September 24, 2015 by The Daily Princetonian

Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Thursday september 24, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 74

WEATHER

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } HIGH

LOW

81˚ 57˚

SUNSET

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Gilbert Jr. ’09 found mentally unfit for trial

Mostly sunny skies. chance of rain: none

By Nahrie Chung

Like us on Facebook

staff writer

facebook.com/ DailyPrincetonian

In Opinion Associate Editor Emeritus Prianka Misra defends the many ways students can enjoy studying abroad, and columnist Barbara Zhan suggests improvements to Princeton’s entrepreneurship programs. PAGE 4

In Street This week in Street, we bring you five students’ answers to “What did you do this summer?”, reviews of summer reading we did for fun, and the best looks from Lawnparties. PAGE S1-S4

Today on Campus 12:30 p.m.: Organist Wesley Parrott from St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia performs a free concert. University Chapel.

The Archives

Sept. 24, 1962 Nine mid-career federal officials began pursuing a year of study on campus as “Princeton Fellows in Public Affairs” through the Wilson School.

News & Notes

YASH HUILGOL :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The sun set behind the Main Inn of Forbes College on the first day of fall on Wednesday evening. U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

U. not biased in admissions, says OCR By Jessica Li staff writer

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found that the University did not discriminate against Asians in its admission process, following two complaints filed by applicants. The finding was announced in a report that came in the form of a letter addressed to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83. “OCR initiated this review under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the report reads. “OCR determined that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate that the University violated Title VI.” The report further noted that the University’s practices are in compliance with Supreme Court rulings in Gratz v. Bollinger and

Grutter v. Bollinger. In the former case, the University of Michigan said it considered race when making admissions decisions in order to increase diversity, but the court ruled that such a practice violated the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI. In Grutter v. Bollinger, the court permitted the University of Michigan Law School to continue evaluating applicants’ race within the context of individualized assessments. According to the report, in August 2006, a complaint was filed against the University by an applicant of Chinese descent who alleged that the University had discriminated against him on the bases of race and national origin. In August 2011, a second complaint was filed by parents of an applicant of Indian descent who made similar claims. The latter withdrew their petition in

February 2012. Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye noted that the decision reinforced the University’s constitutional validity when it comes to using race as a factor. “Our admission process is done in an individualistic and holistic way,” said Rapelye. ”We read files individually, and we are valuing all kinds of diversity.” She noted that diversity has a very wide definition that includes racial and socioeconomic backgrounds as well as diversity of talents. “The decision reaffirms that in a holistic admission process, in order to achieve a diverse class, race can be used as one of many, many factors,” Rapelye added. Nevertheless, Rapelye explained that the University’s See OCR page 3

Thomas Gilbert, Jr., ’09 has been found by two court-appointed psychiatrists to be mentally unfit to stand trial, but a judge on Sept. 10 granted a prosecutor’s request for a third opinion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Gilbert Jr., 31, is alleged to have fatally shot his father, hedge fund millionaire Thomas Gilbert, Sr., ’66, in his parents’ Manhattan home on Jan. 4. According to a public statement released by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Feb. 5, Gilbert has been indicted for second-degree murder and other charges. Gilbert pleaded not guilty to murder when he was arrested on Jan. 4, the Daily Mail reported. If found guilty, Gilbert Jr. faces 25 years to life in prison, the Journal reported. Gilbert Jr. could not be reached for comment. Gilbert Jr.’s incompetency was determined by state evaluators following his lawyer’s request for psychological testing in late July, according to the New York Daily News. “Evaluators unequivocally determined that he was unfit to stand trial,” Gilbert Jr.’s defense attorney Alex Spiro said in a phone interview. “He has had a significant history of mental illness for over a decade.” The communications office of the Manhattan District Attorney deferred comment to the public statement released Feb. 5. Henry Asbill ’69, an attorney at the law firm Jones Day who has represented clients in similar cases, said that prosecutors would

likely request a third opinion if the initial evaluations left unanswered questions or if the test results were unfavorable to the prosecution. Fernando Aenlle-Rocha ’83, who was a prosecutor for 12 years and currently works at White & Case LLP, said that psychiatric evaluations are “highly subjective, so multiple opinions would be useful.” If the results of the third evaluation confirm Gilbert’s original incompetency determination in the next hearing, Gilbert Jr. will presumably be hospitalized at a secure mental health facility and treated in an effort to restore his competency, Asbill said. After periodic assessments of Gilbert Jr.’s mental health status, prosecutors will then set a trial date to move forward with the charges once he is deemed competent. Asbill said the ultimate outcome of the case is difficult to predict. Gilbert Jr. is charged with murdering his father point-blank on Jan. 4, after showing up unannounced at his parents’ Beekham Place apartment and asking his mother, Shelley Gilbert, to leave him alone with this father. A neighbor reported hearing gunshots soon after, and Gilbert Jr. was seen leaving the building. Gilbert Sr. was discovered lying on his back in the bedroom, with a gunshot wound to the head, the Times reported. He was found with a gun on his chest, and his left hand was covering the gun. However, Asbill noted that if the forensic analysis of Gilbert Sr.’s “clumsily staged suicide,” as The New York Times phrased it, See GILBERT page 3

STUDY BREAK

31 percent of Harvard senior women report having experienced sexual assault

Thirty-one percent of Harvard’s female undergraduate students in their senior year reported experiencing some form of sexual assault over their college career, the Harvard Crimson reported. The results come from a sexual climate survey conducted by the Association of American Universities in spring 2015. Among the institutions surveyed in the 27 AAU schools, Harvard had the highest response rate, and the number of respondents who said they experienced “nonconsensual penetration and sexual touching” was above the average. Twenty-nine percent of Harvard senior women reported this fact, as compared to the AAU average of 27.2 percent. In a report to Harvard president Drew Faust by the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Assault, 73 percent of surveyed female undergraduates said they had experienced sexual harassment, which includes sexually crude jokes and offensive comments about their bodies. Fifty-one percent of male undergraduates recounted experiencing sexual harassment. Faust called the findings “deeply disturbing” in an email to faculty, administrators and students on Friday.

COURTESY OF THE DAILY MAIL

Thomas Gilbert, Jr., ’09 allegedly murdered his father on Jan. 4. ACADEMICS

As of Class of 2017, COS most popular major By Jessica Li staff writer

YASH HUILGOL :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Butler College Council hosted its weekly study break with Fruity Yogurt on Wednesday evening.

The computer science department is now the most popular major with 135 students in the Class of 2017 declaring the concentration, according to department chair Jennifer Rexford ’91. The department has displaced the Wilson School, which has in recent years been the most popular concentration on campus. Rexford attributed the rising interest in computer science to recent changes in the job market. “The growth in computer science as a major reflects a national trend, and we are no exception,” Rexford said. “Some background in computer science is crucial to jobs

in the future, whether it’s computer science as a career or computer science as a tool.” In the past graduating class, 67 out of 89 students went into the engineering industry, and five went to graduate school, according to Rexford. She said COS 126: Introduction to Programming is now the University’s most popular course. In spring 2015, 399 students enrolled in the course. Over 50 percent of students will take the course sometime in their University career, with the majority being non-majors, according to Rexford. “Interest in big data — techniques for turning analysis of data into insight, important in See COS page 2

page 2

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday september 24, 2015

Gender imbalance decreases in COS COS

Continued from page 1

.............

essentially every field — is a big driver for growth in interest in computer science,” Rexford said. Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Wilson School, suggested that while the numbers attest to the growing value of technology, they are by no means a compass. “The interest in computer science reflects a lot of changes in the growth and importance of technology in our society. I think it’s terrific,” Rouse said. “It’s important to note that the major numbers fluctuate from year to year. I don’t interpret these numbers as being hardwired anywhere.” “I’m not sure what is the prize of being the most popular major,” Rouse said. ”We are looking to have a solid major that challenges students to analyze problems from multiple perspectives.” The junior class enrollment in COS also saw a rise in gender balance, with 18 female students declaring COS A.B. and 34 declaring B.S.E.

In total, women account for 38.5 percent of COS majors in the Class of 2017, and approximately 30 percent of COS majors in the Class of 2016. Rexford noted that the option for students to pursue a computer science major in the A.B. program has contributed to the increase of female representation. For many, Rexford explained, the basic science and math B.S.E. program requirements during freshman year, including chemistry, have not been as flexible or appealing as pursuing a foreign language. Rexford added that the A.B. and B.S.E. programs in computer science have minor differences in terms of course structure and content. Nationally, 18.1 percent of those earning computer science bachelor’s degrees in 2011 were female, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The proportion of women in computer science has declined since 1984 even as female representation has increased in other technological disciplines, according to NPR. Rexford also attributed credit for improved gender balance to Princ-

eton Women in Computer Science, a student organization founded in 2011 by two female students dedicated to providing mentorship to other women pursuing a major in COS. “We now have more ‘officers’ in PWiCS than we had women majors [in COS] just five or six years ago,” said Rexford. In addition, the department has been sending female students each year to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which brings together scholars, entrepreneurs and innovators in the field. This year, the department is sponsoring trips for 25 students, the highest number ever. Marisa Chow ’17 decided to major in COS after discovering a passion for coding in a high school AP computer science course. Though aware that the industry of computer science is still not balanced in terms of gender, and the profession can be intimidating for the female minority, Chow noted that she has not felt uncomfortable in the department. “One of the advantages of being a woman in tech is that there are communities popping up to provide help and support,” Chow said.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday september 24, 2015

No score system for race, according to Rapelye OCR

Continued from page 1

.............

current admission procedure does not use a score system that awards points based on an applicant’s contributions to racial diversity. “There has never been a formula or something mechanistic that we do,” Rapelye said. According to the OCR report, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of admits of Asian descent in the last eight years, rising from 14.2 percent of the Class of 2007 to 25.4 percent of the Class of 2014, a trend inconsistent with institutions

that utilize diversity quotas. The report further concluded that there is no evidence of “patently unconstitutional” racial quotas or gender-balancing by the university. The report further found that the University sometimes “considered race and national origin as a ‘plus’ for an Asian applicant.” For example, an applicant who coped with “green card trouble” and whose parents have “limited English proficiency,” according to her reader card, was ultimately admitted. In contrast, an American Indian who received the comment “Aren’t many Native Americans in the country w/ SAT scores like this”

was not admitted. In addition, the report found no correlation between the applicant’s nationality and admission rate. The report cited that for the Class of 2010, 8.9 percent of applicants from Hong Kong were admitted, and 7.5 percent of applicants from China were admitted. Meanwhile, applicants from Nigeria were admitted at a rate of 1 percent, and applicants from Bulgaria were admitted at a rate of 4 percent. In the 529 reviewed application files, OCR found cases of isolated assumption about the cultures and education systems of other countries. For example, OCR noted that some alumni in-

terviewers or admission officers made comments associated with Asian stereotypes. However, similar comments were made for other ethnicities. Rapelye further explained that because of the University’s selectivity, her office has received many strong responses in the past from those not at peace with admission decisions. “Every April, we have many more disappointed students and families than we have happy ones,” she said. “We answer many phone calls, letters and emails from those who are disappointed to try to help them understand that this is not a decision about the student’s self-worth.”

In trial, judge granted request for third opinion GILBERT Continued from page 1

.............

is conclusive, it may undermine Spiro’s psychiatric defense. The burden is on the state to prove Gilbert Jr.’s guilt, he added. “If it was staged, the government will be pressing that and say the competency issue is not as simple as it seems,” Asbill said. “Clearly, the government will think that if he has staged the aftermath of a crime scene … they’re going to claim that he doesn’t have any mental illness or discount any defense to that effect.” From the prosecution’s vantage point, Aenlle-Rocha said he had some concern for the defense’s argument in light of the reported evidence. Detectives believe bullet casings and ammunition later discovered in Gilbert Jr.’s apartment were linked with the gun resting on Gilbert Sr.’s chest at the scene of the crime, according to the Times. “That [evidence] struck me as a well thought-out act,” AenlleRocha said. “The fact that he had enough foresight to attempt to stage the scene as a suicide is evidence of someone who is able to plan, analyze … It doesn’t strike me as the kind of behavior of someone

who we consider to be mentally ill to the point of not knowing what they’re doing.” Authorities believe the incident occurred after Gilbert Sr. reduced his son’s weekly allowance from

$600 to $400 and threatened to end Gilbert Jr.’s $2,400-a-month rental payments for his Chelsea apartment, according to the Daily Mail. According to the New York Post, Gilbert submitted a fill-in-the-

blank application for bail of up to $500,000 in April but was denied by Manhattan Justice Melissa Jackson. Spiro said the next court date has been set for Oct. 19.

CORRECTION Due to a reporting error, the Sept. 23 article, “Cruz ‘92, Christie remain top 10 Republican presidential candidates,” misstated the candidate currently in third place in the polls. Ben Carson is currently third in the polls with 14 percent. The ‘Prince’ regrets the error.

page 3

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Daily Princetonian is published daily except Saturday and Sunday from September through May and three times a week during January and May by The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., 48 University Place, Princeton, N.J. 08540. Mailing address: P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542. Subscription rates: Mailed in the United States $175.00 per year, $90.00 per semester. Office hours: Sunday through Friday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telephones: Business: 609-375-8553; News and Editorial: 609-258-3632. For tips, email news@dailyprincetonian.com. Reproduction of any material in this newspaper without expressed permission of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., is strictly prohibited. Copyright 2015, The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Princetonian, P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542.

Pitching ideas, lacking execution

Barbara Zhan is an operations research and financial engineering major from Plainsboro, N.J. She can be reached at barbaraz@princeton.edu.

Talking the talk

Sarah Sakha

columnist

page 4

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Barbara Zhan

or all of the efforts put in place to encourage entrepreneurship on campus, the University is still not what one would consider an “entrepreneurial” school. There are certainly successful entrepreneurs who are Princeton graduates, but the University is “not leading in number of successful startups.” There is a reasonable number of Princeton students who use startup experience during college as a springboard for corporate jobs or who pursue entrepreneurship as an extracurricular activity, but very few who actually choose to commit to entrepreneurship in the long run. There are many initiatives aiming to get the University there — entrepreneurship-centric EGR classes, competitions held by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Club, as well as Keller Center efforts such as the new Entrepreneurial Hub. The goal, as a report by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee states, is to “contribute to the common good through entrepreneurial service,” “train character in areas of taking risk,” and “broaden the range of career choices for students.” However, some of these initiatives do not facilitate entrepreneurship as intended because students are, on the whole, not fully committed. Instead, many students use these resources as a résumé decorator rather than as a precursor to long-term entrepreneurship. Perhaps by recognizing this discrepancy, we can reformulate some of these initiatives to better carry out their intended effects. One example of an initiative to promote entrepreneurship is the Princeton Pitch competition, during which students can earn $3,500 total in awards for developing and presenting a novel idea before a panel of judges. Having an actual product is preferred but not at all necessary in order to win. Pitch contests could be said to encourage idea generation, but they also incentivize idea over action. Without motivation to actually carry out the pitch idea, there is no result. Instead, most students walk away with money and a new accolade to put on their resumes, but very few, if any at all, take their idea to the actual development stage. A similar example is Idea Farm, a pitch competition sponsored by Microsoft and organized by the Undergraduate Student Government and the Keller Center, which also rewards the idea itself over the execution. Another area that could benefit from an execution-focused component are the EGR entrepreneurship courses. A prominent one that the Princeton Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee report refers to is EGR 491: High Tech Entrepreneurship, which has educated “1,700 Princeton students about entrepreneurship during more than 30 semesters.” The PEAC report also states that “many students have cited these courses as transformative in their Princeton experience.” It may be that the class is considered transformative for students’ perspectives or views of entrepreneurship, but without a complementary course that teaches students to put those new views into practice, there is no result. These classes may simply produce students who know about entrepreneurship, but would not participate in it themselves. That is not to say these EGR classes are not useful — they are absolutely vital to facilitating entrepreneurial thought. However, they should also be complemented with more classes that teach execution. Although not explicitly listed as an entrepreneurship course, COS 333: Advanced Programming Techniques, is a step in the right direction. COS 333 requires students to form teams, formulate an idea for a project and then execute that project with guidance from TAs and the professor, Brian Kernighan GS ’69, within a semester. The course ultimately produces students who possess actual knowledge of how to own and create a working project from beginning to end. Since the PEAC report also states that 28 percent of students cite lack of time due to academics as a reason for refraining from undertaking entrepreneurial projects, projectbased classes could address that issue as well. I believe the key missing component in the PEAC report’s goals is the “train character in areas of taking risk” component of its curriculum. Princeton students, in line with commonplace stereotypes, are considered relatively risk-averse, as evidenced by the abundance of “prestigious” jobs among graduates. However, that may be a feedback loop because they rarely see examples of others taking risks after graduation, making it less likely for them to take risks themselves. One way to fix this feedback loop could be to encourage risk taking in a “safe” environment — such as more project-based classes — so that students can slowly become comfortable with the concept of entrepreneurship. By encouraging execution over idea generation, students can learn to build things and see them fail — and then repeat over and over again. This way they can develop coding or hardware skills, perseverance, and grit — attributes necessary for entrepreneurial success. Especially in a school setting, where failure is not actual monetary or professional failure, it can be valuable to have more execution-based classes like COS 333, or execution-based competitions like HackPrinceton — and less glorification of the ideas themselves.

Opinion

Thursday september 24, 2015

senior columnist

“

Let’s go around and say our names, majors and residential colleges!” she said with a radiant, but nonetheless unconvincing, smile. Small talk, or the art of talking about nothing, is not a foreign concept to most, if not all, Princeton students. It’s one of the key ingredients to mastering, let alone surviving, social life here — the better and more cogently you can small talk, the longer you’ll survive. However, this has not always been the case historically. For much of the 20th century, small talk was given little import or respect, and deemed the lowest form of conversation. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski perceived it as merely a way to fill silence. But that’s not the case across all cultures. In some cultures, notably in the Middle East, conversation cannot be sustained without small talk. After a slew of redundant greetings and questions about the occupational, financial and marital status of every member in your nuclear and extended family, only then will small talk give way to actual conversation. In fact, it is considered curt and looked down upon to altogether skip small talk. The inability to partake in and keep up this social ritual is seen as a sign of poor

communication skills and even lack of intellect. My own evasion of small talk has elicited countless sardonic remarks from family and friends overseas. Now, compare that to a largely Western proclivity toward getting straight to the point, with a short greeting and immediate transition to the actual reason for which you struck up conversation in the first place. It’s largely cursory, even monosyllabic: “Hey,” “What’s up?” “Good, you?” “Fine, thanks.” One would imagine that Princeton would fit into this representation. However, this game of “survival of the fittest” (or rather, chattiest) has evolved into a culture of being social just for the sake of being social. Socializing is less of a choice and more of an enforced norm, and small talk is the popular route in any and all situations, be it passing by a student you haven’t talked to in weeks, visiting a professor’s office hours, attending a postlecture reception or even going out with friends. At many of these events, many like to talk simply for the sake of being heard, or at least seen. It’s not important whether we know the person intimately or whether we actually want to get to know him/her; it’s all about introducing ourselves and being introduced, all part of a larger game of networking. And often the alternative — not participating in small talk — can lead to exclusion, and a disinclination toward

vol. cxxxix

small talk generally equates to missing out on social interaction. The solution doesn’t lie in reforming small talk or highlighting the dichotomy between “small” talk and “big” talk. (On that note, does “medium” talk exist, too?) Choosing to ask a stranger about his views on religion and faith, or any of the 15 Republican presidential candidates won’t change the attitude driving the conversation. Only getting rid of small talk will, so that not every encounter is just another opportunity to network. Meeting people is now equivalent with networking, initiating conversation with social climbing. The culture of conversation has been perverted. At this point, I should probably introduce an alternative to small talk after such a denunciation, but I have no alternative to offer. I understand we want to fill the silence or even forge a bond with someone, but as Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Speak only if it improves upon the silence,” not simply your social standing. So until the day comes when knowing my residential college or rambled-off list of extracurriculars will provide for a compelling conversation, I will remain averse to small talk (and circumstances which require or merit small talk.) Sarah Sakha is a sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz. She can be reached at ssakha@princeton.edu.

Anna Mazarakis ’16 editor-in-chief

Matteo Kruijssen ’16 business manager

139th managing board news editor Paul Phillips ’16 Ruby Shao ’17 opinion editor Benjamin Dinovelli ’16 sports editor Miles Hinson’17 street editor Lin King ’16 photography editor Natalia Chen ’18 Sewheat Haile ’17 video editors Leora Haber ’16 chief copy editors Caroline Congdon ’17 Joyce Lee ’17 design editors Austin Lee’16 Julia Johnstone’16 prox editor Rebekah Shoemake ’17 intersections editor Jarron McAllister ’16 associate news editors Do-Hyeong Myeong ’17 associate opinion editors Jason Choe ’17 Shruthi Deivasigmani’16 associate sports editors Sydney Mandelbaum ’17 Tom Pham ’17 associate street editors Harrison Blackman ’17 Jennifer Shyue ’17

Senior’s Log

associate photo editors Gabriella Chu ’18 Grace Jeon ’17

Grayson Shepperd ’16 ..................................................

associate chief copy editors Chamsi Hssaine ’16 Alexander Schindele-Murayama ’16 editorial board chair Jeffrey Leibenhaut ’16 Cartoons Editor Terry O’Shea ’16

NIGHT STAFF 9.23.15 senior copy editors Jessica Ji ’18 News Nahrie Chung ’17

The comfort of another country Prianka Misra

Associate Editor Emeritus

“

How was Africa?” many of my friends ask me. I usually chuckle, in a way that half hates and half loves this question. There is no way my answer will do justice to the study abroad experience that I had last spring, when I attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa for a semester. Just as you can’t simply ask a friend whose loved one recently died if they “are OK” after giving them a month to grieve, asking someone to broadly summarize their study abroad experience will lead to limp, compromised and superficial answers. However, out of courtesy or empathy or perhaps vague curiosity, the question must be asked. So, no matter how difficult it may be to answer this question, my 10- to 15-second spiel goes something like this: “It was great. If you are in a position to study abroad, you definitely should. It was the best decision I have made in my Princeton career, and it was really refreshing to be away for a while.” This is why I was saddened and shocked to read Bennett McIntosh’s column published on Sept. 16, “Study abroad sucked — you should try it!” Reading Bennett’s column saddened me. It was painful to read of his messy and apathetic roommates, his feelings of isolation

and his mental health problems. I was deeply upset that Bennett had to go through these things. However, I was shocked that Bennett still chose to recommend studying abroad — and recommended his program in particular — given his experience. Bennett describes his misery as “living in and beyond the learning edge,” and says “meaningful life is lived on the learning edge.” I am skeptical of this. I don’t believe that meaningful life is lived on the learning edge. I believe that one should choose to challenge oneself, but not that this renders an experience more meaningful. I would be particularly hesitant to say that an experience that in part resulted in extreme feelings of isolation and deterioration of mental health is more meaningful than experiences that make us feel comfortable and at ease. I say this as someone who had considered dropping out of Princeton several times due to feelings of isolation. I even considered backing out of going abroad three days before my departure because of final-exam-induced hysteria, thinking that staying back might give me the chance to improve my grades or to work even harder than I already had — although I was in no mental state to be at the University at the time. I can say that I do not feel myself to be any more enlightened by these traumatic experiences. They were not meaningful. They only pushed me to seek comfort by traveling to another country

for a semester. In a sense, studying abroad was me entering my comfort zone, where I knew I would escape many of my friends’ conversations about internships and schoolwork, which often contributed to my high stress level. I will highlight that my study abroad conditions were part of a highly different framework than Bennett’s. I roomed with a close friend, had a baseline network established by a housing liaison that the University uses in its Cape Town program, and was in a climate more temperate and cheery than that of Princeton (think San Francisco, Calif., Bay Area weather). Cape Town was familiar to me: I had been there before on a choir tour, and I was almost positive I would enjoy myself. At times, I chose to isolate myself. I did not join school organizations. I hung out with a few friends at a time. I chose instead to use my free time and the silence around me to immerse myself in my work and Capetonian culture. Don’t get me wrong — I challenged myself in some ways, but not in terms of my mental and social health. I don’t see the challenges I took on — learning how to haggle with taxi drivers, entering a cage surrounded by sharks, taking my first vocal examination in French, navigating a school of close to 26,000 students — as similar to those that Bennett took on. And so I recharged in a way that is quite opposite from Bennett’s

prescription. First off, I did not live “beyond the learning edge.” I leaned into what was comfortable and known to me by going to a school that I knew wouldn’t be as rigorous or competitive, and a climate that wouldn’t be as harsh. By Bennett’s philosophy, my situation back at Princeton before I left — which was far from ideal and is similar to the way he felt at the University of Sussex — would have been an example of “meaningful life,” and I do not think this is the case. Bennett also blames himself for “not trying to make friends.” Although I made friends, I don’t attribute this to my own actions, but rather to my housing situation. And I didn’t surround myself with friends in student groups. Instead, I chose to embrace solitude. While this can certainly go either way, and I am aware of the crippling effect that isolation can have on one’s mental health, it is important to understand that adopting an approach of extroversion is not critical to being happy while abroad. Not all programs are the same. While I personally enjoyed Cape Town, it is not necessary to say you’re glad you went abroad in a show of unyielding optimism. Studying abroad was a blast, but perhaps it’s not for everyone. Prianka Misra is a Wilson School major from from Castro Valley, Calif. She can be reached at pmisra@ princeton.edu.

Thursday september 24, 2015

The Daily Princetonian

page 5

Thursday september 24, 2015

Sports

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Is the rest of the league ready? by Vincent Po :: Contributing Photographer After defeating American University at Bedford Field and falling to No. 9 Maryland on the road, the field hockey team is ready to begin league play. The team will face Dartmouth this Sunday on the road. The Tigers have dominated the other Ivies for all of recent memory, having been league champs for 10 years straight.

Tweet of the day

“I’m like 95% sure I want to switch my major so this is just wonderful.”

‘Prince’ Sports is on Twitter! Follow us at

hannah winner (@hannahisawinner), junior goalie, women’s soccer, wilson school major

for live news and reports!

www.twitter.com/princesports

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday September 24, 2015

page s1

SUMMER DAYS

PAGES DESIGNED BY LIN KING :: STREET EDITOR

As if you hadn’t heard the question enough: “What did you do over the summer?” We asked five Princetonians about their time away from the Orange Bubble. Their answers were impressive.

Bear Altemus Asanni York Class: 2017 Department: Wilson School Hometown: Atlanta, Ga. DP: What did you do over the summer? AY: So I went back to Atlanta. I was working as the regional coordinator for this start-up called Block; essentially it works to decrease the rate of joblessness between black college grads and white college grads, because the national average is about five percent for the average — I guess the average for people graduating college — but when you talk about just blacks specifically, it’s 13.1 percent, so [it] essentially works on that by providing black people — or black college grads — with opportunities, things like that. And I also was a research assistant at Georgia State. DP: How’d you come across those opportunities? AY: The CEO of the startup actually graduated from Princeton two years ago. We’ve been close friends ever since, and so she needed someone to fill the position, so I told her I’d do it. As far as the research position went, I just reached out to someone at Georgia Tech, actually, and they were like, “We don’t have anything at Georgia Tech, but one of my good friends at Georgia State needs a research assistant, so I could put you in contact with them,” and that’s how that came about.

Class: 2018 Department: Undeclared Hometown: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. DP: What did you do over the summer? LL: I was interning [at] an arts nonprofit called Appel Farm Arts and Music Center. It’s in Elmer, N.J., which is 30 minutes out from Philadelphia, and the reason why I always tell people it’s in Southern Jersey is because it used to be a farm founded by a guy named Appel — so it doesn’t have apples on its farms. And he converted it into a summer arts camp space and a concert venue and place where people from the community come into just do a community-wide art project. And so the summer arts camp was going on while I was there, but I was doing development and marketing work for them, so I learned a lot about how to run a nonprofit, how to do publicity and event-planning, stuff like that. DP: How did you find this opportunity? LL: So I actually did this through Millennial TechCorps — I don’t know if you guys got this email from Career Services last year. It’s a pilot program in this area that seeks to link millennials who know how to use technology and are interested in a variety of causes to nonprofits that share their same mission and purpose. It was almost kind of like being recruited. Millennial TechCorps actually had training sessions for us, and we learned about social media usage, general stuff, before we went into our individual organizations. So there was a pilot class of four or five kids all from Princeton. Editor’s Note: Liang is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

Lavinia Liang

Class: 2017 Department: Sociology Hometown: Kensington, Md. DP: What did you do over the summer? BA: So I started out the summer on a 10-day backpacking trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School, in the Cascades. I’m interested in wilderness. It was a leadership training course, so they trained me to go take my friends and family or whoever I want out into the wilderness and safely have a trip out there. And I drove down the West Coast with my friends who I did the trip with, in a rental car, spent two weeks down in San Francisco. And then I spent the rest of the summer at home doing an internship and working out, because I play varsity lacrosse, so I started getting in shape. DP: What was the internship about? BA: IIt was a mid-level lender, so like a shadow bank that does leveraged lending to riskier customers. It was kind of an introduction to finance, [to] see if I liked it. DP: Did you like it? BA: Yeah, I liked parts of it, but I’m not sure what I really want to do with it at this point; definitely not hell-bent on doing it. DP: NOLS sounds fun, though. BA: NOLS was awesome. Definitely would recommend that to anybody who’s interested.

Frances Steere Class: 2016 Department: Architecture Hometown: Johannesburg, South Africa DP: What did you do over the summer? FS: I was sent by my department to do research in Japan. I was in Tokyo for a week and a half, two weeks, and then I went home for a significant portion, where I did senior thesis — in parentheses. DP: What was your research on? FS: In Japan, it was mostly on Metabolist and postMetabolist architects, which is their version of postmodernist architecture. We were interviewing now old and decrepit architects. So that’s what that was about. And my senior thesis is — oh, you should tell me what my senior thesis is about. So, two topics, one that’s very theoretical, and maybe I’ll focus on my second, which is on development in Africa and certain entrepreneurial models that accentuate — well, that are currently affecting development in Kenya in infrastructure, so their electricity and water in Kenya.

Seamus Daniels Class: 2016 Department: Wilson School Hometown: Albany, N.Y. DP: What did you do over the summer? SD: I interned at a think tank in Washington, D.C., called the Center for International Policy, where I worked with a program known as the Security Assistance Monitor, where I tracked U.S. military aid to the Middle East. DP: How did you come by that opportunity? SD: It was just something I found. I’m a Woody Woo major, with a certificate in Near Eastern Studies, so I was really just looking for something with security and the Middle East, and it was perfect — yeah, that’s what I was going for. DP: Did you have a good time? SD: I had a great time. Yeah, it’s really informative for my thesis, which is on U.S. military aid to Egypt.

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday September 24, 2015

ASK THE SEXPERT

HEADLINERS AND HEADSHAKERS

This week, we discuss virginity.

DAILY PRINCETONIAN STAFF

Dear Sexpert, I met a lot of friends in my ’zee group and Outdoor Action and stuff, and was excited to go out with them during frosh week. It was a lot of fun, but most of them would take people home and then talk about all their hookups and stuff. I’m still a virgin, but I have been thinking about sex. I just don’t know if I’m ready, but I feel like it’s part of college. I need some advice, but I feel awkward talking about it with my RCA. Please help,

page s2

— Worried

Dear Worried, The decision to have sex is an extremely personal one. While there isn’t any right or wrong time to become sexually active, it’s important that you think about your values and priorities when it comes to sex and sexual relationships. What worries you about losing your virginity? Is it because you’re unsure of what will happen, or is it perhaps because you don’t want to lose it to the “wrong” person? Is it important to you that your first experience with sex to be in a committed relationship? All of these questions are things to consider when determining whether you are ready to have sex. Again, it’s important to carefully weigh what you value, and to not let that be muddled by what others are saying. Having sex is a major step, so you want to be

sure that you’re not rushing into a decision just because of outside pressures or what you think the “norm” is on campus. In fact, surveys of Princeton undergraduates tell us that about half of current Princeton undergrads have not had any sexual partners in the past year; likewise, about half of current Princeton undergrads have had at least one sexual partner in the past year. Either way, you won’t be the only one. People may talk a lot about “hooking up,” but what they mean by that can vary from person to person. The decision is yours and yours alone, and is not to be based on feeling pressured by friends, a sexual or romantic partner, or anyone else. If and when you do decide to have sex, you should understand the responsibilities and consequences (physical and emotional) of being sexually active. Physically, you want to be absolutely sure that you’re being as safe as possible, by using methods of sexually transmitted infections and/ or pregnancy prevention. Be aware that the only way to 100 percent protect yourself from the risk of both STIs and pregnancy is abstinence, and that you should always be using a barrier method (i.e. condoms and dental dams) when engaging in sexual activity in order to protect yourself (and your partner!) from STIs. It’s important to feel comfortable telling your partner what you need and what you’re comfortable with. Both of you should also feel comfortable saying “stop” and “no” in any situation. Sex before you’re ready, sex without trust or respect, or sex that doesn’t feel

headlines you didn’t read this week

good can result in some really stressful feelings. And a healthy sex life shouldn’t be stressful. Being in a sexual relationship might also change the way you feel about yourself, your partner or the way you view relationships and sex in general. So, it’s important that you feel ready to tackle these changes in feelings and emotions — and not just ready for the physical changes! That being said, if you have any questions or concerns about the physical and/ or emotional responsibilities and consequences of becoming sexually active, or if you’d just like to talk to someone about how you’re feeling, Sexual Health and Wellness at University Health Services is a wonderful resource. While in the end this will be a decision that only you can make, there are plenty of people here on campus who can help guide you towards making the decision that’s right for you.

— The Sexpert

Information on STI prevention and birth control methods: http://bedsider. org/en/methods Helpful Q&A and information resource center for all things sex- and relationship-related: http://sexetc.org/ sex-ed/info-center/stories/ Interested in Sexual Health? The Sexpert is always looking for members of the community to join the team of sexual health educators who, along with fact-checking from University health professionals, help write these columns. Email sexpert@dailyprincetonian.com for more information and questions about sexual health. Don’t be shy!

Neither News Nor Notes:: Cotsen Ch ildren’s Library named Carle Honors Award rec ipient, Firestone Library named the Gates of Hell TOP 10 REPUBLICAN CRUZ ’92, CHRISTIE REMAIN ILL WINNING CANDIDATES, TRUMP IS ST OUT THIS SO WHY ARE WE TALKING AB

U. has lowest ‘annual cost’ of Ivy League, biggest bang for buck, according to U.S. News and World Savings U. initiative commits to 5-year agreement with ExxonMobil to develop energy innovations, ensure world domination

n Community Action, Outdoor Actio trips shortened by one day, life of Rick Curtis ’79 extends one day Neither News Nor Notes: Harvard final club becomes first to extend invitations to women, 24 years after T.I. became last eating club to do so RS WITH HANDSHAKE CAREER SERVICES PARTNE SO PARTNERS TO REVAMP HIRETIGERS, AL UG WITH FISTBUMP AND BROH U. ranked 26th most innovative university in the world, additionally ranked 13th in creativity and received 15 endorsements for proficiency in Microsoft Office

WRITE/DESIGN FOR

STREET

features, profiles, theater, dance, music, art, fashion, humor, health.

STREETEDITORS@GMAIL.COM

Thursday September 24, 2015

The Daily Princetonian

page s3

MORE THAN PREPPY LAWNPARTIES STYLE FALL 2015

LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Noshin Khan ’19

Sadiki Wiltshire ’17

LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Romie Desrogène ’17

Kristene Tadese ’16 LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Noah Mayerson ’18

Ashley Reed ’18

Valerie Wilson ’18 VICTORIA SCOTT :: SENIOR WRITER LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

VICTORIA SCOTT :: SENIOR WRITER

Tammy Benjapibal ’19

Jeffrey Diament ’18 Gabriella Chu ’18 VICTORIA SCOTT :: SENIOR WRITER

*Gabriella Chu is a photo editor for The Daily Princetonian.

LISA GONG :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

VICTORIA SCOTT :: SENIOR WRITER

The Daily Princetonian

Thursday September 24, 2015

page s4

STREET’S SUMMER READS 1Q84 HARUKI MURAKAMI NINA WADE Senior Writer

aruki Murakami is affectionately known as the warmhearted Japanese grandfather of hipster literature. His novels and short stories are filled with the literary fantastic, protagonists who find themselves unmoored in place and/or time, emotionally unattainable women and a hard-to-describe sense of displacement and perpetual melancholy. “1Q84,” his 1,000-page magnum opus, checks off all of these criteria. Aomame, a woman who glides through life simply and without much impact, and Tengo, an aspiring writer with familial issues, cross metaphysical paths when they both become embroiled in a cultcum-religion-cum-mythology. Add in magic, assassinations, immaculate conception, the possibility of parallel universes, repressed childhood memories, suppressed romance and a Murakami

Associate Street Editor

earest Class of 2019 — already, you’ve had the privilege of participating in one of the University’s youngestlived traditions. And we’re not talking about bickering Campus Club ironically. You see, two years ago, Christopher Eisgruber ’83 suggested that the entire freshman class read a book of the administration’s choosing. Basically, it’s Eisgruber’s attempt at Oprah’s Book Club, in the vain hope of elevating the sales of would-be esoteric works to New York Times platinum status. Mercifully, Eisgruber has yet to select a constitutional law dictionary for the PreRead (something tells me it wouldn’t sell all that well.)

trademark enigmatic teenaged girl, and u n l i keable you have the parts of the novel. But the and furtherwhole is more than just a slapdash pot- more largely Autumnal equninox. pourri. unnecessary By writing a three-volume mega-novel, in the plotThe Pumpkin Spice Latte, here Murakami’s story expands to fill every line. In orsince Labor Day. corner with its understated fantastical der to make realism. The plotline is subtly seductive, room for his Flannel shirts and corduroy beginning with the simple elements of story, both pants. Tengo’s decision to ghostwrite a novel Tengo’s and and help his editor win a prize and Ao- A o m a m e ’s Auditions and mame’s growing friendship with an el- suffer. His pick-backs and call-ups. derly woman who runs a shelter for bat- p l o t l i n e Fall Bicker and autumn tered women. But small details pile up. A comes to a arguments. second moon appears in the sky. The cult strange and of Sakigake is a historical entity although u n s at i s f yCOURTESY OF LITERATUREPOST.WORDPRESS.COM it has not existed previously. The year ing halt for a Readings about Kierkegaard. 1984, Aomame thinks, has changed into while, while hers becomes perfunctory. pathetic whimper. Still, it’s an engrossthe new 1Q84. (It should be noted that this It’s a decision that, quite frankly, makes ing read in a way that few other books is, in fact, a linguistic pun; the character no sense to the reader, and unfortunately are; it’s not the sort of book that leaves the for the number 9 is pronounced as “kyū ” in it’s the note the book pretty much ends reader hanging off dramatic cliffs for the Poems about dead leaves. Japanese, hence the replacement with the on, save for a slightly improved final next chapter. It’s not exactly a hyperacletter “q” as a variable for the unknown.) chapter. tive page-turner. Instead, it slowly builds However, the book’s greatest weakness As a result, the book peters out, start- questions upon questions, creeping unSummertime Sadness.. is its final volume. It introduces a third ing with a beautiful, slow build — Mu- derfoot. And the first two volumes are narrator into what had previously been rakami’s not really one for an explosive picture-perfect Murakami, hipster ennui Tengo and Aomame’s story, and he is dry, story — but ending with a somewhat and all. The Winds of Winter - which will

1 3 5

In its inaugural year, Eisgruber selected Kwame Anthony Appiah’s “The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen” (no subliminal messaging here), and in the second year, dear Chris selected Susan Wolf’s “Meaning in Life and Why it Matters” (trust us, Princeton students could use some self-help.) And in the Pre-Read’s third year, Eisgruber picked from the back rack of the academic bookstore a slim volume called “Whistling Vivaldi” by Claude Steele. As an Outdoor Action leader, I was also assigned this book as summer reading, wedging it between my time reading “Great Expectations” and “The Martian.” I like reading books people give me for free — but when you’re a writing tutor and an editor, it doesn’t take much for critical, editing impulses to take over. The following is my measured, frustrated take on “Whistling Vivaldi.” You can’t judge a book by its title, but “Whistling Vivaldi” sounds like the title of a poem read by an English teacher at your kinde rga r te n graduation, or alternatively, the name of an indie rock band from

COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM

Providence, R.I. As for its cover, it’s like the graphic designer ripped off the polychrome circles on the cover of Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story” — but using the aesthetic of iOS 8. It manages to be minimalist, busy and as disappointing as the Apple Watch’s sales — all at the same time. But let’s get to content. “Whistling Vivaldi” documents some truly groundbreaking research in social psychology that revolutionizes the understanding of stereotypes, racism and group dynamics. Its findings are eye-opening and offers intuitive explanations for some vexing questions that are supremely relevant to Princeton’s privileged campus. That is to say, “Whistling Vivaldi” would probably make one of the greatest Atlantic or New Republic articles of all time, but instead is one of the worst books of all time. This is ironic because if you’re A.B., you’re going to be reading a lot of bad articles and good books. Eisgruber is preparing you for the challenges of reading the poorly written works of academia, because you can definitely win the Nobel Prize without a working knowledge of sentences. And by striving to be in the same genre as pop psychology as sociology New Yorker wunderkind Malcolm Gladwell, Steele’s work is like watery box wine to Gladwell’s Argentine Malbec, with a hint of hickory and a sprinkle of quirkiness. Malcolm Gladwell is still alive, but if he was dead, he’d be doing triple-axels in his tomb. “Whistling Vivaldi” follows a predictable format that kept me turning the same page, back and forth, not getting anywhere. First, Steele invokes an engaging hook, say about the remarkable former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day

O’Connor, followed by an experimental design involving a test group of guinea pig students at Steele’s university-at-the-time. These students are forced time and again to take awful standardized tests for no apparent reason, the only difference being the phrasing of the instructions at the very beginning — such masochism! This is followed by the astounding announcement that without any caveats, Steele’s hypothesis was completely correct, which really saps the narrative tension of the work. Will Macbeth retain the throne? Will Harry Potter defeat Voldemort? What are the technical advantages of a lightsaber with a hilt? Doesn’t matter, because Dr. Steele is always correct. Except for that one time when the statistical test wasn’t significant, but after changing a single parameter, Steele was right! By the end of “Vivaldi,” we are exhausted by its repetitive structure. We are tired of its iOS 8 cover, its strange title and its ambition to be featured in the list of products on the bottom of the Amazon page for Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers.” By striving to be so much at once, “Vivaldi” suffers from its own type of stereotype threat. It psychs itself out. It never reaches its full potential afforded by its research and its genre. For this meta-dedication to its subject, I think “Whistling Vivaldi” deserves more respect. Dr. Steele, you fooled us all — this was your plan the whole time. Besides, it’s only a matter of time before the New Republic article about how the carefully curated study of Princeton freshmen reading “Whistling Vivaldi” affected their performance on a selected portion of the GRE to be given during the administration of the meningitis B vaccine. The phrasing of instructions was variable.

Howards End E.M. FORSTER On Beauty ZADIE SMITH LIN KING

Street Editor

n May, I showed my summer reading list to a well-read friend of mine. She said, “Did you know that this” — pointing to “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith (2005) — “was based on this?” — pointing to “Howards End” by E.M. Forster (1910). I did not. What were the chances? With this new information in hand, the English major in me saw no choice but to read the two novels back-to-back. Naturally. Though the two stories share many similarities, there is no direct correlation between the characters. It would be impossible to directly identify any character in Smith’s story as a carbon copy or fanfic replica of a character in “Howards End.” That being said, both books focus on the relationships between two upper-middle class families: In “Howards End”, there are the Schlegels, a wealthy, socially progressive German-English family, who clash with the Wilcoxes, a family that made its fortune through the English colonies and take great pride in their strictly unintellectual worldview. In “On Beauty”, there are the Belseys, with a white English father and a black Floridian mother, and the Kippses, a Black, conservative family based in London. The plots unfold very differently, just as 20th century England and 21st century Northeast United States existed very dif-

TOP TEN Signs of Fall

Whistling Vivaldi CLAUDE STEELE HARRISON BLACKMAN

STREET’S

ferently. However, they engage with many of the same themes that take on a bigger, more complex form in Smith’s digital world than Forster’s narrower one. Race, for instance, becomes heavily involved, as do pop culture and technology — and the doors they open for adultery and for intellectual efforts. I enjoyed both books immensely, but was disappointed to see that Smith includes no preface or footnote directly addressing the relationship between her novel and Forster’s. Aside from a facetious mention of Forster (“ ‘A Room with a View. Forster.’ Howard smiled sadly. ‘Can’t stand Forster’ ”) near the end of the novel, “On Beauty” never acknowledges its connec-

COURTESY OF PIXCOOLER AND WIKIPEDIA, RESPECTIVELY.

tion to “Howards End.” Instead, it becomes more of a private joke with those who scrolled to the bottom of the Wikipedia page or have already read “Howards End.” To anyone else, this would have just been a good book with a slightly strange opening line (“One may as well begin with Jerome’s emails,” matching Forster’s “One may as well begin with Helen’s letters.”). This, I think, is a downright shame. Not that everyone should read these two together, but, well, yes, you should. While “On Beauty” certainly stands on its own as a novel, reading the two together made me think much more carefully and closely about the complexities of “modern life” as we know it and how they have been perpetuated and developed in the past century. With concerns about class difference and the inability of the poor to get an education, race has been tossed into the mix. Meanwhile, the relative leveling of class warfare has led to more nuanced disagreements within m i n o r it ie s .

One memorable dialogue occurs between Kiki Belsey and Monty Kipps, who are both black and both educated but stand on opposite sides of the affirmative action debate: “ ‘As long as we encourage a culture of victimhood,’ said Monty, with the rhythmic smoothness of self-quotation, ‘We will continue to raise victims. And so the cycle of underachievement continues.’ ‘Well,’ said Kiki … ‘I just think it stinks of a kind of, well, a kind of self-hatred when we’ve got black folks arguing against opportunities for black folks.’ ” On another note, it was also interesting to see how the nature of sex scandals has, uh, evolved over the years, both psychologically and physically. Where it was “rich man sleeps with poor woman” and “young couple kisses in the garden” before, Smith has written “old friends with spouses sleep together due to uncontrollable urge to ruin the happiness of others when confronted with potential happiness for themselves” and “18-year-old books hotel room and dresses in corset and garters to seduce 50-something married man after emailing nude photographs.” While these are just two of many issues addressed in the two novels, the general unspoken trend seems to be, depressingly, this: As we advance in technological conveniences and work toward equal opportunity, we also give ourselves more room to dig deeper into the preexisting rabbit holes of society. It’s a sad message, but in both books, at least there’s plenty of humor and stunning language in the delivery.

7 9

never be published.

2 4 6 8 10

President Eisgruber’s hickory voice.

CAMPUS PICKS LECTURE THE MULTISPECIES SALON PRESENTS: “SUBURBAN FORAGING: ACORN MUSH” Guyot 100 Acorn collecting at 10 a.m., lunch discussion at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday

Acorns are, believe it or not, embedded in cultural memory. This Thursday, join the Princeton Environmental Institute for an event that explores the culinary possibility of the acorn and its associations with the oppression of a people. The Pomo American Indians of Northern California consumed acorn mush, a dish that evokes “memories of massacres, forced marches, and internment.” The Multispecies Salon opens with an acorn gathering activity at 10 a.m., followed by a lunch discussion at 12:30 p.m., at which acorn mush will be sampled.

FILM PROF PICKS: “BOMBAY VELVET” Princeton Garden Theatre Thursday, 7:30 p.m.

The free student movies at Princeton’s Garden Theatre have generally skewed more popular blockbusters than foreign historical dramas. That’s about to change. For the inaugural Prof Picks (as in “picked by a professor”) film, history professor Gyan Prakash chose “Bombay Velvet,” an Indian period crime drama adapted from his book “Mumbai Fables.” The showing will be preceded by remarks from Prakash and director Anurag Kashyap.

EVENT PRINCETON EID UL ADHA BANQUET + BENEFIT FOR REFUGEES 2015 Fields Center Thursday, 7:30 p.m.

Who doesn’t love eating yummy food while also making small contributions toward making the world a better place? Eid ul Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, is the second-most important celebration for Muslims around the world, and the Muslim Students Association and MASJID will be commemorating the holiday with a banquet complete with poetry, art, henna and a photo booth. The suggested donation of $10 will benefit victims of the global refugee crisis.

READING: EMERGING WRITERS READING WITH SOPHIE MCMANUS Labyrinth Bookstore Friday, 6 p.m.

In 10 years, you’ll be able to say that you knew these writers before they hit it big: Emerging Writers is an annual series at Labyrinth featuring readings by established authors and the Princeton seniors selected every year to write creative writing theses. This year’s series is launching with Sophie McManus, first-time author of novel “The Unfortunates,” and creative writing certificate students Katharine Boyer ’16, Marta Cabral ’16, Isabel Henderson ’16 and Takim Williams ’16.