized that talking about engaging topics was more important. “I have few terrible things to say about [REDACTED], and I liked her enough, but she deserves a neutral for the lack of interesting things she talked about,” a card said (Score: 3). One member
admitted, “A lot of people try to prertend [sic] to be quirky becasue [sic], lets [sic] be honest, being normal is boring.” “Would give her a 5,” a member wrote, “BUT I was yelled at for being too generous with scores last year, so here is a 4.” It looks like Ivy has its own form of grade def lation. The cards’ tone showed mild condescension. Bickerees were referred to as “kid” on 140 occasions. “Sweet girl” was so widespread that it became eerie. Members sounded as if they were middle-aged Goldman bankers assessing fresh-out-of-college applicants instead of peers who are only one or two years older than their interviewees. It’s troubling that we judge our classmates in this way. We already go to a renowned university, so I don’t understand why we segregate ourselves further by arbitrary standards of prestige. The numbers have revealed that this social hierarchy lines up with students’ socioeconomic status, and now the cards show that it’s not by coincidence. “There are negative impacts of the eating clubs. This is the single most common reason why [an accepted applicant] turns Princeton down,” thenPresident Shirley Tilghman told the Princeton Alumni Weekly in 2006. She thought that Bicker was one of them. If this trend is still true today, then we need to heed her warning. Princeton’s biggest competitors — Harvard, Yale, Stanford and MIT — all have exclusive aspects of their social scenes, whether they be Greek
life, final clubs, or secret societies. The difference is that they can be sideshows in a wider field of options. “People choose to bicker. When they choose freely to bicker, they must recognize the possibility of not receiving [a] bid,” then-Ivy president Robert Woll ’78 told the New York Times. He added, “They are not coerced into bickering.” His view is representative of how Bicker clubs have traditionally justified their process. But the facts don’t support this argument. “The students don’t have a free choice to join the clubs in the way they do at Yale and Harvard,” Tilghman said. Even if the residential colleges, independent dorms, and Sign-in clubs were filled to capacity, around 580 students would be left without a dining plan, according to meal exchange website statistics. “We don’t have a lot of alternatives for feeding juniors or seniors,” she said. These remaining students either have to eat in town — which is expensive — make meals in their rooms, or join a selective club. To put it simply, the current situation forces some people to undergo Bicker regardless of whether they want to. In light of the Ivy leaks’ revelations, we need to ask ourselves if Bicker’s positive aspects are worth losing bright high school students to Harvard and Yale. Liam O’Connor is a junior geosciences major from Wyoming, Del. He can be reached at lpo@princeton. edu.
Sports
Friday February 15, 2019
page 6
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S BASKETBALL
PREVIEW: Men’s basketball returns home to face Harvard, Dartmouth By Tom Salotti
Associate Sports Editor
Men’s basketball (12–7, 4–2 Ivy) will take on Harvard (11–8, 4–2) and Dartmouth (11–11, 2–4) on Friday and Saturday evening, respectively, in Jadwin Gymnasium. Princeton, still recovering from a stunning weekend that saw it drop from first place in the Ivy League to tied-for-second with three other teams after defeats from Yale (15–4, 5–1) and Brown (14–8, 2–4), is looking to regain its footing in the conference. The Tigers have played only one out of six of their conference games at home so far and have played their last four games on the road. The return to Jadwin this weekend represents an exciting moment for the team. “We’re excited to be home,” said head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 on the Mitch Henderson Show on Tuesday. “One of our goals this season is to be undefeated at Jadwin.” Friday’s game against Harvard will be the team’s opportunity to follow through. If history is any indicator, Princeton should have an upper hand. Harvard has only 14 wins over
the Tigers at Princeton in the two teams’ 118-year history. The Tigers, meanwhile, have a whopping 77 victories at home. The two teams’ all-time record is 132–48. That’s not to say that Harvard will be an easy opponent. Last year, Princeton lost both games against the Crimson, including a 72–66 loss at home in overtime. Henderson isn’t discounting their opponent’s potential this year. “We know that Harvard provides a big challenge and a big test for us, and they’re probably hungry. But so are we,” he said. On Saturday, Princeton will face Dartmouth at home at 7 p.m. Dartmouth has had a rough season, with an overall record of 11– 11 and 2–4 in the Ivy League. The overall record between the two teams is 152– 63 and Princeton dominates its record at home, 89–17. In order for the team to be successful this weekend, Henderson cites a need for offensive improvement. “We haven’t been great offensively, struggled a little bit,” he said. To change this, the team needs to be “sharing the ball, making each other better, extra passes, tapping the ball out, mak-
ing someone else look better.” The coach emphasized teamwork during his interview, saying how when the team works together as one cohesive unit, it can succeed. “We need to play like a
team,” he said, adding, “We know who we are. We need to do it together. When a group looks like they’re absolutely just concerned about playing for each other and playing together — to me that’s the sign of a good team.”
On defense, Henderson isn’t so worried. “Defensively, our numbers show we can be really solid,” he noted. The coach is confident that the team, especially the leadership, will achieve success.
COURTESY OF PATRICK TEWEY FOR GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
Men’s basketball will play two games in Jadwin Gymnasium this Friday and Saturday.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
PREVIEW: Women’s basketball travels to New England for back-to-back on the road By Alissa Selover
Associate Sports Editor
This weekend, women’s basketball (11–9 overall, 3–2 Ivy) will face Harvard (11–8, 4–2) on Friday, Feb. 15 and Dartmouth (10–9, 3–3) on Saturday, Feb. 16. Princeton is currently one of three teams with only two conference losses, with Harvard and Yale
currently ranked ahead of the Tigers, sitting at 4–2 in the Ivy League conference. Penn is currently undefeated in conference with a 5–0 record. After her record-breaking game against Columbia, junior Bella Alarie scored 38 points against Yale and 20 against Brown. Having Alarie playing at a whole other
level the past couple of weeks has taken the Tiger women to a competitive level against some of the better teams in the conference. In the most recent episode of her podcast, “The Court Report with Courtney Banghart,” head coach Courtney Banghart explained that Alarie is “quite the treat”
JACK GRAHAM :: HEAD SPORTS EDITOR
Women’s basketball will face Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend.
to have on the court and that her average Ivy League scoring is remarkable and something extremely exciting to be a part of. After the Yale loss, Coach Banghart explained, the Tiger women learned that the “non-feature players, so everyone but [Alarie], need to be much more aggressive.” Banghart explained that this current Tiger team has been “very hard to read.” She said that it can be hard to read the mindset of the team because of its youth. She did say, though, that the team is a lot of fun to watch when it listens and executes. The Tigers are working hard to make sure that everyone is playing heavy defense this coming weekend, as Harvard currently leads the Ivy League in three-point field goals per game at 9.2 and Princeton is in last in the conference in defending the threepoint line. The Dartmouth matchup will pose a challenge for the Princeton offense. The Big Green is ranked No. 77 in the country in scoring defense and has been defending three-
point shots quite well, as its opponents shoot under 30 percent from beyond the arc this season. Coach Banghart explained that both of these teams are very talented and could be potential postseason competition. With the possibility of participating in March Madness on her mind, Coach Banghart explained that this is the best chance for her and the team to scope out their competition. Alarie was also named as one of the last 10 candidates for the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year award. This award is currently in its second year and recognizes the top power forwards in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball. The five finalists will be announced early next month and a winner will be selected and announced in mid-March. The Harvard game will be on Friday at 7 p.m. at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, followed by the Dartmouth game on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Leede Arena in Hanover. Both of the games will be covered by ESPN+ and live stats will be provided on the Harvard and Dartmouth websites.
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Men’s basketball’s all-time record against Harvard is 132–48.