October 9, 2018

Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Tuesday October 9, 2018 vol. CXLII no. 82

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

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

U . A F FA I R S

U. annual endowment return tops other Ivies’

U . A F FA I R S

MARCIA BROWN :: DAILY PRINCETONIAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The Honor System Review Committee and Disciplinary Review Committee will be merged into the Reconcilliation Committee.

Honor code committees to be merged for equity

By Regan McCall The committees that currently consider Honor Code violations are set to undergo a potentially dramatic overhaul.

After the Honor System Review Committee recommended that a new committee be created to improve communication, a “Reconcilia-

tion Committee” was formed.

The Reconciliation Committee will replace the Honor System Review Committee and the Disciplinary Review Committee. By combining the two committees into one committee made up of faculty and students, administrators hope to eliminate discrepancies between different disciplinary actions taken on students. According to Dean of the College

ACADEMICS

ON CAMPUS

Contributor

Princeton has reported the highest endowment returns of the Ivies.

By Benjamin Ball Senior Writer

The University announced Monday that its endowment earned 14.2 percent for the fiscal year ending in June. Now, the endowment is valued at $25.9 billion, up $2.1 billion from last year, when the University reported a 12.5 percent return. The University’s most recent endowment return figure is the greatest out of the seven Ivy Leagues that have announced their returns so far.

“The number is really strong,” Princeton University Investment Company president Andrew Golden told The Daily Princetonian Monday morning. He explained that over the last 10 years, the endowment has earned a rate of return large enough to meet the needs of University spending, despite financial downturns like the 2008 recession.

According to the University announcement, the endowment’s annual return during the past decade is 8 percent, putting the University in the top percentile of the 458 institutions ranked by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.

Overall, Golden said focusing on 8 percent growth over 10 years is more important than looking at this year’s gains.

“People complain about the shortterm view of capitalism, yet they focus on the short term,” Golden said.

“For an institution whose time horizon is perpetual, one year is the blink of an eye.”

He compared looking only at the 2018 endowment return to watching only four minutes of a college basketball game. While it is important to score during that time frame, Golden said, it represents very little about the game or season as a whole.

“You don’t get prizes for outscoring the opponent in any four minutes,” Golden said.

That said, the University’s endowment return was larger than that of any other Ivy League university that

has announced this year. Columbia’s endowment return information has not yet been released.

Harvard University announced its returns in late September, noting only a 10 percent return for fiscal year 2018. That brought Harvard’s endowment to $32.9 billion, which was considered a significant improvement by N. P. Narvekar, the CEO of Harvard Management Company, which is analogous to PRINCO. Brown University reported a 13.2 percent return on its endowment, the University of Pennsylvania reported 12.9 percent return, Yale reported a 12.3 percent return, Dartmouth posted a 12.2 percent return, and Cornell University reported a 10.6 percent return.

“I suspect there won’t be many schools that top [the University’s] number,” Golden said on Monday.

The more than 4,000 funding sources of the endowment are include permanently restricted net assets, temporarily restricted net assets, and unrestricted net assets, with many accounts dating as far back as the University’s founding.

Most accounts are dedicated for financial aid purposes.

The endowment also supports funding for masters and Ph.D. students, over 200 endowed professor positions, athletics, religious life, and faculty teaching and research.

“It’s not how much you have; it’s how well you spend it,” said Golden.

“The endowment distributions pay for a little more than half of everything.”

Golden also noted that unrestricted University giving goes straight into the operating budget and is not part of the investment return figure.

The University’s annual giving for the 2017–18 year was $69,554,597 — the second highest total in annual giving history.

PRINCO will certify the results of the endowment’s returns during its directors’ meeting on Oct. 18, 2018.

See HONOR CODE page 2

Hydroponic farm operates out of Forbes

By Nick Shashkini Senior Writer

Just inside the main lobby of Forbes College, an eerie white glow emanates from an alcove containing a strange contraption covered in signs warning passersby not to get too close.

The Forbes hydroponic farm may look like a portal to another universe, but its purpose is to show students that crops can grow anywhere by demonstrating hydroponics, or the cultivation of crops using nutrient solutions instead of soil. The hydroponic farm is also a fully functioning laboratory where students and staff regularly conduct experiments.

The hydroponics lab is an offshoot of the Princeton Vertical Farming Project, which began in April 2017 in the Forbes downstairs lounge. It seeks to introduce vertical farming concepts to the Princeton community while also conducting vertical farming experiments.

Paul Gauthier, associate research scholar of plant physiology, horticulture, and stable isotopes, runs See FARM page 5

LAZARENA LAZAROVA :: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Bob Durkee will retire from his position of University vice president and secretary at the end of this academic year.

Durkee ’69 to retire after 50 years of service to U.

By Rose Gilbert Senior Writer

After nearly half a century of serving the Princeton community, Vice President and Secretary of the University Robert K. Durkee ’69 will retire in June 2019.

Durkee has been a member of the campus community since 1965, when he arrived at the University to study public and international affairs. For decades, he has influenced the University’s communications

In Opinion

Today on Campus

Contributing columnist Anika Yardi encourages her peers to strategically engage in politics, while columnist Hunter Sieben calls for college campuses to give equal weight to individual ideas and group ideals. PAGE 4

6 p.m.: Graphic artist and memoirist Alison Bechdel will give the Spencer Trask Lecture.

McCosh Hall 10

and response to national affairs, and the broader landscape of higher education policy.

As an undergraduate, Durkee wrote for The Daily Princetonian and served as editor-in-chief.

“A lot of my life has been associated with the ‘Prince,’” Durkee said.

As a news writer, Durkee broke the story that the University was going co-ed, reported on the student anti-war See DURKEE page 3

WEATHER

CHARLOTTE ADAMO :: DAILY PRINCETONIAN ASSOCIATE DESIGN EDITOR

Jill Dolan, who helped create the Reconciliation Committee, it will take on all of the reports from each of the previous committees.

“The new committee will pull their recommendations together and decide which of them to move forward and how,” she said.

Under the old system, the Disciplinary Review Com-

HIGH

79˚

LOW

67˚

Cloudy chance of rain:

20 percent

The Daily Princetonian

page 2

Tuesday October 9, 2018

Herskind: New names for the same system, same punishments HONOR CODE Continued from page 1

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

mittee focused on take-home exams, academic coursework, and all personal conduct unrelated to academics. The Honor Code Committee, on the other hand, focused on in-class disciplinary issues, like tests and examinations.

Students told The Daily Princetonian that this system was confusing because different cases went to different committees. So, the same Honor Code infraction would be considered by different groups of officials depending on the setting in which it was committed. From there, each committee considered infractions using their own rules.

Former Honor Committee member Micah Herskind ’19 told the ‘Prince’ that the twocommittee system wasn’t fair.

“We were sending people away for a year for something

that could be really small or really big, and there’s no real variation in consequence,” he said.

With the creation of the new Reconciliation Committee, administrators hope punishments can be more uniform.

“One of the things that we must absolutely be consistent about is that when giving penalties for violation of university policies, they have to be consistent across campus,” said Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun, another administrator responsible for the creation of the Reconciliation Committee.

“We had students on both of these former committees, and we will be looking to see if some of those students want to continue, just to create some continuity,” Calhoun said.

But Herskind said he’s skeptical that the new committee will benefit students because the punishments themselves

aren’t changing.

He said the administration uses “new names for the same system.”

Last year, the Honor System Review Committee only passed one of the four student referenda presented by the Undergraduate Student Government that would have altered Honor Code procedures and penalties.

The one referendum that was passed requires committee members to call students to alert them that they’re under investigation for violations.

However, the Reconciliation Committee will not reconsider the other referenda, which would have eliminated suspension rules, given professors more rights, and required more evidence against students if passed.

“I worry that [making a new committee] is looking at the procedural level,” Herskind said. “If you’re not changing

the penalty, you’re not changing anything that’s substantive.”

There is still no plan for the three unpassed referenda to undergo faculty review.

“The two former committees have been handled in a way that is not transparent or completely ignores the desires of the student body,” said Sharon Musa ’20, who is unaffiliated with the committees.

“I don’t know if the new committee will be able to do much, because in the past students have made requests and the administration has ignored the requests,” Musa said.

Calhoun stressed that having one committee overseeing the disciplinary process for academic integrity should allow students who are not affiliated with Undergraduate Student Government or the Reconciliation Committee to have a much better understanding of the disciplinary

review process.

USG Academic Chair Olivia Ott ’20, who helps with selecting members of the Honor Committee, confirmed that the new Reconciliation Committee will function to further the work of the Honor Review Committee.

“I think that the role of the committee will be to evaluate the recommendations made in the recent report by the Honor System Review Committee and determining which of those recommendations if any of them at all will be implemented and how they will go about that,” Ott said.

According to Dolan, “this long review of the academic integrity process at Princeton will come to a resolution that will please both faculty and students. We’re looking forward to charting the near future of this work at Princeton, based on the work accomplished by these two committees over the last two years.”

News.

Opinions.

Sports.

Every day.

Tuesday October 9, 2018

The Daily Princetonian

page 3

Durkee ’69: A lot of my life has been associated with the ‘Prince’ DURKEE

Continued from page 1

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

movement, and helped keep students and alumni alike up to date on what was going on around campus, a skill he said later served him well when he began working in Nassau Hall.

In addition to serving as editor-in-chief of the ‘Prince,’ Durkee wrote for the oncampus column of the Princeton Alumni Weekly. At a time when U.S. college campuses were at the center of the antiwar movement and undergoing significant cultural shifts, Durkee’s columns helped alumni understand what students were doing and why.

“I think if there was an underlying message it was that Princeton may be going through a time of turmoil, a time of passion, but Princeton is still the same terrific institution it was when you were here,” Durkee explained.

“Students are still serious about their work, they’re serious about making the world a better place. So in a way, you ought to respect what’s going on on campus. These are students who are trying to serve the same value you served during your time at Princeton.”

Durkee said that his experience communicating with alumni through PAW and with students through the ‘Prince’ helped prepare him to make the transition from assistant to the president to vice president for public affairs in 1978, less than a decade after he graduated.

“A lot of what it was was doing what I had done as an undergraduate,” Durkee said.

While working in Nassau Hall, Durkee found himself in the position of trying to explain University decisions and policies to ‘Prince’ reporters trying to get a scoop, just as he had been doing only a few

years before.

“One of the editors and reporters I worked with very early in my days in Nassau Hall, and we both have very good memories of those conversations, is Joyce Rechtschaffen, who now is the head of our Washington office,” Durkee said.

“Joyce and I occasionally will reminisce about how I first knew her when she was a reporter and then an editor.

She was a good, hard-working reporter and it was interesting to discover that we’d be working together again in a different way.”

Joyce Rechtschaffen ’75 recalled that she had been excited but also nervous when she found out she’d be working with Durkee, but that working with him had been a positive experience.

“I have worked with Bob Durkee for 12 years and he’s been a guide and a mentor on every issue,” Rechtschaffen said.

“I had been pretty tough as a reporter covering the administration. Watergate had just happened and we all thought we were Watergate reporters back then,” she explained. “[Durkee’s] one of the most respected people in the higher education community,” she said, “And may I just say there was no one who was a more masterful writer and editor than Bob was. I’ve been so lucky to have him as my mentor.”

Before becoming vice president for public affairs, Durkee spent a year in Washington, D.C., working at the Association of American Universities, an organization that was becoming a major advocacy group for higher education. During this year, Durkee gained firsthand experience of the inner workings on Capitol Hill and forged important relationships that would help him advocate for higher education throughout his career.

“There were a lot of ques-

tions in those days about what the government should be doing about financial aid,” said Durkee, “And I was on the front lines.”

Durkee wrote handbooks and brochures for Congress explaining how endowments work and their role in financial aid in an effort to convince representatives against taxing them. He was disappointed about the recent tax imposed on endowments, but he noted that “this battle” had been going on since his earliest days in Nassau Hall.

One of the proudest moments of Durkee’s career came early in his time as vice president for public affairs, when he met with Sen. Claiborne Pell ’40 at the opening of the James Madison Library in Washington, D.C., to speak about the lack of support for graduate students in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Durkee initially suggested funding a survey to assess the need for this kind of funding, but Sen. Pell wanted to do even more.

“He said, ‘You know, could someone draft me a piece of legislation that I could introduce?’ And that’s what I did. I drafted the piece of legislation that became the Javits Fellowship Program, which supported graduate students in the humanities, the arts, and the social sciences,” Durkee said.

“The basic story is that I was sitting in my in my office upstairs on a manual typewriter, drafting this legislation, which ended up getting approved almost as we drafted it.

So this was an early opportunity to work on an important topic,” Durkee recalled.

For Durkee, the creation of the Javits Fellowship Program also shows how much has changed in Washington since he started working for the University.

“It was inspired by Sen. Pell, who was a Democrat, and it was

really his idea to name it for Sen. Javits, who was a Republican,” he explained. “It reveals how different the times were, that there was this potential for bipartisan collaboration.”

Durkee also spent a great deal of time in Washington, D.C., arguing for immigration rights and trying to explain the importance of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

“Financial aid, research support, tax policy, immigration issues. That was my agenda in 1978, it’s been my agenda all the way through my public affairs role, and it’s still my agenda now,” Durkee said.

Over 20 years later, the University was deciding how to respond to 9/11 in addition to creating the Memorial Garden to honor the 14 alumni who lost their lives and providing students with counseling. The Board of Trustees allocated $1 million and Durkee was asked to take on responsibility to find out how best to spend it.

Half of the $1 million was allocated to Arts Alive, which sent student volunteers to middle schools and high schools that had been disproportionately affected by 9/11 to help them work through their trauma using the arts and eventually take students to see a show on Broadway.

Another quarter of a million dollars was donated to John Jay College in New York City, which prepares students for police, fire, and first responder jobs, and had lost more than 60 alumni in the attack. The money was used to fund a scholarship in memory of these alumni, and it lasted for over a decade.

“They were so appreciative that someone had recognized their loss, and that they had this opportunity to help their students. It was a wonderful opportunity, and it didn’t fit within my narrow job description, but I greatly appreciated

the chance to think about how we as an institution might respond and to be able to do some things that were really meaningful,” Durkee reflected.

Durkee has also worked on other challenging issues during his time at the University, including arranging childcare for faculty and graduate students, the University’s relationship with the eating clubs and, most recently, the question of the legacy of Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879.

“These weren’t always assignments that fit narrowly within the duties of my office, but they gave me opportunities to do interesting things,” he explained.

Mr. Durkee will be succeeded by Hilary A. Parker ’01, who is currently serving as the assistant to the vice president and chief of staff in the Office of the President.

In an email, Parker expressed gratitude for Durkee’s contributions to the University.

“For 50 years, Princeton has benefited from Bob’s leadership, institutional knowledge, extraordinary writing talent, and commitment to this University’s mission,” Parker wrote. “I’ve been fortunate to work with Bob on a wide range of matters throughout my career at the University, and I look forward to continuing to work with him throughout this academic year as we prepare for the transition ahead.”

Durkee, who expressed his full confidence in Parker, isn’t going far after he retires in June.

“It’s a little early to know exactly what I will do,” Durkee said. “I have nine months to think about it, and right now, there’s still a lot to be done in this office.”

“I’m not moving,” he said.

“You know, I might even audit a course.”

Tuesday October 9, 2018

Opinion

page 4

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }

Why we should care about politics Anika Yardi

Contributing Columnist

O

ver the weekend, I read the New York Times exposé regarding President Donald Trump’s finances.

I learned about the remarkable and shocking truth of the ill-begotten means of his fortune, which he had acquired only through the help of his father, as well as his criminal actions and continual avoidance of the law by not paying his taxes. However, instead of feeling outraged or angry, I could only feel numbness.

Sometimes I go days without checking the news, simply because everything that comes in is a constant cycle of depressing stories.

Unfortunately, this is a rather common occurrence. Most of the people around me have taken to no longer keeping up with politics, trying their best to forget that it exists and affects the world around them.

They choose instead to focus on their daily tasks and dayto-day lives — meeting with friends, watching new TV shows, and completing their work.

Others immerse themselves in the goings on of this coun-

try and the endless amounts of bad news that seems to radiate from our news channels. They throw themselves into protests and outrage, diving into the comment sections of various websites, taking on trolls and engaging in battles with faceless names on their computer screens, and lamenting to anyone who will listen about how much of a dumpster fire the world has become.

Neither seems to be a particularly healthy option to me.

Following the latter strategy can lead to severe burnout and a sense of hopelessness. There is a particular sensation of futility in these people as they wonder if anything they can do will actually make a difference and whether they are truly doing enough. Those in the former category seem stuck in a sort of limbo — they understand that they should care about the world and the awful things that are continuously happening, but these events have become so normalized that they have very little sense of what is truly happening or how outraged they should actually be about it.

To both I say, I understand.

The world seems particularly terrible at the moment.

It is important to stay informed. There is no universe in which we can simply bury our heads in the sand and act as if everything is okay. To be silent is to be complicit, and al-

though it can be hard, we owe it to ourselves to understand what is happening around us and why it is happening. On the other hand, feeling burnout is very real, and the fact that awful things are happening should not mean we let it take over our lives. This leaves us with very little ability to actually be helpful allies in this battle.

It is a very fine line between these two states, but the most important thing that you can do is pick your battles. It can be hard to be outraged about everything. Understand what will actually matter in the long run and what are simply sensationalist statements made to distract the public from the real issues. Setting aside an ‘action hour’ may also be useful. Use this time to take concrete action for causes that you believe in. This can mean anything from donating to Planned Parenthood, to assisting the numerous groups paying for lawyers for immigrants at the border, to calling your senator or representative to let them know your opinions.

If you have a politician representing you that you agree with and believe represents your views well, try sending a thank-you letter that includes personal anecdotes. They may be able to use these anecdotes while campaigning for certain bills in Congress. When your hour is up, put politics aside

and do something that does not stress you out. Most importantly, the midterm elections this November will be a crucial time for this country.

Registering to vote may be the single most important thing you can do. Fall at Princeton is a particularly busy time, but registering to vote takes 15 minutes and can make or break an election.

Sometimes, we worry about so many things that we become paralyzed with indecision and end up not acting at all, even regarding the things that matter to us. This is selfdestructive behavior, but taking everything in a day at a time and breaking things into doable goals can help break this cycle. We are living in a time of great divide and turmoil. It will become increasingly harder to pretend that nothing is happening and go on about our daily lives. Sometimes it’s easier to simply retreat into yourself and try and forget there are things happening outside of this Orange Bubble. But the bubble is going to burst at some point, and if nothing else, it is our responsibility to create the kind of world that we want to live in.

So stay informed. Be active.

Vote.

Anika Yardi is a sophomore from Gaithersburg, Md. She can be reached at ayardi@princeton. edu.

Reintroducing individualism to populist politics Hunter Sieben Columnist

On Thursday, Oct. 4, as a part of the “She Roars” conference at Princeton University, Department of Anthropology chair Carolyn Rouse emphasized the importance of maintaining a culture that upholds the principle of free speech.

Specifically, Rouse said that the exchange and critique of ideas, both controversial and agreeable, begins on University campuses. “Campus, in some way, is a microcosm of what we’re experiencing in American society,” she said. And she is right.

From Columbia’s 1985 stance against the South African apartheid regime to NYU’s recent protests against the growing student debt crisis, the transformative capacities of universities cannot be understated.

Rouse verbalized a disconcerting trend that has plagued political and cultural discourse since the 2016 presidential election: The rise of American populism has incited a flame that has slowly burned away at civil discourse and argumentation.

While universities have typically represented progressive ideals, they have recently adopted regressive tendencies. Fundamental progressive principles fo-

cusing on social reform and the cultivation of new ideas have too often been replaced by the suppression of ideas by de-platforming speakers and discouraging aberrance, both of which are definitive of regressive cultures.

The identity-based political movement has intensified lately, largely in response to the Trump administration. People are more commonly judged by their socioeconomic status, race, or religion than by the merit of their ideas.

Consequently, when groups are put before people, those people shift toward the party or ideology that is more receptive to nonconforming thoughts.

In a similar vein, Dave Rubin, a political commentator, has expressed feelings of abandonment from the political left and gradual shifts rightward in accordance with the party’s increasing affinity for the suppression of nuanced disagreements from demographics traditionally associated as inherently and entirely leftist. In other words, Rubin has been ostracized for entertaining quasi-conservative stances while also being gay and pro-marijuana legalization.

Free speech, dissenting opinion, and open discourse are being silenced, most noticeably in the de-platforming of conservative and controversial speakers on college campuses, where ideas are meant to be challenged and traditions reconstructed.

On March 5, 2017, at Queens University in Canada, a lecture

presented by Jordan Peterson incited death threats, rioting, and shattered windows at the University’s historic Grant Hall. Rioters chanted that attendees to the speech should be locked in as they burned the hall to the ground.

Rather than formally opposing Peterson’s controversial stances, dissenters turned towards gratuitous violence.

Queens University’s hostile enmity toward Peterson was not a unique or isolated incident. The current zeitgeist across modern college campuses has mimicked the populist methods made infamous over the course of the Trump campaign. Relatedly, former CIA director John Brennan was heckled off stage at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 only minutes after beginning his presentation while conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and TV host Janet Mock were disinvited from California State University — Los Angeles and Brown University, respectively.

I would not be as apprehensive were this trend isolated to a select few college campuses. However, as Rouse said, universities have served as a microcosm representative of the general American public.

This shift in liberal culture, which presumes a group’s intrinsic authority over another group or individual, antithetically opens the door for militant groups and violent radicals. Suddenly, movements like Antifa and neo-Nazism are endowed with a

false sense of righteousness, with newfound justifications nurtured by principles of groupthink.

No doubt, group movements can have a positive impact in promoting necessary institutional reform. But transgressions can also arise when groups value superficial group identity and conformity more than individuality and diversity of thought. Formal two-sided debate is less common in the face of aggressive ad hominem attacks on individuals who offer unique positions on issues.

The return to truly progressive roots and an emphasis on the distinctive individual must begin at universities and then leak into greater society. This change is dependent on a shift away from a value system that places groupthink over individuality and content of character.

I would like to again be able to stand as an ideological intermediary. I would like to have the freedom to flesh out ideas without political disagreement degrading into a form of moral resentment.

In the process of banding together to uphold democratic principles of free speech and civil reform during uncertain times, the uniqueness of experience and thought of the individuals who belong to particular racial, ethnic, or ideological groups cannot be foregone in favor of blind devotion.

Hunter Sieben is a sophomore from Ottawa Hills, Ohio. He can be reached at hsieben@princeton.edu.

free food listserv christine lu ’20

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

vol. cxlii

editor-in-chief

Marcia Brown ’19 business manager

Ryan Gizzie ’19

BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 trustees Kathleen Crown Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 Lisa Belkin ‘82 Francesca Barber David Baumgarten ’06 Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Michael Grabell ’03 Kavita Saini ’09 Abigail Williams ’14 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73 William R. Elfers ’71 Kathleen Kiely ’77

142ND MANAGING BOARD managing editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Sam Parsons ’19 head news editor Claire Thornton ’19 associate news editors Allie Spensley ’20 Audrey Spensley ’20 Ariel Chen ’20 Ivy Truong ’21 associate news and film editor Sarah Warman Hirschfield ’20 head opinion editor Emily Erdos ’19 associate opinion editors Jon Ort ’21 Cy Watsky ’21 head sports editors David Xin ’19 Chris Murphy ’20 associate sports editors Miranda Hasty ’19 Jack Graham ’20 associate street editors Danielle Hoffman ’20 Lyric Perot ’20 digital operations manager Sarah Bowen ’20 chief copy editors Marina Latif ’19 Arthur Mateos ’19 Catherine Benedict ’20 head design editor Rachel Brill ’19 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19 head photo editor Risa Gelles-Watnick ’21

NIGHT STAFF copy Celia Buchband ’22 Nayef Kiame ’22 David Veldran ’22

Tuesday October 9, 2018

Akiti: Lab and learning close to living spaces FARM

Continued from page 1

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

the research aspect of the hydroponics display. Hydroponics is one of Gauthier’s many research interests.

“When I meet a group of students, I ask them if they want to be farmers, and usually nobody says yes,” Gauthier said, noting that he wants to change perceptions about crop-growing.

Gauthier said a highly visible location such as the Forbes lobby seemed perfect for raising awareness.

That said, much of the team’s experimental and research work is done in the Moffett Laboratory, while the Forbes location is intended to be more visible and presentable to the public.

Gauthier hopes the farm will make students ask more questions about modern agriculture and connect the plants they see with what they eat every day at the University. The project plans to eventually serve some of the produce in the Forbes dining hall.

Korlekuor Akiti ’19 works on the project for her senior thesis for the ecology

The Daily Princetonian

page 5

and evolutionary biology department, and she is also organizing a public tasting of the crops in November.

“There was a lot to be explored with the hydroponic farm,” Akiti said. “People had been looking at the inputs, but no one had been looking at the outputs: the quality of the crops.”

She said that it has been extremely rewarding to see her work running experiments and tending to plants pay off, especially considering the short life cycle of some of the plants, enabling her to see them grow and develop instead of having to wait years.

She is also excited by the prospect of more students learning about agriculture, with the lab so close to their living spaces. As the project develops, she hopes that students will walk into the lobby and see what they will eat that day.

Student reaction to the lab has been positive, with many curious about the purpose of the setup.

“It’s an interesting idea,” Colin Moffet ’21 said. “It will be cool to know that some of the food I am eating in the dining hall was grown in-house.”

NICK SHASHKINI:: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Paul Gauthier, associate research scholar of plant physiology, horticulture, and stable isotopes, is also interested in sustainable farming.

CLAIRE THORNTON :: THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Produce from the hydroponic garden will eventually be served in the Forbes dining hall.

The Daily Princetonian is published daily except Saturday and Sunday from September through May and three times a week during January and May by The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., 48 University Place, Princeton, N.J. 08540. Mailing address: P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542. Subscription rates: Mailed in the United States $175.00 per year, $90.00 per semester. Office hours: Sunday through Friday, 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telephones: Business: 609-375-8553; News and Editorial: 609-258-3632. For tips, email news@dailyprincetonian. com. Reproduction of any material in this newspaper without expressed permission of The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc., is strictly prohibited. Copyright 2014, The Daily Princetonian Publishing Company, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Daily Princetonian, P.O. Box 469, Princeton, N.J. 08542.

Tuesday October 9, 2018

Sports

page 6

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } M E N ’ S W AT E R P O L O

Men’s water polo goes 1–2 in weekend road trip, dimming conference hopes

By Paige Thompson Staff Writer

This past Saturday, the men’s water polo team (10–6 overall, 3–4 conference) played MIT (5– 9, 1–5) and Harvard (13–4, 5–1) at Harvard and took on Brown (11–7, 4–2) at home on Sunday.

The Tigers scraped by with a win against the Engineers and then suffered two hard-fought losses to the Crimson and the Bears.

Sophomore utility Alec Mendelsohn scored the first goal of the weekend at 6:32 in the first quarter against MIT, but MIT responded with two goals to take the lead. MIT scored early in the second quarter, but senior attacker Matt Payne and junior center Logan MacDonell answered with two points to tie the score at 3–3.

Princeton and MIT kept the tie at 4–4 through the third

quarter, but Payne and freshman attacker Mitchell Cooper each scored, and sophomore center Miles Cole put two more away to give the Tigers to an 8–6 lead. MIT tried clambering back, adding another tally with 33 seconds left on the game clock but fell short, with the game ending at 8–7. Head coach Dustin Litvak commented on how the team could improve their defense.

“Where we fell short was in allowing them to score four of their goals from fouls on the five-meter line. We have to do a better job at shot blocking in these situations,” he said.

Later that afternoon, the Tigers took on the Crimson, a rematch following last weekend’s double-overtime heartbreaker, which saw Harvard come back from a staggering deficit. Earlier that day, Brown snapped Harvard’s six-game winning

streak.

Freshman center Wyatt Benson put the first tally on the scoreboard with a turn out of set at 6:24. Harvard responded with an outside goal on the very next possession and another skip cross-cage goal. Payne buried a quick pass from a drive to end the first quarter with the score tied at 2–2. Harvard added two more tallies on aggressive counters to go up 4–2. With Princeton failing to convert several power plays, the Crimson kept up the momentum to lead the Tigers 6–3 going into the half.

Halfway through the third quarter, senior utility Ryan Wilson scored on a counter attack to cut the gap to 6–4.

Harvard countered with a goal with 2:46 left in the third. Cooper added another tally at 1:32, but Harvard stole the ball from freshman goalie Billy Mother-

way to make it 8–5 heading into the final quarter. Payne scored twice within the first couple minutes of the fourth, making the Tigers as close as they have been all game at 8–7. Harvard added another goal, but Benson scored again to keep a onegoal margin at 9–8. Motherway made some strong saves in goal, but Princeton’s offense failed to score, ultimately losing 9-8.

“I thought we showed a lot of resilience to fight back in a tough environment, but ultimately we could not complete the comeback. Like the MIT game, I thought we played great defense for a majority of the game, however, just like last weekend, we allowed too many goals in transition which is what Harvard does best … We just have to find a way to cut out some of the mental errors that lead to high percentage opportunities for them,” Litvak said.

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Senior Matt Payne had three goals and three assists in the loss against Brown on Sunday.

The next day, the Tigers saw another tough conference loss.

By the end of the first quarter, the Bears were up 3–0. Brown would still be up by three goals at the half, 6–3. Senior attacker Mikey Swart snagged the first goal out of the third quarter to push the score to 6–4, and Cooper and freshman attacker Keller Maloney added tallies to make it 7–6 heading into the fourth. Bolstered by goals from Payne and sophomore utility Casey Conrad, the Tigers seemed poised to make a comeback. But, they failed to push through, losing 11–10. Maloney and Payne each finished with three goals and three steals.

“We started out slow and never fully recovered… After adjusting to their game plan, we outscored them 9–6. It clearly wasn’t enough, however, but with small improvements to our defensive communication, and our offensive structure, we could clean up a lot of their easy goals in transition,” Maloney said of the Brown game.

Litvak commented on the team dynamic looking forward to rest of the season.

“We pride ourselves on being as prepared as possible for our opponents and have an excellent group of guys at practice that simulate our upcoming opponents plays and tendencies… I am excited to see where we can go from here as we are at about the midway point of the season and I would not want to play us at the end of the year,” he said.

The Tigers travel again to Harvard next weekend for the Crimson Invitational, taking on the University of Toronto (3–5) in an exhibition match, Claremont-Mudd Scripps (10–2, 6–0), and Bucknell (13–2, 7–1).

All games will be available to watch on ESPN+.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

Women’s volleyball splits weekend: win over Dartmouth, loss to Harvard

By Alissa Selover Staff Writer

The women’s volleyball team (1–5 overall, 4–1 Ivy League) had a split weekend as it played Dartmouth (6–9, 2–3) and Harvard (7– 7, 2–3), both on the road.

The Tigers took the game against Dartmouth in three sets last Friday (25–18, 25–16, 25–17). Junior outside hitter Devon Peterkin led the offense with 12 kills and three aces, totaling 15 overall points for the Tigers. Meanwhile sophomore middle blocker Clare Lenihan and senior middle blocker Caroline Sklaver each had eight kills. Reigning Ivy League Player of the Week junior right side hitter Maggie O’Connell also proved to be an all-around force with eight kills and a block. Defensively, first-year libero Cameron Dames had 15 digs while sophomore outside hitter Alexa Underwood racked up 12 digs to add

to her six kills. First-time team captain junior setter Jessie Harris led the team with 40 assists. Harris currently leads the Ivy League in assists per set.

Harvard proved to be a much more difficult match than anticipated. Coming in with a conference record similar to Dartmouth’s, the Crimson stood strong against the Tigers on Saturday evening. Princeton lost in three sets (20–25, 19–25, 23–25). O’Connell led the offense with 12 kills, and Peterkin stayed strong with 10. Harris had 34 assists during this game but Princeton’s defense could not handle Harvard’s offense. The Crimson hit .381 with eight total errors while the Tigers hit .236 with 17 errors weighing them down.

Despite the unanticipated split weekend, O’Connell explained that many great things happened on the court.

Tweet of the Day “The field hockey team is currently on a five game winning streak and 3–0 in the Ivy League after last weekend’s contests” Princeton Tigers (@PUTigers)

“We did a good job creating our own energy in the Dartmouth and Harvard gyms, and we adjusted to the challenges of playing each team. Of course it is always difficult to come up short, but this weekend will serve as a valuable learning opportunity,” she said.

O’Connell commented on the work that the team is putting in after this tough loss. “We are definitely going to work hard this week to maintain a high energy level and focus on improving every time we step on the court. There is still a lot of season left, and we are excited to learn from this past weekend moving forward,” she said.

The Tigers’ 4–1 conference record puts them in a threeway tie with Yale and Cornell for atop the Ivy League.

The Tigers will host the Big Red this Friday, Oct. 12, at 7 p.m. in Dillon Gymnasium.

COURTESY OF GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM

Junior Jessie Harris had 34 assists in the loss to Harvard.

Stat of the Day

2572 days

Prior to Sunday, the men’s water polo team hadn’t had a losing record in conference play since Sept. 23, 2011, when it was 0–1 in the Southern Division.

Follow us Check us out on Twitter @princesports for live news and reports, and on Instagram @princetoniansports for photos!