The Daily Princetonian: September 22, 2023

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Friday September 22, 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 17

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LOCAL

Community members express frustration with University at planning forum

By Abby Leibowitz Staff News Writer

The Municipality of Princeton’s Planning Board presented their community master plan at the first of 10 planned listening sessions on Sept. 12.

The master plan is a document created by members of the steering community, including Princeton Assistant Vice President of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelget, business owners, town officials, and others. The document sets out “principles and goals” for policies and ordinances approved by the town.

With feedback long contained in discussion posts and legisla-

tive bodies now openly aired, the University was both in the listening chair and at the crosshairs of community scrutiny at a forum focused on community relations.

The master plan is an official document adopted by Princeton to address current and anticipated future conditions that is revisited every 10 years. The municipality plans to release the proposal in October and vote on it in November. Until then, they have set up a series of 10 listening sessions across Princeton to hear directly from community members about their concerns and desires. On an online engagement hub, community members can

GUANYI CAO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

A pause in time to bask in the beauty of a downtown sunset. Nassau Street and Vandeventer Ave. at dusk.

See FORUM page 2

ACADEMICS

Prominent AI fairness advocates among Princeton AI luminaries

By Amy Ciceu

Senior News Writer

Five Princetonians are leading the charge into the field of AI, according to TIME Magazine’s 2023 TIME100 Artificial Intelligence list.

Princeton’s contingent includes prominent critics of the potential biases of AI, AI pioneers who have also warned of potential risks, and an entrepreneur of an AI company focused on safety and alignment with human interests.

University computer science professor Arvind Narayanan, graduate student at the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) Sayash Kapoor, and three University alumni — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei GS ’11, Stanford computer science professor Dr. FeiFei Li ’99, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt ’76 — have all been honored as among 100 of the most influential individuals shaping the developments and dialogue surrounding AI. Narayanan and Kapoor both work at the University’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) which Narayanan directs. In 2019, Narayanan delivered a viral lecture titled “How to recognize AI snake oil” that showcased the flaws inherent in many predictive AI technologies, the outputs of which he argues are often shaped by hu-

NEWS

man biases. Narayanan points to AI used by companies to evaluate job candidates as one type of machine learning where, rather than living up to ideals of impartiality, there are traces of human prejudice.

Kapoor, a Ph.D. student working under Narayanan, has come together with the professor to pen a forthcoming book about the phenomenon of what they call “AI snake oil,” slated to be published in 2024. The duo also maintains a popular Substack page of the same name.

Narayanan also leads the Princeton Web Transparency and Accountability Project, which aims to understand the user data that companies collect and what they do with it. He spoke with the working group on generative AI organized by the Office of the Dean of the College Jill Dolan. The group’s report is being reviewed by the Provost.

“My view is that predictive AI is fundamentally dubious. The reasons why the future is hard to predict are intrinsic and are unlikely to be rectified. Not all predictive AI is snake oil, but when it is marketed in a way that conceals its limitations, it’s a problem,” Narayanan wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian.

Narayanan also elaborated on some of the ways in which University scholars are making strides

in mitigating the harms associated with AI, including the likelihood of biases and the prospect of existential risks.

“Professor Aleksandra Korolova’s team has analyzed how ad targeting algorithms can be discriminatory and how they can be rectified. A team led by postdoctoral fellow Shazeda Ahmed has taken an ethnographic look at the insular AI safety community that has generated influential arguments and policy prescriptions around AI and existential risk,” Narayanan wrote.

“Professor Olga Russakovsky’s team builds advanced computer vision algorithms while also mitigating biases. Sayash and I have analyzed the impact of generative AI on social media. That’s just a small smattering of the ongoing projects,” he added.

Canadian singer and songwriter Grimes and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are among the other 95 prominent figures regarded by TIME as being at the forefront of contemporary AI developments.

“We wanted to highlight the industry leaders at the forefront of the AI boom, individuals outside these companies who are grappling with profound ethical questions around the uses of AI, and the innovators around the world who are See AI page 3

FOCUS GROUP

A conversation with public policy majors on public service

By Ryan Konarska Associate Data Editor

60 percent of graduating seniors in 2023 characterized their career plans as “in the nation’s service,” but this varied widely by job field. For example, 100 percent of respondents going into nonprofit or public service work considered themselves as “in the nation’s service,” whereas this applied to just a third among soonto-be consultants.

To get a closer look at the culture surrounding public service career paths and the pressures students face from professors, their peers, and economic factors, The Daily Princetonian hosted a focus group of seven Princeton students, juniors, and seniors in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), politics, and economics departments, to hear their unfiltered thoughts on what it means

OPINION

See SERVICE page 5

Please send any corrections requests to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.

INSIDE THE PAPER

CARTOON

to live a life in the nation’s service.

What we found was that the decision to pursue a career in public service is not clear-cut as Princeton’s motto suggests. Frustrations with government bureaucracy, financial factors, and peer and faculty inf luence all serve as barriers to pursuing a career in the nation’s service. Over the course of our conversation, each participant offered their own perspective on the benefits their Princeton education offers themselves, their communities, and humanity.

To ensure that participants were honest, truthful, and candid in their answers, we chose to make this summary of their discussion anonymous.

FEATURES

PROSPECT

Eisgruber defends academic freedom after congressman calls for book to be removed

by Assistant News Editor Bridget O’Neill

New College West Dining Hall at 7 PM

by Contributing Cartoonist Luiza Chevres

As Princeton remakes itself, incorporate native plants

by Contributing Columnist Thomas Buckley

‘A hotspot of interdisciplinary interactions’: Students leap at environmental careers

by Staff Features Writer Raphaela Gold

Classic works given new life by modern artists at Art on Hulfish

by Associate Prospect Editor Isabella Dail

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The Daily Princetonian

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Friday September 22, 2023

“[The] bulk of Princeton is zoned for single family detached houses where the average price is $900,000 a house” FORUM

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............. participate in surveys and offer feedback.

Through this survey, the Planning Board learned that, in addition to the pertinent issues of climate and affordability, issues surrounding use and awareness of services are pervasive. For example, 93 percent of respondents do not use Princeton’s free bus service.

During the meeting, community members expressed frustration with the University’s relationship to the town regarding rent and affordable housing.

While the University maintains a working relationship with the municipality, community members at a recent listening session expressed that Princeton barely pays taxes because of its nonprofit designation.

“It’s just not fair,” one person said.

This, however is untrue. Despite receiving a tax exemption on certain properties, the University voluntarily makes payments to the town, including a recent more than 14.6 million dollar contribution to Princeton public schools. In 2022, it paid 6.2 million dollars in tax on properties that were exempt,

making it the largest property taxpayer in the municipality.

One community member expressed their feeling that “the town is dying” due to exorbitant rent.

Many other universities own large swaths of land but enjoy large tax exemptions due to their nonprofit status.

Like all municipalities in New Jersey, Princeton is required to provide its “fair share” of affordable housing under state law and the Mount Laurel Township precedent. The New Jersey State Constitution adopted a provision declaring housing as a right in 1973. Easier said than done, municipalities across the state have found a plethora of workarounds and loopholes to this provision, some of which have been challenged in court, many of which have never been addressed.

However, until 2015, Regional Contribution Agreements permitted wealthier towns to pay poorer towns to satisfy their affordable housing obligations.

This practice was overturned that year by the New Jersey Supreme Court. This decision required Princeton to create the opportunity for the construction of 753 more units, by 2025.

Professor Aaron Shkuda, director of the Princeton Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Ur-

banism, and the Humanities, told The Daily Princetonian that the relationship between the University and the municipality is complicated by the fact that the University is much richer and has more resources than the town of Princeton. For example, “the University has more buses than the whole municipality,” he said.

Shkuda explained that efforts towards affordable housing development aren’t “happening because people see a great need for rethinking, but because they are legally required.” However, consciousness is shifting, he said. He continued that “people beyond my world are now studying single-family zoning in cities and suburbs,” pointing to Minneapolis as an example of a municipality that has completely done away with single-family zoning.

Housing was a topic at the meeting, as Ian Henderson, Senior Planner with the Princeton Planning Board, explained that the whole country is currency facing an “affordability gap” for young professionals just out of college. Explaining that “the one percent are all set,” middle-income and working-class young adults, on the other hand, are increasingly finding it harder and harder to buy or rent.

According to the Pew Research

Center, in October 2021, about half of Americans (49 percent) said this was a major problem where they live, up 10 percentage points from early 2018. In the same 2021 survey, 70 percent of Americans said young adults today have a harder time buying a home than their parents’ generation did.

Princeton, indeed, is not immune to this trend. Henderson explained that average rent in Princeton is $2,200. “[The] bulk of Princeton is zoned for single family detached houses where the average price is $900,000 a house,” Shkuda said. He continued that even Princeton professors struggle to afford houses in Princeton. Professors therefore live in nearby suburbs, pushing service workers even further away, with massive spillover effects. The Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood historically has been a majority Black, working class demographic. The neighborhood is now plurality white.

Indeed, a concealed domino, shrouded in the larger issue of affordability, illustrates the farreaching impact of the affordability crisis. With many service workers unable to afford rent where they work in downtown Princeton, they are forced to travel from faraway residences using private vehicles, causing

a parking crisis.

One Princeton student at the listening session, Jade Jang ‘25, expressed that it is “really exciting to be able to share and take part in conversations surrounding affordable housing.” She was told about the session by Professor Matt Desmond, whom she got to know through the Eviction Lab. A lack of student engagement with the community was also a subject of criticism during the meeting.

The last time the Planning Board evaluated the master plan in this scope and nature was in 1996. Topics on the agenda of the Planning Board include land use, housing, mobility, stormwater, community facilities, and recreation.

Two instances since — in 2012 and 2020 — involved evaluating specific elements of the plan. The former looked at community land use, the latter at affordable housing. Because of how new and salient the housing crisis and this revision is, it is an element of the master plan that will be carried through to the new November proposal.

Abby Leibowitz is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

ALUMNI

Graduates face recent technology job cuts, long-term shortage of academic positions

By Julian Hartman-Sigall Assistant News Editor

In the last ten years, the number of Ph.D.s granted by the University has slightly increased amid a nation-wide oversupply of Ph.D.s and a shrinking number of professorial job openings.

The 2020–21 academic year had the fewest professorial job listings in history since 1975, when the American Historical Association (AHA) first started keeping records. The lack of openings is particularly prevalent in the humanities, which have grown less popular among undergraduates nationwide.

“Is it practical — or ethical — to admit new advisees?” asked Professor David Bell ’91 of the

history department in a January column in the Chronicle of Higher Education. According to the AHA, out of 1,799 people who received a Ph.D. in history in 2019 and 2020, only 175 had landed full-time faculty jobs in a history department as of last fall (it is not clear how many are tenure track).

As it becomes increasingly difficult for Ph.D. students to find professorial jobs, many academics have come to question the structure of the job market.

A 2020 survey of faculty members in Ph.D.-granting political science programs at Englishspeaking Canadian universities found significant support among faculty members for reducing the number of Ph.D. students admitted. Professors in the survey also expressed support for reforming

curriculum to ensure graduates cultivate skills transferable to non-academic environments.

Bell, reflecting on the perilous job market, proposed radical changes to how Ph.D. programs function: “Reduce the Ph.D. to four years — two years of course work plus two years of research and writing, with the goal of having two published articles, rather than a book-length manuscript at the end of it.”

He also suggested eliminating stand-alone master’s programs, teaching requirements for Ph.D. students, and all current postdoctoral fellowships.

The University currently has 408 master’s students, more than 700 postdoctoral scholars, and 2,804 Ph.D. candidates.

Reducing the number of Ph.D.

students may impact college rankings. According to an article in Inside HigherEd, “those measures often include the number of doctoral students as a proportion of all students or the number of doctoral graduates relative to faculty members.”

The difficulties of the Ph.D. job market comes as computer science (COS) and tech, traditionally very strong fields for new graduates, have struggled with layoffs and slower hiring. In 2023 alone, companies including Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, Amazon, Dropbox, Lyft, Apple, and Netflix have announced layoffs.

“In terms of finding job prospects, people really aren’t looking to do those FAANG jobs,” said Anthony Monte ’24, a COS major, to The Daily Princetonian, using

an acronym for Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. “It almost feels like places like that in Silicon Valley right now are less stable.”

The popularity of computer science as a major may also be seeing some slowdown. In April, for the first time in four years, the number of students declaring a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) in COS decreased. In the Class of 2024, 11.9 percent of students concentrated in COS BSE; in the Class of 2025, the most recent class to declare, 9.3 percent of students chose to major in COS BSE. In the Class of 2026, 144 students, or 9.6 percent of the class, have chosen COS BSE. Julian Hartman-Sigall is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

ON CAMPUS

Firestone Library expands hours on weekends following calls from students

By Jasmyn Dobson & Hannah Lee Senior News Contributor & news Contributor

Firestone Library will open earlier on weekends during the 2023–24 school year, following calls from students for the library to expand its hours.

With this change, students will now have access to Firestone on Saturday and Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. — rather than 11 a.m. — and ending at 11 p.m. Weekday hours will remain 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Library Communications Director Barbara Valenza, in a statement to The Daily Princetonian, wrote that employees were given a memo over the summer informing them of the new hours and that the initiative to extend library hours is part of a pilot the library has started to “study the feasibility” of such a change.

“The Library is committed to being responsive to the evolving needs of students, faculty, staff, and other researchers,” Valenza said.

Valenza told the ‘Prince’

that the library will reassess “the effectiveness of the pilot at the end of the fall term.”

The news of expanding hours is still spreading across campus. Louisa Gheorghita ’26 said she was unaware of the change, given that Firestone did not send any notices to the student body about the updated hours.

“I was not aware that Firestone had changed its hours, and I don’t think any of my friends were either,” Gheorghita stated.

Louisa Gheorghita is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Sofia Sanchez ’27 praised Firestone for expanding hours and hopes that additional changes in the daily operations of the library may come in the near future.

“As a morning person, I think eight o’clock is a good time. If it’s possible for the staff, I’d even go as far to say seven in the morning,” Sanchez said.

Firestone’s expanding hours are also impacting Princeton’s graduate student population.

“I like to get going at 7 a.m.,” John Kearns GS told

the ‘Prince.’ When there are no libraries open, Kearns goes to a coffee shop instead.

Students can visit https:// library.princeton.edu/hours to view current library hours.

Jasmyn Dobson is a senior News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Hannah Lee is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

Friday September 22, 2023

page 3

“I do resonate really, Eisgruber defends academic really deeply with the freedom after congressman calls sense of responsibility for book to be removed that scientists have” U. AFFAIRS

By Bridget O’Neill

AI

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trying to use AI to address social challenges,” wrote Naina Bajekal, the executive editor at TIME who helped to compile the inaugural TIME100 AI list.

Princeton alumni are also at the forefront of innovation in AI. Li attended the University as an undergraduate, concentrating in physics and computer science before pursuing graduate studies in computer science at Caltech.

Li has served a pivotal role in expanding the diversity of individuals working within the fields of AI and computer science — alongside University associate computer science professor Olga Russakovsky, Li co-founded AI4ALL, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote diversity and inclusion initiatives in this line of work including through camps for high schoolers.

According to the Li’s TIME100 profile, the computer scientist was also instrumental in pioneering highly accurate AI image-recognition systems. Recently, Li has advocated for considerable government funding to spearhead the development of AI technologies in a safe and regulated manner.

After watching the 2023 film “Oppenheimer” with her children, Li remarked in her TIME100 interview that the safety concerns that plagued the discoveries of atomic fission mirror those surrounding today’s highly advanced AI technologies.

“I do resonate really, really deeply with the sense of responsibility that scientists have. We’re all citizens of the world,” Li said in the interview.

Schmidt is perhaps best known for his stint as CEO of Google from 2001–2011. While an undergraduate at the University, Schmidt initially studied architecture before pivoting to electrical engineering.

Much like Li, Schmidt, now the co-founder of Schmidt Features, fears that AI is transforming society at full force without requisite regulatory guardrails in place to prevent the dissemination of falsehoods on a vast scale. Specifically, Schmidt worries that the AI underlying many social media platforms could serve to undermine the integrity of political elections through the widespread publication of misinformation.

“You have this very large election in India, you have elections in many other democracies, and I don’t think that social media companies are ready for it. The deluge of fake videos, fake pictures, the ability to voicecast — I just don’t think we’re ready,” Schmidt said in his TIME100 interview.

Amodei was named an influential figure in AI by TIME100 alongside his sister, Daniela Amodei. The siblings are among the co-founders of Anthropic, a major global AI lab that aims to align AI technologies with human values.

Anthropic is renowned for its innovation of “Constitutional AI,” or what the TIME100 profile of the Amodei siblings describes as “a radical new method for aligning AI systems” through the explicit stipulation of principles that AI should adhere to.

At the University, Dario Amodei worked under neuroscience professor Michael Berry and physics professor William Bialek to complete his Ph.D. studies in physics.

Furthermore, Amodei led the GPT-2 and GPT-3 teams at OpenAI prior to becoming involved with Anthropic.

During Amodei’s time at OpenAI, the organization received criticism for allowing pressure for funding to affect its founding ideal of transparency.

Amy Ciceu is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

THE MINI CROSSWORD

By Owen Travis

Senior Puzzles Contributor

Assistant News Editor

Wednesday, President Eisgruber responded to a letter sent to him by Congressman Josh Gottheimer on Sept. 10 in regards to the Near Eastern Studies Course has faced media scrutiny due to its syllabus’ inclusion of a controversial book titled “The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability.”

Gottheimer’s letter, which criticizes the book for veering into “anti semitic blood libel” and claiming “false” abuses by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), calls on the university to “reconsider allowing the work of an author like Jasbir Puar, who is known to traffic in vile antisemitic tropes, to appear on school-sanctioned reading lists.” In response, President Eisgruber detailed the University’s process for approving faculty and course material and reaffirmed his commitment to academic freedom and inclusivity.

The Course in question titled, NES 301: The Healing Humanities— Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South, is being taught by Professor Satyel Larson. A description of the controversial book at the center of the controversy describes it as an argument that Israel “relies on liberal frameworks of disability to obscure and enable the mass debilitation of Palestinian bodies.”

The course received criticism from national media outlets like the New York Times and Fox News Digital after the syllabus was reported Aug. 4th by The College Fix, A conservative publication that probes college course syllabi for left-wing biases. Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ‘91 of the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) also criticized the book’s inclusion in a letter to the CJL community stating that they are, “deeply concerned about the potential impact of including this text” Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer ( NJ-5) is the newest public figure to criticize the book’s inclusion.

In a public letter sent to President Eisgruber, Gottheimer reiterated many of the criticisms others have posed, including the insinuation of blood libel at the hands of the IDF. The criticism stems from the book, written by Jasbir Paur, claiming that the IDF is “shooting to main, rather than to kill” and

harvesting the organs of Palestinians.

Gottheimer also criticizes the University’s decision to hire Larson who has openly endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS is a Palestinian-led movement seeking “freedom, justice, and equality” through calls for increased pressure on Israel to “comply with international law” according to the BDS website.

In 2016, the state Assembly of New Jersey passed an anti-boycott bill which required the state to divest pension funds from any company actively involved in BDS efforts, a law that Gottheimer cites in his letter. He warns the University that under this law and the University’s anti discrimination policies, the University is “obliged to safeguard its students”.

The letter condemns the books’ lack of discussion of “deadly terrorist attacks from the West Bank and Gaza” which he claims are rewarded monetarily by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

More broadly criticizing the University, Gottheimer shared disdain for the USG’s refusal to consider the Nov. 2022 Caterpillar referendum and the Anti-Defamation League’s event with guest speaker Mohammed El-Kurd in Feb. 2023.

Gottheimer shares his fear that Jewish students are “made to feel unsafe.”

In his response, President Eisgruber assures Gottheimer that “This University is fully committed to ensuring that Jewish students thrive” and that inclusivity and free speech and academic freedom can “coexist” Eisgruber also shares his personal connection to the matter, stating that he is the University’s second Jewish president and its first Jewish undergraduate alumnus to serve as president. He continues “I am the son of a Holocaust refugee; I am a scholar of religious freedom; and my last scholarly publication before accepting the presidency was a defense of Zionism.”

The letter ends with Gottheimer’s request that president Eisgruber share the process by which Princeton reviews course materials.

For approving faculty, the University uses a peer-reviewed process to employ faculty members who are the “world’s leading experts in their field”

, details Eisgruber in the letter.

Under Rules and Procedures of the Faculty, each department is responsible for managing their curriculum.

Any changes to this curriculum, including the addition and removal of new courses to the permanent curriculum or any “substantive changes to existing courses or departmental programs of study” are reviewed by the University-wide Committee on the Course of Study. After such changes receive positive recommendations from the committee they are voted on at the monthly faculty meetings.

According to Eisgruber, once a course is created academic freedom protects individual professor’s right to design their syllabus, even if they include books deemed “offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong‑headed.”

This is not the first time Gottheimer has criticized institutions of higher education for “promoting antisematism.”

On the same day as his letter to President Eisgruber, Gottheimer sent a letter to University of Pennsylvania’s president [] condemning the University’s hosting of singer Roger waters and former news commentator Marc Lamont Hill whom he both deems “antisemitic and anti-Israel” at a University-sponsored Palestinian literature and culture festival this September.

In Feb. 2023, Gottheimer urged the US Dept. of Education to ensure Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects religious freedom on college campuses accusing a george Washington University (GWU) “targeted Jewish and Israeli students with antisemitic speech” Later, in June 2023, Gottheimer urged the US Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate whether City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law’s commencement speech violated Title VI due to its “anti semitic and anti-Israel” components.

Gottheimer is a member of AIPAC a lobbying group that advocates for pro-israel policy.

Bridget O’Neill is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

“How O ften... P t. I”

ACROSS

1 Language spoken in the Roman Empire (I love thinking about this!)

6 Manage to avoid 7 Top story?

8 Unacceptable 9 Tizzies

DOWN

1 Favors one side 2 ___ Brown (former host of "Cutthroat Kitchen") 3 All together, in music 4 Numbskull 5 Follower of bottle or turtle

See page 7 for more

JEAN SHIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Nassau Hall, the home of Princeton’s administration.

MORE ONLINE

scan to read more !

The Daily Princetonian

page 4 DATA

Friday September 22, 2023

Career Center data shows more students going to graduate school

By Jocelyne Wijaya & Erin Yoo News & Data Contributors

Every year, Princeton’s Center for Career Development publishes the “initial destinations” of the graduating class.

The Daily Princetonian broke down the post-graduation destination data from the Classes of 2016 to 2022 collected by the Center for Career Development.

The data demonstrates a significant increase in students going to graduate school, and fewer students starting their career in New York.

The Center for Career Development splits professions into five major industries. Around 30 percent of Princeton alumni enter the business industry each year. The engineering, health, science, and technology category is the second most popular destination for alumni, with close to 25 percent entering the industry.

Social impact is consistently the third most popular industry for recent graduates, with 13 percent of the Class of 2022 going into the field.

Princeton grads are least likely to enter the legal sector and arts and entertainment sector directly out of undergrad. This proportion has also shrunk by half in recent years, with five percent of graduating seniors in 2021 and 2022 joining the arts and entertainment field, down from eight percent of the Classes of 2016 and 2017.

From PICS to service and government work While at Princeton, students looking for opportunities to work in the nonprofit sector often turn to Princeton’s Internships in Civic Service (PICS), which connects community partners with student-interns.

A program started by alumni in 1996, PICS works with the John H. Pace, Jr. ’39

Center for Civic Engagement to provide paid internships in nonprofit organizations to Princeton undergraduates.

Class of 1969 PICS Program Director Emily Sharples wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that PICS community partners “routinely praise PICS interns for their professional demeanor, inquisitive nature and curiosity, helpfulness, and willingness to ask questions.”

Over 25 percent of newly hired Princeton-educated employees each year accept service and government jobs. The Class of 2021 had the highest rate of working in service and government with nearly 30 percent of the class doing so.

Executive Director of Princeton in Africa Damilola Akinyele told the ‘Prince’ in an interview that having PICS interns has been “a great service for [the organization] and nothing but a good experience.” The organization matches over 700 college graduates with fellowships abroad in 37 different African countries.

“This is critical work — this summer, our two PICS interns worked closely with us, creating communication materials that we could put out, researching for ways to advance the organization, and helping out with the fellows,” she said.

Lorraine Goodman, Director of Advancement for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mercer County, shared similar enthusiasm for working with Princeton students. Goodman told the ‘Prince,’ “We had an intern who was the perfect example of a PICS intern and what a PICS internship can do for students.”

“There is a lack of resources that so many of the kids we work with experience,” Goodman added. “Having a big sister or big brother — which is such a small thing — can really change their life.”

PICS Vice Chair Kate Bellin wrote in an email to the ‘Prince’ that “alumni are always thrilled to help connect students to organizations that are doing exciting work in areas ranging from government agencies to nonprofits to art institutions and hospital systems.”

The path to graduate school More graduates are choosing to pursue higher education directly after undergrad. From 2016–2019, around eight percent of each graduating class entered master’s programs and around seven percent entered doctoral programs.

Since 2019, the percentage of graduates pursuing master’s degrees directly after graduation has risen. This rise is most drastic for the Class of 2021 and the Class of 2022, where 14 percent of each class continued their studies into master’s programs.

Of those continuing their studies, the percentage who stayed at Princeton has nearly tripled from the Class of 2020 to the Class of 2021.

17 percent of those pursuing graduate work in the Class of 2021 and 21 percent of those pursuing graduate work in the Class of 2022 remained at Princeton, compared to a six-percent average of the Classes of 2016–2020.

The rise in students remaining at Princeton has been driven by engineering majors pursuing master’s degrees.

The Engineering School recently introduced a one-year master’s program which has at time been free of charge, popular with current undergraduates during COVID-19.

The least common paths for Princeton students pursuing higher education directly after graduation are law school and medical school — only one percent and two percent of each class enter these programs, respectively.

Where in the world are Princeton grads?

Nearly a third of new alumni go to New York for the beginning of their post-Princeton lives, although this trend has been declining in recent years.

34 percent of alumni from the Class of 2016 called New York State their first destination after graduation, compared to less than 27 percent of alumni from the Class of 2021.

Around 14 percent of new graduates move to California each year. Internationally, Britain and the U.K. are the most common first destinations for graduating seniors.

Throughout 2016–2022, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and History are the only Princeton departments whose

graduates have moved to all continents, except for Antarctica, after graduation.

Politics, School of Public and International Affairs, and Sociology majors follow closely behind in terms of geographic diversity, pursuing opportunities in all continents besides Australia and Antarctica.

In contrast, no Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) majors within the past six years left the continental United States for their first destination.

33 percent of ECE majors from the past six years remained in New Jersey.

Jocelyne Wijaya is a News contributor at the ‘Prince.’

Erin Yoo is a Data contributor at the ‘Prince.’

New College West Dining Hall at 7 PM

By Luiza Chevres

Contributing Cartoonist

The Daily Princetonian

Friday September 22, 2023

page 5

“We crash the economy, we work extremely long hours, [and] if you actually like it, you might be a psychopath” SERVICE

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Influences on career choice Of our seven participants, five considered what they did over the previous summer to be “in the nation’s service.”

When asking participants if they believe their career after Princeton will be in public service, four raised their hands.

“Honestly, I don’t know what I’m gonna do after graduation,” said the participant who lowered their hand for the second question. “I’m planning on pursuing law as a career, and I don’t know what would happen after I go to law school.”

We then asked participants how the internship experiences they’ve had have inf luenced their choice of career.

“It’s a Princeton stereotype … that we all end up being consultants or finance people,” said one individual who had a finance internship over the summer. They then outlined the stereotypes those entering finance careers face — “we crash the economy, we work extremely long hours, [and] if you actually like it, you might be a psychopath,” they said.

Another participant felt jaded about their internship experience, which was in the public sector field, not finance.

“I was working in the federal government, and I realized pretty quickly, like, I do not want to work in the federal government,” they said. They then outlined the bureaucratic hurdles government policymakers face, saying that they felt they had the ability to make a greater impact working in the nonprofit sector with its more energetic work environment and less red tape.

“I think it’s just as helpful sometimes to have an internship that teaches you what don’t like.”

When discussing the inf luence of coursework on career choices, some students identified specific introductorylevel courses that made them change their plans.

“I came into Princeton as an economics major, and then I took macroeconomics [ECO 101: Introduction to Macroeconomics] … it really disillusioned me with economics as a career,” one participant in the SPIA department said.

Multiple participants expressed regret over choosing to major in SPIA, saying it was too late to switch to politics and that COVID-19 limited their opportunities to explore other majors.

Compensation and selling out Salary considerations are often a reason for those considering careers in public service to change their plans for the private sector. In our focus group, participants expressed mixed views on the inf luence of compensation on their career choice.

“I have over $100,000 in student loan debt coming out of

this university. There is no version of public service that is going to pay that off,” said one participant. “I knew that coming into this school … it’s gonna have to be [the private sector].”

“Since I’m not from the [United States] and don’t have citizenship, I don’t consider public sector work in the [United States] as an option for me, and I don’t like the idea of it,” one international student said. “I find with the public sector … it’s like a career-ender when it comes to financial f lourishing.”

Others were more willing to accept lower compensation in exchange for a career that is more fulfilling to them.

“For me, I’ve decided that my preference is just to be lowincome for the rest of my life,” one individual said, before expressing frustration that SPIA forces a binary of being a “sellout” or choosing low-paying work in the public sector.

“I think there are in-betweens, but I’m not sure that they’re especially advertised or made accessible.”

Another participant responded to this concern by mentioning government consulting as a middle-road between “selling out” and lowpaying public sector jobs.

“One of [my friends] is working on broadband internet access in tribal communities … they’re making good money, they’re consulting. Did they sell out, or are they doing the job the government can’t do for itself?” they said.

“I want to be able to survive,” one participant said, following with “[my] concern is ‘am I going to be happy in a job?’ rather than ‘am I going to make money in this job?’”

We then asked participants if, given a binary choice, they would choose a lower-paying but fulfilling career or a higher-paying but less-fulfilling career. Of the seven focus group participants, five chose the lower-paying, but more fulfilling career.

The role of identity Many first-generation, lowincome (FGLI) students in our focus group expressed both frustration with Princeton’s culture and amazement at the opportunities provided by the institution.

“I’m gonna be honest: I didn’t even know the word ‘consulting’ existed before I came to Princeton,” one FGLI participant said. “[Consulting] feels like a golden ticket.

Maybe that’s not how it is, but that’s how it’s advertised.”

They followed up by stating, “for me, the idea of continuing to be in generational poverty is absolutely terrifying … that I’m not the one that stops it.”

“Princeton purports that they are understanding of it, but I really don’t think they are,” they continued.

Another student remarked how working in the private sector would violate their moral compass by pushing the kinds of policies that have harmed their own community.

“For me, as a working-class person … a lot of the consult-

ing and finance jobs are the ones that are oppressing us … how am I going to pay back my community if I’m going to keep forcing the boot down on them?”

Our conversation touched upon themes of race as well.

One student highlighted how an overlooked benefit of affinity-specific departments is that they provide informal networks of professionals for students of color to tap into.

“A lot of Black students on campus, we end up in [the African American Studies department], because the people in AAS are so awesome for us in finding a mentor if you’re in the department.”

The future of employment Public and private sector careers vary in their vulnerability to economic downturns.

We asked participants about their thoughts on the economy post-graduation and their prospects in today’s strong labor market.

“My family has a lot of people who work in finance, and their job cycles are like, crazy … because of the economy, there’s a lot of f luctuations,” one participant noted. “Right now, if I do become a lawyer, I’m not exactly sure where the technology would be in terms of AI … there’s a lot of nervousness about that.”

Some viewed their smaller network, compared to their legacy student peers, as being a disadvantage in finding a job after college.

“These people are literally operating on a network that you can’t even see,” one participant observed after detailing an instance in which their friend obtained an internship through a connection of their Princeton-alum parents. “It feels like this entire operation in the clouds that’s hidden from you.”

Other participants had few concerns about their employability after graduation.

“Princeton is the golden ticket. I’ve believed it for four years. I’m not worried at all …

This place has so much money. If nothing else, I can work here!”

The Orange Bubble We then shifted our conversation to Princeton’s environment surrounding career paths and the inf luence of faculty, administrators, and the town of Princeton itself on choosing to follow the path of working in the nation’s service.

“I think there’s a big move within the professors and the graduate students [in] SPIA to push people towards working in the nation’s service,” said one participant. “Some of the old hats in SPIA are still very much like ‘You can make money! You can work at McKinsey!’ ... [but] there is a tide change happening within the department with [Dean Amaney Jamal].”

Other students were less optimistic about the future of public service within their department.

“I don’t think there’s a specific message from the [economics] faculty,” said one student. They mentioned how the careers economics majors are pushed towards are heavily inf luenced by whether they are on the political economy track or pursuing the finance certificate, among other paths.

We then asked participants how living in Princeton has affected their perception of wealth and inf luenced their career choices. Princeton has a median household income of almost $120,000, far higher than the state of New Jersey as a whole and the national median household income of just over $55,000.

“The perspective of Princeton is so strange because I never thought of myself as low-income before I came to Princeton,” one participant said. “I come to Princeton and

all of a sudden $100,000 is the measure for whether or not you’re poor? What the heck?”

Another FGLI student expressed their alienation in Princeton’s environment.

“I feel so out of place, this wasn’t created for me,” they stated. “By being a Princeton student, the University makes you feel like if you put in the work, this could be the place for you.”

“I am very envious of students who come in here and feel like a place like this is created for them … [they] feel like this was always going to be their life.”

Some participants shared anecdotes of being shocked at the aff luence of their peers.

“There’s just something about sitting in lecture behind someone and seeing them order over $1,000 in Lululemon and then seeing that person get like, the best jobs, the best everything.”

Closing Thoughts To close out our conversation, we asked participants to summarize the culture of career development at Princeton in one word.

Our final question asked students if they agreed with the broad sentiment that they could have a successful and fulfilling career in public service and be well-compensated.

Five raised their hands, and two sat silent.

As one said, “It feels like getting in here was just the start — it’s not the end goal.”

Ryan Konarska is an associate Data editor at the ‘Prince’ and a staff News writer.

page 6

Hum r

University installs AI as new Dean of the College

By Lauren Owens

Staff Humor Writer

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

On Sept. 13, the University announced that Dean of the College Jill Dolan will be replaced

by Artificial Intelligence (AI) following her retirement. University administrators came to the decision that given the advanced state of current AI technology, a large language modelbased chatbot will be the most effective and sustainable leadership figure for the University moving forward.

The new chatbot will be run on FuqYail, a large language model (LLM) developed by Cam Pewternerd ’23, a recent graduate of the computer science department. Pewternerd explained how, unlike other chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard, “FuqYail has been trained exclusively on text data drawn from Princeton senior theses; the Wikipedia page of female monarchs; readings assigned by professors; Paula Dean cookbooks; listserv emails about dance and acapella auditions; Jenna Marbles’ YouTube video transcriptions; and

most importantly, Dean Dolan’s emails. I believe the tailoring of this training data will help build a new Dean of the College that is, quite literally, made for the job. All it has ever known or will ever know is Princeton, so it will always have students’ best interests at heart. Or at least students’ caffeine and anxietyinduced rages in its wiring.”

A University spokesperson commented that one of the immediately visible benefits of an AI Dean will be the ability to exist omnipresently in all classrooms and on all devices. As a result, the new Dean will be able to oversee all happenings on Princeton’s campus including, but not limited to meetings; lectures; precepts; assignment submissions; PEVs in restricted zones; campus fox sightings; and drunk meals purchased.

The Daily PrintsAnything spoke to Dean Dolan, who was very excited about the new AI Dean software. “I’ve already started using it to respond to my colleagues’ emails,” she began.

“I mean, who has time to answer hundreds of Chris’ [Eisgruber] emails crying about not getting into diSiac?”

University leadership has yet to release the official title for

this new position, but sources report “Leading Learning Machine,” “ChatGodPrincetonTrained,” and “Windows 95” are all under serious consideration.

said AI CEOs would be more effective than humans, and what is Princeton if not a huge business anyway?

Lauren Owens ’25 listened to a podcast last week where they

SOPHIA VARUGHESE / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Dean Dolan reportedly leaving because of lack of A/C; joining faculty of the College of the Sacred Breeze

By Sam McComb

Associate Humor Editor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

The university campus was caught by surprise with Thursday’s announcement that Jill Dolan, Dean of the College since 2015, would be leaving her position at the end of the school year.

In a further development, the ‘Prince’ has learned that Dolan will assume the presidency of the liberal arts college, College of the Sacred Breeze.

Speaking in her 94-degree office while a staff member fanned her with a large palm leaf, Dolan denied that the job change had anything to do with her office’s lack of air conditioning.

“I have long respected Sacred Breeze’s commitment to intellectual curiosity and character development,” Dolan said, as she gulped down a frosty two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red. Like many Princeton dormitories, Morrison Hall lacks proper air conditioning, a problem exacerbated by the recent heat.

According to multiple witnesses,

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS.

Dean of the College Jill Dolan.

Dolan went to Blair Courtyard last Thursday to get a free fan from the fan distribution, but arrived after supplies were already depleted. An hour later, she announced her retirement from Princeton.

As the President-designate of Sacred Breeze, Dolan will helm an institution listed in the most recent U.S. News & World Report ranking of top liberal arts colleges as first in the category of “campus climate (literal),” but last in almost every other category.

Originally founded in 1920 as St. Ignatius College of New Jersey, the college was facing declining enrollment by the 1980’s. Cash-strapped, they pivoted from being a Jesuit college and seminary to being a diploma mill for Arab royals who wanted to attend college far away from the punishing Gulf heat while paying full cash tuition.

The school soon switched its official religious affiliation to “Cafeteria Catholic,” and its motto to “sub leni vento dei triumphat,” Latin for “under God’s gentle wind, she triumphs.”

Over 40 years later, the college has become a Shangri-La for the offspring of those fleeing international law enforcement, a fact demonstrated by the plaque situated

between Polanski Hall and the AlAssad Yoga Studio, inscribed with the words: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your financially-sanctioned masses yearning to breathe free” While it does not advertise its acceptance rate, according to publicly-available fillings, it has a 46% four-year graduation rate and students scoring at the third-grade level in math and reading exams.

Sacred Breeze shared with the ‘Prince’ a written statement downplaying these numbers and repeatedly boasting of being one of only a handful of colleges to feature a lazy river on campus.

Officials from Nassau Hall, speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated that they did not expect a search for Dolan’s replacement to be necessary. These sources shared intelligence that Sacred Breeze lacks heating systems for the winter, due to most of the student body migrating to Saint-Tropez, and that they expected Dolan to be back soon.

Sam McComb is an associate Humor editor. He previously served in the United States Navy, where he received the Most Improved Prize and the Team Spirit Award.

Friday September 22, 2023

“Inner C ircle”

The Daily Princetonian

page 7

By Joah Macosko Head Puzzles Editor

ACROSS 1 Eve preceder 5 Mistakes 12 Party antecedent, in slang 15 Pepsi or Coke 16 Most-produced car in history 17 ___-com 18 It's often withheld from paychecks 20 Site for some vets in the '60s 21 Art on your bod 22 Coffee container 23 White House staffer 24 The Britney of #FreeBritney 27 Not given a blank check 29 Put it all on the line, say 30 Noah built one 31 Bad AF 32 Boxing call, for short 33 Penne ___ vodka 35 Deader than dead 37 "I totally fell for it!"

41 Makes a sweater, maybe 42 Fútbol cheers 43 "___ Maria" 45 Family-friendly mockumentarian ...

"NOT!"

47 Words before glass is broken, in Jewish tradition 48 Product Michelin stars were originally intended to promote 50 Setting in "Let It Go" 53 Part of PTA 54 ERA or RBI 55 ___-Wan Kenobi 56 Evil parrot sidekick of "Aladdin" 57 "I've ___ it with you!"

58 Locale for many Princeton computer science classes ... or a hint to the circled letters 63 Number of eradicated human diseases 64 Sprinkle a certain seasoning 65 Smallest greek letter 66 A piece 67 Gets some molars, say 68 Color made from green and blue light

DOWN 1 Lacking sexual attraction, for short 2 Sequel to a popular four-color card game 3 Indie 4 Drink with Curaçao liqueur 5 Sings like Ella Fitzgerald, sometimes 6 Oodles and oodles 7 Rage 8 Nowheresville 9 Uber 10 Morning-after pill 11 "Careless Whisper" instrument 12 Image quality reducer?

13 Portmanteau truckdriving competition 14 ___ Till Anti-Lynching Act (2022 hatecrime law) 19 Drink in a hit TikTok remix about alcoholinduced promiscuity 23 Certain game point score 24 "___ Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 25 Sluggish 26 Kindle or Nook 27 Like some exams

28 Forever stamp, e.g.

30 "That's life..."

34 Tennis do-over 35 ___ Ren of "The Last Jedi" 36 Mature, as wine 38 Not fitting 39 Vein of ore 40 Like every other integer 44 More than "-er" 45 Three-point chess piece 46 Number on a gas pump 47 Most frigid

49 Like rain on your wedding day, if your spouse was a meteorologist and picked the date 51 British popstar whose real name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor 52 Stick (by) 53 Handshake deals 56 Not doing anything 58 It's 2% of 2% milk 59 "Meh, I'm good" 60 Boy ___ 61 It might follow an "OMW" text 62 Vamoosed

The Minis “How O ften... P t. II”

By Owen Travis Senior Puzzles Contributor

“How O ften... P t. III”

Scan to check your answers and try more of our ACROSS

1 Month named after a leader of the Roman Empire (there I go again!)

5 Shaquille who wears a size 22 shoe 7 Most-spoken language in India 8 What a stiffed server might get 9 Makes out, in London 1 2 3 4 6

DOWN Papa ___ The "U" of ACLU Slowly, in music "Feel me?"

"Loose ___ sink ships"

ACROSS

1 Garment worn in the Roman Empire (that's the third time in a row!)

5 Just misses birdie 6 Spanish houses 7 ___ of Eratosthenes (algorithm for finding prime numbers) 8 Zoomed-in part of a map

DOWN

1 2013 Princeton Lawnparties headliner 2 Desert refuges 3 Like some mistakes 4 Something managed at BlackRock or Goldman Sachs 6 Longtime CBS police series

puzzles online!

Opinion

page 8

Friday September 22, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

As Princeton remakes itself, incorporate native plants Thomas Buckley

Contributing Columnist

R

eturning to campus in the fall, it’s hard to ignore the ways campus has changed as Princeton reshapes itself. Old projects have borne fruit and new endeavors have begun. Construction in front of Whitman has been replaced by construction on Poe Field.

But most striking is the transformation that has occurred just outside the windows of Yeh College and New College West. Where there were once only low grasses and daffodils, now sprout black-eyed Susan, New England aster and goldenrod. Once-empty skies are now filled with swarms of bumblebees and warblers. The southern edge of campus has been transformed into a mini-meadow, able to house many new critters frolicking alongside the undergrads beginning the fall semester.

These improvements are a credit to the many staff members at Princeton who worked to plan and implement this change. Their efforts should be celebrated. Still, there is much work left to be done.

The university must continue to expand its re-nativizing efforts beyond new construction, bringing native species to the whole campus.

Princeton’s social media team loves to emphasize the beauty of upper campus, especially in the many Instagram posts showing off stately trees and carefully pruned bushes lording over carefully mowed lawns. But there’s something sterile about this landscape.

Too many open spaces consist of isolated trees awash in an ocean of lawn grass. Only the occasional carefully pruned bush breaks up the monotony.

As a result, the plants feel like props; a nice backdrop for a quinceñera or wedding photo rather than parts of a living ecological community. Landscaping should not

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

A New England aster, a species which has recently been planted on campus.

Anais Mobarak

create a working network of interacting communities. Lonely trees and shrubs that are planted in isolation from one another cannot provide the same benefit as a truly interconnected landscape capable of supporting a variety of wildlife.

This means replacing some grassy fields and patches of invasive ivy with the same sort of mix of native grasses and wildflowers currently growing around Yeh and NCW. Princeton should construct such landscapes with the intent of achieving specific environmental goals. For example, it could support native insects either by planting nectar-heavy flowers to attract pollinators and by planting ‘keystone’ species such as goldenrod that can play host to a large number of caterpillar species (or serve as the sole host for a species such as milkweed to monarchs). Native grasses are also excellent at retaining water, a feature that can be used to build rain gardens to help deal with excess runoff from buildings. These straightforward practices can have a substantial impact on our campus’ environment.

Publicly embracing such a comprehensive approach to landscaping can also benefit Princeton’s educational mission. A large majority of people are ‘plant blind’, unable to see or notice plants in their own surroundings. This leads to a dearth of attention on plant related conservation issues, to the detriment of us all.

Increasing awareness of the key roles that specific plant species

play in supporting biodiversity is of key importance. Many people understand that plants are a crucial element in the fight against climate change, but specifics matter: the kinds of plants we choose to grow have a larger effect than just the quantity itself. Princetonians should be able to tell the difference between a sugar maple and a Norway maple, considering that one is an iconic feature of the forests of the northeastern US and the other is an invasive pest characterized by its ability to suppress wildflower growth.

If we want to solve the biodiversity crisis, we need to think carefully about the kinds of plants we choose to grow. Princeton has the opportunity to lead by example on this front. By creating and explaining its vision for an interconnected landscape of gardens filled with food for pollinators and habitat for insects, the University can inspire students, faculty, staff or anyone visiting campus to consider what they can do to create a better habitat for their local fauna. Local action is essential to reversing the devastating habitat loss that has decimated wildlife populations in North America. Princeton has an opportunity to take the lead by changing how we manage our landscapes. It should take it.

Thomas Buckley is a sophomore from Colchester, Vermont planning to major in economics. He is a contributing columnist for the ‘Prince’.

Affirmative action’s shortcomings

Contributing Columnist

A

merely serve an aesthetic purpose — a visual accentuation to our faux-gothic architecture — but a practical one. Great landscaping must interface with its natural location. Princeton’s pristinely manicured lawns seek to assert dominion over nature rather than foster an organic and compatible relationship with the surrounding environment.

Interfacing honestly with the natural world begins by replacing non-native ornamental plants with ones that are native to the mid-atlantic region. Native plants have the advantages of needing less water, fertilizers, and pesticides compared to non-natives. They also serve as a better food source for the insects that have evolved to eat them, insects that in turn serve as food sources for birds and species at higher trophic levels. Dr. Douglass Tallamy of the University of Delaware found that native oak trees could support 557 species of caterpillars whereas non-native gingko trees (a common sight on campus) supported almost none.

As a result, these planting decisions have enormous cascading effects at every trophic level, greatly impacting the size and diversity of animal populations in our region.

According to Princeton University Facilities, the University aims to have eighty-five percent of plants in its landscape be native to the mid-Atlantic region. This is an admirable goal, but planting a few sparse native ornamentals fails to live up to our campus’ potential to

s a student at an competitive public high school, affirmative action was first mentioned to me in order to discount the college acceptances of my Hispanic and Black peers. A Latina myself, I had two questions. First, as a soon-to-be applicant to competitive universities, I wondered if it was really true that I’d be given a boost in admissions. And second, as the daughter of highly educated Venezuelan and Lebanese immigrants, I wondered why I deserved that boost for parts of my identity over which I had no control.

One of affirmative action’s alleged justifications is that affirmative action is necessary for ensuring the diversity of student bodies. The first problem with this argument is that it assumes how a student will contribute to their college campus is necessarily related to their race. Specifically, after the SFFA v. Harvard and UNC decisions were released, President Eisgruber claimed that “diversity benefits learning and scholarship by broadening the range of questions, perspectives, and experiences brought to bear on important topics throughout the University.” This confounds three different aspects of individuals: their race, their experiences, and their opinions, suggesting that all individuals of a certain race share the same perspectives, which differ from their White counterparts.

The reality is that underrepresented minorities have a variety of backgrounds; growing up Hispanic in a wealthy Boston suburb is vastly different from growing up Hispanic in South Boston. Additionally, minorities’ worldviews are diverse, as demonstrated by the two Black justices,

Jackson and Thomas, positing starkly different opinions on the matter of affirmative action. Different experiences may lead to different perspectives; even similar experiences may lead to different perspectives. The lives and perspectives of underrepresented minorities vary greatly, and it’s essential not to make assumptions about them.

Although I’m incredibly proud of my heritage, and growing up in a household of fusions has shaped me in many ways, the same is true for my best friend who is Russian and Jewish. Why should my background be more important than hers? It continues to be the case that the more I dig into racebased affirmative action, the less convinced I am that any of the mainstream justifications—establishing diversity on campuses, rectifying past wrongs, and correcting for unequal opportunity—have merit.

The reality is that underrepresented minorities have a variety of backgrounds; growing up Hispanic in a wealthy Boston suburb is vastly different from growing up Hispanic in South Boston. Additionally, minorities’ worldviews are diverse, as demonstrated by the two Black justices, Jackson and Thomas, positing starkly different opinions on the matter of affirmative action. Different experiences may lead to different perspectives; even similar experiences may lead to different perspectives. The lives and perspectives of underrepresented minorities vary greatly, and it’s essential not to make assumptions about them.

Instead of trying to approximate the experiences one has had and their subsequent perspectives on important societal topics from an applicant’s race, there already exist other methods for ensuring that college campuses are diverse—essays. If an applicant’s worldview has been influenced by their racial background, their essay is a per-

fect medium for illustrating this, eliminating the need for admissions officers to assign judgements on the basis of race. Indeed, one of Princeton’s supplemental questions asks students “In short, how has your lived experience shaped you?”

However, even if it is true that allowing race to be used in admissions does result in the most diverse student body, this policy uses Hispanic and Black students as a means to an end. The entire “diversity” justification for affirmative action is unfair to Hispanic and Black students: they are reduced to their race to create an environment that will widen their White peers’ minds. Moreover, race-based admissions treats applicants differently based on their race, which is itself discrimination: White students are admitted for reasons unrelated to their race, but Hispanic and Black students are selected in part because of their race. Thus, taking racebased affirmative action at its best—promoting racial diversity—it is a policy that instrumentalizes and discriminates against Hispanic and Black students.

The second prominent justification for affirmative action is that it serves as a mechanism by which powerful institutions that play a role in institutional racism can rectify not only their, but the entire country’s, injustices. Though highlighting the role institutions play in atrocities is important for progressing as a society, the answer to this country’s mistakes is not a shortsighted policy that employs broad racial categories to ineffectively reach individuals that have been harmed by the policies that universities seek to ameliorate.

Specifically, the reparations argument is not compatible with every individual who benefits from race-based affirmative action.

Not every Hispanic or Black applicant has ancestors who were in this country decades

ago and experienced institutional racism.

For instance, it is unclear what elite universities owe to white Hispanics, like me, with educated immigrant parents. Similarly, while there are many Black students whose ancestors were irrevocably harmed by former American policies, there are also plenty of Black students who do not fit into this category. These include immigrants or children of immigrants from African countries or the West Indies, who, according to a 2007 Princeton and University of Pennsylvania study, make up 41% of the Black student populations at Ivy League institutions. Similarly, a 2004 Harvard study found that around one-third of Black students at Harvard had four grandparents born in the US. If elite universities intend to right America’s past wrongs with affirmative action, the beneficiaries of such a policy should be chosen carefully—they must be shown to have been injured by the policies for which the university aims to apologize.

The third and strongest justification for affirmative action is that adjusting admission criteria corrects for unequal access to opportunities that influence college admission—essentially, leveling the playing field for underrepresented minorities. However, this implies that race is the primary causal driver for racial achievement gaps. It is true that race is strongly correlated with SAT scores: Hispanic students tend to score lower on standardized tests than White students. But lower test scores are not innate to being Hispanic; it is not the case that Hispanic students are intellectually inferior to White students. So what is responsible for the gap across races?

A 2015 UC Berkeley study found that parental education, family income, and race partially account for a significant part of the racial SAT score gap—and that of these

three, racial differences matter the most.

One possibility is that someone’s skin color has a direct effect on their score. However, other factors may be hiding within this race bucket. As Justice Sotomayor’s dissent in SFFA v. Harvard notes, “underrepresented minority students are more likely to live in poverty and…when combined with residential segregation and school funding systems…underrepresented minorities are more likely to attend schools with less qualified teachers, less challenging curricula, lower standardized test scores, and fewer extracurricular activities.” Overall, a holistic understanding of an individual’s environment is needed to contextualize their SAT score. Race alone is not enough; a wealthy Black boarding-school-educated student and a poor White student at an underfunded public school with a single mother will have SAT scores informed by their environments in vastly different ways. It is a lazy admissions policy to rely only on an applicant’s race rather than considering an individual’s circumstances when interpreting their SAT score.

Although race-based classification is misguided, the general idea of this equalizing justification is most in line with what affirmative action ought to be: Princeton claims that “during the admission process, our goal is to find students who will thrive in Princeton’s rigorous academic environment,” and erasing the noise created by unequal opportunities, not applicants’ abilities, enables this goal to be met. As such, universities should search for race-neutral alternatives to racial affirmative action, including the possibility of a socioeconomic status-based alternative.

Anais Mobarak is a junior from Newton, Massachusetts studying chemistry.

Opinion

Friday September 22, 2023

page 9

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } vol. cxlvii editor-in-chief Rohit Narayanan '24

business manager Shirley Ren ’24

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

president Thomas E. Weber ’89

assistant treasurer Kavita Saini ’09

Kathleen Crown Suzanne Dance ’96 Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 Danielle Ivory ’05 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07

trustees Francesca Barber Craig Bloom ’88

trustees ex officio Rohit Narayanan ’24 Shirley Ren ’24

vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90

147TH MANAGING BOARD upper management

Kalena Blake ’24 Wilson Conn ’25 Katherine Dailey ’24

Julia Nguyen ’24 Angel Kuo ’24 Hope Perry ’24

Strategic initiative directors

Education Kareena Bhakta ’24 Amy Ciceu ’24 Financial Stipend Program Genrietta Churbanova ’24

Mobile Reach Rowen Gesue ’24 DEIB Chair Christofer Robles ’25

head audience editor Rowen Gesue ’24

community opinion editor Lucia Wetherill ’25

associate audience editor Paige Walworth ’26

associate opinion editors Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26 Ashley Olenkiewicz ’25

Sections listed in alphabetical order.

head archives editors Raphaela Gold ’26 Kaylee Kasper ’26 head copy editors Jason Luo ’25 Nathalie Verlinde ’24 associate head copy editors Tiffany Cao ’24 Naisha Sylvestre ’25 head data editor Elaine Huang ’25 Charlie Roth ’25

head photo editor Jean Shin ’26 head podcast editor Eden Teshome ’25 associate podcast editor Senna Aldoubosh ’25 Vitus Larrieu ’26 head print design editors Avi Chesler ’25 Malia Gaviola ’26

associate data editor Ryan Konarska ’25

head prospect editors Kerrie Liang ’25 Claire Shin ’25

head features editors Paige Cromley ’24 Tori Tinsley ’24

associate prospect editors Isabella Dail ’26 Joshua Yang ’25

associate features editor Sejal Goud ’25

head puzzles editors Joah Macosko ’25 Simon Marotte ’26

head graphics editors Noreen Hosny ’25 Katelyn Ryu ’24 head humor editor Spencer Bauman ’25 associate humor editors Sam McComb ’25 Sophia Varughese ’26 head news editors Sandeep Mangat ’24 Isabel Yip ’25 associate news editors Lia Opperman ’25 Annie Rupertus ’25 Tess Weinreich ’25 head newsletter editors Olivia Chen ’26 Sidney Singer ’25

associate puzzles editors Juliet Corless ’24 Sarah Gemmell ’24 Jaeda Woodruff ’25 head sports editors Nishka Bahl ’26 Cole Keller ’26 associate sports editors Diego Uribe ’26 Hayk Yengibaryan ’26 head web design and development editors Ananya Grover ’24 Brett Zeligson ’24 associate web design and development editor Vasila Mirshamsova ’26

head opinion editor Abigail Rabieh ’25

147TH BUSINESS BOARD assistant business manager, director of sales Aidan Phillips ’25 business directors Benjamin Cai ’24 Jessica Funk ’26 Gabriel Gullett ’25 Andrew He ’26 Tejas Iyer ’26 Daeun Kim ’26 Kok Wei Pua ’25 Sophia Shepherd ’26

Christina Zhang ’26 project managers Anika Agarwal ’25 Julia Cabri ’24 Jason Ding ’25 Bibiane Kan ’26 Jordan Manela ’26 Robert Mohan ’26 Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26 Shravan Suriyanarayanan ’26 My Ky Tran ’26 Brian Zhou ’26

147TH TECHNOLOGY BOARD

chief technology officer Joanna Tang ’24 lead software engineer Roma Bhattacharjee ’25 software engineers Pranav Avva ‘24 Carter Costic ’26 Dylan Epstein-Gross ’26 Jessica-Ann Ereyi ’24 Ishaan Javali ’26

Adam Kelch ’24 Austin Li ’26 Isabel Liu ’26 Tai Sanh Nguyen ’26 John Ramirez ’26 Hang Pham ’26 Aidan Phillips ’25 Caitlin Wang ’26 Jessie Wang ’25 Shannon Yeow ’26 Brett Zeligson ’24

THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Avi Chesler ’25 Malia Gaviola ’26

Cindy Chen ’26 Rachel Seo ’26

Princetonians must invest in the marketplace of ideas Aidan Gouley

T

Contributing Columnist

his year’s Pre-read, “How to Stand up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future,” by Maria Ressa ’86, argues that defending democracy requires no less than a transformation in how liberal societies engage in discourse — not simply specific policy prescriptions or direct action-based activism. Ressa’s call for open discourse should be resonant on a campus where free speech is considered core. Each of us must work to build such an environment. As Ressa says, effective activism can only be preserved in environments that catalyze rigorous discussion and critical thought.

Should free exchange erode, the University community does not merely risk losing the educational value of speech, but also threatens to concede a critical pillar of free society altogether.

We have to reclaim the mantle of free speech from right-leaning groups and ensure that free speech isn’t harmed by either institutional overreach or communal neglect.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) recently released its controversial college free speech rankings for 2024. Contrary to its top spot in the Wall Street Journal rankings, Princeton ranked 187 out of the 248 universities evaluated. Yet, Princeton hardly feels like an institution where free speech is directly under attack.

Speakers are not shouted down in lecture halls — the last vaguely relevant incident occurred in 2012 at a Goldman Sachs recruiting event —, nor is the University a place where free expression is challenged institutionally in the classroom. Instead, it is encouraged by the faculty’s ratification of a version of the Chicago Principles in 2015.

Although institutional programming — including free speech-related programming during first-year orientation in 2022 and 2023 — has demonstrated the University administration’s commitment to speech, it cannot be the only mechanism for invigorating discourse at Princeton. Without student engagement, the University’s commitments to free expression and its structured forums for speech are rendered meaningless. Not only are students failing to participate in bulwarking dissent and activist speech by putting the commitments into practice, but also pervasive complacen-

cy is allowing free speech to become an ideological issue. A mixture of perceived limits on expression and the reactionary hyper-politicization of speech on campus has created student disinterest in discourse.

Precisely because free speech is principally eroding from within, Princetonians cannot hope nor expect that institutional policymaking will solve real or perceived challenges to critical thought. Instead, students must take greater personal responsibility for ensuring continued freedom of expression, becoming less apathetic to the importance of campus discourse. Whether weighing in on local or global issues in formal or informal debates, Princetonians must bring difficult conversations that stimulate critical thinking into the fabric of collegiate life. Only active engagement can positively redefine the discussion — or lack thereof — of essential issues, rejecting the irrationality of ideology and the potential strictures of institutionality.

The question of free speech and expression at Princeton must be a nonpartisan and nonpolitical issue. Princetonians ought to fully realize the intrinsically liberal nature of critical discourse — and appreciate the dynamism it produces. Free speech, being the ultimate exercise of individual and political liberty, should bridge students across political divides. By embracing the marketplace of ideas, Princetonians can constantly test their ideas and those of others, creating a vigorous environment that defends worthwhile propositions, policies, and institutions while remaining capable of catalyzing change as necessary. In recent years, the debate on free expression at Princeton has been co-opted by campus conservatives as a rallying cry against supposed “threats” posed to campus discourse by the “illiberal left.” Complaints in the past about academic speech and expression, channeled from the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC), the Princeton Federalist Society, and the Princeton Tory, have been met by meetings with administrators, including President Christopher Eisgruber.

The more conservative groups entrench themselves and frame the contours of the debate on free speech at Princeton, the more discourse suffers. The POCC’s views, whether questioning antiracism’s role at Princeton to making overbroad claims about the ideological slant of the University,

are toxic and polarizing for many Princetonians.

While the POCC has an unquestioned right to participate vocally in campus discourse, it cannot persist as the lodestar for the reinvigoration of campus speech. By meeting campus conservatives on even ground — the classically liberal concept of free exchange — broad coalitions of students can reorient conversations and debates on free speech away from privileging political ends. If students start by situating free expression in a liberal context, individual engagement would restore and enliven the marketplace of ideas on campus, enabling a fuller appreciation for the dynamic, invigorating, and fundamentally democratic nature of campus discourse.

Free speech exists at Princeton not to indulge ideologues but rather, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, to create an environment of learning for all in the natural exchange of individual ideas and experiences that both includes and simultaneously transcends the political. Creating a genuine culture of free expression would produce a space where ideas might be rigorously probed, challenged, and reshaped by peers to synthesize new ones. Restoring a community dedicated to free exchange and expression would, therefore, engage Princetonians with the essential democratic institutions of dissent, debate, and political speech.

Looking beyond the verdant greens and ivyfaced brick of Nassau Hall, the way Princetonians learn to engage in discourse is essential to both change-making and defending the very essence of our democracy. Critical discourse, whether reflecting deeply on complex issues or energetically partaking in the debates that define our campus community and the society in which it is situated, constitutes a commitment to the deliberative and synthesis-driven nature of democracy itself.

To “hold the line,” as Ressa called all ’27s to do, against populist demagoguery and ideological extremism, it is here at Princeton that we must first arm ourselves with the tools of reason and critical thought to do so.

Aidan Gouley is a first-year planning to study in the School of Public & International Affairs, from Fairfield, Connecticut. He is a Contributing Columnist at the ‘Prince’.

We must think more critically about public service Lucia Wetherill

D

Community Opinion Editor

uring my time writing and editing for the Opinion section, I’ve heard the phrase “In the nation’s service and the service of humanity” bandied about a great deal. It inevitably comes up in any conversation about Princeton and public service and is often used as a means to critique graduates’ career paths. A Princetonian who goes on to work in finance or consulting, for example, is seen as betraying the University’s core values and not acting in “the service of humanity.”

Yet oftentimes, I think we students use this phrase as a crutch — not only is it used to draw easy lines between “good” and “bad” careers (in reality, there are many ways to have a positive impact), but we also use it to obscure the meaning of public service itself. We say that we must embody the motto, but rarely actually define what it means to work in public service or to be in the business of helping people. Because the reality is, the world of public service is much larger and more complex than “not consulting.” We focus more on what service doesn’t look like than what it does.

Working in a non-governmental organization or another typically service-oriented organization does not automatically mean that a Princetonian is making a positive impact. We need to resist the comfort that this job title might confer and instead challenge ourselves by digging more deeply into how to have an impact and create change.

A common critique of service, however wellintentioned, is that those conducting it don’t listen to their communities or fail to invest in sustainable solutions. We often see this in the somewhat infamous “mission trips” that people (particularly white people) take. They go into communities to build a school or volunteer in educational services — yet research has shown that volunteers often disregard the true needs of the community and that their brief volunteering can even worsen conditions.

Despite being labeled as a service trip, participants aren’t making a bigger difference than any consultant might.

This same ineffectiveness and lack of listening can plague the non-governmental organization (NGO) that a student joins in order to change the world and harm the policy positions we hope to attain. Scholars have noted that failures of policy and government often result from problems with implementation and that these failures of implementation often occurred when people want to help communities, but on their own terms: from a distance or without truly consulting those communities. Indeed, I’ve had friends become disillusioned after interning for NGOs, frustrated by ineffective policies and bureaucracy. NGOs can be great tools, but they can also be inefficient and even damage the communities they’re attempting to help. It’s up to us to understand that distinction.

The truth is, we have the tools to think about engaging in effective service. We just need to use them. Countless Princeton classes examine how to approach public service and create meaning-

ful policies or change. In fact, the Pace Center for Civic Engagement offers courses that explore this through their Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES).

Students need to use the lessons from their Princeton experience, whether it’s their classes, internships, or conversations with peers, to more critically examine how they approach service. As we move out of the Princeton bubble, civic-minded students must be intentional with the organizations that we devote our time to, and be critical of how organizations approach public service and policy.

Until we do so, we cannot prematurely assume that we are improving the world more so than those in consulting and finance.

It’s not enough to say that we’re going into public service — we don’t join organizations that automatically make us “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” and we don’t embody the phrase simply by choosing not to pursue consulting or finance careers. The phrase (or at least the way we use it) disguises the fact that it’s often difficult to truly be “in the service of humanity.” We should, of course, be encouraging people to go into public service, but we can’t leave it at that. As students, we need to endeavor to explore more deeply what public service actually means, and how we can be truly effective with the tools our Princeton education gives us.

Community Opinion editor Lucia Wetherill is a junior from Newtown, PA. She is studying in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), with certificates in Global Health Policy and Latin American Studies.

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Features

Friday September 22, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

‘A hotspot of interdisciplinary interactions’: Students leap at environmental careers

By Raphaela Gold Staff Features Writer

More and more students are pursuing the environmental sciences. According to a Keystone Student Recruitment Survey, Environmental Science majors have increased in enrollment by 24 percent since 2016. Students pursuing environmental careers is following the same pattern, having increased by six percent in 2021 alone. Additionally, the average age of workers in environmental fields is declining, indicating that many young people are entering into these careers soon upon entering the workforce. Young people have highlighted a desire for action on climate change in polls, possibly motivating many students to pursue environmental careers.

The Princeton community is no exception to this trend of increased interest in environmental work. Toward the end of the last academic year, Princeton faculty approved the addition of eight new minors to its undergraduate offerings, including an Environmental Studies minor converted from the Environmental Studies Certificate and a new Climate Science minor.

Yet Princeton remains the only Ivy League university that does not offer a major in either Environmental Studies or Sciences.

With the absence of a major at Princeton, it is difficult to precisely measure the trends of Princetonians’ interest in studying the environment or entering environmental careers. Although Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) is on the rise in the Class of 2024, it is unclear how many students in the humanities, natural, and social sciences are focusing on climate.

The Daily Princetonian spoke to various professors, students, and alums to understand the challenges students face in the absence of a major and the opportunities that exist for them to pursue environmental work at Princeton and beyond.

Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and Director of the Program in Environmental Studies Corina Tarnita reflected on the opportunities Princeton offers for environmental involvement and shared her perspective on what has made the certificate approach so successful.

Tarnita explained that the overarching goal is “to have enough accessibility and potential for renewal, always bringing new people into the fold.” By being organized as a certificate and henceforth as a minor, ENV has been able to complement other departments rather than compete in them.

“Being able to be seen as a hotspot of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary interactions without people feeling like they specifically have to be in a school for the environment helps every student feel like a stakeholder in that conversation,” said Tarnita.

“Everyone can join, and we can foster novel interactions that might not have existed five years ago without this creative design,”

said Tarnita, adding, “I think that so far, it has worked magnificently.”

Indeed, many students and alumni have successfully made addressing climate change the focal point of their studies and careers after college. In 2020, the Princeton High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) collected data from a pool of over 3000 alumni which included former undergraduates of the Environmental Certificate Program, the HMEI internship program, and students who received support from HMEI for senior thesis research. The researchers found that 45 percent of those surveyed were doing some form of environmental work in their post-college life. This work spanned a wide range of foci, the most popular of which were jobs in industry, academia, NGOs, and government.

This broad array of post-college careers is reflected in the way current Princeton students are interweaving the new Environmental Studies minor with their other areas of study, exploring the climate through the lens of their major and vice versa. Aaron Serianni ’25, a Mathematics major pursuing the Environmental Studies minor, has taken many Environmental Studies courses over his time at Princeton. Serianni appreciates the flexibility that the Environmental Studies minor provides for students, explaining, “I think environmental studies by nature is very interdisciplinary, and there are many different approaches you could take … I enjoy the way the minor is set up to allow students to take these different approaches.”

However, Serianni believes that Princeton could be doing a better job outside of academics to encourage people to think about environmental justice. For example, Serianni suggested that the University promote more diverse internships and jobs in environmental studies, as many of the current internship offerings are narrow in their focus on mainly science and engineering. “There are other programs that have features like SPIA’s hub in Washington and very strong alumni and job market presences,” noted Serianni, “but Princeton has not built that for Environmental Studies.”

Md Abid Sikder ’24, a Computer Science BSE major, is trying to help students navigate their way into environmental careers at Princeton, specifically jobs in climate tech. Sikder and a friend created a club called College to Climate because they wanted to inform other students about the type of climate career in which they were interested. The club hears from speakers who guide students in navigating the world of startups and climate tech. Sikder hopes that the University Center for Career Development will also help make students aware of these careers in the future and emphasized that “there are many different ways of getting these jobs and joining these communities than the big company

AARUSHI ADLAKHA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The High Meadows Environmental Institute.

pipelines you might usually see.”

Students in the humanities are also doing interdisciplinary environmental work at Princeton and beyond. Michael Salama ’24, for example, is pursuing an Environmental Studies minor and centering the environment in his senior thesis work in the History department. Salama uses his passion for history to explore current environmental issues.

“I’ve visited some countries and learned what can be done on the ground, and who needs to be helped right now. My projects are centered around the hyperlocal, but are then bridged through history to global issues,” Salama explained, adding “I think it’s super valuable to take a history class that’s not at all about the environment and then make those connections by yourself.”

In addition to his academic work, Salama serves as the President of the Princeton Conservation Society, which works within Princeton and the wider New Jersey area to address environmental issues. Last year, Salama organized a Youth Climate and Conservation Summit which brought together young people already engaged in climate work and, later this year, members of the society will be traveling to Panama to participate in a reforestation project and grassroots organizing.

These opportunities for oncampus involvement in studentled environmental activism and conservation efforts, as well as classes and internships through the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI), help prepare Princetonians for post-college work in environmental careers.

Michael Salama’s older brother, Jordan Salama ’19, graduated Princeton with a major in Spanish and Portuguese. Since then, he has found his way into writing and freelance environmental journalism. Jordan Salama developed his first book, “Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the

Magdalena,” out of his Princeton senior thesis, and the book was later chosen as Princeton’s Preread for the Class of 2026.

Like his brother, Jordan Salama carved an environmental pathway for himself within his non-environmental major at Princeton, but he believes that Princeton would be better off with an Environmental Studies major. “I think it’s important to have the [Environmental Studies] major because it’s such an important issue for so many people in our generation, and there are increasingly more people who want to seriously address the climate crisis,” Salama said.

Salama advised current students not to underestimate the work they do while they’re in school, noting that much of the work one does as a Princeton undergraduate can be adapted into longer articles, essays, and even books. “Don’t think you’re just doing your Princeton work because you have to, and then it’ll be over.

Ask yourself: what work am I doing in class that could be interesting for the world?” Jordan Salama suggested.

Like Jordan Salama, Kate Gammon ’03 decided to focus on environmental writing after graduating Princeton, where she studied Anthropology and got the Environmental Studies certificate.

Gammon focuses her writing on the environment and climate because, “I really think that climate is the story of our generation.” She added, “That definitely goes back to the training I had at Princeton.”

Gammon’s path towards environmental writing was not a linear one. She explained, “It took a while for environmental themes to come into my writing life in the same way it was in my environmental life, but now environmentalism is one of the biggest parts of my journalism career.”

Gammon advised students who are currently struggling to merge their environmental and academic interests to “be brave and not be

limited by the jobs that exist today.” She also urged students to take advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of environmental studies, “because you’re going to need all of that toolkit to go out there and tackle what’s facing us.”

Debbie Weyl ’06 took her environmental interests in a different direction, focusing on energy and policy. At Princeton, Weyl majored in Politics with a focus in International Relations and a certificate in Political Economy, but for the most part she did not engage in environmentalism as a Princeton undergraduate. Instead, Weyl found her way into climate work during graduate school at the London School of Economics, where she completed a master’s program in Environmental Policy and International Development. Now, Weyl works as the Deputy Director of U.S. work at the World Resources Institute, where she considers how low income families can gain access to renewable energy and deals with issues of land use, agriculture, and biofuels.

Although Weyl does not trace her interest in climate work back to her time at Princeton, she noted that “Princeton set me up really well for picking up new information and new content,” which she explained was very helpful in the constantly changing field of environmental energy.

Weyl recommended that current students interested in pursuing environmental careers reach out to alumni and try out many different options within the vast field of climate work before settling on one area.

“Even though there isn’t an Environmental Studies major,” said Weyl, “there are definitely professors who are working on these issues full time.”

Raphaela Gold is a staff Features writer at the ‘Prince.’

Friday September 22, 2023

The Daily Princetonian

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the PROSPECT. The Daily Princetonian

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Friday September 22, 2023

ARTS & CULTURE

The first year out of college: On Caroline Kitchener’s ‘Post Grad’

By Caroline Subbiah | Guest Contributor

Last February, I found out that I had been selected for the ReachOut Fellowship, a Princeton program that selects senior undergraduate students to complete year-long independent service projects both within and outside of the United States. For my project, I had proposed to spend a year living in Santiago, the capital of Chile, and working with the Museum of Memory and Human Rights and the Living Refugee Archive.

I was nervous to move so far away from home, but I knew that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to experience a different culture and learn about Chilean history at such a crucial time.

This September marks the 50th anniversary of the military coup that initiated Chile’s 17-year dictatorship. For my project, I would conduct interviews with people who were exiled from Chile during the dictatorship.

Embarking on my own path has forced me to consider my identity outside of Princeton and the tradeoffs that arise when leaving the Orange Bubble. In many ways, the first year out of college is about finding yourself and growing as a person — learning to live on your own, to make friends outside of college, and to transition into the “real world.” As much as I love my project, I have also found it difficult to strike a balance between public service and personal development.

When envisioning my project, I had imagined that these two threads — public service and personal growth — would easily intertwine, with my service to the community helping me learn more about myself. However, integrating these priorities has not been as clear-cut as I forecasted.

I’ve also learned my experience is not unique.

A recent reading of Caroline Kitchener ’14’s book

“Post Grad: Five Women and Their First Year out of College” — where Kitchener follows four of her classmates, as well as herself, through their first year out of college — reveals the common struggles Princeton graduates face. In some ways, I relate so intensely to Kitchener’s story. She opts to live in a shared house in D.C. in order to meet other recent graduates and find community; I live in a house with four other exchange students. She starts the book with her walk to the baccalaureate ceremony, searching for her friends in the massive line and trying to pin her cap down. I remember that feeling from three months ago, trying to locate my friends using a blurry picture and Find My Friends. In fact, throughout the book, she references quirks of life at Princeton — eating club stereotypes, McCosh Hall, certain professors — that remind me of how collective the Princeton experience is.

Even though Kitchener and I graduated almost 10 years apart, we shared four years in common — and even though everyone experiences Princeton differently, certain elements are unchanged.

More generally, however, this book caused me to reflect on how Princeton and the relationships I formed there continue to stay with me.

Kitchener focuses on the women’s romantic relationships — their decisions on whether to stay with their college partners or with the people they date after graduation. Perhaps my sample is biased, or perhaps hers is, but I think she overemphasizes this aspect of postgrad life. For me, the loss of community that I feel most strongly is more pervasive. On campus, I understood myself through a series of labels that I fit in. I was an English major in Tiger Inn. I was a SHARE Peer and a Peer Representative. These classifications

meant something on campus, both to myself and to the people I met. In Chile, however, they mean nothing. Instead, I have to carve out my identity apart from Princeton, figure out who I am when I’m thousands of miles away from all my friends and family, and figure out who I am separated from Princeton and my friends. At the same time, however, I am surprised by how much my personality is intertwined with my life at Princeton. Do I insist on walking everywhere here because that’s who I am, or because four years at a “campus school” have left me unable to imagine taking the metro to class? Do I do the crossword every morning because I love the crossword, or because I have fond memories of doing it with my friends? One of the women that “Post Grad” follows ends her two-year relationship upon graduating and suddenly feels like she doesn’t know who she is: “The image that had provided all the instructions for Michelle’s new identity was gone, and now she had to improvise.” The general sentiment remains the same: How do you figure out who you are without Princeton?

I’ve found difficulty in navigating my many priorities. I want to do my job at the museum well, but I also want to explore my new home.

When I only have a year here, it sometimes feels difficult to do both well. Every weekend poses the same dilemma: Should I log extra hours at the museum, adding to the spreadsheet of survivors that I’m currently working on? Should I travel somewhere nearby and see more of the country? Should I just stay in and clean my apartment, which is still not fully unpacked?

The truth about working in public service is that there are many obstacles. For every enlightening

interview I’ve conducted, I’ve also spent many hours dealing with administrative roadblocks — out-of-date addresses, uncooperative nonprofits, and my own intermediate Spanish skills. In my first 1.5 months here, I’ve felt both incredibly grateful for this opportunity and doubtful about whether I was the right person for the job.

Perhaps this project would be better suited for someone fluent in Spanish, or someone with a better grasp of Chilean history. However, I have a responsibility, not only to the ReachOut board, but also to the survivors I’ve spoken with, to do my project well.

Today marks exactly 1.5 months in Santiago, and I simultaneously feel more and less settled than I expected to at this point. Perhaps the strangest part is seeing life go on at Princeton, as my now-senior friends attend their first week of classes, go to Lawnparties, and work on their thesis proposals. It feels strange to me that I’m not there, but I also wouldn’t say that I would rather be there than where I am right now. I miss Princeton, but I also love the independence that comes with living in an apartment rather than a dorm room, a big city rather than a college town.

I miss my friends, but I’m also trying to immerse myself in this experience. Balancing all these different emotions is a challenge that I haven’t quite figured out yet. For now, I’m just taking it day by day.

Caroline Subbiah ’23 graduated from the English department and currently lives in Santiago, Chile.

Classic works given new life by modern artists at Art on Hulfish

By Isabella Dail | Associate Prospect Editor

The Hulfish Gallery is back with a new showcase planned by the Princeton University Art Museum. The current exhibition, ‘Art about Art: Contemporary Photographers Look at Old Master Paintings,’ curated by Ronni Baer and Peter H. Fox, boasts the works of contemporary artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Vik Muniz, Jeanette May, and more. The included works span a variety of styles and media but are thematically united in their attempt to shed new light on classical pieces.

The exhibition is playful on a whole. Visitors are immediately greeted with Marcel Duchamp’s and Philippe Halsman’s modern adaptations of the Mona Lisa. Duchamp’s piece minimally alters the original, but the few changes are noticeably irreverent and whimsical. For instance, Duchamp superimposed a mustache and goatee onto the original painting and scribbled a series of letters on the bottom of the piece that sound akin to a salacious French expression when voiced aloud. Explanatory blurbs accompany each of the pieces — the information on Duchamp’s piece describes his interest in “ready-made” pieces, or objects found in society that he minimally edits to call art, and his desire to criticize the bourgeoisie. His changes, therefore, are strategic and satiric.

The Halsman piece takes an equally irreverent approach, but the alterations are more pronounced, allowing the viewers to compare the juxtaposed pieces easily. The Halsman portrait includes the eyes and pronounced facial hair of the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, as Dalí appreciated Duchamp’s take on the original Mona Lisa. While I failed to recognize Dalí’s resemblance in my initial viewing of the painting, I was immediately struck by the piece’s piercing gaze.

The media becomes increasingly creative as viewers stroll through the exhibition. The pieces are grouped by modern adaptations of the same painting, so multiple pieces by the same artist may be spread across the gallery. However, due to the size of the space and the limited number of works, I could trace pieces by the same artist across different areas of the gallery, especially artists that use particularly unique media.

For example, I quickly recognized the connection between the works of Vik Muniz, who uses food as a medium. The first painting I discovered by Muniz was included in a room dedicated to Diego Velázquez’s “Las Meninas.” The room showcased several modern adaptations of the original piece, but I immediately gravitated to the unusual, dripping quality of Muniz’s work. Unable to decipher the unusual medium, I consulted the accompanying blurb, where I soon realized that he recreated the original “Las Meninas” in chocolate syrup to explore the romantic and commercial undertones of chocolate. Therefore, when I later saw the double image of Mona Lisa created from peanut butter and jelly, I remembered Muniz’s work across the gallery. In this piece, Muniz further complicates the idea of origin. Instead of taking inspiration from Da Vinci’s piece, Muniz harkens Andy Warhol’s duplicated silkscreen version of the original Mona Lisa — by using commercialized foods, Muniz provides further commentary on Warhol’s discussion of mass production and pop culture.

However, I struggled to understand Muniz’s provenance and ownership in this complex blend of both originality and borrowing. The artist’s statement that “a copy of a copy is always an original thing” only further muddled my questions raised by the complicated tradition of artists that support his work.

Muniz is not the only artist in the gallery who shatters the limitations of media. Ori Gersht, for instance, literally shatters the traditional still life. He freezes flowers in liquid nitrogen, obliterates them with imperceptible explosives, and photographs the scene as it detonates. The result is a striking chaos where shards of white and red billow outward toward the edges of the frame, attempting to escape the bounds of the photograph. On the other hand, Jeanette May is more creative in her material than her process. To challenge traditional Dutch vanitas paintings, she finds beauty in modern “junk,” photographing a scene that includes a glittering disco ball and several obsolete technologies. Her work is nostalgic and evokes a far nearer past than the Dutch paintings that she references.

Other artists challenge the classics thematically. The Japanese artist Yasumasa Morimura recreates the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck’s self-portrait by replacing Van Eyck with himself. In other work, he inserts himself into a version of Las Meninas — his work poses questions about Western influence on the artistic canon historically and reimagines classics in a more inclusive manner.

Hulfish’s new exhibition is a creative showcase that challenges classical art, explores the expansive variety of media available in modernity, and provides a playful, whimsical group of pieces that are both visually and intellectually striking. You can visit the gallery anytime until Nov. 5 to see the exhibit.

Isabella Dail is a sophomore and an associate editor for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’

Friday September 22, 2023

The Daily Princetonian

page 13

The 5 things all first-years should know

By Elizabeth Medina | Senior Cartoonist The Fitz-Randolph gates have just welcomed a new batch of first-years, and that knowledge, juxtaposed with the difficult-toswallow fact that I’ve spent roughly 14 percent of my life as a Princeton student, has prompted me to reflect on my time here. In my three years as a Princetonian, I’ve learned many valuable lessons which I doubtless would’ve benefitted from hearing prior to embarking on my journey in Jersey. In the sections that follow, I proffer the most relevant ones in what I hope is the least pithy manner possible.

While this article is geared toward the fresher faces on campus, it also contains practical reminders for those who have been here longer—myself included.

Lesson 1: Princeton is hard.

You likely have an idea of the rigor the University has in store for you. But at some point—when you hear the birds chirping outside your window after an all-nighter or when you get a disappointing grade after capitalizing on every resource at your disposal—you’ll realize, “Oh. Princeton is hard.” In that moment, you might feel a little silly (of course Princeton is hard! It’s an Ivy League school, after all!), but give yourself some credit. “Rigor” has just gone from a vague notion to a veritable challenge and has met you for a 1-v-1 on the ground floor of Firestone. Naturally, it’s going to be disorienting. That’s okay. You’ve proven in the past that you’re capable of doing difficult things and, though it might not feel like it in the moment, you’re also capable of handling whatever punches Princeton throws at you.

Lesson 2: Congrats, you’re not just a tiger, you’re a duck now too.

If you haven’t already heard the “ducks in a pond” analogy, it goes something like this: viewed from above water, a duck appears to glide effortlessly across a lake. Peer beneath the surface, however, and you’ll find that the duck’s movement is anything but effortless, paddling furiously to stay afloat. At Princeton, there will likely be times in which it feels like you’re throwing everything into just trying to stay afloat while those around you glide with ease. Perhaps it will seem like others understand things faster than you, have better intuition, or are just able to flat-out do more than you can (props to anyone taking 6 classes). But talk to a few folks and you’ll see that you’re not the only one engaged in a 1-v-1s with Princeton’s rigor. Turns out, the struggle bus is full of ducks, and often these ducks will support one another once they realize they aren’t riding solo. To that end, talk to others and find yourself a bus-buddy or two.

Lesson 3: You’re here to learn. Go figure.

Statistically speaking, you’re not one of the smartest people in your class anymore.

Princeton is full of high school valedictorians, salutatorians, and high achievers from all over the world, so you’re going to be surrounded by a lot of folks who are smarter, more experienced, or sharper than you. This seems obvious, but it’s one of those things, like Princeton’s rigor, which is hard to internalize. At some point, however, you’ll look around and realize that you’re not the biggest fish in the sea like you might’ve been in high school. When that sinks in, remember: 1.) Just because other people are smarter or quicker than you doesn’t mean you’re not smart. You’ve already shown you’re capable of doing hard things. That’s how you got into Princeton!

2.) You’re a student, which means you’re here to learn. If you already knew everything, why would you be here? It’s your job to ask questions when you don’t understand something, even if a question seems facile or if you’ve already asked it once, twice, or twenty times before.

Ultimately, the places you all are going to end up at after graduating will likely be saturated by people who are smarter than you.

This is your new norm, so as discomfiting as it may be, you have to get used to it.

The best advice I can provide on how to “get used to it” is this: stop taking your intellectual temperature. Learn to recognize when you’re comparing your intellectual capabilities to those of your peers, and take a step back when you catch yourself doing it. The only

person you should be comparing yourself to is your younger self. You’ll get a chance to see how much you’ve grown, which will remind you to be proud of the hard work and effort you’ve put in to get to where you are.

Lesson 4: Do or do not, because you can’t do it all.

Princeton boasts a slew of communities, activities, classes, and resources that can help you express yourself intellectually, politically, spiritually, artistically, socially, and athletically. As such, I encourage you to explore all the activities that interest you even slightly, regardless of whether you’re a tyro.

Do keep in mind, however, that you can’t feasibly do everything and that, as much as you might want to, you can’t give your 100% to all of your pursuits. As a friend once told me: we always end up getting less done than we want to, and that’s okay.

Two pieces of advice here to keep you from chronically overexerting yourself as you explore. Firstly, it’s perfectly fine, and arguably mature, to say no to taking on new responsibilities or activities, or to try them out and drop them if you discern that you lack the time, interest, or passion to commit. This can apply to classes or clubs, but regardless, be transparent and communicate with the appropriate parties. Secondly, ask yourself what it is you’re trying to get out of the activities you’re partaking in. Are you joining the orchestra because it’s been part of your identity for years, or because you’re shooting for first chair? Are you taking a philosophy class to fulfill a distribution requirement, or because you want to be able to hold your own in a discussion with your friends about metaphysics?

Give yourself the flexibility to change these goals throughout the semester or throughout your time at Princeton. Maybe you’ll join the taekwondo team as a way to stay fit, but will become interested in competing a few months in. Or perhaps you’ll enroll in a COS class so you can learn how to make an app, but will find that you’re content just knowing how a for loop works.

As you spend more time here, you’ll get a better sense of your priorities and of how much effort you need to devote to things in order to feel adequately fulfilled. Until you gain that sense, however, remember that you’re always going to be learning. The concepts you don’t fully grasp or those skills you don’t perfectly hone today will come up again later, whether in a future class, in a random lunchtime discussion, in a book you’ll read, or in another performance or tournament you’ll find yourself in. When these do come up again, due to everything you will have learned in the interim, you’ll be able to make connections that you previously weren’t able to make.

You’ll learn and understand things a little bit better, and the next time you encounter them, you’ll learn and understand them further. All this to say that it’s okay if you don’t hit the nail right on the head today. Do your best, but know that you’ll get multiple chances to strike it.

Lesson 5: Princeton people are pretty neat (that includes you).

Princeton is brimming with talented, passionate, and intelligent human beings, so take advantage. Talk to your professor about their research; ask your graduate student TA about their path to Princeton; ask your classmate whether they’d be willing to teach you to play their instrument; inquire about why your roommate finds their major so exciting; ask to read some of writing samples your club mate casually mentioned they had written in their spare time. And don’t stop there. Cold email the student whose video you found enlightening and well-directed, even though you’ve never met them; go out of your way to inquire how long the person practicing sign language in Murray Dodge has been taking ASL classes; ask the person playing the piano in the common room if they wouldn’t mind you sitting by and listening in while you work. Reach out to people. Learn from them.

Gain new perspectives. You’re surrounded by so many great minds and hearts. Get to know more than a few. I promise you won’t regret it.

I want to make it explicit that while Princeton is hard, it’s also incredibly fun. Relish the little things: stop by Murray Dodge for freshly baked cookies, relax by the SPIA fountain when it’s warm, admire the beautiful

ELIZABETH MEDINA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

architecture around campus, hang around Prospect Garden to glimpse a bunny or two, or head up to the reading room at the sixth floor of Firestone. Grab some friends and enjoy slightly bigger things: go for a picnic, plan a weekly group dinner, watch one of Princeton’s home games, support a friend at her performance, head out to the Street, or take a day trip to NYC. Make memories and enjoy your time here!

Ultimately, Princeton accepted you for more than just your grades and the school would be worse off if all you did was grind. So don’t forget to be creative, athletic, political, spiritual–everything that makes you who you are. Be a fighter. Be a duck. Be a student. Be a human. But most importantly, be you.

Elizabeth Medina is a senior cartoonist for the ‘Prince.’

The Prospect 11 The Daily Princetonian

page 14

Friday September 22, 2023

Weekly Event Roundup

By Kerrie Liang, Head Prospect Editor

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“In the Company of Good Books: Shakespeare to Morrison”

Until Dec. 10, 2023 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Firestone Library

Princeton University Library honors the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623 with its comprehensive literature collection. This exhibition showcases three original Shakespearean First Folios, as well as working manuscripts, samples from authorial archives, and more from other authors. Some highlights include a 1598 first edition of “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and Toni Morrison’s handwritten manuscript drafts of “Desdemona.” This event is free and open to the public.

Dance Your Style Vol. 3

“Mindscapes Unveiled,” an exhibition by Chanika Svetvilas

SYMPOH Sept. 23, 2023, 7 p.m.

Richardson Auditorium

Until Sept. 28, 2023, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Hurley Gallery, Lewis Arts Complex

Looking to express yourself through movement? Want to watch an exciting dance battle?

Sympoh Urban Arts Crew returns with another Dance Your Style showcase, where dancers from various groups and genres fight it out on stage.

Sympoh is a B-Boy/B-Girl (breakdancing) crew focused on promoting breakdancing and hiphop to the wider community. When it comes to improv, you can expect them to bring their all!.

Students can buy tickets at University Ticketing.

Chanika Svetvilas is the University’s Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence. Her exhibition is part of her year-long project, “Anonymous Was the Data,” which highlights lived experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders experiencing mental health conditions. This event is free and open to the public.

How Art Tells the Story of Pain — Workshop in conjunction with “Bodywork”

Sept. 23, 2023, 1-4 p.m.

Donald G. Drapkin Studio, Lewis Arts Complex

This workshop, hosted by the University’s “Bodywork” theater company, aims to build discourse around themes of chronic pain, emotional trauma, gender, and the body. It will begin with a talk from Professor Elena Fratto, who will discuss the study of pain and the importance of storytelling in medicine. Then, there will be a discussion about the systematic mistreatment of women’s bodies. Finally, participants will be invited to contribute to a community art piece. This event is free and open to students.

Putting It Together: A Program in Theater Celebration Sept. 24, 2023, 1-4:30 p.m.

Wallace Theater, Lewis Arts Complex

This event celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Program in Theater and establishes a permanent archive of its history, existing in fragments in the experiences of faculty, students, and alumni. Current and past theater faculty, program directors, and alumni will share their experiences and recollections. This event is free and unticketed.

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Special Effects Makeup: Blood and Gore Workshop Sept. 26, 2023, 6-8 p.m.

Lewis Arts Complex

Looking to take your costume to the next level this Princetoween? This workshop is for you! Led by Lewis Center for the Arts Costume Shop Manager Miriam Patterson, participants will learn how to elevate their look with spookily realistic makeup.

This event is free and unticketed. No experience is required.

Pond Music: Interspecies Improvisation

Sept. 28, 2023, 2 p.m.

The pond at the Institute for Advanced Studies

If you’d like a peaceful concert with a relaxing view, come watch ecologist and musician David Rothenberg drop a hydrophone into the pond.

Keep a keen ear out as Rothenberg improvises with the sounds of plants and insects. This concert is by the Animal Song Collective and is a Humanities Council Magic Project. This event is free and unticketed.

Musicology Colloquium: Clara Latham Department of Music Sept. 22, 2023, 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Woolworth 102

Clara Latham is the Assistant of Music Technology at Eugene Lang College and researches the relationship between sound, technology, and labor. For her colloquium, she places instruments next to domestic technologies designed to minimize labor and considers the conditions under which these devices were produced and how they were marketed. This event is free and unticketed.

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7

Timbuktu Grooves Festival: Once the Dust Settles Flowers Bloom Sept. 29, 2023, 8 p.m.

Matthews Theater, McCarter Theatre

Director of the African Music Ensembles of Princeton University Olivier Tarpaga’s piece is the first of three concerts in the Timbuktu Grooves Festival that celebrates the exciting sounds of the African continent and its diaspora. The concert features seven dancers and five musicians from Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Morocco, and France. Students can access free tickets with Passport to the Arts using the code PUTIGER.

Medieval Song and the Sounding of World, Body, and Imagination Sept. 28, 2023, 4:30-6 p.m.

Taplin Auditorium, Fine Hall

Using discursive speculation and live performance, medieval studies scholars Sarah Kay and Concordia Dawn bring medieval song to life. The sounds of this song are created by more than just birds and fountains but also by celestial beasts and alluring sirens. The concert will explore various ideas such as the captivating nature of beauty, the struggle between life and death, and the limits of a dream world. This event is free and students can RSVP via the University Music Department’s website.

The Thief Who Stole My Heart

Department of Art and Archeology Sept. 28, 2023, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Louis A. Simpson A71

In this talk, Professor Vidya Dehejia of Columbia University will introduce sacred bronzes created by a Chola master sculptor around the year 1000. Potentially inspired by childsaint Sambandar’s opening hymn, “The thief who stole my heart,” Dehejia invites new questions about the material: where did the Cholas acquire the copper? Why were the Cholas obsessed with Sri Lanka?

Where did they get pearls, rubies, and diamonds to adorn the temple bronzes? This event is free and unticketed.

Friday September 22, 2023

Sports

page 15

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S WRESTLING

After 17 seasons at the helm of Princeton wrestling, Head Coach Chris Ayres is heading to Stanford

By Hayk Yengibaryan Associate Sports Editor

After 17 seasons leading the Princeton wrestling program, Chris Ayres is going west to take over as the head wrestling coach at Stanford University. Ayres is recognized by many in the wrestling world for putting Princeton Wrestling on the map and made Jadwin Gymnasium a hub for some of the nation’s top wrestlers.

“Seventeen years at one place is a long time. I was ready for a change,” Ayres told the Daily Princetonian in a phone interview. “I got so much and it was such a great experience at Princeton, but it was time to move on,” he added.

Ayres is a prime example of the underdog story. As an undergraduate student, he walked onto the Lehigh wrestling team, then won the 150-pound Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) title as a junior.

During his senior year, he received All-American honors and placed sixth at the NCAA tournament in the 157 pound event. He set the program record for most wins in a season, with 39, and most career victories (120), solidifying himself as one

of Lehigh’s most storied wrestlers.

Upon graduation, he became the assistant coach of the program at Lehigh, helping the team win five straight EIWA teams championships while simultaneously producing 12 All-Americans and two national champions.

When Ayres arrived at Princeton in 2006, he had his work cut out for him. In his first two years, the team finished 0–35.

However, Ayres remained committed to setting the program up for long-term success. In his first years at Princeton, he hoped to bring change both to the recruiting process and the way wrestlers would be coached.

“When I came to Princeton, early on I grew so much from the challenges,” Ayres told the ‘Prince.’ “In my later years, I was still growing but it was just the same things. I thought having a new challenge would be good for me and my family.”

His aim was to show his athletes the physical demand of Division I college wrestling and inspire his athletes to meet that standard. Former players have spoken highly of Ayres’ ability to instill confidence in each of them — motivating them through the mental challenges of

the sport as well as the physical ones.

Associate coach Sean Gray thanked Ayres on X (formerly known as Twitter): “You allowed everyone around you to grow and become the best they could be.

A born leader who did things the right way, and showed us the way.”

During his first eight years, Ayres worked around the clock to revive the program, with a dedication to the program and to his athletes that was unmatched.

Under his guidance, the program grew tremendously over the past decade. From 2004 to 2009, the Tigers had sent just one wrestler to the NCAA championships and had just three All-Ivy wrestlers. Since 2010, Ayres has helped the team earn 48 bids to the NCAA tournament while coaching 62 All-Ivy wrestlers.

Ayres has coached five All-Americans (Brett Harner ’17, Matthew Kolodzik ’20, Patrick Brucki ’21, Quincy Monday ’23, and Pat Glory ’23) since 2016. Prior to 2016, there had only been eight All-Americans since the start of the program in 1905.

The period from 2016 to 2023 has been the prime of Princeton wrestling. Four third place finishes in the EIWA championships from 2017 to 2022 marked their

best performance since 1978. In 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020, Ayres was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year.

In 2017, Ayres was additionally named the EIWA Co-Head Coach of the Year and sent a school record of seven wrestlers to the NCAA championships in Missouri.

Soon after, in 2020, he led Princeton to its first Ivy League title since 1986. The Ivy League title was something Ayres had promised former athletic director Gary Walters ’67 upon his hiring in 2006.

When asked about his favorite memory at Princeton, he immediately thought of the 2020 season. “Beating Cornell might be number one,” Ayres said. “When we beat them in 2020, they had the longest Ivy League winning streak of any school.”

Ayres also mentioned Glory’s national title and Glory and Monday making it to the NCAA in 2022 finals among notable memories during his time at Princeton.

Glory and Monday’s performance in 2022 marked the first time in school history two Tigers made it as NCAA finalists at once, while the 2023 NCAA championships was the Tiger’s best finish since 1951. Glory won a national championship in the 125 pound division while Monday

PHOTO COURTESY OF @TIGERWRESTLING/X

Ayres coaching Patrick Glory ‘23 during the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

finished third in the 157 pound division.

They would finish 13th as a team in 2023, a program record.

“Ayres shared a vision for this program that I had to be a part of, and instilled honor in being able to represent Princeton on the mat,” Monday wrote to the ‘Prince’.

“He allowed me space to grow into my own kind of leader.”

Nevertheless, the wrestling programs remain in solid hands. Sean Gray, the associate head coach is entering his 13th season with the Tigers. Gray, a member of the Virginia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, has seen all the successes of the Ayres era at Princeton. Joe Dubuque, who is entering his 11th season at Princeton is a true fan favorite. While at Indiana, Dubuque won two national championships in 2005 and 2006 and is regarded as one of the best Garden State wrestlers.

Moreover, three-time All-American Monday joined the coaching staff in the summer as an assistant coach. His experience and mentorship will be valuable to everyone in the program.

“I’ll take the lessons learned during my time here as a competitor to continue to push Princeton wrestling towards new heights, this time from the coaching side,” Monday added.

In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Ayres shared his advice for returning wrestlers and new recruits joining the team this winter: “Just keep doing what you’re doing. Princeton isn’t defined by any person. When you are at Princeton, there is a unique connection between you and the place. I hope they soak it up and get the most out of it. I wish I could be there to see them through it, but sometimes change is needed.”

Whether it be Dubuque, Gray, or another candidate that receives the soughtafter promotion to head coach of the program, they will have massive shoes to fill.

Ayres’ daughter, Chloe Ayres ’25, joined the team last season and will continue her academic and athletic career at Princeton.

“Nothing but gratitude for this guy after 17 years of pouring his heart and soul into our program,” shared John, athletic directory at Princeton in an X post in appreciation of Ayres. “Thanks for leaving us far better than you found us. You’ll always be a Tiger.”

Nearly two decades and an impressive legacy at Princeton behind him, Ayres looks forward to bringing his energy to the Cardinals.

“The goal is the same. I want to win a national championship at Stanford.

The experience of working at schools like Princeton and Stanford allows me to work with unique students who want the most out of all areas of their life,” Ayres said.

Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

page 16

Sports

Friday September 22, 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FEATURE

Halftime: Where Princeton student athletes spend their summer

By Diego Uribe Associate Sports Editor

When athletes spread out for the summer, they go in a variety of directions.

Some play their sport in a new setting, while others pursue other opportunities.

The Daily Princetonian spoke to two athletes about their summer internships.

From brand partner to brand sponsor: a summer of new perspectives for Alexis Hiltunen Senior women’s soccer forward Alexis Hiltunen ’24 spent her summer interning for sports media titan Overtime, where she joined her love for sports and aptitude for brand work as a sales and marketing assistant.

As an athlete herself, Hiltunen reveled in the opportunity to work behind the scenes at a staple of modern sports culture. “It was really interesting to see the other side of things … the platforms they’ve built, especially around basketball, are incredible,” she told the Daily Princetonian.

Since its founding in 2016 by Princeton alum Dan Porter ’88, Overtime has amassed 8.5 million followers on Instagram and over three million subscribers on YouTube. They also launched the nation’s first professional basketball league for high schoolers and international players ages 16–19, as well as a lowcontact football league and the recently launched Overtime Boxing (OTX).

Much of Hiltunen’s work over the

summer was dedicated to optimizing branding and marketing for OTX, which held its first event in August.

“I was in a lot of those calls discussing branding: for the ring, or the locker rooms, or the walkout. All those different aspects that go into branding,” she told the ‘Prince.’ She also conducted competitive analyses for Overtime’s brand team and spearheaded various website redesign projects.

Hiltunen is one of Princeton’s most active athletes in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) space. For her, working with Overtime, a brand that sponsors hundreds of athletes worldwide, was quite the change in perspective: “I work with a lot of NIL deals so I see that perspective. But, seeing how brands look at athletes was really cool,” she told the ‘Prince.’

Hiltunen reflected that “learning about what brands are looking for, and how to display that” with Overtime will help her grow her own brand as a social media influencer and content creator moving forward.

In addition to her work for Overtime, Hiltunen continued her work with NIL partners over the summer. All of this was juggled amid the preparation for her senior season with women’s soccer — one which is loaded with expectations.

While she hopes to pursue a career in marketing after graduation in the spring, for now, her focus is on one thing: a strong finish to her soccer career with

an Ivy League championship.

Running the show: Xaivian Lee shines at the 2023 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup Men’s basketball sophomore guard Xaivian Lee spent his summer taking his game to the next level and competing on the international stage. After a productive first year in which Lee contributed greatly to an Ivy League championship and a trip to the Sweet Sixteen of the 2023 NCAA tournament, the Torontonian was named to Team Canada’s U19 roster set to compete at the 2023 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Hungary.

“I definitely felt a huge sense of pride to be representing an entire nation,” Lee said about the opportunity. “It was always a goal of mine since I was a young kid, so to accomplish it and succeed at that level brought me a lot of confidence,” he added.

Lee, who had never represented Canada in competition before, quickly solidified himself as one of the team’s leaders and most productive players. Despite finishing with just three points in Canada’s opening matchup with eventual champions Spain, Lee would go on to lead in both scoring and assists for the tournament for the Canadian team, posting averages of 14.1 points per game and 3.1 assists per game, as well as a field goal percentage of 47.8 percent.

A year playing with and against the nation’s best at the collegiate level certainly contributed to Lee’s international

PHOTOS COURTESY OF @PRINCETONWSOC/INSTAGRAM AND @PRINCETONMBB/INSTAGRAM.

success. “Most of my peers (other U19 competitors) are just going into their first year of college now, so to have that sort of experience helped in a bunch of ways,” Lee said about his time with Princeton.

“Playing in March Madness (2023 NCAA Tournament) and under huge spotlights all year definitely made the jump to FIBA seem manageable,” he added. Lee helped lead Canada to a seventh-place finish out of 16 teams.

With the losses of starters Ryan Langborg ’23, Tosan Evbuomwan ’23, and Keeshawn Kellman ’23 from last year’s Princeton men’s basketball roster, Lee should see an enhanced role during the upcoming season. “All summer I’ve been in the weight room, so just trying to put on a bit more mass I think will help me,” said Lee about what new value he hopes

to add to the team this year. “I also tried adding a bit more bounce to my game, so hopefully that will translate,” he said.

Lee also got some experience playing point guard for Team Canada, serving as their primary ball-handler and floor general. Given that Langborg and Evbuomwan largely filled those roles for Princeton last season, expect to see Lee with the ball in his hands often for Princeton this year.

The Tigers will kick off their 2023– 2024 campaign on Nov. 6 in Trenton’s Cure Insurance Arena against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Diego Uribe is an associate Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’