Volume LXXVI, Number 3
Princeton Charter School Celebrates 25 Years . . . 5 Izzy Kasdin to Step Down From Historical Society Post . . . . . . . . 8 If Ice Conditions Allow Skating, There are Guidelines to Follow . . .11 PU Men’s Hoops Tops Penn, Now 4-0 Ivy League . . . 24 Former PU Field Hockey Stars Bacskai, Roth Relished NCAA Title Run With Northwestern . . 25 Senior Ellsworth Starring As PHS Wrestling Gets Off To 7-0 Start . . . . . . . 27
Remembering Sidney Poitier And Listening to Martin Luther King Jr. . . . . . . 15 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads . . . . . . 32 Kids Corner . . . . . . . . 18 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 23 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 31 Performing Arts . . . . . 16 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 32 Service Directory . . . . 33 Shop/Dine Princeton . . . 2 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Theological Seminary Students Rally, Demand Renaming of Chapel About 100 Princeton Theological Seminary students and supporters rallied in front of the Miller Chapel on the Seminary campus on Tuesday afternoon, January 18, demanding that the Seminary remove Samuel Miller’s name from the Princeton Seminary Chapel and also establish a renaming process for all buildings on campus named after people associated with slavery. Carrying signs calling for “Decisions not Discussion” from the Seminary Board of Trustees and for the board to “Remove Miller Now” and to “Follow Through on What You Said You Would Do,” the demonstrators chanted, sang, and cheered on several different speakers. “We want to have the community’s support in understanding that it is preposterous to ask students to worship in a place that is named after a slave owner,” said Tamesha Mills, moderator of the Association of Black Seminarians (ABS), which has led the name-changing initiative. “If the Board of Trustees does not decide to remove the name, we will not be worshiping here.” Miller (1769-1850), the Seminary’s second professor, employed slave labor, worked against abolition, and supported the colonization movement to send freed Blacks back to Africa, according to the 2018 Princeton Seminary Slavery Audit report. “For too long the Seminary has held on to Samuel Miller’s name on this chapel,” Mills continued. “For too long students have felt uncomfortable worshiping in a space like this. We’re here to reclaim a sacred space. It’s not just about Samuel Miller. It’s about the students who are here now. It’s about the legacy of this institution. It’s about what we believe the gospel teaches us. So that’s why we’re here.” The ABS initiative has already resulted in discussions with the Seminary administration. The Seminary Board of Trustees will be discussing the issue at its January 25 meeting, according to a statement issued by Princeton Theological Seminary President M. Craig Barnes. “We are committed to addressing the uncomfortable parts of the Seminary’s history as we seek faithfully to repent for the Seminary’s ties to slavery,” he wrote in a January 18 statement. “We began this process knowing that the road to Continued on Page 10
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Wednesday, January 19, 2022
“Stay Proactive” as COVID Case Numbers Decline The recent COVID surge in Princeton and throughout the state seems to have peaked, with numbers starting to decline, but Princeton Deputy Administrator for Health and Community Services Jeff Grosser warns that we’re not yet out of the woods. “Surges of cases over the past two years have taught us one overarching lesson: we need to stay proactive with our public health precautions when cases are both surging and declining,” said Grosser. “We need to be careful thinking this could be the last big surge, because time and time again new variants are teaching us new lessons.” The Princeton Health Department on January 18 reported 195 new cases in Princeton over the previous seven days, down from 257 reported last week, and 462 new cases in the previous 14 days, as opposed to 529 reported last week. The highest seven-day totals in Princeton were 287 for seven days and 568 for 14 days, both recorded earlier last week on January 10. The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) reported on Tuesday, January 18 that the COVID-19 transmission rate in the state has fallen to 0.92, with numbers below 1 indicating declining case numbers
with each new case leading to fewer than one additional case. The transmission rate was 1.02 on Monday, 1.09 on Sunday, and 1.92 at its most recent high on January 1. Princeton Public Schools, for the week ending January 16, reported a total of 79 new COVID-19 cases, down from 96 cases the previous week and 167 the week before that, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. PPS students accounted for 59 of last week’s cases, with 20 staff members testing positive.
Grosser noted that the situation is improving for schools throughout the state. Only 4 percent of the state’s schools are currently closed and on remote learning due to COVID-19, down from 33 percent on virtual or hybrid learning two weeks ago. The campus risk status at Princeton University remains “high” for the week ended January 14, though the positivity rate, with 225 positives out of 7,745 tests, was 2.91 percent, a decline from Continued on Page 12
Council to Have Another Meeting Before Voting on Permit Parking
Following up on Princeton Council’s special work session devoted to permit parking last week, the town’s Permit Parking Task Force met Tuesday morning, January 18, to debrief and consider the next steps. The task force has been grappling with several aspects of the parking issue for the past three years. The January 11 Zoom meeting attracted some 180 members of the public and lasted more than five hours. Numerous residents and invited panelists — members of the task force, some downtown business owners, and representatives from nonprofit
Sensible Streets, which opposes the task force’s recommendations — voiced their opinions. But there wasn’t enough time for Council members to fully discuss the issue. The topic is to be revisited at a future meeting. Comments from the public came from residents of different neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, there were many from the Tree Streets and Witherspoon-Jackson sections, which are currently being considered as part of the task force’s plan. While the Western Section and High School neighborhoods were dropped Continued on Page 13
CELEBRATING MLK JR.: Participants enjoyed breakfast and engaged in art and history activities on Monday morning at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day community celebration at the Arts Council of Princeton. The gathering was one of many area events honoring King. (Photo by Weronika A. Plohn)