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Wednesday April 26, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 51
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Q&A: Valedictorian Jin Yun Chow ’17 By Rebecca Ngu staff writer
The Daily Princetonian sat down with Jin Yun Chow ’17, who was recently named valedictorian for the Class of 2017, to discuss her academic and extracurricular interests. A comparative literature major from Hong Kong, Chow will deliver the valedictory address at the University’s Commencement ceremony on Tuesday, June 6.
COURTESY OF JIN YUN CHOW
Chow will pursue a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Stanford University
The Daily Princetonian: How did you react when you heard the news? Jin Yun Chow: When I first found out, I was only allowed to tell my parents, so I called them up at 1 a.m. They didn’t know what being valedictorian really was, so I had to explain to them while they were very sleepy. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone until yesterday. I still feel very overwhelmed, and I feel like there are so many deserving people. At the end of the day…I just feel like I’m very lucky to have been given this honor and that it could have been given to any of the super high-achieving people in my year. And now I’m really trying to think about what I could possibly say to this group of super diverse, talented people from all
over the world. DP: Princeton is a very challenging place. What’s been your approach to academics? JYC: I came from a super tiny school; my graduating class was like 30 kids. So getting in was a big surprise already. When I got in, I told myself, “I’m going to be a small fish in a big pond.” I discarded all the expectations I had in school, which really allowed me to experiment and meet completely new people. Just being in a new environment, I was able to put down all my history and expectations of myself and try something new. In high school I struggled a lot with stressing out about maintaining high achievements. But for some reason I was able to make that mental shift when I came here to try completely new things. It helped being so far away from home and not having my parents around. I also had a really weird health episode my freshman year. The second week of freshman year, my lung collapsed. It was terrifying. So I have this weird lung condition where my lung will randomly collapse. When that happened freshman year, that was the third time, so I knew how to handle it. But it wasn’t the best
timing. I was in the hospital for a week, missed a week of classes, almost had to take a year off. That was very disruptive, but it made me a much stronger person. I still remember doing Latin homework in the hospital with my left hand because my right lung had collapsed, so I couldn’t really move [my right arm]. DP: What were some of the new things that you tried? JYC: I taught in a prison for the first time. Before that, I had never even set foot inside a prison before. I started that freshman spring with the Petey Greene program. Sophomore year I started planning my own class with some of my friends. That’s definitely been the newest thing. It’s something that I want to continue in graduate school, too. DP: Did you start PREP (a workforce reentry education program for prisoners) yourself? JYC: Yes, I started PREP with some of my friends. It stands for Princeton Reentry Employment Preparation. It’s a vocational training program. Next year will be the first year where none of the founders will be there. We teach See VALEDICTORIAN page 2
Q&A: Salutatorian Grant Storey ’17 ON CAMPUS
By Rebecca Ngu staff writer
The Daily Princetonian sat down with Grant Storey ’17, who has recently been named the Latin salutatorian for the Class of 2017, to discuss his academic interests and post-graduation plans. Storey, a computer science major from Berkeley, Calif., will deliver the traditional salutatory oration in Latin at the University’s Commencement ceremony on Tuesday, June 6. The Daily Princetonian: How did you find out that you were selected Latin salutatorian? Grant Storey: A week and a half or so ago, I met with the Dean of the College, Dean Dolan, and she let me know that I’d been nominated as salutatorian. After it was officially ratified yesterday, they published the news. DP: How did you react when you heard the news? GS: I mean, it’s a great honor. That was, I think, the biggest thing for me. I feel incredibly honored to be recognized in this way. I’ve been very involved in classics in Princeton starting freshman year even. To a certain extent the way the salutatorian is chosen involves some input from classics
faculty, and I’m very friendly with some of them. So it was wonderful to know that they really think well enough of me to grant me this honor and trust me enough to give a speech in Latin. I guess really the first thing I thought was that my dear grandmother whom I love very much — that’s a little corny — that she’d be really proud since she’s been very supportive of my efforts in Princeton. That was the first thought — she’d be really happy to hear. In general, it’s just a great honor to be able to give a speech with Jin who’s just an amazing person. DP: You’re a computer science major, but heavily involved in classics as well. How did you get interested in this mix of academic fields? GS: In high school, the Latin program was fantastic and there were two really good teachers involved. When compared with the other language options, it seemed like the best option. In the first year it was very rigorous, but I fell in love with the language and the history and really enjoyed that. I took four years of Latin in high school. When I came to Princeton, I was still interested and decided
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
to continue. I just love classical languages and literature and also a lot of the linguistics behind it. I took a class on Indo-European languages with Professor Katz, and we didn’t talk about the specifics of how you speak a lot of these languages, but we spoke on how they relate to each other and descend from each other. I find that stuff fascinating. Every class – Latin, Greek, deciphering ancient languages — I’ve just enjoyed immensely. In high school, I found that I really had a passion for computer science. People often ask me why I decided to be a computer science major instead of a classics major, and at the end of the day, sometimes with classics I think “Ok, I need to take a break from this,” and with computer science I’m always interested and engaged. I don’t feel like, “Ok I need to take a breather and stop reading all this philosophy.” I found that there is a lot of overlap and opportunities to use these newer computational techniques to analyze classical texts… There haven’t been a lot of people who are trained in both computer science and the classics working on See SALUTATORIAN page 2
COURTESY OF JAMES STOREY
Storey will pursue a Master’s Degree in computer science at Cornell University
U . A F FA I R S
Happer GS ’64 defends Eisgruber discusses federal climate change claims research funding at alumni event associate News Editor
On Saturday, April 22, University physics professor emeritus William Happer GS ’64 discussed the Paris Climate Agreement on CNN, comparing it to the 1938 Munich Agreement among Britain, France, and Nazi Germany. The Munich Agreement was signed by United Kingdom Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and was an attempt to appease Hitler and prevent further annexation of European lands. Happer made the comments on CNN’s “New Day Weekend” when asked how he would advise U.S. Pres-
In Opinion
ident Donald J. Trump on how to move forward with the Paris Climate Agreement. “To me, it’s very similar to the [1938] Munich Agreement that Mr. [Neville] Chamberlain signed,” Happer said, in response to a question posed by news anchor Victor Blackwell. “It is an appropriate comparison because it was a treaty that was not going to do any good. This treaty [the Paris Climate Agreement] also will not do any good.” Happer further clarified his comments in an interview with the ‘Prince,’ and explained that the Munich Agreement was supposed to calm the situation in EuSee HAPPER page 5
Contributing Columnists Jan Domingo Alsina calls for the removal of national politics from USG campaigns and the Young Democratic Socialists demand changes in the treatment of Princeton’s service workers. PAGE 4
By Marcia Brown Head News Editor
University alumni gathered in Washington, D.C. Monday night to hear from President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 at the JW Marriott Hotel. According to one alumnus present at the event, around 1,200 people attended. During his remarks, Eisgruber discussed his worries about diminished funding for academic research, especially in the sciences. The Atlantic has reported that President Donald Trump’s administration has not made research in the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a priority. Although Congress
ultimately approves the budget, if Trump’s proposals are not modified, these agencies could see significant cuts to research funding. “There’s tremendous concern” about cuts to science funding, Eisgruber said at the event. “It would be an extraordinarily damaging thing . . . if we don’t continue to fund basic research,” Eisgruber added, according to an alumnus present at the event. He added that without that funding, scientists could potentially leave the United States because “if it doesn’t happen here, it’s going to happen somewhere else.” Assistant Vice President for Communications Daniel Day wrote in an email that al-
Today on Campus 5:30 p.m.: POSTCOMMODITY: Artists from Cherokee and Navajo nations and New Mexican mestizo culture speak on issues of identity and geography in modern politics. 101 McCormick Hall
though Eisgruber has submitted his budget proposal for funding requests, ultimately the budget appropriations are up to Congress, and that Congress frequently makes “decisions that differ significantly from what the President proposes.” He added that, based on current reactions, this pattern will be repeated this year. Day explained that federal funding plays a critical role in “enabling Princeton and other universities to conduct cutting-edge science and provide support for the graduate students who will become the leading researchers of the next generation.” Day said the University will advocated strongly for fundSee RESEARCH page 5
WEATHER
By Abhiram Karuppur
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Wednesday April 26, 2017
Chow: Digital humanities less lofty and obscure VALEDICTORIAN
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resume writing, interview skills, job applications for Panera or Wawa or different kinds of sales, and also college essays for those who want to go back to school. DP: You knew English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and some French coming in. And you picked up Latin, German, and Old Irish in Princeton. Did you know that you were interested in languages and comparative literature coming in? JYC: I came in thinking that maybe I would try out classics, so that’s why I started Latin. I loved it but I realized that I liked spoken languages more and liked immersing myself in a particular culture that’s still around. I discovered the comp lit department sophomore year, and was like, wow! I didn’t want to be in any particular national literature, so comp lit seemed like the best way. With German, I heard of how well it’s taught here, and I’m very drawn to language pedagogy as well. It was totally worth it; I spent two summers in Germany. But in terms of why I spoke French and Chinese for my thesis work; they’re my best languages and I could do more translations with them. I’m interested in looking at the relationship between China and the west. In this case, it’s Europe, France in particular. I feel like there‘s been a lot of fetishization of China across the centuries. There’s not a lot of mutual understanding on cultural or political levels even up until today, so I wanted to look at cultural interactions between these two countries. My thesis looked at the 19th century in particular. It was on a French woman’s translations of classical Chinese poems. it was one of the first introductions of
classical Chinese poetry from the seventh to eighth century — so really old — to French in the 1800s. I was looking at how this particular anthology of poems informed European perceptions of China. DP: Do you feel like being named valedictorian has meaning beyond the individual? Did you feel like you were a representative in any way? JYC: I do feel particularly happy that I’m a woman of color, I suppose, and particularly happy that I’m an international student. Because I think in Princeton, it’s much harder for people who don’t speak English at home to feel at home and to interact at the same level academically. I’m very lucky in that I happened to adapt to the English language medium quickly, but I know that it’s a tough challenge for a lot of international students. And also I guess in general you don’t see that many Asians in the humanities. I hope that I ... can encourage people to be interested in the humanities and break away from both gender and racial stereotypes of majors. DP: What are you doing after graduation? JYC: I’m going to Stanford for a P.h.D. in comparative literature. I want to delve more into the digital humanities. Something that I’m really passionate about is how to make the humanities less lofty and obscure to people. Digital humanities visualizes things in a way that is accessible to people who might not be super into books. Also, bringing together the computer science and humanities, which is also one reason why I chose Stanford, because it’s so strong in both. Being in a place where it’s so clearly tech- and science-heavy and seeing how the humanities sort of fight back and adapt to make themselves relevant is something I’m interested in learning more about.
Storey: I try to make sure I’m happy with what I’m doing SALUTATORIAN Continued from page 1
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these areas, so I can do interesting innovative research. People ask, “Why hasn’t anyone else done this before?” Well, not a lot of scholars have my set of intersecting interests, but it’s definitely a field that’s growing a lot. DP: In your four years studying in Princeton, what have been some of the most valuable things that you’ve learned academically or otherwise? GS: I think the biggest thing has been to make sure that in every class I’m doing my best. I’ve certainly taken classes for interest that were more difficult and less difficult, but regardless of whether this was an incredibly difficult 300-level course in Lucretius’s “De Rerum Natura” or one of the 200-level AST courses because I’m really interested in mapping and stellar cartography, in all these cases, my main goal is just to work my hardest, try my best, try to make sure that all of my work reflects the best of my ability, and not be particularly concerned or consumed by “Oh what grade is this paper going to get?” Trying not to focus on external validation as much, but focus on being happy with what I’ve done and being proud of my work. I think that has served me very well. In terms of my academic work in Princeton, I try to make sure that I’m happy with what I’m doing and am not just trying to hit external goals or deadlines. DP: What will you miss the most about Princeton? GS: Obviously I’m going to miss my friends and all these relationships that I’ve built up being es-
tranged by distance. Beyond that, being an undergrad in Princeton has allowed me to pursue whatever I’m interested in. I’m doing classics and computer science, but I also take history classes. I mentioned a class on mapping the universe. When I’m interested in a class I’m able to take it with amazing faculty in this wonderful environment in Princeton. Going on to grad school, I’ll be sort of focusing on my specific area of research and have fewer opportunities to just say, “Hey! I’m going to take a class on the history of the Napoleonic wars” since that’s a topic I’m interested in. In the future, if I want to learn something outside of my area, I’ll have to do self-study and won’t have access to quite the same incredible academic resources that Princeton has. DP: What are you most looking forward to after graduating? GS: One of the good things about graduate school is that I will be able to focus on what I’m doing and have a bit more time to work on my own research projects and not have to worry about my four to five classes. I’ve been working on my senior thesis and this other research project on privacy security and ad blocking. Between the two of those, there’s been a lot of research work and doing that in addition to my classes has been a little bit stressful. Being in an environment where research is the primary focus will be good. Also at Cornell there’s a strong teaching component, so I’ll be a preceptor and I do really enjoy helping others and supporting people in their academic endeavors. That’ll be a good opportunity to work with undergrads and help them through their journeys in computer science.
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Wednesday April 26, 2017
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Opinion
Wednesday April 26, 2017
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
Young Democratic Socialists Guest Contributors
O
ur service workers are essential to the running of the University and deserve not only our praise, but also our respect. Yet, their diligence and commitment to the community cannot be admired if their rights as workers and human beings are not also addressed. After listening to stories and feedback from many service workers, mostly from Frist Campus Center and Facilities, we, the Young Democratic Socialists of Princeton, object to this treatment and demand that the University do better. We do not seek to deny the ability of campus workers to act on their own; instead, we aim to leverage our positions as students to bring these demands to the administration. Student actions in solidarity with workers do not preclude workers from acting on their own behalf; rather, they strengthen workers’ ability to advocate for themselves by bringing greater awareness to their situation. The Princeton administration has failed in its moral duty to treat its workers with respect by not fully compensating them for their labor and not providing for their needs. The University’s handling of the snowstorms this year has revealed significant f laws in its treatment of workers. On March 14, the day of “Snowstorm Stella,” the University declared an emergency and remained closed until 5 p.m. Only workers deemed emergency essential employees were asked to come to work during the storm. As the Daily Princetonian reported, 35 of these “essential employees” slept in cots in the basement
Jan Domingo Alsina
of Frist the night before the storm. In response to student outrage, the University stated that those who slept on campus overnight chose to stay to avoid traveling on dangerous roads. In fact, this is standard practice; the University usually houses its essential staff in emergency shelters such as Dillon Gym or Frist MPR during weather emergencies. While we are glad that the University offered essential staff the option to stay on campus, we object to their poor accommodations and lack of proper compensation for their labor. We submit two demands, crafted with the guidance of campus workers. First, we call upon the University to provide back pay to its employees who worked at any time on February 9 and March 14 during the snowstorms but did not receive overtime pay because their shifts did not fall within the “emergency period.” The University declares when an emergency begins and ends and therefore decides who gets overtime pay and who doesn’t. But simply because the University declares an emergency situation to be “over” does not mean that the roads have become less snowy or less dangerous. Those who came to work before 5 a.m. or after 5 p.m. still had to drive to or from home in a snowstorm, but they did not receive any compensation. Additionally, those who came to work during the emergency period were paid overtime only until 5 p.m., even if their shifts extended further into the night. If you have traveled through a snowstorm or in abnormal road conditions to get to or from work, you should be paid overtime for your whole work shift.
Second, we demand that, in the case of emergencies, the University will guarantee its workers comfortable, private accommodations in a hotel. At a University with a multi-billion-dollar endowment, no one should have to choose between driving home in a snowstorm and sleeping in a basement with dozens of other people. In fact, the University put up the managers in hotels, while lower-level workers slept in the basement in cots. Princeton clearly had the ability to privately house the workers, but only did so for the managers. The University should not discriminate based on pay grade. All workers deserve to sleep on beds and in private lodgings. Additionally, the University knew about the snowstorm days in advance and could easily have made preparations to house workers in any of the dozens of hotels in and around Princeton. In order to make our demands heard, we will be holding a march in solidarity with the workers of Princeton this Thursday, April 27 at 4:15 p.m. in front of Richardson Auditorium. This march is the first step in familiarizing the student community with the issues that campus workers face, even at a place like Princeton. Many campus workers we have spoken with have expressed that they greatly enjoy their jobs and interactions with students. Yet the fact that the workers like their jobs is not an argument against treating them better. We simply seek to improve their working conditions, particularly with regard to extreme weather events like the February 9 and March 14 snowstorms. Even though some of the workers who have approached us are union
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members and union stewards, we are not organizing this march through the union because according to the workers, the union is not able to organize an action of its own in a timely and effective manner in response to the snowstorms. The University has failed its workers, and we students noticed. After students learned that service workers had slept in Frist during the March 14 snowstorm, University Student Government President Myesha Jemison ’18 created a Google Form for students to submit notes to campus workers in response to the snowstorm. 380 notes poured in expressing gratitude, love, and outrage on behalf of the workers, and a letter of thanks was published in the Daily Princetonian. We invite all who wish to support our community’s workers to join us in protest, as we seek to translate expressions of gratitude into concrete action. By praising workers for their diligence and commitment to students, the University often implicitly justifies their unsatisfactory working conditions. We cannot let workers be mistreated in our name. It’s time that we use our power as students to demand that the University compensate its workers for their labor and give them the respect they deserve. Signed, The Young Democratic Socialists of Princeton YDSP is a left-wing student group committed to educating, organizing, and mobilizing the campus community in the struggle for social change. Our vision of socialism is profoundly democratic, feminist, and anti-racist.
Politicizing USG campaigns
Contributing columnist
T
Letter to the Editor: Fight for workers’ rights
hese past weeks, my Facebook feed has been plagued by USG campaign posts. It’s understandable, given the potential social media has these days to spread a political message. The other day, I stumbled across a post that threw me into total confusion. The candidate posted a picture stating: “In this class, we believe Black Lives Matter; women’s rights are human rights; no human being is illegal; science is real; love is love; kindness is everything,” followed by a ___ for Class President. The candidate also posted about “programming that includes celebration of and education on our diversity; ensuring everything is considerate of religious and cultural needs.” People certain ly seemed to love it — it received nearly 100 likes. Granted, these were not politically extreme statements, but there’s still something political in them. I’m not here to argue about whether I agree or disagree with the statements. But there’s
just no need to politicize something that is inherently apolitical. What do I mean by this? Despite having the title “president,” despite having the word “government,” this position has absolutely nothing to do with national politics. USG candidates are glorified social event organizers who connect our class to the administration, and that’s it. The only government aspect of it all is that these candidates are elected — but please, enough with the “diverse and inclusive community” narrative. Enough with this illusion of “building more class unity.” This may come as a huge surprise, but hosting ice cream social events and giving away free gear will not change our campus culture to a large extent. I do recognize, however, the position of class president represents being a mediator between the class and the University — a degree of responsibility that I do not deny. But the position they’re running for will not allow them to turn this campus into the close-knit and politically correct wonderland they
so much desire, so there’s no need to politicize it. The funniest part is when the candidate talks about making the class more inclusive and then brings politics into it. Newsf lash: politics are inherently divisive. I’m going to go on a limb here and guarantee that there might be some students on this campus who don’t actually agree with the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This “class unity” and “inclusiveness” concept is hypocrisy at its finest — but hey, anything for the votes, right? Still, most of this campus is liberal, and people will eat up any blank political statements that follow the modern liberal narrative. So once again, why bring politics into it? It baff les me. It might almost seem paradoxical at first, but USG should be the most far-removed entity from politics on this campus. We have WhigClio to objectively debate and further the political discussion, but this should never be the aim of USG. If, as they claim, their aim is to represent the class, politicizing a campaign does the total opposite.
We live in a superficial age. We only care about the way things appear or the way things sound, but behind it all, it’s painfully empty. There’s just no substance there, no real truth to it. This is best embodied in the language used in USG campaigns. Throw in the words “unity,” “diversity,” and “inclusive” and they’ve got a viable campaign platform, as simple as that. I personally would prefer if they’d cut to it directly: if there were a campaign that simply claimed, “I will get you free gear,” and nothing else, then I would vote for them immediately. I ask USG candidates: Stop decorating your campaign with f lowery political language to garner votes. Despite the likes you may get on Facebook, I guarantee you that everyone can see through it. At this rate, the only aspect that is truly political about these campaigns is their vapid campaign slogans. I, for one, have had enough of it. Jan Domingo Alsina is a freshman from Princeton, N.J. He can be reached atjalsina@princeton.edu.
Sarah Sakha ’18
editor-in-chief
Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Randall Rothenberg ’78 Annalyn Swan ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73
141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 Head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 news editors Abhiram Karuppur ’19 Claire Lee ’19 opinion editor Newby Parton ’18 sports editor David Xin ’19 street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 web editor David Liu ’18 chief copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Nicholas Wu ’18 associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Claire Coughlin ’19 associate street editor Andie Ayala ’19 Catherine Wang ’19 associate chief copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 editorial board co-chairs Ashley Reed ’18 Connor Pfeiffer ’18 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19
NIGHT STAFF copy Catherine Benedict ‘20
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Wednesday April 26, 2017
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Happer: Paris Agreement Without funding, won’t have impact on climate scientists might leave U.S. HAPPER Continued from page 1
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rope, but it ended up having little to no effect. Similarly, he explained that ExxonMobil and coal companies are supporting the Paris Climate Agreement because they think it will be a way to appease environmental groups. “[The French and the British] thought it was a small price to pay since they thought they would have peace for a generation,” he said. “Exxon and the coal companies think they’re appeasing the green fanatics, and the same thing will happen that has happened with the Munich Accords: they will not appease them for long.” Happer noted that another issue with the Paris Climate Agreement is that, while some argue that pulling out of the agreement would send a negative mes-
sage to the other signatories, other countries have also reneged on treaties that the U.S. negotiated in good faith. “We intend to live by what we agreed to do, and many other countries don’t,” he said. In terms of practical considerations, Happer thought that the agreement wouldn’t have the “slightest impact on the climate,” and that it would “cause enormous hardships on the whole world,” especially for underprivileged people. However, he explained that there are political considerations to take into account, such as whether pulling out of the agreement would weaken allies’ support for helping the United States solve the problem in North Korea. In addition, he called into question whether the United States should even follow the terms of the treaty, since it was never formally submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
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ing levels that allow colleges and universities to continue to achieve their educational missions. Additionally, when the administration proposed its budget last month, The Science Coalition – of which the University is a member – issued a statement. The Coalition attested that the “skinny” budget “breaks from longstanding bipartisan recognition that federally funded basic research and related scientific discoveries are an important driver of the U.S. economy, creator of jobs and essential to a prosperous future for our nation.” The statement further expressed considerable concern that this budget will “jeopardize U.S. leadership in science and endanger a generation of new knowledge, scientific breakthroughs, and innovation.”
According to the Coalition’s website, the group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of the nation’s leading public and private research universities dedicated to sustaining federal funding for basic scientific research. The coalition was established in 1994. Eisgruber also said that he hopes there will be another residential college “down the road” in addition to the residential college that is currently planned to be built next to Poe Field, according to an alumnus present at the event. The event was free and alumni could register online in advance. The event is part of a series of all-alumni events Eisgruber has held periodically during his three years in office. Gatherings take place around the world with the last event being held in London in March. Associate News Editor Abhiram Karuppur contributed reporting to this story.
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Zheng sweeps USAPL Collegiate Nationals ZHENG
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COURTESY OF ALICE ZHENG
Zheng eraned a gold medal while competing for Team USA at the 2015 International Powerlifting Federation World Classics in Finland.
also serves as co-captain of Princeton Powerlifting. The club features a wide spread of experience levels, from international competitors to beginners looking to get started. The team has also given Zheng a community that shares her interest in powerlifting and a venue to share her experience with other students. “We try to get everyone training together. We have a practice schedule and we always try to have a couple of the club officers at the practices to check everyone’s form and to make sure
the newbies are not hurting themselves. Sometimes we do social events, like all you can eat sushi to get our protein in,” said Zheng. Looking forward, Zheng hopes to continue to pursue powerlifting after her time at Princeton. In fact, she cannot imagine stopping. “I’ve never really understood what it meant to be passionate about something until powerlifting. It’s really the first thing I found where instead of being really into it for a year or half a year it’s been something I can’t leave,” commented Zheng. “I’ve tried to stop powerlifting for a while and I just ended up back in the gym hitting the same lifts. So, it’s really important to me.”
True Story Emily fockler ’17 ..................................................
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Sports
Wednesday April 26, 2017
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } POWERLIFTING
Alice Zheng takes first place in powerlifting national championship By David Xin Head Sports Editor
Two weekends ago, senior Alice Zheng, a member of Princeton’s Powerlifting Club, earned first place at the 2017 USAPL Collegiate Nationals. A veteran of the sport, Zheng took the top spot with an impressive performance, squatting 160 kg, benching 91 kg, and deadlifting 188 kg. The competition featured hundreds of contestants covering over a dozen weight classes. Zheng competed in the 72 kg division. Contestants were awarded points based on the sum of their three heaviest lifts in squatting, benching, and deadlifting. Each athlete was given three attempts in each discipline. Zheng’s cumulative score of 449.98 was more than enough to grab the top spot; second place finished with a sum of 392.37. Zheng discovered powerlifting when a colleague invited her to the gym in the summer of 2012. “I always wanted to get stronger, but I didn’t know how to without hurting myself. So, when he offered I jumped on the opportunity,” Zheng recalled. A year later, Zheng was ready to compete in her first competition. There she met Kimberly Walford, a world champion powerlifter and one of Zheng’s future mentors. “She helped hold my
hand through things because I was very nervous and we kept in touch after and she started me on competitive powerlifting,” said Zheng. Since then Zheng has gone on to compete in several competitions. Her resume includes several National Championships, North American competitions, and even an Arnold Sports Festival —named after the Great One himself. But perhaps most notably, Zheng represented Team USA in 2015, competing at the International Powerlifting Federation World Classics in Finland. Zheng made a huge splash, taking home the gold in her division. “It was really amazing for me to be on an international platform competing for my country. That was also the first time I had a nine-for-nine performance, which is where you make every single one of your lifts,” Zheng stated. “It was really cool, going neck-and-neck the whole time, and I pulled through. And I felt really good about executing on all my lifts.” Growing up, Zheng never imagined she would develop a passion for athletics. “I grew up as a couch potato – never really worked out. I was always the last person picked for PE class when we played ball games,” Zheng stated. “I remember this one
COURTESY OF ALICE ZHENG
The captain of the Princeton Powerlifting Club, Zheng has competed in multiple prestigious competitions including the Arnold Sports Festival and the International Powerlifting Federation World Classics.
time we were playing touch rugby and somebody passed me the ball. I just freaked out so much that I just threw it at the first person that I could see.” However, now Zheng cannot imagine her life without powerlifting. “I feel like in general it has had a powerful impact on me in terms of the way I see being competitive with other people and
my self-confidence,” said Zheng. “The thing that attracted me to powerlifting in the first place was going back to the gym and being able to put more weight on the bar and that I had gotten stronger. So just having this thing in my life [that] whenever I invest my time, effort, and energy into it I see the payoff has been really powerful for me.”
For Zheng, this commitment means frequent practices at Dillon Gym, where her coaches run her through a variety of circuits including leg presses, lunges, dips, lap pulldowns, and many other accessory workouts aimed to build and maintain muscle. When Zheng is not finishing her own workouts, she See ZHENG page 5
Men’s tennis defeats Dartmouth, drops match to Harvard in weekend series MEN’S TENNIS
By Michael Gao Staff Writer
COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
The men’s tennis team will finish Ivy League play against Penn on Saturday at 3 p.m at the Cordish Family Pavilion and Lenz Tennis Center.
Tweet of the Day “Congratulations to Princeton’s Erika DeSanty on earning Coach of the Year honors!” Princeton Golf Team (@ princetongolf), Golf
In their weekend home bouts against Ivy League competitors this weekend, the men’s tennis team split their two matches, rebounding after a 3-4 heartbreaking loss to Harvard to take a 4-2 win against Dartmouth. The weekend series moves the Tigers to 13-12 overall and 3-3 in the Ivy League. The Tigers entered their match against the Crimson on a two-game winning streak, having topped Yale and Brown a weekend before. Harvard and Princeton were locked in agonizingly close competition for much of the dual meet, with the score reaching a nail-biting 3-4. Senior Tom Colautti, playing at first singles, continued a season of remarkable performance and tenacity, prevailing in two out of three sets over Harvard’s Sebastian Beltrame. Meanwhile, at second singles, senior Alex Day likewise clinched a signature victory over the No. 121-ranked Kenny Tao from Harvard. At sixth singles, senior Jonathan Carcione took his match against Harvard’s Christopher Morrow in straight sets. But the Crimson matched every Princeton victory with a tough win of their own, clinching the doubles point
Stat of the Day
.500 percentage Softball Freshman Allison Harvey hit .500 this week to earn Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors.
and three singles bouts. Ultimately, it would be Harvard that walked away from the court with a 4-3 advantage, having eked out a heartbreaking win over Princeton. The Tigers had little time to mourn their close defeat, as they stepped out again the next day against Dartmouth. Princeton jumped out to a seemingly-unstoppable lead, grabbing the first three points. The doubles teams of freshman Payton Holden and sophomore Jimmy Wasserman and junior Luke Gamble with Carcione decisively won their matches, claiming the coveted doubles point, while Carcione and Day repeated as victors in their singles matches. But Dartmouth rallied with wins at 3rd and 5th singles and was poised for a comeback, when Princeton junior Kial Kaiser dropped the first set of his game 1-6. But Kaiser hung tough, rallying from his deficit to win the next two matches and claim the fourth singles match, clinching a 4-2 victory for Princeton. The Tigers head for their final regular season match against Penn this weekend before competing at NCAA regionals, where they hope to have the chance to truly break out onto the national scene.
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