Princeton’s high school problem
When I investigated Bicker for The Daily Princetonian two years ago, I distinctly recall an Ivy Club member telling me, “I went to the Lawrenceville School. A lot of people in Ivy went to Lawrenceville.”
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When I investigated Bicker for The Daily Princetonian two years ago, I distinctly recall an Ivy Club member telling me, “I went to the Lawrenceville School. A lot of people in Ivy went to Lawrenceville.”
Earlier this past year, on June 27, 2019, bill A-4553 passed through the New Jersey General Assembly and sought to grant qualified immunity, also known as civil immunity, to police officers working at private universities. At the University, this legislation would have granted officers from the Department of Public Safety (DPS) immunity from civil liability in court, except for when a grievance violates a “clearly established” right, as long the officers can prove that they were acting “in good faith” during the event in question. The eagerness to accept the benefits of such a bill ignores the underlying problem it can cause: inefficient protection of community members’ rights in civil litigation which involves police misconduct.
History was made on Sunday night. For the first time in the Oscars’ 92 years, a foreign language film, “Parasite,” took home the award for Best Picture. As a Korean-American student who’d seen the film initially in Korea, I sat waiting by the screen, shocked and elated. Though the film was almost universally acclaimed by both moviegoers and critics alike, the win still came as a surprise. Many had lost hope for the Oscars; after the lingering problem of #OscarsSoWhite in 2015 and the disappointment of “Green Book” winning in 2019, it seemed like the acclaimed awards ceremony was becoming increasingly distant from the movement of masterful filmmaking and rewarding movies that many felt were patronizing to audiences of color. “Parasite” proved both to viewers and future artists, including students at Princeton and across the world, that new voices could change this past.
On Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency, increasing concerns around an already contentious situation that has caused the U.S. government to issue a travel advisory on visiting China, where the outbreak occurred. In response, many universities, including Princeton, have issued advisories on dealing with the ramifications of the outbreak. The University of California at Berkeley recently came under fire for an Instagram post advising students on how to navigate the outbreak that listed xenophobia among common reactions, with numerous parties questioning this normalization of racism.
It was the start of the year, and each time I met with an old friend or acquaintance, I was met with the customary, obligatory greeting of all students: “How was your summer?”
35 years ago, my eyes were opened to the power of financial protest to shape the world. As an undergraduate at the University, I was part of the last wave of students who pressured the University to divest from South African investments. Our movement was part of a sustained, global campaign to end apartheid. We marched, and we chanted, “Princeton divest, oh yeah! Just like the rest, oh yeah!” We were briefly arrested, and in 1985, I wrote an op-ed calling on the University to divest. This experience convinced me that Margaret Mead was right: a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
One of my best friends likes taking videos of me when I’m not paying attention, especially when he knows that I am about to do something dumb. Take, for example, the time when he convinced me to play a video game for the first time in my life. I thought that I would have a “safe space” to learn to play Smash Brothers. In reality, he was videoing my struggle with the gaming console. I only figured it out when I looked over at him and realized that he had stopped playing altogether and was holding back laughter.
“It is a fundamental principle that sport is neutral and must be separate from political, religious, or any other type of interference.”
It is the hardest moments of life that truly test faith, and I lost nearly all of mine that remained in politics after President Trump’s State of the Union Address. No, it wasn’t because of the President’s message — regardless of whether his address was exaggerated, misleading, or wholly accurate.
To the Editor:
Before the Revolutionary War, the American Whig Society and — a year later — the Cliosophic Society formed in the attic of Nassau Hall. Together they formed the center of extracurricular life at Princeton. After some time, they got their own marble buildings, paid for by society graduates and other generous donors so that these two societies could have their own space.
It’s easy to chortle dismissively at the verbal incompetence of Donald Trump. From his slurred words to his haphazard rants, he perfectly embodies the ineptness and bombast that liberal institutions have come to associate not only with him, but more generally with a lack of proper credentials and senatorial composure.
As the spring semester commences, I want to reflect on the end of my first semester, particularly on final exams. For the first — and final — time, I returned to campus after winter break for one-and-a-half weeks of reading period, followed by another week and a half of final exams.
In February 2019, Dr. Vanessa Tyson ’98 publicly came forward accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault. More than 150 University students and community members signed a letter standing with her in solidarity and calling for Fairfax’s resignation. Sadly, one year later, Fairfax is still in office.
We are the team of students responsible for the Charter Co-op Eating Club proposal. While we were initially hesitant to address Charter’s decision to go Bicker publicly, many of our supporters have urged us to share our thoughts. We’d like to acknowledge that some of us personally know leaders of the winning proposal team and have nothing but love and respect for them as individuals. However, we believe they and the Charter Board of Governors have made a mistake in replacing the club’s longstanding sign-in policy with bicker.
Princeton has little to show for its experiment in “grade deflation,” except inflating grades that continue to lag behind those of its peer institutions.
In December, President Eisgruber reflected on “The Spirit of Truth-Seeking” in Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW), writing, “The pursuit of knowledge and the maintenance of a free and democratic society require the cultivation and practice of the virtues of intellectual humility, openness of mind, and, above all, love of truth.”
It is easy to forget that unlike the outside world, the weather conditions on campus are the products of conscious construction. Though determining the operational parameters of President Eisgruber ’83’s weather machine remains a daunting and neglected project — the silence in the referendum department is deafening — it remains the case that he could, on a whim, resolve the ecological matters that concern much of our campus community.
Few things worry first-years more than the fear of not making friends in college — and for good reason. Harvard researchers found in 2017 that nearly half of first years felt that their peers had larger friend groups than themselves. A 2018 national survey of 88,000 students across 140 institutions confirmed that two thirds “felt very lonely” within the past 12 months.
Last year, Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) committed $28 million to pay reparations for its complicity in the institutions of American slavery. PTS’ steps include offering scholarships, fellowships, and resources to the descendants of those affected by its actions, as well as inhabitants of West African nations impacted by the slave trade.