Wednesday April 9 2014

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Wednesday april 9, 2014 vol. cxxxviii no. 42

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Bexsero gets Breakthrough designation

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In Opinion

By Anna Mazarakis

Kelly Hatfield describes her desire to be more religious, and Zeena Mubarak argues that information about eating clubs should be more transparent to prefrosh. PAGE 4

news editor

Today on Campus 4:30 p.m.: The Wilson School will host a public panel discussion on “Why Congress Doesn’t Work,” with references to Amazon Prime’s political comedy series “Alpha House.” Dodds Auditorium.

The Archives

April 9, 1992 An argument between two Mathey College neighbors brought charges of antiSemitism threats that at the time could have led to a court case. The comments were in regards to the Holocaust.

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News & Notes Former Yale employee files lawsuit for workplace discrimination

A former associate administrator in the Yale School of Nursing is suing the university, The Yale Daily News reported.

Karen Curcio alleges in the lawsuit that she was fired from her position after she refused to fire a staff member on the basis of the latter’s physical disability. She alleges that she was pressured into firing this employee

by Nona D’Onofrio, Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration at the School of Nursing. “[Curcio’s] employment was swiftly terminated after she refused to participate in an illegal and unlawful employment practice,” the complaint read.

Curcio had first filed a complaint to the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in Jan. 2012.

According to The Yale Daily News, Curcio is requesting compensation for lost wages and employment benefits, damages for emotional stress, legal fees and other relief payments.

Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the allegation was completely without merit.

Princeton has not been sued by a former employee since 2012.

JEFFREY WU :: FILE PHOTO

Dinky ridership decreased by 10.4 percent over the last quarter, which coincides with the new bus service.

Amid Dinky ridership decline, bus ridership rises

By Anna Windemuth staff writer

Ridership for the Dinky train line, which runs between the University and Princeton Junction, declined by 10.4 percent from October to December of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012, according to New Jersey Transit, the stateowned company that operates the train line.

However, according to the University, which operates a parallel bus system called TigerPaWW, total ridership went up by 5.8 percent when the University’s bus users are ac-

counted for.

NJ Transit’s analysis notes that the decline in Dinky ridership occurred around the same time as the implementation of TigerPaWW, the University’s shuttle bus system that was introduced last year due to the station’s temporary relocation.

A new Dinky station is set to open this summer as part of the University’s Arts and Transit Neighborhood.

Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget explained that the University implemented the free bus system in recognition of the fact that during the station’s

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

transition phase the bus may be more convenient than the Dinky for some passengers.

“Clearly the strong ridership numbers proved that that’s true,” Appelget noted.

She added that there are additional options for passengers to connect to other transit roads from the temporary station, such as the municipality’s free bus system, which operates during peak commuter hours, or the TigerTransit bus, which is free to all members of the public.

Craig noted that the TigerPaWW bus is susceptible to See DINKY page 3

Bexsero, the meningitis B vaccine created by Novartis that was offered to all undergraduate students over the course of the past four months, has received Breakthrough Therapy designation in the United States from the Food and Drug Administration.

The drug received the new designation on Monday, which will allow for an expedited review, after an announcement last week that the company was filing an application for FDA review in hopes of obtaining a license.

According to a press release on Novartis’ website, the Breakthrough Therapy designation “is intended to expedite the development and review of new medicines that treat serious or life-threatening conditions.”

The FDA declined to comment and Novartis declined to be interviewed for this article.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which

sponsored the emergency use authorization of the vaccine at the University, has not shared any of the data collected from the vaccine clinics with the FDA, CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said.

“What [the] CDC did during the vaccination clinics at Princeton was monitor for adverse events,” McDonald said. “Any safety data or clinical research data is provided by the manufacturers to FDA, and that’s what FDA uses to base its decisions.”

Despite the fact that the upgrade in the drug’s designation comes months after initial use at the University and the University of California at Santa Barbara, McDonald said he did not think the use of the drug at either university had an effect on the FDA’s decision.

However, Yevgeniy Feyman, a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a healthcare policy research institute, said there was a “100 percent” chance that the use of the drug See MENINGITIS page 2

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

Princeton in Brazil takes hiatus due to World Cup

By Lorenzo Quiogue staff writer

The Princeton in Brazil program will not be held this year due to complications brought about by the country’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup. Karen Gonzalez, manager of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures, explained that the decision to have the program go on a hiatus was brought about by anticipated increased costs and logistical difficulties.

“We were anticipating an inf lation of costs due to the World Cup, as well as limited availability of housing — the demand for housing will be great during that time,” she explained. These difficulties, she said, would make it hard for the department to offer an affordable program to the students this year. The program cost $3,900 in 2013.

Gonzalez added that the decision to cancel the program this year was made as early as last summer.

“Toward the end of the proSee BRAZIL page 3

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Princeton Energy Plant Benjamin ’14 to bike across United States reduces U. energy use

By Sharon Deng contributor

By Elizabeth Paul staff writer

The Princeton Energy Plant, which provides electricity, steam and chilled water to the University campus, allows the University to take positive steps toward reducing its carbon footprint and energy-related costs.

Plant manager Ted Borer explained that the plant is operated by a gas turbine that spins a power turbine which powers an electric generator. Rather than simply expelling excess heat, the co-generation plant harnesses its exhaust to make steam for campus use. He noted that because of this harnessing, the plant can achieve efficiency between 70 and 80 percent compared with efficiencies of 25 to 40 percent for central power plants.

“We are able to much, much more cost-effectively deliver electricity and steam to the campus than if we made it separately — if we bought electricity and just made steam,” Borer said.

Executive Director of Engineering and Campus Energy Thomas Nyquist noted that the plant can also serve as a

backup in cases such as Hurricane Sandy, when the public service electricity was not available from the grid.

Borer explained that the plant’s efficiency is enhanced by its economic dispatch system, which measures the real-time efficiency of the plant in comparison to the cost of purchasing energy from the grid. According to its webpage the cogeneration plant usually supplies about half of the University’s electricity needs because purchasing electricity is sometimes more economical than generating its own power.

“An economic dispatch system … is one of the things that sets Princeton apart,” Borer said.

The dispatch system also contributes toward the University’s goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 without the purchase of carbon offsets, as stated in the Princeton University Sustainability Plan. A carbon offset is an action made to counteract the effects of global warming rather than mitigate them. The co-generation plant earned a 2007 EPA Energy Star Award for its reSee ENERGY page 2

Mark Benjamin ’14 will bike from Portsmouth, N.H. to Vancouver, British Columbia over the course of 10 weeks this summer as a Bike & Build rider.

Bike & Build is a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia, Pa. that raises young adults’ awareness of affordable

housing issues by organizing cycling trips across the United States. Bike & Build grants money every year to other nonprofit organizations — such as Habitat for Humanity — through money raised by its riders. The organization also engages the riders in field work across the country.

“I wanted to do it because I wanted to bike, and I think it’s an added bonus that I get to work

on an issue that I don’t know a whole lot about and looking to learn more about, but an issue that is tied to other issues that I do care a lot about.” Benjamin said.

The Northern United States route that Benjamin chose is one of 10 routes that Bike & Build offers. There are approximately 32 people per route.

See BIKE page 2

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

PATIENCE HAGGIN :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Kiran Klaus Patel, David Ciepley and Harold James discuss the economic effects of the Great Depression.

The Daily Princetonian

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Wednesday april 9, 2014

Trip to benefit affordable housing New status will cut down approval time BIKE

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“The thing we are really proud of is that we are not only engaging young adults for the cause, we are able to grant almost half a million dollars every year to partners.” said Justin Villere, Bike & Build director of operations and outreach.

During the trip, riders between the ages of 18 and 25 will meet with partner organizations and stop every four or five days to volunteer on build sites.

“We grant the money, and we also build with them,” Villere said. “Our riders bring in a very contagious spirit with them and inspire other people to continue services as well.”

Prior to the trip, riders prepare by volunteering in local build sites, learn about affordable housing and ride 500 miles in preparation for the long bike

rides in the summer.

“It’s important to know that you don’t have to have experience in biking or building to do Build & Build,” Vlliere added.

“You don’t have to be a big cyclist or builder to join the cause.”

Before the start of the trip, every participant is required to raise $4,500, half of which will be used for personal expenses and the other half donated to affordable housing nonprofits on the road.

Benjamin said he is contributing $2,500 of the total amount to pay for his own living expenses and will raise $2,000. So far, Benjamin has already raised $1,000.

“A lot more needs to happen before I start biking.” Benjamin said.

Benjamin has participated in a wide range of service work at the University. During his sophomore and junior years, Benjamin helped run Student Volunteer Council imPACT, a program that teaches language arts to middle

school students in Trenton. Benjamin is currently involved with Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program, an independent nonprofit that sends students to tutor inmates in state prisons.

Benjamin said that he understands the limits to what such trips could accomplish.

“We are not going to solve affordable housing in a summer or anything like that,” Benjamin said. “It’s very much about teaching people about the issues, making some small contributions and learning about the issues ourselves that could influence our future action.”

Benjamin is a computer science major and will work as a software engineer for Microsoft after graduation.

“I have lived in New Jersey my entire life, and I’ll move to Seattle next year, and this is a chance to see everything in between.” he said.

His trip will begin on June 12.

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at the University and UCSB had an effect on the new designation.

“Because Breakthrough Therapy is so kind of elastic, it’s not very well defined,” he said. “The FDA does have a bit of discretion, so they’ve looked at the fact that CDC has pretty much said that Bexsero is safe and has been safely used by over 8,000 people, and said, ‘That’s all the clinical evidence we need.’ It may be that internally they also looked at use in other countries.

So we don’t know how exactly they came to that decision, but it’s certainly possible that use at [Princeton and] Santa Barbara did contribute to it.”

Likewise, Feyman said that he does not think the drug would have gotten the designation without the outbreaks at the University and UCSB since the outbreaks showed an “unmet medical need” for the drug.

“Without evidence of any

kind of outbreak, men[ingitis] B occurrence is fairly low in the U.S.,” Feyman said. “So absent these highly public outbreaks, I don’t think the FDA would have seen it as an unmet medical need necessarily.”

Feyman explained that the new designation should cut down on approval time significantly.

With the Breakthrough Therapy designation, the FDA can use “clinically significant endpoints” when evaluating the drug, which Feyman said makes the process easier. Feyman explained that the FDA can use a smaller sample size rather than test for safety or efficacy in a very large group.

Bexsero is already approved in Europe, Canada and Australia, and UK regulators recently voted to include the vaccine in the country’s National Immunisation Programme, which would allow for routine use of the drug for infants after two months of age, the press release said.

Though the vaccine has not

yet been approved in the United States, Novartis has provided nearly 30,000 doses of the drug to both the University and UCSB following an outbreak in which eight University students and four UCSB students were diagnosed with a strain of meningitis B. Bexsero is the second meningitis B vaccine to receive the Breakthrough Therapy designation in the last month. The other drug, bivalent rLP2086, manufactured by Pfizer, was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation on March 20.

“We want to have as many drugs out there for men[ingitis] B or any other disease as possible,” Feyman said, noting the benefits of price competition.

“You also want to have a variety of drugs because it might be the case that one drug works for some people but not others … The FDA is kind of recognizing that it’s good to have a wide range of drugs for the same treatment.”

Associate news editor Paul Phillips contributed reporting.

Cold winter led to high demand for fuel ENERGY

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duction of 18,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Borer explained that emission reductions occur because the University purchases power at times when there is less demand on the grid, such as in the middle of the night, thus lowering the load on the power grid and reducing inefficiencies. Additionally, Borer explained that the energy purchased during these periods of low demand is produced by nuclear,

hydro-electric and combinedcycle natural gas plants and tends to have lower marginal cost.

Nyquist noted that although the cogeneration plant is efficient and has improved the University’s carbon footprint, it consumed a very large amount of fuel this past winter. He explained that because this year’s unusually cold weather resulted in a very high demand for natural gas, the University had to use diesel instead.

“It’s a lot of oil, and I’m not sure people are aware of how much oil we consume,”

Nyquist said, noting that the University can burn several trucks full of diesel on a very cold day.

The University is looking at ways to improve, Nyquist said, noting as examples controlling the load on the gas compressor and renovating pumps at the chilled water plant, the largest share of the University’s energy use.

“We are continuing to squeeze the plants for efficiency,” Nyquist said. “When these projects are done we will be pretty much strapped down.”

CORRECTION Due to an editing error, the April 7 article “GRiZ and Mayer Hawthorne to headline Lawnparties” misstated the name of its author. The article was written by Durva Trivedi. The ‘Prince’ regrets the error.

The Daily Princetonian

Wednesday april 9, 2014

News & Notes Harvard student dies of apparent suicide Harvard sophomore Andrew Sun died Sunday of an apparent suicide after he fell from a downtown Boston Building, The Harvard Crimson reported.

No additional information regarding Sun’s motivations has been released.

Sun did not die immediately on impact and was taken to the

hospital where he was treated for injuries caused by the fall.

However, doctors believed Sun’s chances of recovery were slim and informed the dean of Sun’s residential house that his time on life support would be limited.

He died Monday morning with his family present. Interim Dean of the College Donald Pfister announced Sun’s death to the Harvard community via email

Monday morning.

A New Jersey native, Sun was an Economics major, a member of Harvard College Faith in Action and Harvard Financial Analysts Club, according to the Crimson.

This is not the first suicide reported at an Ivy League school so far this academic year. Four students also committed suicide at the University of Pennsylvania.

U. says ridership actually on the rise DINKY

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traffic and is only a temporary arrangement.

The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, an organization that advocates for more citizen involvement in deciding transit affairs within the state, issued a press release saying that the 10.4 percent decline is actually more in the range of 20 percent because ridership in the rest of the Northeast Corridor line has risen by 10.4 percent.

“We can never determine exactly what happened because it didn’t happen,” NJ-ARP vice president Jack May said of possible variables in this assumption. “It is extremely reasonable and statistically accurate to assume that maybe the increase on the Princeton branch wouldn’t have gone up by exactly 10.4 percent, but it would have been in that neighborhood [if the old station had remained in place].”

Appelget noted that NJ Transit officials pointed out a dis-

crepancy in Dinky ridership with the rest of the Northeast Corridor line several years before the project was officially approved.

“There has not been growth on the Dinky corridor line commensurate with increases that we’ve seen over several years in ridership of the Northeast Corridor,” she recalled NJ Transit officials saying. Therefore, Appelget explained, making this comparison is not accurate.

She also said that NJ Transit was particularly excited about the University’s arts project because it hopes to increase Dinky ridership through the added attraction of arts facilities, amenities and a new parking lot.

Both Craig and May said that their organization is very concerned that the lull in Dinky ridership foreshadows its eventual discontinuation in favor of a bus system.

“At some point when budgets are made, people in power are going to start thinking, ‘Hey, this line is really losing a lot of money, maybe we shouldn’t bother running it,’ ” May explained. May added that al-

though the discussion of the Dinky has centered around the arts and historical preservation, the main issue is transportation.

Craig said that the ideal solution would be to preserve a right of way for the Dinky through the Arts and Transit Neighborhood project to University Place and then convert the Dinky line into a light rail or a modern streetcar operation extending up to Nassau Street.

He also said that because New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is also a University trustee, approved the University’s plan to move the Dinky, governmental organizations such as the Historic Sites Council gave into the project from the beginning.

“All public involvement since then, informational sessions, going before Princeton’s governing bodies, before the state historic preservation council, has been a sham,” Craig said. “The decision was made on high. Everyone fell in line whose jobs were at stake.”

Two court cases challenging the University project’s municipal land use are still pending.

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Brazil program to resume next year BRAZIL

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gram last summer, we started looking forward to the next year, and started making our plans,” she explained. “We realized that it might be too expensive for us to hold the program this summer.”

Gonzalez added that the large amount of people expected to attend the World Cup this year would bring about additional security concerns and explained that it would be a risk to send students to Rio de Janeiro when the event was taking place.

Protests impacted Brazil’s hosting of the Confederations Cup in the summer of 2013, with the movement becoming Brazil’s largest protest since 1992. However, University students in Brazil at the time remained safe and

largely insulated from the protests, and the program was completed as planned.

Gonzalez said that they tried to schedule the program to take place at another time, but the University’s partner institution, Instituto BrasilEstados Unidos, could not accommodate a different schedule.

However, Gonzalez noted that this would just be a oneyear hiatus, and the program would resume in 2015.

Former participants in the program said that it was unfortunate that the program would not be held this summer because it was a great experience, but added that the hiatus was the right decision.

“It’s unfortunate that they won’t be able to do it this year, but I definitely understand it,” Kathryn Moore ’15 explained. “I think this sum-

mer would be a hard time to be in Brazil and get the real Brazil experience with all the people coming down for the tournament.”

Isaac Lederman ’15 also said that the concerns about security and cost were justified.

Both Lederman and Moore said they were hopeful that the program would be even more successful once it resumes next year.

Lederman added that he would absolutely recommend that people apply for the program once it resumes next year, saying that he “would go back to Brazil in a heartbeat.”

The 2014 World Cup will be held in 12 cities across Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro hosting several matches in the group stage, as well as the World Cup final. More than 1.1 million tickets are expected to be sold, according to FIFA.

Wednesday april 9, 2014

Opinion

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Wishing for religion Kelly Hatfield

contributing columnist

T

he earth breathed beneath me, inhaling rain and releasing steam. These exhalations grasped at my legs as I moved by the graveyard, but I continued through the moisture, my eyes trained on the grid of tombstones.

Names blurred together through the veil of the humidity, and dates became smudges of lives wiped clean by an inexorable truth. Whenever I tried to focus my gaze, the meaning of the letters danced a little farther away.

In that moment, I was not seized by the same type of fear that normally grips me with the arrival of another full week of due dates or expectations. I did not feel that rooted terror at the prospect of losing a friendship following a fight or a misplaced prox or a lack of time to sleep. All those emotions suddenly seemed so banal in the face of death — the one truly universal experience.

I block out the prospect of others’ and my mortality on a daily basis, occupying myself with relative trivialities to avoid descending into insanity. That Saturday afternoon spent beneath the weeping sky, however, I allowed myself to consider the questions that form the foundations of almost every major religion. I came to no conclusion, save one.

I wish I were religious.

Not for some of the reasons that immediately come to mind, however. I don’t want to adhere to the explanations of the afterlife that run throughout the Bible or the Quran or the Vedas or any other holy text, not that I begrudge anyone who does.

What I crave is that sense of identity, that organized community to discuss what comes after life, to explore whether or not I believe in a god or many gods, to engage in unifying traditions that transcend my sense of self. Of course, there are realms in which to discuss faith (or lack thereof), and I have in many cases explored my views with friends and family but never in a consistent manner. I see individuals here and at home who identify as Christian or Jewish or Muslim who don’t believe in some of the tenets that are used to define these and other religions, and that is essentially what I yearn for.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

At this stage in my life, though, I feel so distanced from these groups by virtue of growing up in a household that never emphasized, and, in fact, eschewed, the idea of religion, that I don’t feel as though I can fully incorporate it into my identity. I can, and do, choose to learn the core principles of different faiths to gain insight into cultures and morality and ways of human thought. But I don’t feel as though I can belong within one.

That Saturday afternoon, I thought briefly of entering the church just up the hill, of kneeling before the altar and exploring the far corners of my mind to discern what beliefs and fears lurked there. Aside from the undeniable fact that rain had saturated my very being in the 45 minutes I spent outside, I ultimately rejected that impulse as an intrusion upon a world to which I never have belonged and likely never will belong. I should clarify, however, that this sense of permanence does not stem from any behavior of religious communities on campus or in my home state. In fact, the opposite in most cases is true. My conclusion that I will never be one to join an organized religion derives itself from my own inhibitions that make me feel as though my presence would be an intrusion. Irrational though this thought may be, it is ever-present and pervasive.

Perhaps this longing for religion, even in the face of such an “outsider” mentality, is unique to my search for that elusive thing we call our identity. But I doubt it. Even so, I will not excuse it, nor will I suppress it. I will use it as a tool to drive my self-exploration. Maybe someday it will help lead me to my answers for the questions that I faced as I paused to consider life beyond death. Maybe it won’t. But in any case, that desire itself, and its implications as to my core values and priorities, has become a part of my identity as crucial to my sense of self as the names of those individuals I visited that afternoon were to them.

Kelly Hatfield is a freshman from Medford, Mass.

She can be reached at kellych@princeton.edu.

Prefrosh should know more about eating clubs Zeena Mubarak

intersections critic

A

h, the eating clubs, that uniquely Princeton institution; those sleek, elegant buildings that are the destination of a stately pilgrimage by a huge portion of Princeton Tigers every Thursday, every Saturday and some Fridays too. The eating clubs are tucked neatly out of the way on Prospect Avenue but they loom large in the collective consciousness. They dominate the social scene and whether you decide to join one or you decide to opt out of the system, every Princetonian has to deal with the eating clubs at some point. Keeping that in mind, I think it is important to think about how the eating clubs might appear to prospective students.

One major problem is that many prefrosh do not know anything about the eating clubs at all. As one naïve prospective student put it, “I know nothing beyond the fact that eating clubs are social groups.” This reaction is not all that uncommon, and this is concerning. The eating clubs play a large enough role on campus that you ought to have a good understanding of them before you commit to Princeton.

With costs that are frequently prohibitively expensive (although the Financial Aid Office does help some students with that) and the tradition of bickering to get in (although some clubs allow you to just sign in), the eating clubs are often the target of se-

vere criticism. They have been accused of discouraging low-income students from coming to Princeton: Princeton is the Iviest of the Ivies and the eating clubs are the Iviest institution of all. A culture so defined by wealth and status might not seem accessible to prospective low-income students.

Even if low-income students may be able to join a club with the help of financial aid, they might not feel they have a place in the hyper-privileged culture represented by the eating clubs. After talking to a few recently admitted students, I found that this year’s prefrosh who are already familiar with the clubs are already starting to stake out positions on the issue.

One skeptical prefrosh told me, “I’m not interested in joining an elitist exclusionary group.” Although that particular student wasn’t turned away from Princeton by the fact that our social scene can come across as “elitist and exclusionary,” other prospective students might be. If you are not interested in selectiveness in your social life, you might decide not to even apply to Princeton. Although the reality of the eating clubs might differ from their posh appearance, an unwelcoming image is damaging enough.

Of course, the flip side of the argument is that the eating clubs’ mystique and air of exclusivity might actually attract other students. Another prospective student told me, “I plan on joining one of the more selective [eating clubs].” It seems, then, that in some cases, the idea of a hard-to-getinto social club might actually be a

D

r. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The willingness to accept the penalty for breaking an unjust law is what makes civil disobedience a moral act and not merely an act of lawbreaking.”

While I am currently entangled in a legal battle against an unjust law much different from the one Dr. King was fighting, I strongly believe his words still apply.

On Aug. 31, 2013, I was arrested by the U.S. Park Service Police in Philadelphia while attending an event being held at the People’s Plaza, a designated free speech zone directly in front of Independence Hall and right beside the Liberty Bell Pavilion. The purpose of this event was to gather people in a public display of the need to reform the current draconian laws in this country against the personal use of marijuana. I was particularly drawn to this event because of my deep belief that marijuana is a safe, natural alternative to many of the synthetic pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by physicians in this country every day. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 290 people in the United States are killed by prescrip-

Marcelo Rochabrun ’15

draw. That raises the question of what sort of students we are attracting to Princeton. Because Princeton is in the Ivy League, it is undeniable that at least some students will be drawn to it primarily for its exclusivity. There is something about knowing you are special enough to get in that many might find appealing. The eating clubs merely take it to the next level — if you are someone who is searching for exclusivity, they can provide an additional layer of it even within one of the nation’s most elite schools.

The fact that these students had opinions on it in the first place is a good start given that many prefrosh don’t know anything about the eating clubs. The crucial thing is that students learn more about them before they choose Princeton. As an upperclassman, you will have to choose either to join a club or to buck the tradition. Either way you will be shaping your social life in relation to the clubs. Because of this, prefrosh need to be well-informed about our idiosyncratic dining and social system. An open, frank discussion of the clubs might also help alleviate worries of exclusivity: something especially pertinent to keep in mind as Preview approaches. Hopefully, more transparency about the whole process might help students make more informed decisions about where they go to college, Princeton or elsewhere.

Zeena Mubarak is a freshman from Fairfax, Va. She can be reached at zmubarak@princeton.edu.

marathon

vol. cxxxviii

editor-in-chief

Nicholas Hu ’15

business manager

EDITORIAL BOARD chair Jillian Wilkowski ’15

Daniel Elkind ’17 Gabriel Fisher ’15 Brandon Holt ’15 Zach Horton ’15 Mitchell Johnston ’15 Cydney Kim ’17 Jeffrey Leibenhaut ’16 Daphna LeGall ’15 Sergio Leos ’17 Lily Offit ’15 Aditya Trivedi ’16 Andrew Tsukamoto ’15 John Wilson ’17 Kevin Wong ’17

NIGHT STAFF 4.8.14 news Anna Windemuth ’17 Jacqueline Gufford ’17 senior copy editors Elizabeth Dolan ’16 Natalie Gasparowicz ’16 Michal Wiseman ’16 staff copy editors Summer Ramsay-Burrough ’17 contributing copy editors Divya Krishnan ’16 Matthew Silberman ’17 design Sara Good ’15 Morgan Taylor ’15 Patience Haggin ’14

rita fang ’17

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR tion drugs every single day. In the entire recorded history of mankind, there has yet to be the first death linked directly to marijuana.

I was charged by the Park Service police with simple possession of marijuana because at the end of this event, I joined with others in the crowd and lit a joint as an act of civil disobedience. On Jan. 27, I finally had my day in a U.S. federal district court, where I was found guilty of the charge against me. At my sentencing on March 26, I was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and will be on federal probation for the next two years. In addition, I am banned for life from Independence National Historic Park and the Liberty Bell. Despite what I feel was an excessively harsh sentence aimed at silencing activists, I still stand behind my actions and sincerely believe I was doing the right thing.

While we technically have a medical marijuana program in the state of New Jersey, the harsh reality is the current program is almost completely unworkable because of the actions of Gov. Chris Christie.

Thousands of qualified patients are being denied access to a prescribed medication simply because our gov-

ernor disagrees with the need for a medical marijuana program and has done everything in his power to block full implementation of this program, which is now five years old. On Dec. 2, 2013, Sabina Rose, a 15-month-old child and a New Jersey resident, died as a result of a massive seizure caused by Dravet Syndrome. Sabina’s doctors had tried treating her condition with conventional pharmaceutical drugs, but, as is often the case with Dravet Syndrome, these drugs provided no relief. Her only hope was one particular strain of medical marijuana that has proved to be beneficial in the treatment of seizures. While Sabina’s parents had completed all of the necessary paperwork and had received all of the required physician sign-offs, her application had not yet been approved by the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services.

Sadly, Sabina’s case is not the only instance of patients losing their lives due to a lack of access to needed medication. On average, 22 military veterans take their own lives every single day in this country. A large percentage of these deaths are a direct result of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, another condition

in which medical marijuana has proved to be a safe and reliable form of treatment. Unfortunately, PTSD is not one of the extremely limited number of qualifying conditions allowed under New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. Our brave warriors here in New Jersey are forced to use pharmaceutical drugs to treat their conditions.

And as I found out firsthand, these drugs often have devastating side effects, such as causing severe suicidal thoughts and tendencies.

Despite everything that has happened to me, I still believe my actions were justified. Sometimes civil disobedience has to be the first resort because courts and legislatures take time, and it is the only way to make anyone care about an unjust law in time to do anything about it. Countless lives are lost every day in New Jersey and across the country as a result of patients being denied access to a medication that can and does save lives.

Don DeZarn Senior Operations Manager, Dining Services Executive Director New Jersey Veterans for Medical Marijuana

The Daily Princetonian

Wednesday april 9, 2014

page 5

Excitement mounts at Augusta on the eve of 2014’s first major championship GOLF

Continued from page 6

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ond week in April. In years when spring arrives early, the club’s landscaping staff puts ice underneath the Azaleas to ensure that they do not blossom too early before the tournament. A subterranean system of pipes and grates is installed beneath each green, intended to aid in drainage and gas exchange and consequently promote good turf health.

But the Club’s arboreal and agronomical commitments do not stop there. Indeed, each hole on the course is given the name of a relevant f lower or tree. Twelve is Golden Bell, 13 Azalea. Fifteen is Fire Thorn, and 18 Holly. This much is certain: the f lowers and the holes are sure to be in fierce bloom for the duration of the four-day contest.

These are just a few of the things that make Augusta National so special. And come Sunday, the champion will no doubt have cul-

tivated a deep appreciation for the storied history that is The Masters and his new place in it.

Ricci’s Picks Safe Pick: Rory Mcilroy Rory’s form heading into

And patrons do not run to see their favorite players, for they are not allowed to. They walk. the year’s first major is much improved compared to what it was a year ago. The kid, who already has two majors to his name, has shown the ability to contend at The Masters, and he carded a final round 65 in last weekend’s Tour stop, the Shell Houston Open, so he seems to be peaking at the right

time. Vegas seems to agree.

(Odds: 10-1) Sleeper Pick: Harris English English is one of the longest hitters on Tour, which is by no means a prerequisite to winning but it does provide one with an advantage on the 7,465 yard track. I’ve had my ear to the ground for insider information over the past few weeks and my sources tell me that English, the 24-year-old Georgia native who played college golf for the Bulldogs, made a holein-one at Augusta National during a practice round at the course a few weeks ago.

If the good mojo continues for English he may just be the one donning the Green Jacket come Sunday. (Odds: 40-1) Heart Pick: Sergio Garcia El Niño has long been my favorite golfer in the world and he is one of the best ball-strikers on Tour. He’s performed well in past Masters and already has three top-10s to his credit out of

the four PGA Tour events he has played in this year.

I’m hoping that this is the year in which the man who once said “I’m not capable of winning a Major” breaks through. (Odds: 25-1) Jarmas’ Picks Safe Pick: Matt Kuchar If I were a betting man (which I am not), Kuchar would be my guy. He arrives at Augusta fresh off back-toback top-fives on the PGA Tour’s Texas Swing, and has finished 8th and 3rd in the previous two Masters respectively. Despite modest length off the tee, the affable Sea Island resident with an easy smile feels right at home at Augusta National: a combination of straight hitting and impeccable touch around the greens should serve him well this week.

(Odds: 25-1) Sleeper Pick: Billy Horschel At this time last year, in an ephemeral moment of clairvoyance, yours truly announced to the world that

Close games, upsets and rarity fill March Madness NCAA

Continued from page 6

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going at it, the intrastate rivalry rematch between Kentucky and Louisville and a top eight quality matchup between Virginia and Michigan State. The Elite Eight was split perfectly with four No. 1 and No. 2 seeds and four teams seeded fourth or lower. No. 11-seeded Dayton was the lone mid-major and true underdog, but I was glad to see the No. 1 overall seed Florida take its rightful place in the Final Four.

The national semifinals also held a 50-50 split between top seeds and “underdogs,” though in one matchup there was some ambiguity over who was playing what role.

Wisconsin may have appeared the favorite based on its No. 2 seed, six lower than Kentucky’s. But Kentucky was led by the much ballyhooed coach John Calipari and was the preseason number one on account of its ridiculously talented freshmen. The uncertainty led to a game that truly had it all. Each team had at least one significant run, but they mostly traded baskets.

The Wildcats needed Aaron Harrison to sink a late threepointer for the third straight

game to squeak out the 74-73 victory.

I’ll be honest — I was hoping for a Florida-Kentucky final to keep the David and Goliath dichotomy alive, but the Kentucky-UConn matchup more than fulfilled my third criterion. Both teams made a lot of history along the way to add to the already fantastic tournament.

UConn’s run was almost over before it even started.

The Huskies needed a minor miracle to force overtime against St. Joe’s in their first game. The team’s modus operandi became clear in the next few wins over Villanova, Iowa State and Michigan State.

Shabazz Napier and company held virtually no advantage in shooting or rebounding, but they were rock solid from the free throw line. UConn made over 90 percent of its free throws in the last five minutes and that proved to be the difference in all of its games.

When they beat Florida, the Huskies became the first ever seven seed to advance to the championship game.

Kentucky, meanwhile, had an even tougher road and had even closer games. The Wildcats won their five games by a combined 18 points, a record

low for a championship game participant. The Wildcats also had to survive a four-game gauntlet of high seeds: number one Wichita State in the second round, followed by the tremendously underseeded Louisville Cardinals and No. 2 seeds Michigan and Wisconsin. Each of those schools was ranked in the top seven of the AP poll at some point in the season and all were in the top 12 heading into the tournament. Kentucky ended up as just the third No. 8 seed to appear in the final. Never before had both championship participants been seeded lower than three. The sum of the participants’ seeds had never been greater than 11.

Yet, despite both team’s apparent underdog status, each has rich tournament tradition. Kentucky has won eight national titles, second only to UCLA. UConn has won three since 1999, more than any other school. Both play in power conferences and were ranked in the single digits at some point this season. NBA talent f lows through each school, but especially Kentucky, where each season sees a new Fab Five in Lexington.

The actual championship game will not go down as one of the greatest ever, but it still

provided an apt ending to this great tournament. It was a low scoring grind, just as UConn’s last two games had been. The teams shot barely over 40 percent combined. The Huskies managed to negate Kentucky’s Julius Randle and its other prolific rebounders. In the end, it came down to free throws, and Kentucky managed just 54.2 percent. UConn was, fittingly, a perfect 10 for 10 to wrap up Kevin Ollie’s first full season as head coach.

Yet for all this talk about the men’s tournament, it’s the women who may have had the more historically rare championship game. UConn and Notre Dame, who went a combined 76-0 this season, squared off last night in Nashville, Tenn. Never before have two undefeated teams met in the championship game for either gender. There have only been 12 women’s teams ever to reach the final game undefeated and two managed the feat in the same year. You’d be hard-pressed to find two teams at any level of any sport which were as impressive as these squads and ended up meeting in the championship.

UConn came out on top by a score of 79 to 58, earning the program its ninth title.

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unheralded Dane Thorbjorn Olesen would have a breakout performance at the 2013 Masters. I’m still not sure how he got the invitation — not even Thorbjorn Olesen had ever heard of Thorbjorn Olesen — but after a shaky start he mounted a Her-

placing my finger squarely on the proverbial pulse of the PGA Tour, I feel that it may be Florida grad Billy Horschel’s time: Billy Ho is long, straight and can get it up and down from the ballwasher … and green just happens to be his favorite color. (Odds: 150-1)

No matter where you are on the property, you can deduce what is transpiring in the tournament based on the roars from the patrons.

Heart Pick: Fred Couples Surely, the only person who’d like to see Freddy win more than me is his former college roommate and lead anchor of the CBS coverage Jim Nantz. It seems like it’s every year now that Couples finds himself in contention through 36 holes, and every year Nantz finds himself unable to contain his vergingon-homoerotic excitement.

Perhaps this will be the year that Freddy holds on for all four rounds, making him the oldest winner in Masters history 23 years after first donning the green jacket.

(Odds: 100-1) Seniors Greg Jarmas and Nicholas Ricci are members of the Princeton men’s golf team.

culean rally to finish tied for 4th. This year I saw the same untapped potential in a young South African by the name of Tyrone Van Aswegan. Lamentably, TVA did not make the field. So again

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Wednesday april 9, 2014

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } RUGBY

Tigers look to cap strong spring in coming weeks

By Tom Pham contributing writer

This Saturday and Sunday, the 12th and 13th of April, men’s club rugby will be hosting the Ivy League Championships at Rickerson Field, looking to build on last season’s convincing semifinal berth performance, where they lost to eventual winners Dartmouth. The stakes are high for this season’s tournament, with the winners booking a place to the Nationals, where the team can compete at the highest collegiate level. The team, led by senior captains Peter Na and Chris Hamm, is hopeful for the tournament, ambitiously targeting a berth in the final.

However, it has been a tough season for the Tigers. The team had lost eight seniors at the end of last season, and things went from bad to worse when cocaptain Chris Hamm was injured over summer, and then star fly-half freshman Michael Rice went down with a torn ACL in the first game of the season.

Losing a captain is tough, but the loss of the team’s fly-half is perhaps one of the biggest losses for a rugby team. It is, perhaps equivalent of a football team losing its quarterback.

The impact of these injuries was evident; the Tigers started the season 0-4, with heavy defeats at the hands of Cornell, Columbia and Penn.

The team, however, started to gel and bounced back from this poor start with a streak of great performances, remaining unbeaten since October with some impressive victories, including a 20-14 upset of Penn and comprehensive 20-0 victory over Coast Guard. The team also earned some invaluable experience from its spring break tour to Ireland, where the team was given a great opportunity to train with Connacht, a professional academy. The tour was also vital in building team camaraderie, strengthening the bond among the players, which has further enhanced their performance on the field. This momentum has injected immense confidence in the team, especially with three tournaments coming up in three consecutive weeks.

Following the Ivy League Championships is the Koranda Cup, named in the memory of Rob Koranda ’02, who tragically died in a balcony collapse in Chicago in 2003. This match will be played at home against Yale in a winner-take-all for-

{ column }

mat, and the team expects to win the cup again on home turf. The Rickerson Cup, the New Jersey State Championships, is held the weekend after the Koranda Cup, and the team hopes to defend its title, which it has held since 2009.

One of the team’s top players this season, sophomore Ali Alami, expects a great performance in the upcoming tournaments, saying, “We want to put on a good showing at the Ivies and then defend our titles at the Koranda and Rickerson Cups.”

Alami himself has walked the walk, impressing as the team’s top try scorer and leading with experience and dynamism.

If they do manage to win both the Koranda and Rickerson Cups, the future indeed looks extremely bright for the team. With only three additional seniors on the team, ET Gallant, Richard Lee and Colin Sylvester, the team has a lot of potential, especially due to strong leadership from the current junior year and a fantastic crop of freshman players. Alami emphasized this, stating, “We are continually on the up; the freshmen who started playing in the fall have learned more about the game and are fast improving.”

MEREDITH WRIGHT :: FILE PHOTO

The men’s club rugby team will compete at home during this weekend’s Ivy League Championships.

The success of the team could not have been achieved without coach and director of rugby Richard Lopacki, who has skippered the side for over a decade.

His experience and tactical awareness has been vital to the team’s performance this season.

The team has also been boosted by the arrival of M.C. Laubscher from South Africa, who is credited with having revolutionized the team’s game and fitness and deserves a lot of credit for its improvement as the season has progressed. The very presence of the coach for club rugby is fairly noteworthy, as most club teams do not have a coach.

Men’s club rugby has not only had a good year on the field, but also off the field. Although rugby has been played

at Princeton since 1876 and has been played by notable names such as Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, and James Baker ’52, it has only just recently built a clubhouse, named Haaga House. Princeton became one of the only universities to have its own rugby facility when Haaga House, located at West Windsor Fields, was opened in 2013. The clubhouse was named after Paul Haaga Jr. ’70, who generously donated the funds for the building. Haaga House’s opening demonstrates the influence that club rugby has always had on the student body, and the team hopes to build on the great foundation and tradition of Princeton rugby, with continued success both on and off the field.

The increased popularity of the team in recent years has been expected, with more and more students becoming attracted to the sport. The players are attracted to an actionpacked 80 minutes of rugby, where players are always involved, regardless of position. It is an endeavor which requires, at every position, a rare mix of speed, strength, technique and tactical nous. The spectators are also rewarded with a fantastic game to watch, with few breaks during the game and some jarring hits from players. What is most rewarding about watching rugby may be the fact that the players are extremely tough: they tackle well and they are not intimidated by their opposition.

GOLF

March Madness at its The Masters Tournament preview Finest in 2014

By Greg Jarmas & Nicholas Ricci guest contributors

Eddie Owens

associate sports editor

This year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament was one of the best ever. That might sound like an outright lie to some people whose favorite team lost early or whose bracket showed more red than the South on election day. But let’s walk through some stats. Best is obviously a subjective term, but here are my three parameters for it. Number one has got to be close games. Everyone likes to see a good nail-biter regardless of the teams involved, and those contests are the cornerstone of a good tournament. The right mix of chalk and upsets is also important. Everyone loves a Cinderella, but people also like to see the best teams on display.

Finally, something rare should happen. There’s nothing cooler than saying, “Teams with seeds this low have never met in the championship game” or “Wow, a team has not survived this many consecutive close games in 30 years.”

March Madness started with to a bang with four overtime games on the first day of the tournament, a single day tournament record. Another extra period followed the next day to break the record for the round of 64. Although there would be no more overtime games, the tournament still had plenty more competitive games in store. The average margin of victory in the Sweet 16 was a mere seven points, by far the lowest in the last five years. The Elite Eight games were decided

by an average of five points, also the slimmest margin in the last five tournaments. In the 15 games played from the Sweet 16 to the Championship, just one was decided by more than 10 points. I’m not sure where that stacks up historically, but it’s a great time to be a fan when 93.75 percent of the most important games are still competitive inside the last five minutes.

The balance between favorites and underdogs is very delicate. Everyone has their own personal preference as to the ratio of Davids and Goliaths, but some middle ground is probably most agreeable and I think this year had it. No. 14-seeded Mercer over Duke in the first round was the biggest upset of the tournament but was also the only upset involving a seed lower than No. 12, so we still got to see the best teams keep playing. Three No. 12 seeds and two No. 11 seeds won, providing more excitement without costing the field any great teams. The round of 32 was when giants really started falling. Wichita State, Kansas, Villanova and Syracuse were all three seeds or better and all lost. But as Malcolm Gladwell told us in his most recent book, if you dig deeper, the matchups might not be all that lopsided.

The Shockers and Wildcats had not beaten a quality opponent all year, and the Jayhawks and Orange limped into the tournament.

The Sweet 16 gave us some intriguing matchups: Doubledigit seeds Dayton and Stanford See NCAA page 5

“When a boy handed me a cup of water on the 16th tee, I could hardly hold it. I didn’t know whether I was holdin’ the putter or it was holdin’ me.” – Gay Brewer, 1967 Master’s Champion You can’t see it. You can’t hear it. But boy can you feel it. Gay Brewer speaks of the palpable sense of pressure that is familiar to all who have been fortunate enough to find themselves with a chance to win the year’s first major. There is an imperceptible yet self-evident mystique that is felt by all golfers, journalists and patrons who make the trip to the hallowed grounds of Augusta National on the second weekend in April for the annual Augusta National Invitational tournament, informally known as “The Masters.” To be sure, this weekend’s contest will have a different tenor than those of recent years, with the conspicuous absence of one Eldrick Tont Woods. The Big Cat pulled out a week ago citing recurring back problems. Who will fill the void? Who can fill this void?

The answer to this question shall be revealed late Sunday afternoon when the shadows of the towering pines shall stretch nearly as long as the storied history of the club itself.

Augusta National is traditional, yet timeless. Attendees of the tournament are not called fans. They’re “patrons.” And patrons do not run to see their favorite

players, for they are not allowed to. They walk. If a patron sets a foldout chair by the 18th green at 9 a.m. and wishes to follow his favorite golfer for a few holes, he can return to the hole hours later to find his seat still open and undisturbed. This isn’t a baseball park. This is Augusta National. Despite the time-honored decorum and etiquette of The Masters, it is the Club’s ability to adapt over the years that has allowed the course to not only remain relevant, but to set the standard for major championship golf course set-up around the world.

Augusta National, perhaps more than any other championship golf course, has undergone a slew of changes since its original design by Alister Mackenzie and Bobby Jones in the early 1930s. Mackenzie, formally trained as a surgeon, served as a doctor for the British in the Boer War where he became an expert in camouf lage. His surgical nature and mastery of visual deception served him well as he produced a meticulously routed golf course that features dramatic changes in elevation. The drop from the second tee to the second green is 90 feet. Rae’s Creek cuts across the southeastern corner of the Augusta National property and f lows along the back of the 11th green, in front of the 12th green and ahead to the 13th tee in a corner of the course infamously known as “Amen Corner” for the “Hail Mary”s it elicits in players. It is the low point on the course.

Newton’s law of universal gravitation proves true year in and year out at Augusta as players witness their balls bleed to this nadir. Just as everything drains towards this area of the property, so every putt has an innate tendency to break towards Rae’s Creek. This little nugget of local knowledge is sure to be in the minds of the contending players as they traverse Augusta’s back nine on Sunday.

“A tradition unlike any other,” The Masters is the only Major in golf that is played on the same course every year. The brainchild of club founders Robert Tyre Jones Jr. and Clifford Roberts, The Masters quickly cemented its place among golf ’s most prestigious events. Since Horton Smith’s inaugural victory in 1934, the tournament has served as a backdrop for some of the ancient game’s most iconic moments. Gene Sarazen’s albatross at the par-5 15th in the 1935 playing of The Masters came to be known as the “Shot heard ‘round the World.” In 1986, following a six year drought in which he did not win a Major championship, the Golden Bear returned from hibernation with a one-stroke victory over Tom Kite and Greg Norman made possible by a back-nine score of 30. And who could forget Tiger’s carnal roar in 1997 when the greatest golfer of our time burst onto the scene with a Master’s scoring record of 270 that still stands to this day?

The roars. They are part

of what makes The Masters unique. No matter where you are on the property, you can deduce what is transpiring in the tournament based on the roars from the patrons. Ah the irony, that in a place so renowned for its visual beauty it is the auricular sense that takes center stage at the climax of the most important weekend of the year. The reactions to a birdie are noticeably louder than that of a clutch save of par. And the roars that reverberate through the Augusta pines and cause the ground to shake in response to an eagle are even louder than the eruptions in response to birdies. One need not check the PGA Tour app on his smartphone for the status of the leaders — though he would not be able to even if he wanted as all cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices are strictly prohibited on Club grounds at all times — all he needs to do is watch and listen. The roars don’t lie.

When you watch CBS’s live broadcast of The Masters this year, we challenge you to find one brown blade of grass on the whole property.

You won’t be able to. The 18 holes at Augusta National sit atop 500 acres of land that was formerly a nursery before the grounds were built to accommodate a golf course. Such pristine conditions do not come about by accident. They are the result of supreme efforts by the Club to ensure that every last pine needle is perfectly placed come the secSee GOLF page 5

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