As summer approaches, looking ahead to the fall

Summer will soon be here and Princeton students are preparing to spread out to the four corners of the earth. But eventually we will all return to campus — seniors excluded — for another year of parties, fun ... and classes. But before we left campus, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the issues we look forward to discussing when we get back to school in the fall.

USG President Leslie Bernard-Joseph '06 has outlined a lofty set of goals for himself. From "In the Nation's Service Day" to race relations, he has not shied away from tackling the larger issues. While the details for these plans are slowly becoming apparent, we will have to wait until next year to see if they can be implemented with the same energy with which they were proposed.

When Whitman College's construction is completed, and the new four-year residential college system becomes a reality, Princeton student life will be dramatically transformed. Unfortunately, however, the administration has yet to make public some of the most important details of its plans, specifically their preferences for the future of the eating clubs. In the coming year, we look forward with hope to a University that is increasingly transparent in its vision.

While student fears have died down in recent months, we have not forgotten about another of the administration's plans: its grade inflation policy. By next year a report detailing the effects of this policy in its first year will be released. How will Princeton students react to the news? Will other universities, as Dean Malkiel predicted, follow suit? Whatever the answers, there is little doubt that the results of the first year of this experiment will reenergize debate over grade inflation policy.

While it is not one of the most visible issues on campus, the psychological health of Princeton students is an important one. A recent survey by the Eating Concerns Peer Educators (ECPE) revealed that eating disorders are widespread among the student body. Additionally, many students have trouble adjusting to the high stress environment of Princeton. This makes hearsay accounts of long waiting times for scheduling mental health appointments all the more disturbing. We hope that the University attempts to address this problem in the near future.

As a board, we expect that these issues, and others like race relations on campus and the quality of athletic recruitment, will be among the exciting topics for debate over the next year, and we look forward to addressing them in greater detail. But until then, we wish students a relaxing (but productive) summer. And to all of the seniors we say farewell and good luck with life outside of the Orange Bubble.