Volume LXXII, Number 48
Revolutionary War Historians at Morven Museum . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Physicist to Lecture on Science and Faith . . . 10 Encountering Smith and Ginsberg on Blake’s Birthday . . . . . . . . . . 15 Fighting Through Injury, Payne Helped PU Men’s Water Polo Reach NCAAs . . . . . . 30 PHS Boys’ Hockey Bringing High Hopes into 2018-19 Season . . . . 34
Dianne Somers is The Hun School’s “Mother of Boarders” . . . . . . . . . 12 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtor . . .22, 23 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 27 Classified Ads . . . . . . 39 Dining & Entertainment . . . 25 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Music/Theater . . . . . . 20 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 29 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 38 Profiles in Education . . 12 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Fraga Leads Discussion On Challenges Faced By Immigrants in Politics
In her book People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracy’s Door, author Sayu Bhojwani recounts stories of immigrants who serve in American politics and the stumbling blocks they have had to overcome in their governmental careers. Princeton Councilwoman Leticia Fraga, who is of Mexican descent, can relate to these stories. She read the recently published book after agreeing to engage Bhojwani in a discussion of the book at an Author Talk at Princeton Public Library tonight, Wednesday, November 28, at 6:30 p.m. “It resonated with me immediately,” said Fraga, who was sworn in last January as the first Latin American to serve on Princeton Council and is the former chair of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “Reading it was almost empowering, because I could see that it wasn’t just me who had been having this experience.” Fraga relates a story from early on in her term. As a member of the town’s economic development committee, she attended an event in which Gov. Phil Murphy came to Princeton to sign a resolution related to economic development. “Other elected officials were sitting at the front, and I went to sit with them,” she said. “Just before the governor arrived, one of his aides came up to me and said I couldn’t sit there. I didn’t know the protocol, so I got up. It was demoralizing. At the end of the event, the aide came up to me and said she was sorry she had to move me, but those seats were for elected officials.” Too shocked to respond in the moment, Fraga said the experience made her realize that there was no one to guide her on how to handle such a situation. “I realized I have to be more assertive and just really man the ropes myself,” she said. Bhojwani is a political scientist and immigrant of Indian descent. She was New York City’s first commissioner of immigrant affairs and is the founder of South Asian Youth Action. She earned a doctorate in politics and Continued on Page 11
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Health Department Gets National Recognition
The Princeton Health Department has achieved national accreditation, the municipality announced Monday. The ranking comes through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) and puts Princeton in a category with about 200 local health departments across the nation. “It’s a pretty huge deal,” said Jeffrey Grosser, Princeton’s health officer. “It basically says we’re a top performer and we’re meeting the public’s health needs as effectively as possible. It also demonstrates accountability to everybody.” The PHAB first started accrediting local health departments in 2011. Princeton joins Bloomfield, Camden County, and the New Jersey Department of Health as the four departments in the Garden State to achieve the accreditation. The national program is jointly supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It sets standards against which the nation’s nearly 3,000 governmental public health departments can continuously improve their services and performance. No matter their size, each health department undergoes the same peer-reviewed assessment process.
Princeton’s department has four people, while those of larger towns and cities might have as many as 200, said Grosser, who came to Princeton from Burlington County in 2014. “We had just begun the process in Burlington when I left, so I had begun to understand how it works,” he said. “When I got here, I thought this was a great opportunity to achieve something and also get the department on the right path.” Princeton’s department was evaluated across 12 core domains that cover essential public health services. In a press release, George DiFernando, chair of the Princeton Board of
Health, said the process led the Princeton Health Department “to evaluate and improve permit and applications processes, restructuring process response activation protocols around infectious disease and environmental health incidents, as well as ensuring accessibility to culturally and linguistically approved health services.” Grosser said, “They look at programs, policies, procedures, and day-to-day operations. They also consider the work we do with the local Princeton Board of Health, how we engage with the public, and our finances. The group reviews some Continued on Page 7
Scholars Report on Progress of Society: Many Reasons to Worry and to Rejoice
Discussing democracy, inequality, social progress, and a wide range of other global issues, five social science professors, members of the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP), presented reasons for hope and ideas for a better society, along with some warnings, in a forum at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Monday, November 26. Part of a group of more than 300
researchers brought together in 2014 from around the world, who recently published their first report titled Rethinking Society for the 21st Century, presenters on Monday included Washington University Sociocultural Anthropology Professor John Bowen, Princeton University Economics and Humanistic Studies Professor Marc Fleurbaey, University of Arizona Law Professor Leslye Obiora, Princeton Continued on Page 8
LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT: Friday evening’s annual tree lighting on Palmer Square Green featured music by Swingadelic and the Princeton High School Choir, a special performance by the American Repertory Ballet’s Nutcracker and Clara, and a visit from Santa . (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)