Princeton:
Community without Campus
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For many Princeton students, nine homebound months will soon come to an end, as the University prepares to welcome undergraduates back to campus this spring. Yet, college will remain far from normal.
In our previous print issues this semester, we considered what makes virtual college meaningful and asked how we should navigate the nation’s crosshairs. This issue, our third and final one, gives rise to another question: Does sustaining community require that we share a common campus?
The answer, the pieces collected below suggest, is a resounding no, even as the pandemic reveals just how much we rely on — and will always need — our campus.
In 1996, Toni Morrison delivered a stirring address, “The Place of the Idea; The Idea of the Place,” to mark Princeton’s 250th anniversary. She speculated what Princeton might become by 2246, 500 years after its founding.
“Will gates again be locked? Will the mission have stumbled because the constituency has changed? Will instruction be executed solely in solitude by the isolated handling of sophisticated new machines?” she asked.
In less than a quarter-century, Morrison’s last prediction has come to pass. Even as we anticipate living on campus, “sophisticated new machines” will indefinitely remain part, if not all, of our education.
Yet, for everything COVID-19 has taken, student communities remain vital. Princeton’s gates are still unlocked; our mission, clear. Community endures, even when we’re far from Princeton.
That’s the story we’ve sought to tell below.
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In lieu of in-person meetings, a variety of University clubs and student organizations have turned to Discord for communication and community building. Organizers and leaders of University clubs praised the unique structure of Discord servers as one of the key reasons for the switch, but also noted multiple complications while using the platform.
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Since April, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the University’s 11 eating clubs to shut their doors and operate on a solely virtual basis. The eating clubs, however, plan to welcome new sophomore and junior members this spring through a virtual Street Week and Bicker process.
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You click on a Zoom link with an 11-digit meeting ID. And then you’re there. No near-bike accidents; no showing up late, drenched or frozen. No running into someone along the way. Just you, with a few other rectangles on your screen. The other people there? You’ve never seen, much less met, them. You don’t know the sound of their voices, their laughs. They’re from all over the world. They’re your friends-to-be.
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We asked Princeton students to send in photos of their study spaces at home and tell us about their experiences from online college.
Here's a peek at what they said:
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“The postcards and binder clip booklet are all from the trips I took back in 2019 during my gap year, and they bring me a bit of joy whenever I look at them.”
- José Pablo Fernández Garcia ’23 (Loveland, Ohio)
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“I’d bring my desk lamp along with my sketchbook and drawing materials for sure. I'd also have my planner with me at all times and this really useful eraser shaving vacuum I got (it’s behind my glass of water!).”
- Paige Min ’24 (Tenafly, N.J.)
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Perhaps what is most difficult about being an international student at this time is the feeling of being overlooked. Whenever I have a class past midnight or an event that is held at 4 a.m. local time, it is not just the time zone that presents an issue. It is also the mentality that comes with feeling that you and your fellow international students have once again been overlooked in a decision that could well have been avoided by a simple adjustment.
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Students should brace for the long haul. When students return to campus, the University may not be the same. The Princeton many left, the Princeton many first-years never met, may be shadowed by health measures that leave us aching for our college experience. But in that slow and careful crawl back to normalcy, we might find comfort in people and places we have forgotten.
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Congratulations to Daniel Te ’21 for the winning caption:
“It’s not a Zoom glitch; my face isn’t loading.”
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When the Ivy League announced that fall athletic competition was canceled, any plans coaches had made for in-person activities vanished. Teams such as men’s soccer, however, have adapted to their time off-campus, even as uncertainty shrouds their spring season.
“We’re just trying to focus on the things we can control,” said head coach Jim Barlow, in his 24th year at the Princeton men’s soccer program.
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“I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey,” invites the criminologist narrator at the beginning of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” As we have all embarked on the strange journey of transitioning to a life with COVID-19, so has theater, and along with it, the Princeton University Players (PUP) and Theatre Intime’s annual Halloween production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
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In the era of modern technology, the phrase “don’t talk to strangers online” has become an age-old adage instilled in our generation. However, this notion has been turned on its head for many first-years trying to navigate the uncharted waters of a social landscape that is almost entirely virtual. With few options to choose from, we have turned to various social media platforms in an attempt to salvage interactions with our classmates.
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Thank you.
This special edition newsletter was designed by Srija Patcha ’23 and copy edited by Celia Buchband ’22. Background design by Anika Maskara ’23, Abby Nishiwaki ’23, Juliana Wojtenko ’23, and Helen So ’22.
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