March 2, 2016

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Wednesday march 2, 2016 vol. cxxxix no. 24

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Unionization issues for grad students not as prevalent at U.

By William Liu contributor

The issues leading to unionization are not as prevalent at the University as they are at its peer institutions, Graduate Student Government president Akshay Mehra GS noted in light of the recent amicus brief filed by the University against graduate student unionization.

On Monday, the University, in conjunction with six other Ivy League institutions as well as MIT and Stanford University, jointly filed an amicus brief to the National Labor Relations Board opposing a pending case calling for the unionization of graduate students.

The NLRB is currently considering a case filed by Columbia University student activists who are arguing for graduate students’ right to collectively bargain as employees of the university, ac-

cording to the brief.

An NLRB ruling in favor of the students would overturn a legal precedent established in a 2004 case where the NLRB determined that graduate students at Brown University are not considered employees. As a direct consequence of the Brown rulings, graduate students conducting research in private institutions currently do not have federal union protections and lack the right to collectively bargain with their universities.

Whether it be the smaller scale of University’s graduate school, the efficiency of a more centralized rather than departmentalized fund or its infrastructure as a research institution, the University has better addressed many of the issues that have caused dissent at Columbia and other peer institutions, Mehra said.

He noted that the key issues See BRIEF page 2

ACADEMICS

U. professors recruited for Tor Project, online anonymous platform

By Marcia Brown Kristin Qian staff writers

Three University researchers have recently been recruited by the Tor Project, a nonprofit organization that enables anonymous communication over the internet.

Tor, by rerouting messages and data through multiple layers, allows users to access the internet without revealing their identity or location, according to its website.

According to an article by The Register, Tor had contracted Roya Ensafi and Philipp Winter, postdoctoral research associates in computer science, and Nick Feamster, a professor of computer science.

Feamster and Ensafi did not respond to requests for comment.

After the Paris terrorist attacks last year, the French government proposed to increase its security measures by banning the use of Tor, according to an article in Le Monde. Terrorists are increasingly using Tor to stay anonymous online, according to BBC. University Media Specialist Min Pullan noted that the faculty’s participation is not a University-led initiative.

According to Winter, the Tor project is currently working to mitigate the issue of “malicious nodes,” a situation when one Tor network user compromises the anonymity

In Opinion

or confidentiality of another user.

Winter explained that a “node” is a computer that is ran by an unknown volunteer. In the Tor network, a user, through his or her own browser, sends data to another web server through several “nodes.” In the situation of a “malicious node,” the volunteer can manipulate the system to extract sensitive details such as passwords to secure accounts and record high volumes of personal information.

Winter said that there are mainly two protection measures against these malicious ones, noting that one can systematically detect and block these nodes while also encrypting the users in traffic.

In other words, users, when launching Tor, will have their information fully encrypted.

Winter, along with several others, recently published a paper that analyzed methods to systematically detect “malicious nodes.”

Kate Krauss, a director of communications for the Tor Project, noted in a statement that many members of the Tor community are researchers, and the project relies on their work to help make the Tor network strong and resilient.

“This particular research enables us to both understand the network better and detect certain attacks before they can do harm,” she wrote.

See TOR page 5

Contributing columnist Victoria Gruenberg embraces the irrelevance of senior life, and guest contributors from the Department of Near Eastern Studies contest the impending dismissal of Professor Michael Barry.

PAGE 6

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

COURTESY OF GOOGLE.COM

Former Dean of the Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter ‘80 was nominated as Barnard’s commencement speaker.

Slaughter ’80 opposed for Barnard commencement

By Caroline Lippman staff writer

Barnard College announced last week that former University professor and Dean of the Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 has been selected to speak at its Commencement ceremony in May, a decision that has sparked controversy and debate among Barnard students as she was not on the shortlist for speakers nominated through a student-ran survey.

Slaughter served as the dean of the Wilson School from 2002 to 2009 and went on to work as the director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State. She is currently the president and CEO of New America, a think tank in Washington and New York.

The Barnard senior class council administered a survey to students to gauge interest about who they would like to see speak at Commencement, according to Barnard Student Government Association President Shivani Vikuntam. She explained that the survey had a very high participation rate, garnering 427 responses out of a class of about 650 students.

The survey resulted in 18 nominations for Commencement speakers. According to Vikuntam, the list included author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Beyoncé, Amal Clooney, Laverne Cox, Viola Davis, Tina Fey, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mindy Kaling, Toni Morrison, Amy Poehler, Shonda Rhimes, J.K. Rowling, Amy Schumer, Sonia Sotomayor ’76, Jon Stewart,

Elizabeth Warren, Emma Watson and Oprah Winfrey, but not Slaughter.

Barnard senior Mariam Elnozahy said that she was frustrated because the solicited student input was ignored, as Slaughter was not on the list of speakers students had suggested.

“For the second year in the row it’s another white woman, occupying the same position, preaching the same thing, having the same sort of perspective on what feminism should be, and it kind of seems like a branding,” Elnozahy added.

“If you repeat that motion enough times, you develop a brand, and I think something I’ve learned in my classes at Barnard a lot is to be against that branding and that standardization of one singular See BARNARD page 3

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Cruz ’92 wins in two states on Super Tuesday, Trump wins most delegates

By Christina Vosbikian news editor

Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz ’92 won the primary in his state and in Oklahoma on Super Tuesday, receiving a total of 69 delegates, according to the New York Times.

The Super Tuesday primaries were held in 11 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Businessman Donald Trump won the most delegates of any Republican presidential candidate in the day’s primary elections, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the highest number of delegates of any Democratic presidential candidate as of 9 p.m. Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

The New York Times reported Trump as having won in Virginia, Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee

and Georgia.

A Republican presidential candidate needs to win 1,237 delegates out of 2,472 total delegates available to secure the party nomination, while a Democratic candidate needs to win 2,382 delegates out of 4,763 total delegates available to secure the party nomination, according to The New York Post.

The primaries come on the heels of the GOP debate last week on Feb. 26, in which Cruz attacked Trump for his contradictory practice of hiring illegal workers for his properties, yet running a campaign on the notion that all illegal immigrants should be deported and a wall should be erected along the US-Mexico border.

In a press conference, Cruz asked other Republican candidates to “prayerfully consider” dropping out of the race, so that Republican voters could consolidate around him as an alternative to Trump.

Florida senator Marco Rubio received his first and only win in Minnesota as

Today on Campus 4:30 p.m.: Harvard bioethicist Nir Eyal will give a lecture “Inequality in Political Philosophy and Epidemiology” as part of the Decamp Seminar Series. Robertson Hall, Bowl 002.

of 11:30 p.m. Ohio governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are still in the running for the Republican Party nomination and have not yet announced plans to drop out.

In front of supporters on Tuesday night, Carson declared that he is not considering dropping out of the race, despite trailing numbers and lack of winning a state in the primaries.

“Our nation is in horrible trouble, why sit there and talk about each other and tear each other down when we have such important issues to deal with?” Carson asked.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and businesswoman Carly Fiorina dropped out of the race a few weeks before Super Tuesday, in light of trailing delegate numbers in the preceding primary elections.

On Feb. 26, Christie announced his endorsement of Trump’s presidential campaign. This move has incited See TUESDAY page 4

WEATHER

U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

HIGH

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Wednesday march 2, 2016

U. centralized funding system, small scale of graduate school lead to little interest in unionization BRIEF

Continued from page 1

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causing unrest generally result from structural issues that directly affect how students are reimbursed and paid.

In an online statement, the Graduate Workers of Columbia, who initiated the petition for graduation student unionization, noted that many graduate students face “precarious funding, late paychecks, unmanageable rent increases, inadequate medical coverage, job and wage insecurity, a lack of transparency in administrative policies, and a lack of professionalism that stems from our labor not being recognized as work.”

Mehra explained that sometimes, students at Harvard, Columbia or other institutions can go months without being paid while waiting for their departments to disperse funds, indicating a plausible reason for discontentment with how compensation is addressed by these institu-

tions.

In this regard, Mehra said he believes that the University’s funding system, while imperfect, has allowed students to be “very lucky” in avoiding many of the concerns students at other institutions are facing.

However, he added that the administration’s amicus is “preempting the issue, which is not a good message to send to students.”

Instead, he said he believes that such an issue should wait to be discussed in open dialogue when it emerges, rather than be buried before it arises, as the current situation implies.

General Counsel Ramona Romero, who signed the amici on behalf of the University, deferred comment to University Media Relations Specialist Min Pullan.

Pullan explained that the University strongly believes that graduate students are primarily students and not employees.

“We are in full support of the amicus brief, which well articulates the reasons why the NLRB should not re-

verse its 2004 decision in the Brown University case,” she said.

Dean of the Graduate School Sanjeev Kulkarni did not respond to request for comment.

Associate Dean of the Graduate School for Finance and Administration Mary Bechler deferred comment to Pullan.

The brief states that there is no “compelling reason” to overturn the Brown decision.

“Amici believe that reversal or modification of Brown would significantly damage private sector graduate education in this country and will represent an inappropriate intrusion into long protected areas of academic freedom and autonomy,” the brief states.

This extends from the concern that collective bargaining will result in “disputes, litigation, and perhaps strikes such as those which have frequently occurred at public universities,” which compromises academic freedom at the institutions, according to the brief.

Furthermore, the brief states that teaching done by graduate students is part of their academic experience.

“The frequent comparisons Petitioner and its supporters make to public-sector collective bargaining with graduate assistants is misguided both because the law in in the public sector differs markedly from the NLRA, and the goals and objectives of assistantships in the public sector do not necessarily mirror the educational objectives of such opportunities in the private sector,” the brief notes.

According to Mehra, the University is not legally involved in the unionization effort, and so far there have been no student initiatives on campus in support of graduate student unions.

Mehra noted that he “cannot see the same problem happening at Princeton, as it would take a lot of inertia to put the wheels of [dissent] into motion,” referring to the dissent at Columbia.

The controversy surrounding unionization will be discussed at the next GSG board meeting, Mehra noted.

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Slaughter: Too few women at the top: women of color are often silenced BARNARD Continued from page 1

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feminism,” she said.

According to Elnozahy, Barnard has featured only two women of color as Commencement speakers over the past 10 years: Leymah Gbowee in 2013 and Anna Deavere Smith in 2007. Five of the 10 speakers have been politicians or businesswomen.

Slaughter wrote in an email statement that she understands the concerns of Barnard’s students.

“We have an unlovely symmetry: too few women at the top and far too many at the bottom. I also understand the desire to provide as many fora as possible for women of color, whose voices are so often silenced,” Slaughter added in her email.

Elnozahy created an online petition that called for Adichie to be made the Commencement speaker, and had created a petition that had received over 200 signatures.

47 Barnard faculty members submitted and signed a letter to the editor published in the Columbia Spectator in support of Elnozahy’s call for greater diversity and student participation in the planning of Commencement.

Barnard President Debora Spar also submitted a letter to the editor to the Columbia Spectator in response to Elnozahy’s piece. In her letter, Spar wrote that she was impressed by Elnozahy’s article and agreed that her office can think about ways in which the medal honorees could address the graduating class.

Elnozahy noted that she has received an overwhelming amount of support, and many faculty members, deans and administrators have been willing to sit down with her and discuss her concerns.

“For the second year in the row it’s another white woman... preaching the same thing, having the same sort of perspective on what feminism should be.”

Mariam Elnozahy, barnard student

“I told President Spar when I met with her, the silver lining of this is that I can write a really angry Facebook status and 24 hours later be sitting here speaking to you about my grievances, and that’s something that I value, that’s why I came to Barnard – that’s really important to me,” she explained.

Anna O’Sullivan, director of media relations at Barnard, shared Spar’s written comment via email.

Spar wrote that a tremendous amount of thought and effort that goes into selecting both the Commencement speaker and honorary medalists. She explained that medalists are selected by a committee comprised of her, four students, four faculty members, four trustees and some staff members.

“We brainstorm in the fall term before the scheduled Commencement; compile a long list of potential medalists; and over the course of several meetings, winnow down to a selection of five or six people,” Spar wrote.

She added that by contrast, the Commencement speaker selection is not handled by either a committee or a student vote.

“The process of finding a Commencement speaker is longer, more involved and quite competitive, usually involving a complicated alchemy of diplomacy, persistence and luck. If you look back at each Barnard Commencement speaker in the past decade, for example, President Obama, Secretary Clinton or Meryl Streep, none of those speakers came through a student nomination process,” Spar wrote.

Slaughter wrote that overall, the vibrant debate demonstrates that Barnard is doing its job of fostering independent thinking and individual action.

At Barnard’s Commencement ceremony, Slaughter and three other honorees will receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the college’s highest honor. The other honorees include social justice lobbyist and public policy activist Sister Simone Campbell, MIT computer scientist Shafi Goldwasser and Adichie.

“I am enormously honored to be one of such a distinguished group, all the more as I am a great fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s writing,” Slaughter wrote.

“I think we’re all cognizant of the fact that Anne-Marie Slaughter is a phenomenal speaker,” Vikuntam said.

page 4

The Daily Princetonian

Wednesday march 2, 2016

Six New Jersey newspapers call for Christie’s resignation TUESDAY Continued from page 1

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the anger of six N.J. newspapers, including the Asbury Park Press, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post and the Morristown Daily Record. The papers call for Christie to resign after a press conference Monday in which he refused to answer questions unrelated to his nomination of a state Supreme Court justice.

“We’re fed up with Gov. Chris Christie’s arrogance.

We’re fed up with his opportunism. We’re fed up with his hypocrisy,” the papers wrote in a joint editorial.

The editorial goes on to note that instead of remaining in-state, Christie has been travelling outside of New Jersey for 261 days last year and has done little to improve the state.

“For the good of the state, it’s time for Christie to do his long-neglected constituents a favor and resign as governor… if he refuses,

citizens should initiate a recall effort,” according to the editorial.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders remain the current Democratic presidential candidates in the running for Party nomination.

The next wave of primary elections in the presidential race will take place on March 5 in the Louisiana primary election, with 46 Republican delegates and 59 Democratic delegates at stake. The Kentucky and Maine Republican caucuses will also take place on March 5, with 46 and 23 delegates available respectively.

Democrat candidates facing off in the Nebraska Democratic Caucus on that day will vie for the state’s 30 total Democrat delegate votes.

Primary and caucus elections will continue until June 14, with the District of Columbia’s Democratic primary taking place on that day.

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Winter: Good uses for Tor outweights bad uses TOR

Continued from page 1

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Winter explained that he began working with Tor in 2011 as a Ph.D. candidate, adding he is currently a volunteer and does not receive any salary from Tor. He said that the University pays salary for his research on Tor.

“The way we perceive it is highly asymmetric, you only hear about the bad uses in the newspaper, not the good uses.”

Philipp Winter

postdoctoral fellow

Over the course of his research, Winter added that he has studied and researched subjects including censorship, user trustworthiness and anonymity attacks.

In light of controversies surrounding the Tor network,

Winter noted that it is important to account for the benefits the system brings.

“The way we perceive it is highly asymmetric, you only hear about the bad uses in the newspaper, not the good uses,” Winter said. “The good uses far, far outweigh the bad uses.”

He explained that there are hundreds of thousands of people who use it to prevent themselves from stalkers, abusers and to devise censorship resistant services.

For example, Winter explained that Sci-Hub was a service started by a Tor user in Kazakhstan to host science research papers that are too expensive to access, although the service was, however, recently shut down.

Tor also enables an additional layer of security protection, Winter explained, as Facebook is running a Tor hidden service.

According to Winter, Tor has a diversity of funding sources including the U.S. government and the government of Sweden. A lot of funding also derives from independent funders who want to see specific projects accomplished, he said.

page 5

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Wednesday March 2, 2016

Opinion

page 6

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Finding meaning in mundanity

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Protestation of Professor Michael Barry’s dismissal

Nicholas Wu columnist

L

ife is busy. Yet, it is sometimes more important to take a step back from the stress of everyday life and escape to another world. This past week, at the urging of my friends but against my better instincts, I downloaded Neko Atsume, the cat simulator game.

There is no way to win this game. The sole goal of the game is to attract as many virtual cats as possible to your virtual home with gifts and cat food.

There is no interaction with the cats in the game except for the ability to take virtual pictures of them, which are then stored in the app’s “catbook.”

The cats do nothing more in the game than lounge about in your virtual home.

Like many other free-to-play games, Neko Atsume rewards patience. You can spend real money to buy more effective cat food and toys, or you can simply wait longer until you amass enough in-game resources to buy those items with the game’s currency.

A good number of my friends criticize the game as meaningless, an absolute waste of time. And yet it has been downloaded over 10 million times. The game was recently profiled in the New York Times and the columnist who profiled it even admitted that she was obsessed with it in spite of its mundane nature. I agree with that author.

I will readily admit that I have become obsessed with this silly game about collecting cats. Not every game or cultural artifact needs to have a deep meaning in order to be enjoyable.

My colleague Azza Cohen wrote a few weeks ago in the pages of this paper about the importance of setting aside time for the most important things in life, but I will argue that there is still a case to be made for escapist culture.

Indeed, it is the escapism that Neko Atsume and other similar cultural artifacts provide that makes them so appealing. My expectation for this game was to be entertained by images of cartoon cats rolling around in macaron costumes, and that’s precisely what the game delivered. It delivers all of the enjoyment of seeing a cat roll around without having to clean up after the cat afterwards.

As I’ve written before, significant portions of the campus population report feeling some form of depression during the school year. Life at Princeton can sometimes be very stressful.

Our time is certainly precious, but it is always important to be able to take some time to decompress. A frequent refrain among students is that they are “too busy” to take part in activities on campus, which in my opinion helps to create a “culture of busyness” of sorts, a mental block that prevents us from tackling larger problems in our lives. We have to remember to take some time off occasionally from the busyness or the perceived busyness of our lives to rest and recover, and escaping the burdens of our lives from just a bit can be a part of that time off. From an economic lens, the utility lost from the five minutes that are not spent studying for International Relations will be counteracted by the significant gain in utility from taking a short break.

Meaninglessness can actually be a meaningful form of escapist fun. It allows us to lose ourselves in the world of something as esoteric as digital cat collecting. Perhaps the ability to escape can then allow for greater introspection on the things that constitute the “busyness” in our lives. If we have clearer, more rested minds, it can allow us to look more objectively at some of the larger problems we face, given that it is far too easy to lose ourselves in our everyday issues. Does this require surrendering all of our time to a pursuit like the collection of cats? No, but we need to recognize that there is a place for escapism in our lives. And if that can sometimes be filled by indulging in cat collecting, I’ll take it.

Nicholas Wu is a sophomore from Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. He can be reached at nmwu@princeton.edu.

vol. cxl

Do-Hyeong Myeong ’17 editor-in-chief

Daniel Kim ’17

business manager

guest contributors

W

e, the undersigned undergraduate members of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, submit the following statement regarding one of our faculty members, Dr. Michael Barry.

Dr. Barry has been a fixture in the Department of Near Eastern Studies for the past 12 years. During his time at Princeton, Dr. Barry has taught on the greater Middle East with depth and vigor, encouraging his students to explore the entire expanse of the Islamic world, particularly its lesser-known fringes.

Covering material from the Maghreb to Southeast Asia, Dr. Barry’s lectures have inspired students across a number of disciplines to engage with subject matter often ignored in conventional scholarship. In this semester alone, over 250 students are enrolled in his classes on Later Sufism and Medieval Islamic Spain.

Dr. Barry’s accomplishments are not limited to the field of academia.

Throughout his distinguished career, Michael Barry has served as an Afghan Affairs observer for the International Federation for Human Rights, testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Soviet war crimes and personally delivered food and medical supplies to Afghan and Tajik war refugees. His priceless credentials uniquely qualify him as an expert in a region critical to US policy interests and objectives, while promoting an understanding of regional history and culture that delves far beyond the superficial. In addition to this considerable knowledge and experience, Dr. Barry brings to our department love and devotion that have made him an exceptional teacher, mentor and friend.

We strongly protest the impending dismissal of Dr. Barry from the Princeton faculty. Dr. Barry is a tremendous asset to the University, as well as a leading expert in his field. His loss would be irreplaceable and his dismissal, just two years from retirement, decidedly unjust.

So many of us have taken his courses in the past and continue to seek his advice and insight. Above all else, Dr. Barry exemplifies Princeton’s commitment to undergraduate teaching.

We do not purport to speak for anyone besides ourselves, but we can attest to the fact that countless students and alumni have grown to love and admire Dr. Barry over the past 12 years. We encourage others to share their stories with the community and University administration in order to demonstrate the full impact of Dr. Barry’s life and work. This University is meant to be a true sanctuary for scholarship. It makes no sense to dismiss one of our greatest scholars.

Signed, Alice Catanzaro Hannelora Everett Samuel Gelman Andrew Hanna Sarah Jacobs Kristen Johnson Preston Lim Kate Maffey Zeena Mubarak Erin O’Brien Stevie Peacock Jasmine Robinson Tori Rinker Jeremey Rotblat Mark Stein Justin Vogel Jacob Zucker

Irrelevant, therefore free: Why you don’t matter and why that is a relief Victoria Gruenberg

140TH MANAGING BOARD managing editor Caroline Congdon ’17 news editors Jessica Li ’18 Shriya Sekhsaria ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 Annie Yang ’18 opinion editor Jason Choe ’17 sports editor David Liu ’18 street editor Harrison Blackman ’17 photography editor Rachel Spady ’18 video editor Elaine Romano ’19 web editor Clement Lee ’17 chief copy editors Grace Rehaut ’18 Maya Wesby ’18 design editor Crystal Wang ’18 associate opinion editors Newby Parton ’18 Sarah Sakha ’18 associate sports editors Nolan Liu ’19 David Xin ’19 associate street editor Danielle Taylor ’18 associate photography editors Ahmed Akhtar ’17 Atakan Baltaci ’19 Mariachiara Ficarelli ’19 associate chief copy editors Megan Laubach ’18 Omkar Shende ’18 associate design editor Jessica Zhou ’19 editorial board chair Cydney Kim ’17 cartoons editor Rita Fang ’17

NIGHT STAFF 3.1.16 staff copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Hannah Waxman ‘19

contributing columnist

F

ood for thought: in six years, everyone on this campus will have been born in 2000 — or later.

I’ve sensed an existential tingle moving through the Class of 2016 these past few months. It’s come in waves throughout the year, but it hit an especially high frequency in February. Much like the sound of ripples in the fabric of space-time (shout out to that incredible human discovery last month), it seems the sound of thousands of seniors about to face their undergraduate mortalities is ringing across campus like a dog whistle.

Underclassmen, this observation does not exclude you. In fact, this is probably most relevant to you. One way or another, the senior class is about to work through this existential turmoil, and there is a non-insignificant chance that you will be a part of that process.

You don’t even have to know any seniors — it can be a trickle-down effect! How exciting for us all.

I do not pretend to know the experience of every student on campus, nor do I claim to root the generalizations I am about to make in any kind of empirical evidence. All I have is four years of keeping my eyes open around springtime because I hate goodbyes and have always needed to get better at them.

But from what I’ve seen, I believe there is a scale that each student travels along from the first day of freshman year to the final day of Commencement, and that is the scale of relevance.

Being irrelevant is an incredibly terrifying, liberating concept for undergraduates. At first glance, it is something no one wants. People like our parents are “irrelevant” — not us. We’re in college! We’re the young generation!

We’re just old enough not to be dumb

kids but still young enough not to be soulless adults, which makes us the most relevant, most culturally central part of the American population! And, most importantly, that means we’re all relevant to each other — right?

At face value: sure. Being a student here means you are relevant to Princeton life and in a grander sense to the early-20-something culture of America.

But that also means that on Day Two of your Princeton career, you were less “relevant” than you were on Day One. That progression continues until the day you are no longer an undergraduate college student. It spikes on weeks when you, say, host prefrosh for the first time your freshman year, realize you’re halfway done at the end of your sophomore year, watch some of your closest friends graduate your junior year, or relinquish all leadership roles your senior year. (Note that all of these things happen during spring semesters — hence the trickle-down effect.)

This may be starting to sound jaded.

Let me prove to you that it’s not: break down your conception of “irrelevant” for a second. What is intrinsically negative about not being the center of social and cultural attention? Is it a desire to be in the spotlight? A general fear of aging? What about “relevant” feels good?

Personally, after four years of watching good and great friends move from one side of the scale to the other, I’m willing to claim that both relevance and irrelevance are ultimately neutral.

Spotlights are fun but become exhausting after a while. Being older sounds lame but yields emotional clarity and depth you can’t know you’re missing before. Like pretty much everything about college, it’s not about whether you have any control over what’s changing, it’s whether you decide you’re en-

joying the changes or not.

I think it’s fun to be on this end of the scale. You don’t feel a weird responsibility to represent the ideal college millennial — if you ever did. You can listen empathetically to undergrad concerns without the need to be personally invested. You can delete a lot of summer internship emails without feeling guilty that you’re not applying.

That’s the great thing about existentialism: it’s actually a theory of psychological freedom. To put it reductively, existentialist beliefs emphasize that nothing about the world is inherently meaningful — and that means individuals are completely empowered to assign their own meanings. It’s something a little bit more compelling than telling yourself to “look at it from a new perspective;” rather, it puts your perspective in the ultimate spotlight.

You’re neither relevant nor irrelevant, because there’s no outside meaning to compare with yours.

Spring semesters might be a lot less emotionally jarring for everyone if we explored the possibilities of this existential tingle: as a moment to choose and remember what’s important to you.

Hopefully, it’s something deeper than a love of 3 a.m. Frist pizza or a comfort in the ability to prox into any building on campus. Ideally, it’s even related to what happens when you’re no longer on campus at all. If not, you’ve got plenty of friends hearing that same dog whistle to talk it through with. But if so, it doesn’t matter what American or Princeton culture is centered around — because you’ve found your own center.

Victoria Gruenberg is an English major from Winter Park, Fla. She can be reached at veg@princeton.edu.

The Daily Princetonian

Wednesday march 2, 2016

page 7

St. Francis hands Adam Bragg discusses studentTigers overtime loss athletes, keys to success in vaulting W. HOCKEY Continued from page 8

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again with just under five left in the second.

As the third period opened, St. Lawrence struck yet again, scoring on a long shot that found its way past Newell. From there the situation seemed to grow steadily more hopeless as minute after minute of the final period ticked by without a Princeton score.

With little more than two minutes remaining and the Saints still leading 3-2, most would have assumed that the Tigers’ season was just about over.

Contini and Princeton squad disagreed.

A crucial St. Lawrence penalty with less than two minutes to go, along with the decision to pull Newell, gave the Tigers a 6-on-4 personnel advantage. From there, Princeton unloaded shot after shot at St. Lawrence. Ultimately, with only 15 seconds remaining, Contini found the net — tying the game and, against all odds, prolong-

ing Princeton’s season for at least the length of the overtime period.

Unfortunately, luck did not favor the Tigers in extra time. Although Princeton did outshoot St. Lawrence 7-1, the Saints’ one shot happened to find its way into goal. St. Lawrence escaped with a thriller.

The Tigers fell just short of continuing through the playoffs.

Although the loss stung for Princeton, the effort and resiliency of the team was on display throughout the three-day matchup.

Princeton coach Jeff Kampersal expressed tremendous pride in the accomplishments of this squad over the course of the season.

“Our kids played with a lot of heart and soul,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and this year has been the most fun. It’s been the most trying year as well. There’s been some things our kids have battled and worked through and they’re resilient. They’re an awesome group.”

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ON TAP

Continued from page 8

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Southern California. I think as I’ve progressed in college it’s become more and more of a reality.

DP: Can you describe the transition from being a collegiate to professional athlete?

AB: I anticipate the transition is going to be dealing with a lot more available time. In college you have to worry about classes and thesis, especially senior year. I’m looking forward to being able to relax and settle into a more fluid training schedule.

DP: How much do you feel like you are a student versus an athlete?

AB: Well, this spring it’s really ramping up on me on both sides because I have the deadline of the thesis coming up. I’d like to finish that up so I’m not stressing out about it so I can focus on the bigger competitions. I am also taking some classes I really enjoy this semester.

DP: What were the highest and lowest points of your Princeton career?

AB: The lowest points have to do with being so far away from home, not having any family on the East Coast.

The highs are developing relationships with my teammates. It forced me to attach myself and get closer. Developing those relationship and having a group of lifelong friends are the things I’m most proud about.

DP: How do you think you’ve changed since your freshman year?

AB: Princeton has allowed me to explore a lot of sides of myself and really solidify the type of person I want to become. My freshman year I was a little more adventurous, but now, as my Princeton career has moved forward, I’ve narrowed it to a list of things I’m really passionate about.

DP: Are there specific qualities Princeton developed in you?

AB: Princeton has so many opportunities that it encourages an inquisitive mind. For example I came in as an engineer but now I’m a history major — it’s something I really enjoy. [History] wasn’t a subject I necessarily excelled in in high school, but as I took more classes here it really piqued my interest. Now, I can explore history and pursue it more deeply.

“For pole vaulters, the sport is a test of your own belief in yourself. It’s a fearbased event. In order to battle the fear you have to fill yourself with confidence.” adam bragg, pole vaulter

DP: How do you plan on balancing pole vaulting with history after graduation?

AB: I think part of the professional athlete lifestyle is that you have a lot of free time. I am excited about pursuing some of these other interests that the thesis got in the way of. The free time is giving me opportunity.

DP: What’s on your bucket list for the final three months of Princeton?

AB: I am geared into my goals now. The major things are finishing the thesis, doing well in classes and doing well in the outdoor season. I also want to enjoy the final few months surrounded with all of my friends.

DP: What have been your friends’ reactions to your

success?

AB: The friends that are the closest with me — the ones I call brothers — definitely had the understanding it was just a matter of time.

The other attention is exciting as well; it’s good to see the hard work I’ve put in finally paying off.

DP: What are you most looking forward to and fearful of after graduation?

AB: I probably share the fear of a lot of great athletes: not being able to reach the full potential I see myself reaching. But even more, I am excited about pushing myself to those limits. I’ve set my goals really high so if I can even come close I’ll have accomplished a lot.

DP: What advice would you give to younger, aspiring pole vaulters across the nation?

AB: For pole vaulters, the sport is a test of your own belief in yourself. It’s a fearbased event. In order to battle the fear you have to fill yourself with confidence. Not letting failures get in the way of your self-image is really important for pole vaulters.

That lesson can be learned by people in general. Princeton has taught [me] that you will experience setbacks and when a challenge confronts you, the best way to react is with confidence and positivity.

DP: Any final words as you continue to build on your success?

AB: It would be nice to thank the people who have been supporting me: my family and friends, the coaching staff here, my club coach back home, BJ Vandrovec. All those people had such a positive impact on me and helped me to stay positive in the face of all those negative setbacks, which I did experience. But I’ve come through and grown a lot in the years and am now excited to continue into my professional career.

Men’s tennis takes on strong field at national tournament this weekend M. TENNIS Continued from page 8

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next game, when he broke right back, before successfully serving for the match the second time around for a deciding 7-5 set victory.

On Saturday, a challenging Alabama team awaited Princeton. As was the case with the first match, Princeton dropped the doubles point, getting only one victory from the now promising-looking pair of Day and Gamble, who won 6-2. In singles play, the Crimson Tide (8-5) proved too tough, un-

fortunately, and the Tigers lost 4-1. The sole win from the Princeton contingent came from sophomore Luke Gamble who ran through Nikko Madregallejo of Alabama, 6-0, 6-1. Kaiser was locked in a tough contest, dropping his first set 6-1 but breaking back after slipping early in the second. Yablon was also still battling at the No. 4 singles spot, but it was too late as the top of Alabama’s lineup had already won the one, two and three singles matches.

Coach Billy Pate reflected on his team’s loss: “Credit to Alabama. They played a

strong match start to finish. We had some chances for the doubles point and not getting that point made for a tough assignment. However, we hung in there and gave ourselves a good shot.

Overall, it was a productive weekend against great competition.”

Having traveled quite a bit in the past few weeks, including trips to Philadelphia, Houston and now Alabama, the Tigers can certainly look forward to their home stand this upcoming weekend, where they will square off against Indiana and Penn State.

Sports

Wednesday march 2, 2016

page 8

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } O N TA P

On Tap with Adam Bragg: pole vaulter talks history, setting records, and more

By David Liu sports editor

Reigning Ivy League Outdoor Pole Vault Champion Adam Bragg ’16 recently eclipsed an astonishing 5.65 meters. The feat snaps a previous 23-year all-time Ivy League record and, more importantly, qualifies Bragg for the Olympic Trials.

The Daily Princetonian sat down with Bragg to discuss his Princeton experience, graduation and professional life.

Daily Princetonian: What is the context and significance of your latest recordbreaking jump?

Adam Bragg: The United States Olympic Committee sets a mark that determines entry into the Olympic Trials. On that day of February 12 at the Fastrack National Invitational, I jumped 5.65

[meters], which is the qualification mark. I was able to solidify my competition in the Olympic Trials.

DP: How do you even practice for such high stakes competitions?

AB: I usually like to train at the heights you’re going to be competing at and it’s especially helpful that I’ve eclipsed such heights in practice. During practice it’s better to get the repetition.

DP: How did you get into pole vaulting and decide to pursue it professionally?

AB: I have a background in trampoline and I competed in that starting around the age of three to four years old, but by the time I was in the eighth grade I knew I wanted to compete collegiately in pole vault. So I started training with Victor Athletics in See ON TAP page 7

COURTESY OF ADAM BRAGG

Adam Bragg ‘16, fresh off of qualifying for the Olympic Trials, is a Ivy League Outdoor Pole Vault Champion.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Women’s hockey falls just short in playoffs

By Nolan Liu associate sports editor

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Women’s hockey fell in overtime to St. Francis in the ECAC quarterfinals.

After battling to the final seconds — and beyond — the Princeton women’s hockey team fell to St. Lawrence in overtime on Sunday, ending their season by falling two games to one in the ECAC quarterfinal series.

Princeton dropped the first contest in the threegame matchup between the two schools, falling 1-0 last Friday after Lawrence’s Kennedy Marchment scored the lone goal halfway through the third period. The Tigers were outshot 46-29, but senior goalie Kimberly Newell still had 45 saves — her second-highest number in a single game this season.

However, Princeton refused to fold after the setback. In the second game of the series, played last Saturday, the Tigers fell behind early and trailed

St. Lawrence 2-0 well into the second period. Then, freshman Stephanie Sucharda put the home team on the scoreboard by scoring Princeton’s first goal of the game and her third of the season. The Tigers then took advantage of a penalty against junior defenseman Kelsey Koelzer, evening the score on the ensuing power play. Although St. Lawrence would score again on a power play of their own, Princeton had a huge third period — tying the score at 3-3 just after the 13-minute mark and grabbing the lead four minutes later. From there, the Tigers simply held on for the final few minutes; a desperation attempt by St. Lawrence to pull their goalie sealed the Princeton victory when the Saints were assessed a penalty for putting seven skaters on the ice. Although the Saints once more outshot the Tigers 36-27, Princeton

had evened up the matchup and headed into the third and final game with a chance to continue moving forward in the conference tournament.

The final contest proved a powerful testament to the Tigers’ teamwork and resilience. Koelzer, an Ivy League Player of the Year and one of the backbones of the squad, went down with an injury during the first period and did not return, yet despite this loss and the pressure of facing a tough St. Lawrence squad, Princeton continued to give as good as they got. The Tigers scored first, with junior forward Cassidy Tucker firing a successful shot on goal eight minutes into the first period. Although St. Lawrence would eventually rack up two goals in the second period to take the lead, junior forward Molly Contini evened up the score See W. HOCKEY page 7

MEN’S TENNIS

Men’s tennis competes at Blue Gray National Tennis Classic

By Hamza Chaudhry contributor

The Princeton men’s tennis team traveled down south to Montgomery, Alabama for the prestigious Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. The team split its matches with a win over Auburn on Friday before falling to a strong Alabama team on Saturday.

The competition at the tournament was of a remarkably high level, as five out of six teams participating, including Princeton, were Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranked. Coming off a disheartening 4-3 loss against Rice University

which snapped an eightmatch winning streak, the Tigers looked to bounce back against a spirited No. 48 Auburn squad. Their effort to rebound did not start off on the right note as Alabama drew first blood by grabbing the doubles point.

One silver lining did emerge from doubles play, as the duo of Alex Day and Luke Gamble grabbed their first win against an ITA opponent, triumphing 6-4 over the 52nd-ranked pair of Marko Krickovic and and Edward Nguyen. Despite the unfortunate start, the Tigers regrouped and performed well in singles play. Sopho-

Tweet of the Day “Come in skilled, strong, and fit. Leave more so, in every way. That’s the tiger way!” courtney banghard (@CoachBanghard) head coach, women’s basketball

mores Diego Vives and Kial Kaiser and juniors Tom Colautti and Alex Day sealed the comeback win for a final score of 4-2. The matches were tight, as Vives and Kaiser both won with scores of 7-6, and 6-4 respectively, while Day had a back-andforth encounter with Alabama’s Conner Huertas del Pino. Day dropped the first 6-1, but dominated in the second, bageling del Pino.

Serving for the match at 5-4, Day ended up getting broken to even the score 5-5. In line with the unflappable spirit of this year’s men’s tennis team, Day did not let this disappointment affect his

COURTESY OF PRINCETON ATHLETICS

Men’s tennis faced off against five ranked teams this weekend.

Stat of the Day

5.65 meters Height vaulted by Princeton polevaulter Adam Bragg, enough to qualify him for the Olympic Trials.

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