Strike prevents thesis binding

Employees at Smith-Shattuck Bookbinding and Triangle Printing walked off the job late Thursday afternoon as part of a statewide strike initiated by the New Jersey Brotherhood of Printers and Binders (NJBPB).

"Our demands and management's offerings are still miles apart," Brotherhood spokesman Simon Brown said. "We expect a resolution will take the better part of a month, if not longer. We will stay on strike until all our demands are met."

As a result of the strike, it appears that seniors will be forced to travel to Philadelphia or New York to bind their theses, or else attempt to do it by hand.

Pequod — which has traditionally served as a thesis binding safety net for seniors — will stay open and continue selling all previously printed material, but will cease any new printing for the duration of the strike.

"Our reasonably-priced course packets are still for sale, so Princeton students need not worry," owner James Watson said. "In order to show solidarity with our fellow printers and binders, however, we will not be printing or binding any new material, theses included, for the duration of the strike."

Read the Globe

Class of 2005 president Azalea Kim said she and other class officers will meet with Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel today to request an emergency extension be granted to every senior.

The earliest departmental deadline is Monday, for seniors in the Wilson School and English and politics departments.

Reached at home late Thursday night, Malkiel said she had already made up her mind and would not listen to student input.

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She refused, however, to say whether or not she would grant Kim's request, saying students would be able to read about it in the Boston Globe.

But another senior administration source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, hinted that Malkiel would deny the extension request.

"Nancy is pretty set on reducing the number of A's given to independent work," the senior administrator said. "Making it impossible for seniors to turn in their theses will definitely accomplish that."

Fresh pastels

As the news of the strike spread through the bowels of Firestone on Thursday night, seniors described themselves as being in various states of anger, shock and awe.

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"I've been rocking back and forth in my carrel all night, just crying and pulling out my few remaining hairs," former USG president Matt Margolin '05 said. "I just hope this isn't retribution for my valiant fight with those Pequod weenies to lower prices."

Other seniors vowed to take action. Evan Baehr '05 and Jay Saxon '05, both Wilson School majors, vowed to use the organizational infrastructure of Princeton Votes 2004 to mobilize student protests on Cannon Green.

"Some things transcend partisan differences," Saxon said. "Like the right to an extension and the right to wear freshly laundered and ironed pastels."

Some seniors, however, said they felt that protests would accomplish little.

"Great googley-moogley, it's pure, unadulterated madness, and all I want is for the good times to flow," said Nelson Reveley '05, sitting in his lavishly decorated B-Floor carrel. "But, as a wise lobster once said, coo-coo-ca-chew."

You got a problem?

The unanticipated strike comes on the 550th Anniversary of German inventor Johannes Gutenberg's printing of the "Forty-Two-Line" Bible, the first book ever printed from movable type.

Tony Pepperoni, the president of the NJBPB, told the 'Prince' that the strike comes in protest of the numerous workplace injustices that his union members must face on a daily basis, including having to talk to "really obnoxious Princeton kids."

"It's just like Bon Jovi sang," Pepperoni said. "'It's my life, and it's now or never, I ain't gonna live forever.' I mean, he's right, we ain't gonna live forever, so we had to put our feet down."

"You'se got a problem with that?" It's April Fool's Day. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.