The Daily Princetonian: Class of 2024 First-year Issue

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New to campus? Interested in student journalism? Here is everything you need to know about The Daily Princetonian, Princeton’s premier student newspaper and your source for the news, sports, and

ENV 200: The Environmental Nexus

opinions of the University community!

What is The Daily Princetonian?

The Daily Princetonian — more commonly known as the ‘Prince’ — is Princeton’s independently operated and published student newspaper and the main source of news, sports, and opinions for the University community. We are proud to be one of the few remaining daily college newspapers. Whether you are looking for news regarding the latest University policies, recaps of the weekend games, or hot takes on current events at Princeton, there is no better source than us!

ENV 200: “The Environmental Nexus” course will be offered through the Program in Environmental Studies during the fall semester. This one-of-a-kind course, available to all undergraduates, addresses global environmental crises from multiple perspectives, including scientific, political, social and ethical viewpoints.

Choose from six distributions: Social Analysis (SA) Science and Engineering with Lab (SEL) Ethical Thought and Moral Values (EM) Quantitative and Computational Reasoning (QCR) Literature and the Arts (LA) Science and Engineering without Lab (SEN)

Visit environment.princeton.edu to learn more about the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Program in Environmental Studies including Fall 2020 ENV courses and other opportunities, and to hear students talk about their experiences studying environmental topics at Princeton.

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Friday July 24, 2020 vol. CXLIV no. 29

Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Twitter: @princetonian Facebook: The Daily Princetonian YouTube: The Daily Princetonian Instagram: @dailyprincetonian

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

LETTER From the Editor

In trying times, a community to call home

W

e were preparing to print our March 9, 2020 issue when the news came. Just before midnight, Princeton announced that the coronavirus would require classes be held online for three weeks after spring break. Within minutes, the revelation had ricocheted across campus.

At The Daily Princetonian, we scrambled to get our bearings. After a few emergency calls with University spokespeople, we learned the decision had been revealed in error: Nassau Hall intended to release its plans the following morning, and the webpage had been prematurely published.

But the news was out — and we had a paper to print.

JUNE 2020

A team of reporters and editors hunkered down to write the story, breaking every hour for U-Store snack runs. Later that morning, our paper ran under the headline, “U. inadvertently releases unfinalized plans.”

On that sleepless night, I saw what makes the ‘Prince’ so special. We aren’t just an independent publication or Princeton’s paper of record.

We’re a community sustained through friendship, empathy, and dedication, both to our work and to one another.

And at a time when nothing is normal, the ‘Prince’ has never been more vital.

In this issue, designed exclusively for the Class of 2024, we’re delighted to share some of our best work with you.

Of the articles printed here, most were pitched, written, and published remotely, after the coronavirus forced us to return home. The ‘Prince’ has kept publishing daily,

and we’ll continue full steam ahead this year.

The pandemic gives us a unique opportunity to chart our paper’s future. Over the coming year, we’ll develop and pursue a bold vision for the ‘Prince.’ How can we serve our communities at Princeton? What role should the ‘Prince’ play on and off campus? What stories do we tell, and why?

In reimagining the ‘Prince,’ we won’t forget the imperative of this moment. As protestors confront the antiBlack racism that pervades every aspect of American life, newsrooms across the country are reckoning with their own failure to represent the communities they serve. At the ‘Prince,’ we’ve resolved to hold these unflinching and honest conversations.

Bearing in mind our obligation and commitment to change, I invite you to join us. In September, all sec-

tions, including Copy, Design, Features, Multimedia, News, Opinion, Sports, and Prospect, will recruit new staff. Unlike many college publications, we take on as many people as possible, and no prior experience is ever required. Though most of our reporting and editing will occur online, our community carries on. We can’t wait to welcome you to our “newsZooms,” the informal conversations we hold almost every day.

Regardless of whether you join our staff, the ‘Prince’ is your paper, because Princeton is your community. We’re so thrilled you’re here. It’s our honor and privilege to report for you.

Jonathan Ort is editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian. He can be reached at eic@dailyprincetonian.com and on Twitter at @ ort_jon.

JUNE 2020

Supreme Court rules in favor of U., temporarily protects status of DACA recipients

U. renames Woodrow Wilson School, Wilson College

By Zachary Shevin and Rooya Rahin

By Zachary Shevin, Evelyn Doskoch, and Sam Kagan

Head News Editor and Assistant News Editor

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the University, blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

While welcoming the decision, the University emphasized a need for legislative reform on the issue of immigration — a view shared by many immigrants and activists.

Today, the Supreme Court announced its decision on the case Department of Homeland Security v.

Regents of the University of California, the consolidation of a series of suits pertaining to the revocation of DACA by the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including a complaint by the University — one of the first suits challenging the program’s termination.

The 5–4 decision saw Chief Justice John Roberts join Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan ’81, Sonia Sotomayor ’76, and Stephen Breyer.

Justice Roberts wrote the majority

opinion. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito ’72, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh each wrote their own opinions dissenting and concurring in part.

“Princeton University filed this suit because our success as a worldclass teaching and research university depends on our ability to attract and support talented students from all backgrounds,” President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 noted in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.

“Today’s carefully reasoned Supreme Court decision rightly protects DACA beneficiaries against arbitrary agency action.”

Eisgruber added that while welcoming the Court’s decision, the University recognizes “that the Dreamers’ future, and our own future, will depend on legislation that gives them a clear path to citizenship.”

“Princeton will continue to advocate on behalf of DACA beneficiaries and the many other immigrants whose talent, hard work, and creativity contribute so vitally to this University and to our country,“ Eis-

Head News Editor and Assistant News Editors

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Wilson College will both be renamed to omit reference to Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, according to a University announcement on Saturday afternoon.

The Woodrow Wilson School will now be known as the “The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.” Wilson College, which had already been scheduled for retirement after the completion of two new residential colleges, will be known as “First College” for the remaining duration of its time as a residential facility.

Organizers for “Change WWS” — which called for the policy school’s renaming earlier this week — told The Daily Princetonian they “appreciate the University’s swift response” but demand more substantive action.

According to President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83, the decision took place at a June 26 “special meeting” attended by the Princeton University Board of Trustees on possible actions the University could take to “oppose racism.”

“The trustees concluded that Woodrow Wilson’s racist thinking and policies make him an inappropriate namesake for a school or college whose scholars, students, and alumni must stand firmly against racism in all its forms,” Eisgruber wrote.

In a statement to the policy school’s community, Dean Cecilia Rouse wrote that she “unequivocally” supports the decision.

“I have often been asked if not Wilson, then who should the School be named for?” she wrote. “I am glad we are not going down that path. Connecting the School to a certain person signals that the School stands for much of what the honoree believes. I feel that for a policy school to be the best, it has to be a place where a true

diversity of backgrounds and beliefs exist.”

Eisgruber also penned an opinion piece in The Washington Post published Saturday evening, titled “I opposed taking Woodrow Wilson’s name off our school. Here’s why I changed my mind.”

“For me, the decision was wrenching but right,” he wrote. “Wilson helped to create the university that I love. I do not pretend to know how to evaluate his life or his staggering combination of achievement and failure. I do know, however, that we cannot disregard or ignore racism when deciding whom we hold up to our students as heroes or role models.”

The University’s Twitter account added soon after the announcement that “more information about how to request a revised diploma will be available soon.”

In April 2016, the University announced that both the residential colSee WILSON page 9

JUNE 2020

See DACA page 5

J U LY 2 0 2 0

ICE rescinds policy barring international students with online course loads following Harvard, MIT’s lawsuit

By Zachary Shevin and Rooya Rahin

Head News Editor and Assistant News Editor

The U.S. Government has agreed to rescind a July 6 Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) rule that may have barred international students with online course loads from remaining in country.

On July 6, ICE released guidelines indicating that international students taking entirely-online course loads “may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.” Two days later, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit against ICE’s rules. And yesterday, 59 higher education institutions, including the University, filed an amicus brief in support of the Harvard and MIT’s suit.

In a hearing held today, the Gov-

ernment agreed to rescind the Directive “on a nationwide basis” and return to previous COVID-19 guidence that allows students taking online courses to reside in the United States on F-1 visas “for the duration of the emergency.”

“The Government has agreed to rescind the July 6, 2020 Policy Directive and the July 7, 2020 FAQ , and has also agreed to rescind their implementation. The Government will return to the March 9, 2020 and March 13, 2020 policy,” according to a notice from the court clerk.

This resolution was agreed to less than five minutes into the hearing, according to reporting from The Harvard Crimson.

In a previous statement announcing the University’s intention to file an amicus brief in support of Harvard and MIT’s suit, University President See ICE page 8

ANS NAWAZ FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Frick Chemistry Laboratory, where many community members are returning to conduct their research.

Inside Labs reopen with strict social distancing, as look: U. researchers begin ‘Phased Resumption’

By Katie Tam

Senior News Writer

The Phased Resumption of oncampus research is underway, and University researchers are starting to unfreeze cell lines, restart incubators, and remake buffers and media as they

try to pick up the experiments where they left off.

“It’s been a total whirlwind,” said Jared Toettcher, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology. “You have to go back in, get everything set up again.

Everything had been in more or less a deep freeze.”

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University restricted research activities on campus to “Essential Operations” in March. On June 17, following guidance from New Jersey’s government, the University announced See LABS page 8

The Daily Princetonian

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Friday July 24, 2020

LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS FALL 2020

WELCOME CLASS OF 2024 FIND YOUR PATH TO THE ARTS!

A special information session for first-year students will be scheduled for late August.

Visit our special webpage devoted to the Class of 2024 for details and further information:

CREATIVE WRITING

arts.princeton.edu/2024

Welcome to Creative Writing, where our faculty includes some of the most acclaimed writers in the world. Every fall, we reserve three of ten sought-after spaces in each introductory workshop for first-year students like you. The Fall course application will open AUGUST 7 and consists of a short writing sample or statement of interest.

APPLY ONLINE AUGUST 7 - 23 BY 11:59 P.M. arts.princeton.edu/cwr-app

DANCE

The Program in Dance welcomes you. Dance courses open to first-year students include our new Princeton Dance Festival Re-Imagined: Five Performance Projects culminating in a live, online Performance Festival.

Students will explore the intersections of dance and multimedia performance, digital animation, filmmaking, site-specific theater and art, or music. Dive into dance scholarship, choreography, and physical practice, with acclaimed faculty, guest choreographers, and co-curricular classes.

Join us for a DANCE VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE for first-years in mid-August

THEATER + MUSIC THEATER

The Programs in Theater and Music Theater welcome all new students, beginners and experienced alike, to explore theater and collaborate with award-winning professional theater artists and scholars in the classroom and in production.

Performing roles, production, and design opportunities are available to all first-year students in a diverse season presented in several innovative formats.

Participate in a rapidly changing theatrical world through exciting new media, while exploring the timeless arts of collaborative creativity and communication.

No experience is required to get started.

INTERESTED? Attend our

VISUAL ARTS

Introductory Theater Meeting to meet our community, hear about our season and ask questions.

Immerse yourself in an introductory course in Sculpture, Painting, Graphic Design, and more in the Program in Visual Arts. Work with stellar contemporary artists. Dirty your hands in the trenches of materiality and object-making.

Explore and analyze the structures that form the core of our experience.

Grapple with meta questions pertinent to society, culture, and progress.

Entry level courses are geared towards first-year students and welcome all levels of experience.

ATELIER

The Princeton Atelier offers unique, one-time interdisciplinary courses taught by nationally and internationally renowned guest artists focusing on the collaborative creation of new work.

Friday July 24, 2020

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Palomino: I’m not going to be facing deportation today DACA

Continued from page 3

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

gruber noted.

DACA, a program implemented in 2012 by executive order, allows some undocumented individuals who were brought to the country as children to defer deportation and gain eligibility for work permits.

Ana Mariana Sotomayor Palomino ’22, a DACA recipient, told the ‘Prince’ that they “feel a little bit more comfortable about my future” in light of this decision.

“Leading up to this decision, with the uncertainty that is DACA, one feels a lot of anxiety,” they added. “Once I heard the news — it was really early in the morning — and I just thought, ‘Okay, I’m not going to be facing deportation today.’”

In 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Homeland Security terminated DACA on President Donald Trump's order.

This termination was contested by several states and these cases were tried in multiple lower courts, including the case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California. The Supreme Court issued a writ of certiorari on June 28, 2019, which consolidated the case with two others and allowed the Court to review the lower courts’ decisions.

The University’s complaint was in partnership with Microsoft President and University trustee Brad Smith ’81 and DACA recipient and activist María Perales Sánchez ’18 in November 2017 — one of the first challenges to the Trump administration policy change.

Sotomayor Palomino told the ‘Prince’ that they appreciated that the University “took the time and effort to actually bring an undocumented voice into the Supreme Court and into consideration.”

There have been many additional

complaints to the Supreme Court after Trump’s executive order ending the DACA program.

In November 2019, the Court heard oral arguments on two issues relating to DACA: whether the rescission of DACA was immune from judicial review and outside the scope of the court’s jurisdiction, and if the rescission by the Trump administration and DHS was legal under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

More recently, the Court considered a briefing from the National Immigration Law Center citing DACA recipients’ positive impacts on the nation’s fight against COVID-19, noting that about 27,000 recipients are health care workers and nearly 200 are medical students.

While the Opinion acknowledged a report that excluding DACA recipients from the labor force could result in the “loss of $215 billion in economic activity and an associated $60 billion in federal tax revenue over the next ten years,” the Court did not rule on the merits or legality of DACA itself.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies. ‘The wisdom’ of those decisions ‘is none of our concern,’” the Opinion noted. “We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

This ruling is not the end of the battle for DACA. The Opinion specifically noted that it is within the power of DHS to end DACA but that the method by which it did so was illegal.

As this case was primarily regarding the procedure that DHS and the Trump administration followed in rescinding DACA, and the majority opinion written by Roberts states that “[w]hether DACA is illegal is, of course, a legal determination and therefore a question for the Attorney General.” He goes on to state that there are policy options for the DHS in moving forward

BENJAMIN BALL / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Chris Eisgruber '83, Maria De La Cruz Perales Sanchez '18, and Brad Smith '81 speak to reporters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court. with DACA. For now, however, the legal status of DACA recipients remains protected under law.

Upon learning of the Court’s decisions, Perales Sánchez — who now works at a Baltimore nonprofit that defends migrants’ rights — said that “Today, we celebrate a positive decision being well aware that we still need a permanent legislative solution that includes all 11 million of us — our families, our siblings, our parents, and folks who don’t fit the ‘Dreamer’ criteria.”

“This decision benefits 700,000 DACA recipients, but I always want to point out that the immigration rights advocacy movement is fighting for the

protection of 11 million undocumented immigrants,“ Sotomayor Palomino added.

“We need to think about how even our narrative as undocumented immigrants — the ‘good immigrants’ who are Ivy League educated and who go into the much more esteemed professions — how that creates a divide within the undocumented community,“ they added. “My mom has been going to DACA protests, but I always think about how DACA wasn’t meant to protect her.”

Sotomayor Palomino added that while this ruling — coming on the heels of an earlier Supreme Court decision prohibiting workplace dis-

crimination against transgender individuals — “gives people a little bit of hope, and perhaps some joy” during a difficult time, they hope that “the undocumented community takes this moment to unify and really be intentional with our activism.”

“Because of the racial injustice that even citizens are facing right now, I think this ultimately propels the movement toward fighting for the liberation of all,” they added. “In light of the protests against police brutality happening across the country, I want us to also think about our Black undocumented peers [...] who face a higher risk of being stopped and ultimately detained.”

To hear more from Sotomayor Palomino, find a link to her appearance on our podcast "Under the Bubble" at frosh.dailyprincetonian.com.

DECEMBER 2019

Xiyue Wang released from detainment in Iran

By Linh Nguyen, Zachary Shevin, and Rooya Rahin

News Editor Emerita, Head News Editor, and Assistant News Editor

Xiyue Wang, a University graduate student who has been held in Iran for alleged espionage since 2016, has been released, according to a press release sent

by President Donald Trump around 6 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 7.

“After more than three years of being held prisoner in Iran, Xiyue Wang is returning to the United States,” Trump wrote. “Freeing Americans held captive is of vital importance to my Administration, and we will continue to work hard to bring home all our citizens wrongfully held captive overseas.”

Xiyue Wang was detained in Iran on Aug. 7, 2016, while conducting research for his work in the University history department. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in an Iranian prison. In 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions concluded that Wang’s arrest had no legal basis and that he should be released “immediately.”

On Dec. 5, MTV Lebanon initially reported that Wang had been freed by Iranian authorities after Swiss mediation. At that time, BBC Persian allegedly had a U.S. source stating that the story could not be confirmed. However, early this morning, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed Switzerland’s involvement via Twitter.

“We thank the Swiss government for facilitating the return of Mr. Wang, and are pleased the Iranian government has been constructive in this manner,” he wrote.

Upon his release, Xiyue Wang was presented an American flag by U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that Wang’s release is part of a prisoner swap, with the United States freeing Iranian scientist

Massoud Soleimani. In an interview in Sept. 2019, Zarif said he had offered to swap Wang and an “Iranian professor” over a year ago.

Soleimani had been arrested in the United States in 2016 for allegedly violating trade sanctions by attempting to transport biological material to Iran.

Prior to the prisoner swap, Soleimani was facing a federal trial in Georgia, according to Bloomberg.

Wang has not seen his wife, Hua Qu, or son since 2016. His wife has been a strong advocate in the University community, working to bring awareness about his imprisonment. In a statement posted to the “Free Xiyue Wang” Group’s Twitter account, Hua Qu stated that “[her] family is now complete.”

“Our son Shaofan and I have waited three long years for this day and it’s hard to express in words how excited we are to be reunited with Xiyue,” she wrote. “We are thankful to everyone who helped make this happen.”

Stephen Kotkin, the John P. Birkelund ’52 Professor in History and International Affairs and Wang’s thesis advisor prior to his imprisonment, told The Daily Princetonian in an email that his “joy is beyond words.”

“Once Wang finishes an expected medical examination at the U.S. medical facility in Germany, and returns home to his family and colleagues, he’ll resume his work on his PhD full-time,” Kotkin wrote. “In fact, while braving wrongful imprisonment in Iran, he had continued his work as best he could, reading books, studying new languages, and writing in the prison.”

Kotkin also noted that, despite Wang’s ordeals, his “profound admiration for Persian culture, deep sympathy for peoples of the Muslim religion, intense curiosity about local governance practices, and an unquenchable thirst for historical study of the entire region” has remained unchanged.

“His love for the life of the mind

helped him endure his unjust ordeal, and will enable him to complete his degree with distinction,” Kotkin emphasized.

Since Wang’s detainment in 2016, various graduate students and friends of Wang have been active advocates for his release. In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ the “Free Xiyue Wang” group president Michael McGovern GS wrote that the group is “beyond excited.”

“Hua Qu has worked tirelessly on behalf of her husband, and now it is time that we as a community prepare to welcome Xiyue Wang home,” McGovern wrote.

In the past three years since Wang’s imprisonment, the “Free Xiyue Wang” group has held vigils and Days of Action advocating for Wang’s release.

In addition, the Asian American Students Association (AASA) has contributed substantial support to the

group and has “hosted informational community meetings and tabling events specifically designed for contacting government representatives” to raise awareness among the undergraduate population.

“We are overjoyed and relieved to hear that Mr. Wang has finally been released and will be able to reunite with his wife and son, who he has been apart from for far too long,” the AASA executive board wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “Going forward, we plan to continue collaborating with the graduate students to provide any support that Mr. Wang and his family may need.”

The University itself had also taken an active role in advocating for Wang’s release. University spokesperson Ben Chang, in an email to the ‘Prince,’ gave the following statement from an unnamed University official.

“Throughout Wang’s imprisonment, Princeton University had formal and informal conversations with government officials and others advocating for his release,” the University official wrote. “Princeton also worked to directly support Wang, working to ensure that fellow students and faculty were able to remain in touch with Wang through regular, at times daily, phone calls.”

In a Dec. 7 statement, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 expressed his joy regarding Wang’s release, and his gratitude towards all parties who mediated the release.

“We would like to extend our thanks to the United States government, the government of Switzerland, and the students, faculty and staff who continued to advocate for Xiyue’s freedom throughout this ordeal,” he wrote in a statement.

COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Fourth-year history graduate student Xiyue Wang with his wife Hua Qu and their now six-year-old son.

Q&A with Nicholas Johnson ’20, U.’s first black valedictorian

By Paige Allen

Associate Prospect Editor

Nicholas Johnson ’20 is an operations research and financial engineering (ORFE) concentrator from Montreal, Quebec, pursuing certificates in statistics and machine learning, applied and computational mathematics, and applications of computing. After graduation, Johnson will spend the summer interning remotely with the D.E. Shaw Group as a hybrid quantitative researcher and software developer before pursu-

ing a Ph.D. in operations research at MIT beginning in fall 2020.

In a conversation with The Daily Princetonian on May 13, Johnson shared his reflections on being named valedictorian, responding to challenging situations, and growing as an undergraduate.

The Daily Princetonian (DP): What drew you to your particular areas of study?

Nicholas Johnson (NJ): So I came into Princeton knowing that I wanted to be an en-

gineer but not entirely sure which engineering department I wanted to work in. I've always really loved math and the sciences. I’ve generally always been a fairly analytical thinker. I played chess very competitively throughout high school and also wrote several math competitions.

And when I got to Princeton, I started off doing the first year BSE curriculum, but it was really in the spring when I took COS 126: Computer Science — An Interdisciplinary Ap-

proach, my first ever computer science class, that I really learned or realized how much I enjoy computer science. I really wanted to make computer science more central in my studies, and when I looked at the ORFE department, I felt like the ORFE department was the best engineering department to combine my interests, both my newfound interest in computer science and my initial interest in math. I also really liked how the skill set that ORFE students develop

is broadly applicable across varied application domains.

That’s something that I really liked, that I in some sense channeled through many of my research projects, in that my research projects are focused in two relatively distinct application areas.

DP: What does being valedictorian mean to you?

NJ: I think it’s very empowering, specifically in the context of Princeton’s history.

See JOHNSON page 8

The Daily Princetonian

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Friday July 24, 2020

FEBRUARY 2020

Looking back: Told to self-isolate, they were four to a room JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

By Albert Jiang

Senior News Writer

Over the weekend of Jan. 31, 108 students who had visited China in the preceding 14 days were asked to selfquarantine in response to the global 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.

As of Monday the approximately 125 students who had been assessed were all declared low-risk and no longer required to self-quarantine. Even so, a “small number of students” have still elected to remain self-isolated.

Some students affected by the initial self-isolation policies felt the University’s decision was poorly implemented and incompetently executed.

In an anonymous letter to the Daily Princetonian last Tuesday, graduate students expressed frustration regarding “the University’s conduct toward the returned members during [the] implementation” of its isolation policy.

“Each one of us has taken tremendous precaution to protect ourselves while staying in mainland China, while experiencing fear, pressure, and anxiety,” they wrote. “Upon our return, instead of finding ourselves protected and safe, these policies and conduct nullified all prior efforts and put us in an unsafe environment.”

Addressing students’ concerns, Deputy University spokesperson Mike Hotchkiss wrote to the ‘Prince’ that the individuals in self-isolation were receiving “housing, dining and academic support.”

“Our priority at all times has been to protect the health and wellbeing of all members of the University Community,” Hotchkiss wrote. “By its nature, emergency response is an imperfect process that requires responding in real time to changes in information and guidance. The University responded ... by working with officials with infectious disease and public health expertise at the campus, local, and state levels to ensure that our response was appropriate and informed by the latest science and pertinent guidance.”

Previously, Aly Kassam-Remtulla, Vice Provost for International Affairs and Operations, Irini Daskalaki, an Infectious Disease Physician at University Health Services, and Robin Izzo, Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety, published a letter in the ‘Prince’ affirming their com-

mitment to the “health and safety of every member of the University community.”

Four students who agreed to be interviewed by the ‘Prince’ on the condition of anonymity described the fear, anger, and frustration they experienced, specifically pertaining to the alternative accommodations the University had provided them.

They commended the University’s quick implementation of the self-isolation policy — put in place before most peer institutions in the United States — but criticized the lack of timely and appropriate response to inquiries via phone calls and emails, which they said exacerbated their emotional stress.

According to students asked to selfquarantine, they were communally isolated — in several cases up to four in a room in campus housing, with shared bathrooms and kitchens — which, in their view, defeated the very purpose of isolation. Furthermore, student accounts indicate that University officials either were delayed in addressing concerns from students or simply did not respond.

A third-year graduate student (G3) who had visited family in China for a month described their experience with self-isolation.

Having been assigned with other students to “an Annex room” for selfisolation, G3 panicked. The Graduate College Annexes are three-story houses on Dickinson Street, Edwards Place, and University Place, with single bedrooms, but shared bathrooms and common rooms, including a community kitchen and laundry facilities.

The student reached out immediately to Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) regarding the high risk for cross-infection.

“I did not expect [them to respond],” they wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince,’ “and indeed they did not, given they already made such a decision ignoring risks to our personal safety.”

The student then proceeded to draft an email with “around 30 students and scholars” in a collectively signed request to Community Health, EHS, the Office of the Provost, the Graduate School, and University Health Services (UHS) on Feb. 2.

“By that time, I was fully exhausted due to drafting and organizing, jetlag, and emotional stresses,” the G3 explained. It wasn’t until the next day

at noon that Community Health and EHS responded, but only after a follow-up email was sent by the students.

“They refused to provide hotel rooms or studios,” the G3 said. “We also asked for masks and disinfection materials and got ignored. They only provided food.”

Indeed, the University did “displace guests staying at the University-owned Palmer House (which has hotel-style rooms) to create space for some students, but area hotels were not amenable to housing self-quarantined students,” according to Hotchkiss.

Even then, only some students received food — in some cases, up to three hours after “normal meal time” — according to G3. Other graduate students were never contacted by the University about food delivery nor received any, leading many to resort to instant meals or skip meals entirely.

Many Chinese students volunteered to buy groceries or meals for those in self-isolation — even individuals they did not know personally — coordinating their schedules according to the needs of students in self-isolation, G3 told the ‘Prince.’

Another student who self-isolated, a senior undergraduate who also asked to remain anonymous, had a more positive perception of the University food-delivery service.

They opted-in to the offer, “which appeared to be a variety of food from Frist three times a day.”

“I was very happy with the meal delivery plan and was happy the university was trying to reduce the risk of say, a student going to the dining halls,” they said.

However, all the students interviewed, including the senior, found the level of support and lack of administrative transparency to be troubling.

The G3 expressed outrage over Hotchkiss’s remarks in the ‘Prince’ article published on Monday, Feb. 3.

“How could [the University] say that they were ‘working to fully support’ us, when they actually put some of us in danger, pushed us to move, and [refused] our request for hotelroom self-isolation, a solution we actively proposed out of our sense of responsibility to public health?” the G3 said.

The senior, who was in China for the Lunar New Year, also described their initial surprise upon learning of the self-isolation requirement. The se-

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For full course list, visit: artandarchaeology.princeton.edu.

nior noted that, the call to self-isolate may have suggested that the situation was more serious than it was. Because they had not seen the State Department’s announcement, they were “shocked and confused” to receive the notification.

“Peer institutions (Harvard, JHU, and MIT) had not made similar announcements at the time,” they added.

“It seems like everyone is just doing the best they can, but it's confusing when peer institutions' policies do not match.”

Still, several institutions including Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, and Columbia University announced different recommendations and requirements for registration and self isolation.

Upon their return to campus, the senior was assigned to a room in upperclass housing with three other individuals. None of them knew each other. The specific room appeared to be a two-room triple with a private bathroom in floor plans reviewed by the ‘Prince,’ even though four students were assigned to it.

The University explained the decision to house students together was based on the lack of symptoms exhibited.

“We utilized all immediately available housing to address the requirements of self-quarantine,” Hotchkiss wrote, in a statement to the ‘Prince.’

“In some cases, this meant placing self-quarantining students together in the same room, which is a common and acceptable practice as long as those with symptoms are separated from those without.”

However, students did not feel comfortable living in the rooms due to the possibility of cross contamination.

“It seemed to be a risky choice,” the senior said. “For example, if I was sick, I would very easily get others sick.

Even if everyone was healthy and not carrying the coronavirus, living with four people in a triple could still lend itself to easy transmission of the common cold or flu.”

“The University seems to have tried to put those who returned from China into a riskier environment,” they added.

A junior undergraduate who was in China for Lunar New Year was also communally isolated with other in-

dividuals.

“Obviously, [the initial email] was personally jarring, but I knew it was the right thing to do in terms of epidemic containment,” they said in an interview. “The University had to react to and follow a poorly worded and unsubstantiated federal travel directive.”

Even so, they also described their assigned living accommodations as “ridiculous.”

“It was quite an emotional experience for me and maybe I’m being overdramatic, but just from a common sense perspective, self-isolation doesn’t seem to be a group activity,” they remarked. “For the amount of time it took the University to get back to me about my housing assignment, I was surprised their ultimate solution was a quad.”

Additionally, affected undergraduates were expected to coordinate with their professors and directors of studies regarding accommodations and potential extensions on their own.

“The University asked us to reach out to professors ourselves. It seemed to be a play-it-by-ear thing — we were just dealing with things as they happened,” they said. “Thankfully, as only one day of the semester had passed, no large accommodations needed to be made.”

A fourth-year graduate student (G4) interviewed by the ‘Prince’ was in China for three weeks during the Lunar New Year. However, living off campus, the G4 decided to self-isolate at home instead of in University housing.

Even so, the G4 criticized the University for its emails and preparation, saying that it could have been “more timely,” given the school’s intersession break.

When the G3 revealed their self-isolating practices to their housemates, some asked G3 to move out into a hotel.

“Scared and offended, [I] explained that I would need food delivery and reimbursement from the University,” they explained. “I showed them the screenshots of University instructions for self-isolating students and proved [to exceed the University’s] requirements.”

“Dealing [with my] housemates at this sensitive moment was emotionally challenging. I was actually very fearful that they would protest to the University and ask me to move to the assigned Annex,” they added.

See ISOLATE page 7

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Anonymous: If I was sick, I would very easily get others sick ISOLATE Continued from page 6

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However, when G3’s housemates became aware of the situation, they brought water and food and offered to provide any assistance or support they needed. Despite the challenges, G3 remarked, “It is all worth it. I’m grateful to have them as my housemates.”

The G3 also anecdotally conveyed the struggles of other graduate students.

“One grad student, who works in a lab and chose to continue voluntary self-isolation, was required by her boss to go back to work,” they explained.

“But her lab mates were very unhappy.

They did not dare to challenge the boss directly but rather pushed her to continue self-isolation. So now she is under [opposing] pressure from both her boss and her lab mates.”

In their Feb. 5 letter to the ‘Prince,’ Kassam-Remtulla, Daskalaki, Izzo — the University administrators —

acknowledged the challenges of selfquarantine for students, while thanking the campus community for their efforts “to be supportive, respectful, and inclusive” of those affected.

Addressing the concerns regarding housing arrangements, the authors wrote that asking self-quarantined individuals to share bathrooms and kitchens was an approach that is “a common practice in public health emergencies and necessary given the limited housing availability on campus.”

The G3 expressed their disappointment with the letter, accusing the University of intentionally “avoiding their mistake[s]” regarding the risk of cross infection in the assigned housing with shared bathrooms.

“They are either not professionally qualified for their positions — namely not [being] aware that the virus spreads through droplet, touch, and stool — or not responsible, or both,” G3 rebuked. “‘Common practice does not justify anything. It's out of luck

that the cross infection did not happen earlier. It only shows that the University has been risking some of its members' personal safety for [a long time].”

In a phone interview with the ‘Prince,’ Michael Levy, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, corroborated this statement, saying, “The issue is, ‘common practice’ … doesn’t mean it’s a good practice.”

“If you’re going to isolate people, isolate them,” he added.

Levy further stated that, in his opinion, the University’s implementation of self-isolation was “done very poorly” and the housing arrangements were “problematic, to say the least.”

In a subsequent email statement, he explained that because 2019-nCoV has a basic reproduction number (R0) of at least 2.2 — that is, the number of additional cases one infected individual would on average cause — “true

isolation is a powerful tool.”

Although Levy acknowledged that the University’s overarching intent to isolate was “a rational thing to do,” he added, “‘dorm-room’ isolation is troubling. Putting four people together in a dorm room seems like feeding the Minotaur.”

The junior had a final message to the University community at large.

“In the same way that people from China are the most likely to transmit the disease, they are also the most affected by it. Please remember that at the center of all your rightful fears and wariness are real people,” they wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “If there's one thing I hope readers take away from this, it’s not any of the issues I had with Princeton's response ... but how infinitely better it is to be here than the real center of the epidemic.

People who have friends and family trapped in cities in lockdown.”

The University recognized the unique challenges of returning to campus from China at the start of the

semester and thanked the students for their assistance in protecting the campus community.

“We acknowledge and empathize with their situation navigating housing on campus while also worrying about family and friends in China,” wrote Hotchkiss. “Our response efforts could not have been implemented successfully without the students’ diligence in self-reporting, self-observation and commitment to protect our community…. We plan to invite these students to meet next week to discuss their concerns.”

The G4 offered that the University community can remain cautious without holding grudges.

“Given that this tragedy has happened, we are all in this together. It is during times like this that one should remember that we are vulnerable individually, only stronger in solidarity.”

APRIL 2020

University Muslim Life Program’s online Jummah service disrupted by Islamophobic ‘zoombombers’

By Marissa Michaels Senior News Writer

The University Muslim Life Program’s weekly prayer service was interrupted on Friday, April 17 by “zoombombers” who crashed the meeting with offensive slurs and pornographic images.

In the face of COVID-19, the Muslim Life Program (MLP) moved their Friday afternoon Jummah services online, allowing nearly 200 students, alumni families, and community members to join through a public Zoom link each week.

The 1 p.m. service proceeded as usual for its first half. But soon, multiple attendees began to make disruptive noises. While to some the noises were indiscernible, Fawaz Ahmad ’22, Muslim Student Association president and co-host of the meeting, recognized them as racial and Islamophobic slurs. The zoombombers also played a song featured in anti-Muslim memes about ISIS, according to Ahmad.

To combat the attack, Ahmad muted the accounts, but the hijack-

ers managed to un-mute themselves.

He then switched the meeting’s settings to a forced mute, which caused the zoombombers to move to the chat feature, where they began writing slurs. Ahmad soon turned off the chat feature as well.

Undeterred, the hijackers then displayed pornographic material through their video icons. Imam Sohaib Sultan’s video feed was set as participants’ main screen, but viewers using the gallery view might have been forced to see the images.

Flustered, Ahmad tried to turn off everyone’s video feeds except Sultan’s.

“I was so disturbed myself,” he said. “I didn't want anybody else to have to see what I had seen.”

As more and more people were exposed to the images, participants’ faces filled with confusion and disgust, according to Abdelhamid Arbab ’23, another student on the Zoom.

“Especially people who were older were very confused as to what was going on,” he said.

Ahmad soon decided to simply end the call. First, he attempted to

terminate the Zoom himself, but instead got locked out of the continuing meeting. Ahmad called Sultan, and together they ended the call, beginning a new password-protected call minutes later.

Though some participants left permanently, Sultan estimates that about 100 congregants returned. In the last portion of the service, the group said a prayer for the people who hijacked them. “I think, in the face of hatred like this,” said Ahmad, “it’s really important to stand together as a community and continue doing what we do best.”

In his mind, there’s no doubt the incident was a targeted anti-Islam attack.

“It wasn’t just generic evil swearing or whatever at people. There were pointed disgusting things about God or about Islam,” he said. “Just thinking that there’s people that are so disturbed to actually be propelled to do stuff like this in the first place was just ... a wake up call.”

The MLP plans to file a formal complaint with the University. Sultan said he finds hope in his community’s resilience.

“This is the [story] of all of the great

prophets that we read about in scripture — that at every turn, they were met with roadblocks and what was required of them was a great deal of patience and perseverance, and a great deal of intelligence and steadfastness,” Sultan said.

“One should only expect that when you set forth in the world to do something good, to promote something that is kind, to gather people together for the sake of goodness and godliness, that you are going to come up against obstacles,” he added.

Zoombombing, the phenomenon in which people disrupt Zoom meetings with offensive comments or images, has been identified as an increasingly pernicious problem. In light of the trend and among other security concerns, various entities have recently banned the use of Zoom conferencing for their employees or members, including the New York City Department of Education, the government of Taiwan, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In Arbab’s view, zoombombing presents unique challenges for certain communities.

“Especially minority communities

are being affected in their gatherings and their ability to congregate during this time,” he said.

Sultan said that securing their meetings will now be a priority, and that there will be a big “learning curve” as they work to achieve that, given the novelty of the situation.

Learning from the incident, Ahmad plans to institute a password and waiting room for every meeting in order to make them more secure.

Reflecting on the experience, Ahmad said he finds Zoom’s security settings disjointed. He hopes the corporation will work to make the default settings more secure and security settings easier to navigate on the user interface.

Sultan, however, emphasized the benefits of using Zoom.

According to Sultan, Zoom has “also been a really great forum, by which we’ve been able to connect with alumni who now live in many different parts of the country and the world.”

Sultan’s final message, to students and congregants?

“Don’t get angry. Get busy.”

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Johnson: The fact that it has taken 274 years is alarming JOHNSON

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The first nine presidents of Princeton were slave owners.

Several professors were as well, and slaves have previously been auctioned on Princeton’s property. So I think given that historical context, those historical beginnings, to now have had a black valedictorian

is a very significant event.

However, at the same time, the fact that it has taken 274 years is alarming and just goes to show how much work still needs to be done. Princeton really has been a leader among its peer institutions in reflecting about its role in

perpetuating the institution of slavery. I think particularly the Princeton & Slavery Project which was started a few years ago as a coalition across professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students has been very, very helpful at uncovering these previously

buried stories and thinking critically about what can be done now, today, to try and make the Princeton environment a more open and supportive environment.

Read the full Q&A, as well as our conversation with Class of 2020 salutatorian Grace Sommers, on

frosh.dailyprincetonian.com.

COURTESY OF NICHOLAS JOHNSON

Toettcher: We’re working at more or less 30 percent capacity LABS

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it would shift to “Level 2: Phased Resumption.”

While still a step short of “Normal Operations,” this transition means many University faculty members, graduate researchers, and postdocs may return to their laboratories.

In order to return to the lab, operations plans must be approved by the Office of the Dean for Research and department chairs, and individual researchers must complete a risk assessment questionnaire and mandatory online training, according to Dean for Research Pablo G. Debenedetti. With daily virtual COVID-19 symptom checkins, routine disinfecting, and strict social distancing protocols, however, returning to lab work hardly means returning to normal.

Shutting down and scrapping progress The University initially halted all non-essential research activities on March 21. To close down, researchers froze down cells in liquid nitrogen and downsized mouse colonies. Connor Jankowski GS, who works in the Rabinowitz lab, was in the middle of generating a cell line when the shutdown hit.

“I pretty much had to scrap all of the things that were in progress,” Jankowski said. “Having to start over on a lot of that. It’s frustrating.”

During essential operations, one to three members were designated per lab to perform critical maintenance, such as upkeep of animals or cell lines. Essential COVID-19-related research was also permitted.

Nicole Aiello, a postdoctoral researcher in Molecular Biology, was one of the two designated personnel for the Kang lab, which studies cancer and uses mouse models of tumor formation. Aiello came in a few times a week to take care of the mice, keep nitrogen tanks full, and generally make sure that the lab was okay.

“It gave me a little bit of structure to my week,” Aiello said. “I knew I would always go in on certain days. It felt like a good way to contribute to the lab while there wasn’t much going on.”

While out of the lab, many researchers worked on writing grants, preparing manuscripts, and reading papers, making the most out of their time away.

Although the pandemic has less severely disrupted theoretical and computational work, experimental researchers have faced difficulties.

“Unless you are somebody that had a project that was literally 100 percent computational,” Jankowski said, “I think it’s very unlikely that there’s anybody out there that’s going to say: ‘this hasn’t impacted my overall research progress.’”

Despite these concerns, however, Debenedetti feels that research at the University can continue to thrive, citing strong rates of proposal submissions, grant awards, and other indicators of research activity. “I am very pleased with the way that our research community has handled these very dif-

ficult times,” he said.

The research community had been

‘Phased Resumption’ planning in practice planning for weeks before the University authorized resumption. To prepare for a safe and smooth transition, detailed plans for the Phased Resumption of On-Campus Research were published May 28.

“The purpose of the plan was to arrive at a safe resumption, in a safe, orderly, and efficient manner,” said Debenedetti, the chair of the Committee on Phased Resumption of On-Campus Research, who published the plan.

“This is not something you can do without very careful planning.”

Debenedetti, along with the other members of the Committee — which include Associate Dean for Research Karla Ewalt, Chemistry and Molecular Biology department chairs Tom Muir and Bonnie Bassler, respectively, and Director of Environmental Health and Safety Robin Izzo — held virtual town halls, focus groups, open houses, and other events to discuss reopening plans with all stakeholders.

The plan outlines four levels of research operations: full suspension, essential operations, Phased Resumption, and normal operations. The University had been in the essential operations phase since March 21. To move to Phased Resumption, lab heads were asked to submit detailed plans, called Research Lab Operations Plans, or RLOPs, to be approved by the Office of the Dean for Research and department chairs.

Department chairs were also asked to submit similar Research Infrastructure Plans for approval. Both types of plans included instructions for enforcing social distancing, maintaining hygiene, and limiting density in accordance with U. policy and local, state, and national directives.

Some researchers who spoke with the ‘Prince’ said these plans made them feel safe returning to work.

“I think that the reopening plans have been really well thought out,” Aiello said. “I think they will go pretty far in protecting people who work in the lab.”

At the time that plans were submitted, a decision had not yet been made to reopen research laboratories. The time of reopening, the plan for Phased Resumption stated, “will be determined by the University’s leadership, taking into account the relevant local, state, and national public health directives regarding stay-at-home and social distancing.”

The final decision to reopen followed Stage Two reopening in the state of New Jersey, which began on June 15, with “the leadership of the University, taking into account the Governor’s Executive Order,” Debenedetti said.

Key considerations in the Phased Resumption plans included health and safety, hygiene, transparency, flexibility, complexity, and no coercion — the last category meaning that employees or graduate students who felt unsafe would not be forced to return to work.

Another key consideration was “un-

coupling,” which entailed separating on-campus research from on-campus undergraduate instruction and senior thesis research. Under Phased Resumption, undergraduates are not permitted in laboratories.

Returning to research does not, however, mean that everything returns to normal.

Once in the laboratory, routine disinfection, hand-washing, and personal hygiene must be practiced, and strict social distancing must be maintained — approximately 160 square feet of space per researcher, according to the plan for Phased Resumption.

To maintain social distancing, labs have limited the number of members who can come in at any one time. Some labs have divided the days into shifts — with some members coming in the morning and others in the afternoon.

Others have created calendars where individuals can sign up for designated time slots.

“We’re not going back to research the way we were doing research in February,” Toettcher said. “We’re working at more or less 30 percent capacity.”

Toettcher’s lab has divided the day into three six-to-seven-hour shifts.

This means that some members of the lab are coming in around 10 p.m. and leaving at 5 a.m. Jankowski’s lab also has night shifts, which he plans to utilize.

“I personally will probably be taking a lot of those times in those odd hours,” he said, leaving more room for those who commute from far away or have families to look after. “It’s reasonable to give way to those people and let them take the times that they’re constrained to.”

Experiments will take time to resume, especially those that involve animals. Although cell lines can regrow rather quickly, a mouse colony can take more than a month. And with fewer animals, scientists need to limit the experiments they conduct, prioritizing those that are most important.

“It’s going to take some time to get things moving again,” Aiello said.

“We have to be really thoughtful with what kind of experiments we’re going to run.”

She is also concerned that a resurgence of the virus in New Jersey could catalyze another shutdown.

“We can’t just charge back into it full speed. We need to put a little more thought into what experiments are absolutely necessary.”

While they are back in the lab, researchers must take additional precautions to prevent the virus’ spread.

Based on guidance from the Committee on Phased Resumption, all researchers must complete an online training, called Safe Practices for the Resumption of Research, before returning. They must also submit a Risk Assessment Questionnaire, to be reviewed by University Health Services, to determine if it safe for them to resume in-person activities.

Each day, before coming to work, every researcher must submit a selfevaluation and report of possible COVID-19 symptoms via a self-screening app in TigerSafe.

Face masks are now mandatory, according to the plan for Phased Resumption. On campus, all individuals must wear a face covering at all times, except when alone in a room or a vehicle. Outside the lab, a reusable face covering is encouraged. Once a researcher enters the lab, they must exchange the reusable covering for a disposable one that is tossed at the end of the day. Lab coats are to be laundered weekly by a professional service.

Until September, the Office of Environmental Health and Safety will provide disposable face coverings, hand sanitizer, N95 respirators, and disposable gowns as needed — a service for which Toettcher, as a principal investigator of his lab, is grateful. To ensure a steady supply, the University purchased personal protective equipment (PPE) in bulk, which will be distributed upon request to laboratories.

EHS delivered an initial batch of disposable masks for labs to use for the first 10 days of opening.

“There is the issue of making sure everybody has gloves, and masks, and lab coats. There’s a big increase in the level of protection,” Toettcher said.

When his lab ordered PPE, it arrived within 24 hours. “It was relatively wellorganized, all things considered.”

Maintaining a safe distance and wearing PPE are not foreign concepts to most who work in laboratories. The

Researchers anticipate challenges most significant changes may be what happens during breaks or meetings, when researchers typically gather to discuss work — or just to unwind.

According to the plan for Phased Resumption, in-person meetings must be limited to 10 or fewer people, with social distancing in place. Meals and breaks should take place in open, common areas or outdoors, where social distancing can be practiced.

The plan encourages researchers to take advantage of open or unused space to restructure work areas and allow for greater distances between desks. Labs have taped floors and placed other visual cues to help provide friendly reminders to maintain space. For most, lab meetings, journal clubs, and other such gatherings will still be held virtually. Remote work is encouraged whenever possible.

Concerns linger about research activities that are difficult to conduct while socially distant.

For example, learning important lab techniques often requires careful, detailed observation and hands-on practice. Navigating training procedures will be particularly important if and when undergraduate researchers return to campus, and when graduate students begin rotations.

“I don’t know how you would train a new person if you can’t be within six feet of them. I think that’s going to be a really big challenge,” Aiello said. “You need to be able to see what someone is doing up close to learn.”

Jankowski was supposed to be trained in an animal injection technique before the pandemic, and is not

sure how he will learn under social distancing guidelines.

“You really need to be able to practice and be shown in person,” Jankowski said. “Being able to learn from a video won’t be enough. Learning from somebody else at a distance doesn’t really work.”

While labs are reopened and researchers can technically resume their work, practically speaking, there are still significant barriers.

“The one thing that is not at all solved in terms of being able to conduct research is anything related to childcare,” Toettcher said.

“What if you’re a postdoc and you have a newborn child? How do you work at the pace that you need to on a night shift and also be able to take care of a family when there’s no school, there’s no daycare, there’s no childcare of any sort, there’s no summer school,” said Toettcher, who himself has a twoyear-old and a six-year-old.

Parenting during a pandemic has been challenging, but he is more concerned about “non-traditional” trainees who have to juggle family responsibilities with their research.

“We need to be cautious that it doesn’t lead to huge inequities in outcomes five years from now,” Toettcher added, “when everybody who has a family or was a primary parent couldn’t work at the same pace as people who weren’t in that position.”

Debenedetti said he has not yet heard of safety concerns from department chairs, but the plan for Phased Resumption also lays out mechanisms for unsafe behavior or working conditions. The first step, the plan states, is to advise the individual “in a congenial and caring manner.” If that does not result in change, a report can be lodged with a lab manager, department head, or other advisor. Anonymous reports can also be made on EthicsPoint, a 24/7 independent hotline service for “good faith concerns.”

The Committee will continue to meet twice a week to discuss possible concerns that arise in the coming months.

“I am confident of our planning but want to know what is working well and what is not working well,” Debenedetti said.

Although the pandemic has been a significant setback for some, Debenedetti said that overall, researchers have “responded to the challenge in an extraordinarily positive way.”

Jankowski, at least, sees a silver lining.

“If there’s one positive outcome of not being allowed to do any benchwork,” he said, it is that it has “forced you to take the time to think through experiments, gather the relevant literature and design better experiments.”

Along with reading and writing, many researchers have spent their time in lockdown brainstorming new avenues of exploration and doing deep dives in the literature.

“I’ve come out of it with a lot of ideas that might not have been as apparent to me if I had just been able to continue along the direction I was going before we shut down,” Jankowski added.

Eisgruber: The announced changes are heartless, senseless, and damaging ICE

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Chrisopher Eisgruber ’83 previously wrote that “The announced changes are heartless, senseless, and damaging: they needlessly put international students at risk without serving any legitimate policy objective.” The University — along with 58 other higher education institutions — officially submitted the brief on Monday.

This University-signed brief argued that the ICE Directive failed to consider the enormous and disruptive burdens it imposed, going on to state that there was no “reasoned explanation to the new policy.” The brief used the University as an example of how disruptive the directive would be, noting that “Princeton now may be forced to reassess its

plan, with just weeks to go before the fall semester,” with its assumption that international sophomores and seniors would be able to remain in the United States then in question.

It noted the importance of international students to university communities, stating that “their participation in academic life enhances the educational experience for all.” International students were instructed by ICE to “depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status.” According to the brief, this directive fails to consider the plausibility of these options, including that the current health crisis has led to “limited flight availability, widespread travel restrictions, and the risk of infection in travel.”

Spokesperson Ben Chang noted the

University’s appreciation of the decision.

“We recognize the anxiety and pain this has caused across our community, and we will remain vigilant for any further policy developments that might impact our international students, faculty, or staff,” Chang said. “Princeton will continue to stand with and advocate for our international community, whose members are crucial to the mission and quality of this University and, indeed, to the vitality and creativity of our country.

Several international students interviewed by the ‘Prince’ last week expressed feelings of frustration and panic after the announcement was made, and several petitions circulated denouncing the ICE decision and requesting that the University explore ways to assist international students.

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Louis A. Simpson Building houses the Davis International Center.

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Luijendijk: This renaming has been a long time coming WILSON

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lege and policy school would continue to bear the Wilson name — rejecting a central demand that the Black Justice League (BJL) had raised the previous November. The Trustee Committee on Woodrow Wilson’s Legacy at Princeton made this recommendation, writing that “the University needs to be honest and forthcoming about its history.”

Following the committee’s recommendation, the University erected an installation, entitled “Double Sights,” to explore the former University president’s “complex legacy.” Over 200 students, alumni, and faculty members protested at the dedication in October — with speakers reiterating the BJL’s call to remove Wilson’s name from campus buildings.

In a statement to the ‘Prince’ on Thursday, University Spokesperson Ben Chang wrote that the Board of Trustees was discussing anti-racism initiatives, which would “provide the Board with an opportunity to consider the recommendations in the 2016 report on Woodrow Wilson’s legacy in light of current circumstances.” In his message to the campus community, Eisgruber stated that “the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks” played a role in renewed considerations of the University Trustees.

Eisgruber’s letter acknowledged the “complexity” of Wilson’s record, noting that “[p]eople will differ about how to weigh Wilson’s achievements and failures.” He noted that Wilson “remade Princeton, converting it from a sleepy college into a great research university,” and cited that many of the University’s distinguishing features, including its “research excellence” and the “preceptorial system” had their beginnings under Wilson’s leadership — a leadership which eventually lead him to the White House.

Yet Eisgruber made it clear that such achievements do not overshadow Wilson’s history of blatantly racist and segregationist policies.

During his time as University President, Wilson actively prevented Black applicants from matriculating, writing, “It is altogether inadvisable for a colored man to enter Princeton.” He also infamously screened “The Birth of a Nation,” a racist film that the Ku Klux Klan used as a recruiting tool, in the White House. During his time in the Oval Office, Wilson also dismissed 15 of 17 previously appointed Black supervisors.

“Wilson is a different figure from, say, John C. Calhoun or Robert E. Lee, whose fame derives from their defenses of the Confederacy and slavery,” Eisgruber wrote. “Lee was often honored for the very purpose of expressing sympathy for segregation and opposition to racial equality. Princeton honored Wilson not because of, but without regard to or perhaps even in ignorance of, his racism.”

In their own collective statement, the Board of Trustees clarified, however, that Wilson’s name will not be removed from the Woodrow Wilson Award — the highest honor for an undergraduate alumnus or alumni conferred annually on Alumni Day. “The Woodrow Wilson Award, unlike either the College or the School, is the result of a gift. When the University accepted the gift, it took on a legal obligation to name the prize for Wilson and honor his “conviction that education is for ‘use’ and … the high aims expressed in his memorable phrase, ‘Princeton in the Nation’s Service,’“ they wrote. “The University will continue to recognize extraordinary public service by conferring the award as currently named.”

This past year’s recipient of the Wilson Award — American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Executive Director Anthony Romero ’87 — said at Alumni Day that the former President would be “spinning in his grave like an Olympic figure skater as an award in his name is bestowed on the executive director of an organization literally established to oppose a xenophobic, anti-immigrant, flagrantly unconstitutional Palmer Raids that he oversaw and engineered.”

The Trustees added that the Wilson

Award “explicitly honors specific and positive aspects of Wilson’s career” and “unlike the School or the College, does not require students to identify with the Wilson name in connection with their academic or residential programs.”

In an email to students of the newly-named residential college, “Head of First College” AnneMarie Luijendijk wrote that for many community members “the association with Wilson’s name has been a constant minder of exclusionary practices.”

“This renaming has been a long time coming and would not have happened without our students,” Luijendijk noted, citing the Black Justice League’s 2015 protests and other recent displays of student activism against the Wilson name.

Luijendijk emphasized the democratic nature of the college’s founding — founded by a dozen members of the Class of 1959 to provide a place “where individuals … could be accepted.”

“Our college was indeed the first of the residential colleges at Princeton, founded by a group of students expressly to be an inclusive community. I encourage you to take a look again at the history of the college: students established our community, and drew the template for the Princeton residential college system,” she wrote. “I have always found that part of our history very inspiring. Those values of inclusion and social justice still continue, and will continue to inform our community ideals and practices.”

Earlier this week, two groups of public policy students — comprising over three quarters of graduating undergraduate concentrators, over 60 percent of current concentrators, and more than 450 students and alumni of the master’s and Ph.D programs — sent two letters to University and then-Wilson School administrators. While the first letter, drafted by Class of 2020 graduates, demanded

the removal of Wilson’s name from the policy school, both letters emphasized substantive transformation over symbolic gesture.

“Even if you remove the name, that doesn’t mean anti-Black racism is going to go away on campus,” explained Harshita Rallabhandi GS in an interview earlier this week. “There are institutions out there without the names of white supremacists and who continue to be racist, you know?”

These letters also contain calls for the University to formally divest from private prison affiliates and pay reparations for its ties to slavery. The graduate-student-specific letter also called for the University to cut ties with the Princeton Police Department.

They also called for the hiring of more Black faculty, the addition of new courses focused on race and identity, the promotion of anti-racist research on campus, and both a graduate and undergraduate policy school curriculum that teaches about race more effectively.

“Our administration and our faculty are responsible for bringing that into the classroom — being humble and doing the urgent learning they need to do to more urgently teach us what we need to learn,” noted domestic policy student Clarke Wheeler GS. “At the end of the day, in 2020, not including the phrases like ‘institutionalized racism’ — or ‘racism’ in general — in the coursework no matter what the course is — seems inexcusable.”

In a statement to the ‘Prince’ this morning, the authors of the undergraduate petition wrote on behalf of the “Change WWS” organization that “while we appreciate the University’s swift response, changing the name of the School was one small part of our list of demands, which emphasizes the need for transformative change in the School — to pedagogy, faculty, programming, scholarly recognition, and anti-discrimination procedures.”

“We demand that the School

live up to the task of its mission as a school of policy ‘in the service of humanity,’” they continued, “and contribute its resources and research to the work of redressing and repairing Princeton’s history in slavery, the prison-industrial complex, segregation, and displacement. Moreover, these demands are only the first step in cultivating truly anti-racist futures in scholarship, research, and students’ experiences at Princeton.”

Eisgruber’s letter emphasized that while the “steps taken yesterday by the Board of Trustees are extraordinary measures,“ they are not the only steps “our University is taking to combat the realities and legacy of racism.”

“I join the trustees in hoping that they will provide the University, the School of Public and International Affairs, and our entire community with a firm foundation to pursue the mission of teaching, research, and service that has defined our highest aspirations and generated our greatest achievements throughout our history and today.”

On Monday, Eisgruber formally charged every member of the University’s Cabinet — the institution’s senior-most academic and administrative leaders, including School of Public and International Affairs Dean Cecilia Rouse — “to identify specific actions that can be taken in their areas of responsibility.” Cabinet members have until Aug. 21 to prepare reports on how the University can fight racism within their spheres of campus operations.

“As President Eisgruber told the Cabinet, Princeton has a responsibility to stand up against racism and to bring its scholarly and teaching resources to bear to create a more just and equal society,” Chang noted. “The President has signaled that every aspect of the University’s life – from teaching to research to operations to partnerships – can and must address these issues.”

To see more about how First College students reacted to the name change, check out the corresponding video at frosh.dailyprincetonian.com.

JUNE 2020

‘It has to end’

Protesters in Princeton demand justice for Floyd's death

By Marissa Michaels Senior News Writer

Over 1000 protesters gathered outside FitzRandolph Gate on June 2 — chanting, kneeling, and listening — to protest the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans, especially those at the hands of police.

The protest is one of many that emerged out of last week’s high-profile killing, when Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, while three other officers stood by. In the Floyd family’s private autopsy, the death was ruled a homicide by mechanical asphyxia.

The four officers were fired immediately and Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Chauvin had 18 previous complaints against him. Floyd’s death was caught on camera, and the video has sparked outrage throughout the country. Other videos of police using force against civilians show rising tensions at many protests.

In Princeton, protestors lined Nassau Street and Witherspoon Street to come together for “Justice for George Floyd: Princeton in Solidarity.” The protesters remained entirely peaceful, according to Princeton Police Department’s Sergeant Kim Hodges.

“We've had no incidences of property damage,” she said.

The protest began with demonstrators kneeling for a moment of silence held for eight minutes and 46 seconds, representing the amount of time that Chauvin kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck.

Following the silence, there was a series of speakers, beginning with Imani Mulrain ’23, and including Princeton native Sumiayyah Stephens, Associate Professor of African American Studies Ruha Benjamin, Chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts Tracy K. Smith, and Witherspoon Street Presbytarian Church Reverend Lukata Mjumbe.

Those who spoke at the protest emphasized the frustration of people of color across America.

“The ultimate threat was never COVID, but the licensing of brutality under the guise of law and order. Our country spends 100 billion dollars nationwide on policing,” Benjamin said

in her speech. “The fact is, our elected officials have outsourced a long list of social problems to police that they have no business dealing with. From mental illness, to substance abuse, to homeless[ness], to poverty, we have empowered an institution born out of the desire to patrol slaves to handle our social needs.”

The speakers called for systemic change, rather than minor fixes to a broken system.

“We are not going to diversify, train, or tech-fix our way out of this social crisis. Rather we must take the money we would normally invest in police and reinvest it in all the other institutions that we actually need to sustain us,” Benjamin said.

In his speech, Mjumbe discussed the need for students to be active in the movement.

“One of the best universities is raising up some of the smartest, some of the brightest, some of the most talented,” said Mjumbe, in reference to the University. “If their minds are not changed, they will grow up to be some of the greatest oppressors.”

“There’s a difference between keeping the peace and making peace,” he said. “You keep peace with riot shields. You keep peace with armored cars that the Mercer County Commission has purchased … You keep peace with guns. You keep peace with bullets. You keep peace with curfews. You keep peace by holding people down.

But when we make peace, it means we all come together.”

Several other protesters explained their reasons for attending.

“In the onslaught of oppression against black communities from health disparities to mental health, redlining, and all the way to modernday lynchings, it has to end,” said Associate Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel Dr. Theresa Thames.

She also expressed her wishes for the outcome of the nationwide protest, saying she hopes that “people will not only protest in the streets, but that their daily lives will reflect not just silence and complicity, but activism on every level from their schools to the PTAs to every level of government, every way we live our lives, that we call out racism when we see it.”

Chilly Wallace, a Montgomery, N.J. resident and Oberlin College stu-

dent said, “I’m here because this is applicable to my daily life. This is something that I have to deal with myself.”

“In the black community, people have PTSD just from dealing with the police, even if they haven’t dealt with it first hand. And a lot of people don’t realize that this matter isn’t just the police, that’s like the tip of the iceberg. This is something we’ve had to deal with for over 400 years — 1619, where the first slave ship came to America.”

Princeton resident Kenneth Davis expressed frustration with policing practices in the community.

“I’m protesting because of course, all black lives matter,“ he said. “With all the recent deaths that have been going on, it’s getting ridiculous, especially with the police being a protective gang out here with no rules and no regulations and no justice for any of their actions … It needs to stop … I want legal recourse for what’s going on, especially having people change it to become the legislation.”

At the event itself, there were no clashes with police and their presence was mostly felt before the protest began and when two protest-

ers needed medical attention. There were police scanning the crowd on a nearby rooftop.

Sergeant Hodges said she did not know how many police officers were present but explained that the police department sent as many officers as possible to make sure that the protesters were safe.

“We mobilized a number of officers. We made sure that the streets were shut down so that anybody who was in the street and wanted to demonstrate was able to do so safely,” she said.

While protesters did not stand six feet apart as the Facebook event and organizers repeatedly asked, a vast majority of those in attendance wore face masks, cognizant of the looming threat of COVID-19.

Although the police department did not have a clear estimate of how many were in attendance, organizers estimated over 1000 people were present at the protest.

The event was organized in just one day and was sponsored by Not in Our Town, CHOOSE, PHS MSAN, PHS PULSE, Princeton Latinos y Amigos, Labyrinth Books, Princeton YWCA, Code Equal, Housing Initia-

tives of Princeton, and the Coalition for Peace Action.

The organizers, Valeria TorresOlivares ’22, Priya Vulchi ’22, Harvard student Winona Guo, Princeton High School students Kyara TorresOlivares, Reanna Bartels-Quansah, Princeton High School Alum Sumaiyya Stephens, and Gillian BartelsQuansah released a statement after the event via Facebook, encouraging participants to "remember that their serious commitment to anti-racism — starting with cultivating their own racial literacy — is needed not just today, but also tomorrow."

Benjamin reflected on the impact of the protest in an email to The Daily Princetonian.

“Today I felt *even* deeper admiration for the youth organizers, many of whom I know well, and I felt energized by the number of people who showed up in the midst of a pandemic,” she wrote. “It speaks to the importance and urgency of the issues we are dealing with that so many people felt it was necessary to express solidarity in person. The people united will never be defeated!”

COURTESY OF VALERIA TORRES-OLIVARES

Protestors gather on Nassau St.

page 10

The Daily Princetonian

7,94x43,18-Princeton Anzeige 2020.qxp_Princeton Anzeige 2020 16.07.20 08:38 Seite 1

PRINCETON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF GERMANY

Summer Jobs in Germany!

For many years Princeton students proficient in German have participated in summer internships organized by the PAAG and the German Department’s Summer Work Program. These include positions in business, government service, health care, museums and a wide variety of cultural institutions. The PAAG supports students through customized job searches, advice, local assistance, networking opportunities and financial aid.

Why Germany? Germany’s economy is still the largest in Europe and one of the most successful altogether. Germany has a vibrant cultural life and an open and tolerant society that welcomes talented young people from all over the world. For over sixty years hundreds of Princetonians have benefited from the often lifechanging experiences made possible by Princeton’s oldest foreign internship program. Even during the global pandemic this summer, students benefited from remote internships - thanks to the enthusiasm of our German partners.

Interested? Take German and get in touch!

Contact: David T. Fisher ‘69 Director Princeton German Summer Work Program Chair Princeton Alumni Association of Germany Hirtenstrasse 10 65193 Wiesbaden Tel. +49-(0)611-54597 Fax +49-(0)611-370131 Cell +49-(0)170-4789071

Friday July 24, 2020

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

page 11

SEPTEMBER 2019

Hundreds take part in Climate Strike protest

By Rose Gilbert

Senior News Writer

Last Friday, over six hundred demonstrators took part in the Princeton Climate Strike, gathering in front of the Princeton Public Library before marching onto campus and finishing their protest in front of Frist Campus Center.

The demonstrators joined the approximately four million other people who participated in hundreds of Climate Strike events around the world. From Princeton to New Delhi, Berlin to Antarctica, protesters marched to raise awareness of the climate crisis before the United Nations Climate Action Summit, which begins today.

Speakers addressed a wide range of topics related to the climate crisis, including the massive environmental impact of the U.S. military, the feasibility of the Green New Deal, and the Trump administration’s removal of climate science information from government websites.

The global Climate Strike, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, was fueled by young people afraid of what climate change

means for their futures.

“I’m scared and I want people to understand why,” said Zahra Lohoue, a local ninth-grader who has led multiple climate change strikes at her school.

“I do not want hurricanes to be the end of us, I do not want wildfires to be the end of us, I do not want pollution to be the end of us, I do not want global warming to be the end of us,” she continued.

Lohoue ended her speech by calling upon the protestors to take action, and left the stage to huge applause.

Members of Ellipses, the University’s oldest spoken word group, performed “Not to Breathe,” a poem emphasizing young people’s anxiety about climate change and frustration with the lack of action by those in power.

“When the world ends, it will be legal,” they recited. “The world is ending, we are ending it.”

Parents who marched cited concern for their children’s futures as their primary motivation for joining the climate strike.

Devin Carsdale, who works as a sustainability compliance auditor for

Ikea, shared his concerns.

Holding his six-month-old daughter, Ava, Carsdale said he is “superpassionate about sustainability,” and worries about what kind of world his daughter will grow up in.

“I’ve been able to enjoy this world for the last thirty years,” he explained.

“I want to make sure that she’s able to take advantage of those same luxuries of breathing clean air and drinking clean water, not having to worry about food scarcity, and we know that it’s going to increasingly become a problem in the years to come.”

Elena Reimero attended the demonstration in her stroller, accompanied by her mother, father, grandmother, and great-grandmother.

"We wake up thinking about what the future holds for her. Nothing could be more important," said her grandmother, Heidi Fichtenbaum.

University English professor Rob Nixon, who addressed the protestors, noted that environmental justice had become central to the movement, which increasingly focuses on lowincome communities and communities of color, who are often the most impacted by climate change through droughts, pollution, flooding, and

temperature fluctuations.

“I have never seen such a comprehensively international and diverse movement,” he said. “This is a movement led from below by the people who will be the most deeply affected by climate change, including the younger generation.”

In keeping with the increased presence of social justice within the environmental movement, the Princeton demonstration began with a land acknowledgement by Jessica Lambert ’22, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and a first-generation descendant in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, as well as president of Natives at Princeton. Lambert called on demonstrators to remember that the land on which they stood, as well as the rest of New Jersey, had originally been inhabited by the Delaware people, who were driven west to Ohio and Kansas and disenfranchised by broken treaties with the U.S. government.

Also present were members of the Eastern Service Workers Association, who represented the low-income workers often disproportionately burdened by extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency

and severity due to climate change.

In addition to calling attention to the destruction and urgency of the climate crisis, speakers at the Princeton demonstration called on the audience to demand change from their legislators, and to vote in elections.

Pranav Iyer ’22, who said he has relatives in India struggling to get access to drinkable water due to droughts, implored the crowd not to give in to “negligence and complicity,” and to hold their political leaders accountable.

“As citizens of this country we have an obligation of the people, by the people, and for the people,” he said.

Although he acknowledged the severity of the climate crisis, Iyer expressed hope that the American people, if not the American government, would be able to pull together to address climate change before it was too late.

“What happened to the country that said we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard?” he asked, provoking huge cheers from the crowd.

“Today our dream becomes a movement, not a moment.”

ROSE GILBERT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

From left to right: (1) Demonstrators march past Frist, chanting "This is what democracy looks like!" and carrying signs. (2) Elena Reimero, pictured in her stroller, attended the Climate Strike with her mother, father, great-grandmother, and grandmother (pictured from left to right). (3) The Eastern Service Workers Association at the Climate Strike.

IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATIONS

NOVEMBER 2019

M AY 2 0 2 0

Alumni in Congress speak on service, policy

PRINCO claims it prioritizes diversity.

Experts want proof.

By Yael Marans and Naomi Hess

By Sam Kagan

News Contributor and Associate News Editor

As part of a Daily Princetonian November special issue commemorating the 100-year anniversary of ROTC, we interviewed seven alumni currently serving in the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate about how they believe they work “in the Nation’s Service.” Read what they had to say online, where you can find our full special edition.

Assistant News Editor

M AY 2 0 2 0

Math TA posted false solution online to catch students in violation of academic integrity

How the Eating Clubs Went Coed

By Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Zachary Shevin

By Evelyn Doskoch and Alex Gjaja

In May, a teaching assistant for MAT 202: Linear Algebra with Applications intentionally posted a false solution to a problem set question online in an attempt to gather evidence of academic integrity violations — an approach that frustrated many students enrolled in the class. We interviewed accused individuals and poured through the Committee on Discipline documents to investigate the impact this “Slader solution” had on students.

This June marked thirty years since the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled against Princeton’s last all-male eating clubs. We spoke with numerous alumni and dove deep into archival material to tell the story of the decadelong fight for equality on Prospect Avenue.

Head News Editor and Associate News Editor

In mid-March, Rev. Al Sharpton called on the University to release a report detailing the demographic makeup of the asset managers who oversee the University’s $26.1 billion endowment.

We spoke with Sharpton and several other high-profile advocates about their push for diversity data disclosure, and Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) President Andy Golden told us why he did not plan to release such a report.

J U LY 2 0 2 0

Assistant News Editor and Assistant Features Editor

SEE MORE at frosh.dailyprincetonian.com

2024

WELCOME!

We're excited to meet you on campus and online!

Find out more at princetonpresbys.org.

We're by Presbyterians, for everyone.

The Daily Princetonian

page 12

the first-year dictionary

Friday July 24, 2020

/dІkə.∫ǝnə.ǝr.i/ DEFINITIONS

A

A.B., abbrev. Artium Baccalaureus, or Bachelor of Arts. Though called B.A. at most other schools, it’s still your typical liberal arts degree. For the same strange reason we have “certificates” instead of “minors,” you’re receiving an “A.B.” instead of a “B.A.” Unless you’re an engineer, of course. See “B.S.E.” Adviser, n. 1. Faculty member assigned to freshmen to assist in course selection. Usually a specialist in a field totally unrelated to yours. 2. Faculty member assigned to sophomores with an unclear role. 3. Faculty member assigned to juniors and seniors to provide guidance in writing junior papers and theses. All vary widely in quality of advising and level of engagement.

Alcohol Initiative, n. A trusteesponsored attempt to reduce alcohol consumption by throwing huge sums of money at undergraduates for alternative activities.

All-nighter, n. Grim, dusk-todawn studying or writing marathon in which sleep is postponed indefinitely. Often procrastination-induced and caffeinefueled. Usually followed by prolonged periods of hibernation.

Your freshman 15 will probably be 60 percent the food you eat during these. Welcome to college.

Alumni, n. pl. Those who came before. Gosh, do they love the place.

Prone to wearing abominable combinations of orange and black. See “Reunions.”

Arch sing, n. Event where a cappella singing groups perform a few of their favorite tunes in campus archways. Good singing and great acoustics, but the novelty can wear off quickly. A large percentage of the audience is made up of group members’ significant others (or wannabe significant others) and roommates.

See “jam,” “Blair Arch.”

B

Band, n. The University scramble band. Football halftime shows are occasionally funny and always tasteless. Often uses unconventional instruments, such as plastic pumpkins and stop signs. Hard to miss in their extremely plaid orange blazers as they parade through libraries on Dean’s Date or serenade the hapless on Valentine’s Day. Beer, n. Beverage of choice on Prospect Avenue. Some clubs try to impress potential members by serving such brew-house delicacies as Killian’s or Yuengling, but eight times out of 10 it’s just watered-down Natty Light.

Bicker, n. Princeton’s multi-day equivalent of fraternity or sorority rush for the seven selective eating clubs. During Bicker, club members meet sophomores and other upperclass students to determine whether they are worthy of membership. “Worthiness” is determined in a variety of ways. As divisive as it sounds.

See “sign-in club,” “multi-club Bicker.”

Blackboard, n. Website used to download course assignments, syllabi and readings. Not to be confused with “blackboards,” teaching instruments found in a variety of classrooms and lecture halls around campus on which professors use an archaic white substance known as “chalk.”

Slowly being phased out. See “Canvas.”

Blair Arch, n. That large, pretty arch across from Richardson Auditorium. Campus landmark and frequent site of a cappella jams. Saving grace of Matheyites. See “Mathey College.”

Bonfire, n. Tradition of lighting an enormous bonfire on Cannon Green to celebrate the foot-

ball team’s victories over both Harvard and Yale in a season.

Involves singing praises to Old Nassau as effigies of John Harvard and the Yale bulldog are burned in a fiery inferno. Pretty much as cultish as it sounds.

Keep your fingers crossed for the next one.

Boot, v. To toss one’s cookies, worship the porcelain god, barf, puke, vomit, ralph, regurgitate, spew chunks, whistle carrots, etc. Usually engaged in as part of a “boot and rally,” with hopes of rejoining the party.

Bridges, nickname, CEE 102: Engineering in the Modern World.

Counts as an HA for science kids and an SEL for humanities kids.

In past years, the final has involved literally memorizing pictures of bridges. See “P/D/F.” B.S.E., abbrev. Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering. Though called “B.S.” at some other schools, there’s no b.s. in Princeton’s engineering degree.

Bubble, the, n. The metaphorical orange bubble that surrounds campus, keeping us in and the real world out. Also called “The Orange Bubble.” Usage: “Back in the bubble!”, “Welcome to the bubble.” To be used sparingly.

Butler College, n. Residential college with the newest buildings.

Located far down-campus; contains Studio 34.

C

Campus Club, n. Defunct eating club purchased by the University to hold events. See “Alcohol Initiative.”

Campus fox, n. The fox that resides on campus, most often spotted up campus. Although multiple foxes have been spotted at once, campus legend says there is only one campus fox.

Cannon Club, n. Bicker club known for its three taprooms.

The club plays host to a large proportion of athletes, especially field sports.

Canvas, n. New software to check your coursework. Princeton’s very late step into the modern world of college education.

Cap & Gown Club, n. Consistently the most bickered club, Cap has a reputation for inclusivity and hosts many athletes from track and field. Some of its classic night out themes include Capmandu and Boxers and Blazers.

CD, abbrev. Culture and Difference. New distribution requirement beginning with the Class of 2024, and the only requirement that can be satisfied concurrently with another. Interdisciplinary requirement whose applicable courses are in many fields.

Certificate, n. What we call minors. Options include finance, theatre studies, environmental studies, political economy, etc.

Your certificate area of study must be addressed in some capacity in your thesis. Start planning for these now. See “thesis.”

Charter Club, n. Club located extremely far down Prospect Avenue, near the E-Quad, that recently went bicker. Planned a complete overhaul before COVID-19 closed eating clubs. Now remains a mysterious force on the Street.

Cloister Inn, n. Sign-in club known for hosting a high percentage of water-based athletes.

Popular street destination for first-years since it’s PUID. Coffee Club, n. Student-run coffee shop in the taproom of Campus Club. Cheaper alternative to coffee shops on Nassau Street.

Colonial Club, n. Sign-in club that recently claimed Friday nights from Charter. Often serves hard cider on tap.

CA, abbrev. Community Action.

Week-long pre-orientation activity built around service trips in the Princeton, Trenton and Philadelphia areas. Like Outdoor Action, but with showers.

Consulting, n. What many of your classmates will go on to do. No one actually knows what consulting means, but they do know it brings in the bucks. See “SPIA.” Co-op, n. Upperclass dining alternative in which members share cooking responsibilities.

Vegetarians, try 2 Dickinson St.; omnivores, stick to Brown, Real Food, or the International Food Co-ops.

Cottage Club, n. Officially called “University Cottage Club.” Bicker club populated by athletes, Southerners and the wealthy.

Known for its spring Sunday Fundays, darties with various themes that can always be counted on to feature beer and American flags.

CPS, abbrev. Counseling and Psychological Services. Office of therapists located on the third floor of McCosh, available to you free of charge. Use with caution.

See “McCosh.”

D

Daily Princetonian, the, n. What you’re reading now. Your one true source of information on life, the universe, and everything, as well as the only daily newspaper on campus and one of the oldest college dailies in the country. Available for free everywhere. An absolute good. A force for justice in an unjust and cruel world. Administrators cringe before its unquestioned power.

Completely independent from the University. Just watch out for the online commenters. Also known as the ‘Prince.’

Dean’s Date, n. The last day of reading period, when course papers are due. Stress reaches all-time high as students realize the number of pages they have left to write exceeds the number of hours before the deadline. To combat this stress, students over time have created many traditions, including the Band playing around campus and in Firestone and a midnight meal in the res colleges. See “all-nighter.”

Dillon Gymnasium, n. Recreational center in the middle of campus open to non-athletes.

Contains a pool, squash courts, multipurpose rooms, a large gym, and a fitness center. Site of loud Zumba classes and dance company rehearsals.

Dinky, n. Our version of the Hogwarts Express. Mini-train that takes you to Princeton Junction for connections to the real world.

Flashpoint of battle between town and University.

Distribution requirements, n.

Princeton’s plan for a true liberal arts education. Ensures STEM students take copious humanities classes, and humanities students take a few STEM classes.

See “P/D/F.” Down-campus, adj., n. Located on the part of campus closer to the lake, down the hill. Begins roughly at Dillon, ends at the lake. Synonyms: “South.” Usage: “It’s a little further down-campus than Edwards."

E

to ask questions about them on your tour. Biggest reason that Princeton is still considered elitist by the outside world.

EC, abbrev. Epistemology and Cognition. Distribution requirement with no discernible meaning. Filled most frequently by philosophy and psychology classes. See “P/D/F.” Eisgruber, Christopher, n. Your fearless leader. Eisgruber ’83 ascended to the University presidency from the position of provost in 2013. Seems to have forgotten that this isn’t high school and assigned you summer reading. Well-respected in academic circles.

EM, abbrev. Ethical Thought and Moral Values. Distribution requirement commonly filled with Peter Singer’s “Practical Ethics,” in which one of the most prominent philosophers of our time convinces you to stop eating meat.

F

Fall break, n. Week-long vacation immediately following fall midterms. Implemented in the 1970s when campus activists demanded time off before Election Day to campaign for their favorite bleeding-heart liberal congressional candidates. Formerly a prime road-trip week, now a long weekend. Thanks COVID-19. See “Breakout Trips.”

Fire inspection, n. Twice-a-semester unannounced visit to your dorm room, before which you should frantically hide illegal appliances under your blankets and un-tape your door to avoid fines.

Firestone Library, n. The mothership. Books on books on books (on shelves.) Large behemoth of a library containing books on every subject imaginable, as well as asbestos. Popular study spot.

Deathly quiet. See “carrel.”

First College, n. Centrally located residential college. An incoherent assortment of buildings that are ugly both inside and out, but boast large suites of up to 11 people that are unavailable elsewhere on campus. Contains a volleyball court and a ceramics studio.

FitzRandolph Gate, n. Gate in front of Nassau Hall. If you walk out the center gate while an undergraduate, you will not graduate. Of course, that’s just a legend. Try it and let us know.

Forbes brunch, n. The concession Princeton had to make to Forbesians to ensure they wouldn’t drop out. In exchange for living in metaphorical Timbuktu, Forbesians get a chocolate fountain on Sundays. Is it a fair trade?

That’s for you to decide.

Forbes College, n. The res college rumored to exist just west of the Lewis Center for the Arts and Wawa. Only visited by nonForbesians on weekends due to its fancy brunch spreads. See “Forbes brunch.”

Frist, n. The campus center. Home of the student government, mailboxes, and yummy quesadillas. A fun and relaxing place to socialize and study as long as you don’t take introductory Chinese. Not to be confused with First. See “Late meal.”

E-Quad, abbrev. Engineering Quadrangle. A collection of academic buildings where engineers spend all their time. Very, very far east from central campus.

Fraternities, n. pl. First-years, avert your eyes. Groups of males that gather to drink and make lots of grunting noises. Firstyears are not allowed to rush Greek organizations. Those who do face suspension. Not a big presence on campus, but they may be your ticket into a bicker club.

Eating clubs, n. Eleven large mansions on Prospect Avenue that serve as the hub of upperclass student life. What you would get if a fancy dining hall had a baby with a sorority/fraternity house.

You probably weren’t allowed

Frosh Week, n. The week before classes, when sophomores and upperclass students reacquaint themselves with campus life and “meet” the first-years, who are kept busy by an array of University-sponsored activities. Prime

time to drink copious amounts of alcohol amid nighttime mosh pits in the eating clubs’ backyards. We would see you there, if it weren’t for the Class of 2022 and COVID-19. See “McCosh.”

FYRE, abbrev. First-Year Residential Experience. A group of “required” assemblies and zee group meetings that begin during orientation, and end sometime during first semester. Cover important topics such as diversity and socioeconomic status.

G

Grade deflation, n. Former university policy to limit A’s in courses to 35 percent of grades per department. Although the official policy ended, its residual effects still exist on campus. Extremely controversial and a source of many a dining hall debate and Princeton’s unofficial motto, “It would’ve been an A at Harvard.”

Graduate student, n. An individual smart enough to translate Kierkegaard into 14 languages but mostly isolated from campus life. Many are forced to live roughly one mile from central campus. Often characterized as “sketchy.”

H

HA, abbrev. Historical Analysis.

Distribution requirement that can be fulfilled by, you guessed it, a history class.

Hoagie Haven, n. A Princeton institution. A small hoagie shop on Nassau Street that serves sandwiches filled with things like french fries, chicken tenders, multiple burger patties, and buffalo sauce, often in combination.

The most dangerous of drunkfood destinations.

Holder Howl, n. A moment of collective campus catharsis at midnight each Dean’s Date when students gather in Holder Courtyard in Rocky to release a primal scream of fear and frustration.

See “Dean’s Date.”

Honor Code, n. Institution through which University exams are policed. Students sign pledges agreeing not to cheat on exams and to turn in those who do. Taken very seriously, as students enrolled in MAT 202: Linear Algebra with Applications last spring can attest to. See “Committee on Discipline.”

Hookup culture, n. A semi-significant feature of the social scene which is the topic of more online comments and debates on the website of the ‘Prince’ than all the political issues of the day combined.

Hose, v. To render helpless. Most often done to rejected Bicker prospects, who are hosed at their doorstep. Fraternities, sororities, a cappella groups and even the ‘Prince’ hose, but don’t worry — a literal hose is typically not involved. See “Bicker.”

Houseparties, n. Pseudo-bacchanal scheduled for the weekend after the end of spring semester classes. With theses complete and exams two weeks distant, eating clubs host wine-filled formal and semiformal dinners.

The only ones who have it bad are juniors finishing (starting) their JPs and first-year males, who aren’t invited.

I

I-banking, nickname, investment banking. What many of your classmates will go on to do.

ICC, abbrev. Interclub Council.

Group made up of the 11 eating club presidents. Coordinates relations between Prospect Av-

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020 enue, the municipality, and the University.

Independent, adj. n. Upperclass student who joins neither an eating club nor a University dining facility. By graduation, they’re either a great connoisseur of Princeton’s restaurants, a great cook, or a great mooch. Many live in Spelman Hall.

Interactor, n. Upperclass B.S.E. student who helps advise B.S.E. first-years, especially at the beginning of the year. Periodically checks in and hosts study breaks.

Ivy Club, n. Bicker club with a reputation for elitism, mahogany, and international students.

Its women’s bathroom may be the most photographed part of Princeton, after Blair Arch.

J Jam, n. An event at which one or more a cappella groups sing, commonly under an arch.

JP, abbrev. junior paper. Lengthy independent work for juniors meant to prepare them for the senior thesis. Some departments require one; most require two.

Tragic reminder of impending mortality.

Junior slums, n. Upperclass dorms located up-campus; Princeton’s version of slums, nicknamed, “slums.” Don’t be fooled by the Gothic stone.

K

Kiddie lit, nickname, ENG 385: Children’s Literature. Perennially over-enrolled course that people think will be an easy LA. Beware — it’s quite large and grades are heavily deflated.

L

LA, abbrev. Literature and Arts, a category of your distribution requirements. See “kiddie lit.”

Late meal, n. Late meal, n. The only thing that makes upperclass students jealous of first-years.

In theory, an option for students who miss dining hall meal times. In practice, free noms and mixers. Will be sorely missed this year. See “Frist.”

Lawnparties, n. Afternoon drinka-thon and dance-a-thon on the lawn of each eating club, held in early fall and at the end of spring Houseparties. Known for importing great bands and creating a massive influx of sundresses on Prospect Avenue. Time of year to wear your preppiest clothing — pastels encouraged.

LCA, abbrev. Lewis Center for the Arts. Beautiful, modern building complex that serves as Princeton’s home for the arts. Safe haven for theater kids.

Lectures, n. pl. Oft-missed speeches by professors that constitute the foundation of the Princeton education. Try to attend a couple so you can tell your parents that you are making the most of their tuition dollars.

List, n. Method that bicker clubs use to determine who can enter for a night out. What first-years and sophomores agonize about getting onto. Why juniors and seniors in these clubs get texts from younger students they barely know.

Listserv, n. The reason your Gmail app continuously gives you notifications. A main line of communication between campus groups and their members. Most common iterations include your res college listserv, filled with messages ranging from dance group ticket sales to political manifestos, and the free food listserv, which is exactly what it sounds like.

M

Mathey College, n. Residential college located just south of Rocky.

A collection of loosely associated buildings with no central quad.

Shares a large, picturesque dining hall with Rocky.

McCosh, abbrev. McCosh Health Center. 1. n. Located just south of Frist. You go here when you’re too drunk to go to your room but not drunk enough for the hospital. Areas of expertise: mono and asking women if they’re pregnant. 2. v. Sending your toodrunk friend to the infirmary, or getting sent yourself. Usage: “We had no choice but to McCosh him,” or “Frosh week was so messy, I got McCoshed.”

McGraw, abbrev. McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.

Study service that offers one-on-

one and group tutoring for many introductory courses. Located in Frist. Also a good study spot.

Multi-club Bicker, n. Initiative begun recently in which some of the bicker clubs allowed sophomores to bicker two clubs at once. See “Bicker.”

N

NARP, n. Non-athletic regular person. We are here and we are proud. netID, n. The part of your email address preceding “@princeton.edu” and your username for most campus websites.

New York City, n. Just an hourand-a-half train ride away. Sometimes certain classes take you there for free.

O

OA, abbrev. Outdoor Action. Weeklong pre-orientation program that sends half of the incoming class into the woods to get dirty and make friends. There’s no action on Outdoor Action, but there’s always frosh week to get to know a new friend even better.

ODUS, abbrev. Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.

Oversees campus organizations, undergraduate student government, and various student centers. A source of funding for your student group.

Orange Key, n. Campus tour-guiding group. Don’t believe everything they told you on your tour.

Orgo, abbrev. CHM 301/302: Organic Chemistry. Soul-killer. Separates the kids from the doctors.

P

PAA, abbrev. Peer Academic Adviser. Student available to give first-years academic advice.

Shows up sparingly at zee group study breaks.

P/D/F, abbrev. pass/D/fail. Grading option developed to facilitate a true liberal arts education. Designed to allow students to take a class that expands their horizons with the guarantee that their GPA won’t tank. Unless you get a D. Or fail. See “distribution requirements.”

Pequod, n. 1. Fictional ship in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.” 2.

Outrageously expensive photocopied packets of required reading that often resemble the whale. Promised to become free during every USG election. Don’t hold your breath. Found in the U-Store.

Physics for Future Leaders, actual name of PHY 115A. A physics course explicitly designed to introduce non-scientists to just enough science to ostensibly be able to make decisions. Future leaders who are also scientists should seek an actual education elsewhere. See “P/D/F.” PMC, abbrev. Princeton Medical Center. The destination you absolutely don’t want to end up after a night out. Getting PMCed is a much more expensive alternative to getting McCoshed. See “McCosh,” “boot.” 2. Princeton Model Congress. Event for high schoolers, staffed by students who get to stay in D.C. for free.

Not to be confused with the former.

P-Rade, n. Annual procession of ridiculously spirited, multi-generational alumni sporting blackand-orange costumes. Takes place at the end of Reunions. See “alumni,” “Reunions.”

Pre-med, n. A student hoping to go to medical school. Generalized anxiety and cutthroat behavior varies per person.

Precept, n. Discussion between a small group of students and a preceptor (a grad student or faculty member) to supplement lectures. A unique feature of Princeton’s education system inaugurated by Woodrow Wilson.

Vary widely in quality. Never truly mandatory.

Pregame, 1. n. Name for any gathering held prior to a night out on the Street. Usually a source of hard liquor. Usage: “birthday pregame,” “frat pregame.” 2. v. To consume drinks at a party held on campus prior to a night out on the Street. Usage: “Let’s pregame at John’s birthday party before heading to T.I.” Princeton, n. 1. The University to which you have committed the rest of your life (including your future earnings). 2. The affluent suburban town in which your blissful Orange Bubble is located.

Princetoween, n. The night on which all of campus collectively celebrates Halloween, irrespec-

page 13

tive of the actual date. Typically the Thursday before Fall Break.

consumption, after only the Indy 500. See “P-Rade.”

Prospect, abbrev. 1. Prospect House. Formerly the University president’s home in the middle of campus. Now a faculty dining hall and the site of end-of-semester fancy dinners for various organizations. 2. Prospect Garden.

The gardens surrounding Prospect House; popular venue for Houseparties photos. 3. Prospect Avenue, a.k.a the Street. 4. The Prospect, the ‘Prince’ section for arts, culture, and student life.

Rival, n. What Princeton lacks as the third wheel in HYP. What Penn thinks we are.

Prospect 12, n. The ultimate drinking challenge: one beer at every eating club in one night. A favored item on senior bucket lists.

Most commonly conquered on Princetoween or Dranksgiving.

Although only 11 clubs are operational, the 12th is Campus Club.

Prox, 1. n. Common name for PUID, or the Princeton University TigerCard. 2. v. To unlock a door by holding your PUID close to an electronic sensor. Humping the wall in the process is optional.

Usage: “Could you prox me in?”

See “PUID.” P-Safe, abbrev. Public Safety.

University cops responsible for regulating parking, ignoring room parties, and opening doors for locked-out students. Despite years of effort by the police union, the officers don’t carry guns.

PTL, abbrev. Post-Thesis Life. The time of year after seniors have turned in their thesis, but before graduation, where they have no responsibilities in life. A time well spent but poorly remembered.

PUID, n. 1. Your University ID. Your key to admission at the library, sporting events, and eating clubs. Can be used to charge food purchases to your student account. Eating club members sport special stickers on theirs.

2. Method sign-in clubs use to determine who can enter during nights out. In this case, if you’re a student and have a PUID, you’re good. See “prox.”

Q

QCR, abbrev. Quantitative and Computational Reasoning, a distribution requirement Quadrangle Club, n. Sign-in club commonly known as “Quad.” The only eating club with a liquor license, meaning it’s the club with the best drinks. The eating club Jeff Bezos ’86 belonged to.

R

RCA, abbrev. Residential college adviser. An upperclass student who lives in your hall and provides free food (see “study break”), condoms, and answers to questions like what to do when your roommate hasn’t showered in five weeks. See “Zee group.”

Reading period, n. Week and a half to catch up on work at the end of each semester. Originally intended as time to do independent research, it is now a time to sleep in until 2 p.m. and to read and write everything you haven’t in the past semester. Dean’s Date happens at the end.

Recal.io, n. Website students use to plan their courses for each semester. Has all possible courses and precepts so students can optimize their classes.

Real talk princeton, n. Tumblr page run by anonymous students who answer basically any question about Princeton. When you have a question nobody knows the answer to, or you don’t feel comfortable asking your friends, this is the place to go.

Residential college, n. Your home at Princeton for at least your first two years of college. There are six residential colleges on campus: Rocky, Mathey, Butler, First, Whitman, and Forbes. Each college varies greatly in amenities, types of rooms, and location, but they all provide a sense of community, and more importantly, a source of free gear.

Residential College Facebook, n.

Great Value-brand Tigerbook. It does the job in the meantime, but doesn’t hold up to Tigerbook.

Residential college staff, n. Wellmeaning faculty members who work for your residential college and have varying degrees of helpfulness. Skilled at clogging your email inbox. Includes the Head of College, Dean of College, Director of Studies, and Director of Student Life.

Reunions, n. Beer-saturated gathering of alumni during the weekend before Commencement for drinking, fellowship, and the P-Rade. Good excuse for students to delay returning home for a week at the end of the year.

Reportedly the event with the second-highest level of alcohol

Rocky College, abbrev. Rockefeller College. Northernmost residential college known for gorgeous Gothic architecture.

Rocks for Jocks, nickname.

GEO 103: Natural Disasters. See “P/D/F.” RoMa, nickname. Rockefeller/ Mathey College dining hall.

Looks like the Great Hall in Harry Potter; both were modeled after Oxford.

Room draw, n. Computerized process by which students select rooms for the upcoming year.

Conspiracy theories abound about the supposed randomness of the process: People with high social security numbers, third letters of their last names near the end of the alphabet, and Minnesota addresses may receive better times.

Room improvement, n. Purgatory into which students with tragically late draw times are cast.

Over the summer, those who are eligible for room improvement will theoretically be placed into better rooms. See “room draw.”

Rush, v. To move very quickly toward something. n. 1. An aquatic plant. 2. A process you are forbidden to know anything about.

Shhh.

S SA, abbrev. Social Analysis. Distribution requirement that can be fulfilled by a large variety of courses in the realm of humanities and social science.

Safety school, 1. n. Yale, Harvard, Penn, etc. 2. phrase. Popular chant at basketball games regardless of opponent.

SEL, abbrev. Science and Engineering with Lab, a self-explanatory distributional requirement. See “Bridges.”

SEN, abbrev. Science and Engineering, Nonlaboratory, a self-explanatory distribution requirement. See “Physics for Future Leaders.”

Sexile, v. To render your roommate homeless after a successful date or night out. Etiquette in case of sexile should be discussed with your roommate ASAP. Shared meal plan, n. A system by which one can be a member of both an eating club and a residential college, with meals split between the two. Also known as the dream. The number of slots available vary widely by club.

Sign-in club, n. Eating club that takes members through a lottery system rather than Bicker.

Charter decided that switching to bicker was the perfect solution when they failed at this.

Squirrel, n. A furry friend and foe.

Cute when scurrying around campus. Pesky when scavenging in your dorm room. Scary when rabid. Not scared of people.

Comes in brown, gray, and black varieties.

Sororities, n. pl. Groups of women who gather together to take pictures in dresses and “network.”

There are only three at this school: Kappa Kappa Gamma (“Kappa”), Pi Beta Phi (“Pi Phi”), and Kappa Alpha Theta (“Theta”). First-years are not allowed to rush Greek organizations. It may be your ticket into a bicker club, or a way for people to instantly stereotype you.

SPIA, abbrev. School of Public and International Affairs. Formerly selective concentration for students interested in becoming bankers or consultants and learning the language of bureaucracy, as well as those rare folk who actually do want to save the world through government (but will probably end up in banking or consulting).

SPIA fountain, n. Idyllic fountain and pool located in Scudder Plaza, north of Robertson Hall. The entire student body can be found taking photos here pre-Lawnparties. Popular wading spot in the spring, especially after SPIA theses are submitted.

Stars for Stoners, nickname. AST 203: The Universe. Purported to actually be a somewhat difficult class involving actual equations.

See “P/D/F.” Study break, n. Code for free food.

At any given time, there is a high chance some study break is happening around campus. Most common benefactors of study breaks include res colleges, RCAs, and clubs.

T

Terrace Club, n. Sign-in club known for artsy types, vegans and hipsters. Popular end-ofnight stop for all of campus. The only eating club not on Prospect Avenue.

T.I., abbrev. Tiger Inn. Bicker club known for raucous, beer-soaked parties and heavy preponderance of bros.

Tiger Confessions, n. Facebook page run by an anonymous student where students can submit any thoughts, questions, ideas, etc. they have. Keeps getting shut down, but keeps returning in slightly different iterations. Like a cat, it seems to have nine lives.

Tower Club, n. Bicker club known for first-year-friendly dance floor and taproom, as well as heavy preponderance of theater types, a cappella groups, and SPIA majors.

Thesis, n. The T word. Major senior pastime, required of every A.B. student and some B.S.E. students. Most are close to 100 pages. Often replaces socialization, exercise, happiness, etc. in the spring.

Tiger, n. 1. Princeton student or athlete. 2. Mascot dressed in tiger-skin suit who capers and cavorts at football games while trying to avoid attacks by the opponent’s band. 3. Campus humor magazine of erratic quality and publication schedule. 4. Striped predatory jungle cat.

Tigerbook, n. Database containing every Princeton student and information such as their class year, major, and most importantly, a photo. The single-most useful tool you will encounter in your time at Princeton. Currently not operational, but Princetonians everywhere hold hope it will return. In the meantime, see “Residential College Facebook.”

TigerHub, n. Poorly named and poorly designed software to fulfill administrative duties such as enrolling in courses and checking grades. Have to reload the page three times before it works.

U

Up-campus, adj., n. Located on the part of campus closer to Nassau Street, up the hill. Begins around Dillon Gym and extends through Rocky. Synonym: “north.” Usage: “From here, go up-campus to find Brown.”

U-Store, n. Officially, the Princeton University Store. Located at 36 University Place, across from Blair Arch. Sells food, dorm items, and school supplies. Overpriced, but great location.

USG, abbrev. Undergraduate Student Government. Resumebuilders who like to hear themselves talk. Plans Lawnparties.

Otherwise, of questionable impact. Current president is Chitra Parikh ’21.

W

Wa, The, n. Campus colloquialism for the Wawa convenience store.

Located between the Dinky and Forbes.

Whitman College, n. Residential college that bears a striking resemblance to the castle in Shrek.

As the newest college, built in 2007, it has air conditioning and very nice rooms.

Writing Center, n. Singlehandedly responsible for helping firstyears survive writing sem. Offers individual appointments to help at any point in the writing process.

Wucox, n. Portmanteau for “Wu/ Wilcox dining hall.” Large dining hall that serves Butler and First Colleges. Frequented by athletes and gym rats post-workout.

Z

Zee group, abbrev. Group of advisees. The 20 or so first-years frequently found under the wing of a residential college adviser. May or may not become close friends over the course of the year. Statistically, at least one permutation within the group will hook up.

Zoom, n. The death of your eyeballs, your computer battery, and your traditional college education. Begone, classrooms.

Thanks to COVID-19, all you need is a laptop to receive your Princeton degree.

Opinion

Friday July 24, 2020

page 14

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Editorial Board .....................................

After five years of student activism, it’s time for the U. to stop dragging its feet

vol. cxliv editor-in-chief

Jonathan Ort ’21

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 second vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90 trustees Francesca Barber Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John G. Horan ’74 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Betsy L. Minkin ’77 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Kavita Saini ’09 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Abigail Williams ’14

COURTESY OF JOANNA ANYANWU ‘15 GS

Protesters after the sit-in in the President’s office.

F

ive years ago, the Black Justice League (BJL) and Black Student Union organized a 33-hour sit-in of Nassau Hall to protest the University’s ongoing celebration of Woodrow Wilson. Last month, drawing upon the BJL’s efforts, Change WWS Now circulated a letter and list of demands. Later that week, Wilson’s name was finally stripped from the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the residential college now known as First College.

President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 has ignored this persistent activism, most pointedly in a recent Washington Post op-ed, entitled “I opposed taking Woodrow Wilson’s name off our school.

Here’s why I changed my mind.”

Not only does he unduly credit himself for the new decision, but Eisgruber does not even mention by name the Black Justice League’s sit-in as the catalyst for the University’s examination of Woodrow Wilson’s legacy. He fails to recount and apologize for the threats of disciplinary action the students faced following their protest.

Eisgruber’s op-ed is a stark example of the University’s past and

present unwillingness to engage with student activists, a pattern we fear will continue. In light of the symbolic yet long-overdue renaming, this Board calls on the University to further reckon with and address its institutional racism and hopes the administration will do so by following the lead of the student activists who they so often ignore.

This Board urges the University to act on the deliberate demands of the Black Justice League, the organizers of Change WWS Now, and other coalitions. Proposals to diversify the faculty; implement anti-racist curricula; divest from local police departments, private prisons, and fossil fuels; and support reparation efforts are at the University’s disposal.

Bearing in mind this obligation, we expect the administration to heed the voices of the hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, and faculty, who have fought and continue to fight for a more just University.

We wish to use our platform to spotlight activists’ plans, not our own. The Board does not pretend to offer all the solutions for how the University can combat rac-

ism on and off campus. In 2015, The Daily Princetonian Editorial Board endorsed keeping Woodrow Wilson’s name on the residential college and SPIA. Over a century ago, Wilson himself chaired the Board. Even though the current Board rejects Wilson’s white supremacy, we are still shaped by it.

Adopting anti-racist policies is the only way to begin to erode the systemic inequality reflected in this Board and the University’s histories. We urge the administration to defer to the students who have laid bare what it previously refused to acknowledge.

Since re-naming the SPIA, the University has not taken any material actions to combat systemic racism — beyond creating committees. Time and again, the administration has used its own bureaucratic hurdles to silence student activists’ demands, exclude them from decision making processes, and out-wait them by remaining complacent and slow-moving. As MPA student Abyssinia Lissanu ’16 GS said so well, “we’re tired of committees.”

We demand the administration take material steps to ensure the renaming is the first step of

many to address its racist institutional history. Rather than nod to activists with performative gestures, this Board charges the University to involve students in decision-making processes and implement policies to combat racism.

Without shining a floodlight on systems of oppression and dismantling them, this institution — and its students — are just as liable to perpetuate racism at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs as they were at the Woodrow Wilson School.

Board Chair Zachariah W. Sippy ’22 Board Members Benjamin Ball ’21 Shannon E. Chaffers ’22 Rachel Kennedy ’21 Kate Lee ’23 Madeleine Marr ’21 Jonathan A. Ort ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 Emma Treadway ’22 Ivy Truong ’21 Cy Watsky ’21 This piece previously appeared online.

Black Lives Matter: It must be said Rachel Kennedy

Head Opinion Editor

T

oday marks the 15th anniversary of my mother’s death. I was six years old, but the faces of the first responders rushing up the stairs to my parents’ bedroom have never grown fuzzy in my mind. I never got the chance to thank those men, but now, more than ever, I wish I had.

In the midst of COVID-19, paramedics, first responders, nurses, and doctors are saving lives and putting themselves at risk in the name of humanity. My mother was a surgeon. Each time I watch a video of New York City erupting into applause at 7 p.m., I wish she could hear it. Around the world, the strength of medical professionals — and the essential employees continuing to work — is nothing short of remarkable.

Institutional failings, however, cast a shadow over the individual bravery of these women and men.

As more and more cities collect data on racial disparities in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, it has become apparent that

COVID-19 is taking a staggering number of black lives. In Louisiana, black residents make up 32 percent of the population, yet account for 70 percent of the state’s deaths. Cities such as Chicago and D.C. and states such as Illinois and Michigan report similar tallies.

As the virus cuts short many black lives, two realities become essential to remember. First, COVID-19 did not create the systemic challenges that increase black people’s vulnerability to the disease.

But now that these widespread inequalities have been brought (yet again) to mainstream attention, widespread affirmation of black life must follow.

Precarity plagues Black American life, as inadequate access to healthcare and healthy food and increased exposure to trauma and pollution take their toll. These systematic factors lead black Americans to suffer from higher rates of hypertension, asthma, diabetes, obesity — many of the preconditions that increase susceptibility to the virus.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams raised the racial issues of COVID-19 by speaking out about his own struggles with high blood pressure and heart and respiratory ailments. Discussing the disparities before they were front page news, he said, “I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black

in America.”

These disparities do not surprise black people. Black Americans were not able to forget about these institutional barriers to health and prosperity while the rest of the country did — COVID-19 is simply a “newsworthy” exacerbation of everyday reality. It has taken a pandemic and the disproportionate death rate of Black Americans for white people and leaders to even acknowledge the material conditions created by factors such as segregation and inadequate funding.

President Trump, the “nation’s doctor” Anthony Fauci, and Boston mayor Marty Walsh have offered statements attesting to the crisis’s disproportionate effect on black lives. Fauci, who is committed to trying to return the country to normal by November, seemed resigned to the issue of Black death, stating, “It’s very sad. There is nothing to do about it right now …”

Fauci is wrong. Throwing one’s hands up is not an adequate response. The need for systemic overhauls addressing the inequality of access and care is clear, and those overhauls will not come without a committed effort to reaffirm the value of Black life.

There is so much to be done.

Insisting that we are literally counted, as Julia and Shannon

Chaffers ’22 did in a recent column calling on officials to collect data on racial demographics, is one way to start, one way for Black people to assert their voices in this time where the historical and societal devaluation of Black lives is again evident. Yet solely collecting and analyzing data does no justice to the humanity of those who have lost their lives.

My mom passed away from melanoma. With radiant skin darker than mine, her chances of developing skin cancer were low. Her death was an anomaly — as was much of her life. She went to Yale when she was 16 and became one of the first black woman surgical residents at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

She was also one of the first surgeons to take maternity leave. In one sense, she fought marginalization in all aspects of her life, running up against the intersecting walls of racism and sexism in education, the medical field, and our white neighborhood. Yet, defying the odds even in death allowed her a certain kind of dignity. She is not reduced to a statistic, as statistics do not represent her story.

The black people who have died from COVID-19 deserve dignity and visibility as individuals, not only as numbers. Ronda Hatch of See BLM page 15

trustees ex officio Jonathan Ort ’21 Louis Aaron ’22

144TH MANAGING BOARD managing editors Benjamin Ball ’21 Elizabeth Parker ’21 Ivy Truong ’21 Cy Watsky ’21 Sections listed in alphabetical order. chief copy editors Lydia Choi ’21 Anna McGee ’22 associate copy editors Celia Buchband ’22 Sydney Peng ’22 head design editor Harsimran Makkad ’22 associate design editors Abby Nishiwaki ’23 Kenny Peng ’22 head features editor Josephine de La Bruyère ’22 head multimedia editor Mark Dodici ’22 associate video editor Mindy Burton ’23 head news editors Claire Silberman ’22 Zachary Shevin ’22 associate news and features editor Marie-Rose Sheinerman ’22 associate news editors Naomi Hess ’22 Allan Shen ’22 head opinion editors Rachel Kennedy ’21 Madeleine Marr ’21 associate opinion editors Shannon Chaffers ’22 Emma Treadway ’22 deputy associate opinion editor Kate Lee ’23 editorial board chairperson Zachariah Sippy ’22 associate prospect editors Paige Allen ’21 Lauren Fromkin ’23 Cammie Lee ’22 Auhjanae McGee ’23 head sports editor Tom Salotti ’21 Alissa Selover ’21 associate sports editors Josephine de La Bruyère ’22 Emily Philippides ’22 Rachel Posner ’22

144TH BUSINESS BOARD business manager Louis Aaron ’22 director, digital products Andy He ’23

THANK YOU. this issue was designed by Harsimran Makkad ’22 and was a collaboration between Lauren Fromkin ’23, Kenny Peng ’22, Sydney Peng ’22, and Rachel Sturley ’22.

Opinion

Friday July 24, 2020

page 15

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Fifty years have passed since protests swept campus. Here’s what they teach us.

Jonathan Ort

F

Editor-in-Chief

ifty years ago tonight, more than 2,500 students and faculty thronged into the Chapel, enraged by President Richard Nixon’s 9 p.m. announcement that U.S. troops had deployed to Cambodia. By the time a bomb threat forced them to evacuate two hours later, those present had voted to “strike immediately against all academic and social functions of the university.”

On that dramatic evening — which, like today, fell on a Thursday — students wrestled with a war they considered immoral and illegal. For many, the draft loomed. Students soon launched a campus strike that would last through Commencement. On May 2, 1970, four people, including two University students, firebombed the ROTC Armory on Washington Road. Princeton had reached a crossroads.

The spring of 1970 resembles our own historical moment in unsettling yet instructive ways. Though

we often imagine Princeton as a cloistered paradise, the University is, and has always been, imbricated within the world. Indeed, it was in May 1970 that Nassau Hall permanently opened FitzRandolph Gate, “in a symbol of the University’s openness to the local and worldwide community.”

That events around the world affect Princeton reveals our collective precarity. As COVID-19 has made all too clear, we are liable to disruption and dispersal, just as our forebears were half a century ago. But our campus community is precious precisely because it is fragile. If we recognize this truth, we can build a Princeton that withstands even the most ferocious of storms.

In 1970, urgent debates about the Vietnam War and racial injustice shattered the idyll of campus.

On Monday, May 4, nearly 4,000 students and faculty packed into Jadwin Gymnasium, where they weighed how to enact the strike approved in the Chapel three days prior.

John D. Semida ’72 challenged his peers who ignored racial oppression in the United States, even as they opposed war in Vietnam and Cambodia. “The only way anything can be stopped abroad is to stop things here,” he declared. “A student strike

is nothing. This institution must make a stand and must defend the stand.”

After four hours of heated deliberation, the crowd voted that, “as an institution,” the University had no choice but to “oppose the Cambodian invasion, American foreign policy and domestic oppression.”

The same day, the Ohio National Guard shot four students dead at Kent State.

Concurrently, the faculty announced that students on strike could waive or postpone their spring academic work. In a decision that resonates today, pass-fail grading became available for all courses.

The faculty further granted students two weeks of leave in the fall, allowing them to participate in electoral campaigns. In October 1971, Princeton held its first fall break.

In 1966, a student writing in The Daily Princetonian lamented that his peers treated Princeton as “a four-year sabbatical from responsibility and concern.” Four years later, the graduating class traded in caps and gowns for red armbands, called off its Class Day, step sing, and senior prom, and boycotted the P-rade. They successfully petitioned the University to disband Navy ROTC, which wouldn’t return until 2014.

As Valedictorian Raymond Gibbons ’70 reflected at Commencement, “any apolitical farewell address delivered on this occasion would be a peculiar anachronism.”

Yet, within a few short months, the turmoil evanesced, as students all but exhausted the fervor that had inspired them to protest. In June 1971, the ‘Prince’ reported that “a new apathy” had descended upon Princeton, “an emotionally burned out university, whose chief attribute was disillusionment.”

Fifty years later, we risk once again forgetting the lessons of 1970.

Before COVID-19 metastasized into a pandemic, I watched many students, including myself, take Princeton’s proverbial immunity as a given.

On March 10, the day before most students learned they would have to return home, an anonymous student wrote on the Facebook page TigerConfessions++, “Everyone who is getting mad at seniors for being upset and calling them inconsiderate — we didn’t go through 3 years of bullshit for mfkn CORONA WHICH IS THE MFKN FLU to fuck everything up. I’m so sick of everyone panicking including a multi billion dollar university.”

Though I understand my peer’s frustration, the post reveals a perni-

cious entitlement, which threatens to warp our collective perspective.

The student urged Princeton to turn its back on a world in crisis, to carry on with business as usual. In their view, a university as wealthy as ours had no right to “panic.”

Tonight, the Chapel sits empty, a stark coda to a movement that began 50 years ago. Yet, we now have another chance to understand our institution’s place within the world.

The privilege of attending Princeton compels us to lean into, rather than shirk, global challenges and responsibilities. Did we really think an endowment of $26.1 billion would inoculate against coronavirus?

In an uncertain world, our community is not to be taken for granted. Nor is it to be accepted uncritically. If our four years at Princeton are to be more than a sabbatical, we must first realize that a fragile community requires our utmost care.

Jonathan Ort is editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian. He can be reached at eic@dailyprincetonian.com and on Twitter at @ort_jon.

BOB PRICHARD / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Students in the Chapel on April 30, 1970.

The Observer Effect Sydney Peng ’22

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BLM

Continued from page 14

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Chicago, Lawrence Riley of Milwaukee, and Leilani Jordan of Washington D.C. are among the thousands of black people who have died. They were mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, and brothers. Undoubtably some were poor, some LGBTQ+, some undocumented. The data matters.

Hopefully it helps us address the institutional difficulties many of them faced. But their lives as lived matter even more. We may not be able to capture all of their stories, but by reviving the conviction of the Black Lives Matter movement,

we can approach reports on the disproportionate toll of black people dying with a sense of regard for the person lost and the community grieving them.

In addition to statistics, we must invest in black life. Any action insisting Black people matter is necessary because it directly contradicts the logic of white supremacy that allowed Black communities to become so drastically underserved in the first place.

Supporting one’s community by providing grocery services to those affected by limited food pantry hours like Melody McCurtis and Danell Cross are doing in Milwaukee is another way of rejecting the pervasive myth of the dispens-

ability of black life. We need more individuals and institutions to reject this myth.

The first person I had to say goodbye to was the first person who knew me in this world. Ten years after my mom passed, a classmate of mine, Casey Dunne, died.

Less than two years later, during my first week at Princeton, one of my best friends, McCrae Williams, died. I think of them all each day.

Their deaths were all statistical outliers, due to rare ailments or freak accidents. Lying outside the realm of statistical possibility, I’ve often asked — why them?

No one could give me an answer.

For years, I thought this made it all worse. As I think of the thousands

of Black people mourning loved ones now, I doubt pointing to institutional disregard and devaluation provides them with any solace. But by addressing and changing those systemic patterns, we can help prevent others from enduring the same treatment.

Death has punctuated many eras of my life. I’ve spent lots of my life grieving. It is a lonely process only now made lonelier that ceremonies commemorating it are not possible, and neither are the daily routines of work and school that carry us through it. Despite the heartbreak felt in the worldwide diffusion of death, we cannot diffuse responsibility as to why certain people are dying at dispropor-

tionately higher rates than others.

We must call the disparity what it is — institutional racism — and double down on our efforts to express to the families and communities disproportionately affected that their lives matter, despite the overwhelming evidence that American society does not agree.

Black lives matter today as I mourn my mother, and families and communities mourn the over 130,930 people lost to COVID-19 worldwide.

Black lives matter always.

Rachel Kennedy is a senior from Dedham, Mass. She can be reached at rk19@princeton.edu.

Opinion

Friday July 24, 2020

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The Great Recession strangled the humanities.

Will coronavirus deal the last blow?

Liam O’Connor

Senior Columnist Emeritus

D

uring the Great Recession of 2008, college students saw the global economy in shambles and left the humanities in droves, out of fear such areas of study would lead to unstable, low-paying jobs. Yet, when the economy recovered, they never returned.

Enrollment data from the Office of the Registrar that I recently compiled illustrate the damage that the Great Recession inflicted upon the humanities at Princeton.

Now, with the world in its worst economic slump since the Great Depression, the coronavirus pandemic has the potential to deal the final blow to departments that are still reeling from the last downturn.

Half of all undergraduates currently declare concentrations in six of 37 available subjects — history, politics, economics, computer science (COS), operations research and financial engineering (ORFE), and the Woodrow Wilson school.

“The wake of the financial crisis had a big effect on the humanities,” Religion Department Chair Judith Weisenfeld told me. Nearly a quarter of upperclass-students were humanities majors in 2008.

Just 14 percent are today.

Social sciences also dropped in popularity to a lesser extent, from 39 percent to 36 percent, over the same period. The natural sciences — while initially seeing a brief rise — had no long-term change.

On the other hand, engineering surged. Twenty-eight percent of

juniors and seniors pursued BSE degrees last year compared with 18 percent in 2008. ctions to Old Nassau, as he had attended two of its Ivy League rivals. But he applied for a job in its admissions office anyways. Barely out of graduate school, the new director who hired him, Alden Dunham ’53, resolved to diversify Princeton’s mostly white and wealthy all-male applicant pool.

Princeton’s experience is hardly unique. It’s part of a larger national trend. The number of language, philosophy, and English majors tumbled at least 30 percent since their peaks in the 2000s, according to The Atlantic.

“We feel the impact of the broader cultural devaluing of the humanities, and that comes from this relentless linking of employment to major,” Weisenfeld said.

COS has almost exclusively fueled engineering’s expansion at Princeton. Whereas only one in thirty-three undergraduates were COS majors in 2008, one in eight were in 2019.

“There’s a combination of enthusiasm, jobs, and opportunities for innovation that get people excited about computer science,” Computer Science Department Chair Jennifer Rexford told me. She said that interest in COS skyrocketed in the late 1990s and then crashed when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.

This time around, advancements in technology seem to be spurring long-lasting job creation.

She also credits COS’s success to the department’s efforts to make introductory classes more accessible. Almost 60 percent of Princeton students take COS 126, Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach.

“We’ve done a lot to try to make the educational experience bou-

tique, even though it’s at scale,” she said.

The Registrar’s data reveals trends within Princeton’s academic divisions that resulted from world events and new departments.

ORFE had a brief dip following the Great Recession but soon recovered to its pre-crisis enrollment by 2013.

After the neuroscience department started offering a concentration in 2015, students abandoned chemistry and psychology to join it. Likewise, the Woodrow Wilson school attracted would-be politics, economics, and sociology majors when it scrapped its restrictive application process in 2013.

Art & Archaeology has halved in size since its peak in 2010. The number of English students shrank 32 percent during the past decade.

Comparative Literature is merely a third as big as it once was. Religion went from being the fourth most popular of 14 humanities concentrations to being tied with German as the second least popular.

Weisenfeld explained that the humanities, especially her department, face two main challenges in attracting students. Aside from private and a handful of well-funded public high schools, not many secondary schools teach religion or related fields as academic disciplines. In turn, few students come to college looking to study them.

For those who do, the humanities departments compete against each other to split the same small pool of undergraduates among themselves.

Weisenfeld also suspects that Princeton’s prohibition on double majors forces students on tight budgets to pick the sciences for pragmatic career reasons over their love of arts and culture. The upside, she said, is that the humanities’ course enrollment isn’t falling, so they make a significant contribu-

tion to liberal arts education.

Rexford called the concentration of students in COS “unhealthy.” She urged underclassstudents — or their parents — who are concerned about their financial futures to consider earning the “applications of computing” certificate while majoring in the humanities.

“It’s a waste of resources to have immensely qualified faculty doing really interesting work and teaching and not having the student interest [in them],” she said.

The shame of the humanities’ decline is that people who study them — contrary to conventional wisdom — don’t have dismal employment prospects.

A 2018 report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences determined that humanities majors eventually catch up in earnings to their peers who studied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and have comparable levels of job satisfaction. Harvard economist David Deming argues that their fields teach them “soft skills” — like adaptability and critical thinking — that pay off when they enter law, management, or business. The Census Bureau found in 2014 that 74 percent of Americans who hold a STEM degree aren’t employed in STEM occupations anyway.

Princeton’s liberal arts model lets students combine their passions. It may be better to join a small department and study a second interest in a larger department as a certificate. The GallupPurdue Index Report of 30,000 college graduates found that they were more likely to be engaged at work if they connected well with a professor. Such relationships are definitely easier to build in departments where advisers don’t have

to divide their attention between a dozen students.

Nor does a major guarantee a certain lucrative job. The ORFE and economics majors of the Classes of 2008-2010 undoubtedly struggled to get finance jobs while Wall Street saw mass layoffs. The dotcom bubble showed that the tech field isn’t invulnerable either. My own major — Geosciences — is one of the most “marketable” because of its relevance to oil exploration (not that I picked it for this reason).

But an ill-timed price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, coupled with the coronavirus slowdown, have devastated American petroleum firms.

Whichever fields seem “hot” today may not be as employable by graduation. One advantage of the humanities is that they’re not tied to the unpredictable fortunes of a particular industry.

Under lockdown, first years and pre-frosh have a rare opportunity to ponder their futures at Princeton with less of the usual pressures of school. I encourage them to think about how they can best leverage Princeton’s resources to pursue whatever excites them. If this pandemic has taught us college students anything, it’s that the world can wreck our carefully planned careers at a moment’s notice.

The humanities declined after the last recession. But coronavirus may be the chance to set up their resurgence.

Liam O’Connor is a senior geosciences major from Wyoming, Del. He can be reached at lpo@princeton.edu.

HARSIMRAN MAKKAD / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Friday July 24, 2020 MARCH 2020

Features

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‘The end of the world’

How students said goodbye to campus

By Alex Gjaja

Assistant Features Editor

To walk through campus during the first days of spring break meant trudging through hallways cluttered with filing cabinets, with textbooks, with furniture. Garbage cans overflowed in empty rooms. Mailboxes went unemptied. Food — in boxes, in bags, in basements — piled up and began to reek. Strewn everywhere was the evidence of college students forced out in a hurry.

Broken bottles, red Solo Cups, and dice littered Henry Courtyard, its pristine grass pockmarked by a horde of students’ feet and a slew of folding tables’ legs. Leaning against the side of Campbell Hall was a half-empty handle of Svedka vodka, a stack of plastic shot glasses, and a scribbled cardboard sign that read: “It’s the end of the world as we know it so you might as well take shots!”

Strewn everywhere was the evidence of college students forced out in a hurry — and determined to make the most of their last days on campus.

“Princeton students are motivated,” said Camille Reeves ’23. “Once something is in motion on this campus, it’s hard to stop it.” For many students, in what would have otherwise been an ordinary midterms week, that “something” wasn’t their exams.

After the March 11 announcement ordering almost all students to return home for the rest of the semester, members of the class of 2020 rushed to cram their senior spring traditions into their few remaining days.

Some preemptively marched through FitzRandolph Gate.

Eating clubs held mock graduations for their seniors, handing out superlatives alongside mock diplomas. A cappella groups held final arch sings all over campus; senior members of the Wildcats, an all-women group, sang the tune they had first performed when joining the group.

“I needed closure,” said Laura Kirkland ’20, a Wildcats member. “It was hard to end the hardest four years of my life so abruptly without getting the celebratory moments at the end.”

Some seniors scrambled to check off a list of climactic Princeton traditions. Other students just tried to have a good time.

Midnight DJ party in Henry Courtyard? Check. Jump into Lake Carnegie? Check.

Set off fireworks on Poe Field?

Check.

Set off

fireworks above Wilson College?

Check. Sneak into Baker Rink for a midnight free skate? Check, and check.

For students who partook in the campus-wide festivities, Thursday proved the biggest day of celebration. Some, like Elizabeth Evanko ’23, held makeshift birthday parties for friends whose birthdays would occur in the next few months. Others coped in less conventional ways: by egging Whitman’s courtyard, say, or by smashing bottles outside of Wu dining hall.

The student antics garnered a sizable response: the force of the University’s Department of Public Safety, or PSafe, on full display. Officers worked through the night to break up

individual dorm parties and gaggles of students blatantly ignoring social distancing protocols. A midnight gathering on Poe Field was disrupted when patrol cars, headlights flashing, drove onto the field, sending students scattering into the night.

Administrators shared in PSafe’s frustration. In an email sent on Friday, March 13 and a d -

dressed to all students, Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan said she was “disheartened” to see so many students disregarding social distancing protocol and “engaging in disruptive behavior.”

Deignan reminded students of communication from President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83, who had stressed the need “to reduce the number of instances where members of our community gathered in large groups and in close proximity to one another,” given the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak on campus.

Students found congregating in large gatherings, Deignan warned, could face serious consequences: documentation of wrongdoing, immediate campus eviction, and even arrest for disorderly conduct.

Warning and all, many students made it clear that they prioritized time with friends over following regimented campus health protocols.

But some shared the adm in-

istration’s d i s a p p o i n tment in campus’ physical state and in students’ disrespect for the health of the community.

“It was heartbreaking to see how quickly people were ready to destroy campus,” said Reeves. “There’s a line between being emotional and wanting to throw trash everywhere.”

Kirkland noted that while she understood the source of students’ frustration and their desire to spend their last nights with friends, she still was upset by the number of large gatherings on Thursday night.

“We’re all making this big collective sacrifice,” she said.

“And we have to go home now, and not stay here, because we are trying to keep each other safe. I felt like ‘why do we have to make this sacrifice if people are just going to disrespect it anyway?’”

The University is “taking drastic measures to prevent a spread of a deadly virus that all of you are ignoring to get wasted at 3pm,” read an anonymous post on the student Facebook page Tiger Confessions++. “Please stop being so selfish and ignorant.”

No matter whether they committed to that communal sacrifice or threw safety regulations out the window, interviewed students agreed on one count: their last days on campus were an emotional rollercoaster like no other.

There were “so many emotions,” said Reeves, “that no one will have a clear emotional picture or timeline” of the end of midterms week.

Myles McKnight ’23, like Reeves, was unable to piece together a timeline of his last days at Princeton, calling it a “dense week.”

As for why? Here’s a clue: It was, per Reeves, “a 72-hour bender.”

In McKnight’s opinion, nothing can make up for missing the last few months of his semester. But his last nights on campus helped him come to terms with leaving. And while they may have been a blur, he knows he won’t forget them.

“I’m still glad that I had the experiences those last couple of nights that I did with my friends,” he said. “I think everybody savored every last moment we had together.”

MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Henry courtyard, one day after news of evacuation broke.

APRIL 2020

‘Gracias a Dios’

Unable to qualify for government assistance, undocumented Princeton residents turn to local non-profits

By Zachary Shevin Head News Editor

Last month, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, an over $2 trillion stimulus package that provides direct financial assistance to American citizens and legal permanent residents, entered into effect. Though they pay billions of dollars in taxes annually, undocumented immigrants will not receive a cent.

For one father of four who has lived and worked in Princeton for 20 years, this reality is deeply unfair.

“Like many people who came as immigrants, we are struggling because we give as much as we can to this country — through work, through paying taxes,” he said in an interview conducted in Spanish.

“It doesn’t seem fair to me that they are helping the people who are here legally, and we cannot receive the same help.”

“No me parece justo,” he said. “It does not seem just.”

The man, who spoke to The Daily Princetonian under the condition of anonymity, is an undocumented immigrant

from Mexico. He and his wife, also undocumented, were recently laid off and are now out of work. The two have been keeping busy as they care for their children, but they feel increasingly stressed and desperate not knowing how long the crisis will keep them both out of work.

These anxieties are not exclusive to the undocumented community; a record-breaking number of New Jersey residents have filed for unemployment insurance as a result of the pandemic. But for undocumented immigrants, who lack access to unemployment benefits, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and various other governmental programs, making use of federal and state social safety nets is not an option.

The father who spoke with the ‘Prince’ has four children, all of whom are United States citizens. Their parents’ lack of legal immigration status, however, prevents them from being able to claim a CARES Act payout.

“It’s outrageous that the government isn’t helping everybody,” said Veronica Oliva-

VERONICA OLIVARES-WEBER FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Food delivered to Princeton residents.

res-Weber, Vice-Chair of the Princeton Human Services Commission. “Obviously, this is not new, but I can’t believe that

even during this crisis there is no help for them.”

“During this time, immigration status shouldn’t matter,”

she added.

Americans remain divided See GRACIAS page 18

Friday July 24, 2020

Features

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GRACIAS Continued from page 17

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on the question of whether it should.

In a March poll conducted by USA Today and Ipsos, a market research company, 40 percent of respondents said they were in favor of the government providing temporary financial help for undocumented immigrants unable to work, while 42 percent of respondents opposed the measure.

The divide also falls somewhat along partisan lines, with 58 percent of Democrats supporting such a measure and 70 percent of Republicans opposing it.

Thus far, California is the only state to budget disaster relief for undocumented immigrants — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $125 million fund last week. A group of 70 immigrant and labor advocacy organizations also sent New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy a letter urging action on the matter, but no economic relief legislation has been passed.

While Gov. Murphy’s moratorium on evictions and foreclosures has provided some security for New Jersey’s estimated 526,000 undocumented immigrants, Olivares-Weber said this is only a short-term solution since the measure will only last until 60 days after the end of the state of emergency. At that point, landlords will expect payment.

“What people don’t think about is, what is going to happen in three months?” OlivaresWeber said. “The landlord is going to come and say, ‘Pay me back. You owe me for these three months.’”

Undocumented families whose adult members are currently out of work may not have that kind of money available.

The father who spoke with the ‘Prince’ had been living paycheck-to-paycheck since before the pandemic began. Facing a sudden loss of household income and with no savings to fall back on — not to mention New Jersey’s “stay at home order” preventing him from leaving the house — he has no means of producing several months’ worth of rent.

Some local organizations have stepped up, however, to address issues like this.

Princeton Children’s Fund’s (PCF) Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), established on March 16, will allow Princeton residents or individuals with children in Princeton Public Schools to apply for emergency housing assistance regardless of their immigration status.

The municipal government, which has been formally recognized as a “Welcoming Community” since 2015 and historically taken liberal positions on immigration issues, has supported this effort.

PCF has partnered with the Department of Human Services and several other local nonprofits. According to their website, PCF will consider expenses such as rent, utilities, childcare related to “essential employee”

status, and non-medical devices and accessories lost due to COVID-19. Working with Princeton Community Housing and Housing Initiatives of Princeton, organizers have been communicating with landlords and paying them directly.

Olivares-Weber said that despite being hit by hard times themselves, many of these landlords have been helpful, in many cases reducing the cost of rent.

While this emergency fund is focused on housing assistance, several other local organizations have been partnering to provide food to community members.

The municipality website contains a delivery schedule for the eight different organizations providing food assistance, and Director of Human Services Melissa Urias has been working to coordinate their efforts.

Local non-profits like Arm in Arm, Meals on Wheels of Mercer County, and Share My Meals are providing general food assistance. In addition, the Mercer County Nutrition Project for Older Adults is providing food for Princeton’s senior citizens, Jewish Family and Children’s Services has been running a Mobile Food Pantry, and Princeton Public Schools have been delivering “five days worth of breakfast and lunch” weekly for children who qualify for free and reduced lunch programs.

And where individuals might fall through the cracks, informal groups of volunteers are stepping in. Maya Aronoff ’19, now a graduate student in the Woodrow Wilson School, said that she has been working with several other students and local organizers to fundraise through social media, as they seek to provide relief to undocumented individuals.

“Everybody’s kind of pulling out all the stops,” she said.

Last week, following a Venmo-request campaign on social media, Aronoff and others were able to purchase and deliver food directly to 32 undocumented day laborers living in Princeton.

The father who spoke with the ‘Prince’ said he greatly appreciates the community’s efforts.

He and his family have been receiving food deliveries through Arm in Arm, and he said that the Emergency Fund has already helped him with one month’s rent. Despite wishing that the federal and state governments would do more for undocumented immigrants during this economic crisis, he said he feels supported locally.

“In this crisis, we’ve encountered so many people who have wanted to help us, and we are thankful that we have found people who can help us moving forward,” he said.

“Gracias a Dios,” he added.

“Thank God.” One of the biggest challenges for the organizations providing aid has been getting the word out, with many Princeton residents staying at home. The municipality has relied heavily on social media, posting videos in both English and Spanish to explain where to apply for housing assistance and how to donate to other programs.

In a March poll,

40 percent of respondents said they were

Meanwhile,

in favor of the government providing temporary financial help for undocumented immigrants unable to work.

42 percent opposed the measure.

VERONICA OLIVARES-WEBER FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Lukas Althoff, a graduate student in the economics department, helped Olivares-Weber pack and deliver the food.

Some organizers have also utilized less formal channels: WhatsApp groups and Facebook Messenger. The father who spoke with the ‘Prince’ does not speak English and said he found out about the program through one of his kids’ school teachers.

“We thank God that there are people who are able to get us the information we need in our own language,” he said.

Olivares-Weber, who herself spoke only Spanish until she was 22, is active in the town’s Hispanic community. She teaches art classes at the Henry Pannell Center, where around 80 percent of the students in her class are Latino, and she said that many of their parents call her directly when in need of assistance. She said she gets at least five phone calls a day from Spanish-speaking residents asking how to receive assistance from the municipality.

“Or even via Facebook, I get messages like ‘Oh, Señora Veronica, I’m looking for help,’” she said. “We have different channels and different people who have been active in the community who have been able to communicate.”

While the Human Services Department does not traditionally have trouble getting the word out to families with children, Olivares-Weber said it is somewhat more difficult — but no less important — to reach many of the undocumented single men in the community who work as day laborers and are generally rehired and paid on a daily basis. For the people the Department has a harder time reaching, nonprofits have helped fill in the gaps.

Unidad Latina, a Mercer County-based advocacy organization, started its own fundraising campaign with the goal of raising $10,000 to assist day laborers in Princeton. University students including Aronoff have contributed to the effort.

“Day laborers have been one of the sectors most affected by this crisis,” said Jorge Torres, an organizer for Unidad Latina. “And they support the local economy tremendously.”

According to Torres, who was undocumented for nine years before becoming a U.S. citizen, 100 percent of funds raised will go directly to the day laborers.

Thus far, Olivares-Weber said several day laborers in town have already applied for PCF funding. But for workers who are especially wary of contacting the government, Torres said the Unidad Latina fund will provide less formal relief. Though the local government does not enforce immigration law and limits cooperation with Immigration and Customs Reform (ICE) in accordance with New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, Torres said there is still an unavoidable sense of fear among some local immigrants — who

particularly fear being detained after ICE confirmed 16 cases of COVID-19 within New Jersey detention centers.

In some cases, deliberate deception feeds into that fear. Last month, Police Chief Nicholas Sutter and Councilwoman Leticia Fraga released videos in English and Spanish debunking rumors of a “national guard deployment” after many Princeton residents had received robocalls, emails, and text messages in a “deliberate misinformation campaign” targeted at the immigrant community.

Aware of this anxiety, the Human Services Department has attempted to communicate with undocumented residents as much as possible to proactively halt the spread of misinformation.

“I got a WhatsApp from one of the families saying, ‘Señora Veronica, is it true that we’re going to have to get inside because five helicopters are coming to spray disinfectant all over town?’” Olivares-Weber said. “What I keep telling the people is that you need to check our social media.

If you hear anything you haven’t seen in the news or it’s not in the social media of the municipality, it’s not true.”

Olivares-Weber has also been in communication with Torres and Aronoff, figuring out how to ensure no Princeton residents fall through the cracks.

“We are trying so hard to get everybody to apply,” she said.

“I was telling Maya [Aronoff] ‘make sure you guys give all the information to them, for those people who haven’t applied,’ and we keep asking them to do that.”

Torres has been amazed by the sheer number of local efforts.

“All help is good right now ...

The more we have the better,” he said. “There has been incredible solidarity among movements and among communities across sectors.”

Unlike PCF or Human Services Department, Unidad Latina is also a political advocacy organization — one of many nonprofits that must now balance campaigning for long-term policy change with providing immediate assistance.

In some cases, the two goals may come into conflict. Organizations have accordingly sought to commit funds to short-term, urgent relief projects while also emphasizing the inherent inadequacy of short-term solutions. On April 7, when the Princeton-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) committed $50 million to relief organizations across the state, the organization’s President and CEO tweeted that the pandemic “shines a light on the incredible inequity in our society” and that their organization will “provide aid now while continuing to focus on long-term policy change.”

Likewise, a central portion of Unidad Latina’s mission involves

organizing and advocating for the civil rights of the migrant community. Their website notes, “there is no reason immigrants should be excluded from obtaining protections, medicine, and services in a global pandemic.”

But until their vision becomes reality, Unidad Latina is urgently raising funds.

On the question of whether the pandemic will lead to policy change, Aronoff said she is a “realistic optimist.” While she believes there is a slight chance this crisis changes how Americans “think about what government owes society and what community members owe one another,” she said that socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19’s impact may inhibit progress.

“If you are wealthier and able to work from home, you might not — well quite literally, you’re not going to see the effect on people who are in total crisis right now,” she said. “Social distancing sort of exacerbates the ways in which people with more power might not see those disparities.”

Torres was more hopeful, saying the current situation could spark productive conversations around healthcare, education, and immigrant rights. Though the nation is divided on whether and how to provide undocumented immigrants support during the pandemic, Torres has been encouraged by what he has seen locally.

He said he views the help that Princeton community members of various races, ethnicities, and occupations have given one another as cause for optimism.

“I have seen students helping day laborers … and just people being all-around involved,” he said. “The virus in some ways has unified us.”

In the past, Olivares-Weber was involved with the Latin American Legal Defense Fund (LALDEF), a Princeton-founded and Trenton-based group of immigration advocates, and she wishes she could continue that advocacy now.

“I feel really bad that I’m not able to focus on that at the moment, but to tell you the truth I’ve been focusing on my community — on the people that I know, on the children that live here and go to the same schools as my 16-year-old,” she said.

“They are our neighbors, and my focus right now is on them.”

As more people apply for PCF funding each day, OlivaresWeber said she remains dedicated to one goal: ensuring that all Princeton residents can pay their bills.

“I just really need to focus on these applications. I just want to approve them all,” she said.

“That’s the only thing I want to do.”

distancing sort of exacerbates the ways in which people with “ Social more power might not see... disparities.”

-Maya Aronoff ’19

HARSIMRAN MAKKAD / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

page 19

LEWIS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

WELCOME CLASS OF 2024 At the Lewis Center for the Arts, we believe that art arises out of questions. Art, on a campus like Princeton’s, is so much more than an “outlet” for expressing what one already knows and feels, or an “escape hatch” for blowing off steam built up by more rigorous kinds of work. Our classes and certificate programs in Dance, Creative Writing, Theater, Music Theater, Visual Arts and in the interdisciplinary Princeton Atelier operate on the principle that rigorous artistic practice is a form of research, innovation, discovery and intervention. Like scholarship of any kind, rigorous artistic practice is a way of interrogating that which is accepted or understood in an attempt to break into the territory of the unknown or under-explored.

Through their individual creative work, Lewis Center students investigate questions about themselves, others, and the events and systems that affect us all—systems like geography, politics, gender, race, the economy, the environment, and of course the wide realm of human choice and activity. This is fundamental to the formation of artists.

It is also fundamental to the formation of alert, compassionate, creative, resourceful, and active rather than passive people.

The Lewis Center is committed to being an anti-racist space.

We endeavor to frequently reappraise and redouble our efforts toward this goal. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is not nominal or symbolic, but rather action-based. Our faculty, classes, public programs, co-curricular offerings and our engagement with the community beyond Princeton reflect these values.

FIND YOUR PATH TO THE ARTS! A special information session for first-year students will be scheduled for August.

Visit arts.princeton.edu/2024 for latest details

PEER ARTS ADVISORS

Have questions? Talk to a student peer advisor! Rising juniors and seniors are ready to share insights about juggling broad interests, and what the arts can offer first-generation students, students of color and members of underrepresented groups.

Learn more at arts.princeton.edu/peeradvisors

Features

Friday July 24, 2020

page 20

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

FEBRUARY 2020

DIVESTMENT DUELS

By Rachel Sturley

Assistant Features Editor

As concerns about the impending climate crisis take the spotlight in political debates, similar controversy surges much closer to home. Divest Princeton is a growing group of students and alumni ca󹁃ing for the total removal of University funds from fossil fuel companies. So far, 735 alums, current students, and faculty members have signed an open le󹁭er to President Eisgruber ’83, but the movement has also been met with disapproval from certain administrators and professors. Robert Nixon, the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment, and Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative, are co󹁃eagues, friends, and on opposing sides of this emerging debate on campus. The Daily Princetonian spoke to these two professors to hear why one supports the movement, and the other, a climate scientist himself, disagrees.

Rob Nixon

Stephen Pacala

COURTESY OF PRINCETON ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

COURTESY OF PRINCETON ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTE

Robert Nixon, the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment.

Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

“Divestment is going to happen,” says Rob Nixon, the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment. “It’s not if, it’s when, and it would be fantastic to see Princeton in the vanguard.”

Nixon’s work lies at the intersection of the humanities and environmental justice. He is currently focused on using film, literature, and art to represent and understand populations living on the front lines of climate crises. More broadly, he looks at how the arts can precipitate social transformation.

“The status quo can seem adamantine, fixed, and yet I think that there are ways that the arts can change the imaginative frame,” he said.

Nixon’s stance on University divestment stems from personal history. He grew up in South Africa and left in 1980 as a conscientious objector to the enforced military conscription of all white men. As a political exile and a graduate student at Columbia University, he became intimately involved with campaigns for divesting from the apartheid regime.

Though the current debate concerns corporations rather than a nation state and exists in different historical circumstances, Nixon noted that there are striking rhetorical echoes in the dialogue today.

“Some of the arguments against divestment that I see prominently articulated today … are very reminiscent of that period,” he said.

He noted that a pervasive viewpoint in the 1980s was to catalyze change through engagement rather than enforced isolation. Leaders of both the United States and Britain opposed divesting from South Africa for this reason, Nixon recalled.

“The South African regime saw that as a kind of affirmation, as a license not to change,” he said. “So what from the top-down looked like constructive engagement, from the bottom-up was appeasement. I see some of this reemerging in this particular struggle.”

He challenged the idea of a slippery slope, that removing funds from big oil would set a concerning precedent. Nixon countered that movements require a symbolic hub —and there isn’t one more powerful than the fossil fuel industry.

He has a rebuttal, too, to the claim that the University should stay out of politics in order to retain academic integrity and freedom.

“Staying in is also political,” Nixon said.

“Princeton right now has an opportunity to assume moral leadership or to be an ethical laggard.”

Nixon is confident that the University will eventually divest, particularly with the increasing power of precedent. New York City, the country of Ireland, and the World Council of Churches are notable parties that have already committed to divestment. As the current generation begins to fill leadership positions, he continued, climate issues will come to the forefront.

Ultimately, Nixon asserted, the most scarce resource is not oil or water, but time. To Professor Pacala’s argument that the University should only divest once they can also boycott fossil fuels, Nixon emphasized that we should be doing everything to accelerate decarbonization in advance of it being feasible, and the first step in this is removing funds from the industry.

Nixon and Pacala agree wholeheartedly on one thing: the need for government subsidies to shift toward renewable energy. Only then, said Nixon, can the fossil fuel companies be forced to reconsider where their revenue will come from in the future.

“I think it’ll ultimately be a grassroots movement that pushes us to take the right steps to solving the climate crisis,” he said. “The leadership of institutions has to feel under pressure.”

And we, according to Nixon, are morally responsible for applying this pressure to hasten the transformation to a cleaner future.

Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has always had what he calls a “life plan”: work to become the best possible scientist for the first stage of his life before transitioning to deliver on the “social contract.” Degrees from Dartmouth and Stanford, 10 years as a professor at the University of Connecticut, and a move to Princeton saw that first stage become reality.

When British Petroleum (BP) showed up on campus 21 years ago, he says, he entered the period of payback.

The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, now entering its 20th year, is a partnership between the University and BP with goals to reduce the carbon dioxide surplus in the atmosphere. Pacala, who calls increasing carbon emissions the “mother of all climate problems,” established the initiative and continues to direct it today.

The sponsorship may seem strange, given that the ultimate objective of the group is to essentially put BP out of business. But Pacala emphasized that the source of funding holds no sway over the content of the research.

“They were forthright that they thought that the climate problem was likely to be existential for the [fossil fuel] industry, and they wanted to understand it better,” he said. “They don’t have input about what we study. They just give us the money, and then we do whatever we want.”

In response to Divest Princeton, Pacala pointed out the discrepancy between divestment and boycotting. The University simply cannot function without fossil fuels; an attempt to stop their use would result in catastrophe. Therefore, he argues, divestment isn’t morally sound.

“Both investing in and buying fossil fuel products puts money in the hands of the people I don’t like,” Pacala said. “So ethically, I cannot find a consistent reason why I would divest and not boycott, or boycott and not divest.”

Those who support divestment argue that it is not necessarily about weakening the indus-

try — the University alone cannot effect such a change. The larger concern is about depriving fossil fuel companies of their social license and refusing, as a well-respected academic institution, to legitimize their actions. To Pacala’s mind, the ethical significance of removing financial backing is diluted by the fact that the campus and its individuals will continue to rely on fossil fuels.

“If we eliminated the use of fossil fuels right now, a large fraction of humanity would starve to death,” Pacala said. “Saying that it’s bad, considering that if you just stopped using it right away, we would all die — you just can’t maintain that.”

That said, he noted a distinction in scale between industry and company divestment.

Individuals and institutions can plausibly both boycott and divest from specific companies they deem unethical, but dissociation from the entire industry is inconsistent with continued practical use.

This may not always be the case, according to Pacala. He contended that the solution to the carbon problem may come more quickly than we think.

“Really recently, there’s been massive technological hope that’s emerged,” Pacala said.

“We are one innovation away from a system that would be cheaper than fossil.”

He also called for government subsidies to help wind and solar power reach the scale of overtaking fossil fuel. They have succeeded in the past in creating a market to drive the cost down for solar power, and he is convinced that they could work again.

Pacala maintained that social activism plays a crucial role in informing and enlivening the general public about climate change, but symbolism must align with action. Instead of channeling energy into asking the University to divest, concerned individuals should be focused on making the fossil industry completely obsolete.

NOVEMBER 2019

Tiger Tots| Annabel and Rosemarie Luijendijk

By Josephine de La Bruyère and Rachel Sturley Head Features Editor and Assistant Features Editor

AnneMarie Luijendijk is a Professor of Religion and the Head of First College. A papyrologist and scholar of New Testament and Early Christianity, she is the author of two books: Greetings in the Lord: Early Christians and the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Harvard University Press, 2008), and Forbidden Oracles?: The Gospel of the Lots of Mary (Mohr Siebeck, 2014). Professor Luijendijk enjoys singing in a choir, walking, riding her (Dutch) bicycle, doing yoga, caring for her many houseplants (including papyrus plants) and flowers. She also likes to cook and talk and laugh with friends. She has nothing on her identical twin six-year-old daughters, Annabel and Rosemarie — themselves bicyclists, singers, and the self-proclaimed authors of more books than she. The Daily Princetonian interviewed Annabel and Rosemarie about hobbies, career aspirations, their mom’s job, and the First dining hall.

The Daily Princetonian: What grade are you in? (in unison) Annabel and Rosemarie: First grade.

DP: And is first grade better or worse than kindergarten?

Annabel: Um … it’s so easy. You’re just counting up the numbers you already know! Like, counting to ten is this week. But I already know that. Second grade is challenging.

My friend who is older told me.

DP: What’s your favorite class in school?

Annabel: Gym. Because it’s fun games and stuff.

Rosemarie: I like art because I learn better how to draw self-portraits.

DP: What sports do you guys play? (in unison) Annabel and Rosemarie: Soccer.

Annabel: We like to watch football, but not play. We like the Patriots. Number 12, Tom Brady! We also like the Eagles’ number 17, and the Giants’ number 80. We like all the same players. We went to see the Princeton Women’s Soccer, but they lost.

Rosemarie: My sister is more into sports than me, because I like art. But I’m also a little into sports.

DP: What positions do you play in soccer?

Annabel: Goalie.

Rosemarie: I play offense. I like to be the one that scores.

Annabel: We play every Monday and Saturday and sometimes in the day with my dad and brother. Sometimes only with my dad, sometimes only with my brother, and sometimes only with my sister.

DP: Have you scored a goal ever?

Rosemarie: Yes. Especially on her.

Annabel: But I block most of them!

DP: If you could have a pet, what would you have?

Annabel: A dog! I would name it Charlotte. I want a Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Rosemarie: And I want a Bichon Frise.

DP: How old are your brothers? (in unison) Annabel and Rosemarie: 14 and 19.

DP: Who do you like better?

Annabel: The 19. 14 tickles!

DP: Can you tell us what your mom’s job is?

Rosemarie: The head of First College! And she teaches religion.

Annabel: I knew that too.

DP: Do you want to do what your mom does when you grow up?

Rosemarie: No. Just gym and art.

Annabel: I want to be a gym teacher.

Rosemarie: And I want to be an art teacher.

Before that I wanted to be a first-grade teacher, and before that I wanted to be a vet.

DP: Do you guys come to eat at First a lot?

Rosemarie: Yes. My favorite food here is the cheeseburgers. I also love ice cream.

See TOTS page 21

Features

Friday July 24, 2020

page 21

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

JUNE 2020

ALL IMAGES: MIA BEAMS FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Bridge Year Bolivia, political tumult, and COVID-19

‘It really seemed like we were in a movie’

By Elise Hogan

Assistant Features Editor

A year ago, the world seemed to be waiting for Mia Beams ’24, Chiara Vilna-Santos ’24, and Lauren “Flo” Fahlberg ’24. Tired of traditional education, the three freshly minted high school graduates resolved to spend a year learning outside the classroom, and the University’s Novogratz Bridge Year Program seemed a natural fit. All three were accepted, and all three spent the tail-end of their senior years anxiously preparing to spend nine months away from their families, living with strangers and immersing themselves in Bolivian culture and daily life.

What they couldn’t have prepared for: a political uprising and a global pandemic.

When the members of the 2019– 20 Bridge Year Bolivia group arrived at Princeton in late August 2019 for orientation, they were warned about the political state in Bolivia. The students knew the upcoming presidential election in October was highly anticipated, but no one could have known how quickly controversy would spiral into chaos.

“We knew it was going to be a complicated election,” said Beams.

“But it became so much more than that.”

Fahlberg laughs looking back at how the group first reacted to news of the election. The program’s assistant director, Matt Lynn, told the students it would be “a really interesting year to be on Bridge Year in Bolivia,” she recalled.

“I remember we were all just sitting there ... like, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun! We get to see the electoral process in another country!’”

Fahlberg said. “Flash forward two months later...”

After a whirlwind first month of nonstop traveling through Bolivia, the students finally settled in with their host families in the small town of Tiquipaya, for what they thought would be the remainder of the time abroad. There they learned more of the controversy surrounding Evo Morales, the country’s longest-serving and first indigenous president, over dinner with their host families.

On Oct. 20, 2019, Morales won the first round of the presidential election with a staggering 10 percent lead over his opponent, Carlos Mesa. Immediately, speculation that the election had been rigged in Morales’ favor spread throughout the country.

From the safety of Tiquipaya and through the worried voices of their host parents, the students began to see a nation reach its boiling point.

Violent riots and protests swept cities across the country. Vilna-Santos remembers the fear she sensed in the community: “I think people were worried about their country, honestly.”

Although the students on the trip never faced imminent danger, the University began planning a temporary relocation of the group to Peru, especially as their emergency assistance provider issued warnings.

Yet the very day before they were scheduled to leave, the embattled president suddenly resigned.

Beams recalls the moment it happened.

“I remember watching it on the TV when Evo Morales resigned. And my host brother — who usually stayed in his room — I remember hearing him swearing. My family was super bummed, and at that moment, it really hit me that Bolivia was really going to change from this,” she said.

TOTS

Continued from page 20

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

DP: What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? (in unison) Annabel and Rosemarie: Mint chocolate chip!

DP: What do you guys disagree about?

Annabel: If I put cereal in my ice cream, my sister doesn’t like it. I like to do that here.

Rosemarie: And I hate it.

DP: Do you like being twins?

Annabel: I like being a twin.

Rosemarie: Me, too. People can’t normally tell us apart, but we’re different. We just give it away because we tell them.

DP: Do you have friends who are students here now?

Rosemarie: Yes. Samantha [Lee ’22], Caren [Ju ’22], and Sarah [Essig ’22]. I don’t really know first years yet. Oh wait, Sam [Wright ’21], number 51! (Shows drawing.) I draw him because I like football, and Sam plays football.

DP: What’s your favorite place on campus?

For Vilna-Santos, the days surrounding Morales’ resignation were “an escalation” of confusion and uncertainty.

“First we were going to leave, but we weren’t sure when it was going to happen. Then it was this day, and then, ‘Oh no, it’s actually going to be in three days,’ and then right before we left, Evo resigned. Everyone was like, ‘Well, he resigned. Everything will be fine. We’ll be back in two weeks.’ And then we never came back,” she said.

In the middle of the night on Nov. 11, 2019, the Bridge Year group fled to Peru. Fahlberg, Vilna-Santos, and Beams all agreed the escape felt like a scene straight from the silver screen.

“The night we got out, it really seemed like we were in a movie. It was one or two in the morning, and we were just driving around blockades. I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was crazy,” Fahlberg recalled.

“It was kind of a ‘running away in the night’ type of vibe,” VilnaSantos said. “We all went into a van, and it’s the middle of the night, and everything is super dark. There were only street lamps and leftovers of blockades. It was kind of chaotic, but also dead silent the whole time.”

They finally arrived at the airport after the grueling midnight journey. With nothing left to do but wait for their flight, the students huddled together on their backpacks and tried to get some rest.

Flash forward two weeks, and the group was still in Peru with no return to Bolivia in sight. Without their original curriculum, their host-families, their work sites, and their beloved Bolivia-based group leader, the students felt lost.

For Fahlberg, “this was definitely

the group’s confusion regarding what the announcement meant for their return home: “We were like, ‘We can still leave, we can still get out, even if all of the borders are closed, right?’ Then we went to the airport the next day and, surprise! We couldn’t leave.”

At that point, there was nothing the group could do but wait for a flight out. In 10 days, the uncertainty was finally over, as everyone boarded homebound flights. The University credited New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, the State Department, and the staff of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for helping organize the flights.

Today, Beams, Vilna-Santos, and Fahlberg are stuck in their homes, quarantining like the rest of the country and most of the world. In Massachusetts, California, and Washington D.C., respectively, they’re finishing out their gap year by spending time cooped up with their families and pets — a far cry from the adventurous, selfsufficient experience they’d once planned.

“The memory of [the trip], I think, lasts so much longer than everything else,” said Vilna-Santos. “Like, I have my whole high school life, and then I have these seven months of my life. And it takes up so much space in my consciousness as opposed to the 18 years that happened before that.”

So if they could have known, on that warm August day in Princeton, the chaos that lay in store, would they do it all over again?

For these three Princetonians: overwhelmingly, resoundingly, yes.

the hardest time during the trip — just not knowing what we were going to do or where we were going to go.”

“We were in limbo for probably a month … We didn’t know if we were going back. We were initially told that we were going to go to Peru for two weeks,” she explained.

New homestays. New work sites. New curriculum. November proved yet another hectic time for the Bridge Year Bolivia-turned-Peru group. Thrown once again into an unfamiliar environment, the students did their best to stay positive and hopeful. While their original plan had already run off its course, the students felt optimistic about the new one, thanks to what Fahlberg, Vilna-Santos, and Beams all recall as incredible care and support from the University.

A global pandemic had other plans.

In March, when the group heard they would need to be evacuated from Peru due to COVID-19, they chalked it up to bad luck. After all, they’d already escaped political turmoil in November — what’s one more time?

“Everyone was just like, ‘Well, we’re just going to have to do another Bolivia-type stealth mode evacuation,’” jokes Fahlberg. “[In the first evacuation] everything was intense and insane, and we were all crying. But the second time we got evacuated, we were just like, ‘Yeah, I guess this was bound to happen,’” adds Vilna-Santos.

But this time, the prospect of a “stealth mode evacuation” suddenly fell out of reach.

Borders for international travel closed in Peru on March 15, just two days before the group was scheduled to return home. Beams remembers

Annabel: My house. Or maybe First College.

DP: What do you like better — orange or black?

Annabel: Orange, orange, orange! My favorite color is orange.

Rosemarie: I also like orange but mostly pink.

DP: Do you guys like to read?

Annabel: Yeah, but writing is my favorite. I’m going to have a writing party in my class. I have six stories I’m writing. One is about Christmas, one is about my bed, one is about the day I went to the airport, and one is the day before I was going to decorate my house.

Rosemarie: I just started a story today, but I do not know the title yet. But I planned my story already.

One of my books was twenty pages — about swimming lessons.

DP: Your mom writes books too, right? Whose are better?

Rosemarie: Mine. She doesn’t have pictures!

ANNEMARIE LUIJENDIJK / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Daily Princetonian’s Josephine de La Bruyère and Rachel Sturley with Rosemarie Luijendijk (left) and Annabel Luijendijk (right).

DP: Do you guys do any other activities?

Rosemarie: Swimming, and piano, and singing in a group. We sing … I don’t really know. My favorite song is “I saw the tree by the riverside.”

And then, in unison, they sang it.

Editor’s note: References to “Wilson” Co󹁃ege from prior publication have been changed to re󹀹ect the University’s decision to rename the residential co󹁃ege.

the PROSPECT. page 22

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

ARTS & CULTURE

Memes and mobilization

By Auhjanae McGee

Associate Prospect Editor

I had never used Facebook before coming to Princeton.

I created my Facebook page when I was 13 years old, in an eager and vain attempt to feel more like an adult and connected to my peers. Little did I know, people my age were all on Instagram, which I would not get for another two years, and the only friends I had on my page were members of my church and 30-year-old cousins.

I would have never anticipated that, just six years later, I would spend about as much time on the platform as I do on YouTube, which, if you know me, has been a serious shift. What, you may ask, sparked

this interest in Facebook? Well, once I had enrolled at Princeton, I was suddenly bombarded with friend requests and invitations to join various student groups.

Wanting to fully immerse myself in the Orange Bubble, even before I was on campus, I joined all of the ones that piqued my interest. The two that have stuck with me and enabled much of my procrastination this school year are Tiger Confessions++ and Princeton Memes for Preppy AF Teens.

These two pages just so happened to be the ones I was perusing when the University began to announce its policy changes and emergency measures in response to COVID-19. Rumors that Princeton would cancel the rest of the spring

semester lurked within popular campus conversations, which, at the time, largely consisted of people stressing over midterms and arguing over whether Marshawn Lynch was a good choice for Class Day speaker.

Come March 9, the University inadvertently released a statement on the webpage that, beginning on March 23, classes would transition to an online format for two weeks until April 5. The policy was meant to encourage students traveling for spring break to stay in their respective locations and thus reduce campus density.

Having seen this update, which was released around midnight, students began to frantically communicate with one another that

classes would be going online, and the ‘Prince’ was communicating with University officials way into the early hours to clarify what was happening. The post was deleted, and everyone breathed a tentative sigh of relief.

As it turns out, the University was intending on having a virtual portion of the semester for those two weeks — it just had not meant to post the update, yet.

Within this time frame, one of the first memes about the effects of COVID-19 on higher education that I saw was posted on the Princeton Memes for Preppy AF Teens page.

It was that meme that inspired me to write this piece. Students, likely and understandably baffled that they were paying hundreds of

thousands of dollars to attend an elite institution only to have the quality of their education reduced to an online format, began to suspect that they could see Princeton’s “true colors.”

In the meme, there are snapshots of the classic reveal scene at the end of a Scooby-Doo! episode in which one of the main characters lifts the mask of the monster to reveal who the true culprit is. In this scene, Fred removes the mask of “Princeton,” only to reveal that it was “DeVry University” all along, which is a well-known online university.

The cleverness of the meme, how effectively it conveyed the sense of almost betrayal that we, as students, were tricked into believing

AUHJANAE MCGEE / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Princeton was something more profound than it actually is, makes me laugh to this day.

Even over a month later, it’s still a high quality meme, in my humble opinion. What drew me to it, aside from its hilarious nature, is the rapid pace with which it was made.

The speed with which people saw it, liked it, and related to it was rather admirable.

And thus began the radical reconfiguration of millions of individuals’ education across the world.

Harvard University announced on March 10 that students would experience a mandatory evacuation, and that courses would continue in an online format for the rest of the semester. Students on campus began to panic, hoping that we would not follow in Harvard’s example.

How wrong we were.

On the evening of March 11, the University confirmed that students would be required to leave campus and continue the second half of the semester online. Princeton is just one of thousands across the globe that has sent its students home to continue some semblance of a structured learning experience.

And, in light of these life-altering events, never have I seen such complex, crafty, and communityminded memes be published at this quick of a pace.

Needing a break from all of the packing and tearful goodbyes, I spent more time on Facebook and scoured more memes. I even saw one made by The Daily Princetonian’s own Ben Ball that struck a chord with me. It involved him dubbing a Marvel scene in which

Thor is taking the perspective of a Princeton student, and how can he maintain the quality of his education without full access to Princeton’s resources (in the original, Thor is talking about his hammer).

Somehow I joined more groups: the larger, already established, Ivy League Meme Consortium, where I tried not to laugh at all of the jabs made toward Cornell, and a shiny, new page that seemed to be gaining traction, Zoom Memes for SelfQuaranteens, which, as of today, is the grandmaster of them all.

Comprising college students all across the country trying to adjust to taking courses online, Zoom Memes for Self-Quaranteens has consistently produced comedic content and has been a beacon for me in the bleakness of isolation.

I know that every time I log into my Facebook page, there is at least one photo with a clever caption that resonates with me so strongly that I have no choice but to give it a thumbs-up.

The general consensus is students are stressed, missing their friends, lacking motivation to continue classes, and, interestingly enough, baking bread. Some people branched off and started a virtual fraternity-sorority for students who were involved in Greek life on their campuses. Others capitalized and began selling merchandise to boast their enrollment in “Zoom University.” All desired an escape from the social limitations of quarantine and found it in sharing laughs with like-minded strangers.

The memes aren’t the only developments to arise in the midst of the confusion. I have also perceived instances of student activism that have been crucial in terms of protecting the communities that they represent. The week of March 11, two Change.org petitions were distributed by Princeton students to prevent peers from being harmed

by University COVID-19 policies. As if the mandatory evacuation was not already stressful enough, it just so happened to also occur during midterms week, when people were intensely studying for exams.

Thus, one of the petitions called for a reevaluation of grading of midterms in light of all the emotional and physical turmoil involved with sudden relocation.

The other advocated to not force students off campus who would be most vulnerable in terms of housing, food, transportation, and Internet insecurity, as well as other unsafe and precarious living situations. Students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds began to aggregate resources, in terms of food, storage spaces, and even places to live, for students who would struggle the most with these rapid changes.

More notable examples include the ‘Prince’ Editorial Board calling for a universal mandatory pass/D/ fail grading option, citing the drastic locational and economic disparities that place certain students at a much greater disadvantage when attempting to continue their education away from the University.

Even more recently, a features piece

described the ways Princeton residents are aiding undocumented immigrants whose lives have been disrupted during quarantine, who will not receive economic relief checks from the government. In the Zoom Memes page, there is a link to join a pen-pal-style COVID-19 relief project to connect with other college students.

Pictures of pets with relatable text printed on them and spreadsheets with numbers to call in the case of emergency may seem like they are worlds away from one another. In many ways, they are.

As people lose their living spaces, their loved ones, and their lives, I will not pretend that meme pages are the saviors that will make everything better. But I do think there’s a distinct connection between memes and social mobilization that is indicative of the larger culture of Generation Z. Our generation grew up in a globalized, interconnected social landscape. We seem to value relatability, equality, and parasocial interactions. In this sense, the rapid production of memes during a time of social isolation and worldwide panic can be seen as extensions of our desire to remain connected to one another. Seeing thousands of likes and comments on a post about how someone accidentally slept through a Zoom lecture reminds us that the daily struggles we are encountering are not being endured alone.

Similarly, our personal histories with loss, living insecurity, and any other adversities we have had

to overcome motivate us to work together to build up those who are being broken down at this moment. In memes and advocacy, I see conduits for empathy, for community building, and ways to make people feel better, in variant but parallel methods.

If you squint, tilt your head to one side, and pretend that the words “global pandemic” are really not that serious, you may, like me, figure that a bright side to quarantine life is more time available to spend on social media. It has certainly aided in keeping me sane after over a month of lackluster WiFi, attending class from my bed, and eating way too much takeout.

While this more stationary style of living is objectively more unhealthy for me, I am grateful for the frequent notifications from the various meme groups that I have joined. The sense of community, the feeling of belonging to a larger global network of people who know what I’m going through, cannot be understated.

More so, as a first-generation, low-income student, knowing that I have peers who will aid me when the plights that come with living during a pandemic arise gives me a strong sense of comfort that I will always value. And, if you were to ask me how I could want to laugh while recognizing the pain the COVID-19 has inflicted, I would respond with “why can’t I do both?”

Friday July 24, 2020

The Daily Princetonian

page 23

ADVICE FOR THE CLASS OF 2024 FROM THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN EDITORS Starting college can be both stressful and exciting in any normal year, but with the current COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty it brings, this transition can be even more anxiety-provoking. Our editors have some advice to share that will hopefully help you with navigating campus life, both in-person and online!

“During your first two weeks at Princeton, it will feel like you need to figure out your entire social and extracurricular life by the end of September. Spoiler alert: you don’t. Definitely jump right into extracurriculars, but don’t get discouraged if you don’t get into all the groups you want to right off the bat. There will ALWAYS be more opportunities to come; finding your home and your squad takes time.”

- Paige Allen ’21, Associate Prospect Editor “Princeton can be a hard place to be happy sometimes. Learn to take breaks, remember you don’t have to do or be the best at everything, and above all else, value and love the people around you.”

- Benjamin Ball ’21, Managing Editor “In my family, we call this Buchband rule #1: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. This means put yourself out there! Ask your professor for an extension if you’re struggling, ask a club president if you can join even if you missed the deadline, or ask a new friend to grab a meal.”

- Celia Buchband ’22, Associate Chief Copy Editor “Make sure to cherish your time at Princeton because you won’t know you took it for granted until it’s too late. Even though you most likely won’t love every second of it, take advantage of campus resources and remember why you fell in love with Princeton in the first place to get through the rough patches.

Also, sometimes it’s a good idea to say yes to plans even if you have a lot of work because in ten years you’re more likely to remember the plans than the schoolwork you would have done instead.”

- Lauren Fromkin ’23, Associate Prospect Editor “If there is a cool opportunity that you find exciting but that feels out of your comfort zone or beyond your qualifications, still go for it! You never know and sometimes we are our own worst critics.

Be kind to yourselves and believe in yourselves. (Also call your parents and hang out with your roommates.)”

- Alex Gjaja ’23, Assistant Features Editor

“Make sure to truly take advantage of all that Princeton offers you! Try classes outside your major, have spontaneous adventures with your friends, and explore the beautiful campus to find your favorite spot. Princeton is what you make of it.”

- Naomi Hess ’22, Associate News Editor

page 24

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

ADV “Fresh-baked bread at the U-Store is 50 percent off after 8 p.m., and Firestone closes at 2 a.m. for a reason.”

- Sam Kagan ’23, Assistant News Editor

“No matter what, know that you are special, that you are more than enough and deserve to find the places that make you feel happy. You should never sacrifice who you are for the sake of other people’s expectations. Instead, surround yourself with people who encourage you and support you through everything.

It may take while — it did for me — but nothing is more important than being happy with who you are.”

- Harsimran Makkad ’22, Head Design Editor “Be honest to yourself and to others, and once you’ve found that honesty, stick with it. It takes me a while in new situations to settle in and make friends, but sticking with it and remaining committed to being open and responsible helped me find a whole second family (most of whom are here at the ‘Prince’).”

- Anna McGee ’22, Chief Copy Editor “Make time for the little things. Maybe it’s a walk to Frist with a friend, a quick break to grab boba with your study group, or even an impromptu karaoke night with your roommates. Although these experiences may seem small and fleeting, they are what will stick with you even after you leave campus. Cherish these moments!”

- Abby Nishiwaki ’23, Associate Design Editor

“Nothing’s more important than how you treat yourself and those around you. Amid the exhilaration of entering college, it can be easy to forget that, especially because we often pretend that grades carry moral weight. Being there for someone else means more than a GPA ever could.”

- Jonathan Ort ’21, Editor-in-Chief “For activities, friends, and classes alike, you get out what you put in. Try many things, and don’t give up — the best experiences come from activities and groups you put time into! There are so many things to be passionate about at Princeton, so don’t stress about what you end up doing; anything could end up being the thing you remember for the rest of your life!”

- Elizabeth Parker ’21, Managing Editor

FOR THE CLA

Friday July 24, 2020

The Daily Princetonian

page 25

ICE “Doing something because it’s fun and enjoyable is good enough as a reason; it doesn’t always have to look good for a resume or job application. Keep up the hard work!”

- Sydney Peng ’22, Associate Chief Copy Editor

“Never be afraid to ask for help. Between your RCA, PAA, RGS, DSL, CA/OA leader, and a million other acronyms you’ll hear a million times over these next four years, there are so many people at Princeton who want to help you thrive.”

- Zachary Shevin ’22, Head News Editor

“Invest in shower shoes. The tall couches in Firestone are great for naps. Say yes to spontaneity. Join the Prince.”

- Claire Silberman ’22, Head News Editor

Some of our editors’ parents also added their own advice for incoming students.

“You have so many opportunities available to you at Princeton that people don’t have elsewhere! Take advantage of them.”

- Parents of Harsimran Makkad ’22, Head Design Editor

“Know that your anxieties and fears about college are not new. Your parents had the exact same ones when they left home for the first time.”

- Father of Anna McGee ’22, Chief Copy Editor

“The sooner you give up any crazy ambition of being valedictorian, the happier you’ll be. Embrace your first non-A. There is so much to be gained from Princeton if you don’t let a GPA frame your perspective.”

- Mother of Jonathan Ort ’21, Editor-in-Chief

SS OF 2024

The Daily Princetonian

page 26

Friday July 24, 2020

RECOMMENDATIONS | Wind back with these classics Editor’s Note: Living in a pandemic leaves you with little to do to keep yourself entertained. To help combat impending boredom, Prospect has launched a series in which our Staff recommend content and creative outlets to keep you occupied while you’re stuck in your home.

Our writers and editors watched some hilarious and heartwarming movies to round off the final week of classes. Here are the films that we recommend you watch during quarantine.

“Arrival” (2016)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve Recommended by Sreesha Ghosh Prospect Writer

In this 2016 gem, Amy Adams plays Louise Banks, a linguistics professor in charge of an elite team of investigators attempting to communicate with whatever intelligent lifeform is behind the landing of 12 bizarre alien spaceships around the world. Based on the award-winning novella, “Story of Your Life,” by Ted Chiang and set to Max Richter’s heartrendingly beautiful musical score ‘On the Nature of Daylight,’ “Arrival” is moving, gripping, and, by far, one of the finest pieces of science fiction I have ever had the privilege to come across. It’s probably best not to say too much about the plot, except that it’s incredibly satisfying to feel it unfold. “Arrival” is serious and smartly crafted, and often feels like a Rubik’s cube in the hand of a maestro, nothing quite making sense until it all does, and when that happens, it is absolutely worth it.

The film’s premise hinges on the idea that we do not all experience the same reality — and this is argued, in most part, linguistically.

It takes inspiration from the SapirWhorf hypothesis that suggests our categorizations of reality take on different shapes depending

“Free Solo” tells the awe-inspiring story of Alex Honnold’s climb of the sheer rock face El Capitan in Yosemite National Park — without a rope. The documentary, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019, follows Honnold’s journey to climbing what has been called “the most impressive wall on Earth.” What’s great about the documentary, aside from Honnold accomplishing an incredible feat of human history, is how it captures the daily challenges and preparations required for such an achievement.

The documentary shows Honnold’s diet, intense workouts, and painstaking memorization of every foothold and hand placement on the wall. It also discusses the moral challenges involved in attempting — and filming — such a dangerous endeavor. At any moment during his climb, Honnold could make one wrong move and fall to his death. Yet, free soloing, the practice of climbing without ropes or safety nets, is his passion, and he cannot bear quitting.

Now is a great time to watch “Free Solo” for a number of rea-

“A Quiet Place” (2018)

Directed by John Krasinski Recommended by Auhjanae McGee Associate Prospect Editor

on the linguistic tools we use to frame it, that each language personalizes the way we imagine and perceive the world around us. This hypothesis gives language consequence: in arguing that the different ways in which we speak can set us apart, it also makes the point that language is the only way to potentially bring us back together.

But the importance of this premise turns even more significant when the film marries language with the linearity of time. If that sounds over-cryptic, it’s because the twists and turns of “Arrival’s” story are so delicate that I have to be as careful as I possibly can. It also means that the final third of the film, and its aftermath, will come at you like an emotional typhoon, adorned with revelations and epiphanies that will have you up all night thinking about them.

Ultimately, “Arrival” is a film with demanding questions and infuriatingly transient answers. But it also makes for excellent quarantine existentialism. And, in a time like this, perhaps nothing is more perfect than that.

“Arrival” is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

sons. The breathtaking shots of El Capitan and Yosemite National Park might inspire you to get out into nature when quarantine is lifted. Honnold also created the Honnold Foundation to support clean energy initiatives around the world. The documentary shows that Honnold is not only a stellar athlete, but a generous person who uses all his resources to help others and preserve the planet’s beautiful environments. Lastly, “Free Solo” reminds us of the power and potential in people working together and supporting one another. Although Honnold climbs alone, he is supported by fellow climbers who help him to map out his route up the wall, loved ones who keep his spirits up, and friends who document his greatest accomplishment.

“Free Solo” is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

I was late to watch this film — nearly two years late — but I had heard great reviews about John Krasinski’s directorial debut, and I wanted to be ready for the sequel, which is now slated to be released in September. For those who don’t know, “A Quiet Place” is set in a contemporary Earth that has been invaded by voracious, man-eating aliens, who only hunt by sound.

The story itself follows a family of four who have adapted to living in near complete silence in order to survive. For me, it lived up to the hype, and I would definitely recommend it!

Emily Blunt, who plays the pregnant wife of John Krasinski’s character, is such a compelling, emotive actress, to the point that I was honestly convinced she was terrified and having intense contractions at the same time. The way that sudden sounds break the barrier, specifically the transitions between what the deaf daughter, portrayed by Millicent Simmonds, hears and what the audience is

“Free Solo” (2018)

Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’00 Recommended by Annabelle Duval Prospect Writer

supposed to hear, are clever postproduction effects. Without spoiling for those who haven’t seen it, the stakes are set very early on, and they effectively contextualize the love and protection that Krasinski’s character has for his children.

While the movie was marketed as a horror film, there is very little gore, and the monsters do not show up that often. And, when they do, they are no more intense than the kinds you have become accustomed to if you are a “Stranger Things” fan. At its core, it is the story of familial love, of sacrifice, and of the limitations of human adaptation in the face of extreme circumstances. Though there are sad moments, I would ultimately pin this as a feel good film. It is an opportunity to lose yourself in imagining a world where the apocalypse is imminent and juxtapose it with our own almost dystopian realities.

“A Quiet Place” is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu.

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

I first watched “Knives Out” during the fall semester’s final exams period. My friend Cecilia Zubler ’23 and I Ubered to AMC Marketfair 10 to watch it to celebrate her having finished her math exam. I watched it a second time at home with my family during spring break. Both times, the movie was an absolute delight, and I would even dare to say that the movie gets better with each viewing as I noticed more things that further enriched the movie.

“Knives Out” is an original whodunit film that exceeds all expectations I had before watching it.

In a movie industry that is filled with mega-franchises and huge commercial blockbusters, “Knives Out” is a fresh and creative story.

As the movie’s writer and director, Rian Johnson has clearly put tremendous effort into carefully crafting this movie. It leaves the viewer on the edge of their seat and is full of surprises before the mystery is fully revealed in a rewarding end to the plot.

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019)

Directed by Céline Sciamma Recommended by Paige Allen Associate Prospect Editor

“In the Mood for Love” (2000) Directed by Wong Kar Wai Recommended by Cammie Lee Associate Prospect Editor

Filled with creative shots and sharp dialogue that reveal just the right amount of information, the movie follows Detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, as he investigates the sudden death of Harlan Thromby, a successful mystery novelist played by Christopher Plummer. At stake is Thromby’s large estate which his scheming family, played by a starstudded ensemble cast including Jamie Lee Curtis and Chris Evans, is very keen to inherit. However, stuck in the middle of all this is Marta Cabrera, Thromby’s nurse played by Ana de Armas, who accompanies Blanc throughout much of the movie and is also heavily invested in figuring out the truth behind Thromby’s death.

If you’re looking for an entertaining movie that plays out like a gripping, modern version of the board game “Clue,” then “Knives Out” is the movie for you.

“Knives Out” can be rented for $5.99 on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Vudu, and Google Play Movies & TV.

Shortly before the COVID-19 crisis fully hit campus, I went to see director/writer Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” (translated as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and subtitled in English) at the Princeton Garden Theatre. Those two hours watching the film felt much longer as I was transported to 18th century France, concluding with a moving final sequence that left me crying in the dark movie theater. Seeing “Portrait of a Lady” with a group of friends is one of the best memories I have from campus this semester, and I am so grateful I was able to see the film in theaters before everything shut down.

Fortunately, the streaming gods answered our prayers, and I can now have an equally moving experience rewatching “Portrait of a Lady” in my own home — after midnight, curled up in my pajamas, and sobbing into a bowl of ice cream.

The film follows the growing relationship between Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), a young noblewoman promised to marry a Milanese gentleman she’s never met, and Marianne (Noémie Merlant), an independent young artist. Héloïse has refused to sit for the wedding portrait solidifying her forced marriage, so Marianne is com-

As we find ourselves deep in the throes of Week Twelve, it is inevitable, and, dare I say, necessary, that we temporarily abandon our academic responsibilities in favor of devouring movies with the speed and hunger of an Alaskan Bull Worm. And since many of us are at home, I feel compelled to recommend something old-school and sentimental, something with a happy ending. I am, and always have been, a firm believer in the healing power of princess movies.

I also am, and always have been, a staunch supporter of Anne Hathaway’s ability to bring to life any and every role she takes on.

Naturally, then, the “Princess Diaries” duology is the perfect intersection of my (admittedly very basic) taste in feel-good films. The twist: I recommend to you not the first installment, but its wonderfully self-indulgent sequel, “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” There is absolutely no need to watch the former to enjoy or even understand the latter; it is so well-done that it can stand on its own with no issue.

“The Princess Diaries 2” focuses

page 27

“Knives Out” (2019) Directed by Rian Johnson Recommended by José Pablo Fernández García Prospect Writer

missioned to paint Héloïse secretly from memory while pretending to be Héloïse’s hired companion.

In addition to being a breathtaking film for so many reasons (check out this previous Prospect article for my in-depth reflections), “Portrait of a Lady” is the perfect quarantine watch. The film largely takes place in and around Héloïse’s manor home, and the slow-burn romance of two women momentarily isolated from the rest of the world feels particularly fitting in this time of social distancing. For those missing the outside, Claire Mathon’s award-winning cinematography captures the picturesque beaches and cliffs of Brittany as Marianne and Héloïse take their daily walks.

Sciamma’s critically acclaimed screenplay unfolds slowly and carefully, drawing you in and almost suspending time as you become deeply invested in the lives of the women onscreen. When you’re looking to spend a night deep in your feels, I recommend “Portrait of a Lady.”

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is available to stream with a Hulu subscription or for purchase on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Google Play.

on newly-realized princess Amelia “Mia” Thermopolis Renaldi, portrayed by Anne Hathaway, as she arrives in the fictional country of Genovia to succeed her grandmother, Queen Clarisse, portrayed

by Julie Andrews. However, as per a stipulation in Genovian law, Mia cannot assume her rightful position as queen unless she marries — within 30 days. Following a string of failed suitors, she thinks she has found her perfect match in Nicholas Devereaux, portrayed by Chris Pine, but he and his scheming family may have ulterior motives in store…

This movie isn’t much of a thinker — it’s tropey, and you don’t have to strain yourself to comprehend anything — but it’s still one of my favorite movies to this day. It’s witty, it’s funny, and it has a killer soundtrack. As Queen Clarisse says, “A queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early.”

So it’s never too late to experience the greatest princess movie of our generation!.

“The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” is available to stream on Disney+.

“The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” (2004) Directed by Garry Marshall Recommended by Monique Legaspi Prospect Writer

Characteristic of Wong Kar Wai’s atmospheric style, “In the Mood for Love” is lush and viscous, seducing the viewer into a game of unrequited love. Celebrated as a staple of Hong Kong cinema, the film transforms painful longings of the heart into a beautiful portrait of the transience of love. Two neighbors find companionship in each other through the adultery of their partners, and at moments they too almost seem to be on the cusp of giving in to desire — but by one way or another, restraint, memory of what once was, or moral obligation always pulls them

apart. Music composed by Shigeru Umebayashi conducts a meditation on time, cueing a deceleration of movement choreographed to match the tempo of a lilting waltz.

The repetition of everyday routine becomes marred by loneliness and the sense of helplessness that comes with it. Timeless, erotic, and melodramatic, “In the Mood for Love” makes one nostalgic for heartbreak, asking: to love and to lose love -- of the two, which is more beautiful?

“In the Mood for Love” is available to stream on Kanopy (access provided

by Princeton University).

ALL IMAGES: MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Daily Princetonian

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Friday July 24, 2020

Q&A with @lonelycovidtiger

Following

Jeongmin ‘JM’ Cho ’21

By Sam Kagan

Assistant News Editor

For the last two months, Jeongmin “JM” Cho ’21 has documented his experience living on campus during the coronavirus pandemic to over 650 followers on the anonymous Instagram account @lonelycovidtiger. With the school year wrapping up, Cho agreed to speak with The Daily Princetonian — opening up about documenting on-campus life amid COVID-19, the nature of anonymous photography, and his hopes for the future.

The Daily Princetonian: Let’s begin by talking about your decision to start the account. What inspired you to do this?

1h

21 likes

JC: One thing that was surprising was how many people messaged me on the account, saying that they’re really grateful that I’m uploading these photos, and that it makes them nostalgic. For me, as someone who just wanted to document things, it was really meaningful to know that something that I did was impacting someone to that emotional extent.

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Jeongmin Cho ’21: After this whole evacuation thing happened way back in March, I remember not really knowing what to do on those first few days because all the responsibilities I had as a student had really disappeared overnight. Classes were postponed, all my friends had moved out, and I wasn’t with my family. I just remember feeling a bit lost.

At the same time, my friends were really curious about what it was like still being on campus and how the dining halls were different and whatnot. That’s when I thought it would be really interesting to capture some of these moments living on campus in photos, and luckily I had a camera with me. It was in that realization that people were curious, coupled with the fact that this photography project gave me a much-needed sense of purpose at the time, that got me started with this account.

1h

21 likes

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DP: Have you given any thought to what the aim of this is? You said you started initially because your friends were kind of curious about what it’s like to stay on campus, but you’ve posted a lot, nearly 140 times at this point. Have you given thought to the further “why” behind that?

2h

140 likes

Beyond that, they were sending these photos around to their own social circles of people that I’ve never interacted with and who I don’t know, other than the fact that we go to the same school.

So in those ways, I think it was really interesting for me to see how people make meaning out of the photos.

6h

7h

1 like

JC: In the beginning I really wanted the photos to stand on their own. I was hoping people could just appreciate them for what they are instead of for the person who was taking the photos — that was the main objective behind staying anonymous.

Now the year’s wrapping up, and I’ve basically wrapped up in terms of this project. This is not meant to just keep going, it’s a project that is specific to this time, so I was just going to document until the school year ends.

JC: That’s a good question and definitely something I probably should have given more thought to. For me, I really just wanted to capture the campus and what those who were remaining here were doing in these peculiar times. I tried my best to pay attention to what’s going on rather than writing my own story with some aim.

It was interesting to stay anonymous and I don’t have a problem staying there, but I think it’ll also be interesting to see how people view my work differently or act differently if they learn that I may have had these intentions or personal thoughts behind it. Maybe that could add another layer of interpretation.

I just think it’ll be interesting.

For instance, in March when it was cold and rainy, and no one was outside, I just walked around capturing things like trash bins. But when the weather cleared out, I got to see how people were spending time outdoors. Whether it’s working out, playing the banjo, or cutting your own hair, I learned that people found ways to do interesting things, despite these times. I think that was what was really interesting for me to capture. I don’t think I have some aim or overarching objective that I set out to accomplish. It was just a photo essay.

7h

650 likes

1 like

8h

1 like

JC: I mean, really, there’s no message. If anything, as I said earlier, I just hope that these photos can be something to look back on and that we can stay optimistic that things will be better soon. I hope we will be looking back and be able to appreciate the things that we may have otherwise taken for granted — simple things like being able to be with one another, hug your friends, and express appreciation.

Hide replies

3h

650 likes

Reply

DP: So your hope is that the account is archival in a sense?

4h

650 likes

8h

9h 3 likes

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I think a lot of the earlier photos reflect the March sentiments when this all had just happened, and now, as the weather has cleared up and summer is approaching, the brighter color scheme is reflective. I didn’t notice until after I had been posting that my color schemes have gotten brighter. I think it is interesting for me to just realize the progression and change over time. My photo style has developed to match the atmosphere of the campus.

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9h

JC: Yeah, I think it ties back to the reason I didn’t put my name up there. I don’t put captions because I wanted the photos and the situation to be appreciated on their own rather than for whoever was behind the camera or what that person had to say.

I think it’s up to the viewer to interpret these as opposed to me trying to write some story. Personally, I think it added another layer of fun for myself to see how people interact and take notice of different parts of this photography project that I didn’t even realize.

5h

0 likes

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DP: What didn’t you realize?

6h

Reply

JC: Oh yeah. This is an embarrassing truth, but 90 percent of the photos were just taken with autofocus and auto ISO, and those who’ve taken a photography class will probably see I don’t really know what I’m doing. Since then I’ve been taking photos and googling how to take good photos, and I think when I look back I realized the mood of the photos are very reflective of how the times have been changing on campus.

DP: It’s interesting that you mentioned the account isn’t meant to send a message because I noticed, while scrolling through your stuff, that there aren’t any captions. Was that a conscious choice?

5h

0 likes

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JC: Yeah, in a sense. It’s meant to document, it’s not meant to send a message or anything. Archival is a good word.

650 likes

1 like

DP: You mentioned things started out dreary in March and now in May things have kind of picked up. Do you feel like your artistic sensibility has developed over time?

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4h

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JC: I think it ties back to that quote that I put there as my bio that says, “Storms make trees grow deeper roots.” The things we’re doing, like social distancing, are tough things to do. But they’re being done because it’s needed. In the near future, when things go back to normal, I hope that people can look back on these times, to things like this photography project, and remind themselves of the tough times we went through and how we made it out.

Reply

DP: In that spirit, is there any message you’d like to convey to the people who are reading this? You have over 650 followers and I’m sure thousands more have seen your pictures. Do you have any message for those people?

Reply

DP: We’ve talked a little bit about what you’ve been taking away from from your posts. But you have around 650 Instagram followers. What do you hope the people who follow you on Instagram take away from what you’re putting online?

3h

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140 likes

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DP: I think part of the lore of this account is that the anonymity of the poster sort of detaches the individual from it. I’m wondering if you could talk to me about your decision to do this anonymously and why you now feel comfortable with the ‘Prince’ publishing who you are. Why were you anonymous in the first place and why do you feel comfortable changing that now?

Reply

2h

0 likes

3 likes

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DP: Could you tell me about your username? Why @lonelycovidtiger — why did you choose the word lonely? How much thought did you give to your name and what that conveys?

10h

650 likes

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JC: This account was really primarily made for the school community during these particular times, hence COVID Tiger, but I think lonely was just the right word to capture my own sentiment at the time of making this account. I don’t know if it was really just my own sentiments at this time or if it felt relatable to those in social distancing times, but I didn’t think long and hard about this.

To be fully open and honest, it was just the right word to capture my own emotions and sentiments and how I felt the campus reflected that. Without people, I think the campus itself felt a bit empty and lonely, so I think that’s how it got started.

10h

650 likes

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650 likes 10 HOURS AGO PROFILE IMAGE: JOEONGMIN CHO FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Friday July 24, 2020

Sports

page 29

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } APRIL 2020

A SEASON, LOST

Princeton athletes reflect on cancellation of collegiate sports

By Chris Murphy and Rachel McQuigge Editor-in-Chief Emeritus and Sports Contributor

The news broke as Princeton baseball was suiting up for practice. It was March 11, 3 p.m. on the nose, seven games into the team’s season — and the Ivy League was cancelling all its spring athletic competitions.

On March 12, 4:18 p.m., the NCAA tweeted that all remaining winter sporting events — national championships included — were cancelled.

Women’s basketball, women’s hockey, and six wrestlers unpacked their suitcases; junior Sam Ellis of men’s track and field found himself in Albuquerque, N.M., with no mile to run.

The life of a Division I athlete is one of rigor and routine. Preseason.

Competition season. Postseason.

Repeat. The goal of a Division I athlete is to be game ready, race ready, match ready by the time the season’s first whistle blows — and to be even better by the time the season’s last buzzer sounds. Two tweets, in 25 hours and 18 minutes, upended the rhythms, the lifestyles, and the dreams of 20 teams.

Some spring sports with yearlong offseasons have seen their competition clocks pushed back 12 months, which leaves not only athletes, but strength and conditioning coaches like Matt Fleekop, drastically rethinking training regimes.

“No one is winning a National Championship tomorrow,” said Fleekop. “This is a great opportunity for coaches to talk about the process.”

“It’s my responsibility to meet everyone where they stand and give them everything they need to be successful during this time,” he added. “It’s a very difficult situation for many, and we all need to understand that.”

As for how he’s coming to terms with the unprecedented situation, Fleekop cited the words of women’s ice hockey head coach Cara Morey.

“She once said, ‘There are two things we can control: our effort and attitude,’” said Fleekop. “There’s no better time than right now to hear that message.”

In the days following the NCAA and Ivy League’s announcements, Morey emphasized time and again to her team that hypotheticals were useless. Her players could not control the existence of COVID-19, could not control its early end to their season, and would never be able to find out precisely how far their team could have gone. What they could control? Their reaction.

Despite the frustration, the anguish, the tears, Princeton’s teams have done their utmost to make that reaction a positive one.

“Our 50-plus person person team felt so united, each teammate having one another’s back,” said senior

ROTC

Continued from page 32

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

pushing the cadets you’re commanding; sometimes that means sacrificing the most intense workout so one of your cadets can gain confidence.”

“We equate physical fitness with leadership potential,” Jones said.

“But sometimes you can’t help what happens — you know the damn Spiegl twins.”

Cadet Sterling Spiegl ’21 was midway through a six-mile ruck march last October when he took a bad step.

It wasn’t until hours later, when he peeled off his combat boots and socks to reveal a blackened right foot, that he realized something was wrong.

McCosh Health Center took an xray. It was clean; they told him to rest for six weeks. He did. A month and a half later, intense pain in his right ankle prevented his full-fledged return to running. Back he went to

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

sity will only forge a stronger bond of brotherhood between current and past players.

On Princeton’s athletic fields and in its facilities, positivity and hope for tomorrow and the next season in large part abound. But there’s one group without an athletic tomorrow. A small minority of seniors will choose — and be lucky enough to be chosen — to play professional sports.

The majority of seniors, however, saw two tweets end their lifelong careers. Months before they’d expected it, 205 senior college athletes realized they were now former college athletes.

“Honestly,” said Cooleen, “I never imagined that the end of my 15-plus year athletic career would come to an end so abruptly. I went from being two weeks away from the start of my senior season to feeling simply hopeless.”

“I think I am just trying to go with the flow,” said senior women’s hockey goalie Stephanie Neatby. “I’m very upset at what has happened — as a senior, it plainly just sucks. However, it sucks for everyone at the same time. And the only thing we can do is follow the guidelines for this virus and hope it clears as soon as possible.”

“I think at first I actually had a re-

ally hard time embracing all of this,” said senior softball pitcher Caroline Taber. “I was really angry, like furious, at how things turned out, mostly because of everything my class was losing. We had an Ivy Championship team this year, you could just feel it in the air at our practices, you know? We had the best record pre-spring break that I remember ever having in my time at Princeton.”

Taber said what helped her above all was looking ahead to her future, giving herself a sense of things to come and to anticipate.

Senior baseball pitcher Conor Nolan spoke about the difficulties of losing his routine.

“It’s definitely hard sometimes with the amount of freedom we have being off-campus,” he said. Adjusting to his newfound circumstances involved shifting from a rigid mindset to one that’s more flexible and ready to adapt to a life that’s constantly changing. He hopes that this situation puts the teams time together next year into perspective and allows them to appreciate being around each other even more.

Cooleen reflected on losing her regular season and the lack of closure seniors faced.

“I will miss the excitement that comes in the spring when we are able to put all our training to work,” she said. “I will miss our little traditions that make our team so unique. I will miss lining up at the start line with four or eight other women in the boat, unsure of what the outcome of the race will be, but knowing that each teammate is about to give it their all and feel the same excruciating pain for the entirety of the 2000m to get closer to our end goals.”

Cooleen, however, is thankful for everything she has experienced and

looks forward to seeing the future classes shine.

“Something that has helped us all is to accept this decision and think about how to move forward from here,” she said. “Although this isn’t the end the senior class had hoped for, we hope that it fuels the desire for our other teammates to push even harder to achieve the goals that we were unable to accomplish this year,” she said.

Kenzie Ebel, a senior forward on the women’s ice hockey team, hadn’t been able to play since sustaining an injury in November. She commented on the difference in perspective that trial might have given her.

“I went through coping with the end of my season in January, when I realized the true extent of my injury,” she said. “In that moment, I made sure to be grateful for every opportunity I was given, because it can be stripped from you at any moment.

This isn’t to say that it is any easier for me. When it all ended again, I felt all

McCosh, where they told him to rest a little longer. He followed their advice. The pain kept coming.

Home in Atlanta that spring break, a longtime doctor of Spiegl’s diagnosed him with a tibial stress fracture. He rested again until June when, upon his return to running, his leg refractured.

Spiegl was presented with two options. He could let himself heal naturally by taking a year off from running. Or he could have major surgery to install a rod in his leg.

The natural route appealed, but with it came a caveat.

In theory, Spiegl’s scholarship was good for four years – and it was dependent on his enrollment in the ROTC program. A year without running would mean a year without a PT test; that would mean expulsion from the program, and the loss of his scholarship.

His timing couldn’t have been worse.

Also last October, Cadet Staff Sergeant Jarrett Spiegl ’21 – Sterling’s twin, and one of three triplets – was

sprinting up the field in a club rugby match against Columbia University. He headed for a tackle. It didn’t go his way.

“I thought I was fine,” he said. “I got up, kind of jogged around. After a few weeks, my left knee was still really swollen. I went to the rugby team doctor, and he told me I’d torn my ACL.” He needed surgery, and fast. But as there had been for Sterling, there existed a problem for Jarrett. In order for his Army scholarship to be validated, he had to take the fall semester’s PT test. If he opted to have surgery, he wouldn’t be able to take the test until July; his scholarship would be gone. It seemed he had to take the APFT without an ACL. This story has a happy ending: Lieutenant Colonel Jones, who vowed in an interview to “take care of whatever [his] cadets need,” did precisely that. He procured medical waivers for the two, now-contracted Spiegls. As long as Jarrett manages to pass his PT test this fall with a brace and Sterling manages to pass

his this spring, the Spiegls’ service will continue as planned.

The Spiegls’ story, though – an injury, medical confusion, and then a seemingly dichotomous choice between proper care and the Army’s money – illustrates a palpable difference between the experience of varsity athletes at the University and the experience of ROTC Cadets.

“These are student athletes from our perspective,” said Jones. “Their scholarships are tied 100% to their physical condition.”

ROTC Cadets do mandatory, regularly-scheduled physical exercise in Jadwin Gymnasium, the hub of the University’s varsity athletics network. But unlike the varsity athletic programs who share ROTC’s practice space, Tiger Company has no designated trainer, no designated doctor, no designated physical therapist, and no designated academic advisors or faculty fellows.

That is not to say that all is hopeless for injured cadets. They have access to a wide support network and, as for every student, the University’s

women’s openweight rower Amanda Cooleen. “Our coaching staff was and continues to be supportive throughout the entire process to ensure that each one of us is doing well.”

Men’s rugby coach Richard Lopacki held a meeting with his entire team after their season was cancelled to celebrate the senior class and stress that, if anything, this adver-

these emotions of losing the season for a second time.”

She added, “In both cases, something I worked so hard for, for so long, was ripped from me in a split second with no control on my end. It’s heartbreaking.”

Every senior interviewed mentioned missing the structure of life on-campus and the difficulties and efforts of finding a new routine that works for them. All of them were saddened by the memories they wouldn’t get to experience. All of them want their teams to come back grateful and hungry. It seems like they’re in

luck.

Sarah Fillier, sophomore captain and returning forward for women’s ice hockey, said that this experience will motivate her to take advantage of and appreciate her collegiate career all the more.

“I wish I was more in the moment for games and practices and all that time I had on the ice, [in the] gym and locker room with the team, coaches, and staff,” she said. “I don’t think it has to be said that everyone will come into next season with a lot more gratitude for the program and current team, but especially for being a student-athlete at Princeton.”

For those rising seniors, juniors, and sophomores who have more seasons ahead of them, a new mindset has emerged: this upcoming season is not just for them, but for the seniors who never had the chance to finish what was rightfully theirs. COVID-19 has forced people apart; yet, it hasn’t tarnished the bonds that make a group of people a team.

Every sport begins with a long offseason of training and preparation. Future days in the weight room, on the field, in the pool, on the track, and on the mat will all lead up to one goal: returning to live competition and playing for those who, next year, will stand on the sidelines.

“I want my team to win Ivies next year,“ said Taber. “They deserve an Ivy Championship, and to know that the hours of work they put in this year are not for nothing. I’m so excited to see how they take the field by storm.”

Note: A day after this story’s publication, Athletic Director Mollie Marcoux announced that the University would not allow student-athletes who withdrew this spring to preserve an extra year of Princeton athletic eligibility.

general health services. Typically, an injured cadet is placed on “profile” – a form of alternate, injury-friendly PT – until they’re healed.

Once they are, it’s back to business; back to the familiar routine of preparing for combat.

It’s a Wednesday morning, 07:28 a.m., 33 degrees outside. Twenty-five runners — with mostly matching uniforms, mostly matching crewcuts, mostly matching gaits — finish their 12th 400-meter interval.

They catch their breath, stretch in formation, stand at attention.

They are dismissed. A palpable stiffness slips from their shoulders.

Jackets cover uniforms, and a rumble of chatter spreads as first-years and seniors, history majors and engineers, Oklahomans and Connecticut natives thread their way from Jadwin to WuCox. The cadets gather for omelets, cereal, a debrief.

Their day lies ahead of them. The cadets are ready.

Friday July 24, 2020 FEBRUARY 2020

Sports

page 30

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Women’s Swimming and Diving shatters records en route to Ivy League title

By Ben Burns Staff Writer

Providence, R.I. wasn’t ready for Princeton women’s swimming and diving this year, as the Tigers dominated the competition to win their 23rd Ivy League Championship — a league-best record. Princeton finished with 1,569 points during a competition that saw multiple Tigers break school, league, and pool records across a span of four days.

Harvard placed second with 1,462 points, while Yale came in third with 1,139.5 points.

Day one started strong for the Tigers, who grabbed second place in both the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays. In the 200 medley, senior Elaine Zhou, senior Christie Chong, senior Gianna Garcia, and first-year Nicole Venema broke the Princeton record with a time of 1:37.86. In the 800 free, the all-firstyear team of Addison Smith, Ellie Marquardt, Amelia Liu, and Venema also broke a school record with a time of 7:08.58. At the end of day one, Princeton sat second overall with 112

points, behind only Harvard with 128.

Day two built off the momentum of the first day. In the first event, Marquardt got off to a scorching start by setting school, conference, and pool records in the 500 freestyle, touching the wall with a time of 4:36.37. Princeton also took fourth (Junior Courtney Tseng, 4:45.74) and fifth (Smith, 4:46.00) in the event, with all three times earning NCAA B cut times.

The record breaking continued in the 200 Individual Medley, as senior Christie Chong took second place with a school record time of 1:57.89, good for the NCAA B cut. In the 50 free, Venema took first with a time of 22.41, while Liu was runner up at 22.48. Next was the 200 freestyle relay, which saw Venema, Liu, firstyear Christina Bradley, and firstyear Sarah Grinalds break another school record with a time of 1:29.76.

Finally, in the 1-meter diving, junior Sine Scribbick finished second with 289.75 points, while senior Mimi Lin took third with a score of 275.90.

With day two wrapped up, Princ-

eton maintained second place with 508 points, nearly closing the gap on Harvard, with 510 points.

Day three saw the Tigers continue their rise. The 1,000 freestyle was a major success for the Tigers, as Marquardt broke a pool record with a time of 9:34.71, which was also the second-fastest time in school history. First-year Elizabeth Boeckman finished third in the event at 9:48.15, the third-fastest in school history.

Venema continued her impressive run at the championships in the 200 freestyle, taking first place with a time of 1:45.31, a new school record.

Her time was also good enough for an NCAA B cut, which will allow her to qualify for the NCAA Division I championship.

Princeton then took second (Smith, 4:14.28) and third (Junior Regan Barney, 4:14.53) in the 400 IM, with both swimmers earning NCAA B cuts. In the 100 Butterfly, the Tigers had three top-five finishers, with Bradley placing second (52.75, third-fastest time in school history), Zhou fourth (53.50), and Garcia fifth (53.79). Chong, in the 100-breast-

stroke, touched the wall at 1:00.98 for third place, good enough for an NCAA B cut time. In the 400-medley relay, Garcia, Chong, Bradley, and Grinalds placed second with a time of 3:37.80. By the end of day three, Princeton had overtaken Harvard 1,020 to 964, with Yale sitting a distant third with 745.5 points.

Princeton hung on day four to clinch the title. In the 1,650 freestyle, Marquardt continued her dominance, winning her third title of the championships with a time of 16:06.96, a pool record and secondfastest in school history and good enough for an NCAA B cut. Boeckman finished fourth with a time of 16:26.29, fourth in school history, also good enough for an NCAA B cut. In the 200 backstroke, first-year Emily Trieu took eighth with a time of 1:59.70.

In the 100 freestyle, Venema again impressed, touching the wall in first place at 48:55, good for the

second-fastest time in school history. In the 200 breaststroke, senior Janet Zhao placed second with a time of 2:12.67 seconds, good for second in school history. In the 3-meter diving final, senior Katrin Lewis placed fifth with 306.00 points, while Lin took seventh with 295.80. In the B final of the same event, Scribbick took home first with 301.50 points.

Finally, in the 400-freestyle relay, Venema, Marquardt, Liu, and Bradley finished second with a time of 3:17.11 seconds, sealing the victory for the Tigers.

The meet ended with Lin named the Career High-Point Diving Champion, while Marquardt and Venema were two of the three HighPoint Swimmers of the meet with 96 points.

Overall, the Tigers broke six school records, three pool records, and a conference record during the championships — an unprecedented overall performance.

COURTESY OF THE IVY LEAGUE

Women’s swimming and diving participating in the Ivy League champion tradition: jumping into the pool as a team.

MARCH 2020

Princeton women’s hockey defeats Cornell for first ECAC title in program history

By Owen Tedford and Chris Murphy

Sports Columnist and Editor-inChief Emeritus

Princeton was facing overtime for the third time in four games. In a tense back and forth fight, it looked like it may take awhile to see who would land the final blow. The Tigers had other plans; they landed their sucker punch less than a minute into the overtime period, and after the officials confirmed the goal, knocked out the nation’s best team and put the rest of their opponents on notice.

If you didn’t already think it, these Tigers are for real.

No. 6 women’s hockey team (26–6–1, 17–4–1 ECAC) defeated No. 1 Cornell (28–2–3, 19–0–3) on Sunday 3–2 in overtime to win the program’s first ECAC title and give the Big Red their first loss to an ECAC opponent this season. This victory also secured an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament where they will face Northeastern in the first round next weekend. Sophomore defender Mariah Keopple scored the winning goal with assists from junior forwards Shannon Griffin and Sharon Frankel.

Princeton reached the ECAC final after defeating No. 7 Clarkson (25–6–6, 14–4–4) on Saturday afternoon in Ithaca 5–1. The Tigers jumped out to a 4–0 lead on top of the Golden Knights behind a three-goal second period. Firstyear defender Solveig Neunzert scored first for Princeton on a shot from the blue line that found its way home. Griffin scored next to double the Tiger lead, and then sophomore forward Sarah Fillier jumped in on the scoring next, taking the Princeton lead to 3–0. Then, less than a minute later, before most Tiger fans had

a chance to finish celebrating Fillier’s goal, first-year defender Kate Monihan scored to extend the Princeton lead to four. After a grinding 12-round fight the week before, the Tigers came out swinging and knocked Clarkson to the ground before they even knew what hit them. Clarkson would hit back to break up senior goalie Stephanie Neatby’s shutout with less than four minutes left in the third period, but it was too late. To finish, sophomore forward Maggie Connors tacked on an empty-net goal for Princeton and forced the Golden Knights to put their goalie back in the net. This win put the Tigers in their first ECAC final in program history, after failing in their previous seven semifinal appearances.

Heading into Sunday’s game, the Tigers, with an at-large bid likely secured for the NCAA tournament were hungry for more: their first ECAC title. Unfortunately, the game could not have started much worse in an unfriendly environment, with the Big Red’s first two shots getting in the goal putting Princeton down 2–0. This time, it looked like the Tigers would be knocked out cold.

Neatby and the rest of the team never doubted themselves, and responded like a team who has been on a long journey to this point. Princeton’s first goal came at the four-minute mark in the second period when a pass from Connors found Fillier crashing towards the net where she buried the puck to cut the Cornell lead in half. Then, in the last two minutes of the second period, senior forward Carly Bullock found a loose puck in front of the Big Red net and with a backhand flipped it over Cornell’s goalie to tie the game. A once-raucous

Cornell crowd was stunned, and desperately trying to will their team back into the lead.

Then, after a tense, scoreless third, the Tigers found themselves in overtime yet again. The question facing the Tigers would be whether the experience of being here before or the fatigue of playing extra minutes would win out. They gave fans the answer pretty quickly; with a face-off in the offensive zone, Frankel won the face-off to Griffin, who passed cross-ice to Keopple who fired a shot on net that got tipped and flipped over the Cornell goalie to win the game for Princeton.

The Tigers stormed the ice as gloves, sticks, and helmets were everywhere when the celebration began. Officials went to the booth to review the call to make sure there was no high stick, but the Big Red fans headed for the exits, knowing their tea m’s f a t e w a s

sealed. When the officials returned to the ice to confirm the goal, the Tigers celebrated all over again, hoisting the trophy that to this point eluded them.

Bullock, Fillier, and senior defender Claire Thompson were named to the all-tournament team and Fillier won Most Outstanding Player for the tournament. Neatby meanwhile, started both games this weekend and gave up five goals on 63 shots, good enough for a .920 save percentage. The Tigers as a team meanwhile, extracted revenge against this year’s Ivy League and ECAC regular season champion; the victory serves as a culmination of this season’s efforts, and furthers the image of Princeton as a national powerhouse in the sport.

With the

ECAC Championship checked off, up next for Princeton is a trip to Boston for the NCAA Quarterfinals against No. 4 Northeastern (32–4–2, 24–3–0 Hockey East), with a chance to claim their first NCAA win in program history.

The Huskies beat the University of Connecticut to win the Hockey East automatic qualifying bid 9–1 on Sunday and secure their place in the NCAA tournament. That game will be played at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 14 in Matthews Arena.

Tonight is a chance for the Tigers to relish in the victory. They of course celebrated with some “sweep scream” from a nearby ice cream parlor, as they do after every road weekend sweep. Tomorrow, they get back to work; this season’s story is far from over.

OWEN TEDFORD / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Women’s ice hockey celebrates with the ECAC trophy after winning their first ECAC championship in program history.

The Daily Princetonian

Friday July 24, 2020

page 31

News. Opinions. Features. Sports. The Prospect. Copy. Design. Multimedia. Business.

Your stories, told daily.

Welcome Class of

2024!

Stay tuned to orfe.princeton.edu for details regarding our Information Session planned for Spring of 2021!

Fall 2020 Undergraduate Courses

GER 209 Introduction to German

Literature after 1700 An introduction to key authors, genres, and movements in modern German literature that provides opportunities to deepen interpretive skills, explore theoretical approaches to cultural material, and practice spoken and written German.

GER 101 Beginning German

This course lays a foundation for functional acquisition of German by focusing on tasks that foster communicative competence and emphasize listening and reading strategies, vocabulary acquisition, authentic input, and oral production.

Staff | Various Times TAUGHT IN GERMAN

GER 101 is a prerequisite to take part in the Princeton in Munich study abroad program.

GER 105 Intermediate German

Develop deeper proficiency in all areas (cultural understanding, production skills, and receptive skills), using a combination of language-oriented work and cultural/historical content, including film and texts.

B. Nagel | TTh 11:00 am – 12:20 pm TAUGHT IN GERMAN GER 300 Junior Seminar: Research in

German Studies, Theory and Practice This introduction to methods for the study of German literature, culture, and media will hone the research and writing skills necessary to develop a substantial piece of independent scholarship.

B. Nagel | TTh 3:00 – 4:20 pm TAUGHT IN ENGLISH GER 304/COM 336 Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

An introduction to the ideas of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud that will bring these thinkers into dialogue on six themes: interpretation, history, subjectivity, politics, religion, and art.

Staff | MTWTh 10:00 – 10:50 am TAUGHT IN GERMAN MTWTh 12:30 – 1:20 pm TAUGHT IN GERMAN

J. Lande | TTh 4:30 – 5:50 pm TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

GER 107 Advanced German

GER 306 Walter Benjamin’s Theory

Continue improvement of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing using texts, online media, and other sources as a basis for discussion. Includes grammar review.

Staff | MWF 10:00 – 10:50 am TAUGHT IN GERMAN MWF 12:30 – 1:20 pm TAUGHT IN GERMAN

of Modernity This course will trace the development of Walter Benjamin’s comprehensive theory of urban capitalist modernity from the mid-1920’s through 1940, concentrating on the finished texts that emanated from the great complex of the Arcades Project.

M. Jennings | M 4:30 – 5:50pm & W 3:00 – 4:20pm

GER 207 Studies in German Language and

TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

Style: Society, Politics and Culture in Germany 1890-1945

GER 324 Waldeinsamkeit: Nature,

An introduction to the most important events and issues from the first half of the 20th century through works of modern German literature, art, film, essays, speeches, and autobiographies. Intensive practice in spoken and written German with an emphasis on vocabulary acquisition and complex syntactical forms.

Culture, Translation

N. Wegmann | MW 11:00 am – 12:20 pm

Not unironically, this course will examine the troubled relationship between nature and culture by taking the untranslatable experience of Waldeinsamkeit—the feeling of loneliness in nature only found deep in the woods—as a case study for a history of cultural circulation. Supplemented by weekly small-group conversations.

TAUGHT IN GERMAN

N. Wegmann | M 1:30 – 4:20 pm TAUGHT IN GERMAN

Check out our website for the latest news and updates! www.ecpton.org

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT PRINCETON Scripture, Tradition, Reason

Friday July 24, 2020

Sports

page 32

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Once a Tiger: Ian Thomson ’09 SEPTEMBER 2019

By Josephine de La Bruyère Head Features Editor

Ian Thomson ’09 is worried about this profile.

He peppers his interview with pauses, with ums, with wait-just-aseconds. He apologizes: “I’m trying to think about what I should say because I’m on the record here.” He asks about this piece’s angle – three separate times.

Thomson has reason to be wary.

Jezebel called him a “dick.” According to Bustle, he’s “shockingly terrible.”

CeleBuzz proclaimed him “hypocritical,” “scary,” and “obviously not a feminist.” And to E!, he’s “sexually frustrated,” “shady,” and “epically nonsensical.” Darker corners of the internet are less kind.

Only a decade before Thomson found himself facing the wrath of America’s online feminists, he was heading to his first year of classes and races at the University. He’d just graduated from Massachusetts’ Deerfield Academy, a prep school that had “changed [his] life,” set him on an academic path he could never have imagined, and introduced him to sprinting.

Thomson graduated from the University as one of the track team’s finest athletes. His last individual race of his collegiate career, Thomson tripped over a hurdle and fell on his face; he made up for it by nabbing the Ivy League title in the 400 meter relay.

Named First Team All-Ivy his senior year, Thomson was a history concentrator with a certificate in African American studies, a proud member of both the 21 Club and Cap and Gown Club, and totally clueless about what career he wanted to pursue after college.

So instead of deciding, he earned a year-long fellowship with Princeton in Asia. Like Clare Gallagher ’14, another subject of this series, he taught English in Bangsak, Thailand – a tiny fishing village where there was “literally nothing to do.”

Thomson bought himself a drill and a jigsaw, challenged himself to build a home’s worth of furniture, used his high school physics skills to rewire his house, and learned Thai.

But when it came to his professional aspirations, his twelve months in

Bangsak “did not help clarify things.

At all.”

Upon his return to San Francisco, he started interning at a digital media publisher. He plodded through the first five months after his return stateside. And then, as Thomson walked down the street one August afternoon, a car driving 60 miles per hour plowed straight into him.

Take it from Thomson: “This part is important.”

The crash broke both his legs on impact, dislocated his shoulder, broke his elbow, and smashed his face. For a block, Thomson held onto the hood of the car. It whipped around a corner and threw him off, breaking his left arm. He lay on the ground, dying.

The ambulance that picked him up measured his level of consciousness at a three on the Glasgow Coma Scale. Scores of eight and below indicate severe brain injury; a score of three indicates deep coma or death.

The man admitted to the emergency room immediately before Thomson was a shooting victim in critical condition. His doctors were urgently seeking an organ donor, and there lay Thomson: a visibly fit former Division I athlete with a fractional chance of survival. They started pawing through his wallet to find an emergency contact and his donation status.

Suddenly, a resident stopped short in her tracks.

She had pulled out Thomson’s Princeton ID. Doctor Elizabeth Inkellis Langhammer ’07 realized that she knew this man; that her little sister in Princeton’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter was Thomson’s best friend. The connection was convoluted, but it proved enough to get Thomson wheeled into the OR and pieced back together.

Doctors tried to amputate Thomson’s legs. He refused. They told him he might never walk again.

He spent only a month in a wheelchair. They told him that he was lucky even to be alive; that a future involving running was too much to ask for.

A lifetime of experience as an athlete, a grueling gym schedule, and a boost from his genetic gifts allowed Thomson to rebuild his body, muscle by muscle, until he was logging 15 miles a week.

“The idea of dying,” he says, “the idea of failing – it just didn’t occur to me. And that is what allowed me to move on.”

Save for the titanium rods in both his legs, the bar in his left arm, the two screws in his right elbow, and a faint scar by his eyebrow, Thomson made a full recovery. He started work at a global recruitment firm, headhunting Chinese executives for 20th Century Fox. He loved his boss, loved work, loved Los Angeles. All was well.

A n d then it wasn’t. To

Thomson, the car accident was nothing compared to what came next.

Here’s how Thomson tells it: he was walking down the street with his boss one LA morning, looking like a “cool guy – light grey suit, white shirt, fancy glasses.”

“This woman comes up to me” – he emphasizes that last word – “and she says ‘Oh my God. I do casting for The Bachelorette. I think you should be the next Bachelor.’”

Was Thomson surprised? Not quite. He looks like the athlete he was, boasts a made-for-TV-smile. He’d modeled before, done a commercial with Jerry Rice, and seen himself on a Times Square billboard.

“These things just happen to me,” he says. While he was wary at first – of the isolation, the eight weeks off work, the professional implications – his boss nudged him to take the woman up on her offer.

“Why not?” Thomson remembers himself saying. “I’m along for the ride.”

He shouldn’t have been.

Thomson traveled to Agoura Hills to join 29 other men in a franchised quest for Kaitlyn Bristowe’s heart. It went well for him, at first.

“Ian is one of the most compassionate guys,” gushed Bristowe in a third-episode confessional interview. “He’s been through a lot and he knows what he wants. I am beside myself with this human being.

I can’t figure out what it is. It’s just how he makes me feel. It’s attractive.”

Three episodes and a handful of scored, nationallytelevised make-outs later, Bristowe’s flame with Thomson petered out.

Things went downhill.

“I don’t understand why Kaitlyn wouldn’t want me,” Thomson informed the cameras. “Princeton graduate, former model that defied death and has been around the world a couple of times.” And, he added – to his audience of six million viewers – “She’s not half as hot as my ex-girl-

friend … Like, I have a good time in my own life. And I meet chicks, and I have a lot of sex in my own life.”

Cue Thomson’s expulsion from the mansion. Cue an explosive exit interview. Cue his national excoriation.

How would Thomson – educated, collected, mature and, from this reporter’s perspective, genuinely kind – describe his time on The Bachelorette? Manipulative? Coercive? Authentic?

“Ever heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment?” He asks. “I can’t say too much, but I would refer you to that.

It’s a method that these people have perfected over twenty seasons. They know what they’re doing. It’s not intended to be fair. It’s intended to be a show.”

When Thomson lost his first race, he won the second. When a team of doctors gave up on him, he rebuilt himself from the ground up. When a nation gave up on him, he did the same thing. He took two weeks off work, reflected on just where he’d gone awry, and buckled down to business.

It’s been four years since Thomson’s – now an executive recruiter at his own firm, One Bridge Partners – time in the Bachelor Mansion. He laughs at questions about his car accident because he’s “on the other side of it.” He’s not yet laughing about his time on ABC. That’s not to say he hasn’t accepted it.

“If you’re to look at your life,” he says, “all these things are so meant to be. Everything comes full circle.

There’s nuggets of wisdom throughout every process.”

His advice for Princeton students seeking those nuggets of wisdom is twofold.

First, he says, “be social. Meet people. Take advantage of the opportunity you have at Princeton.” And, he says with a laugh, “it gets so much better when you graduate.”

Second: “If someone loves you or if you love someone else, do not let them go on reality shows.”

BEVERLY SCHAEFER / GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Ian Thomson ’09 starred in hurdles and 400-meter races at Princeton.

NOVEMBER 2019

‘Preparing for the battlefield’ Athletics and leadership in ROTC

By Samantha Shapiro and Josephine de La Bruyère

Head Features Editor Emeritus and Head Features Editor

It’s a Wednesday morning, 06:47 a.m., 27 degrees outside. Kanye West’s “Stronger” blasts over the Jadwin Gymnasium speakers.

Twenty-five runners — with mostly matching uniforms, mostly matching crewcuts, mostly matching gaits — have settled into a rhythm.

They woke up as first-years and seniors, history majors and engineers, Oklahomans and Connecticut natives. They pulled on standard-issue shirts, shorts, socks, strapped on their running watches.

Some of them double-checked to make sure their shaves were clean.

And somewhere in the walk from each of their dorms to Jadwin Gym, 25 students became something else entirely: a platoon of Army cadets.

It’s a Wednesday morning, 06:48 a.m., 27 degrees outside. The cadets round the indoor track — again, and again, and again. They sweat. They curse. They cheer each other on. “Stronger” gives way to a medley of other songs of West’s.

The women’s basketball team files into practice; dribbles start to echo through the hall.

ROTC meets thrice weekly for Personal Training (PT) sessions: hour-long circuits of physical exercises tailored to the all-important Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT).

A diagnostic version of the test is administered monthly, a recorded one administered once per semester. The APFT entails a timed twomile run, two minutes of pushups,

and two of sit-ups. Cadets are evaluated on a rubric that takes into account their age and gender.

The resulting score has pressing implications. Repeated failure to pass a PT test results in a cadet’s expulsion from the ROTC program and the ensuing revocation of his Army scholarship. (The Army provides each of its ROTC cadets with a scholarship, which covers either room and board or full tuition.) In tandem with his GPA, a cadet’s PT score determines his national ranking. That, in turn, will decide his active-duty branch after graduation and commissioning.

In the coming months, Tiger Company will begin phasing out the APFT, the bedrock of its physical training program, for the Army’s new chosen metric of physical fitness: The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The test features six tasks: a deadlift, standing power throw, hand-release pushups, sprint-drag and-carry, leg-tuck, and two-mile run. Notably, it will also abandon the gender and age-based rubric.

To someone like Cadet Staff Sergeant Savannah Hampton ’22, that news is bittersweet. 19-year old, female Hampton currently boasts a perfect PT score of 300: more than 42 pushups in two minutes, more than 78 sit-ups in two minutes, and a two-mile run in a time faster than 15:36.

“As a small female, it’s easy for me to max the test by working on pushups and sit-ups, and naturally running,” she said. “Training for the new test has been a lot more difficult for me. I’m a little bit sad to

see the APFT and my perfect score go, but I know that this is a positive step for the Army. It ensures combat readiness. On the battlefield, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a male or female, a 50-year-old general, or it’s your first combat deployment.”

Regardless of whether it comes from the APFT or the ACFT, a cadet’s PT score reigns supreme over his ROTC experience.

“The result of a PT test is a measure of physical fitness, and physical fitness is a measure of how dedicated and committed you are,” said Lieutenant Colonel Courtney Jones, Director of the Army Education Program. “How accountable are you to yourself and those around you? How well can you motivate yourself?”

He pauses, then laughs.

“Here’s an example. In my time in the Army, I’ve always gotten 100 percent in every category of PT. That demonstrates that I’m motivated, I’m serious about my physical fitness. And I can use that to motivate the cadets, too. I mean, they’re half my age. You can’t beat a 43-yearold?”

PT involves activities ranging from swimming to sprint intervals to 10-mile ruck marches to stadiums to, on special occasions, dodgeball. It’s grueling.

“Damn,” gasped one sweating cadet, bent double after finishing his ninth 400-meter interval. “God. Damn.”

Cadets come from a variety of athletic backgrounds. Past Companies saw varsity athletes populate their ranks, but as Division I commitments ramped up in recent years, more cadets have opted instead to participate in club sports.

For those with athletic back-

grounds, passing — and excelling at — the APFT comes easily.

For some, though, the APFT marks the first time they’ve pushed themselves to their physical limits.

A struggling cadet who scores below 70 percent on any event is sent to “remedial PT,” a series of extra PT sessions, in an effort to curtail the gap. To hold him accountable, the Company also pairs him with a more experienced, better-performing cadet.

Cadets relegated to remedial PT aren’t the only ones expected to work out on their own time.

“The goal is to reach and exceed the Army standard,” said Cadet Sergeant First Class Jason Kim ’21.

“I put in ten to twelve hours in

the gym a week,” said Cadet Second Lieutenant Jacob Rob ’21. “Every time I go, a see a couple of other ROTC guys in there.”

And while PT aims to increase and maintain cadets’ physical fitness, it amounts as much to an exercise in leadership as it does to one in athletic performance: it is an entirely cadet-let endeavor.

Company leadership — Cadet Captain Caleb Visser ’20, Cadet First Sergeant Eliza Ewing ’20, and Cadet First Lieutenant Kasey Bersh ’20 — determine an overarching plan. They disseminate it to the next tier of leadership: the platoon level.

Rob and Cadet Second Lieutenant Seyitcan Ucin ’20 serve as platoon leaders; Kim and Cadet Sergeant First Class Ethan Katz ’21 serve as platoon sergeants. The platoon leadership coordinates a schedule which allows each lower-level cadet to lead a PT session.

“It gives the younger cadets an opportunity to develop their command presence and their comfort level of being in front of a formation and leading an exercise,” Visser explained. “They have to be able to promote cohesion and to promote the goals and aspirations of the Army. Sometimes that means See ROTC page 29