The Daily Princetonian: Frosh Issue 2023

Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Fall 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 14

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Princeton, For The First Time

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

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The Daily Princetonian

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Rohit Narayanan Editor-In-Chief

To ask what you can do for humanity, ask first what you can do for your community

Imagine some Eisgrubershaped phantom came to you and offered you a deal. If you correctly identify which student at Princeton best embodies the phrase “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity” you will get some indispensable Princeton prize, like the right to disappear the electric scooter that almost bowled you over.

It’s a hard bet for a great reward, and there are so many options. Should you choose the student with the highest grades? Or the most revolutionary research?

Should you look for who has the easiest path to the most influential position, or perhaps who has the best idea to change the world?

All may be worthy choices, but for me, one factor stands out. If asked who would best contribute to the service of humanity, I’d choose the person who has served the Princeton community the most. Seeking to serve humanity is a worthy goal, but it can’t be achieved if you don’t take the opportunity to serve your own community first.

“In the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” Princeton’s unofficial motto, clearly resonates with many students. Back when I was an Opinion editor, it was so used in op-eds that I often speculated that at some point I’d just have to ban it. It is easy to be cynical about the motto at Princeton.

The idea breaks down if you think about it even a little too hard. Can

a few influential alumni really support the claim that Princeton creates enough positive leaders to justify the motto? How can we reckon with the fact that so many students are going into fields like finance or consulting—fields that they themselves don’t characterize as serving humanity?

Yet despite the contradictions, the motto still lives in students’ aspirations. In our upcoming Frosh Survey, almost 70 percent of incoming first-years cited the motto when asked about their career goals. And even with the weight of reality bearing down, almost 60 percent of senior respondents for the Class of 2023 characterized their career plans as “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity”.

Aspiring to serve others is deeply laudable. And yet I worry that too many students see service as a future thing, something to strive towards once they’ve reached some influential position in life.

I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. Take two students with an identical desire to serve humanity. The first student spends all their time focused on their own resume — finding internships, joining pre-professional groups where they can network, and keeping their grades up so that some day they can make an impact. The second student instead spends their time provid-

ing value to the campus community through the performing arts or leading an important affinity group, advocating for positive change at Princeton — in short, seeking to solve the relatively inconsequential problems of an already privileged community.

The second student is the one more likely to serve humanity.

Here’s the problem with the first student’s strategy: I just don’t trust them. If they are making the decision to put personal advancement first now, how can we know they’re not going to do that again and again and again in the future?

Their desire to serve humanity becomes more abstract as they nurture their ambition rather than their empathy.

The second student has another advantage: they’re taking the sure bet. We can make a fair bet that in the small, controlled environment of Princeton, the thankless work of running student organizations and projects that provide value to the community are going to have a small, measurable positive impact. The first student’s strategy is a lot more risky. Maybe the first student’s start-up will provide value, or maybe it will defraud its investors. Maybe their great idea will save lives, or maybe it will be used to the detriment of society. The greater the potential impact, the greater the potential for harm. That doesn’t mean the first students shouldn’t go for it. But

it does mean they shouldn’t have passed up the sure chance to put some good into the world.

So with a new class of Princetonians entering campus, I urge them to care in the here and now.

Be the member that stops a theater group from shutting down because of a lack of interest. Slog through the endless process to get your new community group approved. Engage in small acts of service in the local community.

Pick a cause on campus and fight for it relentlessly. If you lose in the first-year class council candidate pileup, take a much less prestigious unelected role on a much more important USG committee.

And don’t just do this at Princeton, of course. Serve your neighborhood, your town, your family.

The nation and humanity will still be waiting for you when you’re ready.

Rohit Narayanan is the 147th Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Princetonian.

The Daily Princetonian

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Administrators cite accessibility successes, Hobson to better serve neurodivergent students NEWS | APRIL 2023

By Laura Robertson Senior News Writer

“Princeton builds accessibility” is one of a number of slogans used by the University on the many construction projects around campus. The Daily Princetonian sat down with University Architect Ron McCoy and Director of Campus Accessibility Michael Barnes to understand how exactly Princeton does that.

Accessibility is particularly pertinent in the design of residential colleges, with a recent analysis by the ‘Prince’ finding that of the 170 buildings on campus, those that are completely wheelchairinaccessible number at 17, nine of which are undergraduate residential halls.

McCoy tried to address such architectural inaccessibility when designing the new colleges. Barnes, whose role was recently created, will help address future issues.

In an interview with the ‘Prince’, Barnes cited his role as “going above and beyond” the standards set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was amended in 2010 to include standards on architectural accessibility. The two noted the efforts to make the communal atmosphere of Yeh and New College West equally accessible and to make the upcoming Hobson College specifically cater to neurodivergent students.

Planning Yeh and New College West “We begin every project with what we call a value proposition. A value proposition is a commitment to ourselves, a promise to ourselves about what we want to achieve,” McCoy said. “And the value proposition of [the New College] project is that it’s about creating a welcoming environment.”

The main entryways into each building within the new colleges have ramps going into them and several ADA compliant routes to get there.

From the northern end of the New Colleges to the southern end, there is a slope that creates roughly a 20 foot drop. A landscape architect ensures that paths from one end of the project to the other are accessible.

“We design it in such a way that there’s not a preference between the accessible route and the fully abled route,” McCoy said. “So there’s no stigma attached — you’re not walking with a friend and saying, ‘okay, I’m going to go the front way, you take that ramp over there and I’ll meet you in five minutes.’”

Barnes called this kind of planning “experiential equity.”

One decision was to give every wing of the New Colleges an elevator. All the elevators are next to stairs, and they all open into the communal lounges on each floor.

“That was an intentional strategy to give people an equitable communal experience as they arrive on an-

CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The new colleges which include Yeh College and New College West bring not only a new design to campus buildings, but updated features in and out.

other floor,” McCoy said.

McCoy told the ‘Prince’ that he toured residential colleges in North Carolina and saw that “some of them would have this little social space at the end of a hallway,” making the social spaces less central for the people living ther.

“You have to make the constant conscious choice to walk to the end of the hallway,” he said.

Therefore, it was imperative to McCoy that both the elevators and the stairs opened into social spaces, so that there wasn’t a difference between the two. By placing the elevators and stairs where they did, they hoped students would naturally walk through the lounges as part of their everyday life.

“You can choose to go past it if you don’t want to engage, but you have the opportunity to know that there are people gathering,” he said.

Planning Hobson College When building Hobson College, the University is partnering with JSA/MixDesign, a team which specializes in building a more inclusive environment. McCoy said that Hobson College would be designed with special attention to the needs of neurodivergent students.

“The dining hall, for instance, at Hobson has what they call micro-climates — different types of climates within a larger environment that support different types of activities,” McCoy said.

For example, some dining booths may be surrounded by an acoustic material that makes them quieter than the main dining hall.

Additionally, they plan to pay attention to issues of glare and plan to clearly de-

lineate accessible pathways with color or texture differences.

Barnes noted that the University was also considering ways to be more accommodating to the needs of hard of hearing and visually impaired students.

“There’s talks of putting in bed shakers,” Barnes said. “So a fire alarm goes off, there’s a different way for that to be interpreted.”

Barnes also said that considering building layout is important when designing with visually impaired students in mind.

“If an individual with a visual impairment had a mental map of the space, we’re being very conscious of if we’re moving things around,” he said. “So a lot of the furniture tends to kind of stay put in that kind of way.”

Renovating the historic campus Since 1990, the ADA has ensured that new buildings meet certain accessibility requirements. But the University’s older buildings often remain inaccessible to students.

The ‘Prince’ recently reported that no buildings in Mathey or Forbes College were entirely wheelchair accessible, whereas all buildings in Yeh, Butler, Whitman, and NCW were.

“We have a campus that we can probably split up at that 1990 moment,” McCoy said.

“So [we’re] looking backward, and we’re fixing, to the extent that we can, legacy problems.”

He noted two recent victories: the addition of a new elevator making Nassau Hall wheelchair accessible, and a ramp put in between Firestone Library and the Chapel, linking the Firestone Plaza to

Washington Road.

“We’re going back and we’re renovating Dillon Gym, and we’re turning it from a building that was maybe 20 percent accessible. And through this project, and a series of other interventions, we’re moving the building to 80 percent accessible,” he added.

By adding an elevator which connects the pool level to the ground floor, only the northernmost part of the gym will remain inacces-

sible. This will be fixed in a later renovation.

Barnes added that he tries to connect individually to students in order to talk about their accessibility needs.

“I will welcome any opportunity to grab a coffee or have a conversation or have a meeting or meet with student groups, faculty groups, staff groups, anyone,” he said.

“What I don’t want to do, and it would be inappropriate to do, is assume that everyone

who has a disability wants to help in this process.”

“Slowly but surely, as I get my feet underneath me, stakeholders and individuals from across campus have been reaching out,” he said.

“You know, perfect. That’s it.

That’s exactly how I want that relationship to happen.”

Laura Robertson is a senior News writer at the ‘Prince.’

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NEWS | FEBRUARY 2023

The Daily Princetonian

Second annual DEI report reveals slew of new programs, minor increase in faculty diversity

By Julian Hartman-Sigall & Bridget O’Neill Assistant News Editors

In June 2020, amid nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, University President Christopher Eisgruber charged the University cabinet with specifying “a set of actions that could be taken within [their] areas to identify, understand, and combat systemic racism within and beyond the University.”

Two and a half years later, the University released its second annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Report, described as part of an ongoing effort to make Princeton “more diverse, inclusive, and accessible.” The report reveals that while the diversity of the undergraduate student body has remained relatively consistent over the past five years, there have been some improvements in the diversity of the University’s faculty. The University also added a number of administrative positions to further DEI goals.

The report also describes long-term plans to increase transfer numbers, create an affinity space for Native and Indigenous members of the community, expand the Center for Jewish Life (CJL), and invest in supplier diversity.

The 41-page report summarizes many “events, programs, and initiatives” undertaken by the University and its students, as well as data on the demographics and climates of students, staff, faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and academic professionals.

The Daily Princetonian broke down the four sections of the report: climate, inclusion and equity; the academic experience; access and outreach; and demographic and campus climate data.

In September 2020, the University Cabinet identified a series of priorities related to diversity and inclusion.

Issuing the report goes to one of the priorities, increasing accountability and engagement by publishing annual reports. Of the other priorities identified in 2020, campus iconography, professional development relating to DEI, and programs to assist lower-paid staff are addressed in the first section of the report; increasing faculty diversity is addressed in the second section of the report; and increasing diversity in graduate programs and in suppliers are addressed in the third section of the report. The fourth section provides statistics to assess progress towards each priority.

The 40th anniversary of the Asian American Alumni

Association (A4P), the 5th anniversary of the AccessAbility Center, and the 50th anniversary of the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, kosher dining on campus, and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) are mentioned in report, an invocation of past efforts to increase diversity and inclusion.

1. Campus climate The first section of the report highlighted Universitysponsored resources and events aiming to foster a more inclusive environment for students of all backgrounds, including lectures on topics of race, gender, sexuality, and speech at the Fields Center and programs focused on women and LGBTQ+ students by the GSRC. The report noted community affinity events including more than a dozen events celebrating Latinx Heritage Month, such as a “Latine in STEM Dinner.” The report also emphasized the creation of a dedicated affinity space for Native and Indigenous community members in Green Hall in response to advocacy from student group Natives at Princeton.

The University laid out some future events and initiatives including an expansion of the CJL’s dining hall to “better serve” the growing student population. Capacity constraints on the CJL have been a topic of debate in recent weeks, as three students argued that the closure of Butler Dining Hall has led to decreased accessibility for kosherkeeping students at the CJL due to long lines.

The section discussed strides in professional development and co-curricular educational opportunities on diversity, which included 12 employee resource groups supported by Human Resources and the launch of the annual Inclusive Academy (IA) Symposium and Best of Access, Diversity, and Inclusion (BADI) Awards.

Campus iconography got a section in the report. The University highlighted changing artwork in University buildings along with renaming Marx Hall as Laura Wooten Hall. The report does not allude to a debate over whether to take down the statue of early University President John Witherspoon on the grounds that he owned slaves.

The report also emphasizes “ensuring equity” amongst faculty and staff, noting the enhancement of the Employee Child Care Assistance Program, Children’s Educational Assistance Plan, Long-Term Disability, and Adoption and Surrogacy Benefit. In 2020, the University wrote that policies and benefits would be assessed “with an eye to enhancing equity for employees in lower-paid positions and others who may have been disproportionally affected

by systemic racism or other class-based disadvantages.”

The University has also created a new Human Resources position — manager for faculty and staff accommodations — to support those with disabilities. This year also saw the creation of new assistant dean positions for Muslim Life and Hindu Life, both positions that previously had the title of religious life chaplains. These are among other new positions alluded to across the report including a vice dean for diversity and inclusion, a vice provost for academic affairs, and an associate director for supplier diversity.

2. Diversity in faculty, teaching and research In the second section of the report, the University highlighted the work of academic departments in increasing diversity.

The University emphasized efforts to increase hiring of diverse candidates by academic departments, citing flexibility in recruitment to enable academic departments to recruit in advance of a vacancy. Diversity of faculty hiring was at the center of an open letter signed by over 350 University faculty members in July 2020.

The section also highlights efforts to increase access to University resources by lowering barriers to entry, noting the Lewis Center for the Arts’s (LCA) decision to replace “high-intensity auditions” with “Try on Theater Days.”

The section closes with a discussion of academic freedom, noting that “inclusivity and respect” can coexist with academic freedom, but emphasizing: “Princeton is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters and guarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn.”

This section may allude to a plank in the 2020 faculty letter calling for the University to form a committee to review and discipline racism in faculty behavior and research. The plank received pushback from some faculty members as calling for a violation of academic freedom.

3. Engagement with broader community The report highlights initiatives that “expanded Princeton’s engagement with local community colleges during the 2021–22 academic year,” including sending 20 graduate students to teach at community colleges nearby. This comes after last year’s report promised to form these connections.

Two new positions at the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity will focus on the expansion of Princeton’s transfer student body and initiatives for the families of first-generation, low-income students. The University announced that over the next few years, it plans to increase the number of transfer students from 40 to approximately 100.

The report also noted efforts to make graduate school more accessible to students from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds by increasing stipends: the University announced an average 25 percent increase in graduate fellowship and stipend rates last January. Pay for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers has been a major campus topic of discussion in 2023, with some feeling that the University’s recent pay raises are insufficient. Postdocs marched for a higher minimum salary and an effort to unionize graduate students has developed, with organizers citing pay and housing costs as motivating factors.

There is a focus on diversifying suppliers, which impacts the broader community given that the University plays a significant role in the local economy. Princeton’s supplier diversity action plan, which “aims to support more businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” led to the creation of Princeton’s first Associate Director for Supplier Diversity. At the end of the 2021–22 fiscal year, 12 percent of the University’s total expenditures were with diverse suppliers, representing more than $114 million. Additionally, 26.8 percent of the Princeton endowment is managed by “diverse-owned firms.”

4. Breaking down the statistics The report concludes with a section featuring data on the diversity of various campus populations, including professors, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates. Additionally, “climate data” is included, which is data gathered from surveys “assessing individuals’ experiences on campus.”

The report details the racial diversity of the undergraduate student body for 2021–22: 56 percent white, 32 percent Asian, 13 percent Black/African American, 12 percent Hispanic/Latino/a, or Mexican American or Puerto Rican, and 2 percent Native American, Native Alaskan, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

According to the graph provided in the report, these numbers are roughly in line with the racial diversity of the undergraduate student body in the past few years. It is not yet clear how these numbers may be impacted if the Supreme court rules that race-conscious admissions processes are unlawful as expected. However, University President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 has said that the decision will likely lead to a less diverse student body. The racial diversity of master’s students and doctoral students

was roughly in line with the undergraduate numbers.

In 2021–22, 2 percent of undergraduate students identified as genderqueer, gender nonconforming, nonbinary, or transgender. This figure was 3 percent for master’s and doctoral students. In 2017–18, that number was 0 percent for undergraduates and master’s students and 1 percent for doctoral students.

The main demographic difference among the three given categories of students — undergraduates, master’s, and doctoral students — is in U.S. citizenship status.

One in eight undergraduate students is not a citizen. For doctoral students, that number is more than two in five.

Among master’s students, the percentage who are not citizens has decreased to 30 percent from 38 percent in 2017–18.

In an interview with the ‘Prince’ last semester, Eisgruber said that increasing the diversity of the faculty was a goal. Eisgruber said, “let’s see if we can increase the number of underrepresented minorities by 50 percent over a period of five years.” He continued, “In the 2022 report … the numbers will show significant progress over the last couple of years.”

According to the report, 26.2 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty identified as non-white or international in fall 2022, up from 23.7 percent in 2021, a 11 percent increase since 2018. There was a smaller impact on nontenure-track faculty, a substantially more diverse group as a whole, where the number of non-white or international faculty increased from 35.3 to 37.1 percent, a five percent increase over the same period. The lack of faculty diversity was cited in 2020, when it was noted that the percentage of non-white tenured or tenure-track faculty members had increased from 15 percent to 19 percent in 18 years.

The report’s graphs show that, in Fall 2022, 21.4 percent of tenured or tenure-track faculty identified as Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino/a/x, or American Indian/Native American/Native Alaskan. While the report does not give any numerical totals for demographic groups, the Office of Institutional Research has a Diversity Dashboard which states that in 2022, out of 1,064 total tenure or tenure-track faculty, 770 identified as white, 61 identified as Black, 43 identified as Hispanic, 5 identified as Native American, and 139 identified as Asian.

There were slight discrepancies in the data from the Diversity Dashboard compared with the graphs in the DEI report. The reason for these discrepancies was not immediately apparent.

In his interview with the ‘Prince,’ Eisgruber also discussed the economic diversity of the student body in the context of the University’s recently-expanded financial aid plan. Roughly one in five undergraduate students are Pell Grant-eligible, a number that has remained relatively steady for the past five years, a statistic that would not reflect the University’s new financial aid policy, which has not yet gone into effect.

The report also broke down data on campus climate, collected from surveys of students that asked the following questions: “Would you recommend Princeton to someone (same background, ability, interests, and temperament as you) considering your field of study?” and “Would you encourage a high school senior who resembles you when you were a high school senior (same background, ability, interests, and temperament as you) to attend Princeton?” The survey also asked respondents to state whether the following sentence was true or false for them: “I would encourage a prospective colleague or friend who resembles me (in interests, background, etc.) to work or study in the department.” The responses are broken down in the report by gender, sexual orientation, and race.

The main prompt, about whether students would recommend Princeton to high school seniors with similar backgrounds, saw “definitely” as the most common response. White, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino students gave more positive responses, with 75, 77, and 71 percent, respectively, responding “definitely” or “probably.” Black and Native American students, on the other hand, were slightly less likely to recommend Princeton, with their rates of answering “definitely” or “probably” resting at 61 and 65 percent.

On the same prompt, men and women had similar responses, but gender nonconforming students answered “definitely” or “probably” at a significantly lower rate.

Eisgruber framed the report in his opening letter with the following words, “This University is — and will remain — a work in progress. Commitments to diversity, inclusion, and excellence require constant vigilance and unceasing effort.”

With the University expected to continue releasing reports on diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, progress on core goals can be monitored by community members going forward.

Julian Hartmann-Sigall is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Bridget O’Neill is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

NEWS | FEBRUARY 2023

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Activity fee increase dominates Daniels’s legacy, campus pub still in the works

By Nandini Krishnan Staff News Writer

At the competitive USG debate last December, USG President Stephen Daniels ’24 touted his record of getting things done. “When I have said something will happen on USG, it has, and I hope to continue to keep my promise to focus on results over rhetoric,” he said.

“I’m not someone who will ramp up the rhetoric right before elections, with limited successful policy advocacy to show for it,” he continued. His work in USG prior to his role as president included establishing the Pay with Points program, contributing to the Mental Health Report, and working on the CPS Cares Line.

A semester into his term, Daniels spoke to the ‘Prince’ about what the administration has accomplished.

The most significant change has been a more-than-doubling of the Student Activities Fee, which will enable significant increases in USG programming in the future. The group voted in its last meeting of the semester to double Student Activities fees from $45.50 to $95.50 in order to cover its shortfall and also expand their capacity to offer various programming to students.

Daniels also highlighted making the mental health committee a core committee and successful events.

Some of Daniels’s campaign proposals have not gone into effect, though Daniels noted a Campus Pub pilot might be run during the fall semester.

Activity fee increase takes center stage Daniels highlighted the importance of the activity fee increase.

“That’s part of where we struggle, especially in comparison to peer institutions, is that because we just have less resources, we can’t do a lot of the programming that other schools can,” he said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.

“And that means supporting smaller scale communities like clubs in a way that maybe we haven’t been as aggressive with in the past, but also prioritizing large scale events like the March Madness, and then Lawnparties and trying to make those as strong as possible,” Daniels continued.

Daniels emphasized work regarding “the formalization and continuation of our work around mental health” as one of the USG’s biggest achievements this semester. The Mental Health Committee was established as a core commit-

tee, elevated from an ad hoc committee without an elected chair.

The committee has recently been working on the “development and initialization of the LYFT programs” that enable transportation to off-campus mental health providers. The committee has hosted luncheons throughout the semester inviting students to dine at Prospect House with administrators to discuss mental health.

Daniels also said he was proud of the group’s achievements with “large-scale programming on campus.”

“We ended up wristbanding around 3,500 undergrads for Lawnparties, even with the horrible weather,” he said, adding that other events like the March Madness launch party, Farmers Market, and Tigers in Town were incredibly popular with students.

“We’re just sort of getting to the point where, post-pandemic, we have a really good sense of what students want,” said Daniels. He explained that the group was “hitting capacity at all our events, which to me indicates some sort of met demand, which is part of why we’re pursuing the budget process.”

Daniels’s platform One of the key plans of Daniels’s platform was a focus on Princeton’s social life. Building on his previous work on the Pay with Points program, he called for the initiative to be expanded to upperclassmen.

He also proposed working towards expanding co-ops. One of his most significant proposals was reviving the Campus Pub, a bar formerly located in the basement of Chancellor Green.

While Daniels didn’t note any progress this semester, he highlighted plans for the fall. “The design of [the Campus Pub] is not particularly specified yet,” Daniels said, but said USG hoped to have some pilot events. “The hope would be for that to be in the fall.”

Daniels also focused on academic changes. His platform called for changing parts of the University’s academic structure, such as preventing assignments from being due right after or over breaks and raising questions about the usefulness of a 12-week semester.

Academics Chair Srista Tripathi ’25 did not mention those specific programs but noted “class preparedness for introductory courses” as one issue USG would continue working on.

JEAN SHIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Frist Campus Center

Daniels also proposed holding regular office hours and increasing transparency for the Dining Pilot working group. No office hours have been publicly advertised yet.

In the committees Elected committee chairs highlighted their progress as well.

In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ DEI Chair Uma Fox ’26 commented on the committee’s work expanding campus inclusivity through “listening sessions with affinity groups, advocacy for genderinclusive changes to the matriculating housing form and campus bathroom policies, and student involvement in the drafting of the University’s Annual DEI report.”

“The social committee’s two main tasks this semester were planning Lawnparties and Dean’s Date,” Social Chair Avi Attar ’25 wrote. “We thought creatively about how to improve each event this semester and going forward, and we are extremely happy with how successful each one was.”

Campus and Community Affairs (CCA) Committee Chair Isabella Sibaja ’26 highlighted the “Tigers at the Market” program ​​developed alongside the Princeton Farmers Market Committee that enabled 150 students to receive a $5 voucher to be used at the market each week.

The CCA Committee, along with the Office of Community and Re-

gional Affairs, also “hosted a student porch as a part of Princeton Porchfest, in order to provide an opportunity for students to interact with the local community,” said Sibaja. The committee also developed a Tigers in Town event that ran in conjunction with Porchfest.

Tripathi said “the committee focused on student-faculty communication and transparency, working on minors programming as they continue to be approved, and facilitating discussions between students and deans.”

16 minors have been approved thus far.

The committee also worked on “financial aid reform for disciplinary proceedings,” perhaps referencing the loophole where a small number of students who are suspended due to an Honor Code offense in the middle of the semester are ineligible for financial aid.

One committee that has faced turnover this term is the Sustainability committee. Committee Chair Sean Bradley ’24 resigned mid-term and the new chair Isha Patel ’25 was only appointed at the last meeting of the semester.

University Student Life Committee (USLC) Chair Caitlin McNally ’24 did not respond to a request for comment from the ‘Prince’.

Plans for the fall Daniels expanded on his future

plans for USG, saying they are currently planning for a Community Care Day on a day in late October “where professors will be encouraged to cancel classes or restructure their work” thereby enabling “campus to come together as a community with a wide variety of programming.”

Looking ahead, Daniels hopes to expand programming given student feedback, particularly through Passport to the Arts and improving the experience for vegan and vegetarian students in the dining halls.

“We can’t promise to do everything. All we can promise to do is try and if you do reach out to me [or] send me an email, I will read it and I will, most times, follow up with someone,” said Daniels, emphasizing his commitment to responding to student feedback.

Discussing the work by the group so far, Daniels said. “I think we’ve been reasonably successful up to this point, but if you ask any of my friends, I am very hard on myself and I don’t think we’re close to where we can be.”

“That’s why I’m sort of excited that we’re only a third of the way through this year,” he said.

Nandini Krishnan is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince’ who usually covers the USG.

page 6

The Daily Princetonian

NEWS | FEBRUARY 2023

Bicker, explained

By Laura Robertson Senior News Writer

followed by member or committee discussions who decide who gets into each club.

What is Bicker?

Bicker is the selection process for six of the 11 eating clubs — Ivy Club, Tower Club, Tiger Inn, Cottage Club, Cap and Gown Club, and Cannon Dial Elm Club. For three days, sophomores — and juniors and seniors who choose to bicker — meet people in the clubs through a series of formal and informal conversations. This is

How does the process even work?

The Bicker process varies by club, but we have gotten some inside looks at the process in a couple of clubs.

In 2019, Ivy had its 2017 Bicker information leaked. In Ivy’s Bicker process, bickerees have a series of formal conversations with current members which are then ranked and described

on a scorecard. Friends of bickerees can also submit cards for that person. In 2019, the digitized versions of the 2017 scorecards were anonymously leaked onto TigerConfessions, a Facebook group which had roughly 3,600 members at the time.

In 2021, an anonymous Cannon alum revealed that the Cannon bicker process involved two nights of icebreaker games, during which members can upload red cards or green cards to a portal. Each member then gives every bickeree an initial score — the bickerees with the top 25 scored being “turbo’d” or immediately accepted to a club. All other bickerees are discussed by the whole group, and bickerees may have a close friend make a case for them.

The Cannon alum noted that athletes have a leg up in Cannon, where, in the alum’s year, 72 percent of Cannon was in an athletic team.

How did bicker begin?

While informal eating clubs had existed for decades at Princeton, in 1879 a group of students rented and then bought a building on Prospect Ave, then known as Ivy Hall, which would become what is known today

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Eating clubs line Prospect Avenue.

as Ivy Club. By 1914, at which point all 11 of the clubs currently functioning were open, informal ways of choosing new members were gradually formalized into “Bicker.”

How have alternatives to bicker developed?

In 1917, 600 sophomores signed a petition stating that they wouldn’t join any club unless everyone who bickered got a bid. By the 1920s, protests to abolish Bicker had begun. In the years since 1879, the number of students in eating clubs had increased to almost 80 percent of the student body. In the 1940s, a series of reforms to the Bicker system ensured that students could bicker as friend groups, and that every student would get into some club. From 1949– 1957, every sophomore who chose to bicker got a bid. In 1958, however, 23 students, most of whom were Jewish, did not receive a bid. The scandal has since been termed the “Dirty Bicker of 1958.”

In 1967, Terrace abandoned Bicker and became the first sign-in club, with other clubs following suit. Beginning in the late 1980s, students were only allowed to bicker one club;

in 2013 most bicker clubs began to allow “double Bicker” again, so that students could bicker two clubs at once. Ivy and Tower stayed single bicker for a time before joining the system.

Princeton’s Campus Club went “unbicker” shortly before it closed due to lack of funds in 2005. The club’s location was re-opened by the University in 2009 as an alternative to the eating club system. The space now hosts Coffee Club and other social spaces.

In 2019, Charter Club, which had been sign-in, began soliciting proposals re-imagining the club in an attempt to increase membership. Ultimately, they decided to make Charter Club Bicker again for the first time since 1979. This was planned to begin after the 2019–2020 school year ended — instead, the club went “selective sign-in,” awarding points to students who show interest in the club without the formalized systems of conversations and discussions for prospective members.

Laura Robertson ia a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’

N E W S | M AY 2 0 2 3

Despite University memo, security cameras being mounted indoors

By Vitus Larrieu

News Contributor

The University’s camera expansion project has begun — and includes cameras inside of residential entryways, despite earlier University statements suggesting that installation would take place on building exteriors.

Following initial approval in December 2022 from the University’s Environmental, Safety, and Risk Management Committee (ESRM), installation of cameras at all residential entryways has begun, with Blair and Buyers halls being first.

After the program’s approval, students and student groups, notably through Students for Prison Education, Abolition, and Reform (SPEAR), called on the University to reevaluate the policy.

While a memo sent to the campus community on March 8 stated that additional security cameras would be placed “at all

exterior doorways in undergraduate residential college buildings and dorms,” cameras have been installed inside of residence entryways, facing the exterior. The memo was discussed with students including at a session with the Undergraduate Student Government (USG).

University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss told The Daily Princetonian that “campus architecture does not allow for effective placement of cameras on the exterior of buildings.”

“The cameras are being installed inside near ingress and egress doors to capture footage of people entering and exiting the building.

Each camera goes through multiple levels of review to ensure its field of view is directed at the door as intended,” he said.

Hotchkiss also shared the image below of security footage from a camera in Buyers Hall, which displays the view of the camera aimed

at the door, capturing some of the surrounding hallway.

Upon seeing security cameras inside, students have expressed their discomfort and surprise at the change in previous policy.

“I don’t like the cameras in [the] hallway,” said Blair Hall resident Charlotte Defriez ’26, speaking with the ‘Prince’ about privacy concerns following the installation of cameras in entryway 6 of Blair Hall. Though Defriez “wasn’t opposed” to the idea of cameras outside, their placement inside of hallways makes her “slightly uncomfortable,” and she feels that the University is “crossing a boundary” by placing cameras inside of residential buildings.

A lack of clear communication from the University was a point of concern for Mathey College Residential College Adviser Jessica Scott ’24, who was surprised to see cameras “installed within two days with no advanced warning.”

The University did send emails informing residents of the camera work being done in their building, which reaffirmed that cameras would be installed on “exterior doorways.”

Scott told the ‘Prince’ that despite the security camera pointing towards the exit and having a narrow field of vision, she feels “hyper aware of the camera’s presence” every time she enters her building.

Student concerns have existed since proposals for increased security cameras began to gain traction in late 2022.

“There is kind of a lack of trust in that [there is little faith that] the administration would not violate students’ privacy,” Seth Kahn ’25 said at a student feedback session held by administrators on the issue in November.

Additionally, in an April meeting of the Undergraduate Student Government, two members raised concerns about implicit bias, ac-

countability, and profiling that might occur when reviewing footage.

The complete memo referenced in the email sent to students who would be affected by construction was not publicly available and remains inaccessible to some University undergraduate students, including those who the email was sent to.

Hotchkiss told the ‘Prince’ that the FAQ which references where cameras can and cannot be placed will be updated to better reflect the “necessary change in the installation process.” The Public Safety FAQ and Facilities page on the project have not yet been updated to reflect this change.

Vitus Larrieu is a News contributor and an assistant Podcast editor for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

page 7

NEWS | MARCH 2023

‘Princeton comes together when there’s a special moment’: Enthusiasm soars as March Madness watch parties reach capacity

By Lia Opperman & Olivia Sanchez Associate News Editor & Staff News Writer

Across campus and throughout the town of Princeton, normal activities paused as watch parties boomed in anticipation of Friday’s historic Sweet 16 match-up between the Princeton Tigers and the Creighton Bluejays.

The official Undergraduate Student Government (USG) watch party took place in the Whig Hall Senate Chamber, a room with a capacity of 280. Whig Hall, along with local bars Alchemist & Barrister and Winberie’s Restaurant & Bar, reached capacity before the game tip-off at about 9:30 p.m.

“I do wish we could go watch the game,” Marissa Michaels ’22 told The Daily Princetonian late Friday night. Whig Hall was her second stop after visiting a bar in town. “That was too crowded, and now this is too crowded,” she said.

Michaels is an associate news editor emeritus for the ‘Prince.’

The only place that graduate student Nate Dow and his friends could find a seat was outside of Alchemist & Barrister. On the windows of the bar, multiple signs read “Currently at full capacity. Please do not enter” by 8:30 p.m.

“Everybody loves an underdog,” Dow told the ‘Prince’ before the game. “It’s been a good story so far, so hoping we can keep it going, and they’ve got a chance. They’ve taken down tougher teams than Creighton.”

Whig’s exterior was illuminated in orange in celebration of the event. The party started at 7:30 p.m. with a poster-making station and other activities. USG representatives, including President Stephen Daniels ’24, distributed temporary tattoos, stickers, and tiger ears in Oakes Lounge. Chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and waffle fries were served in the Senate Chamber, and both the Chamber and Oakes Lounge were decorated with orange and black balloons and posters of the players.

By 9 p.m., Whig had reached capacity and

many people could not get seats, but students refused to let that dampen the mood. When asked how she felt about the event, Michelle Thurber ’26 shouted “I’m so excited!”, and when a cameraman told the crowd they were on national news, cheers erupted. Students stood on chairs and tables, and some watched from the balcony one floor above.

Michaels expressed that she feels Princeton often lacks school spirit when it comes to sports.

“It’s a shame that for sports, our school spirit only seems to get to really high levels when we’re at a really high national level of sports, and we don’t seem to have the same showing of school spirit when we’re competing on our typical level, which is also really high,” she added.

McCosh Hall 10, the room designated for overflow with a capacity of 350, was less crowded than Whig Hall, but the enthusiasm was palpable. Two high school seniors, Jayden Hill and Kyler Zhou from Princeton Day School, were in McCosh to watch the game. Hill stated, “This is a really, really close game … I’m on my toes right now.”

When asked how he was feeling, Zhou said, “Proud and excited, and a little anxious too.”

Both students claimed to be members of the Princeton Class of 2027, and Hill said he was recruited for football. The ‘Prince’ could not independently verify that they were admitted to Princeton. Princeton Day School does not have a football team.

By 9 p.m., Winberie’s had also reached capacity, according to a fire marshall inside the building.

Graduate student Matt Mleczko told the ‘Prince’, “[Winberie’s] is probably my favorite atmosphere to watch a game like this. I’m really just here to watch to enjoy.”

Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) professor Alain L. Kornhauser GS’ 71 expressed his excitement for the game to the ‘Prince’ inside Winberie’s.

“If San Diego can beat Alabama, we can beat

Creighton,” he said. “It’s been a long time since the Sweet Sixteen. I’m just happy for the kids.”

“I’m glad they came back here and worked on their thesis,” he added.

Following the loss, David Shao ’26 expressed his disappointment. “We did so well for the first half … I feel like it was an 11-point curse, we were always 11 points behind in the second half.” He added, “We did so well … we advanced this far into the tournament. I think that they should come back being very proud of themselves.”

In addition to local watch parties, some Princeton students and alumni even traveled to Louisville, Ky. for the game.

Mike Nixon ’00 was in Sacramento to watch Princeton play its initial March Madness games last weekend, and he said he had “no doubt” that he was going to Louisville for Friday’s game.

“There wasn’t even an iota of hesitation,” he told

ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

the ‘Prince.’

“I love basketball, but this is special,” he added. “Princeton comes together when there is a special moment.”

Madeleine (Peake) Brase ’16 also made the trek to Louisville from Minnesota for the game.

“It’s amazing to see the support here and the alumni that have come tonight,” she said.

Olivia Sanchez is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’

Lia Opperman is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’

Associate News Editor Tess Weinreich contributed reporting.

page 8

The Daily Princetonian

NEWS | APRIL 2023

A drastically changed process for students seeking mental health leaves

By Lia Opperman Associate News Editor

Content Warning: The following article includes mention of suicide.

In December 2014, a student at Princeton filed a lawsuit against the University and seven administrators, alleging that they discriminated against him when they reacted to a suicide attempt in his dorm room two years prior.

In the lawsuit, the student, who identifies using the pseudonym “W.P.,” alleged that had he not ‘voluntarily’ withdrawn from the University, he would be involuntarily withdrawn in approximately three weeks for failing to attend the classes from which he had been banned. The student ultimately left Princeton for two semesters.

“Princeton knew, or should have known, that this was against W.P.’s best interests and was likely to exacerbate his condition and cause him great emotional distress,” the complaint read.

The lawsuit prompted a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation. Other students also expressed issues obtaining a mental health leave, and the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) spoke with administrators to make the process more transparent.

An overview of the past decade of mental health-related leave of absences at Princeton shows that the process has rapidly changed over time. The mid-2010s saw high-profile negative experiences with the University’s mental health services, but students today report that obtaining a mental health leave is “a very smooth process.” The Daily Princetonian spoke with two students who took a mental health leave of absence on their experiences obtaining a leave, how they got reinstated, and their concerns with how Princeton handles the process.

Mental health leaves are again relevant with Yale having had a major recent contro-

versy. In December 2022, Yale University was sued for discriminating against students for mental health disabilities. The plaintiffs, including mental health advocacy group “Elis for Rachael” and two current students, alleged that the University discriminates against students with mental health disabilities through unfair practices and policies, especially surrounding withdrawal and reinstatement. Yale and the plaintiffs later negotiated a settlement.

Henry Erdman ’24 and Justin Chae ’24 both took leaves for a year. Chae withdrew before the start of the spring semester and moved out during winter break. Erdman withdrew before the ninth week of the semester, the last week that students can take a leave from the University without taking “Ws,” or withdrawals, on their transcript.

“I think for me, there are certain feelings, like guilt. I felt like I was sort of giving up by taking a gap year but I think at the time, that’s what I really needed to do,” Chae said.

Princeton’s history handling mental health leave of absences Though the process to obtain a mental health-related leave of absence was relatively easy in Chae and Erdman’s experience, in the past, students have had issues with the process.

The 2014 lawsuit said that, as a result of the forced withdrawal, W.P. “will always be afraid that seeking the help of mental health professionals in a time of distress may lead to disaster.”

According to Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS), requiring a student to take a leave of absence is “exceedingly rare” and such a situation only occurred “fewer than five times in the past ten years.”

The year before, another student wrote an anonymous op-ed in the ‘Prince’ describing her experience with the University’s mental health process. She wrote about the series of events leading up to voluntary withdrawal as

a “cookiecutter ... [one] that seems to be very rigid and inflexible,” one that made her feel violated and ostracized.

In December 2014, members of the USG’s Mental Health Initiative Board met with Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler to explore the possibility of publishing the official policies for mental health withdrawals and readmissions in the Undergraduate Announcement, something that they now do.

Fowler suggested that the Mental Health Initiative Board work with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) to revise the current FAQs on mental health withdrawals and readmissions and have that recognized as the University’s official protocol. The conference came after 95.5 percent of voters approved of a referendum question calling for greater transparency in mental health withdrawal and readmission policies.

Two years later, in December 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded its review of the University’s Americans with Disabilities Act policies. The DOJ did not find any instances of non-compliance. However, the University and the DOJ reached an agreement that detailed steps that the University must take to strengthen its policies, practices, and training to benefit all current and future students with disabilities.

At the time, the University said it “will clarify some information regarding policies and practices for reasonable accommodations and student leaves of absence.”

to put a specific plan in place, which is the first step in the leave process.

“I might have emailed [my dean] on a Friday, and we met on that Monday,” he said.

“We basically had a quick Zoom meeting talking about how we are feeling and what’s going on and I didn’t really get any sort of resistance.”

“Throughout the whole process, she was pretty supportive,” he added.

Sometimes the Director of Student Life (DSL) or dean may request or require an exit consultation with CPS before students leave campus to understand the student’s experience on campus or provide treatment recommendations that the student can pursue while away from the University.

In order to allow disclosure of limited information from the exit consultation from CPS to the DSL or dean, the student is required to sign an authorization, permitting CPS to share with the DSL or the dean the student’s risk assessment and recommendations for treatment.

After the meeting with the dean and if necessary, a consultation with CPS, students planning on taking a leave need to sign a few documents.

“It was a lot easier than expected,” Chae said.

Considering Erdman decided to take a leave during the middle of the semester, once he pressed a button confirming his leave, he had to move out.

“Once you press the button, you have 72 hours to leave,” Erdman said.

How students obtain a mental health related leave According to a document from CPS from December 2018, approximately 150 – 180 undergraduates take a leave of absence in the course of an academic year, with approximately 30 – 40 students for self-described mental health reasons.

“In almost all cases, it is the student who initiates the leave of absence,” the document reads. There are around three to five cases a year where the University will encourage a student who had not initially considered time away to consider doing so to “address the issues affecting their safety and/or wellbeing.”

The document also explained how most students who encounter mental health issues at the University remain enrolled.

Chae explained that he hadn’t initially considered his leave a “mental health leave” and decided to take time off for an “overwhelming number of factors,” including to figure out what his goals were to “resituate academically.”

“I decided I need some time away to figure out, like, what’s even overwhelming me?” he said.

According to CPS, a leave of absence is typically initiated for one of two reasons: the student believes that their treatment requires more attention than is possible while also being a fulltime student, or the student has been unable to concentrate on their academic work and hopes to avoid a negative effect in their coursework.

Chae visited a University website for students considering taking a leave and then had a conversation with his residential college dean

Getting reinstated by the University Chae and Erdman both reported that during their time off, they didn’t receive any “check-ins” or resources from the University, besides information about the reinstatement process a few weeks before they were slated to return to Princeton.

The semester before the student’s return, the residential college dean communicates what is required for reinstatement, provides the timetable for submitting forms, information about financial aid, and rooming preferences, and directs the student to the reinstatement application.

After taking time off, Erdman filled out a form to be reinstated by the University, which he explained had “conflicting deadlines” and made course selection “stressful.”

He claimed that due to the time this process took place for him, it interfered with his course selection.

“I had a friend who took an academic leave of absence. He said that he was able to do course selection at a normal time,” he said.

According to a letter obtained by the ‘Prince,’ in order to be reinstated by the University, Erdman had to schedule an appointment with CPS between four and six weeks before the beginning of his intended return.

“A goal of your treatment should be the development of an increased ability to handle both the academic and psychological stresses that regularly arise during a semester here,” the letter read.

In some circumstances, students have to meet with a CPS counselor as part of the reinstatement process. According to CPS, the consultation confirms that the student is not at risk of self-harm or harm to others, and the meeting provides an opportunity for the CPS clinician to discuss the progress the student has made following their leave.

Sometimes, the meetings are used to help with ongoing support when the student returns to campus.

Though Chae did not express issues with course selection, considering he first took time off in the spring semester and came back the following spring, he could not participate in room draw. He was placed in a random room when he returned.

According to University guidelines, the University expects that “all students will be reinstated.”

Participation in extracurriculars Erdman was previously the drum major and the president of the Princeton University Band. He explained that during the fall semester, he traveled from his home in Maryland to play with the band at football games.

According to him, about three weeks later, a member of ODUS who knew that he was on a leave recognized him and told the band that he could not play anymore. Erdman also claimed that he was not allowed to follow the band “as a fan” on their march around the stadium before football games either.

Erdman said that in the contract he signed when he first took a leave, it mentioned that students could not be a part of ODUS-affiliated clubs during their time off, but he explained that it was “buried” and that “it wasn’t something that [he] was aware of,” until after ODUS told him he could no longer participate.

“I did dig through and find that [in the contract], but it was hard,” he said.

Chae remained president of the Korean Students Association at Princeton during his time off and helped out with events from home.

“I remember that I was still like, taking on a lot of the responsibilities like figuring out catered food and stuff like that, even though I was like 1000s of miles away in Texas,” he said.

He mentioned that although he didn’t have an experience like Erdman, he knew a friend who was a senior who took a leave who wanted to participate in their senior show for a performance group, but wasn’t allowed to by ODUS. Room for improvement Erdman also said that he wishes the University provided more resources to students before deciding on a mental health leave of absence.

“There are ways to step in before [taking a leave] that I feel weren’t really accessible,” Erdman said.

He explained how during his leave, he was a part of an intensive outpatient program (IOP). Though Erdman described his IOP as “intense,” he said that “a lot of IOPs are designed for people to work and then go [to the program] in the evening.”

Princeton University does not offer an IOP nor resources to obtain one on the CPS website. On the other hand, Rutgers University does offer an IOP through a four-week, 12-session structured program for adults ages 18 and older “with a focus on utilizing DBT [(dialectical behavior therapy)] skills to manage and relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression.” Participants of the program attend three three-hour sessions a week. The program offers group sessions facilitated by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker as well as individual and family therapy and medication management appointments with a Licensed Medical Provider.

Chae explained that having to take a year off instead of having the option to take a semester off from Princeton made his choice “a much bigger decision.”

“If you can’t take a semester, then you kind of go all into this gap year or not at all,” he said.

Students with advanced standing eligibility who plan on taking the option of one semester of advanced standing can apply for a one-semester leave of absence. Students who have completed at least one year of study and have joined an academic department may also petition to take a one-semester leave if they “can demonstrate that returning out of the normal sequence would not unreasonably impact their regular progress to degree.”

Chae reflected on his time off and mentioned how choosing to take a gap year was the right choice for him.

He said that although he believes that may be a privileged thing to say, as he had resources available and a supportive home environment, he thinks that “you should be the priority” when it comes to deciding to take a leave or not.

“I gained a lot of great skills that I wouldn’t have had time to develop while here on campus,” Chae said. “My advice would be if you feel like you need it, you can take it and then the rest can be figured out later.”

Lia Opperman is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’

N E W S | M AY 2 0 2 3

The Daily Princetonian

Honor Committee has smaller footprint than most students imagine, chairs say

By Julian Hartman-Sigall Assistant News Editor

In the Undergraduate Student Government elections in December 2017, four referenda to amend the Honor Committee Constitution passed by a three-fourths majority. The referenda called for a range of reforms including increased transparency and reduced penalties. However, a few days later, the University announced that it would not permit the implementation of three of the four referenda because they were “too significant to be implemented without faculty approval.”

More than five years later, the ‘Prince’ reviewed annual reports and interviewed current and former chairs of the Honor Committee to hear their view about how their processes have changed since the rejected referenda. Honor Committee chairs note that many aspects of the proposed reforms were implemented following University administration’s approval and there have been other improvements to the process.

However, Honor Committee members also noted that the scope of the scale of the student-led Honor Committee pales in comparison to the student-faculty Committee on Discipline (COD). While the 2017 referendum drove the focus of reform to the Honor Committee, the COD handles the majority of disciplinary cases, including significantly more academic disciplinary cases.

The committee on campus Recent surveys have shown that the student body is deeply distrustful of the Honor Code.

For the second year in a row, The Daily Princetonian’s senior survey found that the Honor Code is extremely unpopular among students. This year’s survey revealed that 62 percent of respondents have a “strongly” or “somewhat unfavorable” view whereas only 16 percent have a “strongly” or “somewhat favorable” view. In 2022, those numbers were 55 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

These numbers may, in part, have been fueled by a ‘Prince’ investigation in 2021 which chronicled “a story of spiraling mental health, institutionalized alienation, and renewed hopes for reform.” There have been multiple criticisms of the Honor Committee in the ‘Prince’s pages: in 2022, Benjamin Gelman ’23 called on students not to join the Honor Committee.

In the most recent Senior Survey, results found that most students do not feel optimistic about the trajectory of the Honor Committee with the vast majority of students saying there has been no improvement during their time at the University. The most recent substantial changes to the Honor Code were made three months prior to their matriculation.

Recent changes to the Honor Committee “What I hope people will take away is that a number of the important reforms, like the standard penalty and whatnot, did wind up getting changed and have had a significant impact on the way the Committee does its deliberations,” said former Honor Committee chair Dylan Shapiro ’23.

The referenda introduced in 2017 had four parts: reduce the “standard penalty” to a one-semester suspension from a year-long suspension, require an additional piece of evidence outside of a report in order for a case to proceed to trial, prohibit students from getting in trouble from an Honor Code violation if their professor said it was allowed, and more clearly inform students of their role in a hearing when they are being informed.

The University initially rejected the first three, accepting the plank that witnesses to a hearing should not receive an email identical to the ones received by a student suspected.

Yet after a University process, the first and second proposals are now Honor Committee policy, along with other changes.

Dina Kuttab ’21, who led the Honor Committee as the reforms unfolded, recalled what followed the referendum..

“When those [2017 amendments] didn’t go into effect, the administration put together a committee of students and faculty to say, okay, those reforms didn’t go into effect, but what can we do like what reforms can we implement that? Keep the spirit of like the

student led reforms, while also like, being something that you can actually operationalize? And that works within the system,” Kuttab said It ended up being a two-year process involving four report-producing committees, some of which were entirely faculty and some of which involved students, culminating with a Reconciliation Committee to finalize what changes to implement.

Since the release of the report, the Honor Committee has changed in significant ways.

Prior to 2019, the standard penalty that the Honor Committee imposed on almost every student found responsible for a serious act of plagiarism was a one-year suspension. Now, that suspension is reduced to one semester.

At the same time, multiple Honor Committee chairs who spoke with the ‘Prince’ referenced that the University does not typically allow students to graduate in the winter. Therefore, when a student is suspended for one semester, they often need to take off an additional semester as a leave of absence.

Current Honor Committee Chair Matthew Wilson ’24 highlighted this gap as a problem that should be sorted out.

According to Shapiro, the Committee has also adapted to the referenda and become more lenient in its sentences and now is permitted to use more discretion to ensure that its punishments reflect the details of the case. In order to ensure fairness, Shapiro said, the Committee has begun using a precedent system, citing past cases to when considering future punishments.

Another significant change to the Committee that was recommended by multiple reports is the elimination of character witnesses. Character witnesses would testify to the good character of the accused student before the change. The reasoning behind the change, according to Shapiro, is that the Committee assumes good character, rendering the witness redundant and a requirement that unnecessarily requires the accused to bring another person into their disciplinary process. The committee, as the referendum suggests, also no longer holds a hearing on a single report.

The only referendum policy that was not officially implemented in any form is that if the professor of the class where the incident takes place doesn’t want disciplinary action, there should be no action. While former chairs stated that this policy was not legally feasible, Shapiro told the ‘Prince’ that in practice, “[the Committee] would certainly take into consideration” the faculty member’s perspective when adjudicating a case.

An eclipsed role Most students view the Honor Committee as a stand-in for the University’s disciplinary process at large: the Honor Committee, which dominates campus conversation around discipline and is a feature of freshman orientation. Before enrolling in classes at the University, students must sign the honor pledge.

However, the scope of the Honor Committee pales in comparison to the COD, which is not student led.

The members of the Honor Committee who spoke to the ‘Prince’ repeatedly emphasized that the administration and faculty have far more power than students in the disciplinary process, both through the COD and their veto power on any action taken by the Honor Committee.

In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ former chair of the Honor Committee Alston Carson ’22 said, “Obviously, it’s student run, I was literally the head of it, but I would say that for anyone who’s not on the committee, it would be really surprising to find out how much control is not actually possessed by the students.”

All cases of cheating during in-person examinations are under the purview of the Honor Committee, but every other violation of the Honor Code — essays, term papers, laboratory reports, and take-home examinations — in addition to non-academic violations of Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities, falls under the jurisdiction of the COD, which is comprised of 17 individuals, six of whom are students. On the other hand, the Honor Committee is entirely students.

“It’s an important talking point for the

school that there’s a student-led honor committee, but what’s not really fully understood is that the Committee on Discipline, which is faculty led, has significantly more cases than the Honor Committee,” Carson continued.

In the 2021–2022 school year, the COD found 1,023 students responsible for disciplinary infractions, 50 of which were related to academics. The Honor Committee, which only releases statistics in five-year aggregates, found an average of 14 people responsible for violations of the Honor Code every year between 2017 and 2022. Throughout this time period, the Honor Committee only found the student responsible in 18 percent of cases referred to them. Of students whose cases made it to a hearing before the Honor Committee, 52 percent were found responsible.

page 9

There have been some changes to the COD. Most recently, peer representatives, who could assist students in Honor Code cases, can now assist students in COD cases. Yet compared to the referendum, the focus on the COD has not been equal.

“If the Honor Committee didn’t exist, that means all of the Honor Committees’ current cases would fall under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Discipline,” Wilson told the ‘Prince’ “The Committee on Discipline,” Wilson noted, “seems to get very little attention compared to the Honor Committee.”

Julian Hartman-Sigall is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’

CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

McCosh 50 is the largest lecture hall on campus and often hosts midterm and final exams.

page 10

The Daily Princetonian

DATA | APRIL 2023

The omelet station at Yeh/NCW serves a community with a diversity of tastes

By Andrew Bosworth Staff Data Writer

Breakfast is often cited as the most important meal of the day, and what better way to dine in style than with a made-to-order omelet, fried egg, or scrambled eggs?

All four of the University’s residential dining halls offer omelet stations during breakfast every weekday and during brunch every weekend. The Daily Princetonian analyzed omelet orders at Yeh/New College West (NCW), the University’s newest dining hall and an increasingly popular option for students.

49.6 percent of seniors ranked Yeh/NCW as their favorite dining hall even though it wasn’t in operation for most of their time at Princeton.

Omelet chef Miguel Villamar estimated that 100 to 120 students order omelets every day, totaling 700 to 840 omelet orders each week. Of these, 120 students filled out a survey about their order. The survey was conducted from Saturday, April 22 to Friday, April 28 in the Yeh/NCW dining hall with the cooperation of dining staff.

The survey revealed higher use of the omelet station by athletes, and that there exists a small group of students that consistently get an omelet in the morning and builds their relationship with the staff.

The respondents were primarily first-years and sophomores, at almost 90 percent. First-years and sophomores are required to be on the unlimited meal plan, which gives daily access to all the dining halls on campus, and thus the omelet stations in them.

Over 57 percent of all orders contained either mozzarella or cheddar, and 42 percent contained either ham or sausage. Female respondents’ orders contained cheese more often. 51 percent of male respondents and 63 percent of female respondents ordered omelets containing at least one type of cheese.

However, male respondents ordered more meat, with 48 percent of orders containing meat, compared to 31 percent of female-identifying respondents’ orders.

“I get an omelet with ham, tomato, and cheese,” Patrick Grate ’26 said. “The cheese blends so well with the roasted ham.”

Grate orders an omelet “every morning, if I can. It’s something I look forward to.”

Grate is clearly not alone in his frequency of ordering. 24 percent of respondents order omelets over five times a week.

86 percent of respondents order omelets at least weekly and 58 percent order more than three times per week. Male respondents order more frequently than female respondents, with 69 percent of male respondents ordering more than three times per week compared to 46 percent of female respondents.

“Every day I’m here,” Zev Schuman ’25 said. “Probably four times a week.”

According to the University, about 18 percent of students participate in varsity sports. 37 percent of respondents to our survey listed themselves as athletes. Non-athletes also ordered more vegetables than athletes. 4.4 percent of athletes’ orders contained broccoli compared to about 16 percent of non-athlete

orders, but athletes’ orders contained 2.5 times the percentage of kale compared to non-athletes.

Many sports hold early morning practices, and given its close proximity to Jadwin Gym and other athletic facilities, many athletes dine at Yeh/NCW dining hall for breakfast. Over 75 percent of athlete respondents order omelets more than three times per week, compared to slightly under 50 percent of non-athletes. However, a similar percentage of athletes and non-athletes order omelets five or more times a week, at about 24 percent each.

“I just came from practice which is near Jadwin, so [Yeh/NCW] is the closest dining hall,” women’s softball team member Allison Ha ’25 said.

Ha is a staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’

Athletes order more often and order higher quantities of eggs each time. 16 percent of athlete orders were for five or more eggs, compared to six percent of non-athlete orders. A higher proportion of non-athletes, 14 percent, specified egg whites only, compared to 5 percent of athletes.

While similar percentages of firstyears and sophomores order omelets, 53 percent of fried egg orders are from the Class of 2025, compared to 33 percent from the Class of 2026. Scrambled eggs are available daily on the buffet, but students can request they be made for them at the omelet station, and can thus add fillings. “[I order] two eggs scrambled with bacon and ham, usually,” Ha said. “But here, they don’t have bacon so I just get ham. I like having the meat in it.”

MALIA GAVIOLA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Residential dining halls are open on weekdays from 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. for breakfast and from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for brunch on weekends. The majority of brunch omelet orders occurred between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., while the breakfast orders were more evenly distributed, highest between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. The Yeh/NCW dining hall omelet station has a sign by the line informing students that it closes at 10:30 a.m. daily, 30 minutes before the dining hall closes for breakfast.

“Miguel makes some famous worldclass omelets,” Grate said. “I get an omelet with ham, tomato, and cheese …

Everything within one egg omelet. It’s beautiful. When you become a frequenter of the omelet station here at NCW, you kind of get to know the personal styles of each cook. I personally like Miguel’s

style a lot, and I prefer getting my omelets from Miguel, but also no staff has made an omelet I haven’t enjoyed.”

While waiting in line to order omelets, many students, especially omelet station regulars, talk with Miguel Villamar, the omelet chef who is there five days a week, and who cooked 95 percent of respondents’ eggs.

“Why do I like to make omelets? Because I get paid for it!” Villamar joked.

“I like to talk to people. I like to talk to people a lot. I like to see everybody. I like to greet. I wanna make you smile in the morning. That’s why.”

Andrew Bosworth is a staff Data writer for the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian DATA | JANUARY 2023

page 11

When’s the best time to leave Princeton for NYC or Philly? We broke it down.

By Ryan Konarska

Associate Data Editor

Thousands of students use rail transportation every semester to commute into New York City and Philadelphia for internships, nightlife, and other events. While the University advertises that these major metropolitan hubs are “easily accessible” by train, an analysis of schedules reveals that commuting times can vary significantly depending on the day of the week and time of day.

Princeton’s connection to the outside world comes in the form of rail transportation provided by New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit). According to NJ Transit’s Princeton Transitway Study, the Dinky had approximately 500 weekly riders connecting Princeton’s campus and the Princeton Junction station in the 2020 fiscal year. Through the Dinky, commuter rail trains to New York City, and connecting trains to Philadelphia provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), University community members have over 600 weekly options to and from the two metro areas within a two-hour commute.

While on the weekdays, the average commuting time to New York City is faster than that of Philadelphia, on the weekends, the average train time to Philadelphia is faster. On the weekdays, the longer commute to Philadelphia can be explained by a longer transfer time at the Trenton station. For savvy travelers, there are ways to minimize to choose an itinerary with a shorter transit time, whether through less time spent waiting at Princeton Junction or Trenton or by taking an express train with fewer stops.

To determine the fastest trains to and from New York and Philadelphia, The Daily Princetonian analyzed the schedules provided by both NJ Transit and SEPTA. We matched each Dinky to a connecting NJ Transit train to New York Penn Station. Similarly, we matched each Dinky to a pair of NJ Transit and SEPTA trains to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. We then performed the same analysis in reverse for return trips and differentiated between weekday and weekend schedules.

On weekdays, the fastest train to New York is the 8:09 a.m. departure from Princeton Station and the 8:20 a.m. departure from Princeton Junction, scheduled to arrive at Penn Station at 9:16 a.m. for a total travel time of 1 hour and 7 minutes.

On weekdays, the average trip time between Princeton and New York is 1 hour and 25 minutes, while the average return time is 1 hour and 24 minutes. The fastest return trip from New York on weekdays is the 5:03 p.m. departure from Penn Station and its connecting 6:00 p.m.

Dinky, arriving at Princeton Station at 6:05 p.m. for a total travel time of 1 hour and 2 minutes.

The connecting train to New York from the 8:09 a.m. Dinky makes no intermediate stops between Princeton Junction and Newark Penn Station. Genevieve Cox ’25 takes this route on her semi-weekly commute and mentioned her satisfaction with the train pair, remarking how “it is also rarely late and more frequently arrives earlier to Newark Penn than scheduled.”

Trips to Philadelphia generally take longer than those to New York, due to the connection to SEPTA in Trenton. On weekdays, the average trip to Philadelphia from Princ-

eton takes 1 hour and 44 minutes, 17 minutes longer than the average trip to New York. The fastest trip to Philadelphia departs from Princeton Station at 9:24 a.m. and arrives at 30th Street Station at 10:47 a.m. for a total travel time of 1 hour and 23 minutes. Travellers that start their journey at 4:53 a.m., however can expect to spend 2 hours and 24 minutes in transit, making it the analyzed route with the most variation. On the way back to campus, the fastest trip from Philadelphia takes 1 hour and 21 minutes, departing from 30th Street Station at 9:44 a.m. and arriving at Princeton Station at 11:05 a.m. The average return trip on weekdays takes 1 hour and 46 minutes.

The situation is reversed on weekends, with trips to Philadelphia taking 1 hour and 29 minutes on average, two minutes less than the average trip to New York. This change is a recent development brought about by new train schedules; previous NJ Transit timetables had layovers of nearly an hour in Trenton, which have since been reduced to just five minutes.

The quickest trip to Philadelphia on weekends is the 8:24 p.m. departure from Princeton Station, taking 1 hour and 17 minutes to travel to Philadelphia’s 30th Street station, while the fastest train to New York on weekends is the 3:25 p.m. Dinky, arriving at Penn Station 1 hour and 21 minutes later at 4:46 p.m. However, weekend return trips from Philadelphia — all of which clock in between 1 hour and 57 minutes and 1 hour and 59 minutes — take much longer than those from New York, which average 1 hour and 23 minutes.

As the Dinky stops running before the end of NJ Transit service on the main Northeast Corridor line, many students seeking to leave New York or Philadelphia late at night may find themselves stranded at Princeton Junction with no Dinky available to take them back to campus. Beyond identifying the fastest trips to New York and Philadelphia, the ‘Prince’ also gathered data on the last trains to leave these cities that have a matching Dinky connection.

After a late night in New York City, Nick Masters ’25 arrived at Princeton Junction around 3 a.m. and walked back to campus via the Dinky tracks.

“My phone was dead so I decided to take the route I knew would 100 [percent] get me back on campus,” Masters said. “Not a horrible experience, but not one I recommend for the easily spooked.”

On weekday evenings, the final train to depart from New York Penn Station with connecting Dinky service is the 12:14 a.m. departure, connecting with the 1:37 a.m. Dinky. On weekends, plan to leave earlier; the 11:14 p.m. departure is the final train out of New York that connects to a Dinky — in this case, the 12:35 a.m. departure from Princeton Junction.

When visiting Philadelphia, plan to depart from 30th Street Station by 11:44 p.m. on weekdays and as early as 9:42 p.m. on the weekends to avoid being left at the Junction.

The simple, five-minute Dinky shuttle connects Princeton with a web of trains to New York, Philadelphia, and beyond. Analyzing the schedules can help riders choose itineraries that get them to their destinations faster — and avoid being stranded at Princeton Junction.

Ryan Konarska is an associate Data editor for the ‘Prince.’

page page 12 12

The Daily Daily Princetonian Princetonian The

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.” Academic mediocrity, n. The subject of a 2022 quote by Eisgruber on mental health. Divisive topic on campus.

Acaprez, n. Name of the group that represents Princeton’s 8 most prestigious acapella groups.

You can only hold membership in one group — they host auditions together. There are acapella groups on campus that are not recognized by acaprez. Yes, there is a heirarchy within acapella scene... welcome to the Ivy League.

Adviser, n. 1. Faculty member assigned to first-years 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 trustee-sponsored attempt to reduce alcohol consumption by throwing huge sums of money at undergraduates for alternative activities.

Alexander Beach, n. Princeton’s version of a beach. Lacks sand and water but is filled with lots of bodies in bathing suits on sunny spring days. Located in front of Alexander Hall on the northern end of campus. See “Poe Field.”

All-nighter, n. Grim, dusk-to-dawn studying or writing marathon in which sleep is postponed indefinitely. Often procrastination-induced and caffeine-fueled. 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, they sure do 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

Baker Rink, n. Ice rink located down-campus where the hockey teams practice. The USG sometimes holds free Skate Nights where you can take dates.

Band, n. The University scramble band. Football halftime shows are occasionally funny and always tasteless. Often uses unconventional instruments, such as a plastic Santa Claus 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.

Beirut, n. 1. A popular drinking game in which players attempt to toss a ping-pong ball into an array of Solo cups. Losers may be “forced” to engage in a naked lap. Does not usually involve paddles, because this isn’t Dartmouth. A main-

stay of the eating club taproom. Syn: “pong.” 2.

The capital of Lebanon. See “boot.”

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,” “double Bicker.”

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.”

Blair Tower, n. Former home of despised sophomores who lucked out during residential college room draw and got amazing rooms with amazing views. Now used as classrooms and housing for resident graduate students and a few faculty members in residence.

Bomb, v. To do miserably on an exam. Translates to a range between A-minus to actually failing. See “Orgo,” “grade deflation.”

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

Breakout Trips, n. A collection of civic engagement trips planned and led by students and funded by the Pace Center for Civic Engagement.

Participants are selected by application (and you thought your application days were over — you’re in for a rude awakening). Trips take place over fall and spring breaks. Past trips have examined arts in Philadelphia, school technology in Boston, immigration in Arizona, farming in Florida, and other social issues.

Bric-a-Brac, n. Princeton’s all-class yearbook.

Make sure you show up on time for picture day and get all your friends to sign HAGS at the end of a school year! Don’t. High school is over. See “Nassau Herald.”

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

Business Today, n. Glossy campus business affairs magazine with large alumni coffers where ex-Future Business Leaders of America gather to talk Goldman. See “i-banking,” “consulting.”

Butler College, n. Residential college with the newest buildings prior, of course, to the construction of New College West and Yeh College.

Located what used to be far down-campus and now is the center of campus.

C

Cafe Vivian, n. A once swanky, but now mostly closed food joint on the first floor of Frist Campus Center. A food pickup spot during Ramadan.

Campus Club, n. Defunct eating club pur-

chased by the University to hold events. Home to Coffee Club. See “Alcohol Initiative,” “Coffee Club.”

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. Software to check your coursework. Princeton’s very late step into the modern world of college education. Successor of Blackboard Cap & Gown Club, n. Consistently the most bickered club, Cap has a self-proclaimed reputation for being “chill and diverse” and hosts many athletes from track and field. Some of its classic night out themes include Capmandu and Boxers and Blazers.

Carl A. Fields Center, n. Properly called the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding, but colloquially known as CAF. A building located on Prospect Avenue that hosts events and programming aimed at celebrating diversity.

Carnegie, Lake, n. Five minutes from campus, five miles long. Scenic venue for crew but too slimy for swimming. Gift of Andrew Carnegie so that Princeton could have a crew team, after then-University President Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, asked him for money for University construction. Wilson’s reported comment: “We asked for bread, and he gave us cake.”

Carrel, n. Like the all-male student body and the old pub in Chancellor Green, carrels are the newest addition to the ghosts of Princeton past.

For better or for worse, you will never know the four-by-six-by-eight-foot metal study closets in Firestone Library where seniors locked themselves around February to emerge in April with 30,000-word theses. Don’t worry, you’ll get study spaces that aren’t fire hazards. See “thesis.”

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. The traditional Princeton term for minors. The faculty approved the creation of actual minors last year, so for now we have a weird combination of both certificated and minors. Your certificate or minor area of study must be addressed in some capacity in your thesis. Too many people take Statistics and Machine Learning (SML). See “thesis.”

Chapel, n. Site of religious services and opening exercises at the start of every year until the class sizes got too large. Third-largest university chapel in the world. Contrary to Orange Key legend, it wasn’t built by a Yalie.

Chancellor Green, n. Gorgeous library attached to East Pyne featuring stained-glass windows and amazingly comfortable couches. Naps happen here.

Charter Club, n. Club located extremely far down Prospect Avenue, near the E-Quad. After a rebrand, one of the most coveted club on the street with lots of competition for selective signin spots. Site of Friday debauchery.

CJL, abbrev. Center for Jewish Life. Self-explanatory building on Washington Road. Popular lunch spot regardless of religious affiliation due to its central location.

Clapper, n. Part of the Nassau Hall bell that the incoming class tried to steal each year. The logic behind the age-old tradition is that if the clapper is stolen, the bell signifying the start of classes won’t ring, so classes can’t be held. After Geoffrey MacArthur ’95 fell from the tower in 1992, the administration decided to remove the clapper permanently.

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. Cluster, n. Where a whole bunch of computers congregate. Features printers which are often jammed, toner-less, or otherwise malfunctioning; staplers that are often broken or empty; and people scowling at the movies they have to watch for class. Scattered throughout campus.

Coffee Club, n. Student-run coffee shop in the taproom of Campus Club and the lobby of New College West. Cheaper alternative to coffee shops on Nassau Street.

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

Committee on Discipline, n. The University body responsible for investigating academic integrity and other disciplinary offenses.

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.

See “McCosh.”

C-Store, n. A godsend with everything from nail clippers to bulk candy, found on the first floor of Frist.

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.

Also known as the ‘Prince.’

Dinky Bar, n. Where seniors and graduate students who are too mature for the Street go for expensive cocktails.

D-Bar, abbrev. Debasement Bar. Sole hangout for graduate students, located in the basement of the Graduate College. According to reports, highly awkward. See “Grad College,” “graduate student.”

Dead Week, n. Week between the end of finals and graduation, when seniors and students employed for Reunions hang out and try to do as little as possible. This can take the form of group vacations to the beach. See “Reunions.”

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.”

Dei Sub Numine Viget, phrase. Latin motto

The Daily Princetonian on Princeton’s seal. Translation: “Under God’s Power She Flourishes.” Unofficial version: “God Went to Princeton.”

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.” Double Bicker, n. Initiative begun somewhat recently in which bicker clubs allow sophomores to bicker two clubs at once. See “Bicker.”

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

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

East Pyne, n. Pretty building up-campus near Firestone Library that houses language departments, the department of comparative literature, and the department of classics.

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 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. Wellrespected 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.

Entryway, n. Self-contained section of a dorm or classroom building. Most frequently found in older buildings, which were built to be riot-proof.

Only way to get from one entry to another is to go outside and back in again or go through the basement or up to the top floor. Partly because of this system, you may never meet the person who lives on the other side of your bedroom wall.

E-reserves, n. Catalogues of off-centered scans of many required readings. Thank your professors when they offer these in place of Pequod packets. Bow down to professors who are able to photocopy readings not upside down.

Curse all professors as you wait for 300 pages of readings to print. See “Pequod.”

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. A prime road-trip week. See “Breakout Trips.”

Fine Hall, n. The name of that extremely ugly brown building rising high above the earth down-campus behind Lewis Library. Contains the math department.

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. Once Princeton’s oldest residential college. Now primarily a shallow hole in the ground. On the site of the future Hobson College.

FitzRandolph Gate, n. Gate in front of Nas-

sau 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.

Fizz, n. A social media app popular with campus youngsters which has replaced TigerConfessions as the hub of campus gossip.

Forbes brunch, n. The concession Princeton had to make to Forbesians to ensure they wouldn’t drop out. In exchange for living in The Land Far Far Away, 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 non-Forbesians on weekends due to its fancy brunch spreads. See “Forbes brunch.”

Franzia, n. Brand of boxed (read: dirt cheap and sickeningly sweet) wine. Goes down easy, comes back up more painfully. See “boot,” “Tower Club.”

Frist, n. The campus center. Home of the student government, mailboxes, and chicken tenders. 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.”

Fraternities, n. pl. First-years, avert your eyes.

Groups of males that gather to drink and make lots of grunting noises. First-years 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.

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. In recent years, actual Frosh have been banned. You can thank the Class of 2022 (and the pandemic, if you’ve heard of it). 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 inclusion.

G

Garden Theatre, Princeton, n. Community theater. Shows mostly artsy films as well as a few big-budget flicks. Good first date. Occasionally offers free movies for students sponsored

by USG. Graduate College, the. n. Commonly called the “Grad College.” A mythical castle across the golf course behind Forbes rumored to be inhabited by those they call “graduate students.” Undergrads like to climb its tower to take pictures of the view and eat in its dining hall on Thursday nights, when dinner features specialty food stations with made-to-order sesame noodles, quesadillas, etc. See “D-bar.”

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.

GSRC, abbrev. Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. Name is self-explanatory. Located in Frist. Replaced centers formerly known as the Women*s Center and LGBT Center.

H

HA, abbrev. Historical Analysis. Distribution requirement that can be fulfilled by, you guessed it, a history class.

Head, n. Faculty member who acts as den mother or father for the first-years and sophomores in the residential colleges.

Hoagie Haven, n. A Princeton institution, best known for catering to the late night wishes of drunken eating club go-ers. Now with earlier closing times, the small hoagie shop on Nassau Street still serves up sandwiches filled with things like french fries, chicken tenders, multiple burger patties, and buffalo sauce, often in combination. Tied with Wawa for the most dangerous of drunk-food 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.”

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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. See “Committee on Discipline.”

Hookup culture, n. A semi-significant feature of the social scene which is the topic of significant online debate.

Hose, v. To render helpless. Most often done to rejected Bicker prospects, who are hosed at their doorstep. Fraternities, sororities, and a cappella groups 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. Similar to consulting in its level of money and level of pointlessness.

ICC, abbrev. Interclub Council. Group made up of the 11 eating club presidents. Coordinates relations between Prospect Avenue, 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.

Ivy Inn, n. The one and only “bar” in Princeton. Right near Hoagie Haven. Definitely “end of the night” vibes.

J

Jadwin Gymnasium, n. Gym for varsity athletes and sports located far, far down-campus, informally called “Jadwin.” Site of varsity basketball games. Not Jadwin Hall.

Jadwin Hall, n. An academic building south of Fine Hall that contains the physics department. Not Jadwin Gymnasium.

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.

K

Keller Center, n. Center located near the Equad that sponsors events, classes, and programming related to entrepreneurship and innovation. Stop by before you drop out to work on your start-up full-time.

Kiddie lit, nickname, ENG 385: Children’s Literature. 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. 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 See “Frist.”

Lawnparties, n. Afternoon drink-a-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. Traditionally, an explosion of preppy clothing.

LCA, abbrev. Lewis Center for the Arts. Beau-

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The Daily Princetonian

tiful, 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.

Lewis Library, n. Large, modern science library located down-campus across Washington Road. Its treehouse floor is an especially popular study spot featuring many windows.

List, n. Method that bicker clubs use to determine who can enter for a night out. What firstyears 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.

Lot 32, n. Parking lot located just outside of campus, far down Elm Road, where your upperclass friends’ cars are located.

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 Hall, n. A large, sprawling series of lecture halls up-campus in which many of your introductory-level large lecture classes will be held. Also features smaller seminar rooms mainly used by the English and History departments. Desks are small, cramped, and wooden; bathrooms are difficult to find. Site of the infamous bat incident, where a bat caused an interruption so large that an Econ lecture ended early.

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 too-drunk 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.”

McCosh Walk, n. Walkway extending from University Place on the west to Washington Road on the east. If there weren’t hills, you’d be able to see clear from one end of campus to the other.

Features many puddles. Stop by around 4:55 p.m. on Dean’s Date to watch your friends sprint.

McGraw, abbrev. McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Academic support center that offers one-on-one and group tutoring for many introductory courses, as well as other resources for students. Located in Frist. Also a good study spot.

Murray Dodge, n. Free cookies and tea but be prepared to hand over your prox as collateral.

Also don’t forget to wash your own mugs once you’re done. Try the matcha tea cookies if you dare. This place is an extremely popular study spot, so go at off-peak times if you want to get a seat.

N

NARP, n. Non-athletic regular person. We are here and we are proud.

Nassau Herald, n. Princeton yearbook containing only the senior photos. To get all the other stuff you associate with yearbooks, you have to shell out some extra cash for the Bric-aBrac. See “Bric-a-Brac.”

Nassau Weekly, n. Also “the Nass.” A weekly tabloid co-founded in the early 80s by a dude who now runs The New Yorker. Known for humorous “Verbatim” section, which is filled with random overheard quotes from around campus, and for printing other random musings. See “WPRB,” “St.A’s.” netID, n. The part of your email address preceding “@princeton.edu” and your username for most campus websites.

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

NCW, abbrev. New College West. One of Princeton’s newest pair of residential colleges.

Located at the far-southern end of campus. Not yet named for a donor. Has a Coffee Club and a ceramics studio. See “Yeh College.”

Nude Olympics, n. Sophomore rite of passage banned in 1999 as part of an effort to reduce drunken revelry. Celebrated by running naked through Holder Courtyard at midnight on the night of each year’s first snowfall.

O

OA, abbrev. Outdoor Action. Week-long preorientation 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.

OIT, abbrev. Office of Information Technology. Controls the University’s computer and Internet systems. Runs a tech clinic in Frist.

Old Nassau, 1. phrase. Nickname for Princeton University, derived from Nassau Hall. 2. n.

School song.

Orange Key, n. Campus tour-guiding group.

Don’t believe everything they told you on your tour.

Orange and Black Ball, n. Campus-wide ball resurrected after a decades-long absence. Lots of finger food. Similar to prom.

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.

Pace Center, n. Civic engagement powerhouse on campus that encompasses Community House and the Student Volunteers Council.

Sponsors Breakout trips during school breaks and distributes large amounts of money for service projects. See “Breakout trips.”

Palmer Square, n. Town square located just across Nassau Street from the University. Home to preppy stores, specialty boutiques, and town-

ies.

Patton, Susan, n. An alumna of the Class of 1977 who wrote an infamous Letter to the Editor to this paper discussing advice she would give to her daughter, namely her belief that Princetonian women should “find a husband on campus before [they] graduate.” Draw your own conclusions.

PAW, abbrev. Princeton Alumni Weekly. The nation’s fourth-oldest weekly magazine, published by the Alumni Association far less than weekly.

Pay with Points, n. A very new USG initiative that gives underclassmen $150 a semester to spend at an ever-growing list of restaurants in town. Frequently (and deeply incorrectly) referred to as Paw Points.

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. 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.” Pickups, n. pl. Nights on which Princeton’s many, many selective clubs and organizations greet new members by showering them with champagne, Silly String, etc. in their dorm rooms and then taking them elsewhere for revelry. See “Bicker.”

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.

Poe Field, n. Large oval field at the far south-

The Daily Princetonian ern end of campus where club and intramural sports teams hold practices, sunbathing frequently occurs, and barbecues are sometimes held. See “Alexander Beach.” Soon to be shut down for construction and closed until 2026.

Power hour, n. Ritual in which a shot of beer is downed every minute for an hour. Use of hard alcohol not advised. See “boot.”

P-Rade, n. Annual procession of ridiculously spirited, multi-generational alumni sporting black-and-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.

Prefrosh, n. What you are until you arrive on campus.

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, irrespective of the actual date. Typically the Thursday before Fall Break.

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.

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. 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.

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 signin 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.” 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. See “Tiger Confessions.”

Residential college, n. Your home at Princeton for at least your first two years of college.

There are now seven residential colleges on campus: Rocky, Mathey, Butler, First, Whitman, Forbes, Yeh, and New College West. 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. Well-meaning 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 consumption, after only the Indy 500.

See “P-Rade.”

Richardson Auditorium, n. Enormous performance hall located up-campus across from Blair Arch.

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

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.

Route 1, n. A large, divided road about a fiveminute drive from campus along which realworld institutions like movie theaters, malls, Walmarts, discount liquor stores, and chain restaurants can be found. Proof that you are, in fact, in New Jersey.

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.

Also has convoluted variants. See “Charter.”

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

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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. Beware of skateboarders.

Stars for Stoners, nickname. AST 203: The Universe. Purported to actually be a somewhat difficult class involving actual equations. See “P/D/F.” St. A’s, n. “Secret” literary society with unclear purpose and unknown meaning. See “Ivy Club,” “the Nass.”

Street, the, nickname. Prospect Avenue, home of the eating clubs and center of University nightlife.

Studio 34, n. Late-night convenience store in the basement of Butler College known for its French bread pizzas.

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 stoners. Popular end-of-night stop for all of campus. The only eating club not actually located on Prospect Avenue.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. Not always operational. For an alternative, 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.

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

Triangle Club, n. Undergraduate musical theater group that writes and stages an annual extravaganza of song, slapstick and dance. Famous for the drag kickline and alumnus Jimmy

Stewart ’32.

Twenty-One (21) Club, n. Secret drinking organization founded in 1881, composed of 42 male juniors and seniors who consume 21 beers in 42 minutes at an annual contest. Members are culled from bicker clubs, fraternities, and sports teams.

U

USG, abrrev. n. Undergraduate Student Government. A group of aspiring politicians who are responsible for the multiple free orange t-shirts shoved into the back of your dresser.”

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.

V W

Wa, The, n. Campus colloquialism for the Wawa convenience store. Located between the Dinky and Forbes. Popular late night meal spot, but prepare to wait an egregious amount of time on nights out.

Whig-Clio, abbrev. The American WhigCliosophic Society. Centuries-old debate society that hosts such topical events as the Annual Latke versus Hamantaschen Debate.

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.

WPRB, n. Student-run, community-supported independent radio station located in the basement of Bloomberg Hall. See “Terrace Club.”

Writing Center, n. Singlehandedly responsible for helping first-years survive writing sem.

Offers individual appointments to help at any point in the writing process.

X Y Z

Yeh College, n. One of Princeton’s newest pair of residential colleges. Located on the farsouthern end of campus. Hybrid Dr. Seuss-Soviet architecture.

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.

page 16

The Daily Princetonian

The Daily Princetonian

page 17

In Photos: How Construction Has Changed Campus

By Guanyi Cao & Natalia Maidique

Senior Photographer & Photographer Emeritus

Additional photos courtesy of Mark Dodici ‘22, Candace Do, and Abby de Riel ‘22

Over the summer, construction sites descended all over Princeton’s campus. For many students, the presence of construction can be felt at all hours of the day. While these projects work towards improving our future campus, presently they prevent students from experiencing the full beauty of our school. For those reminiscing of campus before the massive mounds of dirt and rumbling construction vehicles, we have compiled before vs. after photos of various landmarks on campus.

Butler Complex Walk

Before

After

Walk Outside Frist Campus Center

Before

After

Butler College

Before

After

Schultz Laboratory and Thomas Laboratory

Before

After

Hum r

page 18

FEBRUARY 2023

University responds to postdocs’ protest, raises minimum salary by 7,000 Paw Points

By Sophia Varughese

Associate Humor Editor

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

Following an announcement by the University that the minimum salary for postdoctoral researchers has been raised to $65,000, a group of these individuals petitioned the administration, calling for a further increase in the minimum salary to help cover the cost of living and raising families in Princeton.

In a recent press release, a University spokesperson responded enthusias-

tically, “We heard your concerns, and we listened. Boy oh boy, did we listen!

Not only did we increase the minimum salary by 3,500 Paw Points like you asked — we doubled your request.

It’s just our way of showing our appreciation for the postdoc community.”

When the Daily PrintsAnything asked why this raise wasn’t in dollars, the spokesperson said, “Oh? As an administration, we collectively heard them say ‘Paw Points.’ And, if I might add, I much prefer Paw Points to dollars. The exchange rate is actually favoring them right now, you know.”

Reactions to this increase among postdocs have been overwhelmingly negative, with one postdoc, Rhea

Sercher, explaining, “I just had my second kid. Now, instead of being able to buy formula, I can either feed a Junbi matcha latte or Thomas Sweet melted vanilla ice cream to my infant child. Great.”

Postdoc Imhel LaBroke stated, “We didn’t write a whole petition just to be able to eat at Proof Pizza every f***ing night for the next year. I need actual money to pay my rent, not motherf***ing Paw Points.”

After being informed that they were probably thinking about the University’s Pay with Points program, which has a currency of Dining Points, Sercher and LaBroke responded with confusion.

“Wait, so what on earth are Paw Points then?” Sercher asked.

The two postdocs had no comment after learning that Paw Points have no value outside of a few on-campus locations and are primarily useful for replenishing your pencil supply at the U-Store.

Responding to this backlash, Vice President of Dining Services Sal Adbar stated, “My 401K is in Paw Points, per University regulations. I don’t understand the issue.”

Sophia Varughese is an associate Humor editor. She says hi to the Yeh dining hall staff everyday so she can convince herself she’s a good person.

DECEMEBER 2022

Hobson College designed ugly enough to dissuade photo shoots

By Vitus Larrieu Humor writer emeritus

The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional.

Recently, fences surrounding the Hobson College construction were updated to show the vision for the project, eliciting concern from the University community.

Upon the destruction of First College, which was praised by students (and cockroaches) for its comfortable accommodations and breathtaking design, the architects of Hobson Col-

lege were left with the difficult task of topping perfection. However, when planning the new residential buildings, lead designer Shaw DeFreuden decided to go in a different direction.

“When it boils down to it, I guess my main goal is to make people as sad as humanly possible,” said DeFreuden in an interview with The Daily PrintsAnything. “My only direction from the University was to reduce the number of photographers in the area by any means necessary.”

Student reviews were mixed, with some praising the imaginative design, while others could barely voice their disgust for it.

Architecture student Archie Teck ’23 said, “The contrast between the gothic style of Patton Hall and the neo-brutalist style of Hobson speaks profoundly about the division we see in the world today. It truly speaks to the modern age.”

“Oh god it is so, so ugly,” said Frankie Loidwright ’25. “I want to say something about how it adds a refreshing breath of modernism to the center of campus, but really, it just makes me want to barf.”

Photographers in the Princeton community are lamenting the building plans. Huss Teller, a photographer of weddings, quinceaneras, anniversa-

ries, dates, divorces, baptisms, school dances, and proposals, said he worried that the finished project would “shock and terrify my clients. I might even have to bring them back to the studio with the backdrop. Please don’t make me go back! I can’t go back!”

Vitus Larrieu is a Humor writer emeritus and assistant Podcast editor who has been trapped in his dorm by photographers on at least three occasions. He can be reached at vl7131@princeton.edu.

VITUS LARRIEU / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The inspiration for the new residential college design was “something so fugly tourists will never want to visit.”

The Daily Princetonian

page 19

Early Riser

By Elizabeth Medina | Senior Cartoonist

The Minis

By Simon Marotte|Head Puzzles Editor

ACROSS

ACROSS

ACROSS

1 It comes before "@ princeton.edu" 6 Greeted the day 7 Trite 8 Airplane assignment 9 First-year study break host, often

1 Princeton ID, slangily 5 Blah 6 Crème de la crème 7 Summer suit material 8 It may be "revolving" or "sliding"

DOWN

DOWN

DOWN

1 ___ talk 2 South Asian garment 3 Yoga class posture 4 Made a meal of 5 Princeton alum and Supreme Court Justice Kagan

1 Catch 2 The ___ Tour (2023 Taylor Swift concert series) 3 Skin-care application 4 Asimov or Newton 5 Airline whose main hub is in Atlanta

1 Campus cops 6 Painter's stand 7 Annual campus procession 8 Informed of 9 Actress de Armas

1 Salk vaccine target 2 Animal whose full name means "nose horn" 3 ___ space 4 Mutant superhero group 5 Possessed

page 20 NOVEMBER 2022

Opinion

Fall 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Eisgruber won’t sacrifice academic rigor for mental health. Students aren’t getting either.

Rohit Narayanan

Community Opinion Editor Emeritus

I

think high aspiration environments are consistent with mental health,” University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 told The Daily Princetonian last week. “I don’t see any evidence that academic laxness or academic mediocrity would somehow be better from the standpoint of mental health.” This seems like a major gaffe by a university president. But the truth is, Eisgruber stands by every word in that sentence. It’s a philosophy he’s articulated many times.

Eisgruber has a vision for Princeton, which he once described as an “intense [place] where researchers and students are colliding with other people of talent and passion and imagination.” To him, that includes extremely difficult academics. How could an opt-in paradise be inconsistent with mental health, he might wonder? Eisgruber seems to feel the term “mental health” is being abused because students just want less work.

But what he doesn’t recognize is the real driving force behind the mental health crisis — a culture of competition rather than growth, which is the very problem getting between him and his utopia.

What makes academic rigor so important to Eisgruber? We have to remember his history. Eisgruber was a physics major at Princeton before he discovered a passion for constitutional law after taking a sophomore year class. Eisgruber’s entire life was built on his choice to take that class,

from clerking at the Supreme Court to having his dream job: being yelled at 24/7 as Princeton’s president. Is it any wonder he considers academically rigorous classes to be the highest manifestation of Princeton’s greatness?

If Eisgruber views tough classes as simply opportunities to master new subjects and find your life path, then of course he doesn’t blame academics for the mental health crisis. After all, Eisgruber may think, Princeton students are relatively secure in terms of future prospects, at least compared to most people our age, and so they should make use of the opportunity to try lots of things, without facing very many consequences. The real threat to the mental health of a Princeton student is the possibility of “academic mediocrity.” How much worse would Eisgruber’s life be if he didn’t master the hard class that put him on the path to being the victim of constant mockery as Princeton’s president? So, Eisgruber says, high aspiration environments are “helpful to mental health.”

The problem with this logic isn’t that Princeton students don’t sympathize with the fear of academic mediocrity. It’s that we feel it deeply.

Academic mediocrity has two meanings. To Eisgruber, it just means not reaching your individual potential out of laziness — something we can avoid. But once we place academic mediocrity as the enemy, it takes on its second meaning for students: not keeping up with everyone around you. And at a school specifically optimized to pit us against the most competitive people there are, not keeping

up turns into a constant fear. When we pin our sense of self on avoiding academic mediocrity, that sense of self can easily go away when we inevitably fail.

Is a school where the classes are hard harmful to mental health? Not necessarily. Is a school where students are eager to take hard classes harmful to mental health? Again, not necessarily. But is a school where classes are hard and students seek to do as much as possible to compete with other students harmful to mental health? Yes, of course. And Princeton clearly falls in that third camp.

The problem isn’t the high aspirations per se — it’s the high aspiration environment.

Why is Princeton internally competitive? The better question is, how can it not be? Princeton’s admissions process is optimized to select very competitive students — in other words, students who are not particularly used to failure. No one here feels secure because it’s an uncomfortable feeling: no matter how rosy the future looks, we always strive for more, and we see everyone around us doing the same. The default for an elite school is to be competitive; it would take tangible effort to make it a space of low-stress exploration and engagement. And here at Princeton, we’ve done nothing to build that dream.

Maybe some amount of pressure is necessary to push students to work hard on academics, Eisgruber may argue, which is how they will grow into the deeply scarred University president they could be. But in reality, students adapt to the pressure by not exploring deeply: they choose

the easiest distribution requirements and cram for exams rather than actually engaging with the content. Classes that can help us grow when we take them to improve ourselves can instead hurt us deeply when we overload to get a competitive advantage.

In so many ways, a hypercompetitive atmosphere optimizes this school for exactly what Eisgruber says he doesn’t want Princeton to be.

If Princeton students are all going to be granted high-paying, low-valueto-society jobs at McKinsey or Goldman or Meta, then by all means, they should work hard and suffer a little at Princeton to do some penance for the advantages they are about to reap.

But Eisgruber has consistently said he wants Princeton to be better than that: he wants students to consider what they can do for the world. In order to get there, students have to have the time to take advantage of the resources around them — which means they have to be dissuaded from constantly trying to prove their academic prowess by overloading on courses. Students have to remain confident in their own abilities even as the people around them constantly surpass them in various ways; they have to strive toward their own vision of success, not suffer through an epidemic of deteriorating mental health.

We’re talking about a cultural problem — something that the administration clearly doesn’t know how to fix or even conceptualize.

Throughout his interview, Eisgruber relied on construction to demonstrate the actions he was taking in different fields. Need to prioritize STEM knowledge? Rebuild an engi-

neering school! Worried the humanities are being left behind? Build a new humanities complex! This isn’t Minecraft, Eisgruber. Not every problem can be solved with a new building.

Until the administration finds a way to wean Princeton students off highstress, competitive academics and toward more thoughtful exploration and reflection, Eisgruber’s vision will remain a contradiction.

Somewhere at Princeton, there’s a student with their cursor hovering over the button to enroll in the class that will change their life. If they take that class, they’ll change their major, go on to reach great academic heights, make some earth-shaking discovery, and then finally be rewarded with the job of president of Princeton and happily spend the rest of their days trying to fit in work between student sit-ins in their office. But then the student looks at the number of pages of reading, remembers the last time they took on a hard class, and then had to suffer a low grade. Or they consider that it might look better for their resume to take two more specialized high-level courses. And they don’t enroll. After selecting their courses, the student breathes a sigh of relief. At least they’ve avoided academic mediocrity.

Long before he was the Community Opinion Editor, Rohit Narayanan, a senior from McLean, Va. got a B+ in a seventh grade class and has never recovered psychologically.

His emails at rohitan@princeton.edu are in the midst of an identity crisis, but they really need to stop being such snowflakes. His tweets @Rohit_Narayanan have consistently been described as academically mediocre.

NOVEMBER 2022

Princeton is, and may forever be, a Predominantly White Institution

Mohan Setty-Charity Senior Columnist

T

he University prompted many questions last year when it decided not to release the statistics for the newly-admitted class of 2026.

Instead, it released the statistics for students who matriculated this fall without some of the traditional information about average test scores or the acceptance rate. While not disclosing some indicators regarding selectivity of the University, the information disclosed made one thing clear: The undergraduate population is getting more racially diverse.

With 25 percent of the incoming class identifying as Asian American, nine percent identifying as Black or African American, eight percent identifying as Hispanic or Latino, seven percent identifying as multiracial, and less than one percent identifying as Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, a significant percent of Princeton students are not white. Further, the administration has made welcome commitments to diversity in the student body and in the hiring, retention, and promotion of faculty and staff of color. This begs the question: Does the change in composition of our undergraduate body and some strides in diversifying the faculty

and staff make Princeton any less of a Predominantly White Institution?

A Predominantly White Institution (PWI) is generally defined as a school where white people account for 50 percent or more of the student body. At Princeton, that is no longer the case. However, over the course of the 276 years of the University, the vast majority of student bodies have been composed of white men. The steps towards diversity on campus are a relatively new occurrence. In 1904, Woodrow Wilson said of Princeton that “[t]he whole temper and tradition of the place are such that no negro has ever applied for admission and it seems extremely unlikely that the question will ever assume a practical form.” In a 1940 poll in the Nassau Sovereign, 62.4 percent of the student body opposed allowing Black students to enroll.

While the undergraduate population of the University has been growing more diverse in the last few decades, the campus community is defined by so much more than just the current student population. The composition of Princeton’s faculty, the history of the institution, and the culture of the school contribute to the sense that Princeton not only has been, but most certainly still is a PWI. We are lucky that so many of our professors are tremendously distinguished and well-respected within

their fields and are often excellent classroom teachers, but we must also acknowledge that they hail largely from a similar, privileged background and that — despite recent hiring priorities — the faculty is still predominantly white.

This continues to contribute to a culture in which the definition of excellence often stems from a standard of what has been accepted and valued in white culture. For students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, even when those populations are now a majority of students on campus, that means taking on the obligations and challenges of code-switching and fitting in to appear professional under standards that are hundreds of years old and in which the University is steeped. Though African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) and different ways of presenting oneself are becoming more accepted in certain parts of U.S. culture and even on campus, there is still a long way to go in making progress on these issues.

Being a PWI captures not only the composition of the student body, but also the ethos of the community.

Yet even the racial composition of the student body might soon revert back to the numerical definition of a PWI in the near future due to the current Supreme Court cases regarding race-conscious admissions.

While Princeton continues to grapple with its legacy and current state of faculty diversity, another issue risks creating immediate negative effects on the diversity of the Princeton community: the Supreme Court cases against race-conscious affirmative action. The racial composition of the Princeton community may be radically changed in the near future because of the cases that came before the Supreme Court this week.

The widely predicted outcome of the Supreme Court case on raceconscious admissions may mean that the composition of the student body could revert back to being predominantly white, which would likely create obstacles in the incremental progress that has been made to change these norms and standards. In this session of the Supreme Court, race-conscious admissions will likely be deemed unconstitutional by the largely conservative Court. While race-conscious policies could remain in place for a few more years, this year’s anticipated decision would reshape the way that colleges and universities could consider racial diversity in admitting their incoming classes. Many arguments exist as to why race should be considered in the admissions process, but particularly for communities like Princeton — which has committed to combating the history

and legacy of white exclusivity on this campus — such tools for diversification have proven to be necessary to make progress in reimagining the culture of the University.

Whether Princeton will be able to continue considering racial background in the admissions process is now outside of the University’s control; however, the University’s commitment to diversification of its student body, faculty, staff, and cultural expectations ought to remain strong regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision. The University must ensure that regardless of the outcome of the case, there is a plan to continue to progress these goals.

The last 50 years of the University’s history reflect a marked and welcome shift by including so many people who have been historically excluded to be students, faculty, and staff here. It would be a grave mistake for Princeton to allow the anticipated Supreme Court decision to cement in place its cultural history as a PWI, and for the University to stop implementing and prioritizing policies that support and expand diversity on this campus.

Mohan Setty-Charity is a senior from Amherst, Mass., concentrating in economics. He can be reached at ms99@ princeton.edu.

Opinion

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APRIL 2023

vol. cxlvii editor-in-chief Rohit Narayanan '24 business manager Shirley Ren ’24

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

president Thomas E. Weber ’89

assistant treasurer Kavita Saini ’09

Kathleen Crown Suzanne Dance ’96 Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 Danielle Ivory ’05 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07

trustees Francesca Barber Craig Bloom ’88

trustees ex officio Rohit Narayanan ’24 Shirley Ren ’24

vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90

147TH MANAGING BOARD upper management

Kalena Blake ’24 Wilson Conn ’25 Katherine Dailey ’24

Julia Nguyen ’24 Angel Kuo ’24 Hope Perry ’24

Strategic initiative directors

Education Kareena Bhakta ’24 Amy Ciceu ’24 Financial Stipend Program Genrietta Churbanova ’24

Mobile Reach Rowen Gesue ’24 DEIB Chair Christofer Robles ’25

head audience editor Rowen Gesue ’24

community opinion editor Lucia Wetherill ’25

Sections listed in alphabetical order.

associate audience editor Paige Walworth ’26 head copy editors Jason Luo ’25 Nathalie Verlinde ’24 associate head copy editors Tiffany Cao ’24 Naisha Sylvestre ’25 head data editor Elaine Huang ’25 Charlie Roth ’25 associate data editor Ryan Konarska ’25 head features editors Paige Cromley ’24 Tori Tinsley ’24

associate opinion editors Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26 Ashley Olenkiewicz ’25 head photo editor Jean Shin ’26 head podcast editor Eden Teshome ’25 associate podcast editor Senna Aldoubosh ’25 head print design editors Avi Chesler ’25 Malia Gaviola ’26 head prospect editors Kerrie Liang ’25 Claire Shin ’25

associate features editor Sejal Goud ’25

associate prospect editors Isabella Dail ’26 Joshua Yang ’25

head graphics editors Noreen Hosny ’24 Katelyn Ryu ’25

head puzzles editors Joah Macosko ’25 Simon Marotte ’26

head humor editor Spencer Bauman ’25

associate puzzles editors Juliet Corless ’24 Sarah Gemmell ’24 Jaeda Woodruff ’25

associate humor editors Sam McComb ’25 Sophia Varughese ’26 head news editors Sandeep Mangat ’24 Isabel Yip ’25 associate news editors Lia Opperman ’25 Annie Rupertus ’25 Tess Weinreich ’25 head newsletter editors Olivia Chen ’26 Sidney Singer ’25 head opinion editor Abigail Rabieh ’25

head sports editors Nishka Bahl ’26 Cole Keller ’26 associate sports editors Diego Uribe ’26 Hayk Yengibaryan ’26 head web design and development editors Ananya Grover ’24 Brett Zeligson ’24 associate web design and development editor Vasila Mirshamsova ’26

147TH BUSINESS BOARD assistant business manager, director of sales Aidan Phillips ’25 business directors Benjamin Cai ’24 Jessica Funk ’26 Gabriel Gullett ’25 Andrew He ’26 Tejas Iyer ’26 Daeun Kim ’26 Kok Wei Pua ’25 Sophia Shepherd ’26

Christina Zhang ’26 project managers Anika Agarwal ’25 Julia Cabri ’24 Jason Ding ’25 Bibiane Kan ’26 Jordan Manela ’26 Robert Mohan ’26 Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26 Shravan Suriyanarayanan ’26 My Ky Tran ’26 Brian Zhou ’26

147TH TECHNOLOGY BOARD

chief technology officer Joanna Tang ’24

lead software engineer Roma Bhattacharjee ’25 software engineers Pranav Avva ‘24 Carter Costic ’26 Dylan Epstein-Gross ’26 Jessica-Ann Ereyi ’24 Ishaan Javali ’26

Adam Kelch ’24 Austin Li ’26 Isabel Liu ’26 Tai Sanh Nguyen ’26 John Ramirez ’26 Hang Pham ’26 Aidan Phillips ’25 Caitlin Wang ’26 Jessie Wang ’25 Shannon Yeow ’26 Brett Zeligson ’24

THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Avi Chesler ’25

Malia Gaviola ’26

The invisible and ignored struggles of Princeton’s service workers David Beeson & Abdul-Bassit Fijabi Guest Contributors

The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.

T

he following testimonial comes directly from a service worker at Princeton University, presenting an authentic sentiment of inadequate financial support and an uncaring institution; it is just one of many voices of frustration and despair on this campus. It has only been edited for clarity: “My salary is not enough for a single father with two kids. I can not afford to [pay for] rent and utilities, [not to mention] car fuel and maintenance… I literally have to choose if I’m going to have breakfast or lunch most days ’cause the price of food is high and I can’t afford to eat both meals most days… I’m asked by office staff if I have plans for a summer vacation; I can’t even treat myself to McDonald’s, so a vacation is just a dream.

The small 2% or 3% raises we get are always erased [by] the annual 3% raise we pay for health insurance. I have been working for Princeton for a little over 3 years, and my salary has gone up by less than 800 dollars for the year… I left a job that paid me significantly more, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to work for what I thought at the time was a worldclass university. I have come to realize that it’s smoke and mirrors and Princeton wants to pay us middle to lowend of the scale and expect to be talked about in the same breath as Harvard, [but] Harvard facilities operations [get] paid higher [than] we do here. So maybe Princeton should lower their view of [themselves] until they truly start acting like the prestigious university that they are.”

Our service workers are vital to the University community, yet paradoxically exist in a space disparate from it: a space in which their concerns and fears aren’t important enough for the University to accommodate them.

While the University offers legitimately helpful benefits including healthcare, childcare, and retirement funds, which are genuinely appreciated by workers, a survey of over 100 union workers on campus – conducted by the Princeton Chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) – tells us that they are simply not enough. Instead, the ostensibly meaningful benefits mask the impacts of low wages on those that need to pay for rent, a car, or even just food for their kids.

While the University helps faculty and students thrive, workers are left to the wayside – as one campus worker described, the administration “doesn’t really care what we are facing on [a] daily basis.” Princeton should no longer brush these issues aside. It must take these concerns seriously and commit to supporting its service workers with meaningful compensation.

While the cost of living has increased month over month all across America for the past two years, many Americans have felt left behind by the corporations that employ them. These employers have offered meager raises to pacify their workers while annual costs of living have skyrocketed by 8 percent and even 12 percent in some states, and many corporations are raking in record profits in an economy that is failing to support its essential workers.

Princeton, disappointingly, is following these trends. According to the survey, despite requests from workers

to be fairly compensated under the cost of living increases in New Jersey (which stand around 8 percent), Princeton acts as if circumstances have not changed, offering minimum pay increases below inflation and the cost of their benefits to unionized workers. In other words, our employees are effectively seeing their wages decline.

In the survey, workers detailed the extent of the deep financial issues they face which Princeton must make an effort to remedy. Many of the responses mentioned general cost of living hardships in New Jersey and Princeton saying, “fuel cost + mortgage / rent is unattainable for my union brothers / sisters,” “I have problems paying my bills and paying for food,” and “I can’t afford anything but the bare minimum.” Cost of living increases along with Princeton’s disgracefully low wages have created unacceptable conditions for many of our most valuable and essential workers. However, beyond these already appalling day-to-day living situations, some workers described absolutely devastating stories due to the lack of financial support from Princeton. Among the most heartbreaking comes from a worker who was forced to sell his home to afford rising expenses: “[I had] to sell my home. Everything is so expensive for everyone; a big increase should [have] happened long ago for us [essential] workers.”

The lack of essential cost-of-living adjustments is made more devastating by the cost of Princeton’s healthcare benefits. Despite receiving praise from many workers in the survey, many also criticized the fact that unionized employees’ negotiated annual raises (around 3 percent) are almost entirely negated by the rise in healthcare costs each year (also around 3 percent) — even before inflation. Princeton’s pay stagnation shows a blatant disregard for the deplorable conditions that their essential workers live in — conditions that are in direct contrast to Princeton’s status as the wealthiest per-capita university in the U.S. Princeton must give its workers automatic, meaningful increases in wages that account for changes in the cost of living. Responding to our survey, 105 out of 116 workers said that they would “support automatic cost of living adjustments” as a baseline policy.

In responses that provided more detail, many mentioned a desire for financial security and fair compensation. “Our current raises hardly even keep up with yearly increases in health care let alone everyday cost of living increases,” noted one worker. Another asserted: “We all deserve more than just a cost of living

raise.” Yet given Vice President of Human Resources Romy Riddick’s claim that Princeton is “paying very close attention to the salaries and making market adjustments,” it is evident that Princeton only cares about the market viability of its wages, not the needs of its workers.

Given Princeton’s current indifference to these conditions, students must play an active role in pressuring the University to make real changes — most importantly, annual wage increases across the board for its workers to combat the rising cost of living. Students’ voices can genuinely influence the actions of the administration. Look to the incredible efforts of Divest Princeton, for instance, and their resilient campaign that resulted in the University divesting its endowment from publicly traded fossil fuel companies.

Their work is far from over, however, and so is ours. We encourage students to advocate on behalf of workers who have found their struggles invisible to and ignored by Princeton. Join us in our fight against the University’s negligence for our most essential workers to live a life free from immense and unnecessary turmoil and hardship.

To help us advocate for this vital change, we encourage you to sign on to student groups’ petition for the University to address campus workers’ needs.

Also, please join us on May 1st as part of the Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) May Day March for International Workers Day as we amplify workers’ grievances.

The march begins at 112 Witherspoon Street on May 1 at 6:00pm and will feature speakers from YDSA, ULA, and other groups advocating for workers’ rights and empowerment.

Additionally, fighting on the side of Princeton’s campus workers in their attempt to receive fair and livable compensation is their local union, Local 175 of Service Workers International Union (SEIU). Made up of our indispensable workers (staff from dining halls, cleaning, maintenance, etc.), SEIU 175 is urging the University to better pay its workers. However, effectively utilizing the union to advocate on behalf of workers turns out to be quite difficult at Princeton, given their “no-strike” clause in the negotiated contract, as Bryce Springfield ’25 and Lucy Armengol ’26 argue in another piece.

David Beeson ’26 and Abdul-Bassit Fijabi ’24 are members of Young Democratic Socialists of America at Princeton. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of SEIU 175. This article was written alongside another in a series on campus labor.

CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

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It’s time for Princeton to contextualize students’ GPAs Henry Hsiao

Assistant Opinion Editor

G

rading is a subject of great mystery and concern at most schools, including Princeton, especially as finals season approaches and the end of the semester draws near. But conversations around grading reform are less prominent, and the Princeton community has yet to sufficiently grapple with the important questions of this debate. Are the systems we have in place conducive to student learning and growth — or are they harmful to those objectives?

And do they constitute an accurate standard for assessing students’ academic progress and achievements (if such a standard is even possible)?

The grade point average (GPA), which aggregates a student’s grades across all of their coursework, is, by most accounts, an imperfect and flawed tool for investigating the aforementioned matters. Its ubiquity, unfortunately, isn’t diminishing, so we must revise it in order to better meet our educational goals of fostering an appreciation for (and understanding of) a diversity of disciplines, developing an open and critically discerning mind, and, yes, serving humanity. To accomplish this, we should contextualize Princeton’s grading benchmarks by providing median grades for each course alongside students’ earned grades on their transcripts. This method, also adopted at other colleges, will give a fuller account of a student’s academic circumstances, the nature of their coursework, and their relative successes, to clarify what may seem at times arbitrary and random.

Median grades put a student’s performance in a class in the context of the overall course’s performance.

Their introduction would be a quick, effective way of allowing students themselves — plus employers and graduate school admissions offices — to see and compare the student’s achievements in their courses to those of their peers. Quite often, low

or unusual grades can puzzle transcript reviewers — were they flukes or signs of poor work? Median grades, in tandem with corroborating documentation (e.g., on a family emergency or severe illness), can answer these doubts, noting how abnormal a student’s performance actually was.

Reporting the contextual median is thus a safeguard against potential misinterpretation of a student’s grades and serves to aid both the student and those requesting their transcript.

This metric benefits Princetonians not only beyond the University, but also while they’re on campus. A ramification of contextualizing grades through medians is the encouragement of academic venturing; students who might’ve otherwise feared taking a course interesting to them — because of the chances of receiving a “bad” grade (lacking any supporting explanation) — might be more inclined to go ahead and take a “risk,” if their individual grade were contextualized. This may, as a result, reduce stress and anxiety levels surrounding grading, and help build an environment of learning for learning’s sake, rather than for the sole pursuit of a floating letter. Posting medians, then, would assist students in their journey of broad exploration, part of Princeton’s mission of bestowing a comprehensive liberal arts education.

There, too, is a rationale for relying on the median, instead of another measure of central tendency, i.e., the average. While all measures are fairly easy to collect — and indeed, many classes at Princeton gather such data or make them known to their students — the median describes the middle value of a frequency distribution of grades and is less likely to be highly skewed by outliers, as an average would be. To guarantee more accurate sample sizes, reporting medians would be mandatory for courses with, say, 10 or more students enrolled, and optional for those with under 10 students. This procedure wouldn’t apply, however, to departmental independent work, e.g., junior

papers or the senior thesis, due to the personal character of those components. Classes taken Pass/D/Fail or “Audit” would be exempt as well. Below is a prototype: Course Title Grade Median Course #1 B+ A Course #2 AACourse #3 A+ B+ Course #4 C BThis isn’t an outlandish or outrageous proposal, for we already recognize that it works. Institutions of higher education across the country, like Indiana University and the University of California, Berkeley, now track average or median grades — in fact, the former goes further, detailing the “percentage of students who are majors in the given course department,” the grade distributions per section, and so forth. Cornell University, as yet another example, currently uses a system of contextualized grading through the reporting of class medians on student transcripts, as has Dartmouth College since 1994.

The merits of medians don’t just accrue for students and transcript viewers, though — they also aid faculty members: recording them would enable Princeton instructors to tweak and adjust their courses, if necessary.

For instance, a median grade far lower than in previous years’ iterations might not be a total warning sign, but a persistent trend of significantly decreasing median grades might indicate a need to change something about the course (or students’ quality of output). Medians would function, then, as another form of feedback on a course’s structuring, pacing, and elements — a kind of self-evaluation.

And if faculty members had this data for all courses, they could check for and ensure consistency of grading across academic fields, thus monitoring for and controlling rampant grade inflation or wild fluctuations.

As Dartmouth has done, these median figures shouldn’t be publicly circulated (e.g., on the Registrar’s website) in order to deter students from attempting to game course selection and purposely pick “easier” classes.

After all, the intent of implementing this design is to facilitate academic risk-taking, much like the present P/D/F policy, lessen the focus on the letter grade itself and place more emphasis on the fun and enjoyment of learning. The intellectual rewards of wrestling with, and eventually mastering, unfamiliar or difficult material should be more treasured than the final letter grade. Therefore, students should only have statistics about classes they’ve finished taking.

Of course, the transition to a contextual GPA may come with its own complications. The biggest foreseeable troubles are on the logistical front. For a case study, look no further than the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which killed its contextual GPA in 2017, despite years of efforts towards launching such a system. The UNC administration concluded that adding extra columns to the transcript and revamping the registrar’s site would be infeasible, citing “technical challenges” and “prohibitive costs.” Still, for Princeton, an educational institution with ample resources, these shouldn’t be large issues — indeed, they pale in comparison to far more serious problems that have to be dealt with (e.g., the

conversion of certificate programs to minors or campus construction).

Contextualizing the student GPA through median grades grants every stakeholder involved a win: students have improved access to information at their fingertips about their performance and are incentivized to engage in academic exploration and risk-taking; faculty can use the data to make modifications to, and prioritize consistency in, their courses; and employers and graduate school admissions committees have a fuller picture about students’ work in each course and the personal circumstances that reflect upon that work.

This humble suggestion ought to be merely the start of an important discussion about grading reform at Princeton — one which we can hope won’t cease anytime soon. Adopting contextual grading through class medians, as outlined above, will prove an excellent first step towards demystifying the student GPA and grading process at Princeton.

Henry Hsiao is an assistant Opinion editor from Princeton, N.J. He can be reached at henry.hsiao@princeton.edu.

NAOMI HESS / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Faculty Room in Nassau Hall.

APRIL 2023

Let them eat crepes: stop abusing Pay with Points

Abigail Rabieh

Head Opinion Editor

A

ttempts to enjoy your quotidian life in Princeton, New Jersey, can be expensive. For example, coffee is not cheap in Princeton — the average latte is $5. To offer all students the equal opportunity in relishing in the delights the town has to offer, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) began the Pay with Points program, providing stipends for those on unlimited meal plans to spend at local businesses. Yet there’s another use of Pay with Points that attacks the very purpose of this program: points can be used to cover sophomore eating club dues. The Pay with Points program should not be treated as a rebate from the unlimited meal plan: if that were the case, the University could simply reduce the meal plan by $150. Rather, this is a program with a specific purpose — to increase town engagement — and it should not be exploited to cover insufficient eating club financial aid.

The Pay with Points program was initiated in fall 2022 after “years

of advocacy,” according to the USG 2022 Annual Report. This report states that the purpose of the initiative was to “giv[e] students on the unlimited meal plan $150 worth of dining points per semester to spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks at select in-town and on campus vendors.” There is no mention of any other purpose for this funding.

Further reporting on the initiative clarified that the purpose of the program was twofold. First, it would allow more students, particularly those on financial aid, to engage with the town of Princeton and avoid exclusion from social events based on financial status. A USG email announcing the program last fall noted that it would give students the opportunity to “connect with each other and the town of Princeton without having to worry about paying out of pocket.” Secondly, the program is intended to encourage the support of local businesses. USG president Stephen Daniels ’24, who was the chair of the Community Dining Task Force in 2022 and thus oversaw the implementation of the program, hoped that the program would benefit the local community

as well, saying “It’s going to be a big thing for a local economy.”

Yet the other use of these points is seldom discussed, and even less defended. According to the Interclub Council (ICC), sophomores can use their Pay with Points to “go toward [their] sophomore dues.” This usage does not come up at all in the USG annual report. There are no USG members quoted in the ‘Prince’ who celebrate this allocation. On the surface, this seems like good support for students with financial difficulties. It’s just free money!

But Pay with Points is not simply an extra grant added to the financial aid program. There is a specific purpose: to alleviate the burden students on financial aid face when they or their friends want to engage with the town of Princeton, and to support the town itself. The eating clubs are not part of the town community; they do not need monetary support from the University.

Further, reducing the $150 burden of eating club dues does not mean students suddenly have $150 available to spend in town. It reduces an already burdensome fee, which at its lowest is $700 for sophomore dues.

There should be more financial support for eating club members on financial aid. According to the ICC, two clubs (Tiger Inn and Ivy) expressly say that their financial aid policies only support upperclass students, and only 2 clubs (Cap & Gown and Quad) specifically state that they offer sophomore financial aid. There are several obvious issues with eating club financial aid: upperclass students not on full aid are not always guaranteed support, and sophomores are rarely afforded assistance, regardless of their aid level. Either the University or the eating clubs themselves should create more grant opportunities to fill in these gaps. But they should not come at the expense of other programs supporting students in different ways.

The potential uses of this grant force students under financial constraints to make a choice about their social life: either participate in an eating club or engage in the town culture. You can either be a member of Cloister Inn or go out to dinner with your friends, but not both. This goes directly against the purpose of Pay with Points, which was to erase

this dilemma from the financial calculus many students undertake when deciding how to make Princeton affordable.

Financial aid resources should not force students to choose which aspects of the Princeton community they are able to participate in, especially when the programs are directed to specific ends. The Pay with Points program was not brought about in order to allow students facing financial difficulties to have more access to social life — all those involved clearly created the initiative in order to increase town engagement. This end should not be abridged because there are other burdensome financial barriers to full participation in common Princetonian activities — those barriers should instead be similarly lowered.

Abigail Rabieh is a history major and junior from Cambridge, MA. She is the head Opinion editor at the ‘Prince’ and can be reached by email at arabieh@ princeton.edu or on Twitter at @AbigailRabieh.

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Fall 2023 APRIL 2023

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Princeton should support student-led clubs as essential to building community Tim Frawley

Guest Contributor

The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.

I

fell in love with rugby when I decided to quit baseball and drive three towns over to try out a new sport during my senior year of high school. Once I got my first taste of the beautiful chaos that is rugby, I was instantly hooked on the adrenaline, teamwork, and culture of respect that define the sport. When I came to Princeton, my experience with rugby was far more than just the practices and 80 non-stop minutes on Saturdays. The club brought together students from all backgrounds and walks of life to bond as one community. Playing on that team, and co-captaining it during my senior year, ended up being one of the most important parts of my Princeton experience. To some people, club sports may appear as just a way to stay active and have fun, but to everyone who has played a club sport, they are so much more. They are a couch to crash on when traveling, an inside joke at your 10th reunion, a phone call to a struggling teammate, and a community that reminds you that you belong at Princeton.

Student-led clubs and communities are essential to the Princeton experience and what makes this school so special. These clubs are incredibly effective at knitting new students into the social fabric that will support them and allow them to support others at Princeton. Princeton has a pool of some of the best and brightest minds in the world, and when given the space to flourish, students can create and maintain pockets of a beautiful culture.

These spaces allow students to feel a real sense of ownership, belonging, and re-

sponsibility. Yet, some clubs have found it difficult to bounce back from COVID-19 and flourish in the current campus climate. The post-COVID-19 treatment of club sports highlights gaps in the University’s approach to student life — the administration should shift from a topdown approach to one that seeks to support student groups and utilize student feedback to organically foster community.

Over the past years, events and policies have made it more difficult for club sports to attract students and provide meaningful leadership opportunities. With rugby, for example, a long clearance process combined with restricted field access due to construction has limited our ability to recruit new players and play full seasons. We have not been able to play our first games until the end of September or the early weeks of October, by which time all other Ivies and schools in the region are a quarter to a third through their fall seasons.

Ultimate Frisbee no longer has regular access to grass fields and instead has to practice on more injury-prone turf fields during the night, which conflicts with meals and typical study times. Other sports have been impacted such as club baseball, which did not have access to a baseball field during my senior year after their last field was removed for new athletic facilities. These are just a few examples and, generally, clubs have struggled with poor school administration communication, late practice times, and scarce resources.

These challenges became especially acute immediately after remote school during COVID-19 when club sports were not allowed to practice in any capacity for much of the year, hurting recruitment and the knowledge transfer from graduating seniors to younger classes.

Although Princeton dedicates vast resources to its undergraduates, those re-

sources could be used more effectively.

Princeton has a large administration with one of the highest ratios of employees to students in the country. A 2018 article from The Chronicle of Higher Education found Princeton had 74.2 full-time managers per 1,000 students, seventh in the nation for non-profit four-year institutions. This number was second only to Yale in the Ivy League at 81.4. Penn was a distant third at 55.3. The median for 931 colleges was 14.4. Recently, Princeton created another position within residential colleges, residential life coordinators, to help foster community and belonging. However, a top-down approach with a heavy emphasis on administrative control is unlikely to bear fruit because students will still struggle to find community and support without student leadership. I would argue that the larger University-controlled residential colleges with random placement and muted identities have failed to cultivate the same sense of belonging and culture as smaller institutions with more student leadership such as the eating clubs and co-ops. Although Princeton’s campus life strategic plan for 2020–2025 heavily emphasizes positives such as service and inclusion, student leadership is referenced just once with the phrase “student-led initiatives” in a general mission statement.

Clubs are only briefly mentioned.

The well-being of the undergraduate community has far-reaching impacts, from future career opportunities to the mental and physical health of students.

Unfortunately, I think the state of student life has steadily deteriorated, at least during my time at Princeton. While this complex problem will have complex solutions, a crucial component is the ability of students to support and connect with each other. No one is better equipped to understand the needs of Princeton students

than other Princeton students. I cannot count how many teammates have said that rugby got them through Princeton, and this sentiment was echoed by many students I talked to in other clubs.

With so much “new” on campus, I hope the Princeton administration can support the sub-cultures that have developed over decades and provide the space for new ones to grow. These fragile communities are vastly harder to rebuild than to maintain. Truly empowered studentled communities will be messy, and there will be mistakes. However, I firmly believe the learning opportunities and space for ownership are valuable to the students and the long-term health of Princeton’s community. To the administration, I hope that you can understand the concerns that I have raised and consider meaningful shifts in your approach toward working with student clubs and leaders. Policies

and decisions must stay grounded in the very human experiences students have each day at Princeton that cannot be fully captured by statistics or a U.S. News ranking. To the current students, I hope you all can continue to support each other and do amazing work. I’m humbled to think I attended a school with so many smart and dynamic people, and I encourage you to make those commitments to clubs and culture.

Tim Frawley is a member of the Class of 2022. He can be reached at timfrawley20@ gmail.com.

Editor’s Note: The Daily Princetonian did not independently verify the writer’s claims about field usage for the club rugby, ultimate frisbee and baseball teams.

ZOE BERMAN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Students play frisbee on Poe Field in the evening.

APRIL 2023

Affirmative action doesn’t do enough to diversify elite education Christofer Robles

Assistant Opinion Editor

A

ccording to a number of court-watchers, this spring, the Supreme Court is probably going to rule affirmative action unconstitutional. Elite colleges, like Princeton, will then be faced with the challenge of building diverse classes despite race-blind admissions, a problem University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 has admitted will be difficult to solve. But why does our admission process fail to include students of color without the bandage of affirmative action in the first place? It is because our admissions criteria is largely dependent on metrics that guarantee students of color will be excluded. We must reimagine how we admit applicants to guarantee students of color are included without superfluous solutions.

It is important to first establish why racial diversity is necessary.

Racial diversity matters because it is productive. An analysis of 366 companies yielded, “a statistically significant connection between diversity and financial performance” in research conducted by a 2015 McKinsey & Company project. According to this project, the most racially and ethnically diverse companies were “35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median,” with “companies in the bottom quartile in both gender and ethnicity” underperforming, in the same study. Not only does diversity provide an environment in which its members may feel comfortable enough to succeed, but a variety of identities yields

an inherently nuanced and rigorous outcome by virtue of difference in thought and experience.

Racial diversity also matters because it provides community for students of color. It is difficult to navigate a predominately white institution when hardly any of your peers share your same racial or ethnic identity. According to Princeton’s 2021–2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Annual Report, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American undergraduate students combined only make up 27 percent of the student body. White students make up 56 percent. If enrollment were more varied, students of color would have an easier time finding commonality and, by extension, security with people of shared experiences and practices. As a student of color myself, it has often been difficult to thrive in an environment in which my experience is so foreign to that of the majority community.

Many strong communities coexisting not only provides affinity spaces to minority students, but also the opportunity for those many communities to exchange and learn from each other.

For this reason, the University has stood by its purported commitment to “recruiting, retaining, and supporting a diverse community of students.” Just recently, in his 2023 annual State of the University Letter, Eisgruber advocated for “embracing and cultivating talent from all backgrounds,” to fulfill our mission. But can we say Princeton really is committed to diversity if Princeton would not be diverse without the construct of affirmative action?

The core elements of Princeton admission — the parts that come before affir-

mative action — do not promote a diverse class.

One of factors listed as “Very important” to Princeton admission in the Common Data Set is the rigor of secondary school.

Black students of all socioeconomic levels attend worse schools than their White peers of similar socioeconomic status.

Surveying tens of thousands of PreK–12 teachers revealed that 55.0 percent of teachers surveyed “[demonstrated] some degree of pro-White/anti-Black implicit bias,” with 14.8 percent demonstrating “some degree of pro-White/anti-Black explicit bias.”

This is certain to impact GPA and recommendation letters, both also listed as “Very important” to Princeton admissions in the Common Data Set. Standardized testing, one more “Very important” criteria, also disadvantages diverse communities. Income and race continue to strongly predict standardized testing scores, with 2020 ACT scores reflecting that students from households with incomes greater than $150,000 perform 42.9 percent better than students from households with incomes less than $24,000, and White students perform 31.0 percent better than Black and Native American students.

Though Princeton has suspended the requirement to submit standardized testing scores for the application process through 2025 in light of COVID-19, this change may not be permanent. Even with this suspension, students from privileged backgrounds still take advantage of this part of the application. Of Princeton students enrolled in the fall of 2021, 56 percent submitted their SAT scores (with the 25th percentile of enrolled students’ SAT scores

being a 1470—nationally representative of a 99th percentile score), 35 percent submitted their ACT scores, and 91.25 percent had above a 3.75 high school GPA. Princeton also continues to consider legacy, even though legacy is nothing more than a purchase made between the privileged to secure 12.5 percent of enrollment.

Clearly, the admissions system favors white and wealthy students — not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive. Affirmative action does not resolve this, however. Although affirmative action has been an important tool for nationally increasing diversity in higher education, it is simply an unsustainable bandage on a defective admissions ethos.

To promote diversity without affirmative action, Princeton ought to redefine its admissions criteria to realize its “pervasive commitment to serve the nation and the world.” Rather than continuing to rely on inequitable and often dubious metrics for predicting performance then, Princeton would place more emphasis on past achievement and future potential in service.

So what would a new admissions criteria look like? In an enhanced Princeton Common Data Set: Work experience and volunteer work, which are currently only “Considered” should be given “Very important” consideration; categories like community involvement, familial obligation, and demonstrated commitment to intellectual and social curiosity could be added; “Rigor of secondary school,” “Academic GPA,” and “Standardized test scores” could drop to “Considered” or be removed entirely; legacy admissions would end.

This solution does not signal a lowering

of standards but a challenging of them.

A university designed to foster altruism not only better justifies our tax-exempt status, but is actually good. If a Princeton education is supposed to be in the name of service, then why does our admissions process reflect a monetary and racial bargain with bleak post-grad public sector participation?

Yes, having a class less based on “success-predicting” benchmarks may lead to students who struggle more in college, but it is Princeton’s responsibility to be inventive in accommodating these students. An environment that promotes inequitable and self-serving failure is not rigorous, it is neglectful. Disadvantaged students should be supported such that they are better able to take advantage of Princeton’s immense financial and educational resources. If not, the University is simply perpetuating a system that only caters to an already greatly and historically prepared and rewarded group of students.

Strong character and dedication to community is far less defined by one’s test scores than by an applicant’s commitment to using Princeton and its riches to contribute to good. The University’s admissions process ought to reflect the values it prides itself on and consider the potential that it may cultivate when it is better able to select students who indicate a strong desire to learn and better the world in diverse ways.

Christofer Robles is a junior from Trenton, N.J. He serves as an assistant Opinion editor and DEIB Committee Chair. Christofer can be reached at cdrobles@princeton.edu or on Instagram @christofer_robles.

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The Daily Princetonian

Fall 2023 APRIL 2023

Features { www.dailyprincetonian.com }

‘A very special time of year’: Lent, Ramadan, and Passover on campus

By Raphaela Gold Staff Features Writer

This past April was a month of festivities across campus with three major Abrahamic holidays briefly overlapping from April 5 to April 9. Muslim students celebrated their Ramadan fasts together in Murray-Dodge with large iftar meals.

The Center for Jewish Life (CJL) hosted multiple Passover seders, where students enjoyed matzah (unleavened bread) and sang late into the night. As Lent came to a close, Christian groups on campus celebrated Easter with services, feasts, and Easter egg hunts scattered across campus.

Students balance academic and college life with their religious observations all year, which often intensify during holidays. The University offers support and resources like alternative dining options for those who fast or academic accommodations.

The Daily Princetonian spoke with observing students and religious leaders on campus, who reflected on their religious experiences and shared how they find balance during this busy holiday season.

Observing Lent in community Over the course of the last week of Lent leading up to Easter, many Christian students attended daily prayer services.

One such service, called Tenebrae, begins with 12 lit candles. As the service proceeds, a candle is blown out after each psalm is recited in unison, until only one candle remains. Then, a loud sound, from a chord played on the organ or a dropped book, rings out. Called the “great noise,” it symbolizes the moment Jesus died on the cross. The final candle is hidden from view until the end of the service, when it is brought back for concluding prayers.

A few days later, the Easter vigil begins in darkness. Students gathered at 5 a.m., lit small candles together, and processed into the chapel, where they listened to readings from the Bible as the sun rose.

Only once the sun had fully risen could they officially celebrate Easter, blowing out the candles, singing hymns, and saying “Hallelujah” after not having been able to use that word over Lent.

Anna Ferris ’26, an Episcopal Church of Princeton (ECP) member who attends weekly services at the Chapel, shared her experiences of Lent and Easter. “It was so amazing watching the light start to pour in and symbolically bring us the light of Christ’s resurrection,” said Ferris.

Ferris is a contributing columnist for the ‘Prince.’

Ferris had a positive experience observing Lent on campus. “Catholics, Anglicans, and some other denominations of Christianity don’t eat meat on Fridays, and the dining halls are great. They always have meatless options,” noted Ferris.

Though Ferris had not been attending church consistently before Princeton, she explained, “When I came to Princeton, it was just something I wanted to try out.

And I found it fit in seamlessly on Sunday nights.”

Ferris has found that smaller fellowships and prayer groups bolster her religious observance at Princeton. “It doesn’t have to feel like the biggest commitment you’re going to make in your day to be really important and impactful,” said Ferris.

page 25

Laura Robertson ’24 was once more involved in Christian communities on campus, but now expresses most of her religiosity through the Religious Life Council (RLC) within the Office of Religious Life (ORL). “I think the RLC is really valuable,” she said.

Robertson is an associate Audience editor for the ‘Prince.’

Robertson also values the flexibility of religious expression. “People can be religiously observant in many different ways,” she said.

Though Robertson has become less observant over the course of her time at Princeton, she still fasts on Ash Wednesday and receives ash on her forehead.

“Lent is a very special time of year for me,” Robertson said.

Father Allen Wakabayashi is the ECP chaplain. Over the 40 days of Lent, Father Allen supported students in balancing their opportunities for religious involvement with their academic responsibilities.

“Lent is a time to refocus, repent, and deal with anything that’s distracting us from our faith,” said Father Allen. Lent culminates in a week called Holy Week, during which ECP offers daily services and extra support for students leading up to Easter.

Father Daniel Skvir ’66 helped found the Orthodox Christian Fellowship on campus when he was a student in 1964 and has served as its chaplain since 1989.

Since then, he has watched the community grow and seen religious expression at Princeton transform.

The Fellowship meets throughout the year, but also has increased opportunities for involvement during Lent. “It’s a period of fasting and of confession, selfappraisal,” explained Father Daniel.

He also described the busy schedule of Holy Week, including daily services and a midnight service between Saturday and Sunday morning from 11:30 p.m. – 3 a.m.

“It’s a long series of services that ends up with the blessings of Easter and the breaking of the fast,” Father Daniel added.

The Orthodox Fellowship also provides students with Easter baskets and ensures that they have access to traditional foods.

Muslim students celebrate Ramadan Ameen Omar GS prays five times a day and is on campus for three of the five daily prayers. He often goes to the prayer space for Muslim students on the third floor of Murray-Dodge, but because of his heavy class load, he often finds himself short on time, having to “catch a prayer” in between classes.

Two of his classes have Omar running between McCosh Hall and Green Hall in a ten minute time frame, so he finds a secluded area outdoors, puts down a jacket or a few napkins, and performs the prayers as he usually would. Generally, prayers include a cleansing of the feet called ablution before praying, but without access to a sink, Omar wipes over his feet with a tissue or wipe, finishes his prayers, and races to his next class.

These are the practices that, according to Omar, “make religion much more conspicuous in my day, where it’s really affecting my time, and you can physically see something. But most of the time, it’s more spiritual.”

LOUISA GHEORGHITA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Balancing these religious commitments with academic obligations posed particular challenges during Ramadan.

Like Christian students, some Muslim students adjust their dietary habits during their religious observance of Ramadan. Ramadan began on March 22 and ended on April 20. During this period, many fasted from sunrise to sunset and attended Taraweeh (nightly prayers) in addition to their usual five prayers a day. The Muslim community hosted iftar dinners after sunset at least twice a week.

Omar has informed professors that he may need to be late due to prayers, especially during Ramadan. He said that professors have been very accommodating.

He’s also grateful for the support of the Muslim community at Princeton. “I was expecting to come and not find a big community, but I was sorely wrong, and I’m glad about that,” he said.

Yahya Habib ’26 also prays five times a day and is very active within Princeton’s Muslim Students Association (MSA), participating in various religious circles.

“You’ll see me a lot on the third floor of Murray-Dodge,” said Habib.

Habib also mentioned the challenge of fasting from sunrise until around 7 p.m. each evening, attending night prayers, and trying to stay awake and active in religious duties and spiritual commitments on top of academic obligations. “A lot of Muslim students end up feeling very tired … it’s a challenge, but you get over it in the first week, and it becomes the norm,” he said.

Habib has been turning to upperclassmen for support. “It’s great to have a community on campus and these pillars of support from the community,” he said.

As for the some of the challenges Ramadan poses, Omar noted, “Ramadan may come across as a strenuous thing, and it is, especially during the first few days, but afterwards … your body finds that balance.”

Ultimately, Habib’s Ramadan experience was an adjustment, but he was appreciative of the University’s accommodations. “I see great strides being made through the Princeton Ramadan Program and the halal food they provide through that,” Habib said.

Aisha Chebbi ’24 is the co-president of MSA. In an email to the ‘Prince,’ Chebbi described the Muslim community as a “diverse, vibrant, and joyful one.”

“Our community is growing with each class year, and it is a very exciting thing to be part of,” wrote Chebbi.

Chebbi views Ramadan as a time “of spiritual focus, community, and a renewed commitment to service.” She also mentioned the three-day celebration after Ramadan called Eid al-Fitr, the holiday of the breaking of the fast, marking the end of Ramadan.

Chebbi emphasized the importance of making Muslim students feel seen during this time. “Even wishing someone a Happy Ramadan or Happy Eid goes a very long way,” she said.

Assistant Dean for Muslim Life Imam Khalil Abdullah also shared his excitement about Ramadan, explaining, “Ramadan helps us in many ways to grow in empathy for those who have less, and grow in gratitude for what we do have.”

Since arriving at Princeton two years ago, Imam Khalil has built relationships with the administration and advocated for Muslim students. “Not only myself, but also our students have taken the lead in expressing their religious needs to the University … and show tremendous leadership,” said Imam Khalil.

Imam Khalil characterized the main challenge of Ramadan as “food more than anything,” and he has appreciated how the University meets the dietary needs of Muslim students, echoing the sentiments of many students.

Imam Khalil also noted that it can be difficult for students to decide how to spend their time on campus during Ramadan. “It all comes back to balance,” Imam Khalil advised, encouraging students to take naps and fuel themselves when possible.

Passover at the Center for Jewish Life As Ramadan drew to a close, Jewish students observed Pesach (Passover) from April 5 to April 13. In observance of the holiday, many kept kosher for Passover by adopting more stringent rules around ‘kashrut’ (Jewish law surrounding food) and avoiding leavened products. The CJL also hosted multiple seders, ritual Passover feasts, providing students with a variety of options.

Jewish students, many of whom pray multiple times a day, reflected on aspects of Jewish life at Princeton, including Passover.

Davi Frank ’26, a member of Princeton’s Orthodox Jewish community, often prays three times a day and eats strictly kosher food.

Frank sometimes struggles with integrating Jewish studies into his daily life.

“It’s complicated when it comes to balancing classes, extracurriculars, and everything else,” Frank explained. He added, “The schedule here isn’t meant for people to really live life Jewishly … which is hard because that’s a big value for me.”

For Frank, the religious transition to Princeton was not an easy one. He said, “I came from a place where religiosity was the main focus … At Princeton, it feels very isolating.” Frank also noted that as a visibly religious person who wears a ‘kippah’ (head covering) and ‘payot’ (curled sidelocks) on the sides of his head, “You just feel like you stick out. And you do.”

Theo Gross ’24, who identifies as a Conservative Jew, also follows the ‘halakha’ (Jewish law) as closely as possible, observing Shabbat each week without doing work or using electronic devices from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.

Gross has become more religiously involved since coming to Princeton and emphasized the strong culture of observing Shabbat within the Jewish community.

“Even people who don’t observe these holidays to the letter of the law are involved in that culture,” explained Gross.

On Passover, when these laws become a lot more stringent, Gross appreciates that the CJL meets his religious needs for the holiday. “[It makes] it much easier for students to observe Passover on campus,” he said.

In order to accomplish the conversion of its kitchen over to being kosher for Passover, the CJL dining hall used exclu-

sively its dairy side for the week leading up to Passover. It performed a deep cleaning of its meat side in order to rid it of ‘chametz’ (leavened products). By the first day of Passover, the dining hall was stocked with new Passover foods, such as matzah and coconut macaroons, and buzzing with excitement for the holiday.

That night, the CJL hosted three seders, all of which drew throngs of both Jewish and non-Jewish students and included a copious amount of plastic frogs, representing the second plague in Exodus.

Gross also reflected that the seders tended to be “very fun, because they’re all organized by students. So it’s a very familial setting.” Additionally, Gross said that he enjoys seeing new faces at the CJL over Passover, noting the presence of “people who you don’t necessarily see year-round but who eat at the CJL during Passover for kosher food.”

In addition to dietary adjustments, many Jewish students kept the first and last two days of Passover as special observances during which doing work, using electronics, and certain other activities were prohibited. This year, these days fell on weekdays, so students needed to advocate for themselves to attain excused absences and extensions.

Gross believes that the University could be doing more to foster the observance of holidays for Jewish students, as he wrote in a ‘Prince’ article in September.

Gross pointed out that there are classes on Jewish holidays during which observant Jewish students are prohibited from writing and using technology.

Gross said that on Passover, “It’s stressful … cramming in work between the first two days and the last two days of the holiday.” He added that, for students who adhere to traditions other than Christianity, “it would be a nice gesture if we could be guaranteed not to have class on those holidays.”

Executive Director of the CJL Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91 supports Jewish students in many aspects of their campus lives. He helped to ensure that Passover at the CJL ran smoothly.

Rabbi Gil particularly appreciates that the CJL, “is open to everyone on campus.

And kashrut is automatically halal, so I always love seeing Muslim students who keep halal here, who should also think of the CJL as a place for them.”

While Rabbi Gil recognizes that some people might be confused by these religious restrictions, especially on Passover, he likes to view the holiday as a “learning opportunity for non-Jewish students on campus.” He advised non-Jewish students, “Don’t be afraid to ask!”

Now that Passover, Ramadan, and Lent have come to a close, students who observe these holidays have returned to their daily schedules on campus. Regardless of the time of year, however, religious students at Princeton will continue to share the experience of finding spaces at Princeton to pray, observe, and celebrate in community.

Raphaela Gold is a staff Features writer for the ‘Prince.’

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Features

Fall 2023

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

‘Understanding where we fit in’: Princeton’s growing veteran community spans borders

By Valentina Moreno Staff Features Writer

“​​I knew I wanted to go to college,” Hadi Kamara ’26 said. “Among the ways to leave home and simultaneously pursue my education, the military seemed to be the best option.”

The 22-year-old served in the United States Air Force from 2019–2022, while simultaneously enrolled in community college in his hometown of Alexandria, Va. Afterward, he enrolled at Princeton through its transfer program.

The number of veteran undergraduates has increased in recent years.

There was just a single veteran in the class of 2016; as of 2021, Princeton had 26 veteran undergraduates, comprising roughly 0.5 percent of the total undergraduate student population.

Princeton University is now ranked fourth in the nation among the “Best Schools for Veterans,” according to U.S. News.

The increase in undergraduate veterans is partially due to the University’s reinstatement of its transfer program in 2018 after almost 30 years without it. As Dr. Keith Shaw, the University’s Director of Transfer, Veteran, and NonTraditional Student Programs, puts it, “Scaling the [transfer] program means inviting more student veterans, more community college transfers, and more adult learners and students with families, thereby enriching Princeton with a wider range of perspectives and life experiences.”

As an active duty Airman enrolled in community college, Kamara had to balance the physical rigor and time demands of his service with the schedule of a full-time student.

“It wasn’t uncommon for us to work 12, 13, 14-hour shifts. And then I’d have to come back home and knock out schoolwork,” Kamara explained.

When he was deployed in Germany, a six-hour time difference made his studies more challenging.

“A class scheduled for 8 p.m. on the East Coast would be at 2 o’clock in the morning in Europe,” he said.

It was uncommon among Kamara’s unit for service members to be simultaneously enrolled in higher education. He attributes this to the highly taxing process of balancing school with the demands of his position.

“The unit was trying to push people to pursue their degrees, but I was one

of the few people within my rank actively pursuing education,” Kamara recalled. “I was a Special Operations Aircraft C-130 mechanic. It’s a very time-intensive job, it takes a lot of energy. A lot of people didn’t have enough time to balance that out with school and a social life.”

Despite having already completed an associate’s degree in Business Administration and a certificate in General Education, Kamara started Princeton as a first-year. “[The board] evaluated three credits for me, then I took FSI [Freshman Scholars Institute] over the summer, so I came in as a first-year student with four classes under my belt,” Kamara explained.

Kamara is content with the University’s decision regarding his transfer credits.

“I think the university structure itself disincentivizes expediting the academic process,” Kamara noted. “If I were to try to graduate early, that means I’d have to write my JP [Junior Paper] earlier, which is something I wouldn’t want to jump into after only having been here for a year.”

Veterans at Princeton expressed a variety of motivations for joining the military.

Sam Park ’26, a 21-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, served in the Marine Corps of the South Korean military for two years. For South Korean men, service is mandatory before one turns 30.

“I don’t think I would have joined the military had it not been mandatory,” he said.

He thinks there’s a major difference between U.S. veterans and some international veterans because of the obligatory nature of service like his.

“I think the mandatory service time for U.S. veterans is like four years and a lot of people do seven years. It’s their job, it’s an integral part of their life,” Park explained. “But for an international veteran like me, we do two to three years, but we go [to the military] because it’s mandatory. It’s not like an occupation, it’s more like an experience for us.”

23-year-old Anna Benzeevi ’26, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen from the Central Valley of California, has a different perspective on her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces. Benzeevi served as a combat soldier in Combat Intelligence, tasked with preventing

drug and weapons trafficking in the Egyptian and Jordanian borders.

“I’m a Zionist, so I definitely wanted to [join the military],” Benzeevi explained. “A lot of folks that live abroad delay service until they’re too old to draft, but I wanted to do it.”

After active duty, veterans might face a re-adjustment period as they return to classes and homework.

Park was accepted into Princeton as a member of the Class of 2024, but deferred his enrollment to complete his military service, resulting in a two-year gap in his education. As Park explains, the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, specifically the Marine Corps, discourages self-study.

“It’s a cultural thing, but there’s definitely also hazing in the military.

When I was a private, [my commanders] wouldn’t let me read books in the first place because the perception is that training is more important than reading books,” Park recalled. “‘You’re a soldier, you’re not here to study.’ That was the general atmosphere in the Marine Corps.”

His service was also highly timeconsuming. As a sentinel in the intelligence company, he was left with little free time to study, even if he was allowed to.

“It’s a 24/7 thing because [my place of deployment] was right beneath North Korea, so I would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and watch over North Korea for like seven hours a day using surveillance devices and special cameras,” Park explained.

While Park’s time-consuming job limited his opportunity to study, he observes the ways many wealthy South Korean men get around this issue.

“A lot of Korean students who go to prestigious schools like Princeton have spent most of their childhoods in the States, or to be blunt, they’re pretty rich,” Park commented. “A lot of them can take special position offers from the military as interpreters or translators because they are less physically rigorous, and you still get to speak English and read books because you have more free time.”

Park had to transition from an English-speaking environment in high school to the military’s exclusive use of the Korean language, and then again to Princeton’s highly rigorous and English-focused curricula.

“I went to an international school in Korea, but then I went to the military

and you only get to use Korean, you don’t have time to read books and selfstudy [in English],” Park noted. “Your academic skills get really rusty, so I had a tough time adjusting to the academic life here.”

Benzeevi also expressed the challenges of transitioning from her mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces to Princeton’s academic environment.

“I haven’t been in school for five years, so to jump back into the Princeton grind was definitely something to adjust to,” Benzeevi admitted. “But a lot of us vets are mission-oriented so it’s gratifying when you get something done because it’s a challenge.”

Despite the rigorous academic demands of Princeton, Benzeevi’s goal was always to attend an Ivy League school.

“I come from a low-income background and [Ivies] are known for their good financial aid,” Benzeevi explained. “I knew it was going to be much more challenging to study here than any other sort of college, so I tried really hard to get in here.”

Benzeevi applied as a first-year undergraduate during the last six months of her service. Ultimately, she hopes to go to medical school.

“I was working on applications between missions. I really wanted to come [to Princeton] because they have so many different opportunities,” Benzeevi noted. “They have really great biology and neuroscience departments.”

University faculty like Shaw, Dr. Jordan Reed, Associate Director of the Transfer Program, and Alex Bustin ’08, Senior Associate Dean and Director of Military/Veteran Admission, are responsible for helping veterans make this difficult transition from military service to Princeton.

“The immediate veteran community has been so supportive, so people like Dr. Shaw, Dr. Jordan Reed, Alex Bustin, have done everything in their power to make me feel welcomed here, to support the veterans on campus and help us acclimate,” Kamara noted. “If you’re somebody that, say, has particular housing accommodations that you need met, they’re the people that you go to.”

Park, on the other hand, feels less immediately supported by the University’s veteran program. Park notes that he has not interacted with University employees that work with veterans.

Benzeevi also feels somewhat disadvantaged by her status as an international veteran due to Princeton’s financial policies.

“Princeton only allows you to record yourself as an independent if you’re 25, or you’ve enlisted in the American military, so someone like me kind of exists in the middle ground because I’m financially independent, but I’m not 25 or a U.S. vet,” Benzeevi explained. “I’m still required to bring my parents’ documents with financial aid packages, so that kind of has repercussions.”

Kamara, who speaks highly of Princeton’s veteran programs, notes that because of the size and novelty of the transfer veteran community, they go largely under-recognized as a larger part of the University.

“The transfer program is very new, so you have quite a few people at University, even at the administrative level, who don’t know that Princeton has veteran students,” Kamara commented. “I think the University is still in the process of acknowledging that our cohort of students exists.”

Benzeevi shared similar qualms to Kamara about feeling included as a veteran.

“It’s a really small community, so kind of understanding where we fit in in the big scheme of the student population is something that we’re all trying to learn,” Benzeevi said.

Despite ambivalent feelings towards the University’s support and recognition of veterans, Park, Benzeevi, and Kamara all speak optimistically of the growing nature of the veteran community at Princeton.

“The Princeton Student Veteran club is trying to bring in not just American students who enlisted in the military, but also international people,” Benzeevi added. “I know for a fact that the club is trying to do more student outreach to connect people and integrate both groups [veterans and non-veteran students].”

“It’ll be interesting to see how our relationship with the University, both the administration and the general student body, develops as our veteran population continues to grow in size,” Kamara said.

Valentina Moreno is a staff Features writer for the ‘Prince.’

Fall 2023 M AY 2 0 2 3

Features

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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

UHS reports high student satisfaction, but some students cite availability and quality issues

By Kaustubh Jain Staff Features Writer

As students leave home to attend the University, they’re faced with a variety of new steps. Throughout their undergraduate career, students grow accustomed to the new environment and the academic rigor of the University, make friends, and likely will have to adjust to a new medical provider on their own for the first time.

University Health Services (UHS), often referred to by students as ‘McCosh,’ is Princeton’s primary healthcare provider that provides medical, health, and wellness services to the University population. Among its departments are ‘Medical Services,’ which focuses on providing care related to physical health, ‘Counseling and Psychological Services’ (CPS), which provides mental health care, and ‘Health Promotion and Prevention Services,’ which works towards the prevention of alcohol and/ or cannabis abuse.

In a series of interviews with a dozen undergraduates, The Daily Princetonian found that some students express dissatisfaction with McCosh in two categories: the ability to secure an appointment and the level of engagement that they received.

In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Dr. Melissa Marks, the Director of Medical Services at UHS, wrote, “We send surveys to every patient seen in Outpatient Medical Services, unless they have been seen and received a survey within the prior two weeks.” Marks described the scores as being “above the benchmark at other similar institutions,” with 94 percent of survey respondents being either “very satisfied or satisfied” with their visit in the current academic year.

Medical Services offers three types of care, including general/primary care, which addresses general medical concerns, chronic medical conditions, and good health, urgent care, which addresses acute illnesses and injuries that require prompt attention, and the infirmary, which is available for patients who need overnight or urgent care after-hours.

Three students, with the pseudonyms Eva, Nate, and Chris, were granted anonymity to discuss their medical experiences.

Securing an appointment In the fall of 2022, Eva, an undergraduate, was scared about something

being “fundamentally wrong with her body.” Experiencing irregular periods as a first-year, she went to UHS, seeking answers and treatment.

After she got an appointment, Eva saw multiple doctors for answers to why she was experiencing irregular periods. “I was losing blood at a concerning rate,” she said.

Four appointments, visits to two different medical professionals at UHS, and multiple lab tests did not deliver a diagnosis.

“After [UHS] could not figure out the cause, they just put me on birth control and said that all they could do is regulate the blood cycle,” she recalled.

Eva felt that UHS could have done better. To date, she does not know the source of her medical problem.

Eva’s concerns with UHS started with trying to secure an appointment.

“I waited two weeks to get an appointment, which itself was quite stressful because of the nature of the reason I wanted to go to them,” Eva said.

To request a general/primary care or specialty medical appointment students have to call the UHS front desk.

Primary care for health maintenance, a health concern for more than two weeks, or management of chronic illness and follow-up of a primary care appointment are also available to schedule online through the MyUHS portal.

Students have to call the front desk to book an urgent care appointment and can walk into the infirmary anytime after hours to seek care, though UHS does recommend calling beforehand.

Eva’s concerns over a lack of available appointments are shared by other students. Olivia Johnson ’26 had an infected finger last semester. “When I went [to UHS], the doctor asked me why I didn’t come earlier,” she said. “I had been trying to get an appointment for several days. They were fully booked.”

Another student, Uma Menon ’24, said that she had a persistent cough for a month in Fall 2022. She tried getting an appointment once before fall break, but the waiting time for an appointment that fit with her schedule was around five days.

“I decided to wait [the cough] out and try again after fall break,” she said.

Uma was able to get an appointment after fall break and didn’t choose to seek outside care during the break. She instead chose to take medicine at home.

Marks responded to concerns over a

lack of appointments.

She wrote that, “[UHS’s] practice goal is to see all patients with acute illness within 48 hours,’’ after it follows a practice of “triage,” wherein a nurse assesses the acute problem that a patient has and then decides whether the student should be “seen immediately, seen that day, seen within 48 hours,” or “managed with supportive care at ‘home’ with close nurse follow-up.”

Marks explained that UHS’s functioning was changed by the pandemic, with COVID-19 forcing them to shift their practice to allow their clinic “to triage and assure appropriate pathways for patients.”

“We are shifting back to pre-pandemic practice. Online appointment making is now available for all appointments except for acute care, which still requires an initial nurse triage,” she wrote.

Triage, Marks said, is critical for medical practitioners to prioritize medical cases. “It provides a way to make sure that students in most need are seen and cared for immediately, whether it be by UHS or a nearby emergency department. To not engage in some sort of initial assessment of students that gauges when a student should be seen might lead to a student not getting the care they need in a timely way,” she wrote.

Students sometimes felt that the triage process led to an underestimation of the seriousness of their illnesses.

“During midterms last fall, I had flulike symptoms — fever, a cold, and a sore throat — and called McCosh to see if they could see me,” Kira Newbert ’26 said. “Their response was that they could not see me because they were only seeing ‘really sick students,’ implying I was not sick enough.”

When asked about whether she had the time to provide a sufficient explanation of her condition to the nurse on-call, Newbert replied, “Not really.

They didn’t ask any follow-up questions about my symptoms.”

“I ended up being so sick that I had to miss my bio midterm,” Newbert recalled.

Newbert is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Marks wrote that “any student who feels that their wait is too long or has a different concern and wishes to provide feedback may do so” at UHS’s feedback website.

“In addition, a link to our grievance procedures can be found on the UHS feedback page,” Marks wrote.

Students also felt that appointment schedules didn’t match a Princeton schedule. “For most of the week, [students] have classes until the evening, and there are no time slots for an appointment post-5 p.m. during the week,” Johnson said.

Newbert echoed the concerns. “Especially when students are already so busy, it can be very stressful to try and find an available time slot,” she said.

Eva felt that having more available doctors and nurses on call may help.

“The appointments they had did not fit with my schedule so the process stretched out for weeks, which is not convenient when you have a pertinent health issue. So, they definitely need to have more doctors available to solve this problem,” she said.

UHS declined to comment on requests for data on number of doctors on-call on an average working day, the number of doctors per department, or the funding that each department receives. Marks noted that there is a physician on call for UHS 24/7.

Quality of care On a school morning, Chris, an undergraduate, woke up feeling discomfort due to a slight swelling in his neck.

He went about his day, thinking the pain would disappear. When it did not, he went to UHS seeking care. He saw two nurses, but no doctor on-call, and ultimately left the health center without any answers or treatment.

As opposed to others who waited days for their appointments, Chris was seen immediately. He went to the infirmary outside open hours, which are from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday to Friday, and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. “I went to McCosh in the middle of the night, so it was clearly a significant issue,” he said.

There were no doctors on-call, but nurses checked his vitals. “They could not tell me why I had the swelling or what I could do in the immediate term to make it better,” he said.

Other students expressed frustration with their experiences talking to the medical professionals. “[UHS staff] were kind and compassionate in our face to face interactions, but it didn’t feel like they were willing to take the time to understand what was wrong,” Eva said.

Nate, an undergraduate, described inconsistent guidance. He said that he had a headache, cough, and a sore throat for about two weeks before making an appointment. “The doctor told me to continue taking Mucinex and Ibuprofen and said that they would prescribe me antibiotics in three days if the current treatment didn’t work,” Nate said. However, when he went back after three days, a different doctor said that they do not prescribe antibiotics for people with the symptoms he was experiencing.

Vasudha Bharathram ’26 recounted two negative experiences with McCosh.

“I had a 103 degree fever and decided to book an appointment with McCosh.

I got an appointment after two days and they just gave me a packet of salt and told me to gargle with it, running no tests,” she recalled.

“More recently, I had a cold, and they gave me a COVID test,” Bharatham added. “It had expired three weeks ago.”

In response to these concerns, Marks wrote that UHS practitioners follow a two-step process of diagnosis and

follow-up. During diagnosis, they try to deduce “what an illness is not, and what it may be.” They also try to assess whether “a student is in danger or is safe to continue self-care and monitoring of symptoms.” Follow-up occurs either through a telephone or an appointment made in the clinic.

She explained that practitioners cannot be fully successful in diagnosis.

Rather, they tell patients, “[t]his is what I am thinking you have, but time will tell, or the response to the medication we prescribed will give us information, or let’s check back in a few days and by that time the illness may clarify itself.”

“Diagnosis is a process that often requires time. Students generally come to us in the initial stages of their illness,” said Marks.

“What we can say at this point is often what an illness is not, and what it may be. We can also say whether a student is in danger or is safe to continue self-care and monitoring of symptoms,” she continued.

After their appointment, students are also sent the aforementioned postappointment survey. Every student the ‘Prince’ interviewed, except one, said they received the survey.

In regards to the quality of providers, Marks wrote that UHS conducts “extensive ‘credentialing’ of healthcare providers, which involves verifying the providers’ education, training, licenses, internships/residency/fellowships, as well as conducting extensive background checks.”

Moving forward Eva strongly believes that McCosh needs structural changes, specifically because of a lack of healthcare options.

“It’s not just that I could not get the care I needed, but that they also didn’t refer me to anyone outside McCosh,” she said.

“Being a student on Cigna Health (the insurance Eva is on), getting access to an outside practitioner is really complex. I don’t quite know what the process is. It’s overwhelming — for the average student who is trying to take undergraduate classes and have a parttime job on top of that,” she added.

UHS provides a set of detailed documents on its Student Health Plan (SHP) section of the website, highlighting healthcare aspects covered for students, for dependents, referral and pre-certification requirements, and its preferred provider network, which is Aetna Student Health.

Eva called for UHS to provide an easy-to-understand explanation of outside care options covered by UHS. “The health insurance logistics are complex, and if not explained properly, can act as a barrier to you accessing care,” she said.

Eva is a low-income student, and she stressed that any problems with UHS affect low-income students the most. “For low-income students like me, there is a limited pool of money available as co-ops and insurance, so we really depend on McCosh,” she said.

“I don’t have the means to get access to outside care — no time, no car, and not many places covered by insurance.

If McCosh is going to be my primary healthcare resource, they need to have everything,” she added.

Kaustubh Jain is a staff Features write for the ‘Prince.’

the PROSPECT. page 28

The Daily Daily Princetonian Princetonian The

10 things I love about Princeton DECEMBER 2022

By Caroline Kirby | Guest Contributor

1. Unassuming significance That building meant nothing when you first stepped onto campus — now it’s a character in your story. The strongest memories come without warning. They’re spontaneous, inherently attached to their places and people. This place retains these memories, and they flash when you pass by, even years later. The roof of Walker Hall. Bored after dinner, my friends thought of a dare. Each time I pass, I remember our collective disbelief and thrill at the possibility of climbing it. East Pyne recalls freshman Spanish, with laughter and wasted time and growing friendship. Whig and Clio remind me of a spontaneous, liquor-fueled call, prompting a winter night around Cannon Green — a night adorned with conversations on the marble steps, looking at the stars from lawn chairs in McCosh courtyard. This place is special, and remarkable ordinary moments are the proof.

2. Shifting seasons It’s hot, and you’re not happy to wake up sweating. But the sun beams in through the glass, and the short sleeves and sundresses and shorts and clear sky make it okay. After the trek up Elm you arrive in class damp, but so does everyone else. There are frisbees, ice cream, and warm nights at soccer games. Late summer is perfect.

Then, one morning, you awaken buried under the covers. Overnight, it dropped ten degrees. You dig out your jacket for crisp walks over leaves, and you marvel at how the colors change daily until the trees have forgone their cheery green for deep reds and oranges. Weeks later, they fall. It’s cold now, bare branches tapping the window and the heater banging. The Gothic shadows and stone seem deeper and more mysterious. Overnight, a cover of snow brings light and the sky is richer in blue. There is hot chocolate and scarves, warm coats and close conversations — even out in the sharp air and dark night.

Slowly it melts, greens reviving and flowers cautiously opening. Layers are shed, days grow longer, and outside we stay. Cheers grow at 1952 Stadium, talking and laughter reverberate throughout every courtyard, and we grasp every extra moment, knowing June approaches. Then,

it all begins again.

3. Supporting characters She swipes your prox daily with the brightest smile. He always asks how class was, and wonders if you finished that book yet. You wave as they pass by, and they tell you to bring an umbrella — it’s going to rain today. He is at every game, in the bleachers and on the field, cheering them on. They are a comfort, a spark of positivity, and a familiar face in our scheduled chaos.

In dining halls, dorms, outside, inside, everywhere. We appreciate them, and hope they know what they mean to us. They make this a home.

4. McCosh 50 You’re late, and everyone knows it. The wooden floor creaks as you try to quietly shut the door and take a seat. The professor has already begun. He’s talking about Socrates. Or nuclear physics. Sometimes “Harry Potter” or “Game of Thrones.” The material doesn’t sink in as much as the setting — the cavernous room, lit with chandeliers and trimmed in dark wood. How many other minds have wandered here? Hundreds of students file out down the stairs with you, through the heavy doors, underneath the inscription. Maybe you remember nothing from the lecture today, but that room demands you to retain “democracy, and faith, and righteousness, and love of unseen things that will not die.”

5. The crowd after a win We win a lot. But the pure joy of the people around you never dulls in clarity. When the Tigers take down the Crimson, Bulldogs, and Bears, the people around you yell, scream, and cheer. It binds the bleachers together and blankets the area with a sense of belonging. This is our place. For this crowd, it’s personal. We sit with them in class and they live next door. For months, we watched them wake up early to run, lift, and stretch. We watched them stay up late, practicing and strategizing. And it worked. They come together, celebrating, and then turn to the crowd. With the sacrifices rewarded, everyone revels in the privilege of being the ones in orange and black. We are the winners. Always.

6. The first night back Every break is both too long and not long enough. You didn’t properly catch up on sleep, nor work ahead on assignments, or unplug enough to fully relax. But you also missed this — the hugs, the knock on your door, the hallway

chat, constant noise, the unpacking. Now you’re here again. Lying in bed to the sounds of campus settling down. Watching the light fade outside your window. You feel the anticipation of a new semester tomorrow. Some things known, others to come. The first night back. Our place.

7. Firestone during finals We are tired, but the air is buzzing. Everyone you know — and those you don’t — surround you and seventy miles of books. The B floor is my pick — I can’t handle the nervous silence one floor below, yet I need to be underground. Darkness through the windows makes me aware of the hour and my need to sleep, but I’m not close to finished. Anything goes during this week — pizza for breakfast, five coffees, naps on the floor. You just nod, understanding. It’s a comfort, watching others stress with you. Despite the missing words, the lacking memorization, the pages left, we feel alive. We’re together, and the release of Dean’s Date is only hours away. It will get done.

8. Crossing paths between class It takes about two weeks. You add, you drop, and you start to carve the route you’ll take each Monday and Wednesday. Then you notice the patterns. You pass her down Washington, and cross him outside East Pyne every other day, just before 10 a.m.. You smile, you nod, and they become a part of your routine. Soon you’ll notice if they’re missing: Did I leave too early? Are they skipping class today? Some of these people we’re close with, others are acquaintances. But even if I don’t know their names, I know she’ll be holding a coffee. She likes Small World. He’ll be wearing the same black jacket, and be locking his bike when he waves. Our paths will overlap, until the semester ends. Then patterns reset, and new faces start to smile as we pass. But they stay familiar, even outside of their designated time and place. They multiply; by year four, you have her and him, and him and her, and tens of connections by chance. These habits bring us together.

9. Friends of friends “How did you two meet?”

At the beginning, you know the answer — same zee groups, days spent bonding on a hike during Outdoor Action, hours of struggling through Writing Seminar together. A few months in, that changes. When they ask how we

know each other, we look at each other, puzzled: Maybe precept, last year? Oh, you weren’t in that class. What about that club? No, we joined together. The exact moment is murky, the timeline even more so. One week you were strangers, the next you ran back, laughing, through the rain to the library after a much-too-long study break. Someone introduced you, and then you had a friend. The full story becomes less important until it fades entirely. After you graduate, it’s simple: we met in college, at Princeton.

10. The moment It could be during the walk home from the Street in the middle of the night. The shadow of the chapel almost hides him entirely, until your echoing footsteps through the arch outside McCosh 50 sparks the fox into a run, directly across your path.

Or maybe it’s during that bleary, exhausting trek up Blair Arch towards your 8:30 a.m. Writing Seminar, when the sunlight hits just right and suddenly you’re awake.

Perhaps it’s when you’re laughing so hard you can’t breathe with your friends at drunk meal.

Or the time your professor held class on picnic blankets in the spring air. Or maybe it’s that night when the bonfire lit up Cannon Green, illuminating thousands of cheering faces, all packed tight, a sea of orange and black.

Sometimes it’s more obvious — the change in your stride when you pass a tour group, knowing each person wants what you have. They watch you open the heavy stained glass door to Chancellor Green, dreaming of what you might be reading, thinking, studying, speaking about.

Who you’re doing it with.

Every one of us has the moment when we realize we’re here. We have arrived. Abreast in our generation at Princeton. We are in love, and our love is returned. And even when it’s over, we are welcomed back for the rest of our lives.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right to write a book about this place. It deserves many more.

And he was right to call it “This Side of Paradise.”

Caroline Kirby is an alumnus of the Politics Department.

The Daily Princetonian

DECEMBER 2022

page 29

Black Arts Company: Lifting each other up by getting down

By Kerrie Liang | Head Prospect Editor On a Friday night, the Frist Film/Performance Theatre was buzzing with excitement. In the darkness, the dancers struck their starting pose. The crowd waited with bated breath. Soon enough, the bright lights came up and Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” rang through the speakers. It was time to get down.

Loud, fun, and unapologetically cool, the Black Arts Company’s (BAC) latest performance, “The Get Down,” truly took the audience on an adventure through time. The show drew inspiration from the 70s and centers Black empowerment.

Imagine “Jungle Boogie.” Imagine grooving with the “Soul Train Line.” Imagine beautiful bold afros that dominated the 70s scene. This is the vibrancy that the BAC brought to the present day.

Although the 70s theme was threaded throughout the show, each piece featured different forms of Black art and dance.

From old school hip-hop to whacking, BAC defies genre, and the result is an amalgamation of unique styles. And this diversity is no accident — their choreographic process invites all members to contribute their perspective. While one could worry that combining so many ideas will impact cohesion, the members not only made it work, but used it to their advantage.

At BAC, difference is embraced, not feared.

“We’re just constantly learning from everybody. There’s really no barrier to people trying new styles or things they’ve never danced before,” said Samantha Johnson ’23. “There’s always this kind of cross-cultural — but also style-wise — [learning].”

Johnson is BAC’s website manager, who previously served as a publicity chair.

President Emeritus Aishah Balogun ’23 agreed, adding that “everyone comes with an idea of what they want to do. Some people want to do Afrobeat, others want to do a Caribbean-inspired piece. It’s very individual.”

And this individuality shined through in their performance. In every piece, the dancers moved

in practiced synchronization, experimenting with formations and creating complex imagery.

However, if you looked closely, you could see how each dancer added their own unique flavor to the choreography — some seamlessly blended steps into one smooth line while others emphasized the beat with subtle pops and locks. Just like they do behind the scenes, on stage, everyone brings something special to the table. These small details allowed us to gain a glimpse into each performer’s interpretation — little Easter eggs that only the careful eye got to enjoy. However, one thing remained unanimous: under the strobe lights, each dancer was bursting with personality.

BAC prides themselves on their authenticity. In promoting their show, I noticed a bold claim on their flyers — “No one does hip hop better than us!”

And that much certainly seems to be true. Their secret? Education.

Johnson emphasized the importance of appreciating the history behind the dance styles that they do and understanding that many people have grown up dancing hip hop or listening to the music they use. This context allows dancers to understand the gravity behind their work — each movement is loaded with a rich history.

“This is not hip hop from another source. It’s not hip hop from, you know, white facing companies or groups. This is hip hop from where it originated,” Johnson told me.

This opportunity to indulge in the Black arts is not just reserved for Black students — it’s open to everyone. Since its conception in 1990, BAC has been open to all students, but its membership has historically been composed primarily of African Americans and other students of color. Today, BAC boasts dancers from various backgrounds, all united by their appreciation for the Black arts.

To Balogun, this diversity is important for many reasons — not only does it create more manpower to sustain the presence of Black culture at Princeton, but also sparks meaningful conversations between students.

However, this openness is a two-

PHOTO BY COLLIN RIGGINS

way street. BAC extends a warm welcome to anyone who wants to experience the history of the Black arts. However, those who wish to participate must also treat it with utmost respect.

“Whenever we have auditionees, we always ask them what Black arts means to them, and you’d be surprised by some of the answers we get,” said Balogun.

“Why is cultural sharing so important at BAC?” I asked.

“I think it can bring about really interesting perspectives to people’s experiences growing up. Maybe they grew up in an area that was predominantly Black. Maybe they were very much surrounded by Black music and Black dance, and that’s something they want to appreciate.”

“Do you ever feel the need to protect your culture and keep it your own?” I followed up.

“I think it’s important to emphasize difference, and not look at it as a bad thing. We all come from different places and have different cultures. If we appreciate them instead of trying to erase each other, it’s a lot better than just saying ‘We’re doing

hip hop and let’s not talk about Blackness at all.’ That does nothing for us,” Balogun responded.

During the show, this diversity and cultural appreciation was not only present among the dancers, it was reflected in the audience. Halfway through the second act, one of the dancers invited audience members to join them in “getting down” on stage. Immediately, a flurry of hands shot up. As the four chosen members moved to the music, the crowd cheered and clapped along. The evidence was undeniable — BAC wasn’t just building a group of great dancers, it was building a community.

For many Black students, BAC is a safe space on campus. And for Balogun and Johnson, BAC was their first home at Princeton.

“BAC was my first taste to Black life and dance, and getting those two at the same time,” said Johnson. “We moved like a family — there was really no person left behind from studying together, eating together, partying together, chilling together.

It’s been the lens in which I see my Princeton life, academically

and socially.”

“Coming to Princeton, I was really unsure about what I was going to be experiencing as a Black woman on this campus.

Having a space that was so predominantly Black and had Black people in positions of authority, who were looking out for me, who were mentors to me, who I saw thriving at Princeton was really inspiring,” said Balogun.

As the dancers rushed on stage for their final bow, it was clear that “The Get Down” was much more than just a dance showcase — it was a celebration of Black culture past and present. That Friday night, Frist Theatre came to life, and I was delighted to be swept away on a journey that carried so much gravity yet so much joy.

“Black culture has become a universal thing,” said Johnson.

“But, to be where it is strongest and where it is most proud — I think it’s something very special.”

Kerrie Liang is a head editor for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’

page 30

PROSPECT | MARCH 2023

By Abby Yuexi Lu | Prospect Writer Emeritus In a small candle shop near an entrance to a Hong Kong subway station, a middle-aged gentleman spoke to me about astrology and life’s dreams. I kid you not. This random store owner asked, out of nowhere, if I was a Pisces. I am. “Love comes slowly, and life’s dreams could be within reach,” he assured me; I added this memory to my cache of interesting encounters. In rented studio spaces, I played card games with local college students whom I’d only met a few times. I sampled countless 1980s Cantopop albums on my late night taxi trips back home. I can imagine my memories of summer strung together by the countless hands of those I briefly crossed paths with — like dried persimmon that hang in markets.

I was a wanderer of my city, a crow dashing through the tangle of streetlights, buildings, and neon glows in search of … what, exactly? I found comfort in my perpetual motion and the knowledge I never truly had to settle. My walks around the city were a source of constant, stimulating changes of scenery. I would wave to a stall owner as I walked by her soymilk store and pet the cat in the fishing temple. I was at peace with the fact that I might never cross paths with them again. Belonging would come easy no matter where I went, so I was content with goodbyes. Human connections are just brief explosions of light on a revolving lantern whose beauty lies in its transience.

Just like that, the summer gave way to Princeton, a future that, for months, had seemed like simply a distant prospect.

Being a first-year is daunting. Faced with the plethora of choices at Princeton, I no longer saw a clear path through the stoic matrix of bodies, books, and gatherings. The moving scenery I always found comfort in started spinning uncontrollably, and I found nothing resembling the peace at the eye of the storm. The monotony and transience that carried me through years of high school had fallen apart, and I found myself desperately trying to reassemble it from a scatter of clogs, bolts, and scrap metal on the floor.

The basement of Holder Hall is an interesting place at midnight.

The fluorescent glow and string of door frames down its corridors combine to create a liminal space where time is suspended. Where is the laundry room, the study room rumored to be blessed with air-conditioning, but most importantly, the exit? I often found myself utterly lost.

I spent the unstructured first weeks of orientation looking forward to my classes and the semblance of structure they might entail. Yet with every commitment I added to my schedule, sprinting from classes to sports to clubs to Firestone Library, to Chancellor

The Daily Princetonian

In love I trust Green to Frist Campus Center to my room to Holder basement, I felt increasingly lost and lonely. Every warm smile I received induced a rush of happiness, yet these brief moments compounded passionately, revoltingly, over time into nothing.

I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to 80s Cantopop during runs to Firestone. As I listened to “Happy are Those in Love,” by Shirley Kwan, scenes of lovers holding hands and running against the wind came to mind. Shrouded by fog under the moonlight, I felt the exhilaration of the characters connecting with one another, as I, in contrast, rushed by the people I passed on my way, never slowing down to examine their faces. More than the romance depicted in the song, I craved the kind of connection that would make me want to stay up talking all night, the kind that would make my heart ache, the kind that would make me want to hop on midnight train rides to New York to do nothing more than stroll the streets and talk.

Transience is a truth in life I accepted long ago: I was content with my goodbyes, parting gently and inconsequentially with the people who had entered gently and inconsequentially into my life.

Relationships were like clouds floating by, and I had accepted the impossibility of grasping onto this mist. Yet, suddenly, I didn’t want these moments to just pass by anymore. I wanted to feel the sentimentality exalted in the song and to one day be able to claim these thoughts as my own.

I’m slowly learning to hold every small interaction at Princeton close to my heart. I appreciate the person who spoke to me about film on a couch at 48 University Place, my conversation partners down in the Holder basement during the wee hours of the night, the angel who brought cookies to Frist for me, and the ones who give warm, all-encompassing hugs that just make me melt.

I’ve finally allowed myself to feel the paralyzing dread that shoots down my spine every so often when I am faced with a room full of strangers; the profound loneliness in realizing that as an international student, I am a lonesome leaf drifting down the stream; the serenity of haunting the architecture building like a ghost. I’ve also become more attuned to the beauties and joys around me. There’s a line from Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”: “you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Now, I live for the sensational thrill of human connection — that first moment I dared to sway to the music in the Dillon Gymnasium Multi-Purpose Room, or sit down at a table in Frist with people I’ve crossed paths with only a few times before.

In allowing myself to feel, I’ve dared to move beyond the simple

“hello” stage with my interactions. I imagine every moment split into a million stop-motion frames, and I am just now stepping into each individual frame, appreciating them as masterpieces in their own right instead of faceless building blocks of an empty memory.

Transience may be a truth in life, but I must also feel the moment, so when parting does come, it will be consequential. For once, I am starting to embrace heartaches, because those, too, will pass and splash color in the painting of my life.

I find myself forever craving new feelings and searching for new colors. The man in the candle shop was right. Thinking back, that conversation with him was a result of my courage to interact with a world that otherwise would have been a stagnant picture, just a scene in my life where I pass by a candle store. Yet he was the muse I never knew I needed, a lighthouse whose call I heeded when I didn’t even realize I was lost. By taking the time to slow down, I opened myself up to a serendipitous salvation.

Love comes slowly — and when it does, I’ll be ready.

Abby Yuexi Lu was a contributing writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince,’ from Hong Kong.

ABBY LU / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

SEPTEMBER 2022

An ode to Halloweekend

By Eric Fenno | Prospect Writer Emeritus

Leaves rain down to cover walkways with a sea of orange and red. I kick my way through, admiring a particular leaf with a vibrant green core that gradually transitions into a deep red. I am on my way home from my last class on a Friday — what could be a more beautiful thing? The fog and rain of the week has dissipated into a nice warm sunshine just in time for everyone to stay warm and dry as they run around in silly costumes all weekend. The buzz of anticipation builds as I return to my room. My roommates are all home when I return, bubbling with eagerness to prepare for the night’s festivities.

Getting ready is the most essential part of a Halloween party. Whether you just throw on an oversized shirt and boxers for a low effort but utterly classic “the guy from Risky Business” or you don full-fledged face makeup, green hair, and purple suit for the Joker, getting ready is the time to get into character.

You are no longer you. You are morphing into whomever or whatever you choose to be for the night. It is the best opportunity you get all year to not be a sad and lonely student swamped with work — or at least not look like one.

The pregame inevitably follows, though it has really been going on throughout the preparation process. Personally, I find the pregame to be a harshly underrated part of the night. Often more fun than the game itself, the pregame is where you and your close pals scheme for the night ahead. Where are we gonna go? Who are we gonna see? The possibilities are endless. The people start to feel themselves, everyone looking good in their costumes and ready to show off at the party.

You try to play it cool but eventually excitement boils over and it’s time for everyone to roll to the Street.

The party itself is where all of that preparation and scheming gets shattered and tossed

out the window. Sweat consumes your costume, dripping your Joker face paint all over the dance floor, but you don’t care, this song is your jam. Plus, you’re in costume, so you can convince yourself that no one knows it’s you anyway. Why not go all out? You talk to people you never imagined you would see in a sexy bunny outfit and, if you get lucky, you even catch a glimpse of Buzz Lightyear projectile vomiting off the balcony. Halloweekend is a time for all rules and regulations to take a backseat and let shit get spooky.

Decorations gradually get torn from the wall, costumes get unbuttoned, untied, and reduced to a shadow of themselves. The group has disappeared, one with the sexy bunny, another helping Buzz Lightyear get cozy in bed, but it’s okay because you’ve found new friends at the party and you’re all going out for a smoke before collapsing into bed.

As the joint comes your direction you reflect on the night’s most random and funny moments. The night sky glistens with the satisfaction of witnessing such uncivil shenanigans, and all is well. You think of the connections you made and fun you had, as well as the possibilities for the rest of the weekend. It’s only Friday after all.

On the way home, perhaps you and your crew catch a second wind and decide to climb around on one of the countless construction sites until PSAFE diligently arrives and shoos you away. You run from them right out of your shoe but in the adrenaline of the moment decide to leave it there. You will get it in the morning if you have to. So you walk the rest of the way home in one sockfoot, but you don’t worry about it. You don’t remember how you made it into your bed but eventually you do, costume now strewn across the floor, makeup still on, and you cozy up and fall asleep immediately, ready to do it all again tomorrow night.

Eric Fenno was a staff writer for The Prospect and Sports at the ‘Prince.’

The Daily Princetonian

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Six apps and extensions I use to manage my reading workload

APRIL 2023

By Avery Danae Williams | Staff Prospect Writer

It’s no secret that Princeton is a major academic transition during your first semester, especially if you load up on reading-intensive courses like I did. It wasn’t long before I was reading an average of 70 to 80 pages a week for my humanities classes, more than I ever had for my high school courses. Fortunately, I have and will continue to use six apps and extensions to manage my workload. Let’s get into them!

1. Finch First and foremost, prioritizing your mental health is critical to your academic performance. This is especially the case when reading about sensitive topics before class. If I ever found myself getting emotional while reading, I’d simply open Finch. Available for mobile devices only, Finch describes itself on Google Play as a “self-care pet tracker.”

The bird you care for grows from a baby to an adult as you progress through your mental health journey. Moreover, as your bird embarks on new adventures, it develops new likes, dislikes, and interests that shape its unique personality.

My favorite part of Finch is how everything is in one place. I, for instance, use the habit tracker to ensure I’m balancing my reading with activities like writing poetry.

This way, I project my strong emotions creatively rather than onto other people. And unsurprisingly, I mostly use the mood journal to write out my emotions. I ask myself: What about the text is making me feel this way and why? How does the reading relate to past and present life events? When I finish, I feel a lot better knowing I’m in a calmer headspace to continue reading.

Self-care can often feel impossible when you seem to be working nonstop in college.

Nevertheless, using Finch can hold you accountable for your mental health as you track the ebbs and flows during your time at Princeton.

2. Squid Nonfiction writer William Zinsser once said that “writing is thinking on paper.”

Therefore, I prefer handwriting my papers to avoid writer’s block. But when I bought a stylus for my touchscreen Chromebook, I downloaded the app, Squid, to try my hand at digital note-taking — no pun intended.

I was previously opposed to handwriting my notes digitally, because other apps made my penmanship appear messy. But what I love about Squid is that I can zoom in as much as 1000 percent to ensure my handwriting remains legible. Squid also lets you choose from several templates and sizes depending on your project needs. My go-to settings are the blank piece of paper and infinite size. My note-taking style, where all possible ideas written in different colors fill

the page, best aligns with these two options.

I highly recommend Squid for documenting longer readings, too. I’ll listen to the reading using Speechify, give myself an hour to process the information, and then start writing my thoughts out. Granted, it is timeconsuming, but not as time-consuming as typing copious notes per page on EverNote.

Squid is available to download on mobile and desktop devices, as long as the latter has a touchscreen. And who knows? Perhaps by trying it, your writing will become thinking on digital paper!

3. EasyBib Research is often the most fun, yet overwhelming, part of writing papers for me. An abundance of (mostly) reputable information, yet not many pages in a research paper to include all of it. That’s why ever since high school, I’ve used EasyBib to create my citations. All I needed to do was copy and paste the website link into EasyBib, and the extension automatically filled out the important fields like date published, article title, and website title. Sometimes, the information was not explicitly stated on the website, so I manually typed what was missing or left those fields blank. Additionally, you can create citations for other media like books and documentaries.

In EasyBib, you can create and name citation lists. In my first semester, I used to keep all my sources in one place and copy them individually. This led to confusion about what sources went with each paper, especially if I was working on multiple at once.

But, taking advantage of this new feature, I made lists for each paper to reorganize my sources. It also, in the future, would make great trips down memory lane — if I ever chose to submit my papers for possible inclusion in academic journals, I could look back on previous sources to determine if they’re still relevant to my paper. After all, you often gain a new perspective from rereading your writing several weeks, months, or years later.

4. Speechify I was skeptical at first after seeing YouTube advertisements for this extension. However, I started using it senior year for AP Literature and haven’t looked back. Using Speechify, you can select a male or female narrator to read articles and documents aloud to you.

Narrators’ accents range from English, British, and Australian. You can also adjust the speed. Faster speeds, for instance, may help auditory learners absorb information while doing other tasks like laundry.

Sometimes — and I’m sure other writers could relate to this — we become so emotionally attached to our writing that we do not want to change anything. Speechify is my last step before submitting papers, because I am more likely to take my time fixing grammatical errors or rephrasing sentences when I hear it out loud than if I sat silently

6.

skimming through the document. I’m not saying that Speechify should replace physical reading, attending office hours, or visiting the Writing Center. Instead, it’s best to use this extension to supplement the work you’re already doing.

5. EverNote EverNote is a productivity platform that lets you create to-do lists, write notes, and plan projects … the possibilities are endless! I use it in place of Google Docs to create notebooks for my classes. I appreciate how simple the interface is, allowing me to take the time to understand the material.

Other apps like Notion distract me with the amount of customization involved, whereas the straightforward design of EverNote is great for focusing.

For my notes, I separated them into “Preliminary Process,” where I predicted what the reading will entail, and “Actual Reading,” where I engaged with the text as I read.

I would record important details and my interpretations to include in class discussions; I divided my notes with subheadings that corresponded to the reading’s different sections. Any details I accidentally left out during my initial reading I would include if they appeared on professors’ slides. Unless you’re Sonic the Hedgehog, I don’t recommend waiting until during class to write notes. You’ll be overwhelmed by cramming information and probably won’t be able to pay attention to the professor. Do the notetaking in advance, so that when it’s time to write papers, you won’t be scrambling to collect the information needed to strengthen your arguments.

6. Google Docs I know you’re probably thinking, “Avery, everyone uses Google Docs.” And although I still use it to write my papers, I no longer use it to write class notes. Instead, in Google Docs I create what I call my “Reading, Writing, Watching, and Studying Schedule” for the semester. Suppose I had 28 pages to read for my Wednesday philosophy class. I would allocate how many pages I would read on Monday and Tuesday — I would enter the date and task, and then strikethrough once I finished.

The master document also contains reminders to work on papers and watch documentaries for my Freshman Seminar. Since I intentionally designed my schedule to space out my classes, I often put two to three tasks per night depending on how much work I want to complete in between classes.

You don’t have to replicate this system, but I found that it helped me visually track my deadlines while giving me time to process what I’m learning.

Avery Danae Williams is a staff writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince’.

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Opinion Sports

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Sports Year in Review: The most impressive Tiger teams of 2022–23

MARCH 2023

By Brian Mhando

Assistant Sports Editor

It has been a dominant year for Princeton athletics.

After being ranked the No. 14 athletic program in the country, Princeton not only boasts the best undergraduate education in the world, but the best athletic program in the Ivy League. In terms of the performance of teams, there was no shortage of success for Princeton.

Princeton basketball takes over March Madness If the New York Yankees ask you to throw the first pitch, then you have done something exceptional. For men’s basketball Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98, his team’s March Madness run was nothing short of that.

Henderson led Princeton basketball to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1967. Led by senior forward Tosan Evbuomwan and senior guard Ryan Langborg, the Tigers became only the fourth No. 15 seed to make the Sweet 16, defeating No. 2 seed Arizona Wildcats and No. 7 seed Missouri Tigers before succumbing to the No. 6 seed Creighton Blue Jays. Already making history, Princeton beat the Missouri Tigers by the largest margin for a No. 15 seed in March Madness history.

Following their historic March Madness run, Evbuomwan declared for the 2023 NBA draft, while Langborg and senior forward Keeshawn Kellman used their graduate year of eligibility to transfer to Northwestern and Florida Gulf Coast, respectively.

“This year was a great experience for me personally and the team too,” first-year guard Xavian Lee told the Daily Princetonian. “Making the Sweet 16 was a great experience, it sets the bar high for us next year.”

Women’s basketball also had a successful season.

Down two points to No. 7 ranked NC State in the first round of March Madness, senior forward Grace Stone hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to secure the victory and advance. Though the Tigers’ run was cut short after a loss to the No. 2 ranked Utah Utes, their journey to the

Round of 32 was memorable.

“This senior season was special,” senior guard Julia Cunningham told the ‘Prince.’ “Winning the Ivy League for the fourth time in a row and winning the Ivy championship on our home floor in front of our home crowd was something I am never going to forget.”

Stone will play basketball next year overseas.

Women’s rugby begins its first season as a varsity team Although women’s rugby faced challenges adjusting to the new level of competition, this year marked an exciting start as the first year for the University’s newly established varsity women’s rugby team.

“We faced a tough first varsity season and had to overcome injuries and setbacks throughout,” firstyear eight-person Amelia Clarke explained. “While the scoreboard may not have always reflected it, we can be proud of the progress we made and look forward to building on it in the next season and years to come.”

Women’s rowing dominates for a second consecutive year No. 1 Princeton crew finished third at the NCAA championships this year for the second season in a row. With a time of 6:22.17, the first varsity was only bested by first-place Stanford and the second place Washington Huskies.

For the first time in program history, women’s crew finished top three for two consecutive years, marking their best performances since their second-place finish in 2014.

Women’s lightweight rowing is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the country. They will look to defend their team points and varsity eight titles in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) national championships on June 3–4.

Men’s and women’s water polo make history With four All-American men’s players for the first time in program history, a win against Stanford men’s

water polo for the first time in program history, the first-ever NCAA semifinals appearance for women’s water polo, and the most ever men’s water polo wins in a year, this season has arguably been the greatest of all time for an East Coast water polo program.

“I am very proud of how our season went,“ first-year goalie Lindsey Lucas told the ‘Prince.’ “Making it into the top four felt incredible, but I know, when I look back on this season, it won’t be our accomplishments that I remember the most. It will be that our team became a family.”

Men’s Head Coach Dustin Litvak and women’s Head Coach Derek Ellingson led Princeton water polo to a record-breaking year. The men’s team, led by senior captain and attacker Keller Maloney, reached their second NCAA quarterfinals in two years, an unprecedented feat for an East Coast team.

“By many counts, this was the most successful season in Princeton water polo history,” Keller said. “We sent a clear message to the traditionally dominant West Coast. Coach Litvak helped us believe that, despite our disadvantages, we could be one of the best teams in the country.”

Tiger fencing enjoys its best season since 2014 With three bronze and three silver individual medals, an Ivy championship, and a national second-place finish, Head Coach Zoltan Dudas rightfully earned his Coach of the Year award.

The last time the Tigers had managed to place top two in the country was from 2012 to 2014, with two second-placed finishes and a national title in 2013.

Though the Notre Dame Fighting Irish took first place for the third year in a row, the Tigers overcame the tough Columbia (No. 1 in women’s) and Harvard (No. 1 in men’s) teams to finish second in the country. Eleven of their 12 competitors finished with All-American honors.

Four-peat for Tigers Tennis

For the fourth year in a row, women’s tennis won the Ivy League championship. In her first year as head coach, Jamea Jackson led the Tigers to a 7–0 conference record.

Continued Field Hockey and Swim and Dive dominance for the Tigers Women’s Field Hockey went undefeated in the Ivy League to take their 20th undefeated Ivy Championship.

Similarly, Women’s swimming and diving earned their 24th swimming and diving Ivy League title by edging past Harvard. The Tigers were in control the entire meet, taking 12 event titles in the tournament.

Other notable finishes Men’s cross country won the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, and the Tigers placed 30th in the NCAA cross country championships. Meanwhile, women’s cross country finished second in the Ivy Championships and fourth in the NCAA regionals.

Men’s golf finished first this year in the Ivy League championships, and placed 18th in the NCAA regionals.

After an erratic season, Men’s Lacrosse won the Ivy League Championships before losing to Penn State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Men’s heavyweight rowing won several cups this year, concluding the season with their first secondplace finish in the Varsity Eight since 2016. Men’s lightweight rowing won their first EARC title since 2010. Both men’s rowing teams will look to finish their seasons strong at the IRA national championship on June 2–4.

This year has been one to remember for the Tigers.

The year of the Tiger might’ve ended in 2022, but, at Princeton, it stayed a little longer.

Brian Mhando is an assistant editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

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Sports

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Sports Year in Review: The standout Tiger athletes of 2022–23

By Brian Mhando

Assistant Sports Editor

The Tigers, in addition to lots of team success, had a year filled with notable individual accomplishments and accolades. From a National Football League draft pick to the end of a wrestling championship drought, here are some of the best individual performances of 2022–23.

Tiger to Tiger: Senior receiver Andrei Iosivas joins Cincinnati Bengals Iosivas became the first Princeton footballer since Seth Devalve ’16 to get drafted by an NFL team.

After a career year, where Iosivas led the Ivy League in receptions, the Cincinnati Bengals selected him in the sixth round, 206th overall. Iosivas will now join the list of 23 Princeton alumni who have been drafted into the NFL. Tigers reunite in the MLS Like his former teammate and fellow 2021 Ivy League Champion Kevin O’Toole ’22 did last year, junior midfielder Malik Pinto went pro, joining MLS team FC Cincinnati.

“Despite a subpar season for our Princeton soccer standards, the journey was filled with impressive growth and valuable lessons,” Pinto told the ‘Prince.’ “On a more personal note, this season had a silver lining, as I entered the professional soccer world.”

On May 10, Pinto and O’Toole met as opponents for the first time. In their first of many more matchups, Pinto and FC Cincinnati prevailed, taking the 1–0 win against NYCFC in the U.S. Open Cup. Glory and Monday revive Princeton wrestling The 72-year wait is over. After a 4–1 win against Purdue’s Mathew Ramos, senior wrestler Patrick Glory took home the wrestling championship in the 125-weight class. No other Princeton wrestler had been able to accomplish this feat since Bradley Glass ’53.

This year, Glory went undefeated (25–0), earning his fourth All-American Award. Along with Glory, senior wrestler Quincy Monday took third place at the NCAA championships in the 165-pound weight class. He ended the season with

a stellar 27–3 record. Collectively, Glory and Monday are two of four wrestlers in program history with multiple top-three NCAA finishes.

As a team, Princeton wrestling placed 13th, marking this season as one of the greatest seasons in Princeton wrestling history.

Fantinelli finishes first, a notable year for Princeton golf First-year golfer Riccardo Fantinelli led the Tigers to a NCAA regionals qualification following his first-place performance at the Ivy League championships. The Ivy League Rookie of the Year received medalist honors after beating out Harvard golfer Brian Ma by four strokes and became just the third rookie in Princeton history to win medalist honors.

“Seeing as this is my first year of collegiate golf, I’m really pleased with the culture of our team,” said Fantinelli. “I was really happy with our performance this season, but there’s always room for improvement. Everyone on the team is ambitious and we push each other on and off the course.”

Men’s golf finished first this year individually and as a team in the Ivy League championships, with notable third and fourth place finishes by sophomore Jackson Fretty and first-year William Huang catapulting the team to first. The Tigers finished 18th in the NCAA regionals.

Women’s golf additionally had a notable season, with first-year Catherine Rao finishing as runner-up in Ivy League Championships. For the first time since the awards have been given, both the Ivy League Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards went to Princetonians. Sophomore Victoria Liu was an unanimous selection for Ivy League Player of the Year and finished 25th overall at NCAA regionals, while Rao was selected for Rookie of the Year.

Senior pole vaulter Sondre Guttormsen wins his third national championship With his record-tying six-meter pole vault, Guttormsen won his third NCAA national championship in outdoor track and field and second title in indoor track and field.

After going toe-to-toe with Texas Tech’s Zach Bradford, Guttormsen broke his personal vaulting record twice, initially jumping 5.91 meters, then 6 meters after that. With this NCAA tournament victory, Guttormsen will go down as one of the greatest pole vaulters in Princeton track and field history.

Tigers dominate beyond the Ivy-League, nationally and internationally Women’s ice hockey junior forward Sarah Fillier and defender Claire Thompson ’20 won silver with Team Canada at the International Ice Hockey Federation Championships. Fillier was named tournament MVP, scoring seven goals while assisting four.

Junior Karim Elbarbary was named first team All-American in men’s squash. He finished as a quarterfinalist in the CSA individual championships. Senior Andrea Toth was additionally named first team All-American in women’s squash, finishing top 10 in the CSA individual championships.

Senior swimmer Raunak Khosla became a nine-time All-American this year, finishing ninth in the 200-meter butterfly at the NCAA national championship. He also led men’s swimming and diving to their first top-25 finish in program history, with Ivy League tournament wins in 200-meter Individual Medley, 200-meter butterfly, 400-meter IM, and 800-meter freestyle relay.

Other notable achievements Men’s lacrosse star sophomore attacker Coulter Macksey made history this season, scoring 55 goals, which was enough to break the singleseason goal record for Princeton men’s lacrosse.

Senior tennis player Daria Frayman won Ivy League player of the year, ending the season with a 31­–6 record and an ITA singles ranking as high as No. 4.

Senior cross-country runner Abby Loveys placed third overall in the 5000m at Outdoor Heptagonals, which was enough to take her to the regional round of the national championship.

PHOTO COURTESY OF @TIGERMENSSOCCER/TWITTER.

The two 2021 Ivy League Champions met for the first time as professional soccer players in the U.S. Open Cup.

Brian Mhando is an assistant editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

MARCH 2023

Senior Patrick Glory becomes first Princeton NCAA wrestling champion in 72 years

By Nishka Bahl

Head Sports Editor

On Saturday, Mar. 18, senior wrestler Patrick Glory won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 125-pound men’s wrestling championship, becoming the first NCAA wrestling champion for Princeton in 72 years with a 4–1 victory over Purdue’s Matt Ramos.

Throughout his Princeton career, the four-time All-American compiled a number of awards, beginning by placing sixth as a first-year in his NCAA Championship debut. With the event being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, Glory arrived at the 2022 NCAA Championship ready to perform. However, in Detroit, Mi. that year, Glory just missed earning the national champion title, placing second after losing to Michigan’s Nick Suriano 5–3.

“Walking off this stage taking second is the worst feeling in the world,” Glory said in his post-win interview with ESPN. “I just wanted to come out here and prove to everybody I could do it and that Pat Glory is a national champion.”

This year, in Tulsa, Okla., the secondseeded Glory proved himself as a national champion against fourth-seeded Ramos, joining Bradley Glass ’53 as a

Princeton wrestling national champion. In 1951, Glass won the unlimitedweight NCAA championship, but no other Tiger, until Glory, had earned a national title in any weight class.

“I’ve seen that picture (of Glass) since before I was a freshman going to ROTC practices,” Glory said. “I always wanted to move him over a little bit and make some room for me. I’m just so glad we could do it.”

In the NCAA finals, Glory demonstrated his dominance over Ramos, scoring off an escape in the second period and a takedown early in the third.

Ramos’s only score came from a penalty point occurring with just a second left in the third period.

Among those congratulating Glory after his victory was former President Donald Trump, who shook hands with him, as well as with Glory’s mother, father, and brother.

Heading into NCAA Championships, Glory had recorded a 20–0 record in his senior year and contributed 23 points to the Tigers’ overall 13th-place team finish.

“To win a national championship for Princeton and be the first one to do it since 1951 is something everyone that’s associated with our program

has dreamed of,“ Glory told The Daily Princetonian.

“It’s still surreal, and I am so grateful to have been a part of a class and a program that supports wrestling in the

way Princeton does.”

Nishka Bahl is a head editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

COURTESY OF @TIGERWRESTLING.

Senior Pat Glory became the first NCAA wrestling champion for Princeton in 72 years with a 4–1 victory over Purdue’s Matt Ramos.

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Midnight strikes on men’s basketball’s Cinderella run in 86–75 loss to Creighton

By Wilson Conn

Head Sports Editor Emeritus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With under a minute left in Friday night’s Sweet 16 matchup, men’s basketball senior guard Ryan Langborg banked in a deep three-pointer from the top of the key, to raucous applause from the swaths of orange gathered in the KFC Yum! Center.

The shot gave Langborg, who has often been the hero of this year’s March Madness run, a career-high of 26 points. But this time, his basket was too little, too late, cutting the deficit to just eight, a gap that would prove insurmountable in the 15th-seeded Tigers’ (23–9 overall, 10–4 Ivy League) eventual 86–75 loss to sixth-seeded Creighton (23–12, 14–6 Big East).

From the start, Princeton struggled to contain Creighton’s offense. Within the first six minutes of the game, the Bluejays scored 17 points. Key to their hot start was guard Baylor Scheierman, who scored eight of their first 12 and finished with 21 points, shooting 73 percent from the field and hitting five of his seven three-point attempts.

Although the high-flying pace of the game was not to Princeton’s advantage, the Tigers kept up throughout the first half. A mid-half 9–2 run, which included a rare three-pointer from senior forward Tosan Evbuomwan and a pair of trademarked Princeton backdoor cuts, erased an eight-point Creighton advantage, at a juncture when it had seemed that the Bluejays were ready to break the game wide open. And with just under six minutes left in the half, a three-pointer from Langborg gave the Tigers a 34–33 lead. “[Langborg] deserves a lot more, I think, from the Ivy League, in terms of recognition,” Evbuomwan said after the game, referencing the fact that Langborg did not receive any conference honors.

“But it clearly doesn’t mean anything to him … he has played the last few weeks and just put us on his back. He has been unbelievable.”

“He has just been terrific,” head coach Mitch Henderson ’98 added. “His confidence level rose throughout the [NCAA] Tournament, and so did ours.”

After a three-pointer from sophomore guard Blake Peters gave Princeton their largest lead of the game, 37–33, the Bluejays flew back into the lead, going on a 12–1 run to give themselves a seven-point advantage. The Tigers once again bounced back, though, as a Peters triple and an Evbuomwan layup would bring the score to 47–43, Creighton, at the half. The English forward finished the first frame with 15 points, four rebounds, and six assists.

Despite Evbuomwan’s impressive first-half numbers, and just three Tiger turnovers, Princeton entered the locker room with a number of glaring issues. Principal among these was their inability to provide any resistance to Creighton’s offense, which was shooting a scalding 62.1 percent from the field and making half of their three-point attempts.

To make matters worse, the Tigers, who entered 11th in the nation in rebounding margin, were losing the battle on the glass, 16–14.

“I thought the last four minutes of the first half was crucial, swinging their way, and we couldn’t get back into the game,” Henderson said.

Although Princeton stuck around for much of the second half, the struggles both defending and rebounding meant Creighton remained in control down the stretch; for the game, Princeton was outrebounded 37–26, and the Bluejays ended up shooting 58.2 percent from the field. Creighton opened the second half on a 21–9 run, and the undersized Tigers continued to struggle with the length of the Creighton players inside, uncharacteristically losing battles for loose balls and seeing their shots authoritatively denied at the rim.

“They’re really well-coached,” Henderson noted.

“They know exactly what they are, and they’re very well-oiled, as we had expected.”

“We got ten more shots than they did,” he added.

“We just couldn’t stop them.”

A switch to a 1–3–1 zone defense somewhat dampened the Bluejay attack, as they shot just 53.8 percent from the field in the second half, but the combination of Scheierman and First Team All-Big East forward Ryan Kalkbrenner — who finished with 21 points on 75 percent shooting — remained potent.

“We had seen great size and length against Ari-

zona, but we [hadn’t] seen Kalkbrenner’s agility and speed,” Henderson said. “I thought he was the key.

They just got easy baskets when they needed them.”

Of course, to hold any lead in March, a team also needs a bit of luck. In Princeton’s second-round win over Missouri, their good fortune was the hot shooting of Peters, as he scored 17 points in the game’s final 11 minutes. However, Lady Luck seemed to have sided with Creighton on Friday night. As a pair of second-half Peters three-pointers rimmed out, Scheierman banked in a triple of his own, extending the Bluejays’ lead.

After the 18-minute mark of the second half, this lead dropped below eight just once, on a pair of Tosan Evbuomwan free throws with under four minutes remaining. A string of fouls extended the game late for Princeton, but the valiant efforts of Evbuomwan (24 points, six rebounds, nine assists) and Langborg (who scored more than half of his squad’s second-half points) were not enough. The Tigers were forced into submission before the final buzzer, emptying the bench as the senior stars left the court for the final time in Orange and Black.

“We fought all the way to the end, but came up short,” Henderson said. “That does not define us one bit.”

After the game, the thousands of Tiger fans who made the trip to Kentucky didn’t filter out of the arena, treating the team to a standing ovation befitting their historic run. The Princeton faithful — alumni, students, and locals alike — were out in force all tournament long, filling both the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Ca. last weekend and the KFC Yum! Center Friday night with rapturous cheers.

“We wouldn’t be here without the fans, without the alums, everybody that’s come to support us,” Langborg said. “Every time we hit a couple of shots, they’re going nuts, and it gives us all the confidence in the world. I’m very thankful for everyone who is supporting us.”

With this year’s tournament characterized, as is usual, by its unpredictability — being the first where not a single one-seed team qualified for the Elite Eight — Princeton was among the most unforeseeable stories of them all. The Tigers were just the 11th 15-seed to ever win a game in March Madness, and were just the fourth to ever win two. And for the first time in modern tournament history, Princeton qualified for the Sweet 16.

“I think it just shows that there’s not a lot that separates us from everyone else,” Langborg said. “[If] you have a tough group who [are] bonded and the best of friends, [and if] you play with joy, anything can happen.”

“These guys have done something that no one has ever done,” Henderson added. “I know that

JULIA NGUYEN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

The Tigers walk off the floor after the loss.

there [were] some really great Princeton teams in the past, but this is a really, really special team.”

Even though the team and its fans will undoubtedly wonder what could have been had the squad continued their run, making it this far in the tournament remains a historic accomplishment. And although the Tigers won’t end up lifting the trophy in Houston next week, the fact still remains: Cinderella is a Jersey girl.

“I’m so proud of them,” Henderson said. “The school is so proud of them.”

“You look at this as such a successful year. It’s such a year of joy for our program.”

Wilson Conn is a head editor emeritus for the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’

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