April 26, 2019

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Friday April 26, 2019 vol. cxliii no. 55

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U. increases financial aid budget by 7.2 percent for 2019–20 academic year

U . A F FA I R S

By Linh Nguyen Associate News Editor

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The new undergraduate financial aid budget will be $187.4 million, up from $174.2 million last year.

U . A F FA I R S

On Thursday, April 25, the Office of Communications announced that the University trustees have “adopted an operating budget for the University totaling $2.3 billion for 2019–20.” Of this total budget, $187.4 million — up 7.2 percent from last year’s $174.2 million — will go towards undergraduate financial aid.

Over the next year, the University predicts that the average financial aid package will increase 6.6 percent from $53,100 to $57,100 among the over 60 percent of undergraduate students who receive financial aid each year.

This altered budget accompanies an increase in the cost of housing, room, and board from $65,810 to $69,020, or a 4.9 percent increase.

The increased budget follows a recommendation made by the University’s Priorities Committee, which submitted its annual report to President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 on April 1.

In addition to recommending the increase in financial aid, the Priorities Committee also recommended the 4.9 percent increase in the fee package, citing the importance of “tuition revenue to support the excellence of teach-

ing and research at the University.”

In the report, Provost Deborah Prentice — the University’s chief budget officer and the Priorities Committee chair — estimated that net revenue from undergraduate tuition “will increase by 1.1 percent to $84.3 million” for the 2020 fiscal year.

“This continues a longer-term pattern of nearly flat net revenue growth for undergraduate tuition for the past two decades,” Prentice wrote.

According to the Office of Communications statement, “the University insulates students on aid from increasing costs of attendance” by recalculating aid packages each year “to offset increases to tuition, room, board and other expenses and to take into account changes in the family’s financial circumstances.”

“We follow the simple but important principle that a Princeton education should be affordable and accessible to any family,” Prentice said in the statement.

“The financial aid office makes extraordinary efforts to determine parental contributions that are fair, given each individual family’s resources.”

Eisgruber presented the proposed budget to the trustees on April 7.

ON CAMPUS

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel to U. claims error in room draw process, cap Artist-in-Residence season at provides compensation University with two sold-out concerts to affected students

By Rebecca Han Staff Writer

Upperclass room draw processes were not completely randomized this year, according to an email sent to the dorm-undergrads listserv by Director of Housing Dorian Johnson. Johnson wrote that $1,000 would be deducted from the 2019–20 housing fees of rising seniors directly affected by the issue and in the lower half of their class’s draw.

Johnson explained in the email that a student notified the Department of Housing and

Real Estate Services on April 8 that there were “similarities between the selection orders of the 2018 and 2019 upperclass draws.”

The department is working with CBORD, a company which provides software to manage the room selection process and its randomization, to identify the cause of the issue.

Johnson said in an email statement to The Daily Princetonian that the logistics of how the compensation-eligible students would receive the $1,000-deduction are still being finalized.

See ROOM DRAW page 2

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

By Linh Nguyen Associate News Editor

On Wednesday, April 17, the Navajo Nation Council voted 17–1 on a bill to confirm Doreen N. McPaul ’95 as attorney general of the Navajo Nation.

McPaul was one of 12 individuals appointed to the Navajo Nation administration by president Jonathan Nez upon his inauguration in January. The appointments were made alongside vice president Myron Lizer.

“We assessed their academic and professional accomplish-

In Opinion

ments and experience, but most importantly, we examined their character and their passion to help our people and our Nation,” Nez said of his appointees at the inauguration ceremonies.

Because numerous appointed positions, including that of attorney general, require a confirmation by the council, McPaul’s office remained unofficial until the council’s spring session, which took place April 15–19.

Council members Edmund Yazzie, Herman M. Daniels, and Mark Freeland co-sponsored the See MCPAUL page 3

Editor-in-chief Christopher Murphy critiques the inequity of the current room-draw system, and senior columnist Liam O’Connor criticizes Princeton’s scholarship allocation choices.

PAGE 4

ALBERT JIANG / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Dudamel’s sold-out final two concerts as Artist-in-Residence will take place on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 P.M. and 4:00 P.M.

By Albert Jiang Staff Writer

When Maestro Gustavo Dudamel’s residency was announced in April 2018, most people thought it was an April Fool’s joke, according to Yang Song ’20, clarinetist and copresident of the Princeton University Orchestra (PUO).

“No one imagined that someone like Gustavo Dudamel would actually come to Princeton,” Song said.

Dudamel is Princeton University Concerts’ first-ever Art-

ist-in-Residence. Marna Seltzer, Director of Princeton University Concerts, helped bring him to the University in celebration of the 125th season of Princeton’s concert series.

Currently in his 19th year as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Dudamel has also been the Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) since 2009.

In addition to being awarded a Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance in 2012, he has received the Leonard Bernstein

Today on Campus 7:30p.m.: Gustavo Dudamel Conducts University Orchestra & Glee Club Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall

Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society in 2014 and the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award in 2016. Dudamel has also worked alongside pop icons such as Beyoncé, Chris Martin, and Bruno Mars.

Throughout the 2018-19 season, Dudamel curated a concert exploring “Art & Faith,” which featured musicians from the LA Phil in early January. He also spoke with Spanish and Portuguese Professor Javier Guerrero in a Spanish-language See DUDAMEL page 3

WEATHER

Doreen N. McPaul ’95 appointed Navajo Nation attorney general

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The Daily Princetonian

page 2

Friday April 26, 2019

Specifics of how students will receive deduction to be finalized ROOM DRAW Continued from page 1

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JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Johnson explained in the email that a student notified the Department of Housing that there were similarities between the selection orders of the 2018 and 2019 upper-class draws.

“The University is committed to all compensation-eligible students, regardless of aid level, receiving the full benefit of the indicated amount,” he said.

In the email, Johnson said that Housing consulted the USG executive committee and members of ODUS in reaching the decision to offer affected students financial compensation, rather than the option of re-drawing.

In an email statement, USG president Zarnab Virk ’20 said that Housing contacted and met with the executive committee on Tuesday, April 23, in order to get students’ perspectives on the issue.

“They ran through several options with us, and given the time constraints, the number of people that had already chosen rooms and meal plans for the year, and the feasibility of achieving a truly fair and randomized draw schedule, we agreed that re-

doing the draw would not be feasible,” she said in the statement.

Virk wrote that the committee negotiated an appropriate compensation for affected students and emphasized the importance of having a fair draw going forward. The executive committee will continue to work with Housing as “they seek to resolve the issue for next year.”

In the email statement, Johnson also said that previous room draws would not have been affected because this is the second year Housing has used the housing management system that provided the randomization algorithm.

According to the email, the approximately 220 students affected by the issue are all rising seniors.

“Overall, their draw times are improved from last year because of their seniority on campus,” Johnson wrote in the email to undergraduates. “However, their order among the other rising seniors does not appear to be random when compared with last

year’s draw times.”

Johnson wrote that students in the same upperclass room draw group this year as they were in last year were more likely to have drawn times in the same order as last year.

Concluding the message, Johnson wrote that Housing regrets not having delivered a definitively random draw and will continue to work to understand the issue and ensure it is resolved before next year.

One rising senior said she received the email notifying her she was affected by the nonrandomization of room draw because she was in the lower half of the senior class draw group.

“I had honestly had my suspicions about the lack of randomization in various respects,” she said.

The room draw list has been changed to remove independents. According to the rising senior, this step changed which students are considered to be in the “bottom half” and thus eligible to receive compensation.

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Friday April 26, 2019

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McPaul founded the nonprofit Tribal In-house Counsel Association MCPAUL Continued from page 1

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bill presented at the spring session to confirm McPaul’s appointment.

Prior to her appointment as attorney general, McPaul worked as a lawyer in many tribal governments — including the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and the Salt River PimaMaricopa Indian Community — and founded the nonprofit organization Tribal In-house Counsel Association (TICA) in 2012.

According to the first article of the organization’s by-laws, TICA’s goals are “protecting and promoting tribal sovereignty and self-determination through the sharing of diversified knowledge and experience by in-house counsel who work for tribes and tribal entities.”

As attorney general, McPaul

hopes to continue “advocating and supporting tribal lawyers.”

“I’ve been serving other communities for over a decade. I think I’ve been representing myself well and representing the Navajo Nation well in all of those outside contexts,” McPaul said upon her confirmation, according to Farmington Daily Times. “I just ask that you allow me to continue in this role as the attorney general and to serve the Navajo Nation well.”

The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American tribe in North America by land area, and second largest by population behind the Cherokee Nation.

After graduating from the University with an A.B. degree in English in 1995, McPaul received her J.D. from Arizona State University in 2001.

McPaul did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication.

WILLIAM NAKAI / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Navajo Nation Council voted to confirm Doreen N. McPaul ’95 as attorney general of the Navajo Nation.

Bova: We are all better musicians because of this residency DUDAMEL Continued from page 1

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talk entitled “La Música Como Libertad: Gustavo Dudamel en Princeton” (“Music as Freedom”).

He will conclude his tenure this weekend with two concerts leading the Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club.

PUO Conductor Michael Pratt told The Daily Princetonian that Dudamel’s residency “brings a lot of national attention to the musical community at Princeton, the Music Department, and PU Concerts.”

While conducting University students and working with school children from underserved districts across the state, Dudamel has brought the experience of collaborating with top international orchestras and opera companies in hundreds of concerts.

“That vast background, plus his youth, charm, energy, and great musical instincts make him quite an inspiring musician,” Pratt said.

Timpanist and PUO webmaster Reilly Bova ’20 described playing for the legendary conductor with a trampoline analogy, comparing jumping out of sync with a friend to jumping in sync.

“When you bounce in-phase with your friend, the resonance will propel you upward and you will soar like an eagle,” Bova said.

That, he says, is what it feels like to play in an orchestra conducted by Dudamel.

“When he shapes phrases from the podium, it really does feel like he is physically interacting with the sound,” Bova said.

Lou Chen ’19, founder of Trenton Youth Orchestra (TYO), participated in a panel discussion with Dudamel and Anne Fitzgibbon *98, the founder and executive director of the Har-

mony Program, about “El Sistema,” a publicly financed music education program for underserved children to which Dudamel traces his own musical origins. El Sistema was founded in Venezuela in 1975 and now serves 700,000 students around the world.

Chen gave Dudamel and his wife a private tour of campus in December, which concluded with a performance of music from “Harry Potter” by the TYO. The youth orchestra is composed of students from Trenton and is run by University student volunteers who help coach individuals, enrich their musicianship, and cultivate an understanding of collaborative performance.

After the performance, Chen recalled Dudamel saying, “That was beautiful. I could imagine the owls flying down from the ceiling!”

That moment was particularly profound for Chen and his students.

“That was their music he was talking about — not music performed by the LA Phil or PUO, but by a group of children who had been playing their instruments for only a few years,” Chen said. “It was one of those moments that will stay with them — and with me — for the rest of our lives.”

Chen described how he believed Dudamel was living proof of the importance of TYO’s mission, which is to give every child the opportunity to fall in love with music.

“By interacting with so many of these children during his residency — whether it’s members of various El Sistema programs across the country, or students from Trenton right next door — he’s reminded them of their potential as musicians, as well as their responsibility to uplift future generations through music,” Chen said.

According to students, music is more than just a tradition to

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Dudamel; to him, music builds community, and it is the duty of musicians and conductors alike to inspire communities and serve as role models for the music students of tomorrow.

Students in PUO say that playing under the baton of Dudamel is a visceral experience, offering musical insights and highlighting nuances they may have never noticed on their own.

Song told the ‘Prince’ that this experience allowed him to stretch his capabilities and perform at the highest level.

“For an individual musician, there is nothing greater than performing in a concert conducted by the legendary Gustavo Dudamel,” he said.

In one of the rehearsals, Gustavo Dudamel solfèged the entire flute solo of the Mendelssohn scherzo — that is, he sung all of the notes using the “DoRe-Mi” scale without looking at the score.

“The entire orchestra was absolutely stunned,” Song recalled, adding, “no one could imagine someone being able to solfège the entire part with such brilliant speed and dexterity.”

An anonymous submission posted on the Tiger Confessions page read, “Yeah Eminem can rap fast, but have you heard Gustavo Dudamel solfège Mendelssohn?”

Students said they felt inspired by Dudamel to bring more musical opportunities to local youth, both locally and around the world.

“I hope that we not only embody the Dudamel spirit in all our musical endeavors,” Chen said, “but also seek to imbue that same spirit in as many aspiring young musicians as possible.”

“Dudamel has the unique talent and ability to unite people of all different backgrounds through music,” Song added.

“His incredible energy is infec-

tious within the entire orchestra, and every time we rehearse with him, we feel new life — just like being reborn. He has so much energy, and you can feel the energy radiating through all the players.”

Chen echoed this sentiment, saying, “He unearths the wondrous quality that exists in every piece of music and holds it up for all of us to see, [...] unlocking within us musical insights and abilities that we never knew we possessed.”

Dudamel’s meticulous attention to detail was on full display at Thursday’s rehearsal, often drawing laughter from the audience as he labored over the smallest of imperfections. Musicians and community members present said they could tell he not only understood the music on an extremely deep and personal level, but was also able to communicate and teach his interpretations through his words and movements.

Dudamel told the orchestra that the hardest part of a note to play is the end. Alternating his attention between the singers and the string orchestra, Dudamel implored the latter to be more sensitive to the ends of their notes and instructed both groups to feel a crescendo not merely as an increase in volume, but rather as an “increase in the tension of the note.”

Even so, Bova said Dudamel never criticizes the musicians he works with, unlike typical conductors in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to Bova, Dudamel’s philosophy of leadership galvanizes the musicians, as he “works through the raw inspiration he begets within the orchestra.”

When Maestro Michael Pratt began conducting PUO 41 years ago, the performing arts at Princeton were somewhat of an afterthought among both faculty and students.

Bova described how, over the past four decades, and with

support from the University administration, Pratt has built the performance wing of the music department into what it is today — second-to-none within the Ivy league.

“Dudamel’s residency, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Princeton University Concerts, is the direct result of this transformation,” he explained, “and it serves to signal to the world that Princeton University is as great a hub for the arts as it is for academics and scholarship.”

Reflecting on Dudamel’s residency, Bova said that this experience not only changed his life, but everyone else’s as well.

“We are all better musicians because of this residency, and working with Maestro Dudamel will be a memory that we will all share for the rest of our lives,” he said.

Earlier this week, Dudamel held a community jam session with members of the Berlin Philharmonic and curated a program for members of Ensemble Berlin celebrating the intersection of music and nature. An original composition by Music Professor Steven Mackey was also premiered.

Dudamel appeared on a panel with Nobel-winning physicist Kip Thorne ’65 at that concert and spoke to Irish intellectual Fintan O’Toole on Thursday in a conversation entitled “The Artist in Society.”

Dudamel’s sold-out final two concerts as Artist-in-Residence will take place on Friday, April 26, and Saturday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. He will conduct PUO and Glee Club at Richardson Auditorium on Friday and at the Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton, N.J. on Saturday. Both concerts will feature Schubert’s Gesang der Geister über den Wassern D. 714, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61.

er e-

Opinion

Friday April 26, 2019

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ........................................................

The insufficient response to room draw Christopher Murphy Editor-in-Chief

O

n Friday, the student body will take part in one of the most important events of the year: room draw. To a certain extent, your upcoming year is defined by this process; whom you choose to share a living space with — if anyone — has a huge impact on both your academic and social life. While some can make the argument that a poor living situation can be mitigated by simply not using your room, that logic only goes so far. There is a reason why students spend hours together with their draw groups, staring anxiously at a spreadsheet while room after room disappears, hoping that they have an opportunity to get a living situation they are satisfied with.

That process will be even more complicated, anxious, and even tainted, by the biased “randomization” process of this year’s draw times. Students who were already nervous will now also be frustrated by the fact that the system was never in their favor to begin with.

Even more agonizing was the recent acknowledgement to the failures of the system by the University, which — while attempting to be a fair consolation — only made the situation worse by being a failed response to the inherent problems.

Let me first acknowledge

that I was one of the lucky ones; my draw time went from middle-of-the-road within the juniors to a time on the first day this year. I guess that I was one of the students that were affected in a positive way. Yet, while there were some that made off with what now looks like a king’s ransom, many more students are left in a worse position than before. Somehow, this “random” process screwed them over: twice.

Then, the University had to pour salt in the wound with its email that was sent out on Thursday. This was certainly a case of bureaucratic administration attempting to solve a problem, but because it did not recognize what was wrong in the first place, it was never going to solve it in an effective manner. Honestly, I doubt that the University would have even said anything had there not been as much uproar from the student body as there has been.

Perhaps the most frustrating component about its response was that it had the audacity to try and say things are not as bad as they seem. At one point, Johnson wrote, “The roughly 220 students directly affected are all rising seniors. Overall, their draw times are improved from last year because of their seniority on campus.”

Frankly, there would be an even larger problem if times did not improve at all. Yet here is a perfect example of where the problem is not correctly identified. Instead of concerning themselves with the idea of relative room draw positions not being fair, it tries to address the issue of actual positioning; of course, there isn’t a

problem there, so it is an easy response for the University.

But the failure to acknowledge what students are actually upset about makes the rest of the email hard to read.

Next, the University justifies its decision to move ahead with room draw because “the room draw process is already well underway and the end of the semester is near.” From a logical standpoint, I empathize with the logistical nightmares that this would cause and can at least respect the decision. However, the University could do better than throwing a “there’s nothing we can do” response to this problem. Consider that this issue was brought to its attention on April 8; with nearly three weeks to figure this problem out, why was no action taken earlier?

Furthermore, while room draw is underway, it has not begun for upperclass students, specifically the seniors, who are the ones affected by this problem. Upperclass student draw would only be delayed as a result of a reshuffling; there would be no direct impact on people who have already chosen rooms. Finally, the end of the year is still a month away; if this were a big enough problem in the University’s eyes, they could very well implement and execute a solution that would be finished well before everyone leaves for the summer.

Instead, the solution is to offer everyone who was affected $1,000 off their housing bill.

Once again, this is a conciliatory gesture that should be appreciated — after all, the University could have done nothing — but, again, the solution is

not as fantastic as it is perceived. Specifically, consider students who are on some sort of financial aid policy. While many financial aid packages do not impact the cost of housing, there are some that do.

Thus, is the $1,000 stipend irrelevant to these students?

Will they ever see that money or will their financial aid package just go down by an equal amount? Furthermore, the University is not giving out $1,000 to potentially 220 students, it is simply not receiving that money as part of next year’s profit. All it has to do is admit four extra students in the Class of 2024 at the sticker price, and it makes its money back. For the University, it’s like nothing ever happened. But for every student who was impacted, the effects are clearly detrimental, something that a discounted housing rate may not be able to fix.

Unfortunately, no system will ever be completely fair; if we are to move on, we have to recognize that a change to the system, or even a different solution, will be fair to everyone.

That being said, there are ways to respond to a crisis more effectively — this was not one of them. In a way, the room draw response reflects a larger issue of the administration being out of touch with student concerns. Our interests are never going to be completely aligned, but when the student body has a legitimate gripe, it should be up to the University to handle it in a way that at the very least makes students feel better about the situation. Unfortunately, I highly doubt that is the case here.

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vol. cxliii

editor-in-chief

Chris Murphy ’20 business manager

Taylor Jean-Jacques’20 BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 trustees ex officio Chris Murphy ’20 Taylor Jean-Jacques’20

143RD MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Aftel ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Jon Ort ’21 head news editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news editors Linh Nguyen ’21 Claire Silberman ’22 Katja Stroke-Adolphe ’20 head opinion editor Cy Watsky ’21 associate opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Ethan Li ’22 head sports editor Jack Graham ’20 associate sports editors Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 features editor Samantha Shapiro ’21 head prospect editor Dora Zhao ’21 associate prospect editor Noa Wollstein ’21 chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 associate copy editors Jade Olurin ’21 Christian Flores ’21 head design editor Charlotte Adamo ’21 associate design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22 cartoon editors Zaza Asatiani ’21 Jonathan Zhi ’21 head video editor Sarah Warman Hirschfield ’20 associate video editor Mark Dodici ’22 digital operations manager Sarah Bowen ’20

NIGHT STAFF copy Jordan Allen ’20 Jeremy Nelson ’20 design Helen So ’22

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Princeton’s posh scholarships Liam O’Connor

Senior Columnist

M

y investigation into Princeton’s financial aid records revealed that the University has endowed scholarships reserved for students coming from the country’s richest towns and most expensive high schools. During the past three months, I reviewed a hundred pages of endowment listings on the “Giving to Princeton” directory and paired it with public information.

Sixty percent of Princeton students are on financial aid, and families with incomes exceeding $250,000 per year can qualify for it depending upon their situation. In total, more than 1,000 individual scholarship endowments provide revenue for the financial aid scheme. Donors often stipulate preferences for their scholarships’ recipients. For example, alumni or their friends may create scholarships to give educational funding to graduates of the high schools they attended.

The Pingry School Scholarship (est. 1936) goes to alumni of its namesake school, where yearly tuition costs costs $40,981. The LawrencevillePrinceton Scholarship (est.

1936) provides aid to graduates

of the Lawrenceville School, where boarding students pay $67,900 per year. The Etherington Phillips Exeter Academy Scholarship at Princeton University (est. 1947) is restricted to alumni of Phillips Exeter Academy. Full annual boarding costs for the school total $55,402.

The Davis United World Colleges Scholars Program (est.

2000) was created to “fund graduates of United World Colleges around the world.” These schools’ tuitions are as little as $19,191 per year for UWC Mostar and up to $55,295 for UWC of South East Asia.

The Victoria Sears Thaler, Brookline High School and Princeton University Parent Scholarship (est. 2000) is “to be awarded to graduates of Brookline High School.” It is the only endowed scholarship for graduates of a public high school.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau data shows that Brookline, Mass., has a median household income of $111,289. For comparison, the U.S. median household income is $61,372.

Students from Greenwich, Conn., may be eligible for the Princeton Alumni Association of Greenwich Scholarship (est. 1959). This city has median household incomes ranging from $108,587 in its Glenville neighborhood to $224,009 in Old Greenwich, according to Data USA, a database compiled from multiple government sources.

“Like all Princeton scholarships, these are awarded based

on need,” Development Marketing and Communications Director Erika Knudson wrote in an email. She confirmed the scholarships’ preferences for secondary schools with the directors of Undergraduate Financial Aid and Donor Relations in University Advancement.

Undergraduates become eligible for these endowments when they apply to the University’s financial aid program.

“Students who don’t qualify for aid don’t receive these scholarships,” she wrote, adding, “Receiving one of these scholarships doesn’t affect the total amount of aid a student receives.”

Information regarding the endowments’ sizes, frequencies of use, and number of students supported were unavailable, Knudson said. *** The scholarships that I’ve found don’t create any disparities in the amount of financial aid that students receive today.

But they’re still signs of entrenched elitism at Princeton.

Imposing stringent preferences is not the best way for altruistic donors to make the greatest impact with their gifts.

The Exeter, Pingry, and Lawrenceville endowments all started long before the University had its current guarantee of meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need. There was surely a lengthy period of time when graduates of these private schools received funding,

whereas graduates of public schools did not, thus forcing them to pay the full price or go elsewhere.

Princeton’s policies have since changed, but the state of secondary education has remained about the same. The National Association of Independent Schools reported that only a quarter of students in private high schools receive financial aid, meaning that everyone else’s families are wealthy enough to pay the full prices. Exeter, where that fraction is double, is better.

A few years ago, The New York Times noted, “access to the best [private] schools remains limited to a relatively tiny group that qualifies on the basis of educational attainment, which is still largely shaped by family background.”

Many Princeton students over the past decades who graduated from these endowments’ preferred schools have probably hailed from affluent households that needed little or no financial aid. The socioeconomic diversity present among undergraduates today is only a recent characteristic.

A few may have struck it lucky with big scholarships throughout their private education. But I reckon that they have been the exception, rather than the norm. The same goes for the students coming from Brookline and Greenwich.

In any given year, the University possibly has untapped resources, restricted by archaic

rules that alumni set long ago.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution to such a problem.

While administrators could find ways to circumvent these preferences, they would set a precedent that breaks donors’ trust. This would deter similar gifts for more beneficial causes. People who want to promote public service, for example, might think twice about giving to Princeton if they fear that their money would go toward supporting business internships instead.

Reunions are coming up in a few weeks, and alumni will be showering the campus with their money. The best path forward is to simply encourage them not to place narrow or unreasonable restrictions on their donations.

Endowed scholarships ought to be open to almost anyone.

They no longer change the total amount of financial aid that one receives, so it only makes sense to create them in such a broad way that they’re used every year.

Supporting an alma mater is a natural feeling. But gifts like these should aim to help as many students as possible achieve a Princeton education.

Writing onerous restrictions just prevents them from unleashing their full charitable potential.

Liam O’Connor is a junior geosciences major from Wyoming, Del. He can be reached at lpo@ princeton.edu.

A Major for Everyone Ellie Shapiro ’21 ..................................................

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Sports

Friday April 26, 2019

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Once a Tiger: Cameron Porter ’16

SOCCER

By Josephine de La Bruyére, Assistant Sports Editor

Myles McGinley ’15 met Cameron Porter ’16 for the first time in September of 2010. As seniors in high school, the two were on campus for official visits to the men’s soccer team. Porter sported a Justin Bieber-style bowl cut; he was as lanky as he was reserved.

“Damn,” thought McGinley. “I can’t wait to beat this kid.”

If only he knew what the future would hold. Porter ditched the bowl cut, put on a few pounds, and became one of Princeton’s all-time greats.

He graduated as a four-year starter, a four-time Ivy League and two-time national player of the week. He was twice named academic All-Ivy and first team AllIvy. He was 2014’s Soccer News Net College player of the year; the Ivy League offensive player of the year; the ECAC offensive player of the year. He led the NCAA Division I in scoring and his team to an Ivy League title.

And to Porter, it was all a surprise.

He’d earned a state championship and two all-conference nods in his high school soccer career. After a showcase tournament, a Division III coach had approached him with an offer.

Porter was floored; he’d never imagined himself playing soccer in college. He didn’t even know that sports and college admissions could go hand in hand.

Shocked though he was, the offers kept coming.

In the fall of 2011, Porter arrived on Princeton’s campus. He felt out of place, underequipped.

He was sure he’d spend his first season riding the bench.

Then, before the competition season started, a star player was injured. The team found itself down a forward. Porter was the man for the job. He started the first game of his first year at the University and never looked back.

“If you had asked me about Cam when he came in as a freshman,” said head men’s soccer coach Jim Barlow, “I would have told you that he was strong, he was fast, he was unorthodox. The guys thought he was a genius.

But he wasn’t the player with the best vision. He wasn’t the player who was the best at connecting with his teammates.”

To be fair, Porter didn’t need to be. When he was younger, he’d come home from practice every day and head straight to his garage. His family was re-bricking its chimney; he’d arrange the loose bricks into patterns and dribble around them for hours.

His ball control and his dribbling abilities excelled. His passing and communication? Not so much.

So when, a few games into his first year, Porter emerged as an offensive force, there was a caveat: he operated as a solo offensive force. To Barlow and associate coach Steve Totten, he seemed to defy every rule in the book. He was better at one v. two than two v. one. Put him on the field with another forward, and he’d play well. Put him out there alone, and he’d blow the crowd away. By Porter’s senior year, Princeton’s offense revolved around him.

It paid off. Barlow gestured to the middle of his office, where sat a glass table overflowing with plaques. “Those? They’re Cam’s.”

By the end of his senior season, Porter was the NCAA’s leading scorer and fourth on the University’s all-time scoring list. He’d made his mark on Princeton’s program, forged lifelong friendships — and was ready to move on to the next, non-athletic phase of his life.

Then came a surprise, lastminute invitation to Fort Lauderdale’s annual Major League Soccer combine. After that came a third-round, 45th-overall draft to the Montreal Impact.

For Porter to take the Impact

up on their offer would mean his dropping out of Princeton, abandoning not only his degree but his plans to start a consulting firm — to which he’d already devoted three months of his life — with two of his friends.

He flew to Montreal.

He first stepped onto the field on Feb. 24, 2015, in the 81st minute of his team’s season opener. For the next two weeks, he warmed the bench. As he had four years earlier, he felt out of place, underequipped.

Then came March 4, 2015. In Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, Impact faced Mexico’s Club de Fútbol Pachuca for the club’s first chance to earn a CONCACAF Champions League semi-final berth.

Four minutes into stoppage time, Pachuca led 1–0. Impact coach Frank Klopas sent Porter onto the field. Midway from the center circle, midfielder Callum Mallace kicked a Hail Mary. Porter nudged the ball into the goal to send his team to the semifinals.

40,000 people got to their feet.

Porter’s teammates tackled him.

At a Princeton soccer banquet in New York City, Barlow and Totten felt their phones blow up.

Impact called it the club’s “most memorable goal.” It made

Porter an overnight sensation.

People recognized him everywhere he went.

“It was the ultimate ego stroke,” he said. “I had been a part of the biggest moment in the club’s history. People wanted me to sign their shirts in the streets.

It was unbelievable. It was an addiction: there’s nothing quite like it.”

But the high wouldn’t last. Seventeen days after his moment of glory, Porter tore his ACL — and his LCL, his MCL, his IT band, and his hamstring.

For months, he spent six hours a day in rehab. He took on a job as a software engineer for Major League Soccer, building a data layer API. He finished his degree, a year late and remotely.

“I signed up only for classes that didn’t take attendance,” he said. “I didn’t go to a single lecture, but I flew from Montreal for quizzes and tests. My friends turned in my homework for me.

It was tough. I’d come home every day from practice and rehab.

My friends were playing FIFA and watching Netflix, and I was teaching myself computational geometry without a textbook.”

In July of 2016, he was traded to Sporting Kansas City. But just as he’d grown acclimated to his new team, Porter broke his tibia and

tore every ligament in his ankle.

“He had to choose between playing professional soccer and playing soccer with his kids in twenty years,” said McGinley. The choice was obvious for Porter. On Jan. 29, 2018, at the age of 24, he retired.

To McGinley — who freely admitted to living vicariously through Porter’s professional years — the timing was serendipitous. He had just finished a consulting agreement; Porter had nothing on his agenda. The two friends created a startup called Tangle. A knowledge management tool, it was essentially an outshoot of Porter’s initial post-graduation plan.

The startup never panned out.

As with his athletic one, Porter’s professional dream fell flat. He didn’t break stride. He moved to Alleycorp, a four-person New York City venture capital firm responsible for such magnates as Business Insider, GiltGroup, and MongoDB. He recognizes that to an outsider, his careers — which have spanned countries and disciplines — may seem disparate. To him, however, community is the common thread.

“Being part of a team, in any sense, is my favorite thing,“ he said.

ERIC BOLTE / USA TODAY SPORTS

Cameron Porter playing for the Montreal Impact.

BASEBALL

Former Princeton standout Mike Ford makes MLB debut for New York Yankees

By Mark Dodici Sports Writer

Mike Ford made his Major League Baseball debut last weekend, becoming the seventh player to make it to the sport’s highest level after playing at Princeton for current head coach Scott Bradley.

Ford, who was signed by the New York Yankees after his junior season in 2013, had spent six years bouncing around the organization’s farm system before being called up to the Bronx on April 16.

“For all of us who knew Mike, we knew the opportunity was going to come,” Bradley said. “Just an amazing young man, a great player.”

Before cutting his Princeton career short to play professionally, Ford had enjoyed an outstanding final season, becoming the first Ivy League player in history to win both Player and Pitcher of the Year. He had ranked top-10 in the conference in 10 batting categories, finishing second in home runs with six and hitting .320/.443/.503 overall. He also dominated from the mound,

going 6–0 with a 0.98 ERA. “Some of the scouts were torn between whether they wanted him as a pitcher or a hitter,” Bradley said.

After excelling at the plate in the Cape Cod League that summer, the Yankees signed him as a first baseman. After six years in the minor leagues, Ford was close to starting this season in the majors but was dropped from Spring Training in the last round of cuts.

On April 16, the Yankees’ starting first baseman Greg Bird was sent to the 10-day injury list with a torn plantar fascia, and so the team called up Ford from their AAA affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Ford did not appear in his first two games with the Yankees, making his debut on Thursday, April 18, when he went 0–3 with two strikeouts in a 6–1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. His first hit — a double to left-center field — came in the bottom of the second in a 7–6, extra-innings win on Sunday, and he scorched a two-run shot to right for his first home run in a 7–5 win

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Mike Ford became Princeton baseball’s seventh MLB player since the turn of the century last Thursday.

over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.

“You kind of realize it’s the same game, just everyone’s better,” said Ford of his quick adjustment in the Yankees clubhouse after the game.

Though Ford’s first stint in

the majors may well be ended by an early return for Greg Bird, Bradley has already forewarned him of that.

“I’ve already told him, look, don’t be surprised if not heading back down at some point.

It’s the way baseball is. Very

few people go up and never come back down again.”

“He’s our seventh guy,” Bradley continued. “We’ve had seven guys get to the big leagues, which is really, I think, a feather in the cap to our program.”

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