Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Wednesday March 7, 2018 vol. CXLII no. 23
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } ON CAMPUS
ON CAMPUS
Library exhibition shows Dionne talks campus during wartime Trump, politics, racial liberalism Senior Writer
ANNE MARIE WRIGHT:: CONTRIBUTOR
The exhibit shows how during WWII, the University amped up its science and defense research.
The exhibition “Learning to Fight, Fighting to Learn: Education in Times of War,” which gives a historical perspective on American wars’ impact on the University, is currently on display in the Mudd Library. The exhibition includes articles and photographs from the French and Indian War through the Vietnam War, artifacts on the Manhattan Project, as well as
personal information about each Princetonian who died in World War II. In addition to the main exhibit, there is a temporary installment on the Gulf War. The exhibit shows how, during WWII, the University amped up its science and defense research, contributing to the development of the atomic bomb. Sara Logue, April C. Armstrong, Christa Cleeton, and Rosalba Varallo Recchia, all librarians at the Mudd Library, curated the exhibi-
STUDENT LIFE
STUDENT LIFE
Terrace Club closed after threats
University prepares for winter storm
By Claire Thorton
Contributor
By Anne Marie Wright Contributor
Head News Editor
A former Terrace Club employee made threats against the club, causing it to shut down starting at 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6. Former employee Darnell Pygum entered Terrace at 11 a.m. and made threatening comments to the club manager, according to an email distributed by Elizabeth Yu ’19, the club president. When Pygum refused to leave the premises, Terrace called the Princeton Police Department, but Pygum left before officers arrived. In the afternoon, Pygum called, threatening the club. Students have been instructed to alert an officer if they see anyone resembling Pygum, whose picture is circulating on a Terrace group chat, according to the email written by Yu. Terrace Club will be closed for dinner on March 6 and breakfast on March 7. Students have been cautioned to refrain from physically entering the club. The University has given Terrace students $15 See TERRACE page 4
In Opinion
By Mallory Williamson
The University is preparing for a snowstorm that will likely coat the Northeast late Tuesday into Wednesday. The storm will likely deliver five to eight inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. University administrators will convene on a phone call at 5 a.m. at the latest on Wednesday to assess the weather and campus safety in order to make a final decision regarding a campus closure. If the University closes tomorrow or opens late tomorrow, students, faculty, and staff will be notified by 6 a.m. “We’re going to be checking the weather through the night,” said Assistant Vice President of Communications Daniel Day. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that we’ll make an announcement [earlier than 6 a.m.].” Other than a full closure of the University, administrators could also choose to delay classes or to end them early. “One option that we have is that classes
Senior columnist Jared Shulkin applauds the the Penn Medicine acquisition of Princeton Health and senior columnist Bhaamati Borkhetaria lets readers in on her airport security secret. PAGE 6
tion. Valencia Johnson, an archival fellow at the Mudd Library, designed the graphics for the exhibition. In the past, wars have had a big impact on the University, according to Johnson. The enrollment base of the University would fundamentally shift during wartime, she said. For example, WWI caused the University to amend its admissions requirements, requiring one less high school credit of matriculatSee EXHIBITION page 2
might go on but the University might be closed for other business,” Day said, since many students and professors live in close proximity to academic buildings. “We’ve had that situation in the past,” he said. Facilities will also be monitoring the weather in order to best combat the effects of the storm. “The number one priority is keeping everyone as safe as possible,” said Chris Lillja, the facilities communications manager. “[We] have to have a shifting game plan as the storm unfolds, depending on the type of precipitation and how much we get,” he said. If necessary, the University will open up Dillon Gymnasium as a storm shelter Wednesday at 3 p.m. for dining hall workers who either cannot drive home or choose not to. This is meant to ensure smooth operation of campus dining halls. If opened as a shelter, it would have partitioned living quarters for men and women, as well as separate gendered restrooms and showers. The storm shelter would then close at 8 a.m. on ThursSee STORM page 3
While discussing politics under and after Donald Trump’s presidency, EJ Dionne, who serves as a Brooking Institutes fellow and writes op-eds for the Washington Post, pulled out his iPhone to play a song that Michael Franti & Spearhead released during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. It opens with an infectious, reggae beat that leads to the first lines: “Yes, yes, yes, it’s time/ Y’all come together, uh-uh.” Dionne, wearing steel wire frame glasses and a red tie tucked into a navy wool vest over a sky blue dress shirt, bopped along. Dionne, who spoke at the University yesterday evening on a new book he coauthored, “One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the NotYet-Deported,” is an optimist living in dark times. In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Dionne discussed the unique threat that Trump poses, which is the impetus for co-writing his book. Dionne cited Trump’s predilection for authoritarianism (evident in his praise of strongmen such as Putin and Duterte and his infamous declaration, “I alone can fix it” in his inaugural speech); his refusal to cut business ties or release his tax returns; and the ethnonationalism that has fueled and sustained his ascendancy to power. “A candidate for president who begins his campaign by saying that Mexican immigrants are rapists, who says the two sides in Charlottesville are equivalent, you can go down a long list,” Dionne said. Dionne criticized mainstream political discourse that has posited identity politics and the white working class as two separate and inimical political camps — a false dichotomy, in his opinion. Both sides have merits, he conceded, but neither sufficiently respond to the problem at hand. He argued that belonging to a “white working class” background is a form of identity politics. “The white working class is an identity just like another form of identity,” he said. “Secondly, I think there is a legitimate argument made particularly by African American and Latinos, that if you look at the whole working class, a very large segment of the working class is African American and Latino.” On the other hand, he acknowledged that those critical of identity politics have put their finger on the necessity of generating a “broader civic politics.” “In our book, we talk about E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one,” Dionne said. “That assumes both plurality and unity. I think that has always been the challenge of America, which is, how do you create a genuine sense of national unity while recog-
Today on Campus 8:00 p.m.: A service of poetry, music, and meditation with the Jazz Vespers Ensemble and the Chapel Choir. University Chapel
nizing that we are a county of particularisms?” The basis for unity, Dionne argued, must come from a renewed politics of equality and commitment to a common good. African Americans, white working class folks, women, and LGBT people, he argued, all are making the same demand — to be recognized as human beings possessing equal worth and dignity. The key is to validate the particular identities while simultaneously acknowledging the necessity of a working towards a common good. “A genuinely intersectional politics recognizes that all these identities have legitimacy, but we are also looking for some kind of common good out of those particularities,” he said. “A politics of a common good linked to a politics of equality is what we’re looking for.” Dionne harkened back to the 2008 Obama campaign as momentary realization of this hope. Not only did Obama win the African American and Latino votes by huge margins, but about 57 percent of his voters were white, he said. While ultimately a transient triumph, he insisted that the campaign showed Americans that multi-racial democracy was possible. “It isn’t a crazy thing to hope for. That was only eight years ago,” he said. Citing a recent American Interest article on the collapse of racial liberalism, he admitted that the current racial politics, which can be framed shorthand as between white nationalism and Black Lives Matter, has exposed the limits an “older kind of racial liberalism.” The correction to racial liberalism, according to him, needs to debunk a belief in meritocracy in fixing problems and acknowledge that the structures of racism reach far deeper than most liberals would like to admit. Yet Dionne remains full of hope. He cited Martin Luther King Jr., one of his heroes, for the way he combined “an uncompromising militancy with a deep belief in the possibility of converting adversaries.” This deep hope in conversion, in changing the other side’s mind and ultimately working together, underlies Dionne’s optimism in the future. “I’m not willing to give up on the notion of multi-racial political coalitions,” he said. “I don’t believe that the interests of white people and the people of color are always and entirely in conflict. I think we have to find commonalities. I think we have been presented with a series of challenges that we have to grapple with. It’s harder than we hoped to pull this off. On the other hand, there’s no alternative.” His hope relies most ardently upon a profound belief and trust in young people. “A lot of people talk about the millennial generation as See DIONNE page 4
WEATHER
By Rebecca Ngu
HIGH
34˚
LOW
31˚
Exceedingly snowy chance of snow:
100%