Princeton’s race statistics appear unchanged, but a new statistic may say different
By Isabel Yip Senior News Writer
Enrollment statistics for the first Princeton class admitted after the fall of affirmative action revealed mostly stable racial diversity — yet a significant increase in students marking their race as “unknown” at Princeton suggests that white and Asian American applicants may be omitting their race on college applications altogether.
While Hispanic/Latine enrollment saw a one-point drop between the Class of 2027 and the Class of 2028, and Black enrollment de-
STUDENT
creased by even less than that, the number of students who did not indicate their race increased by almost 6 percent. Experts told The Daily Princetonian that non-reporting students tend to be white and Asian American.
This could account for the 2.2 percent drop in Asian American student enrollment between the Class of 2027 and 2028.
In an analysis of applicant information from students applying to the University of California system, Assistant Professor of Economics Zachary Bleemer showed that nonreporters of race on applications
tend to be students who are not underrepresented minorities.
“In short, the increase in ethnicity non-reporting after affirmative action bans is usually almost completely among white and Asian students, though that isn’t to say that’s what’s going on at Princeton,” Bleemer wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’
Bleemer specified that a student survey would be needed to verify if this is the case at Princeton.
On their applications, only 1.8 percent of the Class of 2027 did not indicate their race, according to
Princeton’s culture of overwork has real-world consequences Opinion
Thomas Buckley Columnist
n May, a junior associate at Bank of America’s investment banking division died suddenly of a blood clot. He had been working 100 hours a week for the past month. Leo Lukenas was an exGreen Beret who had served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East. Weeks later, another junior associate, Adnan Deumic died of a heart attack at an industry event. He was 25. Make no mistake, the shocking tragedies that befell Deumic and Lukenas were no coincidence: They were worked to death. Deaths such as these have become all too common thanks to a culture where junior associates
are regularly expected to work 15 or 16 hour days and are pressured to underreport their hours to avoid alerting human resources. Such a system can only function with a consistent supply of young talent — drawn in with the promise of obscene amounts of money — that can be churned through and spat out when the bank no longer finds them useful. To supply their talent, the banks turn to Princeton. Princeton plays the role of the funnel for these banks, finding “talented” young people, training them both to have the skills and the lack of boundaries around work necessary to do these jobs, and guiding them towards roles in these industries. First, take “finding” talented people. The investment banking and consulting business models rely on the appearance of brainpower to entice clients to spend big on high-cost services of nebulous value. To sell clients, firms source talent exclusively See CULTURE page 10
ODUS introduces selectivity registration, amid mounting club competition
By Nico David-Fox News Contributor
Club selectivity has long been a topic of discussion at Princeton and other peer institutions.
The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) is now requiring clubs to complete a selectivity registration form. The new policy was enacted in response to increasing competitiveness among student groups, according to a representative of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) consulted by ODUS ahead of the change.
The new registration process, required for student organizations sponsored by ODUS, includes a confirmation of club information, missions, and
members; an officer training video; and a selective club request form.
According to a written statement from a University spokesperson, this new process was launched after a “review of student organizations, which included broad-based surveying of students, focus groups, and consultation with USG’s student org. working group.”
The USG Clubs and Organizations Selectivity Working Group was founded in September 2023, U-Councilor Anuj Krishnan ’27 told The Daily Princetonian in an interview.
“We had a collective understanding that, as class sizes increase, clubs are only going to get more competitive,” he said.
The Class of 2028 is the third class in a five-year plan created
by the University to increase the number of undergraduates by 500. The Class of 2026 was the first expanded class with 1,500 members — more than the University planned. To reflect that change, the Class of 2027 was reduced to 1,366 students. In terms of enrollment, the Class of 2028 falls in between the two, with 1,411 members.
In a written statement to the ‘Prince,’ the University claimed that the larger class sizes were not a factor in the decision to implement the new re-registration and selective application process.
Last year, to reevaluate club selectivity in light of growing class sizes, the USG working group carried out a qualitative and quantitative survey of club officers, receiving over 300
unique responses. The survey found that, of the clubs that responded, 96 clubs use interviews, 128 have auditions, 120 send out interest forms, and 132 require applications. According to Krishnan, the general feedback section of the survey yielded three major ideas for reforming the club application process. Club officers mentioned the need for clubs on campus to be less selective, more transparent, and tell applicants what they need to be successful.
The change in ODUS policy did not seem to immediately impact the competitiveness of clubs. Organizations that spoke with the ‘Prince’ reported varying application volumes. The highly-selective improvisational comedy group Fuzzy Dice re-
ceived 69 audition sign-ups this year, compared to 77 in 2023 and 49 in 2022. This year, however, the group only accepted one member, whereas it accepted two in 2023 and three in 2022.
“It just came down to there being one main front-runner,” Fuzzy Dice Artistic Director Tyler Wilson ’26 told the ‘Prince.’ Ashley George ’26, the publicity chair of the Princeton Chapel Choir, told the ‘Prince’ that it seems “new members outnumber old members three-toone.” Though she did not share concrete audition data, George claimed that auditions increased significantly this year.
BodyHype, one of the larger dance groups at Princeton, had about the same number of applicants as last year, according
This Week In History
On Sept. 25, 1896, a letter to the editor by an anonymous student reflected on the heightened responsibility facing Princeton students as the University celebrated its 150th year. The writer urged his peers to make Old Nassau proud during this important year when Princeton was sure to be “the focus of attention from the outside world.” He left them with a piece of advice to “luster a healthy manly spirit” both inside and outside of the classroom.
25, 1896
NATALIA MAIDIQUE / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
U-Councilor :
“We had a collective understanding that, as class sizes increase, clubs are only going to get more competitive.”
to President Victoria Koretsky ’26.
Over a year ago, the group changed its audition procedures to allow first-round applicants more time to learn the required dance combination and mimic the actual rehearsal process. According to Koretsky, since enacting the policy, the club has
received fewer applicants because some people who learn the dance combination then decide not to follow through with the audition, and its numbers have stagnated there since.
Because of the highly competitive nature of many clubs’ application processes, students often apply to multiple clubs.
Chase Greppin ’28 told the ‘Prince’ that Tiger Capital Management had four separate, selective rounds: a résumé drop,
a short essay submission, a case study interview, and finally a dinner, social event, coffee chat, and behavioral interview. Greppin, who was rejected in the final round, estimated that the process took about 12 hours.
Tiger Capital Management is not listed as a student organization on MyPrincetonU and notes on its website that it is not affiliated with the University.
Tiger Capital Management declined to comment on
this article.
“You get into Princeton, and it’s a 4 percent acceptance rate. You’re so happy to get in, but when you try to apply to some clubs, they have a 10 percent acceptance rate … It’s kind of annoying that some of the niche interest groups are so selective,” Greppin said.
Nikhil Kuntipuram ’28 told the ‘Prince’ he applied to the University Orchestra, Sinfonia, a jazz ensemble, the Model UN Team, NAACHO (a South Asian dance group), and Princeton South Asian Theatrics.
“I felt a lot more pressure for the [activities] I did have experience in,” Kuntipuram said in an interview. “There’s this kind of expectation that you should get in.”
Elaine Gao ’28 also applied to many clubs, including the Princeton Debate Panel, Mock Trial, Model UN, Princeton Legal Journal, the Nassau Weekly, Solidaridad, and the Lichtenstein Institute of Self-Determination.
Gao said that she felt much more comfortable at tryouts for the activities she had done in the past, such as debate and mock trial. During the tryouts for Model UN, which she had not previously participated in, she sometimes felt confused by the rules.
“For the first round, we had adequate instructions, so I was prepared. For the second round, they didn’t tell us anything,” she said. “It was a group setting, so the people who knew the activity were leading the rhythm, and the others were just trying to keep up.”
Kuntipuram said that he maintained a positive outlook on club applications, telling the ‘Prince,’ “Here, especially, you can kind of get clouded in the acceptances, the rejections, the low acceptance rate of clubs.”
“I tried to have the mindset of just going in and trying something new. Have fun, right?”
Krishnan told the ‘Prince’ that the USG working group will continue to evaluate how selective clubs function on campus.
“All that we can do is make the process more transparent and hopefully provide more guidance to student groups about how they can best be selective in an equitable way that’s accessible to the entire student body,” he said.
Nico David-Fox is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Washington, D.C., and also writes as a Features contributor.
Voter registration drive draws hundreds of students ahead of Election Day
eligible to vote in, many expressed a sense of excitement.
For National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, Sept. 17, Vote100, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society held a one-stop voter registration drive at Frist Campus Center.
From 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., Vote100 student fellows and ODUS staff helped over 100 students register through TurboVote and assisted those who needed to mail paper registrations. Students were also able to check their registration status and request an absentee ballot for Election Day.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, when students are on campus. Most eligible students are far from their home state or designated N.J. polling place. Classes are held as normally scheduled on Election Day.
“A lot of people seem to really care about voting, but they just don’t know how to do it logistically,” Vote100 Head Fellow Anjali Brunnermeier ’25 told The Daily Princetonian. “They might not know whether they should register in Princeton, or in their home state, or if they can do it online or what the timeline is — those are all concerns that we hoped to help address today.”
One of Vote100’s main objectives was to ensure the registration process was simple and efficient. “[The process] was very smooth; they were all very helpful,” Olufemi Obielodan ’27 told the ‘Prince.’ “It took me like five minutes.”
With November’s election being the first presidential contest most undergraduate students are
“This is my first time being old enough to vote in a presidential election,” Brunnermeier said. “I feel quite a bit of excitement, and a lot of people seem interested.”
“I do think that people are just more interested than [in] previous years,” Sol Choi ’26 noted to the ‘Prince.’ Choi attended a presidential debate watch party at MurrayDodge last week and observed a large turnout of energized students at the event. “I do have faith [in Generation Z] — I’m excited to see what our generation will do,” he added.
To engage students, the event also included a photo-op for Vote100’s social media, along with giveaways like pins, hats, boba tea, stickers, and cookies for those who registered to vote.
“There were a ton of people at once all excited to ask questions and have their questions answered in highly informative ways,” Tori Repp, a photographer at the event, said.
Others commented on the historic nature of the election.
“This is history; we get to be a part of history,” D’Schon Simmons ’27 said to the ‘Prince.’ “If you’re not excited, you should be excited.” Simmons added that even for those who may not feel optimistic, events like the registration drive help to lift spirits and “bring up the morale.”
Brunnermeier also noted that the 2024 election is the “first presidential election after being back on campus” following the pandemic. “In 2020, all students were at home during COVID, so there was probably a different feeling,” she said.
Despite the unprecedented nature of the 2020 election, ODUS reported a record campus turnout of over 75 percent of eligible students that year, with Vote100 leading the effort to civically engage students.
Students at Tuesday’s event noted foreign policy, healthcare, student loans, and gun control as issues of significant interest compelling them to vote in November.
“Internationally, I’m very interested in the conflicts in the Middle East,” Simmons said. From a domestic perspective, Simmons is focused on how funding for the Department of Education is allocated.
Choi also views U.S. foreign
policy as a key issue in the 2024 election.
“U.S. capacities abroad in terms of critical minerals, sustainability issues abroad, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and what’s happening in Gaza right now are just very important to me,” he said. “Domestic issues like education, access to housing, and reproductive rights … all of this is on the ballot.”
While some students have not been closely following the election, they remain focused on key issues that matter to them. “I think that both of the candidates are not doing a good job [on] what I care about, like what’s happening in Gaza,” Eric Tang ’28 said.
“I’d still rather vote for Kamala,” Tang added.
In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Vote100 is set to continue engaging students with events such as the New Jersey Collegiate Voting Summit, a vice presidential debate watch party, and Tiger Ballot Day.
“Like Vote100 says, to be a Princetonian is to vote,” Simmons said. “With our generation, there’s definitely a big push to vote, so I’m hopeful that we’ll show up to the ballot.”
Sena Chang is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
The first floor of Frist Campus Center.
By Sena Chang News contributor
and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Taylor: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Asian American enrollment increased this year.”
ADMISSIONS
Continued from page 1
University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill. The demographic breakdown of this year’s freshman class, however, showed that 7.7 percent of the Class of 2028 left their race unmarked.
The apparent drop in Asian American enrollment prompted Students for Fair Admissions, the group that sued Harvard to bring an end to race-conscious affirmative action, to send letters to Princeton, Yale, and Duke — which all saw declines in Asian American enrollment. The group questioned whether the three universities complied with the Supreme Court’s guidelines, claiming that the demographic breakdowns of their incoming classes “are not possible under true neutrality.”
Yet Brian Taylor, managing partner at admissions consulting firm Ivy Coach, doesn’t believe that Asian American enrollment has truly dipped since the fall of affirmative action. “It’s just that fewer students are filling out that ethnicity box on the common app,” he said.
Surprised to see a question asking applicants to indicate their race on applications, and nervous they may “face discrimination if they check Asian in that box,” Taylor said many Asian American applicants are opting to simply not indicate their race.
Taylor even said he believes some Asian American students are being advised by their support systems to leave their race blank.
“Therein lies your mother load of missing Asian American students,” Taylor said.
The University has repeatedly indicated their commitment to maintaining diversity at Princeton in spite of the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action. In anticipation
of the decision in 2023, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “We’re going to be as creative as we can within the boundaries of the law.”
In an email statement to the ‘Prince’ regarding how enrollment managed to remain stable, Morrill wrote, “At Princeton, we are adhering to the limits set by the ruling and continuing to use a holistic admission process that involves a highly individualized assessment of the applicant’s talents, achievements and his or her potential to contribute to learning at Princeton.”
While some have suggested that universities would rely on applicants’ zip codes and other indicators of background in lieu of considering race, Bleemer told the ‘Prince’ that there is no concrete evidence of this.
“We have evidence that public universities impacted by affirmative action bans sometimes provide admissions advantages to students from disadvantaged high schools, but no clear evidence on zip codes,” he wrote.
Taylor said he believes Princeton and other universities are “capitalizing” on the essay question about lived experience, allowing students to elaborate on their background. But he also said it’s even simpler than that — admissions officers can glean a student’s background from their name or from where their parents are from.
As a result, Taylor suggested that this “race unknown” category is skewing enrollment information.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Asian American enrollment increased this year,” he told the ‘Prince.’
Isabel Yip is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’
By Emma Simon Senior Constructor
Late meal prices increase for new school year, reflecting market and sustainability shifts
By Victoria Davies Assistant News Editor
Over the summer, several changes were made to Princeton Late Meal, some reflecting national Consumer Price Index (CPI) trends, while others have come as a result of community feedback and University data.
These changes follow a tradition of modifications to late meal at the start of each academic year, which typically include late meal allowance and price increases, as well as other adjustments depending on ongoing campus events.
In Fall 2023, this included a change to late lunch hours, now 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. instead of the previous 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., as a result of the closure of Butler’s dining hall. This expansion of hours was made “to accommodate meal plan participating students with a location closer in proximity to classes during closure of this dining hall,” wrote University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill in an email to The Daily Princetonian.
This year, Campus Dining has implemented a number of new changes relevant to pricing, sustainability, and food options available at late meal, while also making several adjustments to increase efficiency and convenience for customers.
Pricing and late meal allowance
The late meal allowance for students on the meal plan has increased from $9.50 last year, to $10.25 this year, an increase of 7.8 percent. Morrill wrote that this price increase occurred to “better reflect current market rates for meals,” and conceded that the “adjustments have been made reactively rather than proactively.”
According to Morrill, the average retail price in the Frist Gallery increased by 8.0 percentage points, which she wrote “is in line with retail industry data.” According to the Consumer Price Index for New York-Newark-Jersey City of August 2024, food away from home increased by an average of 3.2 percent.
Oleksandr Mykhantso ’27 said in an interview with the ‘Prince’ that “in general, I feel like this increase by [about] a dollar is kind of nice.”
Olena Kovalenko ’27 expressed some confusion over the new charges, explaining that although sometimes her meal choice exceeded the late meal allowance, she was not charged for the additional costs.
Morrill explained that the Gallery’s “primary goal is to breakeven and keep the pricing in check; in order to man-
age the impact of rising food, beverage, labor, sustainability commitment and other commodity costs on our operations.”
Sustainability efforts
Some students noticed an increase in sustainability efforts from last year. Amogh Joshi ’27 noted that there were “more compost bins,” giving students a better opportunity to “be sustainable, be green.”
Campus Dining has collaborated with the Office of Sustainability to increase and update signage in the Gallery, and have additionally installed two compost compactors to the waste area. “We have certainly made efforts to reduce waste and raise awareness through operational efficiencies, education, and messaging,” Morrill wrote.
This is in line with the sustainability mission of Campus Dining to “consider the broader context of social and environmental issues surrounding food production, distribution, and preparation.”
An audit of Frist Gallery and Shultz Cafe in April 2023 found that over 60 percent of items going to landfill had the potential to be diverted to composting in the two retail dining locations. As a result, most packaging products in Frist Gallery were transitioned to compostable alternatives, and collection containers were installed in the area.
Food options and quality
A number of new food options have become available at Late Meal as a result of community feedback. This year, a new sushi provider “has expanded the options” while students have praised the new selections of paninis and the increased variety of food available to them.
In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Advik Eswaran ’27 said, “the paninis are gas.”
“I like the new varieties of things that they have to offer,” Joshi added.
A welcome message to the Class of 2028 from Campus Dining featured the “new crispy chicken sandwich … featuring a buttermilk-pickle batter and fried to perfection, along with expanded options at each station within the Food Gallery at Frist.”
Morrill wrote that Kosher grab-and-go items have also been added to the Gallery “due to renovations at the Center for Jewish Life.”
Frist is also home to Witherspoon Cafe, where smoothies, nitro cold brew coffee, and convenience store items have been added over the summer.
The late meal community is encouraged to leave feedback
on late meal, with a bulletin board asking for suggestions located in the Frist Gallery area. While most of the notes ask for various food options including grilled cheese, dumplings, and burritos, other notes thank the late meal staff for their work.
Students have also commented on an increase in food quality in the Gallery; Joshi noted that one of the biggest changes from last year is that “the food quality has improved significantly.”
According to Morrill, Campus Dining teams across campus “are working diligently to reduce ultra-processed foods and introduce more seasonal, local ingredients.” The sustainability commitment of Campus Dining echoes this sentiment, explaining, “We make it a priority to purchase local and sustainably-produced food.”
Logistical changes
Morrill also commented on a number of ease-of-use changes that have been implemented over the last year.
The grill has undergone some logistical modifications, with the pick-up number of the meal being changed from the last three digits of a seven digit number, to now being the order number of the receipt. This change was made “to make it easier for customer pick up to only have one number set in play instead of multiple,” according to Morrill.
Additionally, the orderahead app was introduced in Fall 2023, allowing customers to place grill orders before reaching the gallery. Now, approximately 60 percent of grill customers use the app to order their meals, although late meal often remains crowded during peak lunch hours.
Mykhantso explained “I feel like it’s an even split” between mobile and in-person orders. He added “even right now, you can see so many people standing in line … because [for] a lot of things you also can’t online order.”
Morrill wrote that, due to the positive response of the order-ahead app with the grill options, Campus Dining has “expanded the service by adding Witherspoon’s menu, offering even more convenience and options” to customers.
Late Meal is open for the 2024–25 academic year from 11 a.m.–4 p.m. for late lunch, Monday through Friday, and 8:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. for late dinner Monday through Thursday.
Victoria Davies is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ who covers University Operations.
First-year Writing Seminars undergo curriculum overhaul to improve student experience
The First-year Writing Seminar Program, a core requirement for first-year students, has undergone changes to its curriculum for the 2024–25 school year. This new curriculum will feature two main essays as opposed to the standard three, and two additional assignments with the goal of making writing seminars more varied and manageable for firstyear students.
The changes were tested through a faculty-initiated pilot in nine select writing seminars last academic year, which yielded successful feedback from students.
All first-years at the University are required to complete the Writing Seminar in the fall or spring of the first year, being the only required course for all students at the University. The offered seminars are wide ranging across disciplines and first-year students rank them according to preference prior to the start of their assigned Writing Seminar semester.
Writing Seminar has earned a stress-inducing reputation among students. “There were all these first-years coming up to me and saying ‘I’m really scared [for Writing Seminar]’” Lianne Chapin ’26, a head fellow at the Writing Center, told The Daily Princetonian.
Upperclass students often share their own negative opinions of the Writing Seminar. “I wasn’t learning any writing skills or tools that were applicable to my department, and once I realized this I stopped caring about the grade,” Ila Nako ’26 told the ‘Prince.’
Dr. Chris Kurpiewski, Associate Director of the Writing Seminars, noted that the Writing Seminar curriculum has often been revised and adjusted to reflect students’ capabilities. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Writing Seminar faculty noticed that “the [students’] level of frustration was reaching a new pitch,” Kurpiewski told the ‘Prince.’
Kurpiewski said that the program began to question whether it was necessary to have three writing assignments — with drafts and revisions for each — as the volume and pace of the seminars were seemingly the most stressinducing aspects of the program.
Josie Veilleux ’27 recounted, “I felt very stressed about the workload.”
A fact sheet created by the Writing Center, “First-Year Writing Seminars: Many Paths to Shared Goals,” used to train Peer Academic Advisors (PAA) and new Writing Center Fellows, described the new four core assignments designed to the reduce workload. The first two foundational assignments are focused on creat-
ing curiosity through different assignments across seminars — speeches, responses to senior theses, literature reviews, among others — while the last two assignments use those skills to build a “mentored independent research project” featuring two essays with draft and revision processes.
Additionally, this flexibility allows professors to set different due dates for these four core assignments. The deadline for the revision of the final research paper remains Dean’s Date, yet this variability in timing will alleviate the schedule of Writing Center
fellows. Near identical timelines for assignments across all writing seminars overwhelmed the Writing Center with appointments before an important deadline.
“There was a serious crunch time around draft and revision deadlines … all the conference rooms would be full and we would use classrooms throughout New South,” Chapin said.
This academic year yields a new experience for first-year students across the Writing Seminar Program. With curriculum changes tailored to faculty and student feedback, the writing seminars aim to be more varied, skill-build-
ing based, and manageable for first-year students with different levels of writing experience.
“Something mandatory shouldn’t be so scary,” Chapin said.
Caitlyn Tablada is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince’ from New York City who typically covers student life and academics.
Cynthia Torres is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
ECE chair responds to ‘Princeton’s Genocide Incubator’ article targeting professors’ research
By Olivia Sanchez Associate News Editor
An anonymous article published on a new website run “in collaboration with student group Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest” (PIAD) claiming that University research labs are “genocide incubators,” has sparked pushback from the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). ECE Chair James
Sturm defended the research programs targeted in the piece in an email sent Monday to the ECE listserv obtained by The Daily Princetonian.
“It came to my attention today that there is an [sic] weblink that purportedly attacks several of our ECE faculty colleagues by name (and others at Princeton) for their choice of research topics. By extension, one could interpret the website as also attacking members of their re-
search groups,” Sturm wrote.
“I am writing to say that as chair I’ll defend all members (students, staff, and faculty …) of this department professionally for your choice of research to further the forefront of ECE and related fields, consistent with [U]niversity regulations. As a colleague I will defend all of your [sic] personally,” he continued.
The article, released on Sept. 13 as part of the “Popular Uni-
versity Wire,” names several University-sponsored research projects, accusing them of having “deep linkages, both direct and non, with Israel’s systems of apartheid.”
“These research interests are not necessarily purely malicious,” the anonymously authored article reads. “But the fact remains that this research would not be funded by a vast array of military contractors and tech companies complicit in or contributing to Israeli violence if they did not find such work valuable.”
The Popular University Wire did not reply to a request for comment.
The professors named are Professors of ECE Jaime Fisac and Naveen Verma, Professors of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Anirudha Majumdar and Alex Glaser, Professor of Anthropology Ryo Morimoto, and Professor of Computer Science (COS) Elad Hazan.
The ‘Prince’ reached out to all of the professors implicated, but none responded to a request for comment prior to publication. Chairs from their respective departments — MAE and Anthropology — also did not respond to questions from the ‘Prince’ asking if they shared similar concerns to Sturm by time of publication. COS department chair Szymon Rusinkiewicz declined to comment.
PIAD posted an Instagram story on Tuesday, Sept. 17 satirizing Sturm’s email and linking the article.
“It came to our attention today that there is an ECE email that attacks several of our movement colleagues for their choice to publicize Princeton professors’ research topics and funding streams supporting ‘defense,’ securitization, and genocide. By extension, one could interpret the email as also indicting the Princeton community’s right to know about the bloody applications of their studies and labor,” it read.
University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince’ that “Speech that is unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive is generally protected under the University’s free expression policies. Princeton will vigorously protect the freedom of our faculty and students to do their research.”
Sturm concluded his email by offering an “open house” later in the week and private office hours for ECE members seeking to discuss the anonymous article.
PIAD said in their spoof statement, “We am [sic] writing to say that as peers, we’ll defend all members (students, staff, faculty, and community members) of this movement for your right to further the political education of our community, consistent with basic human morals.”
Olivia Sanchez is an associate News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from New Jersey and often covers the graduate school and academic departments.
CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN The School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Tiffany Tsai / The Daily Princetonian The Writing Program is housed within New South.
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate convened on Sunday, Sept. 22, to discuss the new Suspension (Not Served) disciplinary policy which was announced last week at the first meeting of the semester.
USG President Avi Attar ’25 began the meeting by introducing the co-chairs of Peer Representatives, Fawaz Ahmad ’25 and Jacob Santelli ’25. Attar said, “they’ll be able to talk to us a little bit about some of the underground experiences they’ve had, which will put in context some of the conversations we have later today,” referring to a later discussion on the Suspension (Not Served) policy.
Ahmad and Santelli introduced their roles as mediators for students navigating the disciplinary process.
Peer Reps act as intermediaries during investigations, providing a link between the ad-
ministration and their peers. They also assist students in understanding the disciplinary procedures, preparing for hearings, and ensuring their voices are heard. Peer Reps handle both academic and behavioral infractions and get access to full caserelated evidence so that they are able to best help students build their defense and understand any allegations they may face.
Ahmad and Santelli highlighted the emotional and mental challenges students face during investigations.
“Students should be treated with dignity and respect; [they’re] not mutually exclusive,” Ahmad explained, while Santelli pointed out the limitations of the current punitive measures.
“The kinds of punishment available to the University aren’t as fine-grained … They can either be really harsh or really lenient … [leaving] a middle ground still to be filled,” said Santelli.
Next, Attar began a discus-
sion centered around this year’s new policy of Suspension (Not Served) and a proposed change to the honor constitution.
Suspension (Not Served) permits serious infractions to be documented on a student’s transcript without requiring immediate suspension from the University. It also aims to mitigate negative effects of separation from campus, including academic disruption and community loss, and can be “imposed in situations where conduct violations are otherwise serious enough to merit a one-semester suspension, but where the appropriate disciplinary body determines that the immediate separation of the student from the University may not be warranted,” according to Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities.
Attar discussed the potential impact of suspension on students’ visa statuses and financial situations. He recounted the suspension of an international student, saying “her suspension jeopardized her visa status,
and she just ended up losing her visa.”
He described the effect of a Suspension (Not Served) penalty, voicing support for the policy, and saying the student “will not be separated [from the University].”
Attar explained “as it relates to the Honor Committee, there are two ways for this change to be made to the honor constitution.” He described either a USG Senate vote, requiring a three quarters vote to pass, or putting it to a student referendum.
Campus and Community Affairs (CCA) Chair Genevieve Shutt ’26 then presented a budget request of approximately $27,000 for the semester, which includes funding for future CCA programming and programs like Tigers in Town. The budget, which reflects an increase of around $6,000 from that of last year, was met with questions from other committees, who were concerned with the possibility of receiving less funding due to the substantial amount
potentially being allocated to the CCA.
Treasurer Uma Fox ’26 stressed the importance of proactive planning, stating, “We need to know early how much you need and how much you’re spending.”
After thorough discussion, the Senate unanimously approved the CCA budget. Additionally, a request for funding for the TigerTies event, which aims to foster collaboration among various campus groups, was tabled. The proposed $20,000 allocation is contingent upon further financial information regarding rollover funds from Lawnparties, with the information of the exact amount still pending from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS).
USG meetings are open for all students to attend and are held on Sundays from 5–6 p.m. in Robertson Hall 016.
Alena Zhang is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Princeton hosts memorial service to honor LGBTQ+ community members
On Friday, Sept. 20, over 100 alumni, faculty, and students convened in the University Chapel to pay tribute to LGBTQ+ members of the Princeton community who have passed away.
The memorial service, “A Celebration of Life, Remembrance, and Hope,” was part of the Every Voice Conference organized by University Advancement, a three-day event running from Sept. 19 to 21 to celebrate and honor LGBTQ+ alumni.
“The service honors and celebrates alumni who during their lifetimes blazed a trail for the LGBTQ+ community and expresses joy in the lives that will continue to have an impact moving forward,” Emily Latham, Associate Director of Advancement Affinity Programs, wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian.
Organized by conference Steering Committee members Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91 and Loki Lin ’22, the memorial this year was expanded “to encompass both remembrance and hope for the future,” Latham shared. The hour-long memorial included readings, personal reflections, and performances by the Chapel Choir, featuring pieces by LGBTQ+ composers.
“Today, we come into this space to remember, to honor, and to celebrate the lives of ones that you’ve served along with,” Dean of Religious Life Rev. Dr. Theresa S. Thames said as she began the memorial, addressing the many alumni in the chapel.
“We will remember and honor them, but also bring pieces of ourselves back to this space.”
Rev. Sue Anne Steffey Morrow and Robert Gleason ’87 spoke next, reflecting on the history of Princeton’s LGBTQ+ community and highlighting the progress made in terms of visibility and acceptance over the years.
“The vision for the Gay Alli-
ance of Princeton in the mid-80s was a space the size of the back corner of Murray-Dodge Cafe,”
Rev. Morrow said. “The vision was a sacred place — a place that was filled with queer joy and amazing friendships.”
Rev. Morrow shared personal memories of witnessing the first gay wedding in the University Chapel and the establishment of a steering committee in the 80s aimed at making LGBTQ+ rights “visible and vital.”
“We pause to remember those who have come before us, whose courage and resilience paved the way for our journey today,” Gleason said. “Let us hold them in our hearts with gratitude and reverence.”
Gleason also offered a blessing
in remembrance of those who lost their lives to HIV and AIDS.
“Decades ago, you fought against the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS,” said Linsaid, addressing the audience. “The last time this conference was happening [in 2013], you were in the midst of fighting for the right to marry, and today, we fight for our trans siblings while caring for them.”
Lin then led the audience in creating a “living memorial.”
“We invite you to write prayers, blessings, poems, names, hopes, or wishes,” Lin said. “Your envelope … will join others in a collective tribute of love, remembrance, and hope.”
After writing their messages, audience members placed the
cards into a memorial box to be permanently displayed at the Gender + Sexuality Resource Center on campus.
“Alumni conference organizers wanted to create something physical that would last beyond conference; the ‘living memorial’ was borne out of that goal,” Latham wrote to the ‘Prince.’
AG McGee ’22 recognized members of the Princeton community who died by suicide during their time at the University, including Justin Lim ’25 and Jazz Chang ’23.
“Who you all are is constituted by the people that you have lost and loved yourselves,” McGee said. “Sometimes, the best part of a memorial is just being yourselves; by being yourself, we
keep the memories of those we loved quite literally alive.” McGee is a managing editor emeritus at the ‘Prince.’ The service concluded with a closing prayer led by Rabbi Steinlauf. “Today, we celebrate the memories of these remarkable queer people who have come from generations past and have touched our lives,” he said. “Remembering them not only gives them life, but gives us life, courage, and love.”
Sena Chang is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
After partial dissociation, climate activists say U. still has fossil fuel ties
By Ethan Caldwell, Sena Chang & Meghana Vledhuis Staff News Writer, News Contributor & Assistant News Editor
A new report by student-run climate advocacy group Sunrise Princeton argues that, despite having cut ties with certain major fossil fuel producers two years ago, the University continues “to invest in, profit from, and produce research that serves the interests of fossil fuel companies.”
The report, titled “In the Service of Delay: Fossil Fuel Connections to Princeton University,” was released on Wednesday, Sept. 18 by Sunrise alongside analysis from student climate advocates at five other universities.
The report’s analysis of Princeton’s tax returns includes a reported $350 million in University revenue from oil and gas extraction over the past decade. The report also details that major fossil fuel companies — including BP, Exxon, Shell, and TotalEnergies — have provided over $43 million in research funding to Princeton in the last 10 years.
The Sunrise report comes five months after the release of a joint congressional report on efforts by fossil fuel companies to evade climate change initiatives, including a chapter about the potential influences of oil and gas company BP on climate research conducted by the University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI).
In a 2020 email obtained by congressional investigators, a BP official wrote that the relationship between BP and CMI was “becoming increasingly
synergistic.” The congressional report raised concerns about BP’s influence on the Net Zero America study, a 2020 Princeton study examining methods of decarbonization for the United States economy.
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian this week, Director of CMI and Professor Emeritus Stephen Pacala dismissed the comments from BP officials as “internal chortling, where a person responsible for keeping tabs on a relationship that they’re funding is making a case to his superiors.”
“Since then, our conclusions have been completely out of alignment with [BP’s] wishes,” he added.
Alex Norbrook ’26, one of the authors of Sunrise Princeton’s report, disagrees.
“What we’re doing is showing how BP’s internal rhetoric translates into direct outputs from CMI’s research, from its messaging and from its rhetoric about BP,” he told the ‘Prince.’ “That’s making the connection between what we know from the House investigation and what we know here on the ground.”
Norbrook is a columnist for the ‘Prince.’
Norbrook said that Sunrise’s findings strengthen “the argument that Princeton does indeed own a fossil fuel company.”
Norbrook was referring to PetroTiger, an oil and gas company from which the University reported $140 million of earnings in investment income and cash transactions over a 10-year period. According to the report, the exact scope of the University’s relationship
with PetroTiger is unclear, however, PetroTiger has been listed as a “related organization” on the University’s tax returns as recently as 2021, the ‘Prince’ found.
A University administrator declined to comment on PetroTiger when contacted by a Sunrise organizer, writing that the University does not discuss individual investments. The University also did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication from the ‘Prince.’
A tally by Sunrise found that the University has reported $352.5 million over the past decade on its tax returns under revenue code 211110, which the Internal Revenue Service classifies as oil and gas extraction.
University Spokesperson
Jennifer Morrill referred the ‘Prince’ to the University’s website on fossil fuel dissociation, but did not address questions about the origins of the University’s reported fossil fuel income.
In February, the University announced that it had completed its divestment of endowment holdings in publicly traded fossil fuel companies. The University had previously established a list of companies subject to dissociation that included ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
Sunrise also argued that their independent analysis claimed that, of 210 papers written by University-affiliated authors who received funding from energy companies, “14.8 percent of the papers contained explicit applications for continued or expanded fossil fuel use, and 12.9 percent con-
tained an implicit fossil fuel application.”
Pacala argued that Sunrise’s analysis showed that BP was not influencing research at the University, as 72 percent of the papers noted in Sunrise’s argument did not enable continued or expanded fossil fuel use.
“I think that if you look at that dispassionately, you’ll say, ‘Princeton’s doing everything right.’ I think there’s no evidence of undue influence, and I think there’s strong evidence to the contrary,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’
CMI has received support from BP since it was founded in 2000. According to the congressional report, BP gave CMI between $2.1 and $2.6 million annually from 2012 to 2017.
“You will have to trust me, other professors at Princeton who are involved, or BP people’s word that we simply don’t consult the company when picking projects,” Pacala told the ’Prince‘ in the spring.
In its report, Sunrise also pointed to a statement from Brunswick Group, a public relations firm hired by BP. The company “identified CMI as a ‘core programme’ to help BP demonstrate its seriousness on the so-called ‘methane challenge’ by publishing articles on the methane cycle.”
“Usually, the way in which sponsor’s representatives get to influence projects is spelled out in great detail,” Pacala said, acknowledging what he called “pitfalls” that occur when the University works with forprofit founders.
At the conclusion of its report, Sunrise Princeton reaffirmed that it is seeking the
University to cut all ties with fossil fuel companies, recommending the University divest from all privately-held fossil fuel companies. It also calls for the short-term expansion of the Fund for Energy Research with Corporate Partners, which helps offset funding no longer available for research because of fossil fuel dissociation.
“Our immediate next steps are to meet with the University administration to have a conversation with them about learning more about the trustee’s decision to arbitrarily divest from at least some parts of [PetroTiger],” Norbrook said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“These findings … demonstrate that the University, despite its goals for sustainability on its own campus, helped perpetuate the viability of the fossil fuel industry in a way that’s inconsistent both with scientific consensus and with the University’s own core values.”
Ethan Caldwell is a staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’ Sena Chang is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Meghana Veldhuis is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Bergen County, N.J. and typically covers faculty and graduate students.
Budgeting for independence? Breaking down grocery shopping near campus
By Mary Ma staff data writer
Eating clubs cost between $9,500–$12,500. The unlimited dining plan costs $8,340 and the Block 105 plan costs $3,234 for 8-10 meals a week. Coops, an alternative meal plan, serve only dinner and brunch, and members have to partake in cooking and cleaning shifts. The cost lies between $1,000–$1,300 annually.
These are the primary choices upperclass students, who are no longer required to be on the unlimited meal plan, have to choose from, unless they go independent. According to the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), independent students are defined as “students who agree not to join an eating club or to hold a university dining plan.”
According to the 2023 Dining Pilot Report, 14.6 percent of the 2023 and 2024 graduating class were independent and four percent were members of a Co-op on campus. For many, being independent and cooking for themselves is a financially-motivated choice. Access and options to food and social spaces for upperclassmen was a topic of interest with the 2023 dining pilot. The dining pilot was an initiative by the University to build more community in eating. The program gave around ten percent of upperclassmen five swipes per week which they could use to eat at eating clubs, co-ops, dining halls, retail dining locations, and late meal. A group of student leaders who signed an alternative plan on Oct. 4, suggested that the pilot should allow the “Two Extra Meals” program to include late meal and meal exchange, extend the dining point system to upperclassmen, open eating clubs to upperclassmen at certain points in the semester and create more social spaces on campus.
For independent upperclassmen, grocery shopping while living on campus is not as straightforward as it may seem. Only a few stores are convenient and within walking distance of campus, with others more accessible via public transportation. Some stores, such as Costco, are only easily reached by car.
Andrew Jung ’25, a senior independent living in Spelman Hall — which is made up of apartments with full kitchens — goes to Costco occasionally using Enterprise CarShare, an hourly car rental service. Students, faculty, and staff receive a $25 credit when they join the program. This credit brings the
total annual membership cost to $25 plus hourly rates for rentals of the 17car fleet across eight campus locations.
“I used to use Zipcar, but stopped because it was unreliable and sometimes the car wouldn’t even show up,” Jung said.
Different grocery stores have vastly different offerings. More generic grocery stores, like Wegmans, Costco, and specialty stores like Trader Joe’s are often further from campus. Maruichi, a Japanese grocery store just on Nassau Street attracts locals and students for supplies and quick bites.
Across the five grocery stores, ShopRite and Wegmans provided, on average, the lowest price of goods. Whole Foods and the U-Store had the highest prices. Though the U-Store edges out convenience store competition in campus essentials, grocery shopping at the U-Store is, on average, more expensive than grocery shopping at large chain supermarkets. Price is a big consideration for independent students.
“Being independent is a lot cheaper than being in an eating club or on the dining plan, [but] it isn’t cheap either,” Jung said. “[I am] a lot more wary of spending money.”
For Jung, meat is especially difficult to purchase near campus.
With the start of the new school year, TigerTransit has changed routes, providing more service over the weekends.
Sam Dorsey ’26 is a member of 2D CoOp, which regularly sends people to get groceries on the Weekend Shopper bus. Dorsey dislikes the bus due to its long wait times and unpredictably.
Many Co-ops, including 2D Co-op, actually source their groceries from bulk wholesalers for a cheaper price. Brown Co-op president Jesus Herrera ’25 wrote to the ‘Prince’ that “our Co-Op orders about 99% of our food through US Foods, the same distributors as dining halls and eating clubs.”
“It’s very possible to be independent on campus,” Jung said. Jung felt confident about becoming independent because of Maruichi, a grocery store that’s walking distance from campus, opening up.
Upperclassmen can reduce or drop their meal plans until Sept. 20. Meal exchange begins on Sept 23.
Mary Ma is the Creative director and a staff Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Hum r Princeton, it’s time to act. We’re begging you.
By Spencer Bauman, Sophia Varughese, Eric Mohorea, Tarun Iyengar, Vivian Huang, Francesca Volkema & Roberto Sampaio Head Humor Editors & Humor Contributors
We are tired.
Over the 277 years of the univer- sity’s history, students have perpetu- ated a culture of inaction, nay, lazi- ness. As one of the world’s leading institutions of higher education and research, it appalls us to bear wit- ness to students who get accepted, enroll, and graduate, with little substance or depth in between.
We as the Daily PrintsAnything staffers cannot sit idly by any longer. We are imploring you, begging you, beseeching you.
John Smith ’26, president and founder of Princeton Students with Conviction, stated, “Students are refusing to engage or even recognize this problem. We are giving name to this issue, and that name isn’t ever going away.”
We hear you, John Smith. The Uni- versity has silenced you for too long. The time has come for us to rise up, speak out, and take a stance. A specific stance.
We encourage you to tune out the world, especially those who disagree with and try to keep you down. Keep your eyes and ears open, engage with those who disagree with and try to keep you down. Only then can change be made.
Empty promises. Hollow statements. We support you and your clearly defined viewpoints. We will stand behind you shouting those words with you. We will stand in front of you and lead all of us to a future that is more.
Jane Doe ’26, a speaking major with minors in Having Her Voice Heard and Applied Vocal Projection, echoed these sentiments.
“Stand up,” she began. “Sit down. Take up space. Go to work. One hop this time. Two hops this time. Criss. Cross. Everybody, clap your hands.”
So please, we are on our knees beg- ging you, come audition to act for Theater Intime’s spring production of Mean Girls.
The Daily Princetonian Humor Section strongly endorses this message. They cannot be reached.
A collaboration by Head Humor Editors Spencer Bauman and Sophia Varughese, and Humor contributors Eric Mohorea, Tarun Iyengar, Vivian Huang, Francesca Volkema, Roberto Sampaio.
“Party L ike i t ’s 1964”
By Mikaela Lavandero Senior Constructor
ACROSS
1 All over again
5 Leave alone
10 MVP acronym
14 “Oh, you don’t know the ___ behind this”
15 The youngest Jetson
16 Egg cell
17 *“Swap this song out ASAP! It’s terrible!” (1966)
19 Demographic of college students these days
20 The weight of a pineapple, approximately
21 Club Med, for one
23 *“No idea why they’re playing this awful song” (1964)
26 ___ box (lunch option)
29 “___ me out”
30 Many an August birthday
31 It's “just a number”
32 Rational
35 Roughed up
37 Dumb bird
39 Spanish kiss
41 “I'm the problem, ___” lyric from Taylor Swift's 47-Down
42 *With 63-Across, “Hurry! Play a better song before it’s too late!” (1966)
45 Bit of a mix-up
48 Superman's biological mother
49 The “S” in A.S.L.
53 Victorian-era cab
55 ___ gai (Thai dish)
57 Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs
58 SAT alternative
59 Ripped
61 “Die a Happy Man” singer Thomas
63 *See 42-Across
67 Family Margaret Mitchell wrote about
68 Actress and LGBTQ+ activist Cox from “Orange is the New Black”
72 Lyft rival
73 *“Which person's playing this horrible music?” ... or what’s true when the starred answers' band is playing
75 “___ my words”
76 “Squid Game” setting
77 Capitol Hill staffer
78 Cons’ counterparts
79 Cardiologist’s tool
80 Snowy hill transport
DOWN
1 Additionally
2 Paris, the Hilton, or Paris Hilton, e.g.
3 Kathryn of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”
4 Old-time vest
5 Actress George of “Animal Kingdom”
6 John who sang “Tiny Dancer”
7 ___ TV (network for “Impractical Jokers”)
8 Site of Buddha’s enlightenment
9 Test with little letters
10 Nikolai who wrote “Diary of a Madman”
11 Attire for a minion or a hoedown
12 Dorothy’s caretaker in “The Wizard of Oz”
13 Tabloid for Hollywood tea
18 Juice bar on Witherspoon Street
22 Common ankle injury
24 Libra symbol
25 Lymph ___ 26 “___ Romance” (Lady Gaga song) 27 It might give you a big head
“___’s Declassified School Survival Guide” (2004 sitcom) 33 ___ Dhabi
Actor Patrick Harris of “How I Met Your Mother”
Salt Lake City team
Clumsy bozos
Gumbo ingredient
Citer
Rowing tool
“My Fair Lady” is based on his work
Catered snack station where everyone dips
See 41-Across
The Minis
By Emma Simon Senior Constructor
50 Cold, hard stuff
Understand
“Kidding!”
54 Hairstyles for an entire team before a big game, maybe 56 “Well done!”
60 Took another take
62 Antagonists in “The Lion King” 64 Small songbirds
65 Out of this world?
66 Attended
69 Train track part
70 Like some nail polish shades
71 Ticked, as a box
72 Strike and ball caller
74 Underground metal
“You are the axis around which your story revolves; not a class, not a club, and not a career path.”
CULTURE
Continued from page 1
from the upper-echelon of higher education and market their services using the elite credentials of the University. It’s irrelevant to argue the necessity of an Ivy League degree to put together a spreadsheet. Sourcing Princeton graduates is as much a marketing tactic as it is a reflection of their merits.
To find people to market, firms must also convince students that they represent the best option. They do so by selling themselves as the most prestigious and lucrative option — something that will impress their family and friends with immediate name recognition. They do this by cultivating relationships with college career service programs, granting them access to the best tables at career fairs, student email lists, and well-promoted info sessions.
Junior associate positions are also typically sold as a temporary stepping stone to bigger and better things, allowing them to appeal to a wider array of risk-averse students. A survey of Harvard students going into finance and consulting found that only 6.39 percent expected to remain in these sectors long-term. Consequently, firms in these industries rely on a steady stream of new graduates that they can churn through to make their
business work. All of this work allows firms to sell themselves as the best option for prestige-conscious students without a clear vision for their future.
Next, Princeton trains students for the cultures like those at Bank of America — by initiating students into the culture of constant work, stress, and responsiveness to authority while in college. Princeton’s academic and social culture naturally funnels students into high-intensity professions: Professors assign too much work in not enough time. Our syllabi cover more content in a shorter 12-week semester. Outside of the classroom, we face intense competition for bicker spots, internships, and even recreational clubs. The Princeton rat-race is perpetual and all encompassing. But somehow we manage it.
Our willingness to put up with this stress culture primes us to accept unreasonable demands from managers and deprioritize self-care in order to keep up with our perceptions of what’s expected of us. Years of experience putting up with these conditions makes us more likely to submit to the brutal schedules that are commonplace in the banking and consulting industries.
Finally, Princeton funnels students into these kinds of constantwork jobs. The most common sectors represented at last Friday’s Hire Tigers
Career Fair were Investment and Portfolio Management followed closely by Management Consulting — two industries notorious for offering excruciating hours in exchange for massive salaries. This heavy recruitment effort pays off — nearly 16 percent of the Class of 2024 went into Finance or Consulting after graduation.
All this effort creates a path of least resistance, a frictionless conveyor that transforms idealistic freshmen into harried alumni—it is the default setting of Princeton.
To steer clear of this path requires us to have the wherewithal to change this default. This is harder than it seems.
But we should learn how to change and be able to quit the rat race. Ultimately, Princeton is just a university and banking is just a job. These institutions rely on us just as much as we do on them and we must not let the immediate pressures imposed by the semester define—or imperil—our lives.
You are the axis around which your story revolves; not a class, not
a club, and not a career path. If what’s best for you is failing your classes, then fail them. If what’s best for you is taking a leave of absence, then take it. And if after graduation, you find yourself in a job that demands from you an unbearable toll, then get the hell out of there! It might save your life.
Thomas Buckley is a junior from Colchester, Vt., majoring in SPIA. His column “This Side of Nassau” runs every three weeks on Wednesday.
CPUC reforms are necessary for
the community to be truly
heard
Bill Hewitt Guest Contributor
The following is an open letter and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
To the Members of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC):
In 1970, Princeton University created the CPUC as a culmination of two years of work by the Special Committee on the Structure of the University. In the preface to its final report, that committee said of the new body: “Both directly and through representatives, more people will participate in decisions on a wider range of issues, and it will be easier to raise issues, to get a hearing, to win the support of others, and to gain access to those formally responsible for making decisions.”
We, the undersigned members of the Princeton University community, earnestly petition for the CPUC to adopt this revised version of its annual “Resolution on the Order of Business” for the 2024-2025 academic year. The reforms proposed here will enable the CPUC to better fulfill its aforementioned founding goals of broad participation in University governance. Further, these reforms will aim to hold the CPUC to a higher standard of
accountability regarding its charter responsibility of “consider[ing] and investigat[ing] any question of University policy, any aspect of the governing of the University, and any general issue related to the welfare of the University.”
We principally believe that our proposed reforms are necessary to correct certain policy changes to the CPUC meeting procedures instituted in 2019. These changes severely undercut the CPUC’s ability to hear — and more pertinently to address — questions and concerns from the University community. Aside from representing a departure from long-standing practices, these 2019 measures mandated that only 15 minutes per meeting be relegated to topics not already placed on the agenda by the CPUC Executive Committee. While this time cap had existed in writing for some time, former Provost Deborah Prentice acknowledged that such stipulations regarding the council’s question period had not been practiced in “anybody’s living memory”.
These changes to CPUC meeting procedures had the immediate effect of enabling the Executive Committee to regulate both the number and the subject matter of questions that could come before the CPUC. That year, The Daily Princetonian’s Editorial Board emphasized this same concern while also deploring the new measures’ adverse impact on “open conversation.”
Our proposed reforms do not seek to restore the past “open question period” policy. They maintain the requirement that questions not on the CPUC agenda be submitted in writing in advance of the meeting.
Instead, our new reforms clarify that any member of the Princeton University community (not just Council members) may submit these questions to the CPUC for consideration. We hope that this will act as a more explicit affirmation of the kind of whole community participation than is currently written. Further, these reforms provide that all properly submitted questions will receive a timely answer, either on the record at the CPUC meeting or in separate writing soon thereafter. We also believe that the CPUC should extend the duration of the Question Period from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, extending the overall meeting length from 90 minutes to 120 minutes. Finally, our reforms establish that properly submitted questions from University community members residing more than 50 miles from the meeting location should be addressed without the requirement of in-person attendance.
Adopting these proposed reforms will enhance transparency and accountability, as well as promote inclusive participation. A longer Question Period will ensure thorough and transparent discussions on matters affecting the Uni-
versity community and allow more questions to be heard. Allowing all community members to submit questions and facilitating remote participation ensures diverse perspectives are heard and considered, regardless of geographical constraints.
In addition to more meetingspecific changes, our petition also proposes an affirmation of timely and transparent responses. We ask the CPUC to provide written responses within ten days to all properly submitted questions that are not addressed during the CPUC meeting and mandate the prompt publication and maintenance of these written responses and the official record of the proceedings on the CPUC website for public access. The council should also affirm and reinforce the right of attendees to make and publish video, audio, and/or photo records of the CPUC meetings, in alignment with the CPUC Charter’s commitments to freedom of publication and transparency.
Publishing written responses and permitting video recordings will create comprehensive records of proceedings, making information readily available to all stakeholders and fostering a better-informed University community.
These reforms reinforce Princeton University’s commitment to freedom of expression and open dialogue, foundational to the pursuit of truth and collaborative
governance. The CPUC Charter entrusts the Council with the responsibility to “consider and investigate any question of University policy, any aspect of the governing of the University, and any general issue related to the welfare of the University. . .” To effectively fulfill this mandate, the CPUC must operate with the highest standards of transparency, inclusivity, and accountability.
By implementing these reforms, the CPUC will strengthen its role as a deliberative body, better reflect the needs and voices of its constituents, and uphold the University’s principles of open and participative governance through the CPUC. We emphatically call on the CPUC to consider and adopt these reforms to foster a more engaged, transparent, and inclusive University governance. Fidelity to its founding principles and continuing duties mandates the CPUC to review and act on this petition.
Respectfully submitted, Bill Hewitt ’74
Sergiu Klainerman, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics
Stuart Taylor ’70
Jerry Raymond ’73
ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, home of the economics department.
Late meal must expand its vegetarian and vegan options
It’s no secret that Frist Campus Center’s late meal is a valued addition to undergraduate student dining plans. Following recent increases in hours and allowance, students can now spend up to $10.25 per meal on a variety of grab-andgo lunch and dinner options. This allows students to eat on the move and outside of dining hall hours, which is very convenient for students with busy schedules. Students are presented with a plethora of options for lunch and dinner — from a grill to a panini bar to an Asian food station — which enhances the system’s popularity. In fact, with the change in food options this fall semester, Frist late meals have become such a popular choice among students that many have noted how crowded Frist often becomes
As construction has accelerated, the University has unofficially put forward Frist as a supplementary dining hall and convenient on-the-go location for the student body. However, some students — including myself — have
noticed that the changes in range of dining choices are not all positive. With changes over the summer such as the elimination of the salad bar and burrito bowl station, the new late meal options have become markedly more restrictive for vegan and vegetarian students.
In a 2021 student blog post, a senior described Princeton dining as “very accommodating” to vegan preferences. However, the University has a fundamental responsibility to provide more options — especially as the number of vegetarian and vegan students might continue to expand in the future. After all, vegans and vegetarians make up a sizable chunk of the student population, with eight percent of the Class of 2027 identifying as vegan or vegetarian. Beyond Princeton, 1.5 billion members of the global population do not or cannot eat meat. In particular, college students are far more likely to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet compared to the average citizen. As a result, it is vital to provide fulfilling and nutritionally balanced vegetarian and vegan options for students, with a wide variety of proteins, carbohydrates, vegetables, and fruits. The offering of such options would also improve the inclusivity of our dining spaces for students with dietary restrictions or intolerances.
At present, the number of viable vegetarian and vegan options provided by late meal is quite limited. In order to investigate, I went to Frist at around 2:30 p.m. on Monday to check out the variety of the dining options firsthand. At the panini station, although there were two meat options (in the form of roast beef and chicken sandwiches), there were no plant-based options displayed for students. Similarly, although the pasta station offered chicken additions, no forms of plant-based proteins were available for students to order, meaning vegetarians and vegans who want pasta may have to sacrifice the nutritional value of their meal. There were only a couple of vegan snack options at the “Grab and Go” section, such as Ticos smoothies, cups of vegetables, hummus, and sushi rolls — though very few of these options actually contain protein. Additionally, if a student were to get multiple snacks, they might easily exceed the allotted $10.25 allowance — meaning they would have to pay the rest with their own money. Finally, at the grill, they provide only one vegan option and two vegetarian options.
Overall, by my count, the Monday late meal only offered four hot meal options for vegans — and of the four, only three contained a form of protein. The grill station
offered two additional vegetarian meals, both of which met nutritional requirements and included plenty of protein and carbohydrates. However, these options contained milk, and consequently were not friendly to vegans nor to students with lactose intolerances. Although there were some alternatives directed at vegans and vegetarians, these offerings were severely lacking when compared to the range of possibilities for other students, who are able to choose from eight grill options, three salad bar proteins, two Asian bar proteins, two pasta bar options, two panini options, and dozens of Grab and Go options. If students have additional dietary restrictions beyond being vegetarian or vegan, their options are only further limited.
Late meal could easily incorporate more nutritious, vegetarian- and vegan-friendly changes to ensure that plantbased and dietary options are always available to the student body. For example, a vegetarian entrée in the panini section or more high-protein meals in the Grab and Go section — such as a chickpea salad or protein shakes — would provide a more diverse range of suitable foods. Potential meat alternatives, such as tofu, seitan, and “beyond” options should be explored for the pasta bar. In terms of more long-term changes, consider the restora -
tion of the salad bar, which previously provided students with protein-dense options up until last year. The implementation of such options could easily improve accessibility for students with dietary restrictions.
The current options are insufficient for vegetarian and vegan students. College students are recommended to eat a range of proteins, carbohydrates and fruits every day. Thus, campus dining should provide a wide variety of such options. It’s not fair that Frist dining options are so disproportionately restricted. In order to close this gap, Frist late meal needs to offer more options for vegetarian and vegan students. For particularly busy students or those with back-to-back afternoon classes, Frist is often the only lunch option, and it can quickly become busy as options start to run out, making it even more difficult for vegetarian and vegan students to properly fuel themselves. Students deserve adequate dining options, first and foremost.
Liz Reyes is a second-year contributing columnist planning to major in Neuroscience. She is from Cherry Hill, N.J.
Princeton rolled out a new protest website two weeks ago, expanding their “time, place, and manner” restrictions to more times, more places, and more manners. By placing explicit bans on some of the most common forms of political demonstration, tightening language on obscure and inconsistentlyapplied existing restrictions, and departing from a constructive approach of speaking with protestors, the policies intend to stoke fear and chill protest.
We, the undersigned member organizations of the Princeton Progressive Coalition, oppose these tightened restrictions, reject the University’s hostile approach to protest, and call on all who support free speech and free expression to challenge these protest bans.
Among the new rules is a ban on protests on Cannon Green and on Prospect House’s grounds. This ban pushes protests out of sight of key, high-traffic locations. Pros -
pect House is often home to “private wetsuits dinners” and was the site of anti-apartheid protests, and Cannon Green, which previously operated as one of the locations of the Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment, has been the site of protests dating back to at least the 1970s. Restricting these locations represents a sharp departure from precedent to limit the scope of free expression, and the University has acknowledged it: An original version of the rules also barred protests on the lawns of Nassau Hall until walking it back, acknowledging the long history of protests at the location.
Furthermore, the projection of light or imagery without prior approval, the operation of overnight encampments (which was previously just “generally prohibited”) and the use of amplified sound, musical instruments, or noisemakers in the context of protest during business hours are explicitly barred.
The protest tactics the University has targeted are often less disruptive than activities that are protected by University policy. Using hate speech during a seminar is profoundly disruptive, but it is pro -
tected when not directed at an individual. Playing a musical instrument at a protest is not protected, despite it almost certainly being less threatening. Is this because Princeton sees assembly and protest as a lesser right than speech? Is this because the University cares only when the disruption affects powerful administrators, not marginalized students?
The University frames these restrictions as a restatement of existing policy. However, some of these policies were rarely implemented in practice – meaning that “clarifying” existing policy essentially amounts to establishing new rules. Many were inconsistently (if ever) enforced, such as the prohibition of protest on Cannon Green. As Dean of Undergraduate Students, Regan Crotty ’00 conceded during a Sept. 15 USG meeting that Cannon Green has technically been designated a prohibited protest location, even though it has nonetheless hosted many protests over the past decades. Other policies, such as the ban on chalking surfaces, were hidden in places like the “Conference and Event Services” website, and enforced inconsistently. For instance,
the University enforced the ban when it removed gay pride chalking in 1995, but did not do so for chalk designs made for USG candidates. In the last 30 years, the University has not made this policy clearer nor enforced it. Choosing to “clarify” rules that have never fully been enforced is de facto an imposition of new rules, and paves the way for the University to enact unreasonable punishment.
The new policies would also prohibit acts of protest that are non-disruptive and meaningful expressions of political opinion. Actions as simple as the Students for Prison Education, Abolition, and Reform (SPEAR)’s annual protest against solitary confinement, during which a demonstrator sits on a chair in a tape box outside for 23 hours, would be banned because tape on University “grounds and walkways” are no longer permitted. SPEAR’s demonstration has raised awareness around an important social issue for over a decade, but its future is now uncertain.
This change in policy jeopardizes the University’s own precedent of constructively engaging with students, even during particularly disrup -
tive actions. When the Black Justice League conducted a 33-hour sit-in in the office of President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83 in 2015, the University chose to hear the demonstrators’ demands rather than punish them. When more than 200 students occupied Nassau Hall overnight to protest the University’s investments in South Africa in 1978, the University met with the students, and opted to give them a disciplinary warning.
These restrictions help the administration move away from a constructive approach to student protest. Before the release of the new protest website, officials had already begun to bypass dialogue and move directly to punishment for many recently-used protest actions. For example, the University initially took action to withhold two degrees from students who participated in a peaceful, temporary disruption of a talk by President Eisgruber during Reunions. Even as the students were later allowed to graduate, the crackdown has damaged student trust. Expanding the grounds on which individuals can violate University policy, makes it easier for the University to opt for punishment instead of dialogue.
Despite what the University might claim, these new prohibitions are clearly a direct response to the protests in solidarity with Palestine last semester: the updated list of prohibited actions reads like a list of the actions taken in the spring (using noisemakers, protesting on Cannon Green, and projecting light onto buildings). Its prohibitions can therefore be counted as part of a larger crackdown on free expression across university campuses following student campus protests in solidarity with Palestine. Perhaps the University thinks the Princeton community will accept limitations on speech. We will not acquiesce. We recognize the University is attempting to silence us all. It will not succeed.
Alan Plotz and Alex Norbrook on behalf of the Princeton Progressive Coalition.
Alliance of Jewish Progressives
Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest
Princeton Pride Alliance
Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine
Princeton Young Democratic Socialists of America
Students for Prison Education, Abolition and Reform (SPEAR)
Sunrise Princeton
editor-in-chief
Eden Teshome ’25
business manager Aidan Phillips ’25
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
president Thomas E. Weber ’89
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
Danielle Ivory ’05
Rick Klein ’98
James T. MacGregor ’66
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07
trustees ex officio
Eden Teshome ’25 Aidan Phillips ’25
148TH MANAGING BOARD
Ryan Konarska ’25
Naisha Sylvestre ’25
director of outreach
Lia Opperman ’25
Mary Ma ’26 upper management
Tess Weinreich ’25
Lucia Wetherill ’25
creative director
Accessibility
Christopher Bao ’27
Education
Charlie Roth ’25 Financial Stipend Elaine Huang ’25
Sections listed in alphabetical order. public editor Abigail Rabieh ’25
head archives editor
Raphaela Gold ’26
Associate Archives editor
Elizabeth Clarke ’27
head audience editor
Paige Walworth ’26
associate audience editors
Amparo Sanchez ’27
head copy editors
Nathan Beck ’25
Bryan Zhang ’26
associate head copy editors
Lindsay Padaguan ’26 Elizabeth Polubinski ’25
head data editors Andrew Bosworth ’26
Suthi Navaratnam-Tomayko ’26
head features editors
Sejal Goud ’25
Molly Taylor ’25
associate features editor
Raphaela Gold ’26
head graphics editors
Luiza Chevres ’26
Noreen Hosny ’25
head humor editors
Spencer Bauman ’25
Sophia Varughese ’26
associate humor editors
Sam McComb ’25
Mya Koffie ’27
head news editors
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Annie Rupertus ’25
associate news editors
Olivia Sanchez ’26
Miriam Waldvogel ’26 (Investigations)
head newsletter editor
Sunney Gao ’27
associate newsletter editor
Victoria Davies ’27
head opinion editor
Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26
community opinion editor Christofer Robles ’25
associate opinion editors Thomas Buckley ’26 Wynne Conger ’27
head photo editors Louisa Gheorghita ’26 Jean Shin ’26
project managers Jason Ding ’25 Kaustuv Mukherjee ’26
TECHNOLOGY BOARD
lead software engineer
Sanh Nguyen ’26
software engineers
Anika Agarwal ’25
Carter Costic ’26
Jessica Dong ’25
Vishva Ilavelan ’27
Don’t be disoriented: activism’s value does not lie in resistance
As first-years lined up outside Richardson Auditorium to hear President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 and Vice President Rochelle Calhoun speak about the importance of maintaining open dialogue on campus, older students stood outside and handed them pieces of paper with QR codes that linked to a PDF of the “Princeton Disorientation Guide 2024.” This document explains that “protest theory” teaches us how to build moral authority in two ways: by “increasing the number of people and increasing the sacrifice of the participants.”
This short claim demonstrates well the extent of the wrongness and impropriety that selfproclaimed “leftists” associated with the Princeton Progressive Coalition bring not only to interactions with their peers, but with the University itself. After all, since when has morality been determined by crowd behavior? What ever happened to being right?
The aforementioned guide promises to “dispel the propaganda that Princeton disseminates” and purports to be a revelatory tool, unmasking the truth behind the University’s lies. Entering college (and perhaps most of one’s time there) should be a time of openness, with curiosity serving as a guiding principle, but as the authors of the “Disorientation Guide” would have it, everything is already known. And what we know is this: Princeton wants to silence and hurt us, and it’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen. Identified only by the list of contributing organizations, the anonymous authors present themselves as the knowledgeable subjects of a wicked regime, who can help young students eke out an ethical path at an institution which intends nothing but the worst. It’s irresponsible for up-
perclass students to spread a lie that consuming the resources of the University is amoral without additional posturing or political resolve. Moreover, the guide attempts to popularize a troubling attitude that presence in an institution like Princeton is inherently antagonistic, the purpose of which is to not learn, but win. As students, this is not the feeling that we should attempt to inculcate in our peers.
Viewing Princeton as, unequivocally, the big bad wolf allows the guide to claim a multitude of problems that do not exist. University “abuses,” for example, against graduate students are said to occur in absence of graduate union power. What it doesn’t tell us, however, is that graduate students actually voted on unionization: it failed. But the reality of the graduate student experience — with the actual workers themselves deciding that unionization would not support their labor — doesn’t fit with the narrative that the Coalition seeks to promote. Thus, they ignore the facts in order to maintain positionality as oppressed classes.
The rhetorical demand that students maintain a downtrodden character is present throughout the guide. Page 10 declares, “REMEMBER: PSAFE IS NEVER YOUR FRIEND!” Public Safety (PSAFE) at Princeton, apparently, is always out to get you, unjustly punishing those who “break a rule.” This is a reckless statement to preach to young students, who unfortunately may need the safety and protection PSAFE provides. When it comes to individual safety, universal decisiveness is out of touch and serves an ideal of persecution rather than care for one’s peers.
There’s a little more room for nuance in the eating club section, where we learn that “you are not necessarily a bad person if you’re a member of an eating club.” Freshmen are told here to judge their peers, who perpetuate “social stratification” via Bicker, and learn that it’s only acceptable to be in a sign-in club if one has a superfluous moral justification for doing so. How can it be defensible, then, to come to Princeton in the first place, which in practice perpetuates social and classbased hierarchies to a far greater
extent?
Ultimately, the guide seeks to encourage students to leave their role as students behind. As activists, they ask, “Is being confined to a playpen of student events and listserv emails the standard of organizing we should strive for?” Presumably hoping readers will answer no, they simultaneously reject the framework of the University while actively choosing to be sheltered within it.
Advocating for change can be useful, and Princeton has certainly improved the education it offers to students and quality of life experienced by staff as a result of external pressure. It’s a result of student work that Princeton has a program in Asian American Studies, and strikes have helped to raise staff wages when they were uncompetitive. But these shifts didn’t come about only because someone did enough activism to force a transformation; good change doesn’t necessitate disrupting the system.
The Disorientation Guide tells freshmen that Princeton is oppressive and asks them “how do we resist?” It is this framework that presents the most unhelpful attitude towards the life and purpose of a student. It teaches that desire to create disruptive change, and preoccupation with taking on the seemingly noble title of troublemaker and activist, can outweigh actually finding out what merits change. Instead of telling students to carefully look at and examine the world in which they find themselves, these authors simply want to ensure that power can never be cooperated with. It’s the fight itself that matters, apparently, not the justice of the cause.
The Princeton Progressive Coalition wants first-years to “cultivate a community of dissent.” But what this charge really asks is to submit rational coherency to groupthink. Rather, we must cultivate a community that values accuracy over opposition. Why else come to college?
Abigail Rabieh is a senior in the history department from Cambridge, Mass. She is the public editor at the ‘Prince.’
Austin Li ’26
Pham ’26
Rupertus ’26
’26
Yeow ’26 (UI/UX)
Zeligson ’24
THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Avi Chesler ’25
Malia Gaviola ’26
Cassidy Critterton ’28
Angus Cheng ’27
Kriste An ’28
Chengyu Fu ’28
Jose Santacruz ’27
Juan Fajardo ’28 Evan Wilson ’27 Maki Flauta ’27 Marley Hartnett-Cody ’28 Vivi Lu ’26 Manya Surti ’27
Abigail Rabieh Public Editor
the PROSPECT. ARTS & CULTURE
Artist Q&A: The Pitch-Perfect Journey of
By Narges Anzali | Contributing Prospect Writer
Frist Campus Center, 8 p.m. — Students sit grouped at couches and chairs, eyes glued to computers and books. Flyers overlap on the walls, a corner occasionally flapping under the air conditioner’s breeze. The aroma of food wafts up the stairs, and the hum of conversations permeates the first floor. Under the flickering neon lights of Cafe Vivian sits Monica Jun ’26, a junior in the Economics Department.
Jun is a second soprano in Tigressions, an all-femme a cappella group on campus. She also recently began an Instagram account for her own songwriting: @monicassongs. She’s been heavily involved in music during her three years at Princeton — you might’ve seen her at Coffee Club as a weekly performer last year. We sat down to talk at a precariously tall high table about her journey in the arts at Princeton and beyond.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
The Daily Princetonian: Can you tell us about yourself and your group?
Monica Jun: I’m a junior in the Economics department, but I do a lot of singing on campus. I’m part of an allfemme identifying a cappella group called the Princeton Tigressions, which has become such a crucial part of my Princeton experience. I feel it’s not only just because I love singing, but they really help cultivate my love for it, even in seasons where I really don’t even like listening to music, they’re kind of the ones who will bring me up.
DP: How did you start out with singing?
MJ: I actually have been singing my whole life. I did musical theater growing up, and I was in a competitive a cappella group in high school where we could do Pitch Perfect competitions. I fully met Deke Sharon. He’s the producer of Pitch Perfect. He would help tell us what to fix, and we would compete. But coming into college, I knew I definitely wanted to be part of an a cappella group.
It’s cooler in college than it was in high school. In high school, no one cared. But I think there’s something about Princeton, everyone being nerds in different ways. I’m definitely a nerd for music, while other people are nerds for sports or nerds for math. All my friends are so supportive, and it’s just such a great experience.
DP: What kind of music do you most perform now?
MJ: I love R&B. I feel like my voice suits it best compared to other genres. I started to write music after I took a course called “How to Write a Song” at Princeton with the bassist of Lake Street Dive. Before the class, I always
Jun ’26 Through Princeton
Monica
wrote little blurbs of songs, but I never wrote a full one out. Now I’m starting to write songs, not being afraid if it’s terrible, just getting it out.
DP: Do you have a dream venue on campus?
MJ: Dream venue? Yeah, that’s a good question. I think a dream venue would be performing for an eating club or even Lawnparties.
DP: And if you could have any guest performer, who would it be?
MJ: Oh, Olivia Dean. She’s a singer I recently got into. It’s her tone and her vibes.
DP: How would you describe your musical progression through your time here?
MJ: It’s been a lot of ups and downs. There are points where I really love music, and I’m writing songs every week, and there’s times when I can’t even listen to music. In those periods, it’s about giving myself grace. It’s the same for everyone with their passions — it’s giving yourself grace to come back. There’s so many people in my a cappella group who grew up with musical technique, and they’ll give me tips. I’m finding new joys in music.
DP: What was the story of where and when you first discovered music?
MJ: My mom was a singing major in Korea before she immigrated. I always grew up with music — she sang for us. My brother is also an amazing singer. He’s a lot older. It just became a part of my life. Once it started to get serious in high school, when I joined the
competitive a cappella group, I started to feel that this may be my thing. But it’s difficult because my mom really doesn’t want me to major in music or be a singer because she knows how difficult that field is. So, I chose econ, and I enjoy econ, but if I had the choice, I would love to just do music.
DP: What are some of your favorite spaces or experiences with music at Princeton?
MJ: I love Woolworth. They have open practice rooms so I could go. I usually write most of my songs there because it’s a private space. I think another part of the progression is that I performed as a weekly performer at Coffee Club last year. That was the first time I sang alone. That added some level of confidence in myself and my own music.
DP: How was that experience for you?
MJ: I first started doing covers, and then I started to write my own music. Coffee Club was the first place I performed some of my originals. It was low stakes because it’s not too big of a crowd and everyone’s doing their own work.
DP: What was a difficult moment in your musical journey here? Do you feel like you’ve gained anything from that experience?
MJ: Yeah, oh my gosh. I lost my voice for most of last year because of some medical issues. It was really tough on my mental health, because I couldn’t do what I had always done with singing. But everyone in the group was super understanding. There were so
many weeks where I just showed up to rehearsal and I was just sitting there, but I literally couldn’t produce sound. I learned to sometimes be in the background. I had solos in the group that we just never got to sing, but they were really rooting for me. I sing this song called American Boy, and that’s my solo. Finally, one week, the music director was like, ‘Let’s do it Monica, your voice is getting better.’ The whole week I was just silent and they’re giving stuff to heal my throat. And then when we sang it was actually fine and everyone was supportive.
DP: Do you have some favorite songs to perform, or favorite songs that you’ve done with your acapella group?
MJ: I love “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys, we do “Evergreen” by Yebba. “Ceilings” by Lizzie McAlpine, or ”When the Party’s Over” [by Billie Eilish] are all feel-good songs.
DP: Do you have places on campus that you feel feed into your creativity or into your process?
MJ: The East Pyne cone. It has this cone-shaped stone in the middle. And my friend and I always sit on that cone and watch people go by, especially on a nice day, because it has shade by the trees. I feel like it helps me think.
DP: Is there anything you want to add or you think is important?
MJ: Come to the Tigressions’ arch sings!
Narges Anzali is a member of the Class of 2028 and a contributing writer for The Prospect. She can be reached at na5831[at] princeton.edu.
COURTESY OF JUN
Monica Jun ’26 (center) singing with the Tigressions.
Falling for flavor: Coffee Club’s new seasonal drinks
By Princess Fodeke | Contributing
Prospect Writer
As midterms approach, Coffee Club’s new seasonal drinks have arrived to combat the fall semester slump: the Great Pumpkin Chai, Falling for Fall, the Newton, and the Snoopy Shaken Espresso.
Across their two locations, Coffee Club claims five head baristas who are in charge of planning seasonal menus. After the head baristas narrow down their initial choices of menu items, they contact their inventory managers to sample these potential drinks.
Ultimately, once a consensus is reached among the team members about the marketability and convenience of a drink, the team buys a larger supply of the necessary ingredients. The baristas repeat this process annually, as the seasonal drinks typically change every year.
I spoke with a head barista, Katie Greppin ’26, to better understand why the specific recipes for this semester’s autumn beverages had been chosen.
“We wanted to have something pumpkin, of course, but we were thinking [of] something different than the typical pumpkin spice latte,” Greppin said about the first specialty drink — the Great Pumpkin Chai.
The Great Pumpkin Chai
The pumpkin spice chai latte is actually quite similar to a standard chai latte — milk is either heated or added cold, tea is steeped, and spices are added — only the inclusion of pumpkin syrup differentiates it.
I first tried this drink hot at the NCW location of Coffee Club, and it immediately became one
of my favorites. There were sweet and warm notes that blended effortlessly with the various spices, amplifying the fall ambiance. Peeking through the plainness of the milk was the flavorful complexity of chai tea, accompanied by the comfortable and satisfying aroma of pumpkin.
One student I talked with, Jai Desai ’28, echoed my sentiments: “My favorite [drink] was the Great Pumpkin Chai ... You could really taste the pumpkin spice [coming] through.”
Falling for Fall
On the other hand, when I first had the “Falling for Fall,” I thought the flavor was a bit too homogenous. This brown sugar latte, only available hot and made with milk alternatives, has a spice blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and cayenne. I felt the espresso overpowered the distinct flavors that should have been present. Though the drink maintained its flavor, it lacked the depth I originally expected. Still, I enjoyed the taste of this latte, even though I normally don’t drink espresso. Greppin, on the other hand, favored the Falling for Fall, appreciating how it “tasted like a warm hug.”
The Newton
The third specialty drink, the Newton, was the only drink I requested iced, though it can be offered hot as well. Cheekily named after Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity from a fallen apple, this drink is a classic take on a caramel apple latte. Greppin clarified that the Newton was constructed by joining a regular latte with caramel and apple syrup. This was my least favorite addition to the new menu, as I felt the melted apple didn’t
pair well with iced coffee. As the ice started to melt, I especially felt like the cohesiveness of the drink declined even further, and the flavors started to wane. If I had to try it again, I would definitely order the hot version of this latte, which I feel would amend many of my complaints.
The Snoopy Shaken Espresso
The last specialty drink, unveiled on September 20, was the Snoopy Shaken Espresso. The Snoopy has brown sugar and pistachio syrup, which are added with ice and espresso to a shaker. After being shaken to aerate the espresso, the mixture is poured into a cup of ice over any type of milk. Although the taste of pistachio is prominent, the Snoopy uses artificial flavoring, so it’s actually nut-free. Greppin told me this was one of their most popular drinks, and after trying it, I understand why. In each sip, there was a perfect combination of nuttiness and sweetness, balanced by the background of espresso. The drink, in its totality, was consistent in flavor without sacrificing dimension. I could easily see myself returning to Coffee Club to purchase another.
Regardless of whether or not you consider yourself an avid coffee drinker, I recommend trying Coffee Club’s newest introductions to their menu. With each individual drink, there is a unique flavor profile that can appeal to anyone.
Princess Fodeke is a contributing writer for The Prospect from Valdosta, Georgia.
The Prospect 11 Weekly Event Roundup
Annika Plunkett, Contributing Writer for The Prospect
Fund for Irish Studies: Lecture by Robert Spoo
1
Princeton University Wind Ensemble: Concert Under the Stars
Sept. 27 at 10 p.m.
Frist South Lawn and Patio
Hear Princeton’s only student-run concert band perform a fun repertoire from film scores, Broadway musicals, and classic band pieces in a late-night outdoor concert, complete with free snacks.
The concert is free, unticketed, and open to the public.
2
3 4
Sept. 27 at 4:30 p.m.
James Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.
Robert Spoo, Princeton’s Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters, discusses the book “Ulysses” by James Joyce and theorizes how the book’s publishing debut would have played out if it had been first published in New York City instead of Paris. He also examines how New York’s role in modernist literature would have been impacted by this publication.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
“Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology
Sept 30 from 7–8:30 p.m.
Community Room, Princeton Public Library, or YouTube Livestream
In a conversation moderated by Vivia Font, panelists Rigoberto González, Vincent Toro, and Dimitri Reyes discuss the poetic traditions of Latin America and the recently published poetry anthology.
The panel event is free and open to the public with registration requested.
Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading by Elizabeth McCracken and Brenda Shaughnessy
Oct. 1 at 6 p.m.
Labyrinth Books
Purchase a signed book and enjoy a glimpse of author Elizabeth McCracken and poet Brenda Shaugh- nessy’s writing as they read aloud from some of their recent work at the opening of the Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series, hosted by the University Program in Creative Writing.
The reading is free and open to the public.
Indian/Hip-Hop Fusion Classes with Ishita Mili
5 6
Select Fridays at 4:30–6 p.m., beginning on Sept. 27
Ellie’s Studio, Lewis Arts complex
In a new co-curricular dance class taught by Ishita Mili, participants blend hip-hop and contemporary movement with dances of India, including bharatanatyam and chhau.
These drop-in classes are free and available to Princeton students of all dance levels.
Theater Performance Co-curricular Classes
Select Mondays (Sept. 30) at 4:45–6:15 p.m.
Drapkin Studio, Lewis Arts complex
In workshop-style classes led by Lecturer in Theater Vivia Font, aspiring and current actors can develop their performance style and creativity through warm-ups, games, exercises, and coaching. There will be eight total sessions; attendance at all sessions is welcomed but not required.
The classes are free and available to Princeton students.
Unruly Sounds Music Festival 2024
Sept. 28 at 12 p.m.
Hinds Plaza in front of Princeton Public Library
Unruly Sounds returns to Hinds Plaza for the eighth year in an all-day event featuring original music from Princeton University’s graduate music program and other local musicians, curated by Mika Godbole of Mantra Percussion. Dancing is encouraged.
The event is free and unticketed.
“Poetic Record: Photography in a Transformed World”
Exhibition on view Oct. 1–Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Hurley Gallery, Lewis Arts complex
Featuring the work of twenty-three artists, this photography exhibition is co-curated by Deana Lawson and Michael Famighetti, who is the editor-in-chief of Aperture magazine. The exhibition is part of a two-day symposium of the same name exploring photography’s instability and potential. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
7
Traditional Mexican Arts WorkshopCartonería
Sept. 28 at 2–4 p.m.
Drapkin Studio, Lewis Arts complex
In the first of a two-workshop series celebrating His- panic Heritage Month through traditional Mexican arts, participants will learn to create cartonería, oth- erwise known as papier-mâché, by building sculptures of imaginary creatures made from paper, wheat paste, and wire.
The workshop is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required.
Stand In Waves: Installation & Performance
Installation: Sept. 26, 27, 29, and 30 at 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Performance: Sept. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
Forum, Lewis Arts complex
In collaboration with the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) and the 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab, Yue Qiao and other artists create a 3D sound environment by placing sounds throughout the Lewis Arts complex Forum. PLOrk will perform a piece written for the spatial-audio system on Sept. 27.
The installation and performance are free and open to the public.
“Exceed
Your Vision”
October 1–30 at 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
CoLab, Lewis Arts complex
Presented in tandem with the exhibition “Poetic Record: Photography in a Transformed World” and curated by James Welling, this exhibition features work by current Princeton students and recent alumni.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
BY THE NUMBERS
By The Numbers: Men’s Golf goes low while alumnus torches NFL defenses
By Harrison Blank & Andrew Bosworth Assistant Sports Editor & Staff Sports Writer
Each week, Sports and Data writers analyze recent athletic competitions to provide analysis and insight on the happenings of Princeton athletics and individual players across the 38 intercollegiate teams at Princeton. Whether they are record-breaking or day-today, statistics deliver information in concise ways and help inform fans who might have missed the action. Read past By the Numbers coverage here.
Princeton Tigers: Sept. 9–19
Twenty-one games and matches were played across nine sports and six U.S. states over the past week. Of the 16 games where only one team came out on top, the Tigers won 50 percent of matches, less than the 63 percent won in their first week of competition. Multiple-day meets and tournaments are counted individually for each day of the competition. Competitions with more than one event or individual results such as golf and cross country are not included in our win percentage analysis.
This week, the Tigers split their record down the middle, winning 50 percent of games and losing the other half. They performed far better at home than away, cruising to victory in nearly 80 percent of home games while clinching a win less than 15 percent of the time when on the road.
Fab Ms. MacNab
Women’s soccer captain Heather MacNab delivered two crucial assists in the second half of the Tigers 2–1 win over Drexel last Thursday. The senior forward currently has three assists on the season and sits tied for number five on the Princeton all-time career assist record books with 18. With a doubledigit number of games remaining, MacNab will surely propel herself even further into Tiger history.
Pain on the pitch
In Princeton’s first fall game against an Ivy League opponent, women’s rugby lost to Dartmouth 93–0. The Big Green were the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association runner-up in 2023 and champions the two years prior. In the three years of the program, the Tigers have lost to Dartmouth each season, but this game marks the first Dartmouth-Princeton game where the Tigers have failed to put any points on the board.
Killin’ Kamryn
Women’s volleyball played three matches in the past ten days, losing all three. Amid these losses, sophomore outside hitter Kamryn Chaney, 2023 Second Team All-Ivy, shone by recording 56 kills and re -
ceiving her first Ivy League Player of the Week award. The Tigers head down to the nation’s capital for another tournament this weekend, looking to bounce back.
Goal Shark
Senior star utility Roko Pozaric has scored 18 goals through No. 7 men’s water polo’s first eight games of the season, placing him in eighth place in the Princeton all-time goal record book. Pozaric, a native of Croatia, is only 30 goals away from setting the Tiger career record with 20 games left in the season.
Hell of a Handicap Men’s golf shot a program record 54-hole team total (828) last Tuesday to grab their third regular season tournament win in a row. The Tigers also shot a team record 12 under par over three rounds. Junior Riccardo Fantinelli led the Tigers with a score of 10 under par for his fourth career win at the USF/Howard Intercollegiate Tournament.
Andrei Dos-ivas Andrei Iosivas ’23 dazzled on the gridiron this past weekend, nabbing two touchdowns for the Cincinnati Bengals in their 26–25 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Sunday performance was the secondyear receiver’s second career game with two catches for scores, as Iosivas brings Tiger football back to Sundays.
All in all, it has been a solid week for the Tigers, especially for men’s golf. As the semester progresses, fall sports will start to progress into Ivy League play. Check back next week to stay updated on all things Princeton athletics — by the numbers.
Harrison Blank is an assistant Sports editor at the ‘Prince.’
Andrew Bosworth is head Data editor and staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
PHOTO COURTESY OF PRINCETON ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS.
Men’s golf set a new 54 hole program record this weekend.
FIELD HOCKEY
Yeager and Schulze shine as No. 18 Field Hockey picks up weekend wins over Penn and Rutgers
By Alex Beverton-Smith & Doug Schwartz
Over the weekend, No.18 Field Hockey (4–2 overall, 1–0 Ivy League) picked up two wins over Penn (1–5, 0–1 Ivy League) and No.13 Rutgers (3–4, 0–1 Big Ten).
The Tigers were led by two Greenwich natives — junior midfielder Beth Yeager and senior forward Grace Schulze. Yeager scored a hat-trick to pace the Tigers to a comfortable 3–0 win over the Quakers. Less than 48 hours later, Schulze scored the first three goals of her season to propel the Tigers over their Garden State rivals.
Tigers shut out Quakers behind Yeager’s hat-trick
One year ago, Penn shocked Princeton in an upset that broke a 17-game losing streak to the Tigers. This year, there was absolutely no cause for doubt as Princeton cruised by them in a three-goal shutout.
Penn had already been battletested coming in against the Tigers, having played three other ranked opponents this season before Friday. However, the experience wasn’t enough, with the final result swinging the same way as the prior three.
The scoring opened quickly for the Tigers when Schulze fired off a penalty corner to Yeager, who beat Penn goalie Ruby de Frees to put the Tigers on the
board just under four minutes into the game.
Playing with a lead, Princeton controlled the ball for the vast majority of the rest of the first half, stopping any downfield play in the first period and surrendering only a single shot in the second period that senior goalie Robyn Thompson saved.
Coming out of the break, Penn wouldn’t have much more luck offensively, and Yeager doubled the Princeton lead with an unassisted goal nine minutes into the third.
Yeager’s barrage continued soon after, following the opening minutes where fourth junior defender Ella Hampson found her yet again to seal the game for good.
Penn put together a bit more of an offensive threat in the remainder of the fourth, stringing together a few more penalty corners and shots, but Thompson wouldn’t be put to work blocking anything as no more shots came on goal.
Yeager had no chance to play the Quakers last year while on a gap year preparing for the Olympics, but she had their number Friday. She created a barrage against de Frees, firing off eight shots and five shots on goal on her way to the hat-trick.
“The team did a great job of connecting with each other and having great passing combinations to move the ball up the field,” Yeager told The Daily Princetonian after the game. “Our forwards were very suc-
cessful at putting Penn’s defense under a lot of pressure and we created a lot of opportunities off of counter attacks.”
The Princeton defense that has been so prominent in the season’s opening also gave Penn no hope. The Quakers had a season-high number of penalty corners with four, but they weren’t able to make anything out of them.
In fact, Penn as a team couldn’t even match Yeager and only mustered eight shots and four shots on goal (all of which were saved by Thompson) across the entire game. Yeager’s offensive outburst was recognized in yet another Ivy Offensive Player of the Week award for the star. All in all, it was a dominating start to Ivy League play with a touch of revenge from last year.
Schulze shines in upset win over Jersey rivals
Last season, in an overtime loss to the No.1 ranked University of North Carolina Tar Heels, Schulze suffered a season-ending injury. After an impressive sophomore year that saw her finish with six goals and 10 assists en route to a second-team all-ivy selection, her junior season was cut short after just 77 minutes.
After not finding the back of the net during the team’s first five games of the season, Schulze exploded against the Scarlet Knights, scoring a hat-trick to upset their Garden State rivals.
Off a penalty corner two
minutes into the game, Yeager found Schulze to put the Tigers up 1–0 in Piscataway, New Jersey. However, the hosts were keen on getting one back.
Less than five minutes later, it was yet another corner leading to a goal. The ball was played in, deflecting off a Tiger stick and falling in front of Scarlet Knight captain Guillermina Causarano, who finished past Thompson to tie the game at one-one.
In the opening minutes of the second quarter, Rutgers took a 2–1 lead that they would hold for a staggering 40 minutes. During that stretch, Rutgers earned multiple corners and tested Thompson, who stepped up to the occasion every time.
With just over four minutes remaining in the game, Schulze took matters into her own hands. Picking up a loose ball and going coast to coast, Schulze equalized the game. Just 37 seconds later, the Tigers caught the Scarlet Knights off guard after earning another corner. Similar to the Tigers’ first goal of the game, it was Yeager finding Schulze for the game-winner.
“It was awesome to see Grace score a hat trick on Sunday,” Yeager said. “She worked so hard to come back from her injury and you could see that same perseverance and resolve in that game, scoring all three goals to win the game from behind, two of which came in the last five minutes. The team is
very lucky to have such a skilled striker and fierce competitor.”
The win provided the Tigers a confidence boost as they head into a crucial week of games. On Friday, the Tigers will travel to the Big Apple to take on Columbia (2–3, 1–0) in another Ivy League contest. Before the season, the Lions were picked to finish last in the preseason media poll. However, they started their Ivy League campaign with a big win over Cornell.
48 hours later, the Tigers will play just their second home game of the season when they take on the No.1 ranked Northwestern Wildcats (8–0, 2–0 Big Ten) at Bedford Field.
“Facing Northwestern will be a great test and the team is really looking forward to competing against them. We will have to be very disciplined in our defensive structures and capitalize on our offensive opportunities,” Yeager concluded. “They are a great team but what will make us the most successful is playing to our strengths; continuing our great ball movement and defensive pressure. It’s also important that we bring focus and intensity to our performance against Columbia on Friday as well so that we continue our positive momentum into our game on Sunday.”
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Tate Hutchins is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
MEN’S FOOTBALL
Staff Picks: Men’s Football vs. Lehigh
By Alex Beverton-Smith, Hayk Yengibaryan, Lily Pampolina & Zachary Meisel
The Princeton football team (0–0 overall, 0–0 Ivy League) will open the season against the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks (2–1 overall, 0–0 Patriot League) on Saturday afternoon away in Bethlehem, Pa. This will be the 16th matchup between the two sides dating back to 2002, and the Tigers will be hoping to notch a fourth straight win against the Mountain Hawks.
With most of the offense and several key defensive players returning, the Tigers will aim to have a strong start to the season with this veteran squad. This is the Tigers’ first non-conference matchup for the season, and they will try to avoid the mistakes of last year against such opposition.
Will the Tigers claw out a win in the hawks’ nest? Assistant Sports Editor Alex Beverton-Smith ’27, Associate Sports Editor Hayk Yengibaryan ’26, Staff Sports Writer Lily Pampolina ’27, and Sports Contributor Zachary Meisel ’27 made their predictions for the game.
Princeton 30, Lehigh 6 — Alex Beverton-Smith, Assistant Sports Editor
The Tigers should come into this game with lots of confidence in their ability to get a win. Although ranked just fourth in the Ivy League preseason media poll, they have all the tools to do much better than that. Lehigh came off a tough 42–7 loss to Army (2–0 overall, 1–0 American Athletic Conference) to make two wins, but expect Princeton to be tough opposition for them too.
Expect to see some switches at the quarterback position throughout the game, as head coach Bob Surace ’90 tests out his talents on the roster. Nevertheless, do not be surprised to see junior QB Blaine Hipa eventually win this battle because of his ability to run the ball and his great passing arm, both of which make him a talented dual-threat option.
Ultimately, the strength of the QB position and the returning wide receiver duo of seniors AJ Barber and Luke Colella, who led the team in receiving yards last
season, will make it very difficult for the Mountain Hawk defense to manage this triple threat. On the defensive side of the ball, the Tigers should remain strong under longtime defensive coordinator Steve Verbit who enters his 39th season with Princeton.
If all of the challenges of a new offensive coordinator, a new starting linebacker group, and the new QB are worked out, the Princeton team could be dominant not just for this game, but for the whole season.
Alex Beverton-Smith is an assistant Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
A new season is underway for the Orange and Black. All eyes will be on Tigers offensive coordinator Mark Rosenbaum, who replaced the outgoing Mike Willis. Last season under Willis, the Tigers struggled offensively, averaging just under 20 points per game.
Expect a big game from junior quarterback Blaine Hipa. Hipa — who featured briefly last season behind Blake Stenstrom ’24 — will likely have the keys to the offense this season. Before committing to Princeton, Hipa had an offer from SEC powerhouse Tennessee. With a strong returning offensive core highlighted by senior wide receivers AJ Barber and Luke Colella, Hipa should have plenty of options in the air. In the backfield will be senior running back John Volker, who ran for 447 yards on 93 carries en route to a third-team All-Ivy selection.
The main concern for the Tigers will be on the defensive side. With three key linebackers graduating this past spring, the Orange and Black must figure out their defensive identity. Last season, Princeton had the best defense in the Ivy League. With many moving parts, I expect the defensive unit to take some time to build their chemistry.
The last time Princeton lost its opening game of the season was all the way back on Sept. 20, 2014. I expect head coach Bob Surace and the Tigers to extend their opening-game win streak to nine games on Saturday afternoon behind a big game from Volker, who should find the endzone and rack up nearly 100 rushing yards against an awful Mountain Hawks rush defense.
Hayk Yengibaryan is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Coming off of back-to-back wins, it is with no doubt that Lehigh brings momentum coming into this game, but Princeton has the opportunity to find success in the offensive passing game.
Despite an abundance of veterans graduating this past spring, the one position that the Tigers still hold strong is at wide receiver. Princeton has four returning receivers who should fare well against the Lehigh defense, especially senior Luke Colella, who was All-Ivy recipient in the 2023 season. Colella is known for stepping up against in big moments — last season, Colella had two touchdowns against a strong Yale defense, ranked 24th in the FCS for pass efficiency defense.
Defensively, the Tigers should be ready for a strong Lehigh run game. In the Mountain Hawks’ last game against LIU, 13 of their 20 first downs came from rushing plays, including a touchdown.
Princeton’s interior defensive line will have to use their athleticism to close gaps and limit the yardage they concede in the red zone, a place where Lehigh has gone three for four in scoring opportunities in the past two weeks.
This game is in the hands of the Tigers, if they choose to take it. Although the team is adjusting to young players stepping into new roles, Princeton still has a backbone of experienced players on both sides of the ball who can help carry the team to a win.
Lily Pampolina is a staff Sports writer and staff Audience creator for the ‘Prince.’
After a disappointing season, the Princeton Tigers begin their 2024–25 campaign with a tough trip to Pennsylvania where they’ll face the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (2–1, 0–0 Patriot League). The Mountain Hawks are coming off two straight wins, but the Tigers will be confident against an opponent they’ve beaten three times in a row.
The key story will be the performance
of Princeton’s offense, where new offensive coordinator Mark Rosenbaum will direct a unit filled with talented returnees. Players to watch include senior wide receiver Luke Colella, who received an honorable All-Ivy league mention last year. Can Rosenbaum lead his talented roster to the heights of 2021 and 2022, when Princeton’s offense was the class of the Ivy League, or will his scheme fail to improve on the dreadful offense of last year? Against the Lehigh defense, it will be interesting to see whether Rosenbaum continues the pass-heavy scheme of his predecessor against a team who has defended the pass quite well this season, notably forcing three interceptions over their last two games.
Bet on a quality start for Rosenbaum. Moreover, all of this doesn’t even take into account Princeton’s ridiculously talented defense, which allowed the fewest points per game of any Ivy League team last year — a paltry 17.5. The Tigers are set to take game one of their season 28–10.
Zachary Meisel is a Sports contributor for the ‘Prince.’
A Year of ‘Unusual Promise’: Reflecting on Princeton’s Sesquicentennial
By Jane Buckhurst Staff Archivist
“The academic year upon which we have just entered will be one of unusual interest to all Princeton men,” one anonymous author wrote in a letter to the editor in the first few weeks of the 1896–97 academic year. This marked Princeton’s 150th year, or the school’s sesquicentennial. The writer urged his fellow students to make Old Nassau proud during this important year when Princeton was sure to be “the focus of attention from the outside world.” His letter encouraged the student body to “maintain the honor and dignity of the college,” and to “luster a healthy manly spirit,” both inside and out-
side of the classroom.
The author details various responsibilities for each class year, counseling that both first- and second-years “should realize that while class spirit is a great thing — in fact the backbone of our college life, class feeling should not be turned into wrong channels.” This is perhaps in reference to animosity between class years, which remained high even following the abolition of the Cane Spree. Nonetheless, the author declared that each class had a role to play, with the most heavy burden resting upon seniors. He cautioned juniors to be “careful not to misuse their influence.”
He urged students to “continue Princeton’s sportsmanlike attitude in all her deal-
ings with other universities,” and warned that the school “cannot afford to have any thoughtlessness injure her reputation.” Yet, despite these grim warnings, the piece’s overall outlook was positive and hopeful.
To the author, Princeton was becoming more prominent on the world stage. The semester opened with “unusual promise,” and the year brought with it hopes for the “advance of Princeton’s welfare along every line.” The then-president of Princeton, Francis Patton, had similar in his opening remarks of the semester, writing that “the desire that the sesqui-Centennial [should] mark the beginning of an intellectual revival in the college.” More notably, 1896 was
the year Princeton changed its name from The College of New Jersey to Princeton University, ushering in a new chapter for the institution with its modern name.
In 1896, as students and faculty reflected on the University’s first 150 years, they sought not only to continue the University’s legacy of academic excellence, as they would in any other year, but also to define Princeton’s character to the public and mold its future into something of which they could be proud.
Jane Buckhurst is a staff Archivist for the ‘Prince.’
PHOTO COURTESY OF RYLAND GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
The Tigers will open their 2024 season on the road versus Lehigh.
