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Thursday September 28, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 75
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IMAGES COURTESY OF KYLE LANG
Left: Lang sitting in the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the end of his run. Right: Lang was joined by friends along the way.
Lang ’19 runs across country, raises $23,000 By Katie Peterson staff writer
This summer, Kyle Lang ’19 ran 3,016 miles, drank nearly 12 gallons of slushies, and raised about $23,000. The slushies were for energy — running an average of 40 miles per day, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, burns a lot of calories. The money was for charity. Each of the three nonprofit organizations benefitting from Lang’s cross-country fundraiser was part of a community that has had an impact on Lang: Great Rivers United Way, which serves in areas of education, income, health, and community basics in his home of La Crosse County, Wis.; Every Hand Joined, a cradleto-career initiative in Red
Wing, Minn. at which Lang interned last summer; and Special Olympics New Jersey, which provides sports training and athletic competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in the state he calls home during the school year. Donors sponsored a mile or state by contributing through Lang’s website. In addition to dedicating the entirety of his long dreamt-of trip to these nonprofits, Lang also dedicated each mile to a cause. On his website, supporters could submit intentions about which Lang, a devout Catholic, thought and prayed while he ran — anything from the help of a friend’s parent to violence going on in the world. “The run was then about something beyond myself,”
Lang said. It also involved many people besides himself. Lang’s parents accompanied him, driving their car with a pull-behind camper to provide food and rest along the road and, on some nights, a place to sleep. They would drive a few miles ahead of where Lang began his run and wait for him to catch up to the camper, where a snack or meal would be waiting. According to Lang, an ideal day went something like this. “I’d wake up between 5:15 and 5:30 — my parents would wake up between 4 and 5 — we’d get on the road around 6,” he said. “I’d run 20 miles until about 11 o’clock, and then take an hour break. And then noon to 4, I’d cover 13 to 15 miles, take an hour break, and then
ON CAMPUS
in the evening cover between 7 and 10 miles, depending on the day. I ended at 7 p.m. and then we drove to wherever we spent the night.” Over the 76-day trip, the family stayed in 30 different hotels, spent several nights in churches or Walmart parking lots, and spent 10 nights at friends’ houses along the way. On two occasions, in desolate stretches of Montana, they slept in the trailer on the side of the road. While that may not sound like everyone’s idea of a family vacation, Lang is grateful they were able to do it together. “They know me outside of running, so they can say, ‘Kyle’s not doing well today, mentally,’ and they’re able to help me,” Lang explained. “I would say we definitely got closer.”
The most difficult part for his parents, Lang guessed, was watching him go through the physical trials of the trip. “After I would take a break I would get up and start running again — and running is a pretty generous term — but [my mom] having to watch me just limp away. And knowing that this is what I signed myself up for. There were times that I was just walking horribly and in a lot of pain, and would still go out and try to cover the miles for the day.” Despite the toll that the exertion took on his physical health, Lang listened to his body, made necessary mileage adjustments, and kept going. There were two messages Lang gave himself when the going got tough. The first, he See LANG page 5
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Agencies bracing for lower refugee cap staff writer
IMAGE COURTESY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
“The Hedgehog and the Fox,” the sculpture on which the swastika was found.
Swastika found near Lewis Library By Sarah Hirschfield Senior senior writer
A swastika was drawn on “The Hedgehog and the Fox” sculpture by Lewis Library on Sep. 8, two days before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, according to Paul Ominsky, the executive director of Public Safety. Following a response from the Department of Public Safety, the University Art Museum arranged for the drawing to be removed. Drawn with a white waxy substance, the swastika was approxi-
In Opinion
mately 18 inches by 18 inches, according to Ominsky. No suspects have been found. “The safety and security of the campus are important and a priority for the Department of Public Safety,” said Ominsky. “It is also a partnership between the community and DPS. We rely on members of the community to participate by reporting incidents, including suspicious activities.” The Center for Jewish Life and the art museum have not responded to requests for comment.
New columnist Daniel Yassky discusses vocational tracks in colleges, and three guest contributors share letters to the editor. PAGE 6-7
This was not the first time a swastika was found on the statue. In 2015 and in Jan. 2017, swastikas had been drawn and removed from the statue. Also, last April, anti-semitic flyers were found around campus. The flyers were removed after a complaint was made to the University, but not before being found taped to Stanhope Hall, the Center for Jewish Life, the door of Murray-Dodge Hall, and East Pyne Hall. In 2016, a hacker and the Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Refugee agencies across the nation are bracing themselves for President Trump’s presidential deliberation on the refugee cap for the coming fiscal year. An official decision is due on Oct. 1, but the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the cap will be lowered to 45,000. This would be a drastic cut from the 110,000 permitted under the 2016 fiscal year budget, and the lowest ever since the Refugee Act was signed into law in 1980. Among organizations that would be affected by cuts to the cap are Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Nassau Presbyterian Church. Both work to resettle refugees, but operate on vastly different scales. KRM is a statewide organization that resettled about 1,190 refugees during the last fiscal year, and Nassau Presbyterian Church is a community sponsor that has resettled eight refugee families in the last 25. John Koehlinger, the executive director of KRM, said that it was “unfortunate” that there was no congressional or judicial countermand to the presidential deliberation.
Today on Campus 12:30 p.m.: Join your fellow students, faculty, and staff in midweek mindfulness meditation. Murray-Dodge 104
“It’s just a piece of paper he signs with a number on it,” he said. Koehlinger also criticized the Trump administration’s attempt to frame refugees as an economic burden to the public, citing its rejection of a Department of Health and Human Services study that found that refugees have brought in $63 billion more in government revenue over the past decade than they have cost. Tom Charles, a member of Nassau Presbyterian who works closely with the refugee families the church sponsors, reacted similarly to Koehlinger and called such a reduced refugee cap “catastrophic and very unpatriotic.” Both men agreed that Trump’s decision would have an immense impact on funding for refugee resettlement agencies across the nation. A significant portion of the funding for referral and resettlement agencies comes from the State Department, which gives money to these organizations for every refugee they receive. Consequently, a drastic decrease in the number of refugees arriving in the United States means a sudden drop in funding for the nation’s refugee resettlement infrastructure. See REFUGEE page 2
WEATHER
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Thursday September 28, 2017
Refugee cap may cause “irreversible damage” to resettlement agencies REFUGEE Continued from page 1
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Charles, who stressed that he was speaking only for himself and not his church, worried that these funding cuts will cause lasting and irreversible damage to U.S refugee referral and resettlement agencies by destroying their bureaucratic memory. He said that referral agencies were already laying off long-term employees, adding that these jobs require “special people” with experience, patience, and the ability to perform well under pressure. “They’re losing people they may never be able to get back,” Charles said. KRM, which receives about 30 percent of its funding on a per capita basis from the State Department, is already experiencing budget cuts. Additionally, Koehlinger said that grants from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, are also being cut, repre-
senting a significant reduction to around half of KRM’s budget. In total, he expects a 20 percent decrease in ORR funding. There’s a great deal of overlap between the operation of KRM and that of the New Jersey agencies Charles and Nassau Presbyterian have worked with. For example, KRM depends heavily on community sponsors like religious groups, local businesses, and, once, a group of Pakistani doctors, to mitigate the costs of resettling refugees. Charles also stressed the importance of community sponsors, adding that the United States desperately needs more organizations like Nassau Presbyterian or the Jewish Center of Princeton to help new arrivals settle in. Despite these similarities, Charles and Koehlinger have had very different experiences navigating, and helping the refugees they work with navigate, the requirements and systems of their state governments. Refugees are required to find employment within six months of their arrival in the United States. Koehlinger said that KRM’s three full-time job developers usually find their clients employment very quickly, but those who do not find work in two months are referred to a Kentucky job readiness program that requires them to do thirty hours of volunteer work a week and bring a signed record of their volunteer hours to the Department for Community Based Services to maintain their public benefits. He said that, besides being difficult for new arrivals to navigate, this system prevents refugees from enrolling in English classes, cultural orientation programs, and job training at KRM, and ultimately delays them from finding long-term jobs. Koehlinger also criticized Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s call for more stringent work requirements for refugees to receive Medicaid and welfare, noting that many refugees arrive in the United States with pre-existing medical conditions and a great deal of trauma. “You can’t come from a refugee camp and start working the second you get off the plane,” Koehlinger said. Conversely, Charles was “pleasantly surprised” by how helpful and supportive New Jersey government programs were. According to Charles, the Syrian family Nassau Presbyterian sponsored last year was the only one they’ve ever sponsored that needed public benefits. The husband’s blindness made it difficult for him to find work and neither adult spoke any English. The wife enrolled in WorkFirst, the New Jersey equivalent of Kentucky’s job readiness program, and completed volunteer work in exchange for maintaining her family’s benefits. But Charles said that the system was not overly difficult to navigate and asserted that all government employees they encountered were welcoming and friendly, despite New Jersey Gov. and University Trustee ex officio Chris Christie’s declaration that he would not accept any Syrian refugees, including orphans under the age of five. Charles dismissed Christie’s assertion that accepting Syrian refugees was a risk to national security. “It’s so formalized in practice and in law that when a refugee has finally passed all those tests I have no doubt in my mind that they deserve the opportunity of finding a new home, no matter where they came from,” Charles said.
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Lang drank more than 12 gallons of slushies, averaged 40 miles per day LANG
Continued from page 1
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said, was, “You don’t have to cover 40 miles today. You just have to cover one.” If he didn’t think he could cover one mile — “That’s okay, just make it 10 more steps.” “Those steps,” Lang said, “would add up and become miles and those miles would become 40 miles.” The second thing he thought of when he didn’t feel like running was, “If today were the last day I had to run, if after today, I were able to reach Coney Island, would I be able to finish these 40-45 miles? And the answer was always yes. So, make today like it was the last day I had to be out there running, and then try to forget about it
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at night, and wake up and start it all over.” Those mental hurdles taught Lang an important lesson this summer. “There is no secret to such formidable feats, and the only way to accomplish it is through recognizing that it’s going to take work,” Lang acknowledged. “Hard, strenuous, nonglamorous work. And when you understand that, your definition of impossible is changed.” What’s next for Lang? This semester, he is taking some time off to let his body recover. He is doing strength training for a few months and will begin running again in December, this time with a new goal in mind. He hopes to walk onto the track team in his senior year and to compete in the 800-meter race.
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Thursday September 28, 2017
Opinion
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The changing purpose of college Daniel Yassky columnist
“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of ships — and shoes — and future employment And of student debt — and promising careers — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether we may have lost our wings.” — Adapted from Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
F
ormer Princeton literature professor Louis Menand comments that the purpose of a liberal arts education is to “expose future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing.” Traditionally, students are motivated to attend four-year liberal arts colleges for the intellectual purview, but rising higher education costs in the United States have transformed the college experience into a form of vocational training rather than one of enlightenment. According to the College Board, in 1976, the average total cost for tuition, room, and board at private nonprofit colleges was
$16,760 (in 2016 dollars) and $8,160 at four-year public colleges. Fast forward to 2016, and average private education cost has almost tripled to $45,370, while the cost of public college has ballooned to $20,090. Along with this increase in education costs, there has been an equally conspicuous change in the types of college majors students are choosing to study. Statistician Nate Silver’s blog “FiveThirtyEight” quantified this change: “In 2011, 3.1 percent of new bachelor’s degrees were in English language or literature. That figure is down from … 4.7 percent 20 years ago, and 7.6 percent 40 years ago.” Meanwhile, there has been an increase in professions believed to be more financially lucrative. Silver continues, “those [majors] associated with relatively specific post-college careers … has roughly doubled since 1991.” Business and other vocational majors, such as criminal justice and health-related professions, have experienced a similar increase. To pay off college tuition costs, students feel obliged to choose vocational majors over traditional liberal arts degrees such as English literature, math, or history. For many, the rising cost of a college
education has reduced the college experience to a financial investment. Even at Princeton, an institution that prides itself on being a bastion of intellectual elitism, with distribution requirements encouraging students to dabble in various fields, there still remains a push toward the most financially profitable professions. Currently, the top three most popular concentrations at the University are computer science, the Wilson School, and economics. The question remains: why is this wrong? Shouldn’t students seek majors that offer the highest chances of making the most money? If that were true, then why even bother with the veneer of offering courses in the liberal arts? Since the first universities in medieval Europe, higher education has been a force for cultural and societal enlightenment. Vocational training may supply a society with a needed workforce; however, it will not produce the scholars, thinkers, and inventors that are truly needed to propel a society forward. While a traditional liberal arts education is intellectually uplifting, another may ask: Is it worthwhile considering the jobs required
today? A student who studies a vocational profession, such as accounting or nursing, may get a higher-paying job straight out of college. However, if and when that job is overtaken by technology or its demand decreases, the graduate will find it hard to replace his job with an equal. A liberal-arts graduate, on the other hand, who possesses the ability to analyze a variety of situations, will have a much easier time adapting to f luctuations in the job market. The rising costs of higher education continues to push higher education institutions toward becoming vocational apparatuses. More and more, students are graduating with majors tailored to a specific career, such as nursing, criminal justice, or computer science. While these majors promise financial attainment, they work to raise a generation that values financial success and stability over intellectual thought — a generation that will be unready for a tumultuous world ahead of them. Daniel Yassky is a firstyear student. He can be reached at dmyassky@ princeton.edu.
vol. cxli
Sarah Sakha ’18
editor-in-chief
Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Kathleen Crown William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73
141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 associate news editors Kristin Qian ’18 Claire Lee ‘19 head opinion editor Nicholas Wu ’18 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19
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head sports editor David Xin ’19
Tashi Treadway ’19 ..................................................
associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Claire Coughlin ’19 head street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 associate street editors Lyric Perot ’20 Danielle Hoffman ’20 web editor Sarah Bowen ’20 head copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 associate copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19
NIGHT STAFF Design Isabel Ting ’21
D
Open letter: PGSU on divergent perspectives ear Vice President Calhoun, Dean Crittenden, and Dean Dolan,
On Wednesday, Sept. 20, the Princeton University community received an email that contained the following troubling lines: “Regardless of where you stand on issues such as climate change, white nationalism, the rights of transgendered [sic] people and immigrants, and many more, we encourage you to learn from the divergent perspectives of others, including our many faculty whose expertise provides nuanced and varied analyses of just these topics.” We are concerned with the language of this email and urge the University to consider the implications of what it has sent to our students, faculty, and staff. Institutions of higher learning
should be places where the rights of all students are upheld without question, and where any ideology that threatens their security is courageously confronted. We wish that this had been the spirit of your opening email to our campus this fall. Instead, your message claimed that many positions on white nationalism, the rights of trans people and immigrants, and the scientific fact of climate change deserve equal treatment. We reject this idea. To insist on neutrality in the face of hatred implies an equivalence between those who fight to affirm the rights, safety, and humanity of all, and those who seek to dehumanize, disenfranchise, and incite violence against certain groups based on their skin color, religion, gender, or sexuality. There is no room in a civil, democratic society for these two posi-
tions to “debate” on an even playing field. Allowing or encouraging such “debate” does not affirm “free speech” but instead threatens many people whose safety and personhood has long been devalued. To suggest otherwise directly contradicts your email’s commendable desire to affirm the full dignity and humanity of all persons. In the current political climate — marked by reinvigorated and highly visible racist organizing, increased state scrutiny and detention of immigrants, and the rollback of legal protections for queer and trans people — we feel that Princeton should emphatically uphold the rights of its students rather than encourage them to consider attacks on their rights and personhood as valid and worthy of consideration. Princeton has a responsibility to the immigrants, trans people,
and people of color in its student, faculty, and staff communities to condemn any and all assaults on their rights and safety. As a research institution, the University’s intellectual and material resources are urgently needed to address the present dangers of climate change, which disproportionately affects communities of color, not to debate its reality. We affirm that these issues are worthy of critical engagement — but that engagement must be critical. To imply that there is any legitimacy behind views of white nationalism or the current political assault on trans and immigrant rights is morally bankrupt and illustrates a failure in the very values that Princeton purports to espouse. Students of color, trans students, and immigrant students make an enormous contribution to life at Princeton and are part of the fabric
of this diverse and beautiful university. To tolerate those who would do them harm is an affront to this community and a betrayal of our collective values. We call upon the university to unequivocally condemn climate change denialism, white nationalism, gendered violence, and antiimmigrant hatred. We urge our university to commit in concrete and tangible ways to upholding the professed values of our intellectual community and ensuring the safety of its members. As you wrote in your email: “Optimism and hope without concrete action...is insufficient.” Solidarity, Princeton Graduate Students United
Thursday September 28, 2017
Opinion
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Why can’t Spain and Catalonia just get along? Joan Ricart-Huguet
Guest Contributor
L
ast week, the Spanish police arrested 14 Catalan officials in Barcelona. The conflict between the Catalans and the Spanish government has escalated in recent weeks, ahead of a referendum scheduled for October 1, in which Catalans want to decide whether to remain in Spain or to become independent. Friends and colleagues have been asking, with equal bewilderment: “Why is Spain so adamant in preventing you [Catalans] from voting in the self-determination referendum? Didn’t Scotland vote on independence recently?” But also, “Why is Catalonia so stubborn about holding this referendum? There must be some alternative.”
The desire of many Catalans to secede from Spain is far from exceptional. Throughout history, diverse peoples have sometimes united under one government, and other times they have remained separate countries. Consider a domestic example. Why is the United States one country rather than 13 or 50? For one thing, because being a large country has advantages. united, the 13 colonies defeated the British Empire, and the United States became the world’s leading economy by 1900. A large domestic market is also helpful because it allows economies of scale and scope (i.e. you can produce more things and in cheaper ways because you have more potential buyers). So, wouldn’t Canada do well to join the United States? Most Americans and Canadians differ over key values and
policy preferences for issues like healthcare and global warming. Further, French is an official language in all of Canada, a country headed by the British monarch. Neither of these two propositions would be wildly popular in the United States. Rather than becoming bad housemates, Canada and the United States remain good neighbors. The dispute between Canada and Quebec is surprisingly similar in its essence, albeit in that case slightly over 50 percent of Quebecers chose to remain in Canada rather than becoming independent. These are two examples of a simple yet powerful logic developed by professors Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore in “The Size of Nations.” It says countries face a tradeoff between the benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. Bigger is better but only up to a point, because people have different preferences. This logic helps explain why Canada is not part of the United States, why Quebec is still part of Canada, why Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom in 2014, why Norway voted to secede from Sweden in 1905 and, yes, why Catalonia wants to vote on its relationship with Spain. As in the case of Quebec, polls suggest that about half of all Catalans prefer to become independent, while the other half prefers a status quo in which Catalonia has limited autonomy within Spain. Differences in values and in preferences over cultural, ideological, and economic issues explain why some want to exit. Catalan has been the language of instruction in
Catalonia since shortly after democracy was established in 1978, but that has never been fully embraced by conservative Spaniards. (Prior to 1978, a 40-year fascist dictatorship prevented any sort of dissent). Also, polls show that Catalans are more progressive than Spaniards. For example, the Catalan Parliament recently approved higher taxes for the very wealthy and banned bullfighting, a practice many consider savage. Both moves were overturned by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Similarly, over two thirds of Spaniards support the monarchy, whereas over two thirds of Catalans want a republic. Some argue that independence would make Catalan society wealthier and more equal, because Catalonia is a net contributor to Spain’s public finances and more progressive. In light of these differences, why not modify the status quo and allow Catalonia sufficient autonomy, perhaps as a state in a Spanish federation? Countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, and India are very diverse within their borders. Federations provide the benefits of size, such as a single army and larger markets. They also reduce the costs of heterogeneity; fewer citizens in California, Quebec, Bavaria, and Assam want to break away because their state government can decide on many public policies. Some Catalans have long favored the federal option as a sound compromise. In fact, 88 percent of Catalonia’s Parliament approved a revised Statute of Autonomy — Catalonia’s main law — in 2005 that brought
the level of self-government closer to that of a state in a federation. The Spanish Parliament simply had to ratify the revised Statute, something which the then Spanish Prime Minister had already promised. Instead, it modified the Statute prior to ratifying a watereddown version in 2006. That was a disappointing turn of events. Admittedly, some Catalans doubted Spain’s willingness to embrace a more autonomous Catalonia because of previous frustrated attempts, notably in 1914 and 1932. However, others genuinely saw the 2006 Statute as a long-term solution. Since that disappointment, support for independence has grown steadily from 15 percent in 2006 to over 40 percent today, and an additional 20 percent support the (unrealistic) option of a federal state. The latest Catalan parliamentary elections resulted in a pro-independence majority, and around 80 percent of Catalans support a binding self-determination referendum, which brings us to the current standoff and Catalans’ “stubbornness.” On the one hand, the Catalan government argues that it cannot ignore the popular mandate to celebrate a self-determination referendum. On the other hand, the Spanish government points out that such referenda are illegal under the 1978 Constitution — that is, unless the Spanish government authorizes them. The Catalan President has proposed this latter option to his Spanish counterpart for the last five years, unsuccessfully. Alas, Spain is not alone
in its uncompromising position. Some mature democracies such as Britain, Canada and Sweden allow national minorities to vote. Authoritarian regimes such as Serbia, the Sudan, and Indonesia typically repress and kill secessionist minorities — the respective referenda in Kosovo, South Sudan and East Timor were imposed by the international community. Spain’s democratic culture and political development fall somewhere in between: no killings but no voting allowed, either. Besides the detention of Catalan government officials, the Spanish police have confiscated ballots, raided private residences, and restricted freedom of assembly and the right to demonstrate in an attempt to prevent the referendum. Repression is not the most diplomatic or democratic response to peaceful and even festive demonstrations in Barcelona and around Catalonia. A repressive strategy inf lames tensions further and reminds everybody of Spain’s dictatorial past. Even the immediate future remains uncertain. Spain’s repressive strategy may subdue Catalans through fear, threats, and force, or it may convince them that a referendum must take place. After all, as Britain and Scotland recently taught us, this is what democracy is all about. Joan Ricart-Huguet is a graduate student in the politics department from Catalonia. He can be reached at jricart@ princeton.edu.
Pumpkin Spice Punk Sophia Gavrilenko ’20 ..................................................
Princeton for Puerto Rico Diego Negron-Reichard Guest Contributor
Y
ou’re sitting in class, trying to take notes, but the only thing on your mind is the fact that your family group chat is quiet. Reports then come out with the body count, news articles pop up detailing the damage, and images of a home you once knew cover your feed. My family is okay, but I can’t say the same for the rest of the island. Puerto Rico, home to over 3.4 million American citizens, just went through one of the most severe natural disasters in its history when Hurricane Maria unleashed a siege of f looding and winds upon it. The consequences are real: communication systems are down, whole communities have lost their homes, the en-
tire island is without power and is not likely to recover for months. And of course, the situation is further exacerbated by the fact that Puerto Rico is in serious debt and is struggling to manage its fiscal crisis. Let me be clear: This is a domestic humanitarian crisis. In conversations with some of my good friends on campus, I found that many of them did not know that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. This was particularly troubling, given that Americans are more likely to donate to disaster relief in Puerto Rico if they know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. Not only were my classmates unaware of the unique U.S.Puerto Rico relationship, but the mainstream media has also shed relatively little light on this crisis at home. Finally, even though our President has promised to visit Puerto Rico next
week, his tweets indicate an utter lack of empathy for the citizens on the island. While Puerto Rico approaches apocalypse, President Trump decided to instead focus on the debt that the island owes to its creditors. It’s difficult to describe the cocktail of emotions I felt as Hurricane Maria passed through my home. Guilt, because somehow it felt unfair to be in a nice lecture hall as my family shoveled buckets of water out of the house. Anxiety, because I feared for the safety of my loved ones. Anger, because our President would rather criticize NFL players than address the humanitarian crisis. But, most of all, I felt utterly helpless because I simply had no way of reaching out to my friends and family. Maria nevertheless reminded me of the resilient, loving, and proud spirit
of Puerto Rico. Within the office of the First Lady hours, organizers both on Beatriz Isabel Rosselló and the island and on the U.S. a group of companies in ormainland rushed to col- der to help the victims of lect resources and raise the storm. funds. With some friends ● A collection of student from high school, I start- groups will be tabling at ed “Students with Puerto Frist this Friday. Feel free Rico” and have raised over to stop by, take your pic100k across different cam- ture, and Venmo a small puses — even Jimmy Fallon donation! donated 20k to the cause. You ● can sign this petition. However, there is a lot of You ● can read up on Puerto work to do still and Princ- Rico and be aware of the eton is in the perfect posi- island and your fellow citition to help out! Here are zens. some of the initiatives you In the end, any contribucan help out with on cam- tion would mean the world pus: to me, my friends, and my ● You can donate money family back home. The isdirectly to the Students land needs your help, Tiwith Puerto Rico move- gers! Step up to the plate, ment. Make sure you write and let’s fulfill our school’s that it’s from Princeton! motto together! People back home will be so grateful our commuDiego Negron-Reichard is a nity came together for the senior in the Wilson School island. All the funds will from San Juan, P.R. He can be transferred to “Unidos be reached at den@princeton. por Puerto Rico,” a public- edu. private initiative started by
Sports
Thursday September 28, 2017
page 8
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S TENNIS
Young Tigers headline Ivy Plus Invitational last weekend By Owen Tedford Staff Writer
Following successful tournaments at Duke and Penn two weekends ago, the men’s tennis team was looking forward to keeping that strong showing this past weekend at home as they hosted the IvyPlus Invitational at the Lenz Tennis Center Friday through Sunday. Freshman Ryan Seggerman has been the talk of the team so far, starting the season off with a 6-1 record in his singles matches. Seggerman came to Princeton as the No. 14 Universal Tennis ranked senior. In his first weekend at Penn, he was 3-0; this past weekend, he was 3-1 in his singles matches. This past Saturday was a big day for Seggerman, who beat two ITA-ranked opponents, No. 68 Jimmy Bendeck of Baylor and No. 57 Lev Kazakov of Cornell, to advance to the final of the top draw at the tournament. Unfortunately, in Sunday’s final Seggerman lost 6-4, 6-3 to No. 188 Constant De La Bassetiere of Penn State. “Ryan [Seggerman] didn’t quite serve as effectively as he did his
previous three matches,” Head coach Billy Pate commented. Another young star early on this season is sophomore Davey Roberts. At the Penn event two weekends ago, Roberts went 2-1 in his singles matches, winning 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday and 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday - a strong response after a tough three-set loss on Friday 2-6, 7-5, 6-0. Roberts carried this momentum through this past weekend in Princeton where he again went 2-1, with another tight three-set loss on Saturday 6-1, 4-6, 7-5. Saturday’s loss was bookended by two strong wins, both in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 on Friday and 6-0, 6-4 on Sunday. Coming out of the Ivy-Plus Invitational this past weekend, something Coach Pate wants to work on is getting “some doubles tandems” to start gelling together. Through Princeton’s first two tournaments, senior Ben Tso has been an anchor on the doubles team, having gone 3-2 in his doubles matches so far. Tso has played with a few different partners - including Roberts - this past
weekend and Seggerman two weekends ago. Both of Tso’s two losses were very close, a positive sign for the Tigers going forward as it seems they have a good doubles foundation to build from. Looking ahead, next on Princeton’s schedule is the Farnsworth Invitational next Friday through Monday at home at the Cordish Family Pavilion and Lenz Tennis Center. The Tigers have had three players miss these first few tournaments with injuries, but these injured players are looking to make their return in either this tournament or at the ITA Northeast Regional tournament two weeks after in New Haven. Senior Luke Gamble is someone who should make an immediate impact when he returns to the court - looking to build on his season last year where he was Second-Team All-Ivy League in doubles and qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championship with Alex Day ’17, ranking as high as No. 13 in the country among doubles pairs.
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Princeton hosted the Ivy Plus Invitational at the Lenz Tennis Center and Cordish Family Pavilion this weekend.
WOMEN’S GOLF
Tigers top Ivy League school in Nittany Invitational
By Claire Coughlin
Associate Sports Editor
The Princeton women’s golf team participated in the Nittany Lion Invitational at Penn State this past weekend. Five Ivies accompanied Princeton to the tournament, but it was the Tigers that came out on top. As the reigning Ivy League champion, the Orange and Black placed fourth overall (889, +25), followed by the Crimson in seventh (899, +35) and fellow Ivies Yale, Penn, and Columbia in eighth (910, +46), 11th (919, +55), and 12th (920, +56) respectively. Overall, no one outplayed the Maryland Terrapins, as these ladies took home both the individual and team titles, carding a cumulative 863, one under par, led by Laura Van Respaille. Van Respaille recorded very impressive round scores of 74, 68, and 70 to finish four under par. The Tigers’ three-round score of 889 was the program’s best for a 54-hole event. This record broke the 891 three-round score posted by the team in last year’s Ivy League Championships. After strong play this
past weekend, this coming weekend with a home tournament at the Springdale Golf Club in Princeton, NJ is sure to be quite exciting. The only Ivy League school missing out on this annual tournament this year is Cornell, but the rest will be joined by Georgetown, Rollins, and Seton Hall. Two years ago, Columbia won the event in a really close matchup by just two strokes over Georgetown. Harvard junior Michelle Xie was the defending individual champion. This year, the Tigers are hoping to use some of their momentum from this weekend and dominate in play. Junior Tiana Lau, sophomores Maya Walton and Alison Chang, senior Tenley Shield and rookie Anabelle Chang will be in Princeton’s scoring five, and juniors Amanda Brown and Amber Wang will compete as individuals. Springdale will be a par-72, 6,100-yard course for the event, which will feature 36 holes Saturday and 18 Sunday. At the first tee on Saturday will be Harvard, Princeton, and Yale between 8:30 and 8:36 a.m. Following them
Tweet of the Day “Congrats to Chad Kanoff, a semifinalist for the prestigious 2017 William V. Campbell Trophy, which honors the balance of football/academics” Princeton Football (@ PUTigerFootball), Football
will be Rollins, Penn, Princeton, and Yale’s individuals between 8:45 and 9:21 a.m. The 10th tee at starting time will be Dartmouth (with individuals), Georgetown (with individuals), and individuals from Harvard, Penn, Seton Hall, Delaware, and Columbia. At the later tee time of the 10th hole, the scoring five of Columbia, Seton Hall, and Delaware will all begin play. On Sunday, the golfers in the first tee time, 8:30 to 9:06 a.m., will be the teams that placed seventh and eighth Saturday and Princeton and Yale’s individual players. They will be followed by the teams that placed first, second, and third between 9:15 and 9:51 a.m.. At 10 a.m. on the first tee, Seton Hall, Delaware, and Harvard individuals will start play as well. On the 10th tee at the first tee off time, ninth and 10th place will begin tournament play, in additional to individuals from Dartmouth, Penn, Georgetown, and Columbia. Fourth, fifth, and sixth-placed teams will follow them between 9:15 and 9:51 a.m. for the final tee off of the invitational.
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Junior Tiana Lau finished +2 overrall for the tournament, helping the Tigers to 4th overall and the highest placing Ivy team.
Stat of the Day
889 (+25) The Tigers women’s golf team set a school record for best 54 hole team performance at the Nittany Lion Invitational
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