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Friday September 15, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 66
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U. to begin reviewing transfer student applications this fall By Shriya Sekhasaria News Editor Emerita
The University will make its transfer application available early in the fall of this year, according to its undergraduate admissions website. Transfer students will be admitted to the University for the first time in 28 years starting in fall 2018. The transfer program looks to enroll a “small group of exceptionally well-prepared transfer students from a range of backgrounds.” Applications from U.S. military veterans and students from low-income backgrounds and community colleges are particularly encouraged to apply. The University decided not to admit transfer students in 1990 as a result of a high general admission retention rate of 98 percent and an increasingly large volume of applications that strained admissions officers to evaluate several applicants for 20 or fewer spots, according to an editorial published by the ‘Prince’ calling for the admission of transfer students in 2013. The decision to now admit transfer students is an attempt at attracting “students with diverse backgrounds and experiences, such as military veterans and students from low-income back-
LUKE GAMBLE :: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Morrison Hall, home to Princeton’s Office of Admission, will resume review of transfer student applications this fall following a 28-year hiatus on student transfers.
grounds, including some who began their studies at community colleges,” according to the University’s strategic planning framework. The framework, adopted early last year, called for the start of planning a transfer admissions program with the goal of “meeting Princeton’s responsibilities for leadership in research and education.” The transfer admission program expects applicants to
STUDENT LIFE
be prepared to “thrive in our diverse and rigorous learning environment,” according to the admissions website. It will include an individualized holistic review of applicants’ talents, achievements, and potential to contribute to learning at the University. The student’s academic standing at the time of entry will be determined by University faculty and college deans after an evaluation of
transfer credit. Most transfer students will be expected to begin their sophomore year at the University. However, in some cases, they may be required to enter as first-years or permitted to enter as juniors. Transfer students will be able to enroll only in the fall term, according to the University’s admissions website. This is similar to the policy for first-year students at the
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
U . A F FA I R S
University. The University was the only one of the eight Ivy League universities to not admit transfer students. Harvard typically enrolls 12 transfer students each from its average pool of more than 1,600 applications. Yale receives more than 1,000 transfer applications for between 20 and 30 spaces, yielding a transfer acceptance rate of two to three percent. Dartmouth typically admits between 15 and 25 transfer students from a pool of over 700. Brown admits between 100 and 200 from a pool of almost 1900. Penn and Columbia each admit less than 10 percent of their transfer applicants. Cornell admits about 550 transfers each fall and 100 in the spring. The University’s strategic planning process began in January 2014. The resulting framework will be reviewed annually by trustees and administrators to evaluate progress towards its goals, including the transfer admission program. Other announcements in the framework included planning for 125 more undergraduates per class, construction of a seventh residential college, growth of the University’s international programs, and building an interdisciplinary program and new facilities in environmental studies.
Citizen Scientists attend Iran denies UN treaty negotiations Wang’s Senior Writer
Members of Princeton Citizen Scientists attended the second and final round of negotiations at the United Nations General Assembly over an international treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. The negotiations concluded with a vote and final text on July 7. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which passed with a vote of 122 to 1, with one abstention, “prohibits a full range of nuclear-weaponrelated activities,” according to the UN News Centre. Specifically, the treaty prohibits the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices. According to the UN News Centre, the treaty will be signed on Sep. 20, 2017, and will go into effect “90 days after it has been ratified by at least 50 countries.” Notably, many countries that currently possess nuclear weapons did not participate in the talks. The United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and North Korea did not join the talks, and all have signaled their intent not to sign the treaty. In particular, the U.S., U.K., and France cite nuclear weapons as being “essential to keeping the peace in Europe and North Asia for
over 70 years.” Sebastien Philippe GS, president of the Princeton Citizen Scientists, said that the treaty addresses issues such as nuclear security and human rights that the group has been concerned with since it was founded in November 2016. “There is a strong group within Princeton Citizen Scientists that works at the intersection of science and international security and centers around the issue of nuclear security,” Philippe said. “Some of us were really involved in this for research and wanted to contribute to the debate and try to write proposals, working papers, and so on.” He hopes negotiations will result in a ban on weapons that can have “humanitarian impacts of massive proportions” by holding nuclear weapons to the same legal standard as other instruments of mass destruction that have already been outlawed. Although no nuclear-armed nation can be counted among the over 120 states participating in the negotiations, Princeton Citizen Scientists stated in a press release that a treaty would affect these nations’ behavior “through normative pressure.” “If these countries choose their nuclear weapSee SCIENTISTS page 2
appeal of conviction By Marcia Brown Head News Editor
The appeal of U.S. citizen Xiyue Wang GS of a conviction and 10-year prison sentence for espionage was denied by Iranian authorities yesterday. In a University press release, it was emphasized that Wang “was not involved in any political activities or connected to any government agencies; he was simply a scholar conducting historical research.” A fourth-year graduate student, Wang has been detained in Iran since summer 2016. Now 37, Wang was in Iran as a doctoral candidate in the history department under Professor Stephen Kotkin, “studying Eurasian languages and regional governance practices across multiple Eurasian countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” According to the University, Wang was also in Iran to study Farsi. This development in Wang’s status comes as tensions between the U.S. and Iran remain anything but cordial. While the Trump administration agreed in July to re-certify that Iran is complying See IRAN page 5
PHOTO COURTESY OF ELLE STARKMAN/PPPL OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory was honored this summer for its success in diverting waste from landfills and increasing recycling.
PPPL receives EPA award in waste management By Jacob Tyles Staff Writer
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory with the Federal Green Challenge Region 2 Award in Waste Management on July 12. The laboratory was able to divert 3,766 tons of waste from landfills, increase its recycling rate by 13 percent, and save about a quarter million dollars in taxpayer money over the last fiscal year. PPPL is a Department of Energyfunded National Laboratory, one of eight run by the Office of Science.
In Opinion
Today on Campus
Columnist Hayley Siegel calls out liberal hypocrisy on religious freedom and guest contributor Jonathan Lu stresses the need for student advocacy. PAGES 6-7
12-3 p.m.: Learn about student organizations at the activities fair. Dillon Gymnasium
The award is part of the EPA’s larger Sustainable Materials Management program, which challenges federal facilities throughout the country, like PPPL, to demonstrate environmental stewardship by annually reducing waste, purchasing environmentally safer products, and reducing overall carbon footprint. The EPA also participates in this program, offering a “lead by example” attitude in environmental care. This is reassuring to environmentalists, especially in the midst of the current administration’s proSee PPPL page 3
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By Allie Spensley
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Friday September 15, 2017
Citizen Scientists attended as part of UN Civil Society Network SCIENTISTS Continued from page 1
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ons over international law and the will of the global community, then they have to explain why they stand alone in the world as nuclear outlaws and accept the stigma that will go with this,” explained Zia Mian, co-director of the Program on Science and Global Security at the Wilson School. The negotiation process — officially referred to as
the conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination — began in March 2017, and a draft of the treaty was presented in late May. In this draft, states pledged to never “develop, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons.” “In the first round, countries expressed their views on what a prohibition on nuclear weapons would look like, what should be
targeted, and how we deal with countries that have nuclear weapons today,” Philippe explained. Princeton Citizen Scientists is attending as part of the U.N. Civil Society Network, which the group officially joined in May. A grant from the Ploughshares Fund enabled members to travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York City to participate in the negotiations alongside theorists from the SGS program. Civil society groups have
long campaigned for a nuclear weapon ban, helping to “organize and support international conferences and UN resolutions that led to the talks and pressed governments to participate,” Mian said. He added that these groups also have a formal role in presenting their views to the official negotiators on each topic that is being discussed at the talks. “[The treaty] was really lifted off by civil society, by various groups in the
peace movement, environmental movement, and human rights movement, who came together and convinced countries in the past few years to move forward with this agenda, even if some countries like the U.S. or Russia are pretty against the movement,” Philippe said. “It was interesting to see the leverage of civil society and the impact it can have in creating international policy,” he added.
Friday September 15, 2017
PPPL award is part of EPA Sustainable Materials Management program PPPL
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............. posals to cut programs, which, redundant or not, are responsible for maintaining the delicate state of our global ecosystem. PPPL’s current goal is to minimize the cost of fusion, a nuclear process which can safely power businesses and homes. Nuclear fusion naturally takes place in the core of our sun and the cores of similar stars where the environment is just right to bind nuclei together and release incredible amounts of energy. Harnessing this process is challenging, and bringing it down to be cost effective is even more so. Supplying fusion energy to the grids of existing energy infrastructure would provide clean energy to power cities with ease. The laboratory, which is spearheading a program on clean energy, thinks its day-to-day practices should be environmentally clean, too. “It’s part of our work culture,” said Andrew Zwicker, Head of the Office of Communications and Public Outreach at the PPPL. “We’re always trying to improve our rate of recycling and reducing, but it’s about making sure our employees are aware of these programs.” Employees and staff recycle waste, have a composting system, and even recycle cooking oil to make biodiesel, he explained. PPPL has received numerous awards for its environmental programs over the last several years. The Lyman Spitzer Building, the lab’s main office, was granted U.S.-LEED Gold certification in 2011. In 2012, the laboratory received a DoE Federal Sustainability award for reducing its greenhouse gases. In 2013, PPPL was awarded a DoE Green Buy award for purchasing environmentally safer products over the fiscal year. In 2015, the lab won the Food
The Daily Princetonian
Recovery award for its campus-wide composting habits. Furthermore, PPPL has received even more awards in recognition of its “lead by example” facility, which encourages sustainable practices. “It represents a change in how our society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection,” Tayler Covington, EPA Region 2 Press Officer, wrote in an email. “By looking at a product’s entire life cycle, we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs.” The current administration faced criticism in May due to a proposed budget cut of nearly 30 percent to the EPA, now headed by Scott Pruitt. This budget cut could negatively affect programs like SMM, which promote and encourage facilities across the country to take part in more environmentally clean practices. When asked about how this rested with the people who run these programs, Covington pointed to a long process of examination within the EPA itself. “We are in the early stages of a long budget process and final funding levels will not be settled until Congress acts,” said Covington. “The EPA will continue to examine its programs to identify those that create unnecessary redundancies or those that have served their purpose and accomplished their mission.” But there’s more to this mission, and companies throughout the U.S. have only started to look up to the paragons of industry that promote environmentally clean practices. If one thing is sure, it’s that PPPL plans to continue these practices. “We’re trying to change the world,” said Zwicker. “While we’re doing that, we’re doing everything we possibly can to be environmentally friendly, from start to finish.”
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Friday September 15, 2017
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Wang sentenced to 10 years for espionage
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with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated under the Obama administration to control Iran’s nuclear program, President Donald Trump has repeatedly lambasted the deal. The State Department has also issued a new travel warning for U.S. citizens on the risks of travel
to Iran, highlighting both the lack of diplomatic relations between the two nations as well as reciprocal action from Iran in response to the President’s embattled executive order on immigration from Muslim-majority countries, which includes Iran. The warning notes that there is high “risk of arrest and detention for U.S. citizens, particularly dual national Iranian-Americans.”
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Friday September 15, 2017
Opinion
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Letter to the Editor: Campus lockdown Ari Maas
Sarah Sakha ’18
Guest Contributor
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n Tuesday, Aug. 29, the Princeton campus was placed on lockdown for ten minutes while officials investigated reports of an armed person. Thankfully, the armed man turned out to be an out-of-uniform police officer with a holstered firearm and badge escorting teens to the University Art Museum. Because Princeton is a world-renowned university, this incident made national news. In February 2017, I wrote an op-ed for the Daily Princetonian imploring University officials to arm Princeton University Police (PUPD) Officers. This incident underscores how important that decision is. For 10 minutes, those on campus were in fear that an armed gunman was on the loose. And those that know the campus the best were unable to protect it. While a select few PUPD cops have access to long arms (e.g. rifles) in their vehicles, they do not have access to sidearms on their person. The closest cop to this incident may have been an unarmed police officer who would be prevented by PUPD policies (and from not being properly equipped) from engaging the gunman. Since I graduated last spring and am no longer on campus, I do not know what specifically occurred. But I can only assume that a perimeter was set up by unarmed PUPD officers while they waited for an armed response from Princeton municipal cops (who do not have an internal knowledge of the campus – and are most likely
not adequately staffed to provide police coverage to both Princeton University and the two Princeton municipalities they police) or PUPD supervisors with rifles. If this incident was in fact an active shooter and an unarmed PUPD cop happened to be in the vicinity, all they could do is take cover, report the shooter’s location over the radio, and watch helplessly as the gunman unloads bullet after bullet from his or her firearm. This goes against best practice guidelines which stress that “police officers must make contact with the suspect immediately to end the threat. Any delay in action may result in a loss of life.” In response to my argument to arm PUPD, my colleagues at the Wilson School penned a response saying they do not believe the Princeton community would be any safer with a fully armed police department. Furthermore, they perpetrated the same false narrative that has been so prevalent over the past few years in our society – that minorities on campus would be at risk of being shot and killed by the police. According to a 2016 Washington Post police shooting database, out of 963 fatal shootings, 465 of those shot and killed by the police were white (48 percent), 233 black (24 percent), and 160 Hispanic (16.7 percent). And of those, 48 suspects (5 percent) were unarmed (and unarmed does not mean not dangerous, as anyone who has ever been in a fight for their lives with an unarmed person knows). According to
the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2011 (the most recent year that I could find statistics for), 62.9 million people interacted with police. 963 shootings out of 62.9 million interactions is a miniscule percentage. In 2003, after considerable debate, Brown University chose to arm their police department. A report authored by Bill Bratton (the former two time New York City Police Commissioner, Boston and Los Angeles Police Chief) found that to “fight crime more effectively,” Brown University Police must be armed. Prior to arming their police department, the Brown University Police had a policy of disengagement, which meant that “Brown University Police were not available when members of the campus community needed them most.” Although I don’t have the statistics to support my claim, I don’t think enrollment suffered at Brown due to the arming decision. In fact, most people on their campus today probably don’t even remember a time that their police department was unarmed. And a quick Google search for the “shooting and killing of minorities” on Brown’s campus by Brown police turned up no results (however, there was one case of a Brown officer being fired for not following department policies when he handcuffed a student. However, no criminal charges or formal complaints were filed against the former officer). PUPD officers are under the same “disengagement policy” that Brown officers
editor-in-chief
were a decade and a half ago. If the WaWa was being robbed, a student was being sexually assaulted with a weapon outside of Frist, or an armed intruder was found inside a residential dorm, the closest trained and certified cop, a PUPD cop, would have to take a back seat until a Princeton municipal cop showed up giving the perpetrator precious time to get away or for the crime to continue (even officers with long arms are not allowed to deploy their weapons unless there is an active shooter on campus and even then, it is only certain officers). If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck – unless it’s a PUPD cop. It may say police on their patch, the officers may go to a state certified police academy, have the power of arrest, carry ID cards that say “police officer,” and be represented by the Fraternal Order of Police, but if a crime with a weapon or active shooter happens – they must take a back seat. For the safety of our students, our community, and our PUPD officers, it’s time we properly equip our cops with the tools necessary to do their jobs fully. Ari L. Maas GS ‘17 is a law enforcement professional with over 14 years of experience. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Rutgers University and a J.D. from New York Law School, and is a licensed attorney in both New York and New Jersey. In 2017, he earned a Masters of Public Policy degree from the Woodrow Wilson School.
On the boundaries of religious freedom Hayley Siegel columnist
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n Sept. 6, Amy Coney Barrett, a law professor at Notre Dame, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as an appellate court nominee. In her questioning, she faced what has been dubbed a “religious test” — or nothing short of an inquisition — by Democratic senators. During her hearing, she refused to discuss the impact of her Catholic faith on her role as a judge. Barrett provoked the ire of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who suggested that Barrett’s Catholic background may color her interpretation of the law. Feinstein’s ad-hominem claim that “the dogma lives loudly within you” was supposedly a denunciation of Barrett’s position that the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion in all 50 states, was incorrectly decided. Feinstein, a notable supporter of abortion rights, had previously asked Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch if he would deem Roe an irreversible “super precedent.” President Eisgruber has since responded with a letter to Feinstein and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, expressing his concern that their line of questioning and probing
of Barrett’s personal faith, rather than her legal expertise, had threatened her religious freedom. It may be easy to condemn and villainize Feinstein and her colleagues, but it may also serve us well to acknowledge the tricky position that the senators face and to consider the larger basis for their concerns. Several Senate hearings in the past year — including Sen. Bernie Sanders’ questioning questioning of Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget — have danced around an all-out religious test of public servants. However, Barrett’s hearing isn’t another liberal attempt at enforcing political correctness run amuck. Instead it’s a significant milestone in the unmasking of the darker underbelly to the partisan debate on what actually constitutes religious freedom in the eyes of the law. After all, while it’s unarguably vital that our government respect constitutional freedom of religion, there is also something to be said for taking into account the partiality that any religious background confers on one’s interpretation of fundamental morality. If a perfect separation of church and state is to be achieved, then it follows
that anyone who openly states their moral position based on a religious conviction should recuse themselves when deciding upon laws that evaluate the moral positions of all citizens, in order to avoid favoring those who share their stance. Ideally, our government would ensure that those wielding political power are impartial enough to make somewhat utilitarian decisions, crafting laws that provide the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. Feinstein’s comments only underscore much of the American public’s suspicion regarding legal impartiality when it comes to non-Protestant religious figures and especially Catholics in public office, a stance that began with President John F. Kennedy. These uncharitably reflect the misconception that someone who is personally tied to a religious position is too insular to care about the collective well-being of a majority outside their faith. They also speak to an commonly circulated liberal concern — underscored by the efforts of left-wing groups including the Alliance for Justice — that conservative Christian politicians and legal scholars must be using their professional work to dismantle decisions such as Roe v. Wade
vol. cxli
Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 William R. Elfers ’71 Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Joshua Katz Kathleen Crown Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Randall Rothenberg ’78 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Annalyn Swan ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Jerry Raymond ’73
141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 associate news editors Kristin Qian ’18 Claire Lee ‘19 head opinion editor Nicholas Wu ’18 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Emily Erdos ’19 head sports editor David Xin ’19 associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Claire Coughlin ’19 head street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 associate street editors Andie Ayala ’19 Catherine Wang ’19 web editor Sarah Bowen ’20 head copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18
that they personally oppose on religious grounds. The explicit references to Barrett’s Catholicism during her hearing clearly suggest that there is still a strong anti-Catholic bias in American politics. She should never have been so bluntly chastised for not agreeing with traditionally Democratic positions. So long as someone with her vantage point recognizes that there may be certain landmark decisions that are necessary to ensure the rights of others, and does not attempt to leverage her personal opinion to impinge on these rights, who is to say that she cannot entertain her own private beliefs, religiously motivated or not? However, for what it’s worth, it is no simple feat to accurately decipher the slim dichotomy between a religiously motivated position that one uses to bolster their interpretation of the law versus an internally held personal view that serves as a private but not professional creed for what is right and what is wrong. For example, this past February, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against Barronelle Stutzman, a florist who invoked constitutional religious freedom to justify her unwillingness to provide flowers for a gay customer’s wedding.
associate copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19
NIGHT STAFF copy Jordan Antebi ’19 Alex Levinger ’20 Stuti Mishra ’20
The gaping chasm in public opinion between the positive reaction to the Court’s decision and present censure of Feinstein only further evinces the futility behind any attempt at objectively evaluating when religious freedom is a valid justification for discrimination. Thus, while we may safely agree that Feinstein overstepped constitutional boundaries, we can also acknowledge that the root of her concerns about the separation of church and state has yet to fully be addressed within our current legal system. Hayley Siegel is a sophomore from Princeton, N.J. She can be reached at hsiegel@ princeton.edu
Friday September 15, 2017
Opinion
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Letter to the Editor: Student advocacy is a game-changer Jonathan Lu
Guest Contributor
A
s a single student, you may feel frustrated that you cannot impact world affairs, or that even if you really tried to, the time commitment would take away from your future career. My experience says differently. Student advocates can make an enormous impact with much less effort than any activist outside college, while still building valuable skills for their own futures. College advocates can have a high impact-to-effort ratio. For example, this past summer, the Princeton Student Climate Initiative wrote a white paper on a carbon fee & dividend proposal in New Jersey. Such a policy could have a substantial impact on mitigating climate change impacts, like hurricane risk or agricultural losses, on top of stimulating the economy. We have been working with Assemblyman Zwicker to get a bill into the state legislature, and we believe it would have a good chance of passing: carbon pricing is supported by most economists, both parties, and even fossil fuel giants. How much effort did it take to propose this important economic reform for a state of nine million people, with a GDP of $465 billion? Surprisingly, only three hours of work per week, for a bit over a month. Climate change is not the only issue in which you can have a large, immediate impact. Consider the Immigration Day of Action in February, which mobilized over 500 students mailing postcards and letters to protest the first Muslim immigration ban. This was the work of the Princeton Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and Individual Dignity (MASJID) and Princeton Advocates for Justice (PAJ). Or consider the Day of Action in March, organized by Princeton Citizen Scientists (PCS) and PAJ, where
nearly 1,500 people attended over 64 teach-ins on subjects ranging from nuclear proliferation to information censorship, and interacted with 13 University and community organizations promoting causes such as social justice and reducing the impact of money on politics. Or consider the fundraising work by Princeton Latinos y Amigos (PLA) and Princeton DREAM Team, which raised $2,700 for undocumented high school students in the Trenton Area. Of all the issues that you could have an impact on here at Princeton, I am just getting started. If this recent advocacy still seems unimpressive, consider that student advocacy has often led to fundamental shifts in the course of history. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawing racial segregation and discrimination was passed in large part due to the sit-ins and voter registration efforts by the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee. Korean student demonstrations were crucial in the June Struggle, which forced the South Korean government to transition from a military regime to a true democracy. Student activists, Princeton’s included, pushed their own universities to divest from South Africa, which contributed to the dismantling of their apartheid system. Of all people, students can have particularly high impact per effort because of the college network. Where else in the world can one simply walk into the office of an international expert on climate change (Michael Oppenheimer), or human rights (Stanley Katz), or nuclear disarmament (Zia Mian)? When else would one be surrounded by thousands of other young, curious, and excited people? Who else is not overloaded with responsibilities like a family or full-time job?
Furthermore, many University organizations, like the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, Fields Center for Equality & Cultural Understanding, Office of Sustainability, and Student Government, are explicitly dedicated to supporting our projects. Because of them, we do not have to worry about logistical issues such as paying for posters, meeting places, websites, listservs, or food. This frees us to focus on what matters the most: brainstorming and implementing the most effective ways to impact issues. Above all, advocacy is a crucial skill to have whatever career you choose. The advocacy that convinces a peer to write a letter or a Republican to fight climate change is the same one that convinces a patient to follow a treatment plan or an investor to fund your project. And everyone can learn it. Take me for an example:
a computer science major, I had taken zero classes related to effective political advocacy prior to starting the Princeton Student Climate Initiative last semester. But once the group started moving, once we started reading more on the topic, learning from other student groups and speaking with professors, I gained these advocacy skills. If I could do it, so can you. The Civic Engagement Fair is Friday, September 15 from 12-3 p.m. outside Dillon Gymnasium. Princeton’s motto is “In the nation’s service and the service of humanity.” If they’re just words to you, fine. Otherwise, I will see you there. Jonathan Lu is a senior in Computer Science from Fremont, Calif. He can be reached at jhlu@princeton.edu.
Sports
Friday September 15, 2017
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S TENNIS
Princeton men’s tennis hopes to open well with two regional tournaments By Mike Gao Contributor
The newly minted Tiger tennis team hopes to start out the 2017 season on a high note, as the team splits to attend two critical national invitational tournaments hosted at Duke and University of Pennsylvania, respectively. It will be a test of strength and confidence for a Princeton team that retains key elements of last year’s stalwart team, despite losses to graduation, and welcomes one of its strongest first-year classes ever. The steady Tigers finished last year with a respectable 14–12 record, including 4–3 in Ivy League play. Princeton nabbed key matchups against Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, and Harvard, though they would fall to nationally ranked Columbia and Cornell University teams, in addition to other stellar squads such as Michigan and Wisconsin. This year, the Tigers expect to remain competitive in challenging conference and non-conference play, hoping to avenge their prior losses to Cornell and Columbia as well as anticipating novel challenges from new teams, such as a ranked South Florida team. The Tigers also hope to have
a greater presence in the NCAA championships in the spring, building on the accomplishments of senior Luke Gamble and Alex Day ’17, who were the first doubles pair to qualify for the tournament from Princeton since 2001. Four Princeton players — senior Kial Kaiser, senior Diego Vives Toro, junior Jimmy Wasserman, and sophomore Payton Holden — will travel down south to take on powerful squads, many of them ACC-affiliated, from Duke, North Carolina, and Auburn, among others. All of the Princeton players had impressive performances on the court last year; notably, Wasserman finished with a highly respectable 17–12 record, while Austin native Holden was the team’s top performer on the court last year, with 20 wins in singles and 25 wins in doubles. Ranked just out of the top 100 for singles last year, Holden hopes to improve on his stance this season. In the meantime, senior Ben Tso, sophomore Davey Roberts, sophomore Eduardo Paz, and Princeton’s freshman recruit class of four will make their way down to Philadelphia, where they will face off against some familiar names in Princeton ten-
COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
The Princeton men’s tennis team opens its season this weekend with big aspirations for success.
nis: Columbia, Penn, and Yale, among others. Ranked ninth in the nation, Princeton’s recruiting class of 2021 has high hopes of becoming one of the most talented and accomplished generations of Princeton tennis, with players like Ryan Seggerman, ranked 14th nationally in his recruiting class, and
Kabir Sarita, ranked 40th in his recruiting class, aspiring to set a new bar for Princeton tennis. They’ll be an excellent complement to the hungry and skilled generation of returning veterans on the Princeton squad. As it faces significant hurdles and powerful foes, Princeton’s tennis program
remains undaunted in its continued upward trend and its fight to enter the most prestigious tiers of collegiate tennis. Armed with both a formidable incoming class and a crop of talented veterans, the team is a serious threat to any other on the court this year.
FOOTBALL
Princeton football looks to defend Ivy League title this fall By Owen Tedford Contributor
On Saturday, Princeton football will open its 149th season at home against San Diego (1–1). This will be the start of the Tigers’ battle to defend the Ivy League title that they achieved last year. In the preseason poll, Princeton was tied with Harvard, both receiving 120 points; however, the Tigers received more firstplace votes than the Crimson. Penn, the team that Princeton shared last year’s Ivy League title with, was right behind Princeton and Harvard with 110 points and five first-place votes, the same number that the Crimson earned. Instrumental to the Tigers’ success last season were its rushing offense and defense, two categories in which they lead the Ivy League. On the offensive side of the ball, AllAmerican senior quarterback John Lovett, also the reigning Bushnell Cup winner and the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year, was critical to leading Princeton’s rushing offense. Last season, he broke Princeton’s singlerushing record with 20 touchdowns, in large part thanks to an offensive line that now returns four of its
five starters from last year. Most important to this line is first-team All-Ivy League senior left tackle Mitchell Sweigart, who has started the entirety of the last two seasons at left tackle. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Lovett will be out on Saturday after having surgery during the offseason. Fortunately, though, Princeton has played a twoquarterback system for the last few seasons, and the second half of that system, senior quarterback Chad Kanoff, is looking to show off his arm for the Tigers. Currently, Kanoff sits at fifth on the all-time passing leaders’ list at 4,036 yards. Doug Butler ’86 leads the list at 7,291 yards, followed by Matt Verbit ’05 with 5,202 yards, and in third, Jason Garrett ’89 has 4,274 yards. If Kanoff is able to move into third on the list – he needs 238 yards to do so –he’ll have the most passing yards for Princeton while also starting for a team that won the Ivy League championship. On defense, senior tri-captain Kurt Holuba, a defensive lineman, will be looking to lead the way. Last season, he was a finalist for Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year with eight sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Holuba’s leadership
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The Tiger football squad, armed with a strong class of recruits and seasoned returners, prepares to take on its Ivy League competition this fall.
will be very important for a defense that will likely have eight new starters from last season’s unit. He won’t be doing this alone, as senior cornerback Chance Melancon will be helping by leading the defensive backfield.
When Melancon started his first game last year in week 3, the Tigers went 7–1 the rest of the way. Saturday’s game will kick off at noon at Powers Field at Princeton Stadium. If you are unable to make it
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No. 12 The Princeton Tigers are currently No. 12 in the latest Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Varsity Poll.
down to the stadium, the game will be televised on Eleven Sports and streamed on the Ivy League Network and on the radio at WPRB 103.3 FM.
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