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Monday september 15, 2014 vol. cxxxviii no. 70
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By Anna Windemuth
In Opinion
staff writer
The Editorial Board discusses transparency in the investigatory procedures of the Honor Committee and Committee on Discipline, and Cameron Langford argues that the right to privacy is not upheld for women. PAGE 4
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Today on Campus All day: Campus Rec sponsors a week of Group Fitness and Instructional classes, free to students, faculty, and members. Dillon Gymnasium and other locations.
The Archives
Sept. 15, 1966 The Pyne Administration building is reopened as East Pyne Hall, home to the departments of the Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages and the classics department.
News & Notes Bomb threat at CVS currently under investigation
Police are currently investigating a reported bomb threat at the CVS Pharmacy on Nassau Street that occurred Friday evening. The Princeton Police Department responded at 7:55 p.m. to a report that a store employee had received a phone call from an unknown male caller. The caller allegedly said that a package containing explosives had been placed inside of the store. The building, which included both the store and above-store apartment units, was subsequently evacuated and the surrounding area was closed to pedestrian travel. Police patrols and the Mercer County Sheriff Department Bomb Unit searched the store and the apartment units. However, no suspicious packages were found. There were no reported injuries, and vehicular traffic was uninterrupted. In addition to PPD and the Bomb Unit, the Princeton Fire Department and Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad also responded to the scene. See NOTES page 5
LIN KING :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Schoolboy Q, who, along with Angel Haze, headined Fall Lawnparties 2014, performed many of his hits, including “Studio” and “Collard Greens,” and also covered Kendrick Lamar’s “m.A.A.d. city.” U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
U. issues email advisory in response to Ebola outbreak By Durva Trivedi staff writer
The University will not support undergraduate or graduate student travel to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria or Sierra Leone due to the recent outbreak of Ebola in the region, and those who have recently traveled to the region must report to University Health Services. The updated information was announced in a Sept.
5 administrative email following a similar warning issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In her email to students, Dean of the College Valerie Smith asked all students, faculty and staff who have recently traveled to the areas of West Africa where the Ebola virus outbreak is occurring to contact UHS or the CDC. Johnson outlined the symptoms of the disease,
described as serious and often fatal, and urged students and faculty to communicate as much as possible with UHS and the CDC in the case of recent travel to West Africa. “The decision was made out of an abundance of caution,” CDC spokesman Jason McDonald explained. “The outbreak there is pretty severe. It’s the largest outbreak of Ebola ever, and it’s See EBOLA page 3
Director of CPS Calvin Chin explained that the change was made due to concerns within CPS that students who need counseling service might not be able to schedule appointments during normal business hours because of conflicting schedules. “We’re hoping that by increasing our availability and increasing our access that we can reach out to more students
and that students will find it easier to meet with us if they need our services,” Chin said. Chin explained that CPS has been paying attention to the ongoing, active discussion about mental health on campus, and has been constantly seeking ways to improve its services. The University is currently being sued by a student who claims that he was forced
The base compensations of the University’s two top chief investment executives, Andrew Golden and Jonathan Erickson, both went up by just over 5 percent last fiscal year, maintaining the executives’ positions as the two highest-paid University employees. Golden’s base compensation was $737,476, while Erickson earned $608,976, according to the University’s most recent 990 form, a public document that includes financial details of nonprofit organizations. Golden’s cited bonus and incentive compensation stands at $1,214,274, a 48 percent increase from last year. His retirement and other deferred compensation was $912,724, a 94 percent increase from last year. The University’s compensation agreement is set up to align the interests of the University and the Princeton Investment Company staff, focusing on long-term, multiyear results while discouraging undue risk taking, Golden said. The compensation framework provides incentives to focus on the long term by basing bonus awards on the endowment’s performance over trailing three- and five-year periods, he explained. However, Golden said that the vast majority of the bonus awards cited in any given year are deferred, and must vest before they are paid out three to five years after they are first determined. When the award vests, the employee is legally entitled to the money, but is not necessarily paid this amount in salary said Marcus Owens, a tax lawyer with Caplin & Drysdale and a former director of the Exempt Organizations division of the Internal Revenue Service . Also, during that time, the awards are at risk because they are retroactively diminished if the endowment suffers losses and retroactively increased if the endowment has gains, Golden added. Therefore, Golden said, his compensation in any given year is influenced by the endowment’s investment performance in each of the preceding 10 years. This type of agreement is common at nonprofits to incentivize employees to stay longer, as they do not gain access to the funds unless they maintain their performance, Owens said. This type of arrangement is sometimes called “golden handcuffs,” he noted. “My compensation remains sig-
nificantly below what it was precrisis,” Golden said, adding that because the bonus system focuses on multi-year periods, the endowment’s losses during the financial crisis in 2008 have continued to dampen compensation. Although the endowment has now recovered and stands at a higher market value than its precrisis peak, Golden said, the system is designed so that any losses experienced by the University diminish his compensation substantially. Golden said he thinks this structure is fair, well-designed and unlike many Wall Street compensation systems. “For the most recent 990, the headline number reported for my compensation double counts about $1 million,” he said, a misstatement that indicates an annual salary of approximately $2 million. While analyzing a series of consecutive 990 forms may provide a general idea of how much compensation the top earners of a university are receiving, a concrete value is always hard to estimate, Owens said. Not only are the fiscal year and the academic year not in unison, but compensation packages often feature deferred funds that take into account the endowment’s long-term returns and other variable factors. Since the University’s bonus agreement rests on long-term results, compensation values may experience spikes from one year to the next, Owens said. In the fiscal year of 2009, for example, Golden’s base compensation was $671,240, his incentive compensation was $1,290,626 and his deferred compensation was $484,686. Adding nontaxable and other benefits, his compensation amounted to $2,549,323. The very next year, this total was $1,458,774, a sudden 43 percent decrease. A similar pattern of jumps is seen in his retirement and other deferred payments, which went down by 66 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2010, but then increased significantly in 2013. “You really don’t know how much compensation is involved until it vests,” Owens said, adding that compensation can suddenly bounce up in a given year because it vested but that his amount is not necessarily paid out. The two highest-paid endowment executives at Harvard University reported total earnings of $6.6 million and $6.2 million, while Yale University’s top two executives See EXECUTIVES page 2
STUDENT LIFE
Former U. presidents CPS extends service hours, plans Shapiro ’64, Tilghman partnerships with campus groups lead freshman seminars U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
By Do-Hyeong Myeong staff writer
The service hours for Counseling and Psychological Services have been extended for Mondays and Wednesdays as of Sept. 8 in an effort to increase availability and access to students. Students will now be able to make an appointment with CPS until 7 p.m. on both days.
See CPS page 5
By Konadu Amoakuh staff writer
Two former University presidents — Harold Shapiro ’64 and Shirley Tilghman — as well as former Harvard University president Neil Rudenstine ’56 are all teaching freshman seminars this academic year. Shapiro, who served as
president of the University from 1988 to 2001, is teaching FRS 159: Science, Technology, and Public Policy. He explained that his freshman seminar focuses on topics such as cloning, energy, climate or assistive reproductive technology and exploring the implications for public policy these technoloSee FRS page 4
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The Daily Princetonian
Monday september 15, 2014
U. sees 11.7 percent investment returns
JOJO THROWBACK
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reported total earnings of $2.9 million and $2.1 million. Members of the Ivy League and other colleges with large endowments have been criticized for providing generous bonuses to their endowment managers. Notably, an article appearing in Bloomberg this May criticized Golden’s compensation. Golden said the article was misleading because it double counted deferred pay. When asked about the controversy surrounding University endowment manager executives’ salaries, principal at the consulting firm Compensia Mark Borges said academic institutions face a competitive market for skilled investment managers. “[Schools] are constrained or driven by the market to compensate these people at a level that’s going to ensure that they will remain em-
LIN KING :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Jojo, Tower’s act at Lawnparties, performed both hits off her 2004 and 2006 albums, such as “Leave (Get Out)” and “Too Little Too Late,” as well as newer songs from her upcoming album.
ployed with them given the employment alternatives that they have out there, which would certainly compensate them at a fairly high level given their particular skill set,” Borges said. Borges added that the compensation package is presumably designed with certain adjustments given an academic environment, which he speculates does not require the same stresses and expectations as within a private investment vehicle. “I think $2 million viewed through any reasonable lens is substantial,” Golden said when asked why he did not pursue career options with higher salaries on Wall Street. He said he feels very fortunate for his job’s compensation and would not be interested in doing similar work if it did not involve generating funds for a good public cause. The University’s 11.7 percent return on investments during the 2013 fiscal year meets the average for institutions with endowments over $1
billion according to data from over 800 colleges and universities processed by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Harvard featured an 11.3 percent return rate. Last year, the average return nationwide stood at negative 0.3 percent. “Companies have been emerging from the recession and corporate profits have gone up,” NACUBO Director of Research and Policy Analysis Kenneth Redd said in response to the dramatic increase. He added that the European market has been emerging from its recession, further increasing average profits. Golden said that his team is excited about generating around 50 percent of the University’s budget, which enables excellent research and teaching, plus a financial aid program that is “second to none.” Returns for the fiscal year of 2014 will be published this fall. Golden said they will be in the very high teens, but that markets are always unpredictable.
The Daily Princetonian
Monday september 15, 2014
International Internship Program canceled summer trips to Sierra Leone EBOLA
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reached a point now where the total number of cases is more than any other outbreak of Ebola in history.” According to Mike Caddell, a University spokesman, the University’s decision is in keeping with its existing policy regarding funding for student travel to countries on the U.S. State Department Travel Warnings list or countries
“The decision was made out of an abundance of caution. The outbreak there is pretty severe.” Jason McDonald CDC spokesman
where the United States has issued travel restrictions. Caddell added that the University does not know of any students or faculty who have recently been to, are currently in or are planning to travel to the affected regions. The University’s decision to issue this advisory follows the CDC’s lead and will likely last as long as the CDC warning does, Caddell said. While the CDC is not able to predict how long the travel advisory might last, taking the right precautions would help, McDonald said. “We know that the tried and true practices of good public health can put this Ebola outbreak out,” he
said. Students annually travel during the summer in one of the affected countries — Sierra Leone — for the University’s International Internship Program. The Sierra Leone internships were cancelled in early June of this year, IIP director Luisa Duarte-Silva said, adding that the IIP program would send students to Sierra Leone again next summer provided the situation there returns to normal. Richard Lu ’16 was originally supposed to work this summer as an intern at a comprehensive healthcare clinic in Sierra Leone, but his internship was cancelled and he was rerouted to Kenya to work for a different clinic. Although Kenya is not on the travel advisory list of affected countries, some are concerned about Ebola in that region as well. “IIP has not contacted us directly about the Ebola warning in Kenya,” Lu said in an email because he could not be contacted for an interview due to international travel. “Of course, we are taking extra caution in maintaining proper sanitation and care of ourselves from the warning (and will be extra careful when we go through Nairobi to come back to the US), but it is not a source of stress for us at the moment.” Although interns from the University were not able to make it to Sierra Leone, some recent graduates working with the Wellbody Alliance nonprofit have recently traveled to and from Sierra Leone to do some groundwork at the same clinic where Lu was supposed to go. Shirley Gao ’13, managing director of Wellbody Alli-
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ACTIVITIES FAIR
ance, worked at the clinic from July 2013 to January 2014 and then again from late February to mid-May. While the first case of Ebola in the Kono District, where Gao worked, was not confirmed until late July 2014, she said there was a lot of talk during her time there about Ebola and how the health professionals at the clinic would respond if Ebola spread to their area. Gao noted that although operations mostly continued as usual, the clinic did tem-
“We know that the tried and true practices of good public health can put this Ebola outbreak out.” Jason McDonald CDC spokesman
porarily shut down in midAugust. “There was just a lot of confusion for our staff and health professionals in Sierra Leone about how to coordinate a response effort,” Gao said, “and so for the safety of our staff, our patients and our community, we decided to shut down the clinic temporarily for about two weeks.” Although she said that she doesn’t have plans to return to Sierra Leone anytime soon, Gao added that the work at the clinic is ongoing. The clinic’s directors are now debating whether to reopen the clinic normally, use it for more of an Ebolafocused health care effort or keep it closed.
LIN KING :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
The Activities Fair, held on Friday in Dillon Gymnasium, brought together most of the student groups on campus to advertise and recruit freshmen and prospective members.
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The Daily Princetonian
Monday september 15, 2014
Seminar topics include poetry, genetics FRS
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gies might have. “Every week, we take another point in the scientific frontier with some new science or technology that’s being developed, and then we ask ourselves, ‘What implications does this new discovery have to public policy, if any?’” Shapiro said. Rudenstine, who returned to Princeton after serving as president of Harvard from 1991 to 2001, is teaching FRS 111: 20th Century Poetry. “The idea is really to try to select a handful of poets — in this case it would be W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, W. H.
“We ask ourselves, ‘What implications does this new discovery have to public policy, if any?’” Harold Shapiro ‘64 former U. president
Auden and Wallace Stevens — and to spend a reasonable amount of time on each one, trying to learn not just about the poetry itself, but about the historical background, the politics of the period and any other important factors,” Rudenstine said. “We have to read the poems very carefully so we can get a real grasp of each one individually as a
work of art.” Rudenstine said he has taught this seminar at the University before, though he has not taught it in the past two years. Shapiro also said he has also been teaching freshman seminars for a long time, and has taught this particular topic twice before. Tilghman’s spring seminar, entitled “FRS 144: How the Tabby Cat Got Her Stripes or The Silence of the Genes” relates to her scientific work and interests over the last 20 years. Tilghman first started teaching her seminar in 2010, taking a break in 2012 to teach a policy course in the Wilson School. FRS 159 is the only class Shapiro will be teaching this semester. Tilghman will be teaching a public policy class this year in addition to her freshman seminar. She said she returned to freshman seminars because they are her favorite way of teaching. “The size of the class really allows you to get to know all of the students well. You just really are able to form personal relationships with your students, which you can’t do if you’re teaching a larger class,” Tilghman said. Tilghman also said she enjoys watching freshmen go through the transition phase between high school and college, abandoning a mode of learning that rewards rote memorization. “In the best circumstances here at Princeton, to do well, you have to really abandon that mode of learning and become interested in taking an active role in your own education,” Tilghman said. “It’s so much fun to watch
freshmen do that.” Like Tilghman, Rudenstine said he finds that teaching freshmen is especially rewarding. “[Freshmen] are usually choosing the seminar because they want to be in it and therefore they’re enthusiastic and interested and willing to
“You just really are able to form personal relationships with your students.” Shirley Tilghman former U. president
participate very vigorously, and I like that attitude on their part,” Rudenstine said. Rudenstine said he also tries to engage his students during freshman seminars, explaining that he likes to run his classes as a conversation in which he and the students can probe the material together rather than a lecture where he tells them what he knows. Rudenstine, as a former senior administrator of the University, said he likes being able to come back to Princeton and continue to teach. “It’s the only class I can do all year. I have a lot of other things that I’m engaged with, but I can carve out enough time to do one course in the autumn, and so this is what I choose,” Rudenstine said.
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The Daily Princetonian
Monday september 15, 2014
CPS to help promote mental health awareness CPS
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tension of service hours would help promote mental health on campus. “Last spring, one of the concerns that we have heard was that the CPS hours did not work well with athlete schedules, as well as the students who were busy during the day,” OkudaLim said. “With extended hours, it opens up more opportunities for students who might have earlier been facing difficulties [scheduling] for the CPS
NO ALCOHOL BEFORE TATTOOS - Kanye West, Twitter.
to leave campus after he attempted to commit suicide. “We are also improving and increasing the number of outreach efforts we have into the University community, to try to continue to destigmatize mental health treatments and provide space for students for the counseling service,” Chin said. One such effort to increase its availability, along with the service hour extension, is partnerships with different departments and on-campus organizations on campus, including the LGBT Center, the Graduate School, the Department of Athletics and the Engineering School. As part of the partnership, these organizations will cosponsor programs about mental health and well-being with CPS. Chin added that the converCalvin Chin sations with the Undergraduate cps director Student Government’s Mental Health Initiative were helpful in figuring out what the CPS can do to improve its service, [appointments].” although the decision to extend Chin also added that he and its service hours is not a direct Executive Director of Univerresponse to the feedback from sity Health Services John Kollithe board. gian will have open office hours U-Councilor and chair of the every Thursday. Mental Health Initiative Board “That’s an opportunity for Zhan Okuda-Lim’15 said that he any student to come in if they is very excited about the CPS’s want to provide feedback about efforts to increase its availabil- the counseling service,” Chin ity and that he believes the ex- said.
“We ... try to continue to destigmatize mental health treatments.”
News & Notes Ohio State to strengthen sexual assault, harassment policies Ohio State University has agreed to strengthen its policies on sexual assault and sexual harassment, the Washington Post reported, ending the longestrunning Title IX investigation conducted by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The Title IX investigation involving Princeton University is now the longest currently active investigation. The Department of Education released a list of 55 colleges and universities in May that it said were under federal investigation for sexual violence complaints. This number has since increased to 79. The single ongoing Title IX investigation against the University was filed in December 2010 by New England School of Law adjunct professor Wendy Murphy,
who alleged that the University’s sexual harassment policies violated Title IX. The investigation into Ohio State began in June 2010, and the Department of Education’s probe found that the school’s sexual violence and harassment policies and procedures did not comply with Title IX requirements. Ohio State also found that there was a sexually hostile environment in its marching band and fired the band director, Jonathan Waters, in July. University faculty will be voting on Sept. 15 on a recommendation to judge sexual misconduct complaints through a “preponderance of the evidence” standard, which requires a lower evidentiary threshold than the current “clear and persuasive” standard. The new policies, if adopted, will take effect on Sept. 29.
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Opinion
Monday September 15, 2014
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } Cameron Langford columnist
What we talk about when we talk about privacy
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n the midst of rising racial tensions in Ferguson and an encroaching ISIS abroad, summer’s biggest news story might just have been about a group of naked girls. On Aug. 31, a hacker leaked photographs of over 100 celebrities, including “The Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton, on the website 4chan. Most shocking were not the photos themselves (many of which showed women who were at least partially clothed), or that they were obtained from Apple’s ubiquitous iCloud, or even that they so quickly and unapologetically proliferated every corner of the Internet. Most shocking was the hacker’s flagrant violation of privacy and, more perniciously, the way that women’s right to privacy was uniquely targeted. Americans haven’t always considered privacy a right. Indeed, the much-discussed “right to privacy” — a concept that explains American indignation over everything from last summer’s NSA scandal to abortion limitations — wasn’t even part of our legal lexicon until the late 19th century. In 1890, Justice-to-be Louis D. Brandeis coauthored a seminal paper entitled (you guessed it) “The Right to Privacy,” in which he presciently argued, “[T]he law must afford some remedy for the unauthorized circulation of portraits of private persons.” Still, it was not until 1965 that the Supreme Court codified Brandeis’s ideas, deciding in Griswold v. Connecticut that policing contraception violated the “right to marital privacy” and that such a right might be defined as “protect[ion] from government intrusion.” Yet even as the right to privacy has become as central to the American democratic consciousness as the Equal Protection Clause or the right to vote, it continues to hold little water when it comes to female bodies, which have historically been commodified. We all know that sex sells, and that the female sex sells more. It is philosophically but not historically surprising that such a primal, sexist reality, which reduces women to the shape of their breasts and the flatness of their stomachs, could supersede the more compelling right to privacy. Compare the photo scandal to a male counterpart: When three of J.D. Salinger’s unpublished stories were leaked last December, the reaction instead was overwhelmingly one of indignance. While many no doubt viewed the stories, which the author had no intention of making public before his death in 2010, the overall attitude was one of deference to Salinger’s wishes; he didn’t want them seen, and so we as readers felt that we ought not see them. But when hundreds of nude photos of female celebrities went live, few felt the same way. Hell, I scrolled through a few, and chances are that you did too. The question is why. Why do we put our own right to view naked photos of these women — most of whom are funny, smart and enjoyable to look at even with their clothes on, in outfits they curated for public viewing — above their right to privacy? Why have we invented a right to see that holds more weight than a Constitutional right not to be seen? Surely, you might argue, those who send nude photos or make sex tapes are simply asking for a public relations scandal, no? Perhaps. But there is a big difference between posting nude photos anonymously on a website and being discovered, say, and sending private photos to your significant other on a private device. The intent of the former is to be seen; the intent of the latter is for one specific person to see. Ultimately, it boils down not to sex but to consent. We are simultaneously scandalized and fascinated by these photos not because they contain naked women, which are never more than a Google search away, but because they contain women who did not consent to be seen naked. Or at least, not by us. When shared without permission, nude photos become about much more than bodies. They become about power. Power that we, the viewers, hold. Power that the hacker holds. And power that men have held and continue to hold over women in modern America. Ultimately, the right to privacy is a protection against the abuse of power by institutions that are bigger and stronger than the individual. For women — even those as critically acclaimed and financially successful as many of the leak’s victims — that institution is sexism, plain and simple. And that is an institution, indeed.
Cameron Langford is a politics major from Davidson, N.C. She can be reached at cplangfo@princeton.edu.
EDITORIAL
Transparency in the procedures of the University’s disciplinary bodies
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ast spring, The Daily Princetonian reported on the last USG Senate meeting of the year. While nominees for the Honor Committee and the Committee on Discipline (COD) were being approved, concerns were raised about some of the Honor Committee’s practices. Currently, according to “Rights, Rules, Responsibilities,” “when a report of a suspected violation of the honor system is received, the Honor Committee immediately conducts an investigation.” Yet the exact procedure of the investigatory process is unclear, especially in regards to at what point in time after initial contact students are notified whether they are witnesses or suspects. Since the constitution of the Honor Committee emphasizes students’ rights to representation and a fair trial, the Editorial Board believes that the suspicion of a discrepancy in the Honor Committee’s investigatory practices merits a transparent review. It is important to note that a similar line of inquiry exists for COD investigations, and the student body should also be aware of the level of promptness in which students are made aware of their positions in COD investigations. The Honor Committee and COD procedures consist of an initial report and investigation, a hearing and, ultimately,
a verdict. Upon receiving a report, investigators reach out to witnesses and, sometimes, suspects. Under current practices, students contacted by the committees are not notified in advance of meeting whether they are suspects or witnesses. The issue then arises as to when in the investigatory process students are informed of their position in the case. The Board believes that if students who are suspects are informed of the charges against them after some initial questioning, this harms other students’ rights to a fair investigation and trial and damages the trust that the system is supposedly built on. For cases proceeding to trial, the Honor Committee affords 24 hours of advance notice and representation to students and the COD, when informing the student of the date of their committee hearing, includes the charges against them. This same protocol should be extended to students called in for an investigation. No student should walk into questioning unaware of whether or not they are being suspected of a violation. If students are unaware of the situation or misled to believe they are not being suspected, this could lead to self-incriminating and uninformed statements. Further, testimony elicited during the initial meeting can be used as one of the two pieces of corroborating evidence nec-
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essary to proceed with a hearing. Thus, it is quite possible that self-incriminatory comments could prompt a hearing that wouldn’t have otherwise occurred at all, which seems to be lacking in good faith. The point of the investigation should not be to “trick” students into making statements but rather to conduct a thorough and fair investigation of students who are fully aware of their rights and the charges against them. It can be argued that alleged current practices allow for more accurate fact-finding. After all, if suspects are not aware that they are suspects, perhaps they will be more open with the information that they share. However, as systems based upon trust and integrity, the Honor Committee and COD should not prematurely assume that students who are aware of their status will choose to lie or withhold information. Instead, the committees should protect students from making uninformed and potentially self-incriminating statements. The Board believes that a review of the Honor Committee’s and COD’s investigatory practices will be a step towards improving trust, fairness and transparency in the University disciplinary system. Mitchell Johnston ’15 and Kevin Wong ’17 are recused from the writing of this editorial.
Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 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 09.14.14 news Chitra Marti ’17
Squirrels are divas Marisa Chow ’17
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contributing copy staffers Anna Kalfaian ’17 Senior Copy Editors Sharon You ’17 Summer Ramsay-Burrough ’17 design Julia Johnstone ’16 Sean Pan ’16 Patrick Ding ’15
Stop blaming biology Isabella Gomes
senior columnist
I
n her Aug. 18 column in the New York Post, Doree Lewak discusses how she views the act of “catcalling” to be an innocuous form of “self-empowerment” for women, saying that it should deliver a “drive-by dose of confidence” rather than being considered something as negative as street harassment. After reading Lewak’s column, I wondered just how common it was for professional or amateur writers as well as online commentators to pass off unacceptable social behavior by saying that it was merely “primal” and has probably existed for centuries, as Lewak did. While scouring through articles on issues such as sexual harassment, the golden standard of physical beauty and the biases of sexual attraction, two phrases seemed to come up the most: “biological programming” and “genetically predisposed.” Whether they came up in the comment sections or in the articles themselves, people seemed to be using these terms to explain, and sometimes justify, how this unacceptable behavior originated and has managed to carry on in modern society. For example, in a conversation about sexual violence prevention, a well-
meaning father responded that while he was “100% supportive of the fact that sexual assault is something that should not occur under any circumstances [,] the one area that many women seem to conveniently overlook is that biological studies have shown that the most basic way men get ‘aroused’ and become sexually attracted to women is through visual stimulation.” I get it; “biologically programmed” is a big and flashy phrase, and no one really wants to argue with science (even if the writer of the article was, in reality, grossly uninformed about the subject). However, while I appreciate that members of the scientific community are trying to understand the basis of many human behaviors, I’ve never heard any biologist or anthropologist say in their conclusions that “it makes sense for people to still act that way”, when the behavior was clearly wrong. For example, a BBC forum clip that previewed primatologist John Mitani’s research demonstrated that “even though research with chimpanzees does suggest that the roots of human aggression run deep … it’s important to understand that we can move beyond our biological predispositions.” While learning about testosterone, the evolutionary advantage of certain physical traits and even the dynamics of the hunter-gatherer society is informative and certainly interesting, none of these should be used to absolve anyone of inap-
propriate and abusive actions. What’s worst is that it seems as though this practice of freeing bad behavior from blame isn’t limited to the conversation around sexual harassment and violence. It extends into other issues such as homophobia, transphobia, and racial discrimination on the basis that “what is different from us must be wrong.” Time and time again, I’ve seen and heard people pass off prejudice by citing that human beings are “biologically inclined” to reject what they don’t understand or what is different from them. Frankly, as an evolutionary biology major, it is simply awful and insulting to hear this field of study exploited in order to excuse ignorance and blatant abuse. Biology should be used as a vehicle for the improvement of life, not as a copout for why things are bad. Furthermore, even if science one day conclusively proves that certain genes are directly linked to specific incorrect behaviors, we should nonetheless make a deliberate effort to counter our biological inclination lest we be slaves to our genes. After all, just because studies have shown that affective empathy — a person’s ability to recognize and respond to other people’s feelings — seems to temporarily decline during mid-adolescence for males doesn’t mean that parents now reluctantly accept or condone teenage angst and rude behavior. In my reading, I came across journalist Esther Honig’s social
experiment to have her face photoshopped by people in 26 countries according to their cultures’ standards of beauty. Her transformed photos depicted differences across cultures in the form of makeup, hairstyles, facial structure preference and religious dress. These styles and features that are now considered desirable most likely weren’t in the past; perceptions of beauty changed over time because of social and cultural evolution. So if perspectives on subjects that are as pervasive in daily life as physical attraction can be drastically altered across time and across cultures, then our biology can’t be as rigid as we claim it is. In response to the father who posted on conservative dress for women as sexual violence prevention, David Belt wrote that while all human beings have biological instincts, these “instincts are only a part of our decision making process” and that even “knee-jerk reactions … can be altered and controlled.” By leaving the consideration of “what’s implanted in our genes” out of the conversation when discussing sensitive topics that are more shaped by society and culture and less by biological determinants, we put responsibility back on ourselves, which is, in itself, true self-empowerment. Isabella Gomes is an ecology and evolutionary biology major from Irvine, Calif. She can be reached at igomes@ princeton.edu.
Monday september 15, 2014
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The Daily Princetonian
Monday september 15, 2014
Lawnparties
PHOTOS BY LIN KING :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Fall Lawnparties 2014 took place on Sunday afternoon on Prospect Avenue, with each club hosting an artist and USG sponsoring two main acts in the backyard of Quadrangle Club. USG also provided students with several treats, including Taco Bell, Tico’s Juice Bar, Tator Tots, BBQ Slides and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. Counterclockwise from top: 1. Students await the main acts, Schoolboy Q and Angel Haze, in Quad’s backyard. Haze performed several of her hits and took pictures with audience members following her act. 2. Tower sponsored Jojo who performed hits from the early 2000s as well as upcoming singles. In the middle of her perfomance, her DJ remixed several songs from the 80s and 90s. 3. Colonial Club hosted Ray J, known for singles “I Hit it First” and “Sexy Can I.” Several times, Ray J invited audience members to participate along and handed out drinks. 4. Students dressed in traditionally preppy outfits take selfies between acts to capture the occasion. Colored shorts and shirts, printed dresses and bow ties were the unofficial uniform.
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Monday september 15, 2014
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Professional football far from virtue NFL
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with a slap on the wrist. It’s still unclear whether league higher-ups saw the graphic footage of Rice
beating his wife prior to Goodell’s decision. Nevertheless, the change in the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy appears to be more of an attempt to save face due to growing public outrage than it is an attempt to correct the wrongs of the past. Odds are that Goodell and other league officials did not suddenly have a revelation about the NFL’s role in the world, but rather made a business decision that could no longer be postponed. Beyond the clearly abhorrent violence that has already taken place, what bothers me is a lack of sincerity on the part of the NFL. Certainly it is a business, but businesses do not operate in a vacuum. The lack of action taken against those who commit domestic violence is a silent condoning of the act itself. Look-
ing at Goodell’s letter to the league owners, it seems that the NFL suddenly realized its own potential to shape the world around it. But rest
The lack of action taken against those who commit domestic violence is a silent condoning of the act itself. assured, he and the other league officials understood the impact the NFL can have; it’s just that, when it came to domestic violence, they just did not care.
Princeton women outpace Havard, Yale XC
the Meet of Champions. They
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The women’s cross country team made short work of Yale and Harvard in its opening meet.
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and freshman Gabi Forrest placed ninth and 10th, respectively, to give the Tigers seven of the top 10 spots in the meet. The Tigers’ top-five average of 17:47.46 was 10 seconds faster than Yale’s, and 25 seconds faster than Harvard’s. The Tigers will return to action next Saturday, when they travel to the legendary Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to race at
will then have the following
weekend off from competition, and will travel with the men’s team to Indiana for the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 3. It was only a year ago at this meet that the Tigers place fifth out of 24 schools, and where Curham’s legendary racing success started to show, as her time of 17:21.2 was the 12th fastest out of a field of a 198-woman field. The remainder of the Tigers’ lineup will compete that weekend at the Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 4.
Personality Survey: 1) During lecture you are... a) asking the professor questions. b) doodling on the corner of your notes. c) silently correcting the professor’s grammar mistakes. d) watching videos on youtube.com and hulu.com e) calculating the opportunity cost of sitting in lecture.
2) Your favorite hidden pasttime is... a) getting the scoop on your roommate’s relationships. b) stalking other people’s Facebook pictures. c) counting the dangling modifiers in your readings. d) managing your blog on how Princeton trumps Harvard. e) lurking outside of the doorway at 48 University Place.
3) The first thing that you noticed was... a) the word “survey.” b) the awesome graphic to the right. c) the extra “t” in “pasttime.” d) the o’s and i’s that look like binary code from far away. e) the fact that this has never before been printed in The Daily Princetonian. If you answered mostly “a,” you are a reporter in the making! If you answered mostly “b,” you are a design connoisseur, with unlimited photography talents! If you answered mostly “c,” you are anal enough to be a copy editor! If you answered mostly “d,” you are a multimedia and web designing whiz! And if you answered mostly “e,” you are obsessed with the ‘Prince’ and should come join the Editorial Board and Business staff! Contact join@dailyprincetonian.com!
Sports
Monday september 15, 2014
page 10
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } CROSS COUNTRY
Men and women take wins in ‘Big Three’ meet By Jack Rogers associate sports editor
Men’s cross country tops Harvard and Yale in season opener
of his collegiate career, with a time of 24:35.5. Princeton will have time off for the next three weeks to continue training before the team heads to South Bend, Ind., for its first national met at the Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 3. While the Tigers finished third out of 27 teams at the Notre Dame meet in 2013, the absence of Tyler Udland ’14 and Chris Bendsten ’14 means that the Tigers’ top two finishers in this year’s meet will differ from last year’s. In addition, another group of runners will compete at the Paul Short Invitational that weekend on Oct. 4 in Bethlehem, Pa.
The grassy Yale course was no match for Princeton’s runners, who comfortably outpaced both of their ‘Big Three’ opponents.
After a 17-year hiatus, the men’s cross country team emerged victorious on Friday in New Haven with a one-point victory over Yale in the season opening meet between Princeton, Yale and Harvard. The Tigers’ top finishers of senior Sam Pons, senior Matt McDonald, junior Michael Sublette, junior Sam Berger and senior Mike Mazzaccaro went 1-3-6-10-11, respectively, for 31 points on the Yale Golf Course. Their performance barely outmatched Yale’s 2-4-5-7-14 finish for 32 points in the meet, while the men from Cambridge ended with 68 points to give Harvard a third-place finish. Pons’ time of 24:20.7 on the 8K course gave him a 5.5-second victory over Yale’s Kevin Dooney, an NCAA National Championship qualifier last year and a representative of Ireland at the 2013 European Championships. Behind Princeton’s Mazzaccaro were teammates sophomore William Paulson, senior Eddie Owens and junior Luke Brahm to give the Tigers the 12th, 13th and 14th spots in the race. Another impressive showing came from the Bulldogs’ Cameron Stanish. The Seattle native finished fifth overall in the first race
NFL
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
National Football League fails to treat player discipline issues consistently
Women’s volleyball victorious in Delaware Invitational tourney
MARY HUI :: FILE PHOTO
By Miles Hinson Staff Writer
Of late, the NFL has come under fire for its disciplinary policies, which have been noticeably light for players who have committed domestic violence against their significant others. Since 2002, the average suspension length for players with personal conduct issues — off-thefield issues — has been 3.0 games. Domestic violence infractions, considered personal conduct issues, have only received an average of 1.5 game suspensions. It is clear that the NFL’s current disciplinary policy had to be changed, and the recent actions of NFL star Ray Rice gave them no choice. The former Baltimore Ravens running back was revealed to have attacked his wife in a casino elevator, knocking her unconscious before dragging
her out. The public outcry was immense, and the NFL was immediately under pressure to punish Rice — at least, to punish Rice more forcefully than they had punished previous perpetrators of domestic violence. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made a step in the right direction, not only by suspending Rice indefinitely from the league but also by upping the penalty for domestic abuse. Now, a player who has committed some kind of domestic violence receives a six-game suspension without pay; a second offense results in an indefinite suspension, where the player must wait a year before he can make an appeal. About two weeks ago, Goodell issued a letter to the league’s team owners, outlining the steps he and the league intended to take to rehabilitate the league’s
image and become more active participants in stamping out domestic violence both within the NFL and nationwide. In these steps, he mentions how “the NFL can play an important role in communities across the nation” and that “domestic violence and sexual assault are broad social issues, affecting millions of people. [They] want [their] public role to be both constructive and effective.” The NFL has many outreach programs to target a variety of issues, such as breast cancer awareness, veterans’ affairs issues and childhood obesity. People quite obviously pay attention to what NFL players say and do. It is baffling to me that Goodell mentions how NFL players can harness their celebrity status to promote good when they have already spent so much time doing so. There is no excuse for not understand-
Quotable
‘My snapchat story feed is so preppy right now and I miss it’ Lisa Boyce ‘13 (rolls_B0YCE), Formerly of the women’s swimming and dvinig team
ing the effect your players’ actions can have on the lives of millions. People look up to professional athletes. In this day and age, they are celebrities, the lives of whom many would kill to have. Very few of us pass through childhood without at some point wishing to be an athlete. Moreover, polls show that the NFL has been the most popular sports league for many years running; few professional athletes are more glorified in America than football stars. This is by no means a revelation. However, if you were to follow Goodell’s history of disciplining players during his tenure as commissioner, you might get a different picture. It is clear that the actions of NFL players have a strong influence on their fans. Up until the past few weeks, Goodell has essentially said that his See NFL page 9
By Daily Princetonian Staff Princeton women’s volleyball refused to drop a match this past weekend. George Mason, Delaware and Manhattan all fell to the eventual tournament champions, who emerged victorious with two consecutive come-frombehind wins and a 3-1 advantage over Manhattan over the course of three games. These three consecutive wins bolstered the confidence of a team already strong in pace and awareness. The first contest, scheduled for Friday morning, resulted in a back-and-forth affair, in which the Tigers won the second, fourth and fifth sets. In similar fashion, Princeton took the first set of the second match — the hosts, Delaware, provided the competition on this occasion — before dropping
Tuesday Check back soon for a look at the first impressions of new athetic director Mollie Marcoux ’90, now at the helm of the Princeton Department of Athletics.
Women’s cross country takes HYP meet in earlyseason competition Unlike the men’s race, the women’s cross country team made short work of Yale and Harvard in its opening meet, as the Tigers’ 21 total points outmatched second-place Yale by a 26-point margin. Yale’s Kira Garry won the race with a time of 17:32.4 over the 5K course in New Haven, but the Tigers quickly got the better of their counterparts. Sophomore Megan Curham finished second overall, followed by junior Kathryn Fluehr, senior Erika Fluehr, junior Katie Little and freshman Natalie Rathjen to put the Tigers at 2-3-4-5-7 in their first HYP meet in six years. Sophomore Nicole Marvin See XC page 9
two straight. As in the previous tilt, the Tigers took the final set by a score of 15-10. The previous week of competition saw a Princeton player earn the Ivy League’s he highest accolades, as junior right side Kendall Peterkin racked up 58 kills and 54 digs. She continued her prolific ways this week, tallying 61 kills and 43 digs. In her third year, junior defensive specialist/libero Sarah Daschbach has taken a strong leading role on her side. Playing in every contested set over the weekend, Daschbach managed a very impressive 72 digs during the course of play. League competition has yet to start for the hard-hitting Tigers. A weekend of out-of-conference competition comes next week at the Rutgers Invitational before Princeton’s opens league play at Penn in the City of Brotherly Love.
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