As a fourth-year graduate student in electrical engineering, I have seen many changes to graduate student life which have been contrary to the desires and wishes of the graduate student body. The D-Bar and the Graduate College were two of the reasons I came to Princeton. No other graduate school I had looked at at the time had a social organization for graduate students. The D-Bar and the GC were two excellent ways to meet fellow graduate students and foster a sense of graduate student community.
Due to the restrictive housing rules — and the ridiculous requirement that graduate students must remain on the meal plan while they reside in the GC — it is difficult for most graduate students to remain in the GC for their entire five years at Princeton. Unfortunately, by not allowing graduate students who live in off-campus housing or University apartments access to the D-Bar, the University has sent a strong message that fostering and maintaining the graduate student community is not a priority of this administration.
While undergraduates have plenty of social outlets, including the eating clubs, the D-Bar is the only social outlet for graduate students. As stated in the Feb. 24 'Prince' article, business at the D-Bar will decline as a result of the recent decision by the administration. I can only imagine the next scenario: It becomes too difficult financially to continue running the D-Bar and the University will seek to close it to all students. This would confirm rumors that the University really just wants to steal the D-Bar liquor license from the graduate students and bring it to the new Frist Campus Center.
This University has an amazing endowment, but it is mainly from undergraduate alumni support. I cannot and will not give a penny of my money to this University until I see that the University changes its discriminatory and reckless policy toward graduate student life. Furthermore, I cannot recommend to prospective graduate students that they come to this University for the same reasons that I did four years ago.
I urge you to please reconsider your policy toward the D-Bar and recognize the amendment passed by the Graduate College residents to open the D-Bar to all graduate students. Anything less is totalitarian. Robert J. Runser GS
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Progressives failed a lesson in free speech
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“The recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.”
Campus through a lens: Announcing the ‘Prince’s inaugural columnists
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Reading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Bring back the course packet
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“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
