Tuesday, September 23 2014 by The Daily Princetonian

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Tuesday september 23, 2014 vol. cxxxviii no. 77

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Students petition to revive Sanskrit

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In Opinion Ryan Dukeman advocates for more apartmentstyle housing, and Azza Cohen endorses early concentration. PAGE 4

By Jasmine Wang staff writer

Today on Campus Noon: Urban archaeologist Daniel Schavelzone will give a lecture on management of cultural resources. 216 Aaron Burr Hall.

The Archives

Sept. 23, 1971 175 university students were officially registered as Princeton voters for the first time since 1927.

News & Notes Rutgers student death apparently linked to alcohol

the death of a Rutgers student early Sunday morning might be alcohol-related, according to a preliminary investigation, though the cause of death has yet to be determined. Caitlyn Kovacs, a sophomore at Rutgers, had gone to a small gathering at the school’s chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon in New Brunswick Saturday night. At approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday, Kovacs seemed to be “in distress,” so a few of her friends took her to the hospital. Kovacs was declared dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. Jeremy Rodriguez, Kovac’s friend, told CBS that he “sensed some sort of intoxication” when he spoke with Kovacs on the phone, but he thought she was going to be fine. Rutgers has made counseling services available to students. The death is currently under investigation by the New Brunswick and Rutgers police departments and by the prosecutor’s office. Delta Kappa Epsilon said in a statement that it would cooperate with the investigation.

Princeton welcomes first new police officers since consolidation

the town of Princeton formally welcomed its first new police officers since the consolidation of the Borough and Township in January 2013, according to Times of Trenton. Donald Stephen Mathews and Dashawn J. Cribb took official oaths on Monday night. They have been working for the law enforcement department since last month. Mathews, previously a police sergeant in Mansfield, holds a degree in criminal justice from Richard Stock-

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The Art Museum was open late as graduate students from all departments gathered for “Cocktails and Curators.” U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

U. hires outside law firm in mental health lawsuit By Chitra Marti staff writer

The University hired an important law firm last week to represent it in a mental health lawsuit in which a student was allegedly forced to withdraw following a suicide attempt. The student, who is unnamed in court filings, sued the University in March and is representing himself. The University is being represented by William F. Maderer, of the firm Saiber

LLC, and Ryan E. San George, federal court documents show. Maderer and San George will also be representing the seven individuals named as defendants in the case, including Vice President for Campus Life Cynthia Cherrey, Executive Director of University Health Services John Kolligian and University President Emerita Shirley Tilghman. Neither Maderer nor San George responded to requests for comment. Maderer has represented the University in the past, most notably in a case

in which University admission officials allegedly used applicants’ personal information to gain access to their admission decisions from Yale back in 2002. Then-Associate Dean and Director of Admission Stephen LeMenager used applicants’ names, birth dates and social security numbers from their Princeton admissions files in order to get into the Yale system and see the outcomes of their applications there. Although Tilghman maintained at See LAWYERS page 2

An online petition to reintroduce Sanskrit into the University curriculum has 240 student signatures as of Monday morning. The petition was started by Vidushi Sharma ’17 and began circulating on Sept. 18. Sanskrit, one of the 22 official languages of India, is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism. The University’s policy on Sanskrit has been more inconsistent than those at other Ivy League institutions. Brown offers an entire classics concentration in Sanskrit, including six courses offered on Sanskrit language and culture, while Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania all offer some sort of course sequence on Sanskrit. Both Harvard and Yale provide language tutorial programs or live-streamed classes from other institutions if there are no professors on campus to teach South Asian languages, including Tamil and Hindi. Classics professor Joshua Katz said it is a shame that the University overlooks this region of the world, considering India’s population is second in size only to China. Katz added that the failure to provide Sanskrit instruction is as grave a mistake as not offering Latin, writing about Sanskrit’s importance as “a major liturgical language,” as well as “a language with a massive literary tradition” and one that has “regularly acted as a major vehicle of cultural transmission.” Katz is also a trustee of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, the parent company of The Daily Princetonian, and a former ‘Prince’ faculty columnist. Eric Huntington, Cotsen postdoctoral fellow at the University’s Society of Fellows, also expressed his opinion in favor of Sanskrit, citing See LANGUAGE page 2

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Forbes College hosts 5 Cambridge exchange students By Ray Mennin staff writer

Five students from St. John’s College at Cambridge University visited Forbes College for a week-long residential college exchange this past week and left Monday night. Visiting students were originally supposed to stay with the five residents of Forbes College who completed a similar exchange during spring break last year. Master of Forbes College Michael Hecht explained that since those students are now upperclassmen and have since left Forbes, the Cambridge students were instead housed by residential college advisers and resident graduate students in Forbes. The trip consisted of attending classes with each visi-

tor’s host student, touring the Princeton campus, spending time in the University’s eating clubs, visiting a Broadway show, spending a day in New York City and visiting the local farm Terhune Orchards. Katherine Reggler, a secondyear student at St. John’s College, was one of the students who visited Princeton this past week. She said that Princeton is much quieter than Cambridge, noting that the student population of Cambridge is more than double the size of Princeton, and the college is spread across the town rather than being concentrated in one location. “This means that there is always something going on in the town, and it has been strange to be at a university but not experience the constant bustle of my normal university

life,” she said. While the quiet nature of the Princeton campus might have stuck out to some, Forbes resident William Paulson ’17 of the United Kingdom remarked that only a few British universities have student bodies as heterogeneous as Princeton’s. “Although Oxford and Cambridge and a few other major universities in the U.K. such as [University College London] and [London School of Economics] attract applicants from the world over, very few others can boast an ethnic and cultural diversity as great as Princeton,” he said. Hecht explained that he finds the program exciting because Princeton’s residential college system is to some extent modeled on Cambridge See EXCHANGE page 3

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

COURTESY OF MICHAEL HECHT

Exchange students from the U.K. visited the University this past week.

LOCAL NEWS

PRINCO, Hall ’80 invest in media Town council discusses plans investment firm Thrive Capital to develop Witherspoon Street By Sheila Sissmit staff writer

The Princeton University Investment Company and Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees Kathryn Hall ’80 have both invested in Thrive Capital, a venture capital investment firm focused on media and Internet investments. Princo is the University department that manages $17.8 billion of the University’s $18.2 billion endowment.

In addition to her chairmanship, Hall is CEO of Hall Capital Partners, a hedge fund based in San Francisco that has over $29 billion in assets under management. She does not directly manage any part of the University’s endowment. Thrive Capital was founded by Josh Kushner, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, and was an early backer of the photo-sharing app Instagram. It is currently in the process of raising See THRIVE page 3

By Anna Windemuth staff writer

Town residents discussed concerns over preserving the historic and cultural charm of Witherspoon Street while considering the implications of current zoning regulations during a public meeting on Monday night. Although Witherspoon Street spans only about a mile in length, it includes eight different zoning areas. Since the Township and Borough of Princeton consolidated in 2013, representatives

felt that a unified discussion on the future of this major throughway would be a welcome form of proactive planning, town council members said. “This is a street that impacts almost everybody in the community,” Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said when initiating the discussion. Lempert said that if the community decides that current zoning is not in line with the town’s common vision for the neighborhood, steps may be taken to enlist a consultant and consider isSee ZONING page 3

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Tuesday september 23, 2014

Student filed a mental 240 students in support of bringing back Sanskrit health lawsuit against U. LANGUAGE Continued from page 1

LAWYERS Continued from page 1

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the time that there was no evidence that LeMenager intended to do anything other than test the security of Yale’s website, she also said, “Violations of basic ethical principles of privacy and confidentiality are especially serious in a university that teaches these principles and counts them among its core values.” In that case, as a result, LeMenager resigned. Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon also retired later that year. Maderer is a managing member at Saiber, specializing in fields such as higher education law and white collar criminal defense. His profile notes that in the past he had been retained by “a prominent university to conduct independent investigation regarding allegations of improper access to computer systems and files.” Maderer has also written several publications, most recently “Ensure You Have Safeguards for Charged Students” and “Uphold Conduct Codes While Respecting Students’ Free Speech Rights” earlier this year. In this particular case, a student alleged that he was forced to leave the University following a suicide

attempt. The student initially filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and later sued the University and seven top officials for disability discrimination. The student is seeking appropriate compensatory and punitive damages, as well as “injunctive relief” to prevent the defendants from discriminating on the basis of disability against the student or anyone else.

Princeton sought to protect itself from adverse publicity. Court Documents

“As a direct result of [Princeton University’s] actions, he has experienced extreme embarrassment, continuing stress and mental anguish, as well as out-ofpocket expenses, foregone wages and reputational injury,” the court documents read. “Instead [of caring for the student’s best interests], Princeton sought to protect itself from adverse publicity or liability.”

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its relevance in modern society. The current lack of a system at the University prevents students from becoming proficient and prevents the development of a real group of scholars, he added. “The Tibetan tradition of Buddhism takes its cues very strongly from Sanskrit texts,” Huntington explained. “These are things they’re engaging with in a real way.” Sharma, the petition’s sponsor, is a prospective philosophy major with a strong passion for languages like Latin and Sanskrit. “There’s just so much opportunity for new scholarship in Sanskrit,” Sharma said, recalling how enlightening and exhilarating her studies in Sanskrit the previous summer were. David Mazumder ’17 voiced similar thoughts, citing the

many outstanding philosophical and religious works of literature that are primarily read in Sanskrit.

“Princeton is such a worldly campus... How can you leave out a whole family of languages?” David Mazmunder ‘17

“Princeton is such a worldly campus and has such an international reach,” he said. “[Sanskrit] is also the basis of so many different languages … How can you leave out a whole family of languages?” Sharma expressed her ex-

citement at the amount of encouragement the petition has received from students and professors in only four days. Sharma said she plans to circulate the petition email via eating club listservs and perhaps by sitting down in the dining hall with her laptop to give more students access to the petition directly. Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri ’01 led a student movement in 2001 to start a Program in South Asian Studies, which led to the reinstatement of the study of Sanskrit for three years. However, in recent years, the University’s provision of instruction in Sanskrit has become more inconsistent. Classics and religion professor Herman Tull taught 13 students in total in 2009-10 school year, and Sanskrit was canceled the following school year and not offered in 2011-12. In 2012-13, the University only offered Sanskrit in the spring semester with classics and religion professor Elaine Fisher. In 2012-13 and 2013-14, she taught

six students total in the fall and spring semesters. Fisher has since left the University and the administration has not committed to hiring another fulltime professor until at least 2016. Naomi Lee ’15, an independent concentrator studying linguistics, studied Sanskrit at the University in her junior year, a rare time in which the language was offered both semesters. However, she will not be able to study Sanskrit again at Princeton. According to Lee, the University offers the language once every several years, with no specific faculty whose primary responsibility is to overlook and guide the instruction of Sanskrit, even though Sanskrit is a prominent way of accessing texts and thoughts from parts of the ancient world. “It’s a big gap in any university with a serious classics or historical linguistics department. It really should be offered. It’s embarrassing that it’s not,” Lee said.

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Fred Hargadon was Dean of Admission at the University when William Maderer was called to investigate an alleged case of hacking.

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Tuesday september 23, 2014

Residents give feedback to town plans ZONING

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sues such as building density and urban landscaping. However, Lempert said that this meeting would be one of several to gauge the community’s sentiments, a suggestion that was confirmed by the end of the night. Several community members said they were worried about preserving the town’s charm and historic character, which could be damaged by increasing property density, especially for commercial purposes, they argued. “We are not the most aggressive town,” Councilman Patrick Simon said regarding the town’s stance on zoning and development, a comment that elicited claps and shouts of agreement from the audi-

ence. Simon said it is important for the town to approach Witherspoon Street’s future with careful consideration and a proactive mindset. He also supported conducting a financial analysis of possible zoning changes as requested by several community members. “Once you increase the density, you can’t take it back,” a community member said. “We have an enormous history there and we have to make sure we don’t lose it.” Another citizen criticized the changes made to historic buildings on Alexander Road and parts of the Dinky station, and was concerned by the prospect of further alterations to town infrastructure and residential areas. The public also discussed the AvalonBay housing develop-

ment, a new set of apartments scheduled to open on the site of the former University Medical Center on Witherspoon Street by 2016. AvalonBay filed a lawsuit against the town when it initially refused to grant approval for the project. The town eventually agreed to the new housing development, but several community members said they felt the town had not been assertive enough. Members of the public also noted that the AvalonBay development would probably cause additional congestion in the Witherspoon Street corridor. Several citizens requested a traffic analysis of this area to assess possible congestion issues. If the town does decide to enlist an outside advisor, an announcement would probably be made by the end of 2014, Lempert said.

Exchange students go to classes, clubs EXCHANGE Continued from page 1

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and Oxford, even though there are of course some dramatic differences. This contrast, he said, extends even more broad-

ly.

“This is an opportunity for students to see what the similarities and differences are at the residential colleges, at the University, at the level of the surrounding country,” he said. Reggler said that the best

thing about her time at Princeton was spending time with the students. “They have taken us to classes, eaten meals with us and shown us around, and I have had so much fun hanging out with them,” she said.

Golden says investment was a risk THRIVE

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$150 million for a fund. Hall and Kushner did not respond to requests for comment. Though Princo rarely discusses investment decisions with the media, its president, Andrew Golden, discussed his involvement with Thrive in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Golden said he thought it was a risk to invest in a young company, but he thinks it has been very successful. “We have a very significant relationship with Thrive; we are probably the

largest investor in [it], and many would consider us to be the anchor investor,” he explained. “We are very impressed with the Thrive team, and we admire how quickly the firm has developed.” The investment provides a glimpse into the mostly secretive business decisions of the University’s investment arm. According to Golden, in response to the possibility of people questioning the stability of the young company, Princo decided to promote and endorse Kushner. “We wanted to publicize Josh as a real entity that should be taken seriously

by the entrepreneur community,” Golden said. “We thought that by publicizing that we were a key source of that capital … We would actually create a competitive advantage with us and with Thrive.” Another backer of the fund is Duke University, according to The Wall Street Journal article. Golden went to Duke for his undergraduate degree. Hall invested through Hall Capital, and according to Golden, these were “independent decisions.” Golden added that he didn’t think it was unusual for both Princo and Hall to invest in the company.

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News & Notes ton College of New Jersey. Cribb hails from Florence and graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in sociology and justice studies. The Council, which consists of six members who oversee legislation in Princeton, unanimously voted to hire Mathews and Cribb from among 144 qualified applicants. The candidates came forth after a recruitment process began early last year. Applicants went through interviews, background checks and written and physical fitness exams, according to Princeton Police Captain Chief Nick Sutter. The police force currently includes about 50 members. Rutgers student dies after bear attack A student at Rutgers was killed on Sunday by a bear. Darsh Patel, a Rutgers senior, was hiking with four friends in the Apshawa Preserve when they came across a 300-pound, 4-year-old bear. The hikers ran from the bear, but the bear fatally attacked Patel. When police arrived on the scene, they found the bear lingering by his body. Though the police tried to scare the bear away, they ended up shooting the bear twice. An autopsy will be conducted on the bear to see if it had a disease that may have led it to attack Patel.

West Milford Police Chief Tim Storbeck called the incident “a rare occurrence.” According to New York Daily News, the last fatal bear attack on a human on record was in 1852. New York Daily News reports that the area of New Jersey where Patel was killed is also known as bear country, as there are approximately 1,800 to 2,400 bears in the area. Search for town administrator’s successor near end Successor for the town administrator Bob Bruschi could be chosen by the end of September, Mayor Liz Lempert announced on Sept. 22. Lempert said that the council might set up a special meeting before its next regular meeting on Oct. 13 to select Bruschi’s replacement, but that she hasn’t discussed the possibility with council members. Bruschi, who has worked 15 years as the town administrator, will retire in December. Fifteen candidates applied to fill in his position in July. In early September, town officials interviewed semifinalists for the position. The town council aims to have Bruschi’s successor begin work in last week of October. While names and other personal details of the candidates were not revealed, the Times of Trenton speculated that the town’s director of finance and

assistant administrator Kathryn Monzo applied for the position. Train advocacy group will not appeal federal ruling A train advocacy group, the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, will not appeal a federal ruling in July that deemed New Jersey Transit immune from federal oversight. NJ-ARP had opposed the relocation of New Jersey Transit’s Princeton branch, the Dinky. The group’s president, Len Resto, criticized the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s ruling, saying that it sets a dangerous precedent for the conversion of a rail corridor to non-rail use simply because the land is more valuable for private development. However, he explained that the advocacy group fears an appeal would hurt other urban rail corridors. “We are going to live with a legally flawed administrative decision and not risk setting it in stone in a court precedent that might have greater adverse impacts on public rail corridors at the national level,” he said to Planet Princeton. University officials have defended moving the Dinky station about 460 feet south to make space for the arts and transit project and to establish a second access road to the school’s parking deck.

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Josh Kushner, a graduate of Harvard who is still in his twenties, has received millions from both the University’s investment arm and from Kathryn Hall ’80, the chair of the University’s board of trustees.

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Kelly Hatfield columnist

I heard someone on campus say that Princetonians are tired both of being so passionate about so many issues and, at the same time, somewhat incapable of affecting many of them.

discussed it in depth at the dinner table. Juan Carlos I was the monarch put into power by General Franco at the end of his dictatorship decades ago; Juan Carlos has since ruled in times of economic crisis that have left many from older generations longing for the sense of stability that they previously had and many younger people clamoring for a true republic. The latter saw their moment in the chaos of the transition and began to call for a referendum on whether or not to keep the monarchy intact. They took to the streets of all the major cities, and I was lucky enough to see one such demonstration in the heart of the largest plaza in Madrid. People flooded into the space, holding tricolor flags of the Second Spanish Republic and signs decrying the royal family. Having heard of violence erupting in the streets of Barcelona in previous days, I was not expecting the relative calm of the scene before me. While people talked in a way that almost charged the air, they did so casually seated by fountains and lounging against lampposts. A 20-something woman handed a sign that, translated, read “King, No!” to a toddler. A newscaster mingled with the crowd. There was no alarm, just pure energy aimed at enacting change. In a country with similarly poor levels of voter turnout, this stuck with me for reasons that surpassed the immediate impressions I had. I’ve seen analogous flickers of hope and energy in America in reaction to various causes or campaigns, and I’ve started to wonder if, somehow, such fervor can be maintained beyond these isolated moments. The other day, I heard someone on campus say that, in general, Princetonians are tired both of being passionate about so many issues and, at the same time, somewhat incapable of affecting many of them. I certainly don’t ascribe to the view that change cannot be made, but I can understand the sentiment behind this observation and think that there are truths within it that make the answer to my previous question — whether passion and energy can be maintained over long periods of time — no. This may just be symptomatic of an underlying pessimism on my part, but it’s natural for interest to wane over time, and I think the key to enacting change is to find that one matter that can recapture one’s imagination, even when fatigue sets in. For many of the Spaniards, the move to a republic was not like this matter; as politicians continuously thwarted efforts for a referendum, the demonstrations began to die down. I think that, as a community, Princeton can learn from this and recognize that it is capable of creating tangible changes, but that these changes are not inevitable given a certain threshold in terms of numbers or initial commitment. By internalizing this, in turn, perhaps we can sustain the momentum of our own movements for years. Kelly Hatfield is a sophomore from Medford, Mass. She can be reached at kellych@princeton.edu.

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The momentum of change

hen people ask me about my time in Spain this past summer, it’s interesting to me which details emerge in sharp relief upon retelling. There are the small things, like which bus line I took from my host family’s apartment to get into the main casco, the taste of pig ear and its unsettling texture, the freak torrential downpour that struck as I once again found myself lost in the maze of Toledo’s streets. These things alone shaped my time in Spain, but they also fit into a set of larger experiences that have the potential to change my ideas. One experience in particular always comes to mind when discussing my summer; namely, the abdication of the king and the subsequent round of demonstrations and discussions centered on this historic event. My group from Princeton received the news just before it was set to spend the weekend in Madrid, and I did not personally recognize the significance of an embattled and unpopular leader passing on his power to his son. I didn’t see the political and historical context for what would follow until my host mother and father

Opinion

Tuesday september 23, 2014

A call for housing variety Ryan Dukeman columnist

pretty standard question that I am asked on Orange Key tours, especially by parents of prospective students, is what the living situation will be like for students at the University. Although they’re inevitably impressed when we walk by Witherspoon and Blair Halls, I find it tough to answer when they ask why there simply aren’t many apartment-style housing options for students, especially compared to other schools. At many schools, there are two such options: off-campus apartments or on-campus, apartmentstyle dorms. According to the University website, fewer than two percent of students live offcampus. The draw of the residential college system, the ease of being on campus or perhaps the sky-high real estate prices in town lead the vast majority of students to stay inside the Orange Bubble. However, on-campus housing options include only a paucity of apartment-style dorms, especially for undergraduates. Spelman Halls provide such an option, but they contain only 58 apartments and are difficult to obtain for students who are not independent. By providing more flexible dining options for upperclassmen and increasing the number of apartment-style dorms, the University could better meet the housing desires of its student body and prospective students. Our busy course and extracurricular activity schedules often mean that many students find it difficult to plan, purchase and

cook food for themselves and their roommates seven days a week. As in many other facets of life, college in this regard is a transition between childhood and the “real world:” independence, but with some degree of a safety net still in place. Allowing students to purchase a smaller meal plan, something on the order of four or six meals a week, for instance, would in turn give more students the confidence to choose to go independent for the remaining meals. Other schools offer upperclassmen this option, such as New York University, because it allows students a flexibility lacking in allowing them to go totally independent. These students, however, would still be faced with housing constraints. Spelman can house a little over 200 students, but more apartments would be needed. While some of Princeton’s peer schools, most notably Yale, don’t have any apartments for undergraduates (because of the four-year residential college system), many other schools to which Princeton applicants apply highlight the flexibility of their housing system as a positive draw. For example, NYU touts the wide availability of apartment-style dorms on its website, and over half of undergraduate residence halls features at least some apartment-style rooms. Additionally and regardless of their housing situation, students have the option of purchasing a wider array of meal plans than offered at Princeton, so students in these apartments can still stop in the dining halls whenever they choose. Princeton should include such apartment-style dorms in all new dorm buildings and pilot retrofitting a few dorms to include

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apartment facilities. Any increase in housing and dining flexibility can only be a good thing, both for current students and in attracting future ones as well. Finally, it is worthy to remember the question of cost. For many students, the best draw of going independent is that the average cost per meal is significantly lower than for the dining hall plan. Affording this cost-saving option to more Princeton students who could greatly benefit from it is something that the University should be proud to do. The cost to the school of building or retrofitting dorms, though significant, can be easily borne by alumni donations and the endowment. While the endowment itself can’t be used at will for projects like these necessarily, its impressive size does reflect the generosity of alumni and other benefactors. Insofar as I believe people will see this as a project worth funding, I think the endowment represents the willingness of the Princeton community to invest in projects like this to benefit the school. The bottom-line truth in the cost of such a project is that it would not be passed on to students in the form of tuition hikes. A school that has a good educational and residential model is right to replicate that model for every student and make high quality uniform. Having said that, the model itself can be improved by offering greater residential choice to students, and allowing more of them to save money and gain greater independence if they so choose. Ryan Dukeman is a sophomore from Westwood, Mass. He can be reached at rdukeman@princeton.edu.

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On early concentration Azza Cohen

columnist

or sophomores, it’s a decision year, and among all of those decisions, one of the most important is what concentration to choose. It’s a big question that determines much of our time at Princeton. For some, like myself, the largely ignored option of early concentration was a great opportunity I was lucky to find out about from a fantastic senior. Let me fill you in. Early concentration is the opportunity for sophomores to declare their major during first semester and begin independent research early. For a history major like me, that meant writing my first junior paper during the second semester of sophomore year. Early concentration is available in all of the following departments: history, East Asian studies, comparative literature, philosophy, physics, French and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, astrophysical sciences, German, chemistry, classics and sociology. The process of early concentration varies with each department, but for me, it required a

meeting with the departmental representative and a short interview about my desire to study history. I also met with the professor who would be advising my junior paper research and teaching the 400-level history course required of all concentrators. Early concentration has certain advantages. Diving earlier into a department is certainly rewarding and can provide more access to funding, professors and department-specific opportunities. Learning the discipline of department-specific research early only enhances the other courses in one’s concentration: I became more appreciative in my other history classes to find readings easily available on Blackboard after going through the process of tracking down physical documents in different libraries. As there were only three of us completing junior papers in my history seminar, we had the undivided attention of our professor. Early concentration allows more freedom to study abroad, and by completing research early, I do not have to write a junior paper while abroad. It also allows more flexibility to pursue certificates. Professors are enthusiastic about early concentrators. Most

I’ve talked to, from history to German, love to meet with students who love their subject and look forward to encouraging students to develop their research discipline earlier in their Princeton careers. Neta Bahcall of the astrophysical sciences department said, “The benefits, with any field, is those who decide to early concentrate are students that are really interested and know what they want to do, be it astrophysics or anything. That’s where the fun is — getting yourself immersed in the topic.” Students are, of course, excited about early concentration — those who choose to dive into a subject early must be crazy (about the subject). But for those who have not heard of it, I enthusiastically endorse looking at this option. However, early concentration is not for everyone. Professors and department chairs will discourage students from early concentration if they feel the student is not passionate about the subject enough to begin early research. Professor Michael Graziano of the psychology department “does not encourage or discourage” early concentration in general because specialization depends on every student.

Early concentration is still not popular, with only a few students declaring early each year. Some declare early and then decide to wait until junior year to begin research. Some departments, such as geosciences and mathematics, allow early research, but not early concentration. Although the Economics department does not have the program, it allows students to take graduate level courses or access funding for summer projects. In my experience, early concentration is an example of one of the reasons I chose Princeton: the chance to work with stellar professors and the support of an academic community while answering a research question, along with the independence (and outcome) of pursuing a topic alone. For sophomores who have fallen in love with a subject, I urge you to consider early concentration by reaching out to the departmental representatives of the disciplines listed above. For freshmen who are still searching, know that this option exists (and if you’re a history nerd like me — see you in the library!). Azza Cohen is a history major from Highland Park, Ill. She can be reached at accohen@princeton.edu.

Tuesday september 23, 2014

The Daily Princetonian

page 5

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

ROTC Contracting And Gear Draw :: Karen Ku, Associate Photo Editor Clockwise from top left: Four cadets of Tiger Battalion taking the Oath of Enlistment; Racks in Tiger Battalion’s gear room; New cadets wait for instructions during gear draw; Cadets prepare to “contract” or take their Oath of Enlistment; Lt. Col. Kevin M. McKiernan, the Director of the Army Officer Education Program, addressed the new and returning cadets of Tiger Battalion; New cadets scrambled to assemble their new gear as older cadets supervised; A cadet explains the different functions of each piece of gear; A new cadet’s gear spread out on the pavement during gear draw; Fellow cadets look on during contracting.

Sports

Tuesday september 23, 2014

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

SHANNON MCGUE :: FILE PHOTO

Tigers drop 3 of 4 games in Rutgers Invitational By Andrew Steele sports editor

Results were mixed for women’s volleyball this past weekend. In their final set of games before the opening of Ivy League play, the Tigers (5-6 overall) went 1-3 during the course of the nearby Rutgers Invitational. Friday’s 9:30 a.m. matchup pitted Princeton against American University (8-4). The Eagles came away with the win by a 3-1 margin with set scores of 20-25, 25-20, 25-19 and 25-15. A strong comeback allowed Princeton to take the first set after being behind by as many as five points. American’s largest lead of the first frame was 12-7, but the Tigers fought back until they had reversed that advantage and

taken a 20-15 lead. After closing out the first set, the Tigers failed to sustain much of an attack for the remaining three frames. American’s setter Monika Smidova, who was eventually selected as MVP of the Invitational, picked up a game-high 49 assists. Once again, junior hitter Kendall Peterkin led the Tiger offense with a teamhigh 17 kills. James Madison University (8-5) provided the next challenge for head coach Sabrina King’s side. The Dukes picked up their first win of the weekend by a match score of 3-2 and set scores of 23-25, 52-15, 25-22, 27-29 and 15-13. This closely contested bout resulted in the most points the Tigers would play all weekend as well as the most lead changes. For the second straight

contest, Princeton took the first set, starting out strong and amassing a game-high 11-5 lead. In response, the Dukes picked up five straight points, but their comeback fell short of earning them the frame. The Dukes picked up the second set by a comfortable margin of 25-15. A 7-0 James Madison run in the third set put the Tigers at a steep disadvantage, although their own 7-1 run brought the score to a tie at 18. Set number four pushed the limits for both teams, as it took 56 total points for James Madison to earn the final 29-27 advantage. During the back-andforth affair, the score was tied a remarkable 14 times with nine lead changes. Save for the first two points, the Eagles had the ad-

vantage throughout the final set as they closed the match out with a 15-13 fourth frame win. Princeton’s finest effort of the weekend came against Akron (6-9). After a pair of frustrating losses, the Tigers finally came away with a victory by a final margin of 3-2 with set scores of 20-25, 17-25, 25-20, 25-21 and 15-9. Two sets of play had Peterkin and the Tigers on the brink of defeat as the Zips had taken a commanding 2-0 lead. The score was tied at seven different points in the third frame, but a 7-0 Princeton run gave the Tigers a 19-13 advantage, which they managed to ride out to a final score of 25-20. In the fourth set, two separate 5-0 runs helped the Tigers establish their distance

en route to winning the penultimate frame. With nothing separating the two sides, the tiebreaking fifth set saw the Tigers jump out to an 8-2 lead, which Akron could not surmount. During the comeback win, Peterkin managed an impressive stat line of 19 kills and 21 digs. Junior libero Sarah Daschbach picked up 19 digs of her own. Rutgers (7-6) managed to blank their visitors from down Route 1 in a 3-0 home victory. A tightly contested first set saw a 5-0 Princeton rally tie the score at 24-24. The Scarlett Knights were able to sneak by with a 27-25 set win. The second frame was more or less all Scarlett, as a number of strong runs by the

home team established a distance too big for the visiting Tigers to close. After the 25-19 second set win, Rutgers was able to close out the match after first jumping out to an imposing 16-6 lead. Their 25-22 set win wrapped up the weekend’s action. Senior blocker Nicole Kincade led her side in kills with 12 during the final contest. Despite Princeton’s sub .500 start to the season, the Ivy League is still wide open with all teams sitting at 0-0. Conference play will begin this upcoming Friday for the Tigers, who travel to Penn for game one of what might be called the regular season. Princeton topped the Quakers at home with a 3-2 victory before falling on the road in a lackluster 0-3 loss to Penn.

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By the numbers

The ranking attained last week by men’s water polo, the highest ever for an East Coast side.

The number of shots taken last season by field hockey’s Teresa Benvenuti, a team-high.

2.2 opener.

Average yards per rush managed by San Diego during Princeton’s season

163

The career assist tally, a league best, for retiring MLL-pro Ryan Boyle ’14.

Tweet of the day

Wednesday

“Congrats to one of the all time great Tigers on a Hall of Fame career in the MLL. #14”

Princeton football’s home opener is this Saturday. Check our On Tap for the thoughts of QB Quinn Epperly.

‘Prince’ Sports is on Twitter! Follow us at

Princeton Lacrosse (@TigerLAcrosse), official program account on the retirement announcement of alum Ryan Boyle ‘14

www.twitter.com/princesports

for live news and reports!