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Friday March 18, 2022 vol. CXLVI no. 6
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OBITUARY
Women’s basketball looking for March Madness revenge 11-seed Tigers to face Kentucky in rematch of 2019 battle By Isabel Rodrigues sports contributor COURTESY OF JAMISON MERCURIO
Abraham Joshua ’21
Family, friends mourn the loss of Abraham Joshua ’21 By Sandeep Mangat
Associate News Editor
Abraham Joshua ’21, a recent graduate of the chemistry department, died on March 2 in San Francisco, Calif. due to a collision between his electric scooter and a semi-truck. Joshua was a science teacher at Mission Preparatory School and was on his way to work. He was 23 years old. Joshua, known affectionately among loved ones as “Abe,” was born on Nov. 25, 1998 in Texas to parents Elizabeth Kidane and Dr. Eyassu Hailemichael. After moving to Washington, D.C., the family eventually settled in Morgantown, W.Va., where Joshua grew up with his brother, Samson. Always an avid reader and intellectually curious student, Joshua attended Suncrest Middle School in the gifted program. One of his classmates, James Deng, reflected on the
impression that Joshua had on him at such a young age. “What made Abe really important to my life was that he was a compassionate person who always had time for me and always made me feel included,” he said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. Joshua later enrolled at Morgantown High School, where he and Deng remained friends, with Deng fondly recalling studying for the SAT and “playing hundreds of hours of League of Legends” with him. At Morgantown, Joshua found a passion for chemistry and an outlet in singing, competing in the school quiz bowl and performing in the show choir. Sidd Subramanyam, with whom Joshua won the 2016 state Science Bowl competition, recalled the impact his friend had. “Abe was a kind and brilliant soul who bettered the lives of everyone
The PROSPECT
A gift of music:
Princeton University Orchestra’s stunning spring concert By Sage Kanemaru
Contributing Writer
In this digital day and age, witnessing the grandeur of the symphony is an often forgotten privilege. A few weeks ago, I was treated to the exquisite repertoire of the Princeton University Orchestra and felt reminded of the sheer physical and emotive force of live classical music. The Princeton University Orchestra (PUO) is Princeton’s flagship symphony orchestra. On Feb. 25 and 26, over 100 undergraduate
musicians graced the stage of Richardson Auditorium to deliver one of PUO’s eight annual performances. This concert was the product of many hours of practice on the part of the performers, as well as much time and care invested on the part of Maestro Michael Pratt. This year marks Pratt’s 44th straight season as PUO’s musical director. Friends and family of the performers reclined beneath Richardson’s warm lights and elegant decor, which lent the evening an intimate,
he met. His selflessness and care for ordinary people and his friends motivated him every day of his life,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “I will forever cherish the time we spent laughing, learning, competing, and playing.” Joshua also had an interest in writing and, while in high school, he created an anthology of his thoughts on various subjects entitled “Reflections.” In it, he discusses his interest in studying chemistry, stating that for him, it was a way of “seeing the truth.” He also expressed his interest in having his writing published in the future. Joshua would sing at school talent shows, and his friends described him as a skilled dancer. He would continue performing at Princeton, joining Old NasSoul and the Black Arts Company. Kateryn McReynolds ’20 became See OBITUARY page 3
The Tigers are ready for the “Big Dance.” On Saturday, March 12, the undefeated Princeton women’s basketball team (24–4, 14–0 Ivy League) toppled Columbia 77–59 in the Ivy Madness final. With the win, the Tigers secured the team’s 42nd straight Ivy League victory, and their ninth visit to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship tournament, also known as March Madness. The following day, at 8 p.m. in Jadwin Gym, the Tigers got their first-round assignment: as the No. 11 seed in the Bridgeport Region, Princeton will take on the No. 6 seed University of Kentucky Wildcats (19–11 overall, 8–8 Southeastern) on Saturday, March 19 in Bloomington, Ind. The most astute of fans will quickly recognize Kentucky: Saturday’s game will be a rematch of the Tigers’ last appearance in the NCAA tournament, where the Wildcats bested the Tigers, 82–77. Junior guards Grace Stone and Julia Cunningham are the only two Tigers who appeared in the previous match-up. With a second-year head
coach in Carla Berube and a roster that has taken Princeton through a decisively undefeated Ivy League season — with plenty of accolades along the way — this is hardly the same squad that last came through the NCAA tournament. For Kentucky and their secondyear head coach in Kyra Elzy, advancement means another opportunity to prove the durability of their season-altering 10-game win streak. With a national audience watching on ESPN, both squads are sure to bring their best to Saturday’s match. The Wildcats will enter their 17th March Madness appearance on one of the most impressive winning streaks in all of Division I women’s basketball. The newly crowned champions of the Southeastern Conference are coming off of a thrilling last-second victory over No. 1 South Carolina, 64–62, which gave them their first SEC title since 1982. Kentucky have also won their last 10 games, with five consecutive wins by 15 or more. Despite a difficult stretch of losses earlier this season, Kentucky boasts one of the more remarkable comebacks of the 2022 season, led by guard See WBB page 15
STUDENT LIFE
Hess, Potter, Wayner to advance to general election for Young Alumni Trustee By Lia Opperman and Gabriel Robare Assistant News Editor and Staff Writer
In the primary elections last week for Young Alumni Trustee (YAT), the Class of 2022 selected three candidates to continue to the general election: Naomi Hess, Christian Potter, and Claire Wayner. The primary election included 21 candidates from the Class of 2022. The elected graduating senior will join the Board of Trustees and serve a four-year term. The current Young
Alumni Trustees are Morgan Smith ’21, Jackson Artis ’20, Sarah Varghese ’19, and Myesha Jemison ’18. The YAT sits on the Board and votes like any other member. They are tasked with giving the board perspective on student life and “the needs, concerns, and interests of the current generation of Princeton undergraduates,” per the Princeton University Alumni website. The Board, citing “long-standing policy,” does not allow candidates to run an issue-based campaign because “they do not run on particular platforms or take positions on spe-
cific matters of University policy.” This process has been widely criticized as undemocratic, including by the Daily Princetonian’s 145th Editorial Board before the 2021 election. The ‘Prince’ sat down with all three candidates to hear about their ambitions for the position and their thoughts on the election. “My goal if elected as Young Alumni Trustee,” said Wayner, “would be to start by listening — listening to the concerns of my peers, both those who have recently graduated and those who are still See ELECTION page 3
See PUO page 14
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CLAIRE WAYNER ’22, CHRISTIAN POTTER ’22, NAOMI HESS ’22, AND ABBY DE RIEL FOR THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Claire Wayner ’22, Christian Potter ’22, and Naomi Hess ’22 (left to right), finalists for the Young Alumni Trustee election.
COURTESY OF NICK JIN.
This Week on Campus
ACADEMICS
| A Conversation on Climate Diplomacy with Sue Biniaz — Monday, March 21, 4:30 p.m., Robertson Hall. The School of Public and International Affairs is hosting a discussion on climate diplomacy with panelists Sue Biniaz, who recently joined the Biden administration at the U.S. Department of State, and Denise Mauzerall, a Professor of Environmental Engineering and International Affairs.
SPORTS
|
ARTS | Headlines — Thursday, March 17, 8 p.m., Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. & 10 p.m., & Saturday, March 19, 7 p.m. & 10 p.m. Theatre Intime. The diSiac Dance Company presents its spring show. Tickets are $7 for those with a PUID and free with a passport for the arts.
Men’s Volleyball vs. Penn State and SFU — Friday, March 18, 7 p.m. & Saturday, March 19, 5 p.m., Jadwin Gymnasium
The Men’s Volleyball team (5-11) will face two EIVA rivals No. 3 Penn State (15-3) and Saint Francis University (12-6) this weekend.
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The Daily Princetonian
Friday March 18, 2022
University administrators talk optional masks policy, monthly testing, isolation New set of travel guidelines to come, allowing Universitysanctioned undergraduate international travel By Lia Opperman
Assistant News Editor
On March 16, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) hosted a virtual town hall with Dean of the College Jill Dolan, Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun, and other campus administrators to discuss the new COVID-19 protocols, such as the elimination of the universal indoor mask mandate and the shift from weekly testing to monthly testing for the second half of the Spring 2022 semester. Also at the town hall, Director for Global Safety and Security TJ Lundadi said that a new set of travel guidelines will be rolled out next week. “It will include allowing international undergraduate travel that’s University sanctioned,” Lundadi said. “We’ll be able to get back out in the world as we want.” Vice President for Environmental Health and Safety Robin Izzo began the event by explaining the deciding factors that led to the decision to eliminate the masking and weekly testing requirements.
“We need to find a way to live with [COVID-19] responsibly in a way that is allowing the types of experiences that we want to have on our campus,” Izzo said. “What we wanted first was to move from using testing as a mitigation strategy to using testing as a way of monitoring and looking for shifts in the positivity rates to help us to prepare for and make whatever shifts are necessary.” Izzo also emphasized the high vaccination rate on campus, which stands at 99 percent for undergraduate students, as well as the widespread availability of KN95 masks at the University as reasons behind lifting the mandate. Director of Medical Services Melissa Marks discussed the high contagion levels of the omicron variant and its comparatively low severity in terms of course of illness. “What we were seeing from [the rise in cases for students] was not spread to faculty and staff in the severity of the illness,” Marks said. Dolan emphasized that although masks are optional for all public spaces, professors and other instructors are authorized to set masking require-
ments in classrooms for the foreseeable future. Students in performing arts groups will also not be required to wear masks during performances. Izzo explained that the main purpose of the new monthly testing requirement is to look for trends in the positivity rate. She did emphasize that tests will be available to those who want to test more than once a month. “Anyone who wants to continue to test regularly may do that,” Izzo said. “We would also encourage people who feel that they are at a higher risk with COVID-19 to take advantage of [the availability of] testing,” Calhoun added. Although students have tested for COVID-19 this month coming back from spring break, according to the alphabetical distribution, those who have to test the last two weeks of the month are still required to. Students whose last names begin with A-E test the first week of each month, F-K the second, L-R the third, and S-Z the fourth. According to Marks, if a student gets the virus, recovers from the virus, and then later tests positive within the University system, they will have to isolate. Marks also emphasized that the isolation time period will remain at five days, in line with CDC guidelines. Dolan said that students in isolation should not necessarily expect hybrid teaching to be available, as technology differs across classrooms depending on the course format. She encouraged students, however, to be creative in accessing class while in isolation. “Faculty and partner students in classes were very creative about how they tried to bring isolated students into the classroom,” she said. Dolan also explained that there is a
Classrooms and Schedule Committee that works with facilities to renovate classrooms for lots of reasons, including audio-visual accessibility. “We remain committed to residential teaching, not hybrid teaching,” Dolan said. In terms of isolation housing conditions, Director for Emergency Preparedness Derek Ziegler explained that there may be changes to the housing, including isolated students getting individual rooms, instead of having to share their room with another person. “We’re hoping to move away from having double rooms in our isolation in 1967,” Ziegler said, in reference to the hall that has been allocated for isolation housing. Marks explained that immunocompromised students who have caught the virus have been closely monitored by University Health Services and have fought off the virus well. “KN95 masks are very protective for people who are vulnerable,” Dolan added. “Students who are concerned about their health should continue wearing masks. They should not fear reprisal for any reason.” The town hall was moderated by USG President Mayu Takeuchi ’23 and Vice President Hannah Kapoor ’23. USG collected questions from students through a Google Form over spring break. For the first half of the town hall, they focused on the pre-submitted questions and for the second half, they took messages through a Zoom Q&A box. Lia Opperman is an Assistant News Editor who often covers University affairs, student life, and local news. She can be reached at liaopperman@princeton.edu, on Instagram @liamariaaaa, or on Twitter @oppermanlia.
MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
The Daily Princetonian
Friday March 18, 2022
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McReynolds: Abe was one of the best men I’ve known, a true class act OBITUARY Continued from page 1
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acquainted with Joshua over the years in her capacity as president of the Princeton Tigerlilies. “Abe was one of the best men I’ve known, a true class-act, with a humor that could arrest anybody and a mind and heart that didn’t shy from darkness, but sought to [illuminate] truth and goodness from every situation,” she said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “He had a gift for making anyone feel at ease and familiar to him,“ she added. “I’m blessed to have been a friend of Abe.” On March 3, Old NasSoul and a number of other University acapella groups held an arch sing in memory of Joshua. During his time at the University, Joshua concentrated in chemistry and earned a certificate in Materials Science and Engineering. The Department of Chemistry sent a letter to Joshua’s family in wake of the tragedy. In an email to the ‘Prince,’ Professor Michael Kelly GS ’97, with whom Joshua took a thermodynamics class, remarked on his experience with him as a student. “Thermodynamics is often considered a dry subject, but I had more fun teaching that class with Abe than perhaps any other student. With Abe, there was this natural synergy that allowed us to inject funny stories, hu-
morous anecdotes, bad jokes, and terrible puns into the discussion. I never had a student like him. We shook hands at the end of the semester. He said it was his favorite course, but I told him the pleasure was all mine,” he said. “Abe was special and I loved him for it,” Kelly said. Joshua completed his senior thesis with Professor Rodney Priestley. His project focused on polymer chemistry, and he hoped his research could have applications in the design of new kinds of materials. Priestley recalled mentoring Joshua in an email statement to the ‘Prince.’ “It was truly an honor to be Abe’s senior thesis advisor. He was a very dedicated and talented researcher. But more importantly, he was a joy to be around and someone that always brought warmth and energy to the lab,” Priestley said. Professor Susan VanderKam GS ’99, who Joshua credited in his thesis for listening to his “periodic complaints,” also shared her memories of working with her former student. “We had an ongoing dialogue last spring about his research, and I was almost as excited as he was when the project started generating good results,” she said in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “Abe was everything we could have asked for in a role model — dedicated, gifted, and enthusiastic — and he will be greatly missed.” After graduating, Joshua found
work with Teach for America, and he moved to San Francisco to teach science at Mission Preparatory School. In his anthology “Reflections,“ he wrote that eventually he hoped to go to medical school, a goal of his since high school. Cynthia Jerez, executive director of the Mission Preparatory School, shared her experience working with Joshua in a written statement sent to the ‘Prince.’ “His contributions to our community went beyond the high rigor and creativity he brought to his science classroom,” she said. “Mr. Joshua could be found at all sports practices for boys and girls varsity and JV, giving up a prep period to support the school community with staff shortages during the Omicron variant in January, quietly serving as a mentor and big brother to our youth in our buddy program.” Joshua’s students left a number of cards and flowers at a roadside memorial to commemorate their teacher. “We love you so much Mr. Joshua. You were an amazing teacher. You didn’t deserve to pass away like this, but I hope you read this one day in heaven,” said one note left at the memorial. Karla Gandiaga, the Head of Mission Preparatory School, organized a GoFundMe alongside Joshua’s family to raise money for a scholarship in Joshua’s name. In the 11 days since it was started, the fundraiser has garnered more than $44,000 in dona-
Classes of ’20 through ’23 can cast votes in final round, beginning April 19 ELECTION Continued from page 1
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here, and bring those concerns to the Board of Trustees to try to enact change that will improve the student experience here.” “Someone in this position needs to be proactive about learning what the concerns are on the ground. Not just expecting people to come to me with concerns, but going out and doing my own research,” said Wayner, a Civil and Environmental Engineering concentrator from Baltimore, Md. Wayner is seeking to advance the work she did as the inaugural Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Sustainability Committee Chair. “If elected, I would bring that expertise I have from serving on USG to understand how campus works and how best to enact changes [in sustainability policy],” she said. “The Board often thinks about the resources of the University. The primary resources that often get emphasized are the financial resources and all the physical resources of the University,” said Potter, a School of Public and International Affairs
(SPIA) concentrator from McLean, Va. “I think the characteristic I would really want to bring to the Board is an emphasis on human capital ... it’s the most important form,” he added. Potter is seeking to draw on the experiences he’s had working with the administration and the Board as former USG President and as the undergraduate representative and member of the SPIA search committee for a new dean back in 2021. “I reflected on the experiences that I’ve had here as USG President, but also as a student,” Potter said. “In all sorts of different experiences, I really felt [that] I’d love to be a part of this group, and contribute to that same spirit of giving back to the University having seen it firsthand.” Hess, a SPIA concentrator from Clarksville, Md., said “my experience [in] navigating this campus when it’s not ultimately built for students who look like me, has shown me the importance of making sure that all students are included in decision making efforts.” Hess is a ‘Prince’ news editor emerita. Hess is hoping to build on her work as editor of the ‘Prince,’ founder of the USG Disability Task Force,
THE MINI CROSSWORD By Ana Pranger Senior Puzzles Constructor
MINI #1
and as a Peer Academic Advisor (PAA) of Butler College. “It’s so important to bring in voices from all corners of the campus,” Hess added. “I want to make Princeton the best that it can be, now and in the future. I just want to make sure that this University which has given me so many opportunities does that for other students as well.” General election voting will be open to the classes of 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Voting opens on April 19, when all eligible voters will receive an email with a link to the election portal. Voting closes on May 11. The results will be verified on May 17 and the Board will announce the new YAT at the Alumni Council Meeting on May 20. Lia Opperman is an Assistant News Editor who often covers University affairs, student life, and local news. She can be reached at liaopperman@princeton. edu, on Instagram @liamariaaaa, or on Twitter @oppermanlia.
tions. “Abe will continue to be an inspiration, as those who knew him remember all he achieved and contributed during his short life,” his family stated in an announcement introducing the scholarship. Joshua’s mentor Erica Worthington remarked on Joshua’s commitment to his students in the same statement. “Walking around the school, Abe was always dancing or laughing,” she wrote. “He embraced every challenge with a positive attitude and always pushed himself to reflect and improve his practice.” Joshua’s funeral was held on March 10 in Camp Springs, Md. His friends, scattered all across the country, attended via Zoom. They also shared memories of Joshua in a Discord channel. Conor Vance ’20, Joshua’s roommate in his freshman and sophomore years, sent pictures in the channel and reflected on Joshua’s character in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “He was one of the most individually sensitive, consistent, and empathetic people I’ve ever known, the kind to literally give someone the shirt off his back (it’s happened) or the bed he needed to sleep in,” he said. Olivia Lin, a friend of Joshua’s in high school, shared a note he had written to her as she was about to begin her senior year at her high school in Morgantown. “I once told you that my deepest fear is that those I truly care about
will forget me, so I hope this helps. Some of these photos are downright terribile, but it isn’t picture quality that gives them value,“ Joshua wrote. Joshua was a year older than Lin, so he left her the message and a few photographs before he graduated and left for college. In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Lin described her reaction upon reading the note after learning of Joshua’s passing. “When I found it, the note hit me so hard because I had only remembered him giving me pictures. I didn’t remember that note. So when I read it, it just shook me because it’s exactly what I needed to read at this time. Abe and I sort of lost touch over the past few years since we both moved away. But I could never forget how special our friendship was in high school,” she said. “And it’s clear with all the people in that Discord and on the Zoom for his funeral that he made an impact on so many people and could never be forgotten,” she said. Joshua is survived by his mother, Elizabeth Kidane; his father, Eyassu Hailemichael; and his brother, Samson Joshua. Sandeep Mangat is an Associate News Editor who has reported on University guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, international student life, and research led by Princeton faculty. He can be reached at smangat@princeton.edu and on Twitter @s_smangat.
HEADLINE FROM HISTORY
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CANNON, ELM, DIAL TIED FOR FIRST PLACE IN CLUB BASKETBALL
Gabriel Robare is a staff writer, as well as a Head Puzzles Editor, for the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at grobare@ princeton.edu or on social @gabrielrobare.
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SPORTS
Princeton tennis player Daria Frayman ’23 ranked No. 1 in Division I
SPORTS
Men’s basketball season ends with 90–79 defeat against VCU in first round of NIT
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The Daily Princetonian
Friday March 18, 2022
Q&A with Ilya Kaminsky, UkrainianAmerican poet, translator, and professor By Danielle Ranucci Staff Writer
Ilya Kaminsky is a hard-of-hearing Ukrainian-American poet, translator, and professor. He emigrated from Odessa after the fall of the USSR and lives in California. He is known for his collections “Dancing in Odessa” and “Deaf Republic.” Among his many commendations, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has been named one of the “12 Artists who changed the world” by the BBC. On Thursday, Feb. 24, Russia invaded Ukraine. At the same time, Kaminsky was giving a poetry talk at Princeton University, sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing. This in-person interview was conducted the following day. The interview has been edited for clarity and concision. The Daily Princetonian: Have you heard from your friends and family in Ukraine? If so, how have they been holding up? Ilya Kaminsky: I have heard from my cousin in Odessa. He’s worried and afraid but safe, as far as I know. I have tried to contact my uncle, but I have not heard back. He’s also in Odessa. I have heard from friends who are in Odessa and Kyiv who are in similar situations. Some people in Kyiv are trying to leave because Kyiv is being attacked right now. Some others are trying to leave towards the Polish border. DP: If you could only say one thing in this interview, what would it be? IK: I would say “pay attention.” A lot of things are happening. What you see happening in Ukraine is imperialism — colonialism. But our country [the United States] often does the same thing elsewhere as well. Pay attention, do what you can. DP: How has your experience in Ukraine and America impacted the way you see the world and your work? IK: Well to begin with, right now on TV, everybody sees the images of violence and panic. And that is true, that is the reality of this moment. But Ukraine is also a beautiful country. It’s the country with the largest population [outside of Russia] in [Eastern] Europe — 44 million people. It is a country that goes back centuries into the past. It’s a country where people speak multiple languages. It is a country that
survived really unspeakable things, [like] wars, man-made famines... But I wouldn’t want to just focus on the negative because it wouldn’t do justice to people who live there. Just this morning, I’ve been in touch with somebody in Odessa. The person told me that they were afraid, but they also said it was a really quiet, sunlit morning for a moment. And there’s a lyric perception in that. And I don’t want to downplay it and just focus on the violence that Putin wants us to see. Because violence is the language that power wants us to see. And you as a human want to see many different kinds and registers of language expressed. Also, the war in Ukraine did not start today. It started at minimum in 2014, when Crimea was taken, when the war began in Donbas. DP: What is your approach to writing? What are your “obsessions,” and how do you seek to communicate them in your work? IK: I will say that in my first book, “Dancing in Odessa,” there’s a long poem about the Russian modernist poet, Osip Mandelstam. The poem is called, “Musica Humana.” It’s a poem that tries to ask, “What does it mean to be human? And what language can be found for a time of crisis?” That question, I think, is still one of my obsessions. DP: In being deeply connected to two places — Ukraine and America — you’re also deeply connected to the suffering and joys in each. How do you live with the fact that there can be so much suffering and so much joy at the same time? IK: I was about 16, a little younger, when the Soviet Union fell apart. Even before Putin, there was the first Russian “humanitarian aid” campaign. Moldova had a war, and the Russian army entered a breakaway region called Pridnestrovie. In years before that, during the Soviet Union, my family traveled to Pridnestrovie, about 40 minutes from Odessa, to buy a refrigerator. So now in the 1990s in the middle of the night, there’s a knock at our door. A man is screaming outside, “There is war in Pridnestrovie! I hopped in my car in my pajamas. I delivered you your new refrigerator two years ago, do you remember me? I want to make a phone call.” So that is an image of violence
that I still carry in my head. What happens next is, here I am, nearly 30 years later, still watching that man in pajamas, on the phone, being tender to his own kid, trying to console his kid over the phone. That is how war entered my mind for the first time. So, a time of violence, yes, but there was also this act of tenderness, of a person trying to console a child. We must remember that even in the most difficult situations, people are still able to retain their humanity. They fall in love, they marry, and they have children. We must honor that too, and not just speak of the darkness of war. We must honor human survival, because if we don’t do this, if we don’t pay attention to every aspect, we dehumanize the suffering. And frankly, in the empire we’re currently in, tragedies happen daily too. Our neighbors can find themselves in a similar situation at any moment. So let’s pay attention. DP: Yesterday during your talk, you discussed translation. Why do you think reading works in translation is important? IK: Translation allows us to see the world from different perspectives, to hear all stories, and to hear them in very different ways. My metaphor for this is: if you don’t have a translation in a literature, if not much has been translated into English, we end up having a kind of tradition that keeps looking in the mirror. A translator is somebody who opens a window and allows us to see outside of this particular tradition. It’s nice to be in a house with many different windows! It’s terrific to be in conversation. It’s especially important in the place we live, so we don’t start believing in our own propaganda, which unfortunately we have a lot of. DP: You also mentioned that people with disabilities have a lot to contribute through sharing their stories. Would you be able to talk more about this and about what you feel your works have contributed? IK: I won’t speak about myself, but I do want to speak about the term called Deaf Gain. That is a term that is used by scholars in the community as a kind of way to identify how a particular culture, in this case, Deaf culture, contributes to the larger world. Deaf people have a great and diverse Deaf culture. There’s a language of the Deaf
in the USA, called ASL. There are sign languages in most other countries too. Deaf Gain in disability studies is asking a simple question: has this particular condition contributed to humanity at large? And the answer is, yes, of course. Specifically, in the field of linguistics, Deaf culture has taught us that language is not limited to speech alone. And that’s a huge game-changer in that field. But also in most fields, since, as you know, language is one of the primary aspects of our human condition. DP: Final question: what gives meaning to your life? IK: Sometimes this question, this very question: the search for meaning. There is a wonderful Greek-language modernist, Cavafy. He has a poem called “Ithaka.” It’s a poem about a hero’s return. And in the poem, he says, “Don’t hurry. Keep asking, keep traveling, keep looking. Because when you arrive, you will find nothing. And Ithaka did not lie to you. It gave you a beautiful journey.” So sometimes meaning is in the very questions. Any answer that I may give limits to that particular room of that answer. The question allows an open field because it can lead to another question. In Odessa, we like to answer a question with a question. So that’s my recommendation. Princeton is a great
university, and a part of education is asking questions. Also, I hope people don’t only think of other countries when there are bombardments or invasions happening. It is good for us to open up a little bit and to be restless. Don’t be afraid of restlessness. Restlessness is also part of the human condition. Sometimes it helps us to be more alive in the world. By “alive in the world” I mean “be full of senses.” A great poet of the Spanish language, Lorca, said that “a poet is a professor of five senses.” I would end by saying, the project of the empires is to dull the senses. That’s why Putin is sending tanks to Ukraine. Ukraine is free; they question their own government, they have conversations. I’m not saying Ukraine is an easy country. It is not. But it is open. Putin is afraid of that. Same with the dictator in Belarus, Lukashenko, who is Putin’s ally. He’s very uncomfortable with Ukraine because it inspires his own people to protest. Ukraine is full of colors, full of senses, full of willingness to ask uncomfortable questions. Empire wants to dull the senses, but the purpose of a poet is to wake them up. Danielle Ranucci is a staff news writer who typically covers human interest stories. She can be reached at dranucci@princeton. edu or on Twitter @DanielleRanucci.
COURTESY OF ILYA KAMINSKY
The Daily Princetonian
Friday March 18, 2022
page 5
Princeton sees new construction across campus in 2021-22 academic year, more to begin this summer By Sullivan Meyer Staff Writer
As the University undergoes “one of the most extensive building programs in its history,” large portions of central and east campus are being fenced off and excavated. Many of these sites are for the University’s conversion to hot water heating. But many other locations under current or future development are for the construction of new buildings, including the new School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) neighborhood, Princeton University Art Museum, Roberts Stadium, and East Garage. Construction is due to expand over the summer, including a new University Health Services (UHS) center, a temporary dining hall for Butler College, and an additional geo-exchange field in front of Whitman College. Hot Water Distribution The most extensive of these construction projects is the University’s new hot water distribution system, which will replace steam as the chief method for distributing heat on campus. In an email to The Daily Princetonian, University Project Communication Manager Karen Fanning explained that this is a multi-step process, involving “hot water upgrades to the existing central plant, installing new geoexchange bore-fields, running new distribution piping throughout campus; and building the Thermally Integrated Geo-Exchange Resource (TIGER) facility and Thermally-Integrated Geo-Exchange Resource Central Utility Building (TIGER-CUB) facility, which will house the heat pumps, as well as electrical equipment and thermal energy storage tanks that will run the system.” The new distribution piping is responsible for many of the smaller fenced off sites around campus, such as the excavation south of Prospect Gardens, along Goheen Walk, between Clark Field and Princeton Stadium, and on Poe and Pardee fields. Many of the hot water distribution sites will soon be evolving. For instance, the work south of Prospect Garden, according to Fanning, is “anticipated to be completed by the end of March,” restoring access to the pathway from Feinberg Hall to Frist Campus Center. However, because these sites are for laying pipes, new excavation will often pick up where the last left off. The Prospect Garden site will lead to new excavation on the southern corner of the same quad, in order for the hot water system to reach McCosh Health Center. The excavation along Goheen Walk in front of Scully Hall will soon extend to Yoseloff, Wilcox, and Wu Halls, and later, to 1976 Hall. Fanning wrote that the Goheen site “will be completed in early April.” In the interim, a “temporary asphalt pathway” has been constructed ad-
jacent to the site in order to maintain accessibility. Poe and Pardee fields currently have some of the most extensive hot water distribution sites. According to Ron, an employee of the University Civil Engineering and Construction department, these pipes will serve New Colleges East and West, Carl Icahn Laboratory, and Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI). Icahn Laboratory and the PNI, in particular, will require new fencelines to be erected across Pardee Field. The Poe and Pardee field site is expected to be completed before Commencement 2022. Most of the hot water sites have occurred on shale, which Fanning described as a “rippable” rock, as it can be dug up with an excavator. Ron reported that construction crews have encountered veins of brownstone that require a hydraulic hammer or blasting to get through. These procedures have been responsible for the majority of the noise produced by the hot water sites. According to Fanning, the location and depth of these brownstone veins vary throughout campus, so they cannot always be anticipated and “may cause delays to a project.” According to Dave, a construction worker at the Lewis Library site, laying the hot water distribution system is a precise job, requiring the proper alignment of carbon steel pipes. Large amounts of sand aggregate are then trucked in to fill the trench, followed by topsoil to complete the dig. East Campus This hot water distribution system will be fed by new geo-exchange bore fields, which are arrays of 650 to 800-foot boreholes. These holes will circulate water from the distribution system deep into the earth, where, depending on the weather, they can either deposit or retrieve heat for the campus. One such bore field is being drilled on East Campus, below East Garage and Roberts Stadium, both of which are also under construction. In order to regulate the hot water system, as well as campus energy at large, the University is also building the TIGER above the geo-exchange on East Campus. Along with the machinery needed to regulate flow to the boreholes, TIGER will feature heat recovery chillers, backup hybrid coolers, and massive heating and chilled water storage tanks. The sites for East Garage and Roberts Stadium are located adjacent to TIGER, forming one continuous construction zone from FitzRandolph Road to Princeton Stadium. According to University maps, access to Lot 21 and its surrounding facilities will be preserved via Faculty Road. The hot and chilled water generated on East Campus will be carried to areas in central campus via pipes laid between Princeton Stadium and Clark Field. While this site currently limits access to campus athletic facilities, Fanning told the ‘Prince’ that East Stadium Drive — the road between
SULLIVAN MEYER / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Computing Center under demolition. Clark Field and Princeton Stadium — “is anticipated to re-open in fall 2022.” One of the more significant projects is located between Prospect Avenue and Ivy Lane, behind the eating clubs. Staff lots four, five, and 25, as well as the old Computing Center, are currently in the process of being demolished. 91 Prospect, formerly the home for the Dean for Research, is being moved across Prospect Avenue. This site will become the SEAS Neighborhood, a four-building complex that will house the departments of Environmental Sciences, Bioengineering, and Chemical and Biological Engineering, as well as the Engineering Commons. Commenting on the future fate of the existing Engineering Quad and the departments within it, Fanning told the ‘Prince’ that the University “continues to evaluate future engineering needs, but no final decisions [regarding their use] have been made at this time.” According to recent University press releases, the new SEAS neighborhood will be terraced into the hillside, with “entrances at the Prospect Avenue level as well as the Ivy Lane level.” Because of these plans, the construction requires an immense amount of dirt to be removed from the location. According to construction workers on-site, the stream of trucks exiting the site from Ivy Lane is, in large part, carrying the dirt and rubble produced by the project. Another construction site, located adjacent to the SEAS Neighborhood, is a small construction site at the corner of Ivy Lane and Washington Road. This site largely blocks the second-floor entrance of the Lewis Library, and is circumvented by a new asphalt path extending from Goheen Walk. According to one construction worker working at the SEAS site who spoke with the ‘Prince,’ the excavation in front of Lewis Library will make way for several hot water distribution pipes, as well as chilled water pipes, and sewer mains. Fanning added that “there are
specialized services that are being coordinated for the ES & SEAS project that are more science-specific than a humanities or residential building.” The construction adjacent to Lewis Library has faced various challenges and delays in the past month, including the weather. The construction worker elaborated on this, telling the ‘Prince’ that a combination of snow, rain, and ice has made the ground difficult to work with, especially in areas where the sun does not reach. According to Fanning, the pipes laid in front of Lewis Library are now largely complete, so excavation will now advance across Ivy Lane. While planning for this maneuver, however, contractors ran into wires for the building’s backup generator. To bypass those wires, contractors had to wait for permission from the University; as of last week, they were still waiting for electricians to work on the wires. In order to maintain access to the construction site, contractors have installed a by-pass road in front of Lewis Library. According to Fanning, this by-pass road will be the main way for construction vehicles to access the SEAS site and will remain open until the project is completed in spring 2025. In the meantime, Western Way will re-open to traffic in fall 2022. Fanning told the ‘Prince’ that, due to this by-pass road, “the construction fence-line will remain in front of Lewis Library, limiting access to Lewis [Library] directly from Ivy Lane. “However [the University is] looking for opportunities to create a more direct temporary pathway from the east sidewalk along Washington Road to the front of Lewis Library,” Fanning said. “Flaggers will remain in place on either side of the by-pass road to monitor and help direct pedestrians.” Future Construction Amidst current construction projects around campus, several new projects are due to begin over
the summer. According to a University presentation, five projects will commence in summer 2022. These include the expansions to Dillon Gymnasium, additional UHS facilities, a temporary dining hall for Butler College, and demolition of First College. Parts of Dillon Gym will be demolished and surrounding areas will be excavated in preparation for its expansion. Construction on the facility will extend through Q1 of 2025. Work on Hobson College will also begin over the summer, including the demolition of First College and site leveling for additional geoexchange bores. This phase of the project is projected to be completed by Q2 of 2023, at which point construction on the new buildings will begin. This project will consume all of First and parts of Butler Colleges, extending from Goheen Walk in the South to 1937 Hall in the north, and from Elm Drive in the west to Guyot Hall in the east. Adjacent to this site, the University will construct an interim dining hall for Butler College intended to replace the demolished Wilcox dining Hall; this project will extend through the second half of 2022. Across Elm Drive, the University will establish another new geoexchange bore field on the lawn of Whitman College, in front of Community and 1981 halls. The majority of this excavation, including the boring of the wells, will occur over the summer of 2022. By fall 2022, the lawn will be regraded and reseeded. Lastly, work will begin this summer on a new UHS facility, located where 1938 Hall, Eno Hall, and the Rock Magnetism Laboratory is now; the demolition of these buildings is anticipated to be completed by fall 2022, and the project, an expansion and renovation of Eno Hall, will be tentatively completed by Q2 of 2024. Sullivan Meyer is a staff writer for the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at shmeyer@ princeton.edu or at @sullymeyer4 on Twitter.
The Daily Princetonian
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T his Week in Photos
Students gather in Frist Campus Center’s South Lawn to enjoy exceptionally warm weather.
Mardi Gras decorations line the salad bar at Whitman dining hall.
COME AND CELEBRATE NEWROZ -- THE KURDISH NEW YEAR AT THE CANNON GREEN THIS MONDAY AFTERNOON WITH US! Jump over the fire, get a bracelet, celebrate the arrival of spring and new beginnings... NEWROZ PÎROZ BE! - The Kurdish Society of Princeton University
Friday March 18, 2022
By Candace Do and Julian Gottfried
Head Photo Editor and Staff Photographer
Students brace for midterm season’s grind in Campus Club.
Princeton community members gather to hold a vigil for Ukraine.
The Daily Princetonian
Friday March 18, 2022
page 7
Rabbi Julie Roth to leave Princeton By Marissa Michaels News Editor Emerita
Rabbi Julie Roth, Executive Director of the University’s Center for Jewish Life (CJL) and Jewish Chaplain at the University, will be leaving Princeton at the end of this academic year to pursue a position as a Pulpit Rabbi at Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair, N.J. The announcement of her departure was made on March 2. Throughout her 17 years serving the University community at the CJL, Roth built connections throughout the Jewish and non-Jewish community members, oversaw a renovation of the CJL’s building, and led efforts to triple the organization’s endowment. In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Senior Jewish Educator Rabbi Ira Dounn emphasized Roth’s widespread impact on the Princeton community. “It’s hard to imagine the Center for Jewish Life without Rabbi Julie. Her impact in every facet of the Center for Jewish Life is significant — from the renovations that happened a couple years ago, to our value of welcoming and including Princeton students from a variety of different backgrounds,” he said. “It’s really hard to know what part of the CJL she hasn’t impacted really deeply; her presence is felt everywhere.” The CJL is part of Hillel International, a Jewish campus organization operating in over 550 colleges. In 2013, Hillel International awarded Roth the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award, its highest professional honor. Before joining the CJL in 2005, Roth graduated from Brown University with a degree in Comparative Religion, worked as an administrator at Tufts Hillel, and then studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary as a Wexner Fellow. Dounn commended Roth’s dedication to “living life as a sacred gift,” specifically not-
ing her father’s influence on her outlook on life. “It’s nice also to think that she’s channeled the people who’ve given to her and that their legacy will live on through her as well,” Dounn said. Sara Sacks ’22 served as the 2021 CJL student president and worked closely with Roth in that capacity. “As I became president, I found her to be a really thoughtful leader and mentor, bringing me through all different challenges facing the community and trying to think outside of myself … thinking about [how] we have a very diverse community. What’s best for that?” Sacks said. “She’s really given so much of herself to this institution over the last 17 years … I don’t even know all the levels that she has permeated.” The days after the announcement were emotional and busy for Roth. “It’s been a reminder of all the relationships I’ve built in my 17 years here,” she said of the many messages received in the days since the campus became aware of her imminent departure. Looking back on her time at the CJL, Roth said that she was especially proud of the connections built between members of the community through Jewish Learning Fellowships, the Community Engagement Internships, anti-Semitism workshops, trips to Israel, and Shabbat dinners. Current CJL student president Amichai Feit ’23 emphasized Roth’s role in making the CJL an inclusive space. Feit told the ‘Prince’ that Roth’s inclusive vision is “open to all Jewish students, and that plays a central role in the campus community.” Roth’s departure follows earlier announcements this year that Associate Director Marni Blitz and Co-Directors and Torah Educators of OU Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Rabbi Matityahu Kahn and Shira Kahn will also be leaving the CJL in the coming months. “So much of the core CJL
SAMEER A. KHAN / COURTESY OF JULIE ROTH
staff is leaving next year, and I think there’s a little apprehension about what the transition and the turnover is going to be,” Sacks said. “It’s obviously sad to see them go,” Feit added. “But we also know that the CJL is a very well-run institution. And ultimately, we’ll be able to find really talented people to fill those roles.” Dounn echoed that no matter who is hired next, the strong student leadership foundation of the CJL will allow many functions of the center to continue as usual throughout all the change. “Rabbi Julie had a very big role in creating a CJL that could allow for such success to happen,” Dounn said. “And that success will last long after she leaves.” According to Roth, the search committee to find her replacement is nearly ready to begin and will include student representatives. The committee will be tasked with deciding whether the executive directorship of the CJL and Jewish chaplain should remain a singular role. It will also consider searching for an interim director to allow more time for
a long-term search. Roth expressed hope that whoever fills her shoes will continue to make the CJL an inclusive, pluralistic space for University community members, and that they will continue to be a strong partner to Chabad, the other Jewish organization on campus. “I really hope that the person who comes as the next executive director makes as much time as he or she can to connect with students,” she said. “Students are the center of what we do, and they bring the most joy to the work.” “There’s maybe no more exciting time in a person’s life than college in terms of what people are thinking about,” she said. “What do they want to do with their lives and who do they want to be in [a] relationship with… That’s why I love college work.” An honorary member of the Princeton Class of 2021, Roth hopes to stay connected to the Princeton community. But she also told the ‘Prince’ that she is excited to have “intergenerational relationships and to build relationships over a much longer period of time.”
Roth is looking forward to working in Montclair, which she described as a community with a dedication to social justice. “I wanted to be able to exercise moral courage in my work, and to be able to advocate for my own point of view on social justice issues,” she said. Roth is also excited about the prospect of connecting Jewish learning to salient issues in people’s lives in her new role. “That sense that you can study Judaism in a way that applies to the questions you’re asking in your life and your other passions is something I also want to bring to Montclair,” she said. “I am just immensely grateful for the opportunity for 17 years to try to bring some of that dynamic Judaism and opportunity for leadership to the Princeton community.” Marissa Michaels is an associate news editor emeritus at the ‘Prince’ who often covers town affairs and campus events. She can be reached at marissam@princeton.edu or @mmichaels22 on social media.
The Daily Princetonian
page 8
Friday March 18, 2022
The Big Dance By Katherine Dailey Staff Constructor
ACROSS
1 Fish that is a central point in John McPhee’s “The Founding Fish” 5 Cars that include A6 10 Sail holder 14 Member of the South Asian diaspora 15 Back end of an album 16 That’s gotta hurt! 17 Czech, etc. 18 Civil War general Doubleday 19 Implement used to play many woodwinds 20 Senate, e.g. 23 Capital of Azerbaijan 24 Crrossword and puzle 28 World-weary sort? 31 Point of reference 35 Evening affair 37 ___ mater (brain cover) 38 Buffalo’s lake 39 “What do you call a poem about the chicken crossing the road? Poultry in motion,” e.g. 40 Currency used to send Iris message in Percy Jackson books 43 Currency used to send Iris message in Percy Jackson books 44 Coffee or tea variation for warm weather 46 “Here are my two cents”: Abbr. 47 Breathe in 49 Nickname for Baltimore 52 Played 53 What gave Steve Rogers
54 56 63 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73
superpowers Opener to Julien Baker’s “Turn Out the Lights” Spring tournament, or a clue to the circled letters [Sigh] Geometric calculations Winners of 1932 Australian war Je t’___ Queer designation Group of reptiles named after Renaissance artists Aid and ___ Cantina snacks Cheek or lip
DOWN
1 Aztec sch. 2 1965 No. 1 Beatles album 3 “Stat!”: Abbr. 4 Producer of cheap shots? 5 Taken ___ 6 Tech accessory 7 Actress Merrill 8 The same, in legal citations 9 Neighbor of a Montenegrin 10 Words with a nice ring to them? 11 It may be up your sleeve 12 “___ means everything to me”: dodie lyric 13 TV coach Lasso 21 Flattened 22 Biblical verb ending 25 Fun way of saying
MINI #2
26 27 28 29 30 32 33 34 36 41 42 45 48 50
35-Across 49-Across baseballer Biased, as news coverage Gelatinous dishes Comeback to a comeback Simple algebraic equation Park with a famed ball Org. whose physicians include Dr. Anthony Fauci Sleeveless undergarment, informally Adams of New York City Friend in Paris Put in the pot Really loud gift for a musical child Charlotte NBA squad Fighting style: Abbr.
The Minis MINI #3
51 55 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
Crass joke style Still life subjects Primitive boat Spanish linen Cannabis variety used for rope Stone of “La La Land” Tatooine has two of them Old Concordes, in brief Small battery type Ad conclusion? Denomination founded by Rev. Richard Allen
By Ana Pranger Senior Puzzles Constructor
BONUS: Read the top word of all three minis to reveal a secret message
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 Rapper Lil __ Vert
1 Desperate folks
4 Princeton college retiring this year
6 “This’ll make that sprain feel better”
7 Hitting the right notes
7 Tough mother of theater
8 Villainous expression
8 Not his
9 Bio makeup
9 John of equilibrium fame
DOWN
1 Saucers, maybe
2 Historian Howard 3 Miffed 5 Perceived 6 America’s Next Top Model host Banks
DOWN
1 One who may be stuck in a pool with no ladder 2 Namesake of the Princeton Genomics building 3 Another tough mother of theater 4 Media provocateur Morgan 5 Hide away
Scan to check your answers and try more of our puzzles online!
Opinion
Friday March 18, 2022
page 9
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } vol. cxlvi
editor-in-chief Marie-Rose Sheinerman ’23 business manager Benjamin Cai ’24
Affirmative action is unequal. That’s the point. Ashley Olenkiewicz Columnist
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 second vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90 assistant treasurer Kavita Saini ’09
trustees Francesca Barber Kathleen Crown Suzanne Dance ’96 Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John G. Horan ’74 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07 trustees ex officio Marie-Rose Sheinerman ’23 Benjamin Cai ’24
146TH MANAGING BOARD managing editors Omar Farah ’23 Tanvi Nibhanupudi ’23 Caitlin Limestahl ’23 Zachariah Wirtschafter Sippy ’23 Strategic initiative directors Accessibility Education Isabel Rodrigues ’23 Evelyn Doskoch ’23 José Pablo Fernández García ’23 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Mollika Jai Singh ’24 Melat Bekele ’24
Financial Stipend Program Rooya Rahin ’23
Sections listed in alphabetical order. newsletter editors head audience editor Kareena Bhakta ’24 Rowen Gesue ’24 Amy Ciceu ’24 associate audience Aditi Desai ’24 editor head opinion editor Meryl Liu ’25 Genrietta Churbanova ’24 Sai Rachumalla ’24 community editor head cartoon editors Rohit A. Narayanan ’24 Inci Karaaslan ’24 associate opinion editor Ambri Ma ’24 Won-Jae Chang ’24 associate cartoon editor head photo editor Ariana Borromeo ’24 Candace Do ’24 head copy editors associate photo editor Alexandra Hong ’23 Angel Kuo ’24 Nathalie Verlinde ’24 Isabel Richardson ’24 associate copy editors head podcast editor Catie Parker ’23 Hope Perry ’24 Cecilia Zubler ’23 associate podcast editors head web design editors Jack Anderson ’24 Anika Maskara ’23 Eden Teshome ’25 Brian Tieu ’23 associate web design editor Ananya Grover ’24 head graphics editors Ashley Chung ’23 Noreen Hosny ’25 print design editor Juliana Wojtenko ’23 special issues editor Evelyn Doskoch ’23 head data editor Sam Kagan ’24 head features editors Alex Gjaja ’23 Rachel Sturley ’23 associate features editor Sydney Eck ’24 head news editors Katherine Dailey ’24 Andrew Somerville ’24 associate news editors Kalena Blake ’24 Anika Buch ’24 Miguel Gracia-Zhang ’23 Sandeep Mangat ’24
head prospect editors José Pablo Fernández García ’23 Aster Zhang ’24 associate prospect editors Molly Cutler ’23 Cathleen Weng ’24 head puzzles editors Gabriel Robare ’24 Owen Travis ’24 associate puzzles editors Juliet Corless ’24 Joah Macosko ’25 Cole Vandenberg ’24 head satire editor Claire Silberman ’23 associate satire editors Spencer Bauman ’25 Daniel Viorica ’25 head sports editors Wilson Conn ’25 Julia Nguyen ’24 associate sports editor Ben Burns ’23 Elizabeth Evanko ’23 associate video editors Daniel Drake ’24 Marko Petrovic ’24
146TH BUSINESS BOARD assistant business manager Shirley Ren ’24 business directors David Akpokiere ’24 Samantha Lee ’24 Ananya Parashar ’24 Gloria Wang ’24 project managers Anika Agarwal ’25
John Cardwell ’25 Jack Curtin ’25 Diya Dalia ’24 Jonathan Lee ’24 Juliana Li ’24 Emma Limor ’25 Justin Ong ’23 Xabier Sardina ’24 business associate Jasmine Zhang ’24
146TH TECHNOLOGY BOARD chief technology officer Pranav Avva ’24 lead software engineers Roma Bhattacharjee ’25 Joanna Tang ’24
software engineers Eugenie Choi ’24 Giao Vu Dinh ’24 Daniel Hu ’25 Dwaipayan Saha ’24 Kohei Sanno ’25
THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Dimitar Chakarov ’24 Annie Rupertus ’25 Brooke McCarthy ’25
Mark Dodici ’22 Juliana Wojtenko ’23
AND COPIED BY
Tiffany Cao ’24 and Jason Luo ’25
T
he Supreme Court recently announced that it will hear the Harvard and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill cases challenging affirmative action. In light of the court’s new conservative supermajority, that news is alarming. If the 2016 Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas is overturned, there is a high likelihood that Black and Latino populations at universities across the nation will be severely diminished. Affirmative action in college admissions is under fire, which only hurts marginalized people. It is imperative we work to protect affirmative action and emphasize the intentionality of its unequal nature. The Supreme Court’s decision to revisit the constitutionality of affirmative action highlights the perennially controversial nature of affirmative action in college admissions, along with its sibling initiatives around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Arguments surrounding the validity of diversity efforts in college admissions persist despite the abundance of evidence and logic to support their benefits for historically marginalized people. The primary issue that affirmative action opponents and political conservatives find with race-conscious admissions is that these programs result in the unequal treatment of non-minority students. But that’s the point. Affirmative action and DEI efforts are inherently unequal because historically marginalized groups have been oppressed, restricted, and withheld from opportunities for centuries. As a result, these groups face prejudice, challenge, and hardship at a rate that is unequal to that of their non-minority peers. The effects are evidenced in severe familial wealth and education attainment disparities between Black and Latino families compared to white ones.
Therefore, the idea that raceneutral or race-blind admissions can deliver equal opportunity for all students is illogical. Achieving equity for all Americans necessitates the purposeful consideration of minorities’ unequal status in American society. Furthermore, I believe that part of the disconnect between proponents and opponents of affirmative action and DEI in college admissions is rooted in the particular language used by each side in their explanations of diversity efforts. This is an idea illuminated by Dr. Jordan Starck GS ’21’s dissertation, “Perpetuating Inequality in the Pursuit of Diversity,” on the fundamental difference between instrumental and moral diversity. He writes that instrumental diversity arguments consider “diversity as an asset that will help bring about some other desired end,” whereas moral diversity arguments “invoke intrinsic principles (e.g., fairness, equality, or even diversity itself) for welcoming racial minorities into institutions.” Princeton and all other institutions guilty of instrumental diversity efforts should reevaluate their intentions for pursuing a diverse campus and rewrite their communications to be reflective of those updated intentions. Only in this manner can the ideas surrounding diversity on school campuses be reframed and refocused on the benefit and betterment of marginalized communities. Constructing language using the principles of moral diversity combats the distracting rhetoric of individuals who endorse inaccurate arguments about diversity’s efficacy and legality. A prime example of instrumental diversity, which according to Starck “produce[s] weaker expectations for teachers to use racially equitable pedagogical practices,” can be found in Princeton’s 202021 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion report. The report reads: “The diverse perspectives and experiences of our faculty, students and staff are essential to our ability to achieve excellence in research, learning, and innovation.”
The problem with this phrasing is that it presents diversity on campus as a transactional sort of value insofar as it delivers benefits to the University, rather than the marginalized groups that should be beneficiaries of diversity efforts. While attributing positive outcomes like “achiev[ing] excellence in research, learning, and innovation” to increased diversity on campus may not initially appear harmful or particularly controversial, in actuality it contributes to adverse pedagogical environments. According to Starck, instrumental rationales are “associated with worse expected outcomes for Black students and worse observed collegiate graduation rates for Black students.” Moral diversity rationales, on the other hand, result in racial minorities “feel[ing] a greater sense of belonging” and “report[ing] lower intentions to leave organizations…” and “experience[ing] better health outcomes.” Importantly, instrumental diversity appeals to white people and resultantly “signal[s] a weaker commitment to diversity by conveying a greater concern for Whites’ preferences over those of racially marginalized groups,” according to Starck. This is a primary reason why language surrounding affirmative action and DEI requires revision. Yes, affirmative action does allow admissions officers to review the materials of their applicants unequally. This is not only irrefutable, but also an indispensable tool in the continual effort to rectify the effects of the United States’ abhorrent racial history. If Princeton and all educational institutions who espouse the value of a diverse campus truly strive to better the lives of minorities, they will adopt the principles of moral diversity into their language and into their actions. Ashley Olenkiewicz is a first-year from Porter, Texas. Her articles focus on campus culture and University policy. If you have questions or comments she can be reached at ao8250@ princeton.edu.
Princeton should pay for all course books Ava Milberg
I
Columnist
recently asked my roommate about her experience in a tap dance class at Princeton. I was completely unfamiliar with the dance program and was curious to learn about the class structure and format. As our discussion unfolded, I learned that the University, understandably, reimbursed the cost of dance shoes for this class, which hovers around $100. Such reimbursement is important for many reasons: it encourages students to try dance classes by eliminating the burden of cost for participation, and it ensures that all students are given an equal chance — at least based on equipment — to perform well in the class. I was glad to see a system in place that works to foster an environment where all students are able to experiment and take advantage of the opportunities around them. However, hearing about this setup within the dance department made me reflect on my own experience in different departments where, although particular shoes are not necessary for participation and engagement, other materials — most often books — are required. While books and shoes are not the exact same in terms of their role in students’ ability to participate in class, their importance in their respective courses is not markedly different. The University should fully subsidize all required course books to eliminate
obstacles to exploring a class. On syllabi, books are often labeled as “required,” implying that you must buy them; should you not, you may not be able to participate in class, write discussion posts, or understand the lecture. Thus, without purchasing the necessary texts for a course, a student’s performance can easily suffer. In this regard, there seems to be a closer connection between the imperative need for both dance shoes and books in order to perform adequately in class. With this in mind, it seems puzzling that the University grasps the importance of dance shoes, motivating them to reimburse students for them, yet does not have a similar policy in place regarding course books. While the price of any individual book usually remains below that of a pair of tap shoes, they can quickly add up, especially when you are buying several of them for each class every semester, including some pricey textbooks or niche academic literature. Although this cost can prove burdensome, the cost of lacking certain texts is also rather significant, leaving many students with a difficult choice. Understandably, the University has a finite budget and cannot pay for everything students may possibly need during their four years on campus. Yet books play an integral role in one’s college career: they open our minds up to new ideas, teach us about fascinating subject matters, and allow us to meaningfully en-
gage with the courses we take. It seems to me that should the University decide to be generous in any particular regard, course books may be a good place to start. While books are meant to be included in some financial aid awards, these awards are often not enough. To ensure that the high cost of books does not become an unduly heavy burden on students, a more appropriate policy may be to pay for books directly rather than through financial aid grants. Setting up a system where the University pays for books at Labyrinth rather than students would help to avoid situations where students are unable to afford their books using just financial aid grants. Don’t get me wrong: I certainly enjoy the decadent brunch spread at Forbes College on Sundays and I love receiving free Princeton apparel. However, I see greater value in reallocating funds so that students do not feel the need to either download books as PDFs, buy used texts with others’ notes in the margins, or forgo buying certain books altogether in order to avoid the exorbitant cost of books. It seems rather intuitive that books are a necessary part of a college student’s experience, so making them more affordable would only promote the goals and expectations of college students that have already been established. Ava Milberg is a sophomore from New York City. She can be reached at amilberg@princeton.edu.
Opinion
Friday March 18, 2022
page 10
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
It’s time to make things right: Princeton University must significantly reduce local housing disparities Matt Mleczko columnist
The following article ref lects the author’s views alone – not that of any organizations.
I
n 1946, a university found itself in the midst of a housing crisis. It had enrolled more students, particularly World War II veterans, than it or the surrounding community could house. Facing a serious housing shortage, this university took bold action by partnering with the Federal Public Housing Authority (FPHA) to build temporary apartment housing on its former polo field for 252 returning veterans and their families. That university was Princeton University, and that housing project was called the Butler Tract. Finished in 1947, the Butler Tract — a 36 acre plot of land located on the east side of Harrison Street, in between Hartley Avenue and Sycamore Road — grew to contain 304 housing units before its demolition in 2014. The Butler Tract lasted 62 years longer than originally intended. Despite its fairly utilitarian construction, it came to be a beloved home for many University graduate students and their families. The Butler Tract project occurred in an era when our most powerful institutions promoted housing with a sense of urgency. A decade after beginning to build public housing and subsidize homeownership in the 1930s, the federal government took unprecedented action by enacting rent freezes and mass producing housing for migrant workers and veterans. Through the Butler Tract, the University took similar steps to relieve the housing burden among its student population, and, more
generally, within the Township and Borough of Princeton. Unfortunately, the policies of this era generated massive racial inequities. A plethora of research has detailed how the federal government instituted blatantly racist policies within New Deal programs, how the financial and real estate industries perpetuated these policies, and how their effects reverberate throughout society to this day. As important as the Butler Tract was to relieving Princeton’s housing shortage, it was not immune from institutional trends promoting racial housing disparities. University records suggest that when the FPHA turned the property over to the University in 1948, all Butler Tract residents were white University-affiliated veterans and their family members. Around the same time, Black veterans without the luxury of University affiliation experienced considerable housing instability in Princeton. Perhaps in anticipation of how scarce housing in Princeton would remain, one University official emphasized that “outsiders not connected with the University would have no right whatsoever to demand the use” of the Butler Tract. This history of institutionalized racism and our insufficient responses to it points to a crucial observation about racial inequities: institutional policies created them and institutional policies must end them. Policy responses to COVID-19’s aggravation of our pre-existing housing crisis, such as eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance (while far from perfect), represent arguably the most significant housing interventions since the 1940s. They demonstrate that our governments can still meaningfully respond to housing problems and perhaps have given us a renewed sense of urgency about correcting the inequities caused by
our governments and financial institutions decades ago. Nongovernmental institutions, particularly those like Princeton University that are anchored in areas of intense housing inequity, also need to recognize their unfulfilled roles. In past columns for The Daily Princetonian, I’ve documented housing inequities within Princeton and explained how many homeowners exacerbate them. This series is an attempt to show that Princeton University, one of the region’s largest landowners, can reduce these inequities and has an obligation to do so. The University has a history of employment
and housing discrimination. At the turn of the century, Princeton University made special efforts to help Italian laborers working at the University find affordable housing in and around the traditionally Black and under-resourced Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood. This housing, which was practically the only option available in Princeton to Black residents, was often of poor quality and hazardous to health. Instead of improving living conditions for its Black dining hall employees living in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood, which several reports commissioned in the 1910s recommended doing, the University fired its Black dining hall employees, re-
placed them with white employees, and built a dormitory for these new white employees elsewhere in the Borough. The University did this despite previously acknowledging “the obligation of the University to improve the living conditions” of its Black employees. The University also indirectly participated in a controversial urban renewal program in the 1930s. To make way for Palmer Square, Princeton Municipal Improvement, Inc., led by Edgar Palmer Class of 1903, a University Trustee, displaced many Black households that once lived where a collection of mostly high-end, boutique shops now stand. After Palmer’s death, Princeton University came to own much of the Palmer Square property until 1981, when it sold the property for $17 million. The University continues to aggravate housing inequities today. Most notably, it does little beyond the bare minimum to help supply housing for the people it draws into such an exorbitantly expensive, housingstarved area. By subsidizing mortgages for faculty and upper-level staff – members of the University community with likely the lowest need for housing assistance — Princeton University likely helps inflate local housing costs. In comparison, the University provides housing to only a subset of graduate students (roughly 70 percent) by lottery and limited financial assistance to low and moderate income employees, some of whom live paycheck to paycheck. The University surely recognizes this decades-old problem. A 1970 Housing Market Study commissioned by the University highlighted the acute housing needs of low and moderate income households, including University staff, and recommended that the University should develop hundreds of affordable housing units. It also called for the University to consider opening up University housing to low and moderate income households in the community. As recently as 2005, internal surveys have suggested that many University employees spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing alone. These actions (and inactions) have likely contributed to the displacement of Black households from Princeton over time. While the municipality has grown alongside the University over the past 100 years, the share of its Black population has declined considerably over the same period. According to Census Bureau records, at the turn of the twentieth century, Black residents made up nearly one in five residents. By 1980, that number fell to one in 13 and by 2020, one in 17. Decades
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of documented racial discrimination along with a chronic lack of affordable housing in the municipality likely explain much of the exodus of Black residents. These patterns exist elsewhere, particularly in areas where massive, for-profit tech companies have been implicated for their role in the housing crisis. Like Princeton University, these companies aren’t singularly responsible for the crisis — after all, many local governments have failed to zone for sufficient amounts of multifamily housing — and these companies do provide economic benefits to the region. Yet, while companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support affordable housing in their communities, these contributions represent tiny fractions of their overall wealth and are insufficient given the scale of the problem. Similarly, Princeton University, one of the wealthiest and most well-renowned universities in the world, does little to address ongoing housing inequity in the area. It does support the municipality through voluntary contributions, both in the form of property taxes on the housing it owns and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), but not on the scale necessary to change the status quo. Even the recent $18.2 million settlement challenging the University’s non-profit status did not meaningfully address housing inequities in Princeton. Peer institutions like Harvard University, through its Local Housing Collaborative, have helped finance and preserve thousands of affordable housing units in the
Boston area. Initiatives like this demonstrate that the University can do more. Fortunately, the University has demonstrated its capacity to be a part of the solution in the past. In the late 1960s, it joined an emerging coalition of organizations in the area to promote housing affordability. In the 1970s, University administrators publicly supported and offered credit for the development that became Princeton Community
Village. University President Robert Goheen’s administration pursued the construction of 1,500 low and moderate income housing units before President Nixon’s moratorium on federal housing subsidies undermined their plans. More recently, the University has helped finance affordable home ownership and has sold and donated land to help the municipality reach its state-mandated affordable housing targets, leading to the development of affordable housing units both at the Butler Tract and the Merwick-Stanworth apartments. Its Lake Campus development will house many more graduate students, which will likely open up units elsewhere in the municipality for others. These are positive steps that we can and should build upon. One obvious place for the University to strengthen its commitment to affordable housing is the Butler Tract, which has remained vacant since 2014. Currently, the University has no plans for the land, but has indicated that it could be used for University housing in the future. Yet, given the dire lack of affordable housing in Princeton and how ideal the Butler Tract is for development, the University clearly lacks a sense of urgency by leaving the land vacant in the near-term. The municipality of Princeton currently has one of its most pro-housing Councils in decades, if not ever. The time for Princeton University to act is now. Matt Mleczko is a member of the Princeton Affordable Housing Board and a researcher with Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
Shining a spotlight on Princeton faculty diversity Ndeye Thioubou
P
columnist
rinceton University often promotes its commitment to a diverse student body with members hailing from varied backgrounds. But the same standard of diversity is not apparent in the demographics of Princeton’s faculty. To ensure varied teaching perspectives in Princeton classrooms, faculty diversity desperately needs to increase. While Princeton’s student body is split across the middle for female and male students, the faculty population is predominantly male. According to the Office of Institutional Research’s Diversity Dashboards, last year 62 percent of non-tenured and tenured faculty were men. When looking only at tenured faculty, this disparity grows wider, with men composing 68 percent of that group. Therefore, not only are women less likely to be a faculty member in the first place, they are also underrepresented in tenure positions, which are considered the highest level of professorship. Looking at the data set of the primary race of faculty members, we see that associate professors, full professors, and non-tenure track professors are all predominantly white. Assistant professors are 53 percent white, 21 percent Asian, eight percent Black, and seven percent Hispanic. It is pertinent to note that the percentage of Black faculty at Princeton has risen by only one percent — from four to five percent — in 10 years. Currently, Black students make up 10 percent of the undergraduate student body, so the fact that
the percentage of Black faculty remains so low indicates that Princeton must create new policies to recruit more Black faculty members. A faculty that is predominantly white and male does not meet the needs of an increasingly diverse Princeton student body that hails from countries across the world from varied cultures, socioeconomic statuses, races, and genders. Princeton’s representation of Black, Hispanic, and Native populations among students is already lower than their national representation, which only makes their low representation among the faculty all the more disappointing and unacceptable. Princeton is certainly not the only institution struggling with faculty diversity; many other colleges and universities across the country are as well. As of 2021, about 60 percent of Harvard’s tenured faculty are white men. Yale’s faculty was 62 percent white last year. The fact that Princeton is not alone in needing a more diverse faculty does not mean the University can be complacent about the issue, especially given that Princeton has prided itself on being a leader amongst its peers and being one of the first universities to enact changes to make campus more inclusive and diverse. Therefore, Princeton needs to take more forceful steps towards diversifying its faculty members. In this column I have only looked at gender and race as factors of diversity, but there are undoubtedly many other attributes that constitute factors of diversity, such as religion, disability, and socioeconomic class. Without a sufficiently diverse faculty, Princeton students are being de-
prived of opportunities to learn from those with unique and invaluable experiences and perspectives. It is my hope that in the future academic years, Princeton takes strides to greater diversify its faculty, thereby improving students’ academic experience. So what steps should Princeton take? To hire and attract more women faculty and faculty of color, Princeton needs to minimize unconscious bias in the faculty search process as much as possible. Therefore hiring committees must be adequately trained on being aware of inherent biases and
how to reduce biases’ influence when making decisions on who will join the Princeton faculty. Additionally, retention of new faculty is just as important as recruitment. Nationally, faculty of color and female faculty are often paid less than their white male counterparts, so equity in pay needs to be prioritized as well as pay transparency across individual departments. The culture of inclusion and acceptance with their peers once faculty members arrive on campus is critical to retaining them and not losing them to other institutions.
University President Eisgruber ’83 said that the next edition of the annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion report, which would be the second one ever published by Princeton, will showcase greater diversity amongst faculty. I, for one, eagerly await this next report to see how Eisgruber and the University make good on this promise. Ndeye Thioubou is a first-year from The Bronx, N.Y. She can be reached at nthioubou@princeton. edu.
SOURCE: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY DIVERSITY DASHBOARDS • CHART BY NDEYE THIOUBOU
Satire
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Princeton reallocates COVID-19 resources to enforce campus ‘compassion mandate’
COURTESY OF @PRINCETON / TWITTER
A screenshot from the University’s Twitter account.
Zachary Shevin
Managing Editor Emeritus
The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional. The screenshot above is totally real though … like they actually posted that. With its mask mandate expiring, Princeton took to social media to announce a new com-
munity-wide policy: “Masks optional. Compassion required.” Few anticipated the immense efforts that the University would take to impose these new guidelines. All resources previously employed by the University to curb the spread of COVID-19 have now been repurposed to ensure compliance with the “campus compassion mandate.”
Reporters for The Daily PrintsAnything found that now, rather than policing Firestone Library to ensure students’ masks cover their noses and mouths, security guards in the library now stroll around reminding students to be nice to each other. Instead of requiring face coverings, Dillon Gymnasium now requires students to compliment fellow gym-goers
at least three times per hour. “If you walk by someone else without audibly admiring their lifting form, know that I will not hesitate to have you removed,” said one Dillon Gym staff member, who was previously tasked with making sure no runners wore their masks below the nose. Other campus departments have found more creative ways to repurpose resources. “We’ve just been using the extra to-go boxes as fun little hats,” said one Campus Dining employee. “They really put everyone in a good mood!” Students are encouraged to report any non-compassionate behavior through EthicsPoint, the University’s anonymous hotline previously used for COVID-19 restriction violations. The former COVID-19 Dashboard has been repurposed to track transgressions. Fifty eight students have received disciplinary probation for lacking compassion thus far, according to the Dashboard. COVID-19 isolation housing has been re-
purposed as a temporary “timeout” for these minor offenders. Seven other students have been expelled from the school for more egregious violations. “You forget to say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes, and suddenly you’re on a flight home,” one anonymous student told The Daily PrintsAnything. Some campus spaces have received exemptions to the new measures. Certain environments where the University encourages callousness, such as Committee on Discipline and Honor Committee hearings, will not require individuals to act compassionately. The Interclub Council (ICC) has also preemptively secured an exception to the compassion mandate for bicker discussions next year. Zachary Shevin is a senior in the economics department and previously served as a Managing Editor at the ‘Prince’. He’s really nice (please don’t expel him) and can be reached at zshevin@princeton.edu.
Viewpoint Diversity USG Task Force advocates anti-antiracist training Josiah Gouker Columnist
The following content is purely satirical and entirely fictional. Citing concerns about the one-sidedness of the diversity training for first-year undergraduates, “To Be Known and Heard,” the USG Senate’s new task force on “viewpoint diversity” has recommended a training to promote the other side, titled “To Erase and Silence.” This anti-antiracist training aims to focus on all of the positive contributions of University members — such as Woodrow Wilson — and advocates for returning to the practice of ignoring racist behaviors of “men of their time,”
including behaviors like resegregating the federal workforce. This new training would also support a new Center for Viewpoint Diversity, which would “innovatively foster the study of such oppressed disciplines as classics and jurisprudence,” according to the task force’s press release. Preliminary research has led the group to propose that the University create a new office as an analogue to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in Campus Life. This new Office of Discrimination, Inequity, and Exclusion would begin the work to create specific “dangerous spaces” for students, in partnership with some of Prospect Avenue’s eating clubs.
In addition, the new University office would provide funding for new student groups that outrightly enforce the status quo. One group might, according to the proposal, be organized to counter student activist efforts such as protests or sitins. “Enough change has happened at this University over the past 276 years,” the proposal states. “It’s time the University also start funding student groups that want to keep things exactly as they are.” Josiah Gouker is a contributing satire writer, opinion columnist, and a member of the 146th Editorial Board. He can be reached at josiahg@princeton.edu.
Cartoon
Nyx
By Audrey Zhang | Staff Cartoonist
Quarantime
By Anika Asthana | Staff Cartoonist
Features
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Dusk falls over the reflecting pool of the Lewis Center for the Arts. .
“Because of tradition” Disagreements and changes within Princeton’s dance group hierarchy By Katherine Brubaker Features Contributor
Princeton’s student-led dance community boasts more than 15 ensembles, each with unique styles, traditions, and requirements. These groups are known for their professional caliber performances and near-professional time commitments. In the midst of the pandemic, student concerns about social hierarchy, elitism, and bias toward Western dance styles within the dance community prompted policy changes — specifically, the dissolution of a coalition known as G4. Now, in the first in-person year since the change, dance groups and their members are still adjusting. New logistics surrounding performances and reduced restrictions on membership solved some issues while creating new ones, and in practice, student leaders have not unequivocally embraced the changes. Until the summer of 2020, four dance groups — Disiac, Black Arts Dance Company (BAC), eXpressions, and BodyHype — made up a coalition known as G4, designed to limit students to participating in only one of the four groups. The G4 groups historically attracted particularly large volumes of auditionees, and often faced issues with dancers trying out for more than one group, leading to conflicts in the admission and rehearsal processes. In turn, the competition to attract talented dancers intensified. But that summer, in the wake of concerns from student dancers regarding inequity in the dance community, members of G4 voted to disband the coalition. Thus, the rule that students could only join one of the four groups was no longer in effect. The Performing Arts Council (PAC) is the legislative body — under which the G4 coalition operated — that governs arts administration for a wide range of student arts groups at Princeton. In the view of PAC’s president emeritus, Sophie Blue ’21, G4 promoted a culture of inequity among dance groups due to unequal distribution of rehearsal and performance dates, times, and venues. PAC allocates performance and rehearsal spaces; companies in G4 received preferable amenities, Blue said, to the detriment of other dance ensembles. “We had been having a lot of conversations within the arts community about how administrations and structures can support those that do not have the same amount of representation or resources,” Blue said. “There was an uneven distribution of those resources built into the system of how PAC operated.” This policy change did not have a substantial effect on the subsequent school year, which was online for the first semester and partially in-person for the second semester. But this academic year, fewer COVID-19 restrictions on campus allowed for in-person dance auditions and shows — bringing the growing pains of the new
policy to the surface. The elimination of G4 brought a multitude of structural changes. Previously, per PAC policy, G4 was guaranteed two shows each year in Frist Campus Center. Now, each dance group is guaranteed one show on the Frist stage, and whether or not a group gets a second show is decided by lottery. Performance spaces for second shows are also determined by lottery. “Now, every group — no matter how big they are, or how long they’ve been around, or how much money they have in the bank — all have equal opportunity to use the school’s performance spaces,” Blue said. Molly Gibbons ’22 is a member of BodyHype and Princeton University Ballet. She was the previous PAC vice president, prior to elections this semester. Gibbons was not on the PAC board when the new policies were implemented but explained her understanding of the change. “The redistribution of the shows was so that no one was given special shows, or special times that they had before, because of tradition,” said Gibbons. Gibbons also discussed PAC’s aim to give student dancers more freedom by eliminating the constraint of which groups they could join. “There was a feeling that you needed to let people make their own choices about what their commitments are. For certain people and the styles of dance they do, it didn’t make sense why you couldn’t join another group,” said Gibbons. “G4 was making it so that hip-hop dancers couldn’t join, say BAC and BodyHype, or BAC and Disiac, if they wanted to.” Gibbons noted that the dissolution of G4 was important not only in terms of logistics but also for the relationships between dance groups. “There was so much animosity between dance groups at times and that wasn’t productive,” she said. “It felt like maybe this system [G4] wasn’t serving us anymore. There was also perceived pressure from PAC and perceived pressure from ODUS at this time to make changes.” Gibbons also noted that regardless of the policy, she’s grateful that the dance scene is back. “For me, everyone’s doing shows — coming out of COVID, that feels like a victory,” said Gibbons. Ben Reinkemeyer ’23 is a member of Disiac and was part of PAC when G4 was dissolved. He felt that the policy change helped eliminate preference given to dance styles largely practiced by and available to white, wealthy students. “Abolishing G4 was a good start towards making students from all backgrounds feel included in the Princeton dance community,” Reinkemeyer said. “It is important to continue recognizing the inherent bias towards Western styles of dance on campus, so all students can feel like their art and experiences add value.” For similar reasons, Emma Wang ’23, former president of Disiac dance company,
was happy to see G4 disbanded. “G4 was stupid and elitist,” she said. “I think it was a necessary change.” But despite her overall support for the change, Wang argued that it caused commotion amongst formerly G4 groups and the University dance community at large, especially due to what she saw as a lack of clarity both from PAC and from ODUS. “People are upset with how it was handled. It was really hard to navigate. [They didn’t] describe how it would affect [dancers] or what the new policies were,” Wang said. Every officer that implemented the policy changes has since graduated or is no longer part of PAC. According to Wang, this lack of continuity has been one of the sources of difficulty. “It has been months. There have been no PAC meetings. We need new policies and guidelines to function, and we are not given them. So we have to ask and push, and [the new leadership] doesn’t know what’s going on. Having … Sophie Blue leave, who pioneered this initiative, has been difficult,” said Wang. Furthermore, overlapping membership between what were previously G4 groups has been a not-always-welcome result of the PAC policy changes. Wang discussed her experiences with dancers who chose to accept spots in both BodyHype and Disiac. “It is difficult because there was rehearsal overlap,” said Wang. “What’s the point of being in a group if you are going to be inactive for most of it? BodyHype and Disiac are so similar. They’re different communities, but the dancing is the same.” Although officially, groups cannot bar students from joining other groups, these difficulties have led to the informal emergence of “G2” between Disiac and BodyHype. Each company’s leadership strongly encourages dancers to join only one of these two groups. According to Wang in a message to The Daily Princetonian, “most knew where they wanted to be,” so the choice was never too complicated. But Blue, who firmly believes that G4 needed to be dissolved, said that she felt disappointed at this development. “[Disiac and BodyHype] didn’t even give it a full semester on campus,” Blue said. “This social hierarchy, which the dance groups wanted to abolish originally, is exacerbated by the G2.” Conversations surrounding inequity in Princeton’s dance community are ongoing, but in the meantime, Blue encouraged current leaders to consider the potential benefits of embracing a new system. “Change is hard, but if you don’t try, you’re not gonna see what is possible,” Blue said. Katherine Brubaker is a Features contributor. She can be reached at keb2@princeton.edu.
the PROSPECT. The Daily Princetonian
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ARTS & CULTURE
‘Homage to the colorful modes and rhythms of Hungarian folk music’ PUO
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featured solos by soprano Marley Jacobson ’22 and violist Andrew Jung ’25, as well as two pieces curated and conducted by music certificate students Montagu James ’22 and Elijah Shina ’22. Jacobson captured the audience’s ear and imaginations with Mozart’s “Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!” (K. 418). According to Jacobson’s program notes, Mozart composed the aria for Aloysia Weber Lange, a soprano “known for her expressive technique and powerful high notes.” Jacobson’s high notes were powerful indeed — effortless and equally resonant as her lows. Sung from the guilty perspective of a maiden unable to return her suitor’s affection, the piece showcased Jacobson’s staggering vocal skill and maturity as an actor. Spellbound by her mournful gaze, I marveled at Jacobson’s commanding presence and vocal projection. Her final note was an astonishing A3, the lowest note demanded of soprano singers. Six of the soloist’s friends leapt to their feet, and I shared in their enthusiastic applause. Next, Maestro James conducted the enchanting “Adagio Pas de Deux” from Khachaturian’s “Spartacus.” With fluid gestures and a composer’s sensitivity, James carefully cued in each section. Gentle arpeggios in the harp
and winds gave way to a sweeping “love theme” in the strings. A winding journey through a sea of mixed keys and textures climaxed in a flood of harmony. Wave after luscious wave of sound crashed over the concert hall as the violins soared, restating the love theme against a stirring countermelody in the horns. At James’s command, the orchestra retreated to a whisper, drifting a while before coming to rest on a tender tonic chord. The concert took a dramatic turn under Maestro Shina’s baton with Brahms’s “Tragic Overture.” Tragic is the somber counterpart to Brahms’s jubilant “Academic Festival Overture.” Oscillating between tranquil and epic, with rousing percussion and anthemic moments of unison, this piece demanded precision from the orchestra and strong leadership from the conductor. Shina conducted with gusto, and his prowess as a concert percussionist showed in his steady pulse and attention to rhythmic detail. Like with the Khachaturian, I was struck by the rich orchestration and dynamic range of this piece. The blaring of the brass and timpani in the exposition contrasted sharply with the subdued winds in the second section. An octave fanfare signaled the return of the theme, and Shina propelled the orchestra through to a fortissimo finish. Jung closed out the night with a virtuosic rendition of Bartok’s Viola Concerto, Sz. 120. The viola is so often overshadowed in the canon by its smaller, shriller cous-
in. However, Jung chose a fantastic piece with which to display his skill and prove his instrument’s worth. Jung negotiated difficult passages with seeming ease, cleanly executing harmonics and double stops — advanced techniques I had only ever heard performed on the violin. Jung bowed life into each musical phrase through his delicate treatment of timbre and volume. Embracing time’s ebb and flow, he maintained a gentle rubato as the orchestra paid homage to the colorful modes and rhythms of Hungarian folk music. At the end of three impeccable movements, Jung accepted a well-deserved standing ovation with a bright smile and a humble bow. Musical skill is so often called “talent,” but “talent” overlooks the passion and the process crucial to developing musical ability. Talent is innate, but skill is practiced; skill is learned. PUO are not merely talented performers, but skilled artists for whom music is a gift to be nurtured and shared. I speak not only of the four featured musicians, but of each integral member of the symphony, whose skill and dedication to their craft was clear to see and hear in the caliber of this spring concert. Bravo! Sage Kanemaru is a contributing writer for The Prospect. He can be reached at kanemaru@princeton.edu or on Instagram at @sagek.ane.
Flight itinerary: a travel diary By Gabriel Robare | Senior Writer The following is a precise itinerary on how to travel from Princeton, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. Follow these steps exactly for a smooth and safe trip home. 2:22 am: Begin by returning home from a post-midterms party. Consider sleeping; forgo it. Missing one night of sleep won’t kill you, and adventure seems a necessary panacea. Steel yourself. 3:45 am: Finish reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People. Learn that the first bus departs from Palmer Square at 5:08 am. 5:05 am: Supported with food, showered, and dressed in a suit and tie, arrive at the bus stop at Palmer Square. Leave campus through Fitzrandolph Gate for good measure and good drama. Sip a Wawa coffee and shudder. 5:17 am: Realize and reconcile with the country bumpkin that lives within you, that the only cash you have to break a $2.75 bus fare with is a $20 note, and panic, because what else is there to do. Ask the man next to you if he can break a twenty. Accept the three dollars he gives you, and remember with joy amid your cold fatigue that human beings tend toward compassion. Recall that the $20 bill you do have was an unnecessary but loving gift from a friend. Sit more comfortably in your bus seat. 5:48 am: Find that the nice man who gave you three dollars is traveling the same way as you. Form a parasocial relationship with him. Lose track of where he is within five minutes. 6:36 am: Read a Philip Roth novel until you start to doze off. Try to sleep on the train, and consider the fact that a Northeast Corridor train at 6:36 am is one of the all-timeworst places to sleep. Sleep anyway. Rouse gently when the calm voice announces each stop: “Metuchen.” “Rahway.” “Secaucus.” Think as deeply as you can — which, to be fair, isn’t very deep — about the sonic richness of these names. Go back to sleep. 7:45 am: Arrive promptly at Penn Station and get on the A Train to find the quickest way to Harlem. 8:10 am: Come to the steps set into the rock face in Morn-
ingside Park, and be reminded that “Manhattan” probably derives from the Lenape word for “island of many hills.” There were many hills here once, and now there are only a few, including this one. Climb it. Consider how humans change the world and are changed by it. 8:23 am: Traipse about Columbia University, and feel a peculiar emotion that straddles regret and wonder. 8:36 am: Rest at the Starbucks across the street to recharge yourself and your phone. Buy a sparkling water and a pack of blueberries to earn your keep. The cashier will seem to communicate a sweet care to you: don’t miss it. 9:32 am: Call your mother and explain why you haven’t slept and are in New York. 10:13 am: Call a dear friend and explain yourself more fully. 11:34 am: Head off to the airport — the first leg is LaGuardia to Logan, in Boston. Adventure is out there somewhere. 11:36 am: Feel a similar sense of panic to earlier — TSAbased panic. Recall the Wawa hoagie in your bag — is that allowed on a plane? Will it be small enough to fit under the seat? Will you make a fool out of yourself in the line? 12:45 pm: Remember, though, that you are an extrovert and ask the TSA officer how his day is. His shocked smile will alleviate your stress. 1:21 pm: Overhear a woman say “I girlbossed my way to LaGuardia,” and honestly ponder which verb got you to LaGuardia. 2:05 pm: Repeat the instructions from 6:36 am on the airplane. 3:39 pm: On the ground in Boston, count how many modes of transportation you will take — thirteen: four buses, six trains, two planes, and one car. Revel in infrastructure. 4:01 pm: Take the T to Cambridge and wander the third Ivy League campus of the day. After a couple dozen waking hours, question what you’re doing out here, so far from home, at such a distance from reality. Sit down on the stoop of the Widener Library and read some Mary Oliver. Suddenly, find a better idea of what you’re doing out here: “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work,” she wrote. Give that $20 bill to a panhandler. Walk on.
5:30 pm: When in Cambridge, do as the Crimson do, and follow some students into Felipe’s Taqueria, where half the school seems to be congregated. It is mediocre, because everything in Cambridge is mediocre. Recall your Harvard denial letter. 6:15 pm: Return to Boston Logan and take the airport shuttle. There, you will repeatedly hear the voice of a friend, look to find them, and then recall that you are alone in this airport shuttle. 6:27 pm: Make conversation in line for security. Here, you will have been awake for thirty-three hours and will thus find your speed of speech akin to that of molasses. The family from Toronto behind you will find that quality to bely not extreme fatigue, but instead conscientious thoughtfulness. Consider that if you stayed up for multiple days more often, you might often appear as though your mind moves faster than your mouth. Consider, also, that your brain is no longer able to make healthy decisions at this hour. 7:15 pm: Seated at the gate, try to find an outlet to charge your phone, which will not reach above 30 percent battery all day. While you do so, you will encounter a friend from high school with whom you fell out poorly. Converse with her for ninety minutes. Begin most sentences with, “Do you still…”. 9:01 pm: Board the plane. When the man next to you asks what book you are reading, answer — “Tender is the Night,” and this night is becoming rather tender indeed — and converse with him, too, on school and the classics and (somehow) literary theory, for most of the flight. Recall with blistered clarity (despite your state) Oliver Wendell Holmes’s missive, “Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have enough of it.” 10:49 pm: Arrive in Buffalo, and ride home with your parents. Go home and rest, at last. Gabriel Robare is a Senior Writer for The Prospect, a Head Editor of the Puzzles section, and a Contributing News Writer at the ‘Prince,’ who often covers literature and the self. He can be reached at grobare@princeton.edu, and on Instagram and Twitter at @ gabrielrobare.
Seeing through the darkness and rain of ‘In the Mood for Love’ By Daniel Viorica | Staff Writer On Feb. 17, the Princeton Garden Theatre showed “In the Mood for Love” as part of the “Deep Focus” seminar series. The film from 2000, which was written, directed, and produced by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, depicts two neighbors, Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), who discover that their spouses are having an affair. The “Deep Focus” series brings discussions of classic films with eminent scholars and film professionals to the Princeton community. “In the Mood for Love” is part of the Asian American Film sub-series of “Deep Focus,” and this seminar was hosted by Professor Erin Y. Huang from the comparative literature and East Asian studies department. From the beginning, I was struck by the film’s unique progression: it’s shot in a number of vignettes separated by quick fades. Time passes, but indistinctly. The protagonists move from short, banal interactions almost unnoticeably into friendship, camaraderie, artistic partnership, and even love. We track the characters through their individual lives — mostly boring jobs between walking in and out of the apartment block. But, as their relationship intensifies, we often see them together. Additionally, Wong’s camera obsesses over inanimate
objects: they obstruct and frame the action of the scene. Often, the camera focuses on something in the foreground, leaving the audience to look past it to see the characters beyond it. Wong uses mirrors and curtains to great effect. Visually, Wong often leaves out important characters. Chow’s wife is only seen from a distance; Su’s husband isn’t seen at all, only heard. By the end, both have nearly disappeared from the plot. Repetitions carry us through the film. Again and again, we see the apartments. A clock. A declined invitation. A chance meeting up and down a staircase. There are several musical cues that repeat again and again, over actions in slow motion, marking significant development in the plot. Other than this, the film lacks an atmospheric score. Most dialogue, especially in the beginning, is empty small talk — the characters and the audience try to see through it to something real. In the background, it’s always raining. It’s always smoky. It’s almost always night. The use of red, yellow, and green, dimness, and dinginess make the heat and closeness of the scenes palpable — it takes a special kind of film to transport its audience so fully into a location and into a time. Towards the end of the film, the time and location shift from the Hong Kong of the 60s, to Singapore, back to Hong Kong, three years later. Nothing has changed except
the people, for whom everything has changed. The final scenes of the film transport us to the past in a way that I can’t spoil and won’t forget. The film also sets up a very palpable wall between the characters and our audience. One trait the protagonists share is their love for making art. Despite the passion the characters feel toward one another or toward their creations, Wong shoots these scenes just as he shoots everything else. This leaves a distance between the characters and viewers. It’s up to the actors, even more than usual with the lack of a score, to bring us to where they are — and they are entirely up to the task. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are the best part of the film; their performances are translucent. It’s cliché to say that they become their characters, but they do. And then they take it a step further: sometimes, it’s impossible to know in some scenes whether the characters themselves are acting. After the final frames of the film, the audience — more crowded than you might expect for a 20-year-old film on a Thursday — began applauding. Outside the theater, it was raining: a bit of the film had come to us. Daniel Viorica is a Staff Writer for The Prospect at the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at viorica@princeton.edu.
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HerHoopStats: Tigers have 64% chance to win WBB
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Rhyne Howard. A projected top-three pick in this year’s WNBA draft, Howard’s excellence on both ends of the floor has been hard to ignore — her 20.6 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game make her one of the most well-rounded players in the nation. The Wildcats also have a decent size advantage over the Tigers, with three of their most used guards at or over 6’0”. Princeton’s tallest rotation player is sophomore forward Ellie Mitchell, who stands at six foot one inch tall, while senior guard Abby Meyers is the only Princeton guard to break 6’0”. The Wildcats are also eighth in the NCAA in blocked shots per game, making them imposing in the paint. The Orange and Black are to be feared on defense, too, though. With a top-three scoring defense in the NCAA, holding their opponents to an average of just 50.9 points per game, the Tigers will look to con-
tinue their defensive success. Battle-tested through the Ivy Tournament, the Princeton defense locked in key experience against high-volume threepoint shooting teams in Harvard and Columbia. Against a Kentucky team with a comparable three-point percentage, the Tigers’ trip through Ivy Madness will prove valuable. On the offensive end, Mitchell’s prolific offensive rebounding will be key to generating second-chance opportunities for the Tigers and limiting Kentucky’s chances on the fastbreak. In one of Princeton’s toughest games of the year, a 70–53 loss to No. 12 Texas, Mitchell logged a staggering 12 offensive rebounds, her season high. The Wildcats have had success against top SEC opponents by playing at a faster pace, so the Tigers will need to continue working the offensive glass to prevent Kentucky from getting quick points in transition. Not to be outdone, Princeton enters with significant momentum of their own: on a 17-game winning streak, with their last
loss being the game against Texas. Having played the entire Ivy Tournament away from home, the Tigers have proved they can maintain their top-tier play on neutral ground. As of March 14, Princeton has been ranked in the AP top-25 for two weeks in a row, and key players Meyers and sophomore guard Kaitlyn Chen are coming off of impressive performances. For Chen, who has steadily improved throughout the season, maintaining the confidence and all-around excellence that manifested in a career-high 30-point showing against Columbia is paramount. The matchup is sure to be one for the ages, with both teams looking to showcase their talent and skill. Though HerHoopStats projects a 64 percent win probability in favor of Princeton on neutral ground, Kentucky has proven that nothing is guaranteed against their squad. With the potential for a budding rivalry, win streaks at risk, and the opportunity to play against some of the top teams in the league, a lot is at stake for both the Tigers and
Wildcats. The teams enter the bracket in the bottom half of the Bridgeport Region, which places them amid a number of formidable opponents. Should the Tigers advance past Kentucky, they would more than likely face the region hosts, No. 3-seeded University of Indiana (22–8, 11–5 Big Ten), who faces No. 14-seeded Charlotte (22–9,15–3 Conference USA) in the first round. Only one team seeded lower than the 13 line has ever managed to pull off an upset in the first round in the history of the women’s tournament. In 1998, the Ivy League’s own Harvard Crimson, then No. 16, defeated then No. 1 Stanford, led by legendary Coach Tara VanDerveer, with a score of 71–67. The Crimson remain the only sub-13 seed in women’s tournament history to advance to the second round, making a Charlotte victory unlikely. Indiana boasts valuable experience against tough opponents in No. 2 seed Iowa (23–7, 14–4 Big Ten) and No. 1 seed Stanford (28–3, 16–0 Pac-12), as well as one of the highest
field-goal percentages in the league. Indiana will also have the key advantage of playing on their home court, as they host this section of the Bridgeport bracket. With that home-court advantage, HerHoopStats predicts a 62.2 percent win probability in favor of Indiana. Regardless of the outcome, this trip to March Madness will be an invaluable experience for the Tigers. With limited opportunities to play against ranked opponents, any one of these match-ups will be critical experience for a Princeton squad taking on the national stage. All 67 games of the 68-team March Madness tournament will be broadcast on ESPN channels. The Tigers will face off against Kentucky on Saturday, March 19, with tipoff at 4 p.m. on ESPN. Isabel Rodrigues is a contributor to the Sports section at the ‘Prince’ who typically covers women’s basketball. She can be reached at isabelr@princeton.edu or on Twitter @isabelinspace.
Corey Andonovski ’22 signs with the Pittsburgh Penguins By Ben Burns
Associate Sports Editor
Corey Andonovski, a senior forward for the men’s hockey team, has signed an entry-level contract (ELC) with the Pittsburgh Penguins from the National Hockey League (NHL). While the exact terms of the deal have not been released at the time of publication, the contract will kick in for the 2022–2023 season. In addition to the ELC, Andonovski signed an Amateur Tryout (ATO) for the next few weeks. The ATO allows him to join the Penguins’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins, for the remainder of their season. At the conclusion of the season, Andonovski will return to Princeton to finish the semester. Andonovski, who is turning 23 later this month and
is set to graduate in May, led the team with 10 goals and 12 assists for a total of 22 points in 31 games this past season. In his three-year career with Princeton, the Uxbridge, Ontario native tallied 21 goals and 29 assists for 50 points in 80 games. “I’m super excited to be part of the Penguins organization,” Andonovski told the ‘Prince.’ “Joining such a great organization has been a dream of mine ever since I was little, and I can’t thank all of my teammates and coaches I’ve had over the years [enough] — as well as my family and friends who have been by my side through it all.” Ben Burns is an Associate Sports Editor at the ‘Prince’ who typically covers basketball, hockey, and soccer. He can be reached at bwburns@princeton.edu or on Twitter @bwburns5_.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHELLEY M. SZWAST/GOPRINCETONTIGERS
Corey Andonovski against LIU.
Chris Sailer reflects on 36 years as women’s lacrosse head coach By Le’Naya Wilkerson Staff Sports Writer
Chris Sailer has a lot to show for her 36 years as head coach of the Princeton women’s lacrosse team. Since her first season in 1987, Sailer has earned numerous awards and titles, including 15 Ivy League titles and three NCAA Championships. Under her guidance, the program has made 26 NCAA tournament appearances — including 12 straight from 1998–2009 — and 11 national semifinal appearances. Earlier this year, Sailer announced that the 2022 season would be her last. The Daily Princetonian caught up with the US lacrosse hall of famer at the beginning of the busy non-conference schedule to reflect on her career. Coaching at Princeton has been a perfect fit for me all these years,” Sailer told the ‘Prince.’ “We have a great team around the team here and I’ve been fortunate to work alongside so many smart and committed assistant coaches and support staff who played significant roles in all the success we achieved.” “Certainly the awards and titles have been nice to receive, but when I look back
on my time here, what I’ll really cherish are the people and all the moments we shared together — the grind, the challenges and the triumphs,” she added. Sailer has been in the lacrosse scene for a long time, beginning her career in seventh grade at her junior high school. “The Philly area was a hotbed for women’s lacrosse in those days,” she said. “I was fortunate to have opportunities to compete at a young age even before the advent of Title IX.” When speaking with the ‘Prince,’ senior captains Olivia Pugh and Marge Donovan acknowledged Sailer’s abilities as a player, coach, and mentor. They are in awe of her “legendary” lacrosse status and feel inspired and motivated by her leadership. “She is one of the most knowledgeable and dedicated coaches I’ve had the privilege to play for,” Donovan said. “She has been a role model for me and for every generation of women’s lacrosse players.” “She is a legend in women’s lacrosse and has created a lasting legacy for all Princeton women’s lacrosse players and the sport of lacrosse,” Pugh added. “There is a strong sense of tradition for the team and I am con-
nected to all of the women who played under Chris before me.” Sailer hopes that her players, both past and present, learned “how to be tenacious in pursuit of their goals, resilient in the face of failure, and steadfast in their commitments.” She aimed to instill strong leadership and positive energy into her players, teaching them to bring a “warrior’s mindset to every challenge they face.” It’s not all tenacity from Sailer, though. The love and care that she gives to her team is truly unmatched in the eyes of her players. Pugh recalled the story of when Sailer stood by her side during her first semester. “I had an appendicitis scare and found myself in the hospital at 3 a.m.,” Pugh shared. “By 7 a.m., Chris was in the hospital sitting next to the bed while we waited to hear the news from the doctor.” When looking forward to the season, Sailer expressed the importance of enjoying the ride, while playing “freely and fiercely.” “I feel if we can do that, our team will have a lot of success and experience many memorable moments in 2022,” she said. Donovan also believed in
this sentiment. “Our goal for this season is to give the utmost focus, effort, and gratitude every time we get together as a team, whether it be for a practice, lift, film session, or game,” she said. “If we bring this mentality consistently to everything we do, we will be at our best and capable of beating any opponent that we face — in the Ivy League and beyond.”
As seniors, Donovan and Pugh look forward to giving it their all, not only because it is their last season at Princeton, but because it is Sailer’s as well. Le’Naya Wilkerson is a staff writer for the sports section at the ‘Prince.’ She can be reached via email at lw7842@princeton. edu.
COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
Sailer was inaugurated into the US Lacrosse National Hall of Fame in 2008.
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‘Like the end of the world’: Despite late heroics, MBB falls short in Ivy Madness final, losing to Yale 66–64 By Wilson Conn and Matt Drapkin
Head Sports Editor and Sports Staff Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The men’s basketball team came up just one basket short of punching a ticket to March Madness. Despite entering the game on an eight-game winning streak against conference opponents, the Tigers (23–6, 12–2 Ivy) were unable to win the Ivy Madness championship on Sunday afternoon, losing in heartbreaking fashion to Yale (19–11, 11–3). “All the teams that came up here thought they could get it done,” said Princeton Head Coach Mitch Henderson ’98 in the postgame press conference. “You have to play really well for two games to get a win.” Had they won, the Tigers would have gotten their secondever Ivy Madness title along with a spot in March Madness. It’s the second consecutive title for the Bulldogs, who will now make the NCAA Tournament for the third time since 2016, when they knocked off Baylor in the first round for the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win. With the win, Yale also avenges their loss to the Tigers in the 2017 title game. Although the game was not nearly as back-and-forth as the Tigers’ frenetic 77–73 win over Cornell (15–11, 7–7) in the semifinal — when junior forward Tosan Evbuomwan (21 points, 6 rebounds, and six assists) made the winning shot for the Tigers with 36 seconds remaining — the Yale game was competitive. Despite not leading for the final 37 minutes, Princeton trailed by single digits for much of the second half, and the Tigers used a late run to whittle down the Yale lead and give themselves a chance to win late. The fine margins by which the game was decided were no surprise, given the tight matchups the teams played earlier in the season, in which both teams won by six points on the road. In the first matchup in January, Yale managed an 80–74 win at Jadwin Gymnasium behind 17 points from guard Jalen Gabbidon. Senior guard Jaelin Llewellyn led all players with 23. The Tigers got their revenge in the second matchup at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, winning 81–75 behind monstrous performances from Evbuomwan (26 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists) and senior guard Ethan Wright (23 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists). Jaelin Llewellyn had just four points for the Tigers in the win, his lowest scoring total on the season. In recent games, Llewellyn’s performances had rebounded; he was averaging 23 points per contest in the four games since the win over Yale, while shooting an impressive 63 percent on field goals. He picked up right where he left off in the semifinal win, in which he finished with a game-high 23 points, opening up the game for the Tigers with a strong left-handed layup. The Bulldogs also had one of their leaders hot out of the gate. Guard Azar Swain, who was second in the Ivy League in scoring average this season and was coming off of a 25-point game in the Bulldogs’ 67–61 semifinal win over Penn (12–16, 9–5), scored the first two points of the game for Yale at the free throw line. The All-Ivy First Team selection’s success at the line was no surprise, as he entered the game 15th in Division I in free-throw shooting. Unfortunately for Llewellyn and the Tigers, things began to unravel shortly afterwards, despite the strong start. While trying to set up his team’s offense, Llewellyn had his pocket picked by Bulldogs guard Ben
Mbeng in the half-court, who took the ball coast-to-coast for an easy two. A few possessions later, Yale forward EJ Jarvis caught a pass inside and slammed down a big two-hand dunk over Ethan Wright, pushing the Yale lead to 16–10 with 12:39 remaining in the first half. To extend the lead to double digits, Swain went to work on Llewellyn. In a one-on-one matchup between two of the most skilled players in the Ivy League, Swain managed to find a way into the paint and rise up over his defender for a shot off the glass, putting Yale up 24–14. This was the culmination of an 8–0 scoring run for Yale. With seven minutes remaining before the break, the Tigers managed to go on a run of their own. It all began with Evbuomwan, who went into the post for an and-one drop step, converting the free throw to bring the Tigers within seven. With about one minute left in the half, Llewellyn knocked down his first three-pointer of the game to bring Princeton within three, 28–25. He shot just 30 percent from the field in the half. Princeton’s scoring run would come to a screeching halt after Llewellyn’s basket. Yale went on to hit two backto-back mid-range jumpers to regain control, including a shot clock buzzer-beating fadeaway from guard Jalen Gabbidon in the corner. At halftime, Yale led 32–25. The first-half deficit for the Tigers was due in large part to their shooting struggles. The team shot a lowly 31 percent from the field, and only hit three of 15 three-point attempts. Leading their effort was Evbuomwan and Llewellyn, putting up eight and seven points, respectively. Swain led Yale with eight points and five rebounds. “We usually make more shots, and we were getting good shots,” said Wright, who finished with 15 points, after the game. “For myself, I passed up some good ones because I already missed a couple. It’s hard to keep shooting when they’re not going in.” To start the second half, it seemed that Yale had maintained complete control. They pushed their lead to 38–27, their largest of the game, following a series of aggressive moves inside by forward Matt Knowling. “We’ve been really good at moving the ball, but we became a little one-on-one oriented,” Henderson reflected. “Maybe we lost track of what we were going to do.” It seemed like the game would soon become out of reach for the Tigers; that is, until Evbuomwan once again took over, helping the Tigers clean up their shooting struggles with his dominant presence inside. After hitting back-toback layups inside, he showed off his court vision with a dime outside to a wide open Ethan Wright for three. The game stood at 45–43, with Princeton trailing by two and 11 minutes to go. Evbuomwan would finish with 20 points on 62 percent shooting. The rest of the team shot just 35 percent from the field. Although usually one of the worst shooting teams from distance — taking last place in the conference in threepointers made and second to last in three-point percentage during the regular season — Yale looked to their shooters on the outside to provide a scoring burst. Swain and guard Matthue Cotton hit consecutive three-pointers to once again stretch the lead to eight at 51–43. Each time Princeton looked like they were ready to make a run in the second half, Swain
stepped up and made big plays on the offensive end to keep his team in the driver’s seat. With five minutes left in the game, Swain hit a three-pointer to put his team ahead 58–48. He would finish with 23 points to lead all scorers, and was given tournament MVP honors. “We could never get over the hump, but I thought we actually guarded them quite well,” Henderson said. “[Azar] Swain did make some big shots.” “He’s a really good player, and he made a lot of shots tonight in crucial moments,” Evbuomwan added. The next few minutes saw both teams trading buckets back and forth, picking up the pace significantly compared to that of the first half. With one minute to go, the game appeared to be over. Mbeng knocked down two free throws to give the Bulldogs a comfortable 64–55 lead. The next sixty seconds were pure madness. The Tigers’ late push began with a stop-and-pop threepointer for Wright. Princeton then turned up the pressure on defense, sending full-court pressure which forced a fivesecond inbound violation. With no time to waste, junior guard Ryan Langborg caught the ball on the perimeter and drove down the lane, kicking out to an open Llewellyn in the corner. His three-pointer brought the Tigers within three, down 64–61 with 33 seconds remaining. Down by three with no timeouts left, Princeton intentionally fouled Mbeng, a 69 percent free throw shooter. He stepped up to the charity stripe and knocked down two clutch foul shots. This damage was quickly undone by Llewellyn. Quickly getting the ball up the court, the floor general dispensed another bomb from downtown, closing the gap to 66–64 with 24 seconds left in the game. Yale once again would have to face Princeton’s pressure defense. Their experienced guards managed to work the ball up the floor, ultimately finding forward Isaiah Kelly inside. Kelly rose up and attempted to drop in a quick two, but was fouled hard at the rim by Wright, who prevented him from even getting the shot to the rim. Only a 62 percent free throw shooter, Kelly missed both at the line. With just 14 seconds on the clock and no timeouts remaining, the Tigers knew they had to act fast. Evbuomwan corralled the defensive rebound and promptly found Llewellyn. As the final seconds of the tournament ticked away, the ball was in the hands of one of Princeton’s biggest stars. “We’ve won a lot of these games in the last few years,” Henderson remarked. “I think we all thought we were going to get there.” Llewellyn made a hard move
to his left, driving baseline past the defense and finding his way into the paint. With less than five seconds on the clock, he got caught in the air, looking to kick the ball out to an open Ryan Langborg spotting up on the right wing. The ball never made it to Langborg. Instead, it hit the back of the backboard and came crashing down into the body of Llewellyn, whose feet stood out of bounds. Yale took possession, leading 66–64 with 1.5 seconds on the clock. After Yale called a timeout, Isaiah Kelly stood on the baseline to inbound the ball. He looked deep, launching a football-like toss that soared past half-court. Llewellyn came up with the steal. With no time remaining, Llewellyn was forced to chuck up a half-court heave that would have won his team the championship. The crowd held its breath as the final shot of the weekend hung in the air for what felt like an eternity. For a brief moment, the desperate heave looked as if it might go in, but Llewellyn’s attempt missed wide left. Yale had officially won the Ivy League Men’s Basketball championship. “It feels a little bit like the end of the world,” Henderson said. The loss made for Princeton’s lowest scoring game of the season. Prior to the matchup, the Tigers had only put up under 70 points just twice all season. They were also scoring over 80 points per game entering the weekend, good for the ninthbest scoring offense in Division I, and scored more points this year than any other season in school history. “We’ve been able to score all season,” Henderson said. “Tonight just didn’t go our way. Hopefully, at some point, we can remind these guys that they’ve had a hell of a year, and that they’re a special team. They’re a special group of guys to coach, and this senior class is really unique.” One of the worst parts about the loss was the sour ending for the senior class, whose final appearance in the Ivy League tournament ended on an unfortunate note. “We have a very disappointed group of seniors right now,” Henderson said. “I feel really bad for them right now.” While they could not pull out the victory against Yale, Henderson commended the seniors on their team-first mentality. He noted that even the seniors who don’t see the court as much are an irreplaceable part of the program. “They’re a great group top to bottom,” he said. “They make the team unselfish. They’re humble. They come to work everyday. And they rarely care about who gets the attention.” The shooting numbers told the story for the Tigers. While they managed to overcome a
poor first-half shooting performance in the second half — shooting over 50 percent from the field and 47 percent from deep in the final 20 minutes — the team still ended up with one of their worst shooting performances of the year, making just 41 percent of field goals and 33 percent of their three-point attempts. Both numbers were significantly worse than the 48.5 percent from the field and 40 percent from three that they shot in the semifinal. The marks were also well below their season averages; the Tigers entered the game sixth in Division I in three-point shooting percentage. Even though the Tigers are known for their shooting prowess, the performance is not necessarily shocking, given the fact that Yale allowed opponents to shoot just 27.9 percent from three-point range in conference play. Winning the Ivy League tournament gives Yale an automatic bid to March Madness. “We’re really disappointed for our guys to not get an opportunity to play in the NCAA [Tournament],” Coach Henderson said. “I’ll probably put the season into perspective later, but right now I’m just really disappointed,” Evbuomwan said. Henderson wants his team to maintain perspective after the loss. Yet, they still feel every bit of the heartbreak. “I’m going to try to let them all know that if this is the worst thing that ever happens to them in their life, it’s going to be a good life,” he said. “But, it hurts. I have no doubt we could have won games in the NCAA Tournament.” While they won’t get that one-way ticket to the NCAA tournament, basketball season is not yet over for the Tigers. Because Princeton won the Ivy League Championship in the regular season, they received an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The brackets for the NIT will be released later tonight, Sunday, March 13. For today, Coach Henderson is not concerned with preparing for the NIT. “I just want to get home first,” he said. “Make sure they’re okay. They have school tomorrow.” Matt Drapkin is a staff writer for the ‘Prince’ sports section. He can be reached at mattdrapkin@ princeton.edu or on Twitter at @ mattdrapkin. Wilson Conn is a head editor for the Sports section at the ‘Prince’ who typically covers football, basketball, and breaking news. He is also a senior writer for the Podcast section. He can be reached at wconn@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @wilson_conn.
Courtesy of @PrincetonMBB/Twitter. Junior forward Tosan Evbuomwan led the Tigers with 20 points.