The Editorial Board’s guide to your winter 2023 USG ballot
The following piece represents the views of the undersigned Editorial Board members alone.
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The following piece represents the views of the undersigned Editorial Board members alone.
Earlier this semester, a Princeton University graduate student, Vanessa, described the substantial toll the Title IX process took on both her physical and mental health, and the retribution she felt she faced from fellow classmates. Vanessa is far from the first person to feel that the University had failed to adequately support her through the Title IX process. In January, an undergraduate student, Sadie, wrote about how she was unable to seek justice against her perpetrator through the University’s sexual misconduct process, since he had already graduated.
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) election for USG President, beginning on Monday Dec. 5, features a number of qualified and impressive candidates. Audrey Zhang ’25 has a passion and a vision for improving students’ sustainability practices and Isabella Shutt ’24 seeks radical change in increasing academic flexibility and decreasing student stress. However, we believe that Stephen Daniels ’24’s platform is the most realistic, with the clearest ideas regarding practical change across several key areas of University life.
White professors at Princeton, past and present, including Joe Scanlan and Lawrence Rosen, should know better than to utilize racial slurs in their classrooms as educational tools.
The recent USG mental health report not only outlined a series of ambitious proposals for the next year, but also invited students to “join a broader discussion about mental health resources at Princeton.” As The Daily Princetonian’s Editorial Board, we accept this invitation — now more than ever, it’s essential that mental health resources at Princeton are expanded and that the University and USG practice transparency to make good on their promises.
For some reason, Princeton’s administration thinks that it can completely change the University’s upperclass dining scene by radically revamping the eating clubs and co-ops through an opaque committee working in secret. It’s not going to work. If the administration really wants to reform campus culture, it has to work with proposals generated by the student body, not ones imposed unilaterally.
While it’s no secret that Princeton’s community has grown notoriously apathetic toward its Undergraduate Student Government (USG) affairs, the spring ballot’s Referendum No. 3 — which calls on the University administration to halt the use of Caterpillar construction machinery on campus expansion projects — has garnered extraordinary attention inside and out of the Orange Bubble. The question has dominated The Daily Princetonian’s news coverage and opinion pages for weeks, and the student body has shown an uncharacteristic level of engagement in an issue of critical global and humanitarian concern.
One thing is for sure: The University wants us to know that it’s committed to in-person learning. Dean of the College Jill Dolan, along with Acting Dean of the Graduate School Cole Crittenden and Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett, took to the pages of The Daily Princetonian to set that principle in stone. Dolan has stuck by that policy in an interview with the ‘Prince,’ and sent a letter to the student body on Feb. 18, insisting that “the success of your education demands that you be present and healthy at each class meeting so that you can participate actively.”
The 146th Daily Princetonian Editorial Board is a group of senior editors and writers dedicated to writing signed editorials that speak on campus and community issues. These editorials are collective endeavors; though often first drafted by the Chair of the Editorial Board, they are edited as a group following thorough discussion and debate, and thus represent the consensus of the group. When consensus cannot be reached, Board members are encouraged to write signed dissents, which will be published alongside the majority’s editorial.
This is a dissent to the Editorial Board’s piece, “If low acceptance rates discourage applicants, hiding the data only makes it worse,“ which can be read here.
Last week, Princeton accepted a number of early action applicants to the Class of 2026. You may be wondering: how many? But we don’t know and may never find out.
This week, Princetonians will vote in the winter Undergraduate Student Government (USG) elections. The Daily Princetonian Editorial Board endorses Mayu Takeuchi ’23 for USG president and supports the one referendum on the ballot.
Nearly a year ago, more than 80 percent of Princeton student voters backed a referendum calling on the University to divest and dissociate its billions-rich endowment from fossil fuel companies.
As those of us on campus begin to leave, we must continue to abide by COVID-19 health guidelines.
In a semester like no other, the University chose to exacerbate academic stress. Against student outcry, the University clipped Spring Break short and removed the weekend between the end of classes and reading period’s official start date.
In the lead-up to the spring semester, administrators emphasized that the on-campus experience would be far from normal. As Dean of the College Jill Dolan put it: “This will not be the right choice for everyone.” Still, there was some optimism about potentially loosening restrictions later in the semester — a hope, not a guarantee.
On March 16, a white man killed eight people, including six Asian American women, in a series of mass shootings in Atlanta. Occurring amid a reported nationwide rise in anti-Asian violence, the attacks have left many across the country shaken and grieving, including those in the Princeton community. They also shed light on the ever-present, but often under-discussed, history of anti-Asian racism in the United States and discrimination that Asian and Asian American people face in their day-to-day lives. Even as many have rallied in support of Asian communities since the events in Atlanta, we have witnessed more senseless and violent attacks.
Last week, the senior class voted in a 21-candidate primary election for young alumni representation on the University’s highest-ranking deliberative body. So what were seniors able to learn about Board of Trustees candidates prior to voting?
This article is part of the Opinion section’s Black Futures at Princeton series. Click here to view the full project.
On Feb. 4, The Daily Princetonian published an investigative report detailing claims of inappropriate conduct by professor Joshua Katz. Katz is alleged to have crossed professional boundaries on multiple occasions with three undergraduate women, referred to in the report as Jane, Clara, and Bella. The University declined to comment on the claims, citing a policy of “not comment[ing] on personnel matters,” which we find unacceptable. In the wake of this investigation, we must all address the campus culture that allows for boundary violations like those which allegedly occurred.