The Daily Princetonian: September 29, 2023

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Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Friday September 29, 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 18

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STUDENT LIFE

Falling oak tree smashes student windows in Edwards Hall, causing evacuations

By Tess Weinreich & Meghana Veldhuis Associate News Editor & News Contrubutor

Around 4:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23, a large red oak tree was

uprooted by a gust of wind and fell across Elm Drive, shattering windows in two bathrooms and two dorm rooms in Edwards Hall. The windy conditions — remnants of tropical storm Ophelia See TREE page 3

COURTESY OF COREY SEGAL

The fallen tree in front of Edwards Hall.

The PROSPECT

ACADEMICS

Popular courses work to accommodate high demand

By Isabel Yip & Thomas Catalano Head News Editor & Contributing News Writer

Following trends of overenrollment in introductory and popular courses, several courses are adjusting their locations as well as beginning to offer multiple sections for smaller classes. Accommodations allow courses to preserve seminar-style learning in small classes, but in some cases, they cause professors to alter their traditional ways of teaching methods. Enrollment trends followed those of last semester, where many introductory courses and popular classes in creative writing were met with high demand for a limited number of seats. CHM201: General Chemistry I is an introductory course which was formerly taught in a lecture hall in Frick Chemistry Laboratory. The hall includes a lab behind the blackboard wall, where demonstrators can easily store and acquire materials for live demonstrations of course concepts. Now, the course has been moved to McCosh 50, where live demonstrations can no longer be held. Michael Hecht, a professor of CHM201, told The Daily Princetonian, “Now, I do no dem-

onstrations. I show videos on the screen.” Hecht noted that this lecture hall location change is not conducive to his instruction: “This issue is that when I teach chemistry — particularly an intro chemistry course —, the quality of teaching is not just telling people but showing people.” In response to the change in CHM201 lecture halls, University spokesperson Ahmad Rizvi wrote to the ‘Prince:’ “McCosh 50 was the best option at the time classrooms had to be assigned, and the assignment was made in consultation with the department.” Meanwhile, courses in creative writing have held onto their small class sizes by offering multiple sections of the same courses. Data collected by The Daily Princetonian shows that the creative writing program consistently has the most seats filled across the department, filling 95.3 percent of its seats this semester. Professor Yiyun Li, Director of the Program in Creative Writing, noted that the small class sizes are integral to the experience of creative writing courses. “It’s an intimate subject,” she said. “There are not many lec-

tures. It’s more about students reading each other’s work, workshopping.” In LCA101: Introduction to Art Making, students engage in twoweek units across five different fields with different professors; an experience that Professors Stacy Wolf and Tess James say is only possible as a hands-on experience with a smaller group of students. “That’s what’s important about it: That the students are making art — not sitting passively and learning about art, but they’re actually doing it,” Wolf said. “It’s hard to go above 35 [students] in the class and have an excellent experience, which we insist on.” Professor AnneMarie Perl, who teaches ART100: An Introduction to the History of Art: Meanings in the Visual Arts, similarly described how the nature of her course in Art History poses constraints on class size. Given the ongoing construction of the Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM), in order to examine objects firsthand, classes must go to special collections or the off-site location of PUAM. “Those rooms have caps, and we had to schedule those precepts far in advance,” said Perl. See COURSES page 2

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

NEWS

Amid rising inflation, Nassau businesses reopen after prolonged construction closure by Staff News Writer Abby Leibowitz PAGE 3

No Snooze: students flock to SZA-headlined campus forum By Kerrie Liang, Matthew Suh, & Justus Wilhoit | Head Prospect Editor & Contributing Prospect Writers

Grammy Award-winning artist Solána Imani Rowe, better known as SZA, commanded the stage at Richardson Auditorium this past Tuesday as she discussed growing up in suburban New Jersey, being a Black woman in the music industry, and seeing her work as a form of activism. The event — titled “SOS: Race, Art, and Activism” — was sponsored by the Effron Center for the Study of America and took place one day before SZA relaunched her sold-out North American tour, “SOS.” The event consisted of a keynote presentation by SZA and a roundtable discussion with scholars and activists from Yale, Columbia, the University of Washington, and Princeton. As she came on to the stage, SZA was welcomed with a loud roar and a standing ovation. Students erupted with cheer as she kicked off her heels, took off her coat, and made herself comfortable before approaching the lectern. SZA began her presentation by reflecting on her childhood in Maplewood, N.J., just an hour away from Princeton. Her parents are Pan-Afri-

INSIDE THE PAPER

OPINION

PROSPECT

CARTOON

canists, and her mother performed traditional African dance. She said she never felt ostracized because of her racial identity. “I didn’t know that all these things were going to be different until I left my town,” she said. SZA began her rise to fame as a songwriter for multiple artists, including Beyoncé and Rihanna, before releasing her own music. In 2017, she released her debut album “Ctrl” just weeks after signing her first major recording contract. The album garnered SZA five Grammy nominations, and Time called it the best album of the year. After much anticipation, SZA released her sophomore album “SOS” last December — the event’s namesake. Six years after “Ctrl,” SZA has a changed perspective of the music industry and how her identity as a Black woman fits into a space that is not welcoming to women like her. SZA discussed how she felt boxed in to the expectations of iconic Black female artists. “Everybody keeps telling me that I need to make music that sounds like See SZA page 16

SPORTS

Princeton must create an equitable experience for hijabis using communal bathrooms by Senior Columnist Ndeye Thioubou

My silence as a disgraced bilingual by Assistant Prospect Editor Russell Fan

PEV Restrictions by Contributing Cartoonist Austria Merritt

No. 14 women’s soccer team continues win streak against Cornell, 4-2 by Sports Contributor Peter Wang

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