March 5, 2015

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Thursday march 5, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 25

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Art Museum investigates origins of WWII art

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In Opinion Steve Swanson argues that we should work to curb our confirmation bias, and Max Grear discuses the constricting nature of the University’s academic structure.

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By Christina Vosbikian staff writer

In Street This week, Street celebrates International Women’s Day as Associate Street Editor Jennifer Shyue interviews females in male-centric majors, Staff Writer Maya Wesby interviews U. President Emerita Shirley Tilghman and Staff Writer Nicole Bunyan explores This Side of: Women’s Squash at Princeton.

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Today on Campus 4:30 p.m.:Thomas Piketty, professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, and author “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” will discuss his new book. McCosh 50.

The Archives

March 5, 1980 The University reached an agreement with the Saudi Arabian government to receive $5 million to support science programs in exchange for University consulting for the University of Riyadh in the Saudi Arabian capital.

News & Notes Five people injured in explosion, fire near Columbia, Barnard

An explosion and subsequent fire in a restaurant near Columbia and Barnard College injured five people and forced the evacuation of two Barnard dorms on Tuesday night, the New York Daily News reported.

The explosion was reported at 11:30 p.m. on the ground floor of an 11-story building at 600 W. 116th St., police told the Daily News. Witnesses reported the explosion occurred at Ollie’s Noodle Shop & Grille, a restaurant often frequented by students. The restaurant is adjacent to several Barnard dorms on the corner of Broadway.

The detonation blew off the facade of the restaurant on 116th St. and Broadway.

A second blast shook the dorms and sprayed debris over cars parked in front of the restaurant, witnesses told the Daily News.

While the exact source of the fire is still being investigated, the fire started in the boiler room in the back of the dorms before spreading to the restaurant, a police official told the Daily News.

Authorities said the fire was under control by 12:46 a.m.

Four firefighters and one civilian were treated for minor injuries at St. Luke’s Hospital.

YICHENG SUN :: PHOTO EDITOR

Described by owners as “half art gift-shop, half yard sale,” S-T-O-R-E-D inventories modifed art at the Lewis Center.

STUDENT LIFE

U.’s 4th annual Mental Health Week wraps up

By Katherine Oh staff writer

The fourth annual Mental Health Week has been taking place this week, featuring the Dear World photography project, Me Too Monologues and workshops by Counseling and Psychological Services.

The Me Too Monologues are the newest edition to the Week’s programming. Started at Duke University in 2009, these monologues allow students to anonymously express their feelings about mental health in a performance.

The monologues will be performed at Theatre Intime on Fri-

day and Saturday.

Mental Health Week Committee member Kei Yamaya ’17 took part in selecting the monologues and editing performances onstage.

“The monologues we got were very long, very personal,” she said. “I felt honored and happy that people would submit that information about themselves.”

Incorporating the arts was a conscious choice of the board, Mental Health Initiative Board member Rachel Bronheim ’15 said.

Mental Health Week is sponsored by the Mental Health Initiative Board.

“We’ve tried to incorporate not just educational programming,

but arts and entertainment to keep people interested, and to keep the student body engaged,” Bronheim said. “Art is a particularly good way to raise awareness, but it can also be a project in and of itself. I think for the people who participated, it’s cathartic; but also for the community to see friends engaging in these kinds of issues and events goes a long way.”

Issues that tend to be stigmatized like mental health often lead to students feeling detached from the conversation, she said.

While last year’s Mental Health Week focused more on working See HEALTH page 2

Art museums across the country, including the University Art Museum, have intensified their efforts over the past decade and a half to determine the provenance, or origin, of art from the World War II era.

Guidelines issued in 1998 by the Association of Art Museum Directors and in 1999 by the American Alliance of Museums ask museums in part to attempt to resolve whether there might be potential claimants to art they are considering purchasing or which they have in their collections if there is the possibility that work of art may have been unlawfully appropriated by the Nazi government in Germany from 1933-45.

Museums should also disclose the chain of custody for a work of art if it passed through Nazi hands even if it cannot identify potential claimants, the guidelines add.

“The ethics in the field really require you to know the provenance of the objects in your collection,” Ford Bell, president of the American Alliance of Museums, said. ”If there is a claim against [an object’s provenance], you have to take it seriously. … You have to understand who the owner is and if they have a valid claim.”

Some museums use statutes of limitation or other legal arguments as justification for not pursuing provenance research, he explained.

“A museum director once said, ‘There is no statute of limitation on doing the right thing,’ and I think that’s important,” Bell noted.

The provenance of every work of art that comes into the museum is researched in some capacity, James Steward, director of the University Art Museum, said.

“Some of that is very easy, let’s say for a modern work of art that has been made recently, it hasn’t changed hands many times,” he said. “The research that is more important, ultimately, and more time-consuming See MUSEUM page 4

LECTURE

LECTURE

Rubin lectures on Ukraine conflict

By Jessica Li staff writer

The United States will not take direct military action against Russia in Ukraine but will rather seek a resolution through multilateral agreements to empower Ukraine, said Eric Rubin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, at a lecture on Wednesday.

“We need Russia in the world, we need Russia’s cooporation, but we can’t say that because Russia is important; it can set its own rules,” Rubin said.

The United States does not wish to escalate the controversy into a military showdown with the country with the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and strengthening Ukraine economically is key to extinguishing conflict, he said, adding that global domination is not on anyone’s agenda in Washington.

Describing Ukraine as “a country under PTSD for a year and a half,” Rubin said the costs of the crisis have devastated an already shaky economy. A high unemployment rate in Crimea, the demise of Ukraine’s tourism industry and crippling divestment by foreign businesses have plunged the country into destitution, he said.

Protests in response to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal represented an outburst of the “aspirations of a long suffering Ukrainian population,”

Rubin said.

To help revive its economy, Ukraine must amend its pension age, currently set at 60, address its energy crisis and consider adjustments in its currency value, Rubin said, adding that bringing the dispute to a close is indispensable to reviving Ukraine’s economy.

The United States will also never accept forced annexations of a sovereign territory, Rubin said.

“We cannot let self-appointed thugs be rulers of Ukraine,” Rubin said, noting that Russia’s actions last February were a shock and threat to the entire international system that has no other post-World War II precedent. Russia’s bellicosity is a recipe for complete chaos and breakdown, he added. “[Russia’s actions] affect neighbors who are watching anxiously,” added Rubin, “and the United States cannot accept an imposed treaty in 2015.”

Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociology professor, provided commentary on Rubin’s lecture.

Drawing a parallel to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Scheppele said the United States may have “overpromised on the economic and military front.”

Furthermore, the Ukrainian provisional government was not representative of the Russian elements of Ukraine’s population, she said, adding the lack of constitutional clarity is a major impediment to resolving the crisis. In addition, the proposed bill See UKRAINE page 2

HEATHER GRACE :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Richard Bernstein discussed his book about China at a public lecture on campus on Wednesday.

Bernstein discusses United States’ historical relationship with China

By Shriya Sekhsaria staff writer

The United States chose the wrong side in the Chinese civil war, Richard Bernstein, former Beijing bureau chief for TIME magazine, said in a talk on Wednesday.

Bernstein discussed his recently published book, “China 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice.”

Bernstein said it was his publisher’s idea to write about a time in Chinese history that was important for the formation of China’s relationship with the United States, adding he gave himself poetic license to stretch the book from Septem-

ber 1944 to April 1946.

“I had hoped to write something with scholarly authority that would be a good read — a popular read,” he said.

The conflict began in 1927 and lasted until 1937, when the two sides united to fight a Japanese invasion, and then resumed in 1946 and continued until 1950. If the advice from a small group of China experts had been followed, the U.S. and China could have had a relationship and communication that could have led to less conflict, he said.

As Bernstein carried out his research for the book, he learned of four main misconceptions that he had held, he said.

“As I researched and as I read about the topic, I realized that I was wrong about just about everything,” Bernstein said.

The first misconception related to the degree to which both Nationalists and Communists fought the Japanese.

It was actually the Nationalists that took well over 90 percent of the casualties in their fight, he noted.

“It’s an important misconception because, for some reason that I don’t particularly understand, it became embedded in the American consciousness,” he said.

Bernstein recalled that in an online interview for a Chinese See CHINA page 3

The Daily Princetonian

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Thursday march 5, 2015

Mental Health Week features Dear World photo project, Me Too Monologues HEALTH Continued from page 1

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closely with the administration to reexamine the University’s policies regarding mental health, this year’s week focuses on engaging with the student body more fully, Bronheim said.

The board brought Robert Fogarty, professional photographer for the Dear World project, to the University on Monday. The campaign, called “Dear World: Live at Princeton,” gave students the opportunity to write a message or story on their face, hand or arm and have their photos taken.

Mental Health Week first began as a USG senate project in the fall of 2011 when the senate examined the lack

of conversation and sense of stigma on campus surrounding mental health issues, former Mental Health

“While I’m aware that it’s Mental Health Week right now, I don’t really know the various components of what’s going on.”

Jiyoon Kim ’17

Initiative Board chair and current board member Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 said.

“I think that we’ve had a

successful partnership and collaboration,” Director of Counseling and Psychology Services Calvin Chin said of the collaboration between the Mental Health Initiative board and CPS for Mental Health Week programming.

The CPS workshops were organized based on student feedback from past years, Okuda-Lim and Bronheim explained.

“It says a lot about the Princeton community that people have already been asking us how they can help,” Bronheim said. “We’re playing on feelings and thoughts that the community already has and trying to create something bigger out of it.”

Morgan Taylor ’15, however, said she didn’t have time to make it to the events and

said the week being so close to midterm week was problematic for her.

“I just generally know that things are happening, but I haven’t actually participated myself,” Taylor said. “I’m a senior and I’m working on my thesis, so I don’t have a lot of extra time to go to talks. I don’t know if it’s always been right before midterm week, but I feel like it wasn’t so close to it before.”

Jiyoon Kim ’17 said she wasn’t aware of the events that were being held for Mental Health Week.

Kim is a former contributing columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

“It’s the same problem as last year, just like having more publicity out there,” Kim said. “While I’m aware that it’s Mental Health Week

right now, I don’t really know the various components of what’s going on.”

While this week marks one of the more publicized events run by the Mental Health Initiative Board during the year, members emphasized that conversations about mental health should continue after the week ends.

“Mental health is not something that only affects us for one week of the year,” Okuda-Lim said. “One of the things I look forward to seeing is USG senate, the board, but also just students in general having conversations, talking with their friends, talking with their peers, and knowing and showing that nobody is alone, that there’s always help available.”

One of the board’s goals is to reduce stigma towards

mental health as a campus and encourage students to be more open about their experiences related to mental health, in order to create a more supportive community, Yamaya said.

The takeaway from this week is that students should feel comfortable asking for help, Chin said.

“You’re not alone,” he said.

“If you feel like you’re struggling, if you’re worried about being an impostor, it’s common for people to sometimes feel insecure, to feel out of place.”

The week also includes screenings of the movie “Up” at the Garden Theatre.

Mental Health Initiative Board co-chairs Amalya Megerman ’16 and Naimah Hakim ’16 did not respond to requests for comment.

Rubin: U.S. will not take direct military action against Russia in Ukraine UKRAINE Continued from page 1

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to repeal recognition of the Russian language last February, though never signed into law, created a tinderbox for conflict, Scheppele said.

Two important elements of a solution to the crisis will lie in the efforts of the neutral state of Finland and constitutional reform in Ukraine, she said.

In response to a question about the United States’ “mini-

malist policy when it comes to military actions,” Rubin said that though it is agreed by the U.S. and NATO that Ukraine needs some degree of military aid, the question remains of whether to arm the country with offensive weapons.

The event took place at 12:15 p.m. at Robertson Hall Bowl 1.

It was organized by the European Union Program and cosponsored by the Program in Law and Public Affairs and the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society.

CORRECTION Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of the March 4 article, “U. students launch Friendsy nationally,” incorrectly transcribed a quote said by Friendsy co-founder Vaidhy Murti ’15. Due to an editing error, the March 3 article, “WuDunn GS ‘88, Kristof discuss education at panel,” misspelled Nicholas Kristof’s last name in the headline. Due to a reporting error, the March 3 article, “Fogarty lectures on Dear World Project for Mental Health Week,” inaccurately stated how long Fogarty was on campus. He was only on campus on Monday for the photoshoot and lecture.

The ‘Prince’ regrets the errors.

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Thursday march 5, 2015

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HEATHER GRACE :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Former Beijing bureau chief for TIME magazine Richard Bernstein gave a public lecture on Wednesday discussing his book about China.

Bernstein outlines 4 misconceptions about China CHINA

Continued from page 1

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newspaper, he said he admired the Chinese people because they did not surrender for eight years.

“It’s an astonishing achievement to stay independent for that long and not give up,” he said.

The second misconception, Bernstein said, was thinking that Mao was primarily a nationalist and only secondarily a communist revolutionary. From early on and throughout his career, Mao was loyal to Stalin, including several instances in which Stalin countermanded decisions that Mao wanted to take, he explained.

It took an extremely long time for the Chinese split from the Soviet regime to occur, Bernstein noted.

“During Stalin’s life, Mao remained totally obedient and polite to him,” he said.

The third misconception was that the China Hands, a loose group of American diplomats, journalists and other influential people who were knowledgable about China in the 1940s, were right about everything, Bernstein said.

Even though he could not have done better if he was in their place, they seemed to have gotten many things wrong, like the degree of democracy which the Nationalists and Communists would embrace, Bernstein said.

“Sometimes you read this stuff and it’s almost unbelievable that they could have said the things that they said,” he said.

The fourth misconception, he said, was believing that follow-

ing the China Hands’ advice of building a stronger relationship with the Communists would lead to better American-Chinese relations today.

“They said that maybe [being friendlier to the Communists] would work, maybe it wouldn’t, but was worth a try,” he said.

“And I think that they were probably right about that.”

While the China Hands’ suggestions were largely reasonable, Bernstein said he did not think they would have worked, because once the Soviets took over Manchuria, communist victory was probable, which would eliminate any chance of a normal relationship with the United States.

“I think that a long period of enmity between the United States and China was inevitable once the Communists were in power,” he said.

Since the United States was the world superpower, it tended to take a deep interest in distant issues that it perceived as potentially inimical to its interests, Bernstein said.

“The United States has to recognize the limitations of its power to shape the world to its own specifications,” he said.

One of the greatest lessons he learned while writing the book was that a mistake Americans made was forgetting that people in different countries were actually different to some degree, he said.

“The mistake that we made, and the expectation that we entertained as a results of that mistake, was that Mao was really like us,” he said. “We projected our own pragmatic rationalism onto the Communists.”

The lecture was held in Robertson Hall Bowl 1 at 4:30 p.m.

The Daily Princetonian

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WWII-era art origins often obscure MUSEUM Continued from page 1

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has to do with objects that may pose some concern in terms of establishing a clear history of ownership.”

Other than objects that might have a Nazi era chain of custody, archeological or antiquity pieces require intensive research, he said.

“As a teaching museum, we teach through our ethical conduct as much as we do through the content of our exhibitions,” Steward said.

The work of tracing an object’s provenance falls on the curator whose subject encompasses the object, he explained.

“We conducted retroactive work for the whole of our collection between 2001 to 2003,” he said. “We hired outside sources on our staff for a few years that had special expertise for the Nazi era. The records for many collections were confiscated or destroyed, so it can be difficult to establish clear ownership.”

However, the work of establishing provenance is always ongoing, he said.

“We do work on an ongoing basis with every object that comes to us either because the curator is interested in buying it as a purchase for the collection or an alumni or a friend comes by with a gift offer,” he said. “We also do this retroactively as new information comes to light.”

In 2011, the Italian government’s prosecution of illicit antiquity traders suggested a few items the University had acquired in the 1990s and early 2000s were probably the fruit of illicit activity, he said. The museum offered to transfer the titles of the work to the Italian government and some objects were returned in 2011, he explained.

No similar revelations in provenance have been made

in the museum’s collection art in the last year, he said.

“There are occasionally claims made against objects or expressions of interest,” he explained. “In the last couple of years, a claimant made a claim on an object in one of our collections, and we quickly determined it had no legitimacy. Nevertheless, we take all such claims seriously.”

The University Art Museum publishes an annual report that lists all acquisitions made that year, along with those acquisitions’ origins. It also follows the guidelines of the American Association of Museum Directors and the American Alliance of Museums, Erin Firestone, public relations manager at the museum, said.

“We’ve always been members of both organizations, and we’ve always been part of the conversation of following those best practices,” she said.

The United Nations’ Convention of the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970 was key in establishing international guidelines for due diligence in tracing cultural works’ origins, Firestone explained.

In the 1950s and 1960s, there were a number of problems internationally with looting and art transferring hands without countries being aware of it, she added.

“The UNESCO convention was a really important, landmark year where there was now this line drawn in the sand where … all of the museums in the United States, as well as Western Europe especially, abide by a rule that you have to do your due diligence to find out the provenance of an object that you acquire that was taken or released from its state of origin

after 1970,” she said.

In the 1980s, the University Art Museum registered with the Getty Provenance Index database. “[The Convention] created this whole push to encourage museums … to trace back the history of [Nazi-era] provenance,” Firestone said. “We were a part of that push way before it was a legal thing that you had to do. We really led the charge in looking at our own collections to ensure that we didn’t have any art objects that were stolen or looted.”

One of the museum’s first instances of tracing Naziera provenance was with the painting “Saint Bartholomew” by Bernardino Pinturicchio, she noted. In 1941, the painting was auctioned off as part of the estate of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, a Jewish resident of Vichy France without his family’s knowledge. The museum then contacted the family and made offers of restitution that the family accepted. “[Di Giuseppe’s family] actually offered that we hold on to that piece of art because it would benefit the public more than if it went back into private hands,” she said. “That was a really nice outcome of some of this research that we’ve done.”

While art acquired after 1970 from other countries is well-documented, tracing the provenance of earlier-traded items sometimes proves more difficult, she explained.

“Everything that’s been acquired since the UNESCO convention has been researched to the best of our ability,” she said. “As with a lot of art objects, there can be gaps in that provenance history, but that’s just natural. It’s not uncommon for there to be gaps, but we do as much as we can to fill the gaps and to be transparent.”

Thursday march 5, 2015

MASQUERADE

JULIE GOLDSTEIN :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Chabad at Princeton hosts its first annual Chabad Purim Masquerade at Chancellor Green.

Our obsession with structure

Thursday march 5, 2015

columnist

T

Max Grear is a freshman from Wakefield, R.I. He can be reached at mgrear@princeton.edu.

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Max Grear

his past January I witnessed an odd phenomenon for the first time: that whole month after winter break without any daily class routine, which seemed to be a uniquely Princeton experience. First there was reading period — a time of collective procrastination as unstructured hours slipped through our grasp. Then there were finals, when everyone buckled down and waited for Intersession to come. And finally, strangest of all, there was Intersession. After a couple days of jubilation, many of us who hadn’t made plans beforehand quickly reached boredom.

While few would admit to being relieved by the beginning of classes again, there was a part in most of us ready to get back into a routine, no matter how intense. And now that we’re in the middle of midterms crunch, we again pine for that Intersession laziness. But even as we complain about being busy all the time, we usually fill up our own schedules.

This is partly because as students, athletes, artists, musicians, actors and dancers we’re willing to give up our free time or sleep to pursue our interests. But I suspect that we’ve also developed a particularly acute need for structure in many different aspects of our studies, activities and life plans. Structure can take on many forms — from the way we pass an afternoon to the goals we set for the future — that can often be limiting.

There are clearly certain aspects of the University’s academic approach that lead to an emphasis on structure. The language requirement and writing seminars compel students to learn in regimented, uniformly structured environments. A certain amount of structure is necessary to keep track and take advantage of the many opportunities and responsibilities available to us — it takes a lot of organization to keep up with the demands of courses along with internship applications, interesting events and lectures.

Still, I have to wonder whether students may be overly concerned with academic structure.

These are not the kinds of things that we consciously think about on a day-to-day basis. We often find ourselves completing only the work that we know will get us through the week, assignments that we’ll put in a mailbox or that will get us through the quiz tomorrow. If there are readings we deem nonessential to our immediate academic survival, we skip them.

Part of this, of course, is a necessary prioritization of the short-term over the long-term.

But another piece of this behavior, I believe, is our reluctance to commit ourselves intensely to less structured academic activity.

To me, the habit of procrastination, more than a matter of short-term vs. long-term, is the consequence of a dependence on structure. Until a deadline forces us into action, we have difficulty motivating ourselves to invest in our studies.

For most of us, this survival strategy works perfectly fine. We get through the week, and then the month, and then the semester. But I can’t help but feel that we’re missing something by trapping ourselves in this self-constructed structure of the daily grind, cutting ourselves off from spontaneous inspiration and academic or artistic passion. Visual arts professor P. Adams Sitney explained in a recent interview why the University is the “great enemy of poetry,” adding that “it turns poetry into homework” and that “there’s nothing less sexy than doing your homework.” Structure can be stifling — but worse, unsexy.

Beyond our classes, we carry our obsession with structure over to our activities and relationships. In high school I was accustomed to participating in arts groups that didn’t require some kind of well-defined structure, an experience that in retrospect feels entirely different from the extracurricular culture here. At times I get the impression that if a group or club doesn’t have a president, vice president and secretary then it’s not considered a worthy time commitment. It almost seems like people are unaccustomed to simply working and socializing together spontaneously — which could be why so many people seem anxious after Bicker that their friend groups will split up if they’re not all accepted to the same club.

But our need for structure goes beyond our day-to-day lives on campus — this need may shape the way we plan for the future. As William Deresiewicz points in his provocative anti-Ivy piece, “the irony is that elite students are told that they can be whatever they want, but most of them end up choosing to be one of a few very similar things” — largely finance and consulting, fields that are practically built into the structure of Princeton through alumni networks.

Perhaps we have jumped through too many hoops and juggled too many leadership positions to unlearn these tricks. Maybe admissions should start cutting into Brown’s market. But we can start small, maybe during spring break — those of us who don’t have plans can wean ourselves off boredom and Netflix. Eventually, maybe we can find time to delve intensely into course material we’re excited about or even write long, sexy poems.

Opinion

Reasonable until proven otherwise Steve Swanson contributor

A

bout a week ago, Republican Idaho state legislator Vito Barbieri found himself in the crosshairs of the national media for asking a rhetorical question.

At a hearing regarding the use of telemedicine to prescribe abortions, Barbieri made the misstep of using sarcasm to make a point: when the doctor being questioned testified that colonoscopies are now performed remotely using a swallowed camera, Barbieri asked if this could be done to examine pregnancies, as well. Due to obvious features of anatomy, the answer to this question was an unequivocal no, speaking to the representative’s point that the two examinations are different. The audio recording of the hearing clearly captures Barbieri’s heavily sarcastic tone throughout asking the question — though a transcript of the event would seem to bespeak a shocking gap in the representative’s knowledge, a few minutes of research clearly demonstrates that the question was intentionally and rhetorically absurd.

However, the media response to Barbieri’s question was as gleeful as it was shallow. “Anti-Abortion Lawmaker Clearly Doesn’t Understand Female Anatomy,” declared the Huffington Post headline, while MSNBC announced “GOP lawmaker flunks Anatomy 101” and Slate painted Barbieri as “painfully ignorant.” Understanding the context in which Barbieri was speaking, it is obvious that he is not some bumbling incompetent, but it would seem that, because his opponents were so primed to hear a Republican legislator confirm their stereotypes about the out-of-touch, sexist, anti-science right, the context and true meaning ceased to matter.

Before anyone starts throwing stones, though, realize that this phenomenon is seen on all ideological sides and even on our own campus. A couple of months

ago, Newby Parton wrote a column in The Daily Princetonian entitled “The History of ‘wh’: A Microaggression.” In this piece, he relates a minor anecdote from his brief experience on campus, in which friends ribbed him for his Tennessee accent and then shrugged off his complaints as trivial. The point of the whole column is found in the last two paragraphs: from this experience, he realizes that it’s possible that he has “spent eighteen years not understanding when I have said something offensive” and exhorts others to “send [him] a message if [he] has ever hurt [their] feelings.”

Now, this column could not be much more innocuous — in a nutshell, Parton got offended, found that it hurt, saw how little empathy his friends felt and realized that he might have been showing this same callousness to others his whole life. The responses to the column, however, were not so innocuous. The top comment on the ‘Prince’ website directs Parton to “grow a pair, you insufferable, sniveling whinebag”; the National Review’s sardonic take featured the image of a sad geek superimposed on a container of Cool Whip; the College Fix accused Parton of “whining and groveling”; and any number of other blogs and sites picked up the column as supposed evidence of the absurdity of the campus left and our generation more generally.

These responses are puzzling at best: Parton states unequivocally that the “microaggression” that he experienced was “not very important” and that he is “ashamed” of his complaint to his friend.

Considering that the point of his story is just to set up how he realized that he wasn’t being empathetic enough, it’s true that he spends too much space discussing this component of his argument. But it is abundantly clear from even a cursory reading of the column that the insult to Parton’s regional dialect is ancillary to his point and is even acknowledged as trivial.

Why the vitriolic response, then? The commentators who picked up the story must have either not finished the column or been so predisposed to seeing what

vol. cxxxix

they wanted to see that the last couple of paragraphs didn’t register. In fact, I would venture that the reason for such harsh responses for this piece was, essentially, the word “microaggression”: seeing a buzzword of the left, conservative commentators were so primed to read something that confirmed their stereotypes of the other side as spineless whiners that the nuance and real point of the column were lost on them.

The above are two examples of a worrying trend: confirmation bias leads people to see the evidence they want to see in support of the views they already hold while ignoring, forgetting or flatly denying anything that directly challenges them. A dangerous positive feedback loop results: a preconception biases its holder to evidence confirming it, which in turn deepens the preconception and makes it more likely that future evidence will be viewed through its lens. This effect is only compounded by the Internet providing the unprecedented ability to surround oneself with only assenting opinions.

Of course, confirmation bias is universal, and it would be an exercise in futility to try to end it with a single column.

But as University students, we represent, ostensibly, some intersection of future leaders and the intellectual elite: we can and should hold ourselves to higher standards. The first step to combating this bias is to avoid demonizing our enemies — it is tempting to ascribe the attitudes of those with whom you disagree to willful ignorance or moral infirmity, but the reality is that most people are reasonable and well-intentioned. Newby Parton isn’t a caricature of effete liberalism and Vito Barbieri isn’t one of overbearing, ignorant conservatism. Constantly challenging our own preconceptions and giving our opponents a fair hearing may be exhausting, but there is no other way to ensure that we believe what we believe for the right reasons.

Steve Swanson is a computer science major from Vienna, Va. He can be reached at sswanson@princeton.edu.

club deflation Jack Moore ’15 ..................................................

Anna Mazarakis ’16 editor-in-chief

Matteo Kruijssen ’16 business manager

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 vice presidents John G. Horan ’74 Thomas E. Weber ’89 secretary Kathleen Kiely ’77 treasurer Michael E. Seger ’71 Craig Bloom ’88 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Richard P. Dzina, Jr. ’85 William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John G. Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy J. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Jerry Raymond ’73 Annalyn Swan ’73 Douglas Widmann ’90

139TH BUSINESS BOARD head of outreach Justine Mauro ’17 head of client management Vineeta Reddy ’18 head of operations Daniel Kim ’17 comptroller Nicholas Yang ’18 head of accounts receivable Ryan Baldwin ’18 director of circulation Kevin Liu ’18

NIGHT STAFF 3.4.15 staff copy editor Winny Myat ’18 news Grant Golub ’17

Eating habits in college Matthew Choi Taitano columnist

M

any people see the “freshman 15” as merely a myth made to scare incoming college freshmen. From The Atlantic to The Huffington Post, critics in the past few years have argued that claims of this weight gain are exaggerated. However, every year, there are some who actually do fall victim to the act of gaining 15 (or more) pounds during their first year of college. And while many others do not gain exactly 15 or more pounds, college weight gain in general is still a problem. A 2006 report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that college freshmen gained weight at a rate of 5.5 times greater than the rest of the population.

With all the stresses and changes that come with starting college, this is of little surprise. Especially at schools like Princeton, where large amounts of food are readily available through buffet-styled dining halls, late meal and study breaks, this problem seems to be more easily exacerbated.

At first, the weight gain might begin simply with the newfound sense of liberty suddenly thrust upon freshmen.

No longer are their parents around to monitor their eating habits. However,

this is not just an individual problem.

From study breaks that try to encourage participation by providing food to literal eating clubs built around the premise of upperclassmen eating together, eating food is institutionalized as a large part of social life on campus. What starts as an innocent exploration of independence and a form of socialization with friends is reinforced through the campus environment These unhealthy eating habits are only made worse during high-pressure times such as midterms and finals, when eating junk food may be seen as a way to cope with stress. In addition to the other negative behavioral patterns developed through these stressful times, such as lack of sleep, students may feel that they have to compromise between health and academia. Freshmen who are enduring the University’s rigor for the first time may have an especially difficult time balancing health and schoolwork under the belief that they must meet the University’s rigorous academic standards.

Furthermore, the environment that allows these eating habits to develop is not the only issue. We should also focus xthey impact students. Students might simply feel sluggish from excessive eating or develop insecurities about the way their bodies are changing. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix. Simple solutions such as to stop eating so much and to

exercise are easier said than done. It is already challenging for students to find a happy medium of eating healthily and exercising, let alone maintaining such a lifestyle.

Moreover, a greater concern is not only that these habits are being developed and made commonplace, but also that students might resort to even unhealthier habits. Students dissatisfied with their health might resort to extreme measures to maintain the appearance of health.

For instance, they might resort to regurgitating their food in order to prevent themselves from gaining any weight. Alternatively, students might cut down on their food intake, nearly stopping eating all together.

I have encountered or heard of people who have been subjected to such conditions. However, such problems are almost never willingly addressed. Eating disorders still seem to be treated as a taboo discussion topic. I believe that this is due to the stigma surrounding those who suffer from eating disorders. Many people tend to believe that these people are at fault for their condition, rather than their condition being promoted by their environment. Some do not even treat eating disorders as a condition, but rather as a pathetic cry for attention. In a society where physical characteristics other than slenderness are often devalued, it can be easy to convince oneself to not eat or to

throw up what one has eaten to conform to the body type everyone else seems to desire.

In college, we should not allow our peers to fall into such conditions. When we have suspicions that our peers are suffering from bad eating habits and eating disorders, we should try to help them to the best of our abilities, as opposed to believing that they are products of their own mistakes. Even if we are unequipped to help them, we should at least provide a non-judgmental ear in order to refer them to someone who can help.

The University’s academic rigor is stressful to deal with by itself, so having to deal with the added stress of eating habits and disorders is more than students should have to endure. Thus, as students of the same institution, we should assist our peers in battling these habits and disorders, rather than dismissing these issues as something trivial. We should reform our environment into one where such topics can be comfortably discussed. Without the fear of being criticized, students suffering from bad eating habits and eating disorders will be able to talk about their problems and receive the proper help that they need and deserve.

Matthew Choi Taitano is a freshman from Yigo, Guam. He can be reached at mtaitano@ princeton.edu.

Thursday march 5, 2015

Sports

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Men’s Swimming and Diving

by Jacqueline Li :: Staff Photographer Jack Mazzulo :: Contributing Photographer Last weekend, the Princeton Men’s Swimming and Diving team cruised through Ivy League Championships, pulling out a stunning victory with 1519 points, over 200 points ahead of runner-up Harvard.

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The Daily Princetonian

Thursday March 5, 2015

page s1

WOMEN AT PRINCETON

PAGES DESIGNED BY LIN KING :: STREET EDITOR

To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, Street examines the experiences of women on campus. Associate Street Editor JENNIFER SHYUE writes about women in male-dominated majors, Street interviews U. President Emerita Shirley Tilghman and USG President Ella Cheng ‘16 and cracks open the ‘Prince’ archives to rediscover the last 50 years of women’s history at Princeton.

W

hen Hannah Davinroy ’17 was in elementary school, she hated science.

“You had to draw a lot of pictures for science, and I was never good at drawing,” she said.

By the time she graduated from her high school in Lafayette, Colo., however, Davinroy’s attitude toward science had been transformed by one of her teachers, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration employee who taught Davinroy AP Physics B, general chemistry and AP Chemistry. “[She] convinced me I was good enough in science to pursue it,” Davinroy, an intended physics major, said. “I really liked that it became more of a puzzle to figure out science questions than it had been before.”

Physics, math, philosophy and B.S.E. computer science are the majors at Princeton with the highest percentages of male enrollees. For our issue about women at Princeton, Street spoke to six women who are current or intended majors in the departments to get a better sense of what it’s like for women to study in male-dominated majors.

FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES Like Davinroy, many of the students Street interviewed had similar formative experiences in high school. Though she did not have the opportunity to study it formally in high school, Natalie Hejduk ’16, a philosophy major, did some introspection and decided in 11th grade that studying philosophy in college would allow her to combine her love of both humanities and science, technology, engineering and mathematics classes.

At her high school in Belmont, Calif., intended philosophy major Laura Ong ’17 founded a philosophy club because she wanted to learn more about the subject, which her high school didn’t offer. The club still exists today.

Kasturi Shah ’16, a physics major from Mumbai, India, knew she was inclined toward the sciences as she saw news footage of rockets going into space as a small child, but she also spoke about the inf luence of the chemistry and physics department heads at her all-girls boarding school in the U.K. Both B.S.E. computer science major Stefani Karp ’15 and math major Isabelle Nogues ’15 concentrated on math and science in high school.

Karp went to a science and technology magnet high school in Alexandria, Va., and Nogues was on the

mathematics and science track in her latter two years at a French international school in Bethesda, Md. SOMETIMES SURPRISED Currently, according to numbers provided by the respective departments, 70.6 percent of undergraduate concentrators in philosophy are men, as are 73.5 percent in B.S.E. computer science, 78.7 percent in physics and 83.8 percent in math.

That is perhaps why Nogues, Ong, Davinroy and Karp said people are sometimes surprised when they first tell them what their majors are.

“One of the first questions I do receive is, ‘How many women are in the department?’” Nogues said.

“Once they really discover your passion for the field, all those questions somehow fade away.”

Ong said that sometimes people are surprised she is more interested in analytic philosophy, which she described as more math-like, than continental philosophy, which lies somewhat closer to the humanities.

“I started to suspect that maybe that’s because [analytic philosophy is] more like math than like English, and there’s the expectation that women would be more into humanities subjects,” Ong said. “That’s the only thing that seems to me like it’s a sort of gender-related thing.”

IN THE CLASSROOM In the classroom, however, the students’ experiences have been more varied. Both Shah and Nogues took the Integrated Science Curriculum when they were freshmen, and Shah said that experience encouraged closeness with her peers who are also now physics majors.

“Maybe when I was younger, I did care about what people thought,” Shah said, “but I don’t anymore.” She asks questions in class, she said, “no matter how stupid my question is.”

For Nogues, ISC sharpened an abiding love for math. She decided at the end of her freshman year that she wanted to be a math major.

Of her classes, Nogues said, “The atmosphere has been quite open and prone to questions.” The fact that she might be one of two girls in a class of 20 has “been more of something amusing and something that I’ve just noticed. It’s never been a true obstacle to my performance or experience,” she said.

For Karp and Hejduk, gender has not played a substantial role in their classroom experiences, but it has been something of which they’ve taken note.

Karp offered as an example the

group of undergraduates with whom she worked in a graduate-level theoretical seminar she took last semester: “I was basically the girl with a group of guys, which is not uncommon at all given the classes I’ve taken,” she said. “It affected [my experience], but at the same time I felt very comfortable in that setting.”

“I’m taking a logic course this semester; it’s probably one-third women at best,” Hejduk said. “It definitely feels like if you don’t seek out the support system of other woman philosophy majors or other woman professors, who usually are very supportive, you definitely feel like a minority.”

On the other hand, Ong said, “I feel like I’m that one kid in precept who talks and talks and talks. … Maybe I’m breaking down other people’s gender expectations.” She added: “I think our department does a good job of not having gender feel like an issue in class.”

MENTORSHIP The mentorship between female undergraduates and professors that Hejduk mentioned has become part of an organized effort in some departments. Ong said she regularly attends meetings of the Women in Philosophy discussion group, which is part of a department-wide initiative called Minorities and Philosophy. In an interview, Professor Andrew Appel ’81, chair of the computer department, pointed to the student organization Princeton Women in Computer Science as a strong source

of undergraduate peer mentorship.

On the physics department’s website, there is a page dedicated to the Women in Physics Group, though Shah noted that the group seems to be geared primarily toward graduate students.

On a more informal level, “There’s actually quite a push among graduate students and professors in my department right now to reach out to women and to become mentors,” philosophy professor Delia Graff Fara said during a Skype interview.

Part of that stems from a larger conversation surrounding the underrepresentation of certain groups, not just women, in philosophy, she said. Fara is also the department’s equal opportunity officer.

“We’re very actively talking about these issues — broadly, not just at Princeton,” Fara said.

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH” Research led by philosophy professor Sarah Jane Leslie has also recently pushed into the spotlight the topic of gender ratios in the country’s most male-skewing disciplines.

Using survey data from 1,820 faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at schools across the nation, Leslie and her team found that the more a discipline emphasized the value of brilliance rather than hard work, the lower the number was of women earning doctorates in that discipline.

Davinroy seemed to echo those attitudes toward brilliance when she said, “I’m not a smart physics major.

I’m not the best physics major — I put in a lot of work, and I care a lot about it, but it’s also not my life like it is for some people. … I do feel like I’m lost a lot in class and have to work really hard.”

She said of conversations she’s had with other female physics majors, “There’s also a lot of talk [about] what it’s like to feel like you’re not good enough.”

Hejduk also talked about not feeling “good enough.” She recounted how, in a philosophy course she took as a freshman, it took most of the semester for her to raise her hand in class.

“Probably some of that was I was a freshman, but some of it was, it feels like all these guys [are] just sort of going at it; I’m one of four or five women in this class, and I just don’t know what to say,” she said. “I felt like what I had to say had to be good enough in order to equal the other people’s comments.” The feeling has faded as she has integrated more into the department, she noted.

For Ong, philosophy feels like a natural fit, but she mentioned reading about research that indicates men are more likely to continue in disciplines like computer science even when they don’t get the best grades, whereas women are more likely to drop it.

She said of her own experience with COS 126: General Computer Science and her decision not to major in computer science, which she

CONTINUED ON S2

ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS WITH LOWEST PROPORTIONS OF FEMALE MAJORS # Female

# Male

% Female

% Male

Philosophy

15

36

29.4

70.6

Math

11

57

16.2

83.8

Physics

10

37

21.3

78.7

Computer Science (BSE)

73

202

26.5

73.5

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday March 5, 2015

CONTINUED FROM S1 brief ly considered: “That does resonate with me, like I do feel like that was part of the reason — I did okay, but I didn’t get a great grade. And I felt like I was just kind of out of my depth, which is not something that I’ve felt her with philosophy so far, although I imagine it’ll get harder.”

Davinroy, too, talked about reading about research regarding differences in how men and women approach science.

“A lot of it has to do with there’s not a lot of positive feedback in science — it’s kind of a punishing trajectory,” she said. “The way that the research that I’ve read says that girls handle that is that they find something they are the best at … And so whenever I feel like I should do something else because I’m not good enough to do physics, I think about that research, and I kind of talk myself into being good enough in it again.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE Both Appel and Fara emphasized the importance of viewing the gender ratios

within a larger context. The number of women in philosophy at Princeton ref lects national averages, Fara said.

In Princeton’s computer science department, Appel said, there are actually proportionally more women than the national average. Additionally, Peter Bogucki, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, noted in an email containing information about the gender breakdowns in computer science that the percentage of female B.S.E. computer science majors has more than doubled in the past 10 years.

The undergraduates Street spoke to also said their experiences do not necessarily ref lect a more general experience.

“All of what I’m saying … it’s coming from one person who’s had a relatively good experience in STEM,” Nogues said. “I don’t mean to generalize or speak for all women in STEM.” AN UPWARD TREND? It does seem, however,

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FACULTY IN ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS WITH LOWEST PROPORTIONS OF FEMALE MAJORS # Female

# Male

% Female

% Male

Philosophy

4

13

23.5

76.5

Math

8

50

13.8

86.2

Physics

2

36

5.3

94.7

Computer Science (BSE)

8

28

22.2

77.8

that an overall upward trend in women majoring in disciplines where they have historically been underrepresented will lead to continued, if gradual, progress in improving gender ratios in academia.

Hejduk, Karp, Nogues and Ong all plan to apply at some point to graduate school in

their respective disciplines.

In particular, Hejduk and Ong both said they would love to ultimately become professors.

When asked what advice they might give to other women considering majors in their fields, all six undergraduates urged students to at least give things a try, even in spite of

potential challenges. “[Philosophy] really is a subject where you can just pour hard work into it and be really excited about it, and that will make a difference, and I think that’s something that’s important to see,” Ong said.

For some of these women,

the road has not been easy. For others, it’s been easier than they might have initially expected.

Ultimately, however, Karp said, “What’s important to succeed is really genuinely enjoying it. I think if you’re enjoying it, the rest will sort of f low naturally.”

Q&A University President Emerita Shirley Tilghman MAYA WESBY Staff Writer

S

treet sat down with Shirley Tilghman, who from 2001 to 2013 served as the 19th President of Princeton University. The first female to hold the position, Tilghman discussed her accomplishments as president, gender dynamics at Princeton and the national gender equality movement.

Daily Princetonian: What would you say was your greatest accomplishment as President of Princeton University?

Shirley Tilghman: That is a difficult question, as I don’t think there was one single thing that stood out above others. I could point to the increase in the number of students who receive financial aid, thereby making Princeton more accessible for students from all income levels; the [Lewis] Center for the Arts that increased so many opportunities for students to pursue the arts; the [Princeton] Neuroscience Institute; [the Center for] African American Studies.

DP: Was there a moment during your tenure when you felt undermined because you were a woman?

ST: No — I never felt undermined. I think it took some time for some alumni to get used to a woman president, but I never felt as though that temporary unease undermined my ability to serve.

DP: In your experiences, how has Princeton changed in its views on women’s rights and gender equality?

ST: Two major initiatives during my time have improved conditions for women on campus: the Task Force on the Status of Women Faculty in the Natural Sciences and Engineering was instrumental in improving the recruitment, retention and experience of women scientists and engineers, and the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership has brought a greater focus on the ways in which we are preparing young women for the world after Princeton. I also think it has helped to have so many women serving in senior roles in the University and going on to lead other institutions.

DP: How has Princeton changed in its representation of females in the student body

and faculty?

ST: The percentage of women in the undergraduate student body has increased only modestly because women were already well-represented. The percentage now is routinely just below 50% because of greater interest in engineering on the part of male applicants.

I don’t know the current number of women on the faculty, but that has been increasing as well, but very slowly.

DP: Specifically, how would you describe the current state of female representation in scientific fields? What improvements would you recommend, if any?

ST: The picture is mixed. In fields like molecular biology and psychology, women are very well-represented in graduate school, but their numbers fall off at the faculty level. At the other extreme are fields such as physics and mathematics where women are under-represented at all stages. Some of the problem is related to [the] way we teach science, beginning in primary school, and some of it is related to deeply ingrained cultural practices within the

disciplines that are not welcoming to women in general.

There is good evidence to suggest that women need more effective mentoring in order to persist within such cultures.

DP: Nationally speaking, would you say that the goals of the gender equality movement are being met? Why or why not?

ST: I have been worried for some time that the improvements in the status of women in our society have slowed in recent decades, after remarkable gains in the wake of the feminist movement. It is very clear that until we find better solutions for working parents — including paid maternity leave and proper child care options — the progress is going to be slow.

DP: What advice would you give to the other women of Princeton?

ST: [Find] what truly interests you and [what you] are reasonably good at; then pursue that career with determination and focus. Choose your mentors well, and don’t let anyone discourage you because you are a woman or turn you into a victim.

COURTESY OF DENISE APPLEWHITE

Q&AUndergraduate Student Government President Ella Cheng HARRISON BLACKMAN Associate Street Editor

S

treet sat down with Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president Ella Cheng ’16, one of the many new female leaders on campus. We asked Cheng about the gender dynamics of the USG election last fall and women’s leadership roles on campus.

Daily Princetonian: According to The New York Times, you are the first female USG president since 2003. How does

YICHENG SUN :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

it feel to inhabit that role?

Ella Cheng: Well, it’s a huge honor but it’s also a huge responsibility at the same time.

I really hope that through this position I can do a good job as a standard USG president, but also to really be a role model for women on campus in general.

I don’t think we have enough women running on campus in general for these very public, campus-wide elections. I think that hopefully my running and winning, that more

girls will step up to run for USG president and vice president, the executive committee chair positions, and even for freshman senator, class council elections, which also do have a gender skew. Most of our class council and our senators consist of men. So I think there’s still a disparity there across USG. I think it’s generally getting better but that doesn’t mean we should be complacent.

I think that how I really started [was] I was really encouraged from the vice president from I think two terms ago at this point, Carmina Mancenon [’14] — she knocked the first few doors when I went door-to-door.

So that really encouraged me when I was running for freshman senator and really set me on a pretty clear trajectory onward.

I think that’s a really clear illustration for me I guess

as what my role is as a woman leader... I’ve learned the first few weeks that it’s a lot of work, but I’ve really enjoyed it.

Every day I get the unique role of getting to make a difference on this campus, little by little.

I’m trying to innovate a lot in the USG after such a controversial and well-talked-about election.

DP: During the election, you said that a female candidate would not have been able to pull off the satirical campaign that Will Gansa ’17 did.

EC: First of all, the funny thing is I don’t think I have that great a sense of humor, or I have a very weird sense of humor, so I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off myself. But besides that, I think that even a girl in Quipfire, or you know, really a great comedian on campus here, I don’t think she would necessarily have gotten an attraction that Will’s campaign did because she’s a woman. I think generally women in politics are viewed as — when they are in that position to really run for higher positions — usually they’ve gotten de-positioned because they’ve gone well be-

yond their calling, their roles, their responsibilities and over-performed. It’s always about hard work and diligence and almost serious work, it’s not necessarily about your personality or sense of humor.

And when you have those elements sometimes you can be discredited as too light-hearted and not taking your job seriously enough.

I think this is kind of different gender norms for women in leadership and I generally do think, from what I see women have to over-perform to themselves feel qualified for the position or and also sometimes to be perceived as qualified to run. So that’s why I think there’s a disparity there. During the election I did not want to necessarily embrace these points as directly but that was one of the points that resonated with me the most when a lot of women stood up to defend me and Molly [Stoneman ’16] and stand up for us, and I think that one made a lot of sense to me. Having a lot of experience in politics and having gone through numerous election cycles since high school,

middle school, it really goes way back, I think.

DP: Aside from the satirical campaign, the USG election was also marked by gender dynamics. Will you try to address these dynamics as president?

EC: To address it, what I’m trying to do on my end is to promote the work of the Women’s Center and the Women’s Mentorship Program. While I don’t want to overlap with their work and supercede it, what I’ve tried is to advertise their networking events, their forums on the school-wide emails and also to attend a lot of these myself. I’ve joined the mentoring program, I’ve been at Women’s Center events so that this way, my face is known and that girls can feel like they are comfortable to talk to me about what it’s like to run, what it’s like to campaign.

You’ll probably see more of me when it comes to upcoming spring elections for USG, because you know this will be my last term so I will have a lot of freedom to reach out to a lot of girls and to advocate for them specifically and encourage them one-on-one.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday March 5, 2015

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THIS SIDE OF

Princeton Women’s Mentorship Program:

WOMEN’S SQUASH AT PRINCETON

community of empowerment VICTORIA SCOTT

NICOLE BUNYAN

Staff Writer

T

he Princeton Women’s Mentorship Program was founded in the 20112012 school year — more than forty years after women were first admitted as undergraduate students to the University in 1969. The program was inspired by a March 2011 report by the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership. Then-University President Shirley Tilghman created the committee in 2009 to explore the disparities between female and male undergraduates inside and outside the classroom and to understand how both perceive and achieve leadership and success. The 118-page report, which can be found online, concluded that women “consistently undersell themselves,” feel “pressured to behave in certain socially accepted ways,” are “outpacing men on our campus in academic achievement, except at the very highest levels” and ultimately “seek, and benefit from, affiliation with other women.”

Seeking to build and strengthen relationships between women on campus, the Princeton Women’s Mentorship Program started with 81 undergraduate women in 2011, according to the program’s website. This number increased to 140 undergraduates in the 2012-2013 school year and 260 the following year. By the fall semester of 2014, the program had over 610 undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff and alumni members.

Current co-presidents Elizabeth Dolan ’16 and Olivia Robbins ’16 joined the men-

torship program mainly for its mission to “actively engage in conversations about leadership on campus and beyond,” as stated on its website.

“I joined as a freshman because I thought it was a great way to meet other women I wouldn’t have otherwise had the chance to interact,” Robbins said.

Dolan saw the program as a more structured approach to engaging with upperclassmen. “I was looking for mentors who I could ask questions relating topics such as course selection, social issues, and I felt like this was an organized way to do it,” she said.

These conversations and ability to network with other undergraduates have been some of the most valuable experiences for former co-president Carolyn Yang ’15.

“The structure we have used to pair up women in the program has changed over the years,” Yang said. “For me, just interacting with my pod, which consists of women across class years and campus affiliations, has really given me a support network outside my direct friend group.”

In addition to frequent interactions between undergraduates, the conversation is expanded through faculty members and administrators.

The mentorship program is sponsored by the Women’s Center, the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of Vice President for Campus Life, in addition to administrative sponsors Tara Christie Kinsey, associate dean, and Amada Sandoval, director of the Women’s Center.

Staff Writer

“For me, the best part about being a member has been the relationship with other team leadership members and the administrators that oversee the program,” Robbins said. “[The network with administrators such as] Associate Dean Tara Kinsey, Bruce Easop, who is a Leadership Fellow, has been useful — they have been able to give me feedback on my leadership abilities.”

Dolan expressed optimism about the program’s interaction with administration and faculty. “The interaction between faculty and administrators has been really interesting,” she said. “We have the ability to ask faculty members their advice in a non-academic setting and to hear their perspectives on different topics such as career development.”

An important aspect of the program’s mission statement is to “empower women students to take on leadership roles and realize their full potential at Princeton and beyond.” The Women’s Mentorship Program aims to help undergraduate women on campus find their voices and inspires them to be confident women of promise.

“We want women on the campus to feel like they have a space where they can talk about their issues, worldly issues and any issues on our campus,” Yang said.

“I personally would love to see every women on campus at least on our listserv,” Robbins added. “Our events are open to everybody. Ideally, I think, every woman should be part of the conversation.”

T

his past weekend officially marked the end of my career as a student-athlete at Princeton. Although I will no longer spend countless hours underground at Jadwin Gym, the personal identity that I have developed as a student athlete will stay with me forever.

Being a freshman at Princeton can be daunting. It can be difficult to find your classes, find your friends and most importantly, find yourself among such a competitive student body. Entering Princeton as part of the squash team not only gave me an instant community, it made me feel as though I were contributing to something larger than my own academic success

and personal growth. Having team gatherings, matches and practices provided an outlet from the rigorous academics at Princeton. Although the majority of the benefits I have reaped from being a studentathlete have not been genderspecific, there are some things for which I am very grateful as a female athlete. Some benefits may seem trivial while others may be much more noticeable, but all have had an impact on my career both on and off the court.

Throughout my four years of college, I have noticed how almost all women are selfconscious about their bodies (I am not exempt from this).

However, being a female athlete has made me much more aware and also more comfortable with my body. Sure, there are times when I wish I could wear f lowy frocks that look good on thin, frail models. But then I remember how weak I feel on the squash court after having failed to fuel properly before a practice. I remember how my body helps me to run, bike and hit a squash ball. The sense of accomplishment and personal pride I gain from success in athletics far outweighs the feeling of being a delicate model. Is my butt COURTESY OF MTBELLO.COM too big for those Nicole Bunyan ’15 at the 2011 Women’s Ivy pants? Oh well, I League College Squash Scrimage. can lunge on the

squash court. A sweater is too tight on my shoulders? Hm, well I (almost) did a chin-up yesterday and that was pretty cool.

In my opinion, if you feel good in your body, it probably looks good too. And to be honest, who is scrutinizing it anyway? Playing squash, which appeals to a wide range of body types, has certainly opened my eyes to the variety of talent and skill which is used in the game, and for that I am grateful.

Another topic that is somewhat contentious amongst females in our day and age besides body image is food intake. As an athlete, I eat to perform. My primary reason for eating well is not to keep a certain body fat percentage so I can wear a smallersize squash dress (which, to be honest, fits me like a long shirt anyway). I eat well so that I can play well in the dress. Furthermore, I feel fortunate to not worry about being judged for what I eat. I truly enjoy good food, and being an athlete not only gives me a pass to eat as healthy as I want, but to eat “other” foods as well. Peanut butter is a food group for me, and I take great pride in it.

From the small things, like justifying my decision to wear sweatpants far too often, to larger issues, such as everyday confidence, being a female athlete has been one of the most important parts of my Princeton career. Furthermore, it has given me the confidence to write this article — something I would not have been willing or able to do without these experiences.

The Golden Age for Spanish language women writers and beyond OLIVER SUN Senior Writer

P

rofessor Ronald Surtz has been teaching with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures at Princeton since completing his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1973.

“The profession chose me,” Surtz explained. “Spain and Spanish literature have always interested me.”

Surtz said he finds the study of Spanish culture particularly compelling because of its uniqueness among its European neighbors.

“People think they know Spain,” Surtz said, “but in reality Spain is constantly surprising. It doesn’t really fit the European model.”

This spring, Surtz is teaching SPA 301: Topics in Spanish Literature of the Golden Age – Women Writers of Spain and Latin America. The Golden Age of Spanish literature spanned from the early 16th century to the late 17th century.

He finds this topic intriguing because it explores the voices of dissidents and often times sup-

pressed groups in Spanish history. The course also relates to Surtz’s own research: He recently traveled to Spain to write the first English translation of the visionary sermons of a 16th century Spanish nun. According to Surtz, works such as this illustrate “a combination of the old, customary traits with the new, imaginative traits in a blend of orthodoxy with unorthodoxy.”

Surtz is particularly interested in the works of female writers because of their refusal to submit to the social norms of their time.

“They didn’t have it easy,” Surtz said. “Female writers needed to justify what they were doing to their contemporary society. During that era, women publishing books was almost like walking naked in the streets.”

The course is conducted entirely in Spanish, but most of Surtz’s students are not Spanish concentrators. Instead, these students already have some familiarity with Spanish language and culture and are seeking to engage more deeply with

the literature, he said.

Surtz incorporates a mixture of old and new into the classroom when he outlines the books that the class will read during the semester. He assigns readings with which he is well acquainted as well as readings that are relatively new to him.

“The core of this course is similar to what it was 20 years ago,” Surtz explained. “But as the course evolves, there is a growing expansion into modern texts.”

In addition to works from the Golden Age of Spain, Surtz also includes readings from the 19th and 20th centuries, hoping to build on the framework of the literature from earlier centuries.

Many of these modern texts deal with themes such as the Spanish Civil War, but are, according to Surtz, “refracted through the lens of female characters.”

Surtz finds the movement from historical to modern texts particularly poignant because these new texts bring a fresher feel to the course.

“Literature is organic,” he said. “It grows over time.”

WORK FOR

STREET

STREETEDITORS@GMAIL.COM

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday March 5, 2015

page s4

1965-2015

CAMPUS PICKS

Street Editors Lin King, Harrison Blackman and Jennifer Shyue take a look at portrayals of women in 50 years of ‘Daily Princetonian’ archives.

POETRY: ELLIPSES PRESENTS: ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION’ Theatre Intime Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

Been wanting to tear things apart?

Worried about how to put them back together afterward? Come learn about all that in Ellipses’ spring show, “Under Construction.” Watch the slam poetry group rebuild “anything and everything” with nothing but words.

Word of caution: remember to bring a helmet, because according to Ellipses “the foundations are shaking and nothing is safe.”

1965

The cover art of “Where The Girls Are: A Social Guide to Women’s Colleges In the East,” a dating guidebook for Princeton men published by the ‘Prince’ in 1965.

The book includes summaries of events and insiders’ looks at women’s colleges, as well as an opening article titled, “How to Succeed with Women Without Really Trying — You Can’t.”

THEATER: ‘HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE’ Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m.

March 12-13, 8 p.m.

1969

Princeton officially began accepting women applicants, a transition documented in the Prince on October 21, 1969. The photograph below, featured in the article “Coeducation at Princeton: The Struggle of an Idea at a University in Transition,” was accompanied by the caption: “Flirting with more than snow during Coed Week.”

Haunting, gripping and unsettling are just a few of the words that may describe the Program in Theater’s “How I Learned to Drive.” Directed by lecturer R. N. Sandberg, the senior thesis production of Paula Vogel’s acclaimed play chronicles the life and struggles of Li’l Bit, played by senior certificate student Caroline Hertz ’15.

Hertz is a senior writer for the Daily Princetonian. Be on the lookout for Street’s review of the show online next week.

THEATER: ‘SPRING AWAKENING’ Berlind Theatre Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

Sunday, 2 p.m.

March 12-13, 8 p.m.

Do you feel like a repressed teenager?

Do you feel like you belong to 19th century Germany? Do you like electric rock & roll? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Program in Theater’s senior thesis production of “Spring Awakening” is for you.

Directed by theater certificate student Julia Hammer ’15 and starring theater certificate student John Fairchild ’15, this rocking adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical is sure to cheer up the sobbing teenager in you. Be on the lookout for Street’s review of the show online next week.

1970

On September 14, 1970, the ‘Prince’ reported that freshmen and sophomore women students will be able to enroll in Physical Education courses.

According to the article, thirteen students signed up to form a women’s crew team, “[scoffing] at a suggestion that they might develop tremendous shoulder muscles.”

MUSIC: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA MARCH 2015 CONCERTS Richardson Auditorium Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

1979

The Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Women’s Studies officially proposed the Women’s Studies Program on May 22, 1980. The Program was officially renamed Gender and Sexuality Studies (GSS) in 2011, according to its website. Nancy Malkiel (née Weiss) went on to become the first interim director of the Women’s Studies Program and the longest-serving Dean of the College.

Looking for some professional-standard live music? Luckily for you, Princeton is filled with talented performers who people will be paying big bucks to see in just a few years. This weekend, PUO will be accompanying three such people: winners of the 2015 Concerto Competition Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen ’15 (countertenor), Edward Leung ’16 (piano) and Emma Powell ’17 (violin).

Come enjoy their award-winning performances — or just get some autographs for future reference.

DANCE: RAKS ODALISQUE PRESENTS “ARZU” Frist Film/Performance Theatre Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.

Saturday, 9 p.m.

If you’ve watched Raks Odalisque’s trailer for “Arzu,” you wouldn’t have to look the word up in a Turkish dictionary to guess that it means “desire” or “wish.” On their 15th anniversary, Raks is inviting everyone to celebrate this milestone of Princeton’s only belly-dancing troupe. Be sure not to miss “Arzu,” or you’ll have to wait a whole year to see swords, shimmies, carnivals, shimmers, gypsies and more.

1990

Although Sally Frank ’80 lodged her complaint against the University’s all-male eating clubs for sex discrimination in 1979, it was not until 1990 — eleven years later — that Ivy Club and Tiger Inn were compelled by law to admit women members. Frank, now a professor at Drake University Law School, spoke about her experiences on October 13, 2014 at a public lecture in Whig Hall.

ART: ”S-T-O-R-E-D” Lucas Gallery, 185 Nassau Street Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

2001

On May 5, 2001, Professor Shirley Tilghman was named the 19th president of Princeton University. She stepped down from the presidency in the end of the 2012-2013 academic year, after a 12-year tenure. See S2 for an exclusive interview with Tilghman.

Half yard sale, half art gift shop, senior Ben Denzer’s thesis show merges the the old and the new to create a unique space of “modified artworks and found objects.” Hosted

by The Program in Visual Arts, “S-T-OR-E-D” is a visually stunning inventory of books on wheels, books with nails, books with hooks, normal books and more. Check out the inventory online at www.s-t-o-r-e-d.com or swing by the Lewis Center of the Arts for the full experience.