Letter to the Editor: Don’t moo-ve on from beef
The following is a letter to the editor and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
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The following is a letter to the editor and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
Content warning: The following column includes graphic descriptions of violence.
Who is who in the class council campaign? No one really ever knows.
In the days since the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, which resulted in the kidnapping and murder of thousands, universities across the United States released formal statements with strikingly differing tones. Responses from peer institutions, including Harvard, UPenn, and Columbia, faced widespread press, public and donor backlash, and have been criticized for being relativistic and lacking moral clarity. Princeton’s timely, morally unambiguous response, emphasizing compassion and education in the service of humanity, constituted a stark contrast to those of peer institutions.
As tens of thousands of high school seniors vie for a spot in Princeton’s Class of 2028, many will be accepted through their Nov. 1 early applications. For the Class of 2024 — the class with the most recent publicly available early admissions data — nearly half of the students were accepted through early admission. Early action (EA) acceptance rates are considerably higher than those for regular decision (RD) at every Ivy League institution: early commitment clearly increases a student’s chances of getting into top schools. But the nature of restrictive (or single-choice) early action (REA) processes, like Princeton’s, offer that benefit to only a privileged collective. In order not to disadvantage and dissuade applicants who need more security in the college process, Princeton should adopt non-restrictive early action or, at least, return to its pre-2008 early decision (ED) program.
Israel “better rid itself of the territories and their Arab populations as soon as possible.” If it does not, Israel will “soon become an Apartheid State.” These are the words that journalist Hirsh Goodman recalled in 2009 from a radio speech from the founding father and first prime minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, after the Six-Day War in 1967. Thirty-five years later, Israel’s former attorney general Michael Ben-Yair described Israel as an “apartheid regime,” a sentiment echoed by the former education minister in 2007, the former environment minister in 2008, the UN, Amnesty International, and a myriad of independent human rights organizations. Yet, many Princeton administrators and students continue to “stand with Israel.”
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
The recent “Who Runs Princeton” special issue from The Daily Princetonian highlighted many key figures on campus, but one in particular stood out: the nearly 1,200 non-faculty staff members the University has hired over the past decade. Many of Princeton’s peer institutions have seen a similar uptick in the number of administrators and have faced backlash from students. The calls to — as one Harvard student put it — “fire them all,” stem from a belief that more administrators drive up tuition prices and increase the various and complex levels of bureaucracy that students must navigate when seeking to impact change on campus, or simply get answers to their questions.
To the Editor:
The appalling nature of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, killing more than 1,400, abducting at least 200, and firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian neighborhoods, has understandably prompted an Israeli military response.
On Wednesday, Oct. 18, a truck with provocative images posted on it was seen on Nassau Street in Princeton falsely accusing the Dean of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) of “coddling antisemitism” and failing to condemn the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas in Israel.
Elite schools are commonly criticized for disproportionately funneling their graduates into the privileged professions of finance and consulting, fields which have been exposed again and again for unethical practices and corporate greed. Princeton is no exception, with nearly 20 percent of graduates in 2023 entering these sectors, a phenomenon which some Princetonians feel contradicts Princeton’s unofficial motto of being “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”
The following is a letter to the editor and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
When the first-year class descends upon Princeton’s campus each fall, they are ready to begin the next chapter of their lives. Their first steps include attending events with hundreds of new faces, completing dozens of orientation sessions, and embarking upon orientation trips. These experiences help students acclimate to the Princeton community, but after orientation programming, first-years are faced with an entirely new campus landscape: in their absence, nearly 4,000 sophomore, junior, and seniors have moved back onto campus. Many students find this new landscape overwhelming; yet for some, the transition seems less drastic, thanks to prior connections to upperclassmen, which often resulted from privileged upbringings. To provide a more even playing field for all students, the University should create opportunities for all first-year students to build comparable connections with upperclassmen.
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.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a piece to the Opinion section, click here.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip killed, raped, kidnapped, and wounded thousands of innocent civilians in Israel’s Southern District on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. They took over one hundred and fifty civilians hostage, including American citizens, and they have threatened to begin executing them. At least 1,300 Israelis are dead. Proportionately, that’s as if almost 40,000 Americans had died on 9/11.
As the Class of 2026 prepares to declare their majors this spring, sophomores anxiously dissect the options available to them. Which major would meet their academic interest? Which one would align with their career goals? But for international students, one more significant consideration weighs on their mind: which major would allow them to extend their time in the United States?
As one of only seven American institutions to offer need-blind admissions to international applicants, Princeton appears to do more than most universities to help students of all backgrounds from around the globe. This includes supporting a crucial, yet often overlooked group necessary to creating a vibrant campus community: low-income international students. Despite need-blind admission, the University still does not do enough to attract low-income students globally and integrate them into the community.