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Friday September 3, 2021 vol. CXLV no. 48
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Welcome Back! ON CAMPUS
STUDENT LIFE
Eating clubs to be ‘membersonly’ through mid-September By Evelyn Doskoch Head News Editor
JULIAN GOTTFRIED / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
The Class of 2025 marches towards the University Chapel in all their residential college livery.
First-years welcomed in Opening Exercises, joint Pre-rade with Class of 2024 By Evelyn Doskoch Head News Editor
First-year students took part in several orientation traditions on Sunday, Aug. 29, including Opening Exercises, the Pre-rade, a barbecue dinner, and the Step Sing in front of Whig Hall. These traditions have accompanied Princeton’s orientation calendar for many
years, but one thing was different for the Class of 2025 — they marched in the Pre-rade behind members of the Class of 2024. While students typically attend the Pre-rade in their first year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused Princeton to revert to online learning in the fall of 2020. Therefore, the Class of 2024 was invited to participate in many first-year traditions
this year. Opening Exercises is an annual interfaith ceremony that marks the start of the academic year for first-year students. It includes an address from the University president, the awarding of undergraduate prizes, and blessings from a variety of religious and ethical traditions. In this year’s address, President Christopher L. Eisgruber
’83 spoke on a personal topic, sharing that he suffers from acoustic neuroma, a type of benign brain tumor that can cause hearing loss, balance issues, and difficulty controlling facial muscles. Relating the diagnosis to students’ potential path through Princeton, Eisgruber imparted several lessons: He advised first-year students to See PRE-RADE page 2
All 11 of Princeton’s eating clubs will be open only to members until approximately Sept. 16, according to Interclub Council (ICC) and Terrace Club President Schuyler Kean ’22. Prospective members of both Bicker and sign-in clubs will be permitted to enter, however, in early September. “Juniors and seniors who are looking to join eating clubs will be allowed to visit the eating clubs at the appropriate times on the appropriate days,” Kean told The Daily Princetonian. “Outside of that, we’re members-only until the weekend of the 16th. That’s a forced mandate for all the clubs.” Kean explained that the ICC chose to set a membersonly policy due to safety concerns. In addition to the threat posed by the pandemic, she said, many current members and even officers have little experience with in-person club events, and need time to adjust to on-duty responsibilities before welcoming the entire student body back to the Street. She added that the ICC took guidance from the Graduate Interclub Council (GICC) and the University’s current COVID-19 policies. On Aug. 31, GICC President Hap Cooper ’82 told the See EATING CLUBS page 4
ON CAMPUS
Classes resume fully in-person after year on Zoom By Amy Ciceu
Staff News Writer
ASHLEY FAN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Students gather for JRN 445: Investigative Journalism — Accountability Reporting.
On Wednesday, Sept. 1, University undergraduate students dispersed around campus as they headed to their first in-person classes of the fall semester, almost a year and a half after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the University to adopt online learning as its main form of interactive education. During the 2020–21 academic year, students attended
classes almost exclusively using Zoom, a video conferencing web app. Some returning students, mostly in the Class of 2024, had never stepped foot into lecture halls prior to the beginning of this fall semester, due to the spring semester Social Contract, which greatly limited access to many campus facilities. As this new semester’s classes began, Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss noted in an email to The Daily Princetonian
that viral transmission does not seem to be an issue on campus. “It’s important to note that, based on contact tracing and analysis, none of the COVID cases identified on campus thus far has resulted from transmission on campus,” he wrote. In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Rachel Tam ’24 said that her first day of classes felt like a long-awaited return to normalcy. See CLASSES page 3
ON CAMPUS
Faculty, students with unvaccinated children prepare for an uncertain fall By Marie-Rose Sheinerman Senior News Writer
On campus, Alberto Bruzos Moro is the director of Princeton’s Spanish Language Program and is slated to teach two seminars this fall. Off campus, Bruzos is a father to an immunocompromised nine-year-old son. With the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant, Bruzos is left balancing excitement for a return to the classroom with worries about his child’s health. “On the one hand, I’m really happy because I miss teaching
In This Issue
in-person,” Bruzos told The Daily Princetonian. “On the other hand, I’m worried because, you know, having a kid at home who is immunocompromised, it is a little concerning. At least until he can get the vaccine.” Students’ vaccination rate as of Thursday, Aug. 19 was at 96 percent, according to Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss. “In the coming weeks,” he wrote to the ‘Prince,’ “we expect that figure to rise to between 98 percent and 99 percent as students — including those arriving from
international locations — complete the vaccination process and provide appropriate documentation.” The employee vaccination rate, as of Aug. 31, was approximately 98 percent, based on the COVID-19 dashboard. The approximate total number of employees at the University was identified by Hotchkiss to the ‘Prince’ as 7,400. But even as the high vaccination rate comes as a relief to many community members worried about the nation’s latSee UNVACCINATED page 3
COURTESY OF THOMAS JOHNSON
Johnson, an undergraduate transfer student, with his wife and young daughter.
SPORTS | PAGE 14
FEATURES | PAGE 11
Brad Snyder, a Ph.D. candidate in Public Affairs at Princeton who was blinded in 2011 while serving as a Navy lieutenant, won gold the triathlon at the Tokyo Paralympics.
As AASA advocates for expanding the Asian American Studies program, The Daily Princetonian tracks the struggle for representation on campus back to the 1988.
Letter From the Editor
| PAGE 8
“I encourage you: consider what you can change, and how you can set the example for your successors. This chance won’t come again.”
The Daily Princetonian
page 2
Friday September 3, 2021
Nassau Hall becomes accessible for people with disabilities U. AFFAIRS
By Miguel Gracia-Zhang Staff News Writer
On Aug. 26, Naomi Hess ’22 became the first person in Nassau Hall’s 265-year history to enter and tour the building in a wheelchair without assistance. The installation of an elevator in Nassau Hall was completed six days prior as part of a series of construction projects intended to make campus more accessible to individuals with disabilities. Upon special invitation from the Vice President for Facilities, KyuJung Whang, Hess entered through a new south-west entrance, ascended the newly installed elevator, and was shown around the building. In the past, ramps erected for special events only provided limited wheelchair access. “We went to every floor, and I was just really awestruck to enter this building that is so important to this campus,” said Hess in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. Hess is an associate news editor for the ‘Prince’. The historic Nassau Hall, built in 1756, was once “the largest stone building in the American Colonies” and briefly served as the nation’s capital in
1783. It currently houses, among many meeting rooms and offices, the President’s office and the Faculty Room, where the Board of Trustees meets. This summer, workers installed an elevator and a new ground-level entrance to make Nassau Hall accessible. The team also added accessible door handles throughout the building as well as new energy-efficient lights, according to the announcement from the University. The work was realized through a combination of longterm University efforts and student advocacy by Hess and others. Hess, who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy and navigates campus on an electric wheelchair, is a fellow in the AccessAbility Center and a cochair of a student government task force on accessibility. “The University has long wanted to make Nassau Hall more accessible to allow everyone the ability to experience a vital part of our state’s and our nation’s history,” wrote Alexis Mutschler, the Assistant Director of Special Projects in Facilities Operations, in a statement to the ‘Prince’. “Over the past 15 years, the University explored options for
HANK INGHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Nassau Hall under construction.
adding an elevator while maintaining the historic aesthetic and layout both inside and out, but none of those options was quite right,” she continued. In 2017, the University hired the local architectural firm Mills + Schnoering to determine if an elevator would fit in the building and where it could be placed. The firm, led by Michael Mills ’73, decided to place the elevator in the southwest side to provide easy access to the previously installed accessible restrooms and to “have
the least impact to the layout of the building,” according to Mutschler. In the fall of 2019, shortly after these plans were finalized, Hess was taking a journalism class, JRN 445: Accountability Reporting, with Joe Stephens. One of the class’s guest speakers was Paul Haaga ’70, former CEO of NPR and Chair of the Grounds and Buildings Committee of the Board of Trustees. “[Haaga] asked us if we had anything we’d like to say to a trustee, and I brought up acces-
sibility,” said Hess. “He emailed me the week after we met to say that KyuJung Whang [the VP of facilities] wanted to take me to lunch, and also invited me to speak at a trustee meeting.” Hess met Whang for lunch in Prospect House, and they spoke about how to improve accessibility on campus. Hess mentioned Nassau Hall. “I promised her that day that she would be able to enter Nassau Hall and see the MeSee ACCESSIBLE page 3
Addagatla: It felt nice to be included and have a semblance of a normal year PRE-RADE Continued from page 1
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participate in important and sensitive conversations, to encourage scientific literacy, to find commonality with others, and to act with humility. At one moment, Eisgruber related the process of learning about his medical condition to
ongoing struggles with public acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine and objective scientific reasoning. “The ability to benefit from scientific understanding and participate in civic institutions is a gift,” he said. “We should cultivate that gift and share it with others.” Another lesson had to do with the importance of recog-
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nizing shared struggles and hidden challenges in peers of all ages and roles. “Very few people have acoustic neuromas, but everyone has vulnerabilities, pain, and struggles that they conceal from the world,” he said. “That is true no matter how impressive, authoritative, or composed someone may appear.” Eisgruber concluded the address by acknowledging his own weaknesses but emphasizing Princetonians’ collective capacity for resilience. “Princeton is a community and an institution where flawed and resilient human beings support one another to learn, grow, cope with our limitations, and pursue the transcendent through scholarship, service, and the arts,” he said. During Opening Exercises, Dean of the College Jill Dolan presented several undergraduate awards to members of the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. Yonit Krebs ’24 and Steven Wang ’24 received the Freshman First Honor Prize, awarded to sophomore students with exceptional achievement during their first year. André Koch Liston ’23 and Frederick Qiu ’23 were awarded the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize, and Silma Berrada ’22 and Michelle Woo ’22 received the George B. Wood Legacy Ju-
nior Prize. The Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award was given to Anthony Hein ’22 in recognition of attaining the highest academic standing for all preceding college work at the University by the end of junior year. Last year, this award was received by Taishi Nakase ’21, who went on to be named valedictorian of the Class of 2021. Hein is chief technology officer of The Daily Princetonian’s business board. Notably, six of the seven awardees — Krebs, Wang, Liston, Qiu, Berrada, and Hein — are members of First College. Woo is a member of Rockefeller College. The event also included songs, readings, and prayers from a variety of faiths. After Opening Exercises, students in the classes of 2024 and 2025 exited the University Chapel and marched through FitzRandolph Gate for the Prerade, while upperclass students, family members, and alumni cheered. Sana Asifriyaz ’25 told the ‘Prince’ that as a Muslim student, she admired the University’s “efforts to make many affinity groups on campus feel welcome through the diverse representations of major religions and cultures” during Opening Exercises. “At my largely homogenous
high school, I was the only Muslim student there — that, too, a hijabi woman,” she wrote. “So one could only imagine how I must’ve felt when I saw a fellow hijabi read Surah Al-Fatiha in front of every person present in the University Chapel!” Asifriyaz also shared that while she found the day’s events “really powerful” given the events of the pandemic, she did have some concerns. “As much I would like to say I enjoyed the day’s events, I must add that I would’ve appreciated if everyone invested more effort in social distancing while in large groups,” she added. “Not many individuals were masked when they were supposed to be, which could potentially put others at risk.” Shrey Addagatla ’24 spoke positively of the Pre-rade experience. “It felt nice to be included and have a semblance of a normal year,” he told the ‘Prince,’ “and to finally enter the gates and feel like a normal Princeton student.” Evelyn Doskoch is a Head News Editor who has reported on University affairs, COVID-19 policy, student life, sexual harassment allegations, town affairs, and eating clubs. She can be reached at edoskoch@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @EvelynDoskoch.
MORE ONLINE FEATURES
Behind the mask: Interviews with the Princeton community
NEWS
Perelman name removed from Residential College 7
NEWS
U. to divest from some sectors of the fossil fuel industry SPORTS
John Mack ’00, former track and field athlete, to become athletic director
The Daily Princetonian
Friday September 3, 2021
page 3
Tam: The first day of classes feels like a return to normalcy CLASSES Continued from page 1
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“Virtual courses were rife with issues, because sometimes there would be connectivity problems and awkward pauses during Zoom sessions,” she said. “Seeing everybody in person was far more rewarding and really promoted genuine social interaction. It was nice to have side conversations with other people before and after class.” First-year students, many of whom have similarly not attended in-person classes for more than a year due to the global pandemic, have also been relishing the experience of in-person classes. Greg Serrano Arevalo ’25 expressed how much he enjoyed interacting with other students in-person during his writing seminar, WRI 137: It’s a Dog’s Life and JPN 101: Elementary Japanese I. “It was really nice to engage in discussions with other students in a physical classroom. The social dynamics were greatly facilitated by being able to interact with one another in-person, which was much different and more beneficial to meaningful con-
versations than in the Zoom environment,” Arevalo said. “I enjoyed not having to press a button to unmute myself.” Arevalo also noted that the University’s weekly COVID-19 testing protocol provided him with reassurance that convening for in-person classes would not exacerbate the spread of coronavirus. “I think the weekly testing and mandatory face mask policy when indoors are really great measures,” he said. “In my opinion, they do a good job of making sure that we don’t have a COVID outbreak while also allowing us to socialize and experience in-person classes.” Despite the positive reviews of the day, other students voiced concerns about the perceived relaxed nature of the University’s measures geared toward minimizing the spread of COVID-19. One student, who requested to speak to the ‘Prince’ under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from their peers, was skeptical that the current testing protocol and masking requirements are sufficient to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “I believe that there aren’t enough enforcements with
respect to mask-wearing indoors. Also, the restrictions currently seem inconsistent because in lecture halls many of us are merely inches away from each other and required to wear masks, but the same crowded conditions occur in the dining halls and we eat very close to each other, obviously without wearing masks,” they said. “I’ve also heard of several parties that students have held indoors without wearing masks.” The ‘Prince’ has received many reports of indoor parties on campus. The University maintains records of calls that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) receives in regard to parties on campus. According to Hotchkiss, the “volume of calls to DPS has been consistent with prior years.” Students, faculty, and staff vaccinated against COVID-19 participate in a weekly asymptomatic testing protocol. Community members who are unvaccinated are required to be tested twice a week. In the week of Aug. 20, 2021, 0.21 percent of asymptomatic tests received positive results, with 11 undergraduate students, four graduate students, and six faculty or staff test-
ing positive. In the same week, four symptomatic tests came back positive throughout the community. Some professors have used the constraints of the pandemic as an opportunity for creative learning. Dr. Catherine Young, a lecturer for the Princeton Writing Program, spoke with the ‘Prince’ about her first day of in-person class for her writing seminar, WRI 194: Captivating Animals. “It was nerve wracking, but also exciting. There were certain things I forgot how to do, like how the printer works,” Young said. “I had to remember how to make eye contact with twelve different people around the table.” “Interestingly, it also seemed to create an opportunity to incorporate the Ai Weiwei sculpture, the Circle of Animals, into my seminar. Even though I’ve been teaching ‘Captivating Animals’ for four years, it never occurred to me to have students meet outside and talk about it,” she noted. “But, as I want students to be able to see each other’s faces, possibly without masks if they felt comfortable and not be in the classroom all cooped up together and have the oppor-
tunity to be outside, we spent the beginning of class looking at sculptures and taking notes on them as part of the icebreaker for class.” In honor of the first day of in-person classes, the University’s Coffee Club arranged an event with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) and Undergraduate Student Government (USG) where students received free coffee and bagels under McCosh arch. Many students also posed with a black and orange sign that read “First Day” as a photographer snapped professional shots. In addition, an ice cream truck parked outside of Firestone Library offered free softserve ice cream cones to students throughout the day. “The ice cream was really good and a nice little treat for our first day,” Tam said. Amy Ciceu is a staff writer who often covers research and COVID19-related developments. She also serves as a Newsletter Contributor and a senior writer for The Prospect. She can be reached at aciceu@princeton.edu
Bruzos: I’m more worried for things that are beyond the control of the U. UNVACCINATED Continued from page 1
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est coronavirus surge, parents on campus are left to grapple with a unique set of concerns. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine, although some reporting suggests that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may green-light a COVID-19 vaccine for children as soon as this fall. On Aug. 11, the University announced a universal indoor mask mandate, with exceptions for students in their own dorm rooms, while “actively eating or drinking,” or when alone in a room or cubicle. The University released updated guidelines on Aug. 23 that stated students will be required to wear masks in the classroom, but fully vaccinated instructors may remove their mask for all or part of the class “at their own discretion.” These rules will be in effect through Sept. 9 and will be updated by Sept. 10. One point of stress for Bruzos, he said, is that unlike during the first coronavirus wave, when scientists thought that children’s immune systems were far more equipped to handle the virus than those of
adults, the delta variant has impacted children at significantly higher rates. “There is a lot of uncertainty,” Bruzos said. “I understand the students or people who think, ‘Well we are all vaccinated, or almost everybody, there’s a low risk that is tolerable.’ I understand that, and I know that everybody, we have sacrificed a lot for more than one year.” Thomas Johnson ’22, a 28-year-old transfer student, will be living on campus this fall in graduate housing with his pregnant wife and threeyear-old daughter. For him, the mask mandate announcement “came as a source of relief.” “It’s definitely been worrisome,” said Johnson, who along with his wife, has received the vaccine. “It’s very unlikely that we’re going to get very sick if we were to catch COVID, but we’re more worried about our daughter.” Another concern, he added, has been the possibility of his wife passing along the virus to their unborn child. Johnson explained that it’s been “scary” to hear arguments from classmates that he feels dismiss the small percentage of unvaccinated people on campus — including “a lot of people who can’t get the vaccine” — as
THE MINI CROSSWORD By Owen Travis Co-Head Puzzles Editor
MINI #1
1 6 7 8 9
ACROSS Grinning from ear to ear In the know “___ Transylvania” (animated Halloween movie) “The Little Mermaid” princess Puts on DOWN
1 2 3 4 5
[LOL] “Can we chat real quick?” Outdoor seating area Primp, as a bird might Makes a long-distance call?
See page 6 for more
an afterthought. At the same time, he said he empathizes with students who lived with social distancing restrictions in the spring and want to see a normal semester. Johnson himself did not live on campus during the 2020–21 academic year. Paul Frymer, a politics professor and the father of two elementary-school-aged kids, said that faculty, like all people, “have different risk factors.” “As a faculty member, I’m not looking forward to lecturing with a mask on,” he said, but noted that right now, the “extra precaution” of indoor masking makes sense to him. One solution Frymer has considered is asking permission to teach his seminar outdoors, at least for the first month or two, as weather permits. Yet another factor on the minds of professor-parents is protocol for isolation and quarantine in the case of a positive test. If a student were to test positive for the virus and be forced to isolate under campus rules, Dean of the College Jill Dolan initially said at the Aug. 9 town
hall, the University “won’t have remote options for those students except perhaps informal ones, like a friend FaceTiming you in.” The Undergraduate Student Government Academics Committee said in a Thursday Instagram post that Dolan’s office in collaboration with the committee “is developing new procedures” for isolation, “so that if a student must isolate during the semester, they should not fall behind in their coursework.” And in a memo to students on Friday, the University said faculty will be required to accommodate students in isolation or quarantine, either by inviting them to “attend” class via a Zoom link on their laptop, or by recording the class and posting it on Canvas. Frymer had another set of questions: “What if one of our kids, through their own schools, [tests] positive? Then we have to stay home? So what do we do? Do we then do a class on Zoom, or do we … there’s just a lot of things to figure out.” The reality of his child heading back to in-person learning
is not lost on Bruzos as he readies himself for September. “I know the risk cannot be reduced to zero,” he said. “My kids are going to go back to school with masks, [but] they’re not going to be at home like before. The risk is going to be there.” New Jersey has mandated that face coverings be worn indoors in all elementary and secondary schools. In the end, Bruzos said he’s “not very worried,” mostly because of what he sees as Princeton’s record of cautious decision-making on public health measures throughout the pandemic. “The University has been more on the careful side,” he said. “I’m more worried for things that are beyond the control of the University, or me, or anyone.” Marie-Rose Sheinerman is a senior writer who has reported on COVID-19 policy, faculty controversy, sexual harassment allegations, major donors, campus protests, and more. She can be reached at ms78@ princeton.edu or on Twitter at @ rosesheinerman.
Workers installed an elevator and a new ground-level entrance ACCESSIBLE Continued from page 2
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morial Room and the Faculty Room before she graduated,” wrote Whang in an email to the ‘Prince’. “I am so pleased to be able to keep my promise.” Hess was able to visit Nassau Hall’s many rooms, including the famous Memorial Room, where the names of all Princetonians who died in wars are engraved on the walls, and the Faculty Room, where the Board of Trustees meets. “While I was in the [Faculty] Room, President Eisgruber walked by and he looked like he was in a rush but he popped in to see how I was doing,” Hess said. “I was just really, really happy to see this accessibility upgrade as a symbol of improving access and inclusion even on this very old campus,” she added. However, Hess also believes that such renovations were long overdue, and more work to improve accessibility is needed. “In my opinion, the fact that it wasn’t accessible until recently was really disheartening because people with disabilities cannot access the most important people on this campus,” said Hess. Other students with disabilities agree with Hess. “I know there’s something
about the aesthetics of there being steps to the main entrance that makes it feel like you’re not able to go in [Nassau Hall],” said Ellen Li ’22 in an interview with the ‘Prince’. Li navigates campus on a scooter or wheelchair, and is one of the founding members and the Treasurer of the Disability Collective. She is also an associate features editor for the ‘Prince’. In order to improve accessibility, the facilities team works with both students and the Office of Disability Services. “Feedback is a vital component of the open dialogue we want to have with the campus community. Our job is to maintain the campus to allow the students to thrive,” Mutschler wrote. “We enjoy hearing what we’re doing well, but we also want to remove obstacles that make it harder for our community members to access our spaces, learn, and socialize.” According to Mutschler, examples of recent renovations increasing accessibility include new accessible paths around campus, modifying chair/vertical lifts on campus to be keyless, an accessible ramp to the stage in McCosh 50 as well as motorized writing tables for the accessible seat locations, and more accessible restrooms in the E-Quad. In addition, an elevator and a
more prominent and accessible entrance will be added to Dillon Gym, and “the new Hobson College expansion will remove some of our inaccessible dormitories in First College, and create a more accessible college layout,” wrote Mutschler. Still, Li noted that even when roads are technically accessible, they can still be rocky, and that “especially with construction going on I would like there to be a little bit more mindfulness about what it’s like to navigate campus on a wheelchair.” “There are so many buildings both on campus and in town that are not fully accessible, which has definitely proven to be a challenge for me, and Princeton has so much money that I wish they would dedicate more towards these sorts of construction improvements, because if they can make Nassau Hall, which was built in the 1750s, accessible, then they have the resources to do much more,” Hess said. “This is just a step forward in terms of accessibility, but I hope that it’s not the end of the movement and the awareness of the importance of these sorts of renovations,” she continued. Miguel Gracia-Zhang is a staff writer who often covers University affairs and local news. He can be reached at mg43@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @gracia_zhang.
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The Daily Princetonian
Friday September 3, 2021
All clubs will follow U.’s masking guidelines EATING CLUBS Continued from page 1
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CANDACE DO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Cottage Club, one of the eating clubs at Princeton.
‘Prince’ that all clubs will follow the University’s masking guidelines. “Everyone entering a club building will be asked to remain masked at all times other than when they are actively eating or drinking,” he wrote. “We’ve requested that signs be posted in all clubs announcing that policy and that undergraduate officers, safety patrol and security guards enforce the mask mandate.” An indoor mask mandate is currently in place for all University buildings until Sept. 15 at the earliest, by which point the policy will be reevaluated. While there are no social distancing requirements, students, faculty, and staff must wear masks indoors unless they are actively eating or drinking, teaching in the classroom, or in single-person workspaces like cubicles. “It’s about safety,” Kean said of the members-only rule. “We just want to make sure everything is as it’s supposed to be.” Fall Lawnparties, which is set to take place on Sunday, Oct. 3, will not be affected under the current policy. Several eating clubs have announced members-only nighttime events during Frosh Week, the period of time after upperclass student movein and before the start of fall classes. Frosh Week has not occurred “normally” since 2017 due to the fall 2020 pandemic conditions, the fall 2019 ban on first-year participation, and the fall 2018 first-year ban after 28 students received medical attention during a single weekend. In an email obtained by the ‘Prince,’ leadership of Cap and Gown Club told members to “GET EXCITED for Frosh Week Outside®!” Quadrangle Club posted on its Instagram page to announce its Frosh Week schedule, leading with the caveat
“QUAD MEMBERS ONLY: I.C.C. POLICY.” Among Quad’s events is a reopening ceremony, a barbecue picnic, and a surf-themed party. Colonial Club advertised a similar slate of “Welcome Week” activities, including a snow cone event, a movie night with popcorn, and a barbecue. Additionally, several clubs have announced their plans for Fall Bicker through messages sent to residential college listservs. This year’s admissions process at the six selective clubs — Cannon Dial Elm, Cap & Gown, Cottage, Ivy, Tiger Inn, and Tower — will be single-Bicker. Notably, Tiger Inn announced that it will hold its first-ever Fall Bicker, in recognition of what one officer called the “absolutely wack” conditions of the previous year. In an email to Tower Club members, officers cited the members-only ICC policy and shared additional health and safety efforts for the semester to come. These included the indoor mask mandate, vaccine requirements for staff members, gloves provided for buffet-style meals, and frequent temperature checks. “It is vital that every single member of the Tower community strictly adhere to these rules,” the email stated. “If Tower experiences any COVID outbreak this semester, we will have to shut down for at least two weeks. These rules are for the safety of our community, and are of the utmost importance as we navigate reopening.” Evelyn Doskoch is a Head News Editor who has reported on University affairs, COVID-19 policy, student life, sexual harassment allegations, town affairs, and eating clubs. She can be reached at edoskoch@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @EvelynDoskoch.
Friday September 3, 2021
The Daily Princetonian
T his Week in Photos
page 5
By Candace Do and Julian Gottfried
Head Photo Editor and Staff Photographer
Students completed their first COVID-19 test in tents by New South Building as they arrived on campus.
Unpacking in a Bloomberg Hall single dorm.
A Whitman Residential College Adviser (RCA) cheers on the first-years walking to the University Chapel for opening exercises.
The Class of 2024 donned special apparel and ran through FitzRandolph Gate in the famous Pre-rade tradition.
Dogs abounded at the opening exercises for the Class of 2025.
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Onboarding
The Daily Princetonian
Friday September 3, 2021
By Gabriel Robare Co-Head Puzzles Editor
ACROSS
1 Karl with a famous manifesto 5 Tie-the-knot spot 10 The “E” in Q.E.D. 14 Summers in Paris 15 Lake on the border of California and Nevada 16 Monster ___ (popular Halloween song) 17 Parks who famously said “No” 18 “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s ___” 19 Major in astronomy? 20 “Help me!” 23 Tuck in 24 Look down upon 25 A disorganized person might have many open at once on their browser 27 Hiddleston or Holland, e.g. 28 Roll the dice, so to speak 33 Disco ___ (recurring “Simpsons” character) 35 Zero 36 Buffalo’s lake 37 Tax pro 40 Avengers: ___, 2019 film that made $2.798 billion ... or a hint to 20-, 28-, 49- and 60-Across 43 Molecule discovered in part by Rosalind Franklin: Abbr. 44 Ride the waves 46 Piggy, maybe 47 Bill in a tip jar
49 “Please forgive me!” 52 Watering place for a camel 56 Haiku, for one 57 What a dipstick dips into, on a car 59 Un : Fr. :: ___ : Ger. 60 “Absolutely no idea” 64 Cereal that’s “for kids” 66 Actress Swinton of “Doctor Strange” 67 Rihanna, to fans 68 Schnozz 69 Actor Elgort of “The Fault in Our Stars” 70 Brick ___ (pizzeria feature) Australian Artillery in 71 “___ Marching,” 1993 1932 hit by the Dave 11 Odd sort Matthews Band 12 John Wilkes Booth or Lee 72 Visibly upset Harvey Oswald, e.g. 73 Crumples (up) 13 “How ‘bout ___?” 21 French pastry DOWN 22 Train info 1 “Brave” princess 26 What “r” might signify in 2 Very, very small a text 3 Say no to 29 Rage 4 Tic-tac-toe plays 5 Company that developed 30 Carmaker based in Seoul Pong, one of the first 31 Muppet who is friends modern video games with Mr. Noodle 6 Governor Ned of 32 Mauna ___ Connecticut 34 “Do ___ others...” 7 “Wherefore art ___, Romeo?” 37 Long-running CBS drama 8 Binary choice 38 Hit the gym 9 Unit of film 39 Flame thrower? 10 Australian creature, a 41 Ballon ___, soccer award group of which won won a record 6 times by a war against the Royal Lionel Messi
MINI #2
The Minis MINI #3
42 ___ Gay, World War II bomber 45 Enemy 48 Admit defeat 50 Abbreviated way to describe consternation, in a text message 51 Over there 53 Spit 54 Accustomed 55 Knitter’s stash 58 Winning nation in the 2020 European Championship soccer tournament 59 Italian peak 61 Vehicle featured in “The Empire Strikes Back” 62 Tree hugger? 63 Platinum-blonde Disney queen 65 Crosses (out)
By Owen Travis Co-Head Puzzles Editor
BONUS: Read the top word of all three minis to reveal a secret message
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 One of Princeton’s residential colleges
1 Discovery Channel’s “Shark ___”
6 Totally amazed
5 Sports game locale
7 Clucked with disapproval
7 One giving up their money, or their blood (!)
8 “Take it one ___ at a time” 9 Home security company with octagonal yard signs
DOWN
1 Clothing combos, in slang 2 The gram 3 Did a certain outdoor chore 4 Did a certain indoor chore 5 “Ideas worth spreading” grp.
8 Decree 9 Searches for
DOWN
1 Gets knee-deep in a river, maybe 2 Lose ground? 3 “___ Meenie” (2010 Sean Kingston and Justin Bieber hit) 4 Word repeated twice before “Who’s there?” 6 Music, theater, etc.
Scan to check your answers and try more of our puzzles online!
Opinion
Friday September 3, 2021
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } vol. cxlv
editor-in-chief Emma Treadway ’22 business manager Louis Aaron ’23
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 second vice president David Baumgarten ’06 secretary Chanakya A. Sethi ’07 treasurer Douglas Widmann ’90 assistant treasurer Kavita Saini ’09
trustees Francesca Barber Kathleen Crown Gabriel Debenedetti ’12 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 Michael Grabell ’03 John G. Horan ’74 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Abigail Williams ’14 Tyler Woulfe ’07 trustees ex officio Emma Treadway ’22 Louis Aaron ’23
145TH MANAGING BOARD managing editors Harsimran Makkad ’22 AG McGee ’22 Kenny Peng ’22 Zachary Shevin ’22 content strategist Omar Farah ’23 Sections listed in alphabetical order. head cartoon editors Sydney Peng ’22 Akaneh Wang ’24 associate cartoon editors Inci Karaaslan ’24 Ambri Ma ’24 head copy editors Celia Buchband ’22 Isabel Rodrigues ’23 associate copy editors Catie Parker ’23 Cecilia Zubler ’23 digital news design editor Anika Maskara ’23 associate digital news design editor Brian Tieu ’23 graphics editor Ashley Chung ’23 instagram design editor Helen So ’22 print design editor Abby Nishiwaki ’23 newsletter editor Rooya Rahin ’23 head features editor Alex Gjaja ’23 Rachel Sturley ’23 associate features editors Annabelle Duval ’23 Ellen Li ’22 Tanvi Nibhanupudi ’23 multimedia liason Mark Dodici ’22 head photo editor Candace Do ’24 head podcast editor Isabel Rodrigues ’23
associate podcast editors Jack Anderson ’23 Francesca Block ’22 Katie Heinzer ’22 head video editor Mindy Burton ’23 associte video editors Uanne Chang ’24 Daniel Drake ’24 Marko Petrovic ’24 head news editors Evelyn Doskoch ’23 Caitlin Limestahl ’23 associte news editors Bharvi Chavre ’23 Naomi Hess ’22 Marissa Michaels ’22 head opinion editor Shannon Chaffers ’22 associte opinion editors Won-Jae Chang ’24 Kristal Grant ’24 Mollika Singh ’24 head prospect editors Cameron Lee ’22 Auhjanae McGee ’23 associte prospect editors José Pablo Fernández García ’23 Aster Zhang ’24 head puzzles editors Gabriel Robare ’24 Owen Travis ’24 head sports editor Emily Philippides ’22 associte sports editors Ben Burns ’23 Sreesha Ghosh ’23
145TH BUSINESS BOARD chief technology officer Anthony Hein ’22 assistant business manager Benjamin Cai ’24 business directors Gloria Wang ’24 Shirley Ren ’24 Samantha Lee ’24 David Akpokiere ’24 lead software engineer, system architect Areeq Hasan ’24
project manager Ananya Parashar ’24 software engineers Pranav Avva ’24 Rishi Mago ’23 Joanna Tang ’24 Dwaipayan Saha ’24 business associates Jasmine Zhang ’24 Jonathan Lee ’24 Caroline Zhao ’25
English Department Faculty: Why Princeton should allow for remote teaching this semester Guest Contributors
Where we are
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the authors’ views alone. This letter was submitted to administrators on Tuesday, Aug. 24.
We prefer teaching in person, but the safety of the entire community comes first. Within our department alone, we have faculty who are immunocompromised, others who are living in households with immunocompromised family members, and many caring for unvaccinated children who are both vulnerable to the virus and capable of conveying it. Faculty who commute to the University on public transit will also bring the virus into the classroom. Risk is significantly compounded by the fact that McCosh Hall is one of numerous buildings without safe teaching spaces. None of its classrooms have adequate ventilation and, with no social distancing, students and teachers will be sitting closely together for periods of up to three hours. All day students will be crowding unventilated stairways and corridors leading to McCosh lecture halls. The windowless basement rooms have no air circulation and yet have been assigned to our faculty and graduate teachers for the coming semester. And our staff work in shared cubicle spaces that see constant traffic throughout the day. As we now adapt to the rapidly changing risks of the Delta variant, we need a maximum degree of flexibility in our teaching. We ask Princeton to take the lead, alongside Rutgers, Rice, Tufts, the University of Pittsburgh, and others, in allowing for remote teaching. This will enable us all both to maintain the safety of our community and properly to focus our efforts on the Department’s central mission: teaching students well. August 23, 2021
From the members of the English Department Faculty Given the surge of the Delta variant and the rise of breakthrough cases among the vaccinated, we call upon the University to reverse its policy compelling universal in-person teaching this Fall irrespective of health conditions. Delta: What we know The University is relying on vaccination and testing to keep the community safe. Yet new findings from studies in Israel and the CDC show that the Delta variant is twice as infectious and can overcome the protection of vaccines at rates that cannot be ignored. According to “Nature,” studies show that vaccinated people “can carry as much virus in their nose as do unvaccinated people,” thus spreading the virus to others. The University testing system does not protect the community against those who, infected shortly after being tested and remaining asymptomatic, will unknowingly spread the virus before being tested in the following week. Since May 1, 2021, the CDC has tracked only those breakthrough cases resulting in hospitalization and death, classifying all other cases as “mild.” But “mild” underplays the risks of “long COVID” for patients, hospitalized or not. These include increased risk of stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, neurological damage, chronic joint pain, acute respiratory distress syndrome, brain fog, memory loss, and chronic fatigue. Many of us were vaccinated seven, and even eight, months ago; and for this group the vaccine’s prophylactic capacities have diminished significantly. By mid-semester, this will be true for nearly all vaccinated faculty. Booster shots for the most vulnerable will not be available until late in the semester.
Signed: Eduardo Cadava, Philip Mayhew Professor of English Anne Anlin Cheng ’85, Professor of English Andrew Cole, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature | Professor of English Bradin Cormack, Professor of English Maria DiBattista, Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English Jeff Dolven, Professor of English Diana Fuss, Louis W. Fairchild Class of ’24 Professor of
English Simon Gikandi, Robert Schirmer Professor of English William Gleason, HughesRogers Professor of English and American Studies Claudia L. Johnson, Murray Professor of English Literature Rhodri Lewis, Senior Research Scholar/Lecturer with Rank of Professor Rob Nixon, Barron Family Professor in Humanities and the Environment | Professor of English Jeff Nunokawa, Professor of English Gayle Salamon, Professor of English and Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies Esther Schor, Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor of American Jewish Studies | Professor of English Nigel Smith, William and Annie S. Paton Foundation Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature | Professor of English D. Vance Smith, Professor of English Susan Stewart, Avalon Foundation University Professor of the Humanities | Professor of English Susan Wolfson, Professor of English Zahid R. Chaudhary, Associate Professor of English Sophie Gee, Associate Professor of English Russ Leo, Associate Professor of English Meredith Martin, Associate Professor of English Tamsen Wolff, Associate Professor of English Sarah Chihaya, Assistant Professor of English Monica Huerta, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies Christina León, Assistant Professor of English Paul Nadal, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies Robbie Richardson, Assistant Professor of English Autumn Womack, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies Sarah M. Anderson, Lecturer in English and Program in Medieval Studies Rebecca Rainof, Research Scholar in English April Alliston, Professor of Comparative Literature | Affiliate Faculty in English Anne McClintock, A Barton Hepburn Professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies | Affiliate Faculty in English Fintan O’Toole, Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Visiting Professor of Irish Letters | Affiliate Faculty in English Evie Shockley, Bain-Swiggett Visiting Professor of Poetry & Poetics (Fall 2021)
THIS PRINT ISSUE WAS DESIGNED BY Abby Nishiwaki ’23
AND COPIED BY Isabel Rodrigues ’23
Done reading your ‘Prince’? Recycle
JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
McCosh Hall.
Opinion
Friday September 3, 2021
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Science-based measures and community’s efforts will support return to in-person teaching and learning Robin Izzo
Guest Contributor
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the authors’ views alone.
I
n light of the opinion piece submitted on Aug. 25 by faculty members from the English Department, I’d like to share some key points about the many significant steps the University has taken in an effort to protect its community as it prepares for the return to in-person learning and teaching this semester. As President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 noted in his recent welcome message, “in-person teaching, research, and scholarship are the heart of Princeton’s educational mission.” In addition to requiring that all students, faculty, and staff be vaccinated and participate in weekly testing, a robust contact tracing protocol enables timely action when positive cases are identified among our campus community. Further, policies related to face coverings are in place and can be quickly adjusted in response to campus and local data. While the New Jersey data currently shows a rise in cases state-wide, those rates of infection are not reflected on campus among our community because of the measures in place. I, along with my colleagues in University Health Services and scientists specializing in epidemiological modeling, meet weekly
to reassess University policies, which are informed by our review of campus data. Optimizing the air quality in University-operated buildings has also been a top priority, and I am very encouraged by the recent confirmation that in addition to ensuring that all HVAC units have received preventative maintenance (increasing outside air input and replacing filters with higher efficiency models where possible), the University was able to procure HEPA units for ev-
ery classroom and lecture hall that has little to no mechanical ventilation, including McCosh Hall. These industrial-sized HEPA units, which will be installed by the start of classes on Sept. 1, have undergone reviews for their capacity to exchange air effectively and to ensure they operate at noise levels that will not interfere with classroom instruction. Further, we are permitting departments to install air purifiers in offices as long as they meet fire safety re-
quirements and Facilities ensures that they may be installed safely without overloading the electrical system in a building. I believe that Princeton’s campus is one of the safest places to work and learn in our region. This is reflected by our campus vaccination rate above 96 percent and a low COVID positivity rate among faculty, staff, and students — currently less than 0.25 percent. While it is this special combination of sciencebased measures that will
LAZARENA LAZAROVA / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Seats in McCosh 50, one of the largest lecture halls at the University.
support in-person teaching and learning this semester, the entire Princeton community has played a part in supporting the return to campus. Many people are returning to campus this month for the first time in over a year, but hundreds of people never left campus — such as those whose presence supported essential oncampus operations — and others returned months ago, including personnel in our research labs. In other words, a significant percentage of the University’s faculty and staff have been on campus even when vaccines were not yet available. Princeton was proactive and worked hard to develop an infrastructure that is not common, even among our peers. It is this novel yet tested combination of measures that allows us to confidently welcome back our whole community this fall. I encourage all members of the University community to visit the COVID dashboard, which is updated with weekly reports and a campus risk status indicator, and the Princeton COVID Resources site for guidance about returning to campus. You may also ask questions via the COVID Connector by emailing covidconnector@princeton.edu or by calling 609.258.7000 M-F, 8:45 a.m. – 5 p.m. Robin Izzo is the assistant vice president of Environmental Health and Safety.
Letter From The Editor We have a one-time chance to change Princeton. Don’t squander it.
Emma Treadway Editor-In-Chief
A
s a first-year, I sat in precept, struggling to concentrate. I hadn’t been feeling well that day, but I dragged myself to class. I knew how painful it would be to try and catch up on missed work later. Just that past week, my roommate, who suffers from chronic migraines, forced herself to go to class, only to leave to throw up in a gutter. Another friend had stationed himself in Firestone Library for the past 10 hours — and hadn’t even left to eat. We have many wonderful traditions at Princeton; we also have a legacy of racism, sexism, and crippling mental health. As students, we grapple with these issues daily, whether in protesting the notorious bicker process or requesting more Counseling and Psychological Services support. These efforts have always been important, but this year, they are paramount. We have a once-ina-lifetime chance to re-do Princeton, reconsidering our traditions, resetting our expectations, and re-
committing ourselves to a “people first” mentality. This year on campus, the Class of 2022 is the only class who will have spent an entire year on campus. Quite simply, we are the only class who has a true sense of what a “normal” campus looks like and the traditions that defined it. COVID has brought pain, but it has also brought opportunity. Classes of 2022 and 2023, we don’t want to go back to “the way things were.” We want to redefine this campus to focus more on stu-
dent well-being and inclusivity. This sounds like an abstract task — so how do we achieve it? We achieve it by rewriting traditions and by leaving behind the remnants of exclusion. We start new traditions — what if we lived in a Princeton where it was just expected that we get eight hours of sleep a night? Where eating clubs are welcoming to all? Where taking a step back from your studies and commitments is celebrated? These are the rituals and traditions future classes
of Princetonians will take for granted — and it is up to us to decide what those rituals are. We are embracing this opportunity at the ‘Prince.’ Our newsroom has historically been dominated by white and male voices, and it has not always been a safe haven for students. We have a chance to create inclusive traditions and habits in our newsroom; we can rewrite what it means to be a part of this institution. We are creating our own new rituals, whether it’s committing
to recognizing and greeting any person who enters or leaves the newsroom or routinely recognizing staffers who do the unseen work at our paper. I encourage you: consider what you can change, and how you can set the example for your successors. This chance won’t come again. Emma Treadway is editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian. She can be reached at eic@dailyprincetonian.com.
MARK DODICI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
1879 Hall and the lawn in front of Frist Campus Center.
Friday September 3, 2021
Opinion
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See it, share it, stomp it:
Looking out for spotted lanternflies in Princeton Sreya Jonnalagadda Guest Contributor
The following is a guest contribution and ref lects the author’s views alone.
S
ee it, share it, stomp it! These are the steps you should follow if you see the insect called the spotted lanternfly around Princeton. Native to China, India, and Vietnam, the spotted lanternfly is an invasive planthopper that, in recent years, settled in the United States. It was first spotted in 2014 in Pennsylvania, and since then it has spread to other states such as Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. Although quite beautiful, with spotted reddish-gray wings, the insect causes damage by feeding on the sap of plants and excreting honeydew. This honeydew then builds up into a sooty mold/fungi, covering the plant and deteriorating its health. The spotted lanternfly targets the trees and floral plants that are present in Princeton’s beautiful gardens, such as Prospect Garden, Wyman Garden, and Hibben Garden. In particular, Prospect Garden contains plenty of native tulip trees and American beeches, which are some of the spotted lanternfly’s favorite to attack. This means our gardens,
filled with an abundance of fragrant flowers and towering trees, are in peril of damage. Unfortunately, our gardens are not the only aspect of our community that the spotted lanternf ly threatens. Every Thursday from May 13 through Nov. 18 on Franklin Avenue off Witherspoon Street, the Princeton Farmers’ Market unites local farmers and vendors who share their fresh produce with our community. The spotted lanternfly causes severe damage to many vital economic crops of these farmers including grapevines, fruit bushes, maples, and more, costing states’ economies millions of dollars. It is thus all the more important that we make an effort to slow the spread of this insect, which is damaging the plants we enjoy and produce we depend on. We can start by learning about the regulations residents should follow to mitigate its effects. When you are walking around Princeton, be sure to keep an eye out for these insects in gardens, building surfaces, vehicles, or other places. Look at N.J.’s resident checklist to see how you can help slow the spread. In general, be sure to take a picture, report the image, and then kill the bug (they are harmless to humans). If any trees or surfaces are heavily infested, you can call
local services that offer spotted lanternfly treatments. In addition, be aware that Mercer County is currently in a quarantine zone, which was put into place in order to slow the movement of the species into and out of regions by regulating the movement of
vehicles and materials like steel, wood, metals, and plants. Drivers or businesses operating in Princeton should follow the regulations of our state agricultural department when it comes to transportation. It’s important we take care of our campus and town to prevent further
spread and damage of crops, so remember: See it, share it, stomp it! Sreya Jonnalagadda is a resident of Princeton who is currently studying spotted lanternf lies. She can be reached at sreyaj99@ gmail.com.
USGS BEE INVENTORY AND MONITORING LAB / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A spotted lanternfly.
Features
Friday September 3, 2021
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‘I don’t understand who they’re protecting here’: Princeton’s COVID-19 policy frustrated reporting of sexual misconduct allegations, say students
By Rachel Sturley and Alex Gjaja Head Features Editors
Content Warning: This article includes descriptions of alleged sexual misconduct. When students returned to campus in January after 10 months away, their excitement was tempered by one looming requirement: signing the Social Contract, a set of University policies that detailed how students should safely interact to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak on campus. Those who opted to return soon found that the Social Contract — and its litany of restrictions — drastically changed the campus landscape, as the discarded solo cups and jam-packed late-night “drunk meal” at Frist Campus Center remained absent. Yet the dangers that plague college nightlife hadn’t gone away. One student’s experience shows how the Social Contract hindered reporting of an alleged incident of sexual misconduct — exacerbating an issue of underreporting which already pervades college campuses nationwide. On a night last spring, five students celebrated the end of a week together. One student, Anna, alleges that she was touched inappropriately by one of the other students while the two of them were briefly alone. (Anna and the other students interviewed for this story were granted anonymity, and are referred to with pseudonyms, so they could speak freely about the incident. The Daily Princetonian could not independently verify Anna’s allegation that she was touched inappropriately.) Anna texted the other three students to return to help her. They did, and in Anna’s words, “dragged me out.” “They were coming in to help me, as they should as humans and upstanding bystanders,” Anna recalled in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ “But that technically is a Social Contract violation.” The University Social Contract for spring 2021 mandated that students “not host more than two student guests who also live oncampus in [their] room/suite at a time.” As the five students sat in a room belonging to Katherine, one of Anna’s friends, they violated University policy by having two extra people present. Unsure whether she or her friends would receive amnesty for the Social Contract violation, Anna said she chose not to report the incident of alleged sexual misconduct. “It just seems like you can’t report unless you want to get in trouble,” Anna said. “That’s a really scary place to be as a woman and a survivor, but that’s kind of the reality of what it seems Princeton is p e r p e t u a ting.” A lthough the University is no longer using the Social Contract for the fall 2021 semester, Anna’s story remains an i l lu st ration of the unintended — but not unanticipated — effects the policy had on students. Two summers ago, prior to the Social Contract’s issuance, staff at the University’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources & Education (SHARE), “expressed concerns that the Social Contract could be perceived as a barrier to reporting sexual misconduct,” SHARE director Jacqueline Deitch-Stackhouse said in an statement to the ‘Prince.’ Deitch-Stackhouse did not elaborate about how administrators responded to SHARE’s concerns. When asked for clarification, she and the Office of Communications declined
to comment further. Anna chose not to report her allegations to the University, but she said another student reported the alleged incident of sexual misconduct without her consent to an anonymous University tipline. Anna and her friends quickly found themselves enmeshed in a University investigation — not into the alleged sexual misconduct, but whether they had violated the Social Contract. While some peer institutions, such as Harvard and Stanford, eventually offered blanket amnesty policies to protect students reporting sexual misconduct that occurred in violation of residential COVID-19 policies, Anna and her friends encountered a different experience at Princeton. They said they received varying punishments, and Katherine’s will appear on her permanent academic record. For Anna and her friends, not having access to clear answers about confidentiality and reporting options made their disciplinary process all the more confusing and burdensome. Anna also criticized the University’s investigation of the Social Contract violation for the way it addressed — or chose to ignore — the other circumstances of the night. “I just feel like the University did everything wrong,” Anna told the ‘Prince.’ Katherine, speaking while the policy was still in place, expressed a similar sentiment and warned of the risks of the University’s approach.
unique in that respect. “Leniency is not, nor has ever been, guaranteed with respect to violations that may come to light as a result of reports of sexual misconduct, including with respect to the Social Contract,” Hotchkiss said. “Matters have always and continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis, as circumstances differ in every situation.” The ‘Prince’ made multiple requests to speak to the University bodies involved in both Social Contract and sexual misconduct proceedings, including the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS), the Residential College Directors of Student Life (DSL), the Department of Public Safety (PSAFE), McCosh Health Center, and the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration. Each deferred comment to Hotchkiss, who provided two written statements that are reported here. “Really complicated with the Social Contract”: Anna navigates her reporting options Anna said she spent the days immediately following the alleged incident of sexual misconduct deliberating her options for reporting it to the University. According to the original, precoronavirus University amnesty policy for sexual misconduct, as stated on the Sexual Misconduct Investigations website, “In order to encourage reports of conduct that is prohibited under the Title
prove our processes and services.” In Summer 2020, SHARE proposed one such improvement to avoid deterring student reporting of sexual misconduct. DeitchStackhouse wrote that the office “sought to have Social Contract v iol at ion s considered under the existing amnesty policy.” SHARE’s concerns p r o v e d p re s c ie nt : although K at h e r i n e and Chris (a second friend of A n n a ’s present that night) told Anna that they would support whatever decision she came to with regards to reporting the incident, she ultimately decided not to report it. When she told a few other friends about the alleged sexual misconduct, she also asked them not to report it for fear of what might happen because of the Social Contract violation. “My friends could get in trouble; I could get in trouble,” Anna
said. “[The University is] making it really difficult to report.” Anna asked the ‘Prince’ not to contact the student who allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct with her because, for her, she told the ‘Prince,’ the story is not about the incident itself, but about shedding light on what she views as the University’s mishandling of the situation. While the paper has not been able to confirm Anna’s account of the incident, Katherine and Chris corroborated Anna’s statements about the location, timeline, and multiple other details regarding the students’ gathering that evening, and also shared their own experiences with the University’s disciplinary process for Social Contract violations.
Flanders said he was obligated to report the allegation of sexual misconduct and the violation of the Social C ont r ac t to the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration and ODUS. Anna stressed to the ‘Prince’ t h a t ODUS was informed of the alleged sexual misconduct w ithout her cons e n t . However, w h i l e Hotchkiss did not comment on the specific case, he did emphasize that PSAFE’s policy is that “the victim or survivor decides on whether or not there is a criminal investigation or it is referred to ODUS or the Grad School.” Regardless, Anna’s choice not to report the allegation of sexual misconduct did not prevent the University’s investigation into the related Social Contract violation. After receiving the call from Flanders on a Sunday, Anna realized that the University was either already aware, or soon to be aware, of both the alleged incident of sexual misconduct and the violation of the Social Contract. That Monday, Anna contacted the SHARE office to explain the situation and ask if they could tell her what to expect when alleged sexual misconduct intersects with Social Contract violations. According to Anna, the SHARE office said they didn’t know. Deitch-Stackhouse said that the lack of precedent for overlapping claims of sexual misconduct and Social Contract violations had made it difficult to advise students on their options. “The SHARE staff work diligently to assist students in understanding and navigating University policy, as well as state and federal laws,” Deitch-Stackhouse said in her statement. “Given the newness of the Social Contract policy and the lack of prior cases regarding how situations in which the Social Contract and sexual misconduct reports have overlapped, there were no precedents in terms of how leniency would be applied in Social Contract situations.” Anna, Katherine, and Chris all said that they were contacted by Thursday of that week for interviews about an investigation by ODUS. Emma, the third friend present at the night of the incident, declined a request to be interviewed.
“It just spiraled from there”: Anna’s case reaches University ears
Feeling “silenced” under investigation: The Social Contract disciplinary proceedings
Against Anna’s wishes, she says a fellow student she had told about the incident reported the allegation of sexual misconduct to the University’s EthicsPoint hotline, a resource that allows community members to report concerns to the University anonymously. Soon after, Anna received a phone call from PSAFE Detective Sergeant Alvan Flanders. Anna said Flanders informed her that PSAFE had received an anonymous report about the alleged incident of sexual misconduct, and that her name, as well as those of Katherine, Chris, Emma (a third friend present that night), and the alleged perpetrator, had come to light over the course of their investigation into the report. “It just spiraled from there,” Anna said. According to Anna,
At first, Anna, Katherine, and Chris assumed that the investigation named in the ODUS emails was about the alleged sexual misconduct. But all told the ‘Prince’ that their interviews made clear that the investigators were examining the potential Social Contract violation, and not the accusations of sexual misconduct. According to the three students, they were asked by the ODUS investigators not to mention the alleged sexual misconduct, or anything relating to Title IX, as they gave testimony in their individual meetings. The given reason, according to Anna and Katherine, was that their statements about the night could be used against Anna in a future Title IX investigation, should she
“My friends could get in trouble; I could get in trouble. [The University is] making it really difficult to report.” - Anna, student under a pseudonym
JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
“I don’t want to be disrespectful to University administration, because I know that this is a really hard semester and it’s new for everyone,” she said, “but I think that the Social Contract needs to be a lot clearer because it’s really dangerous right now.” For its part, the University defended its handling of Social Contract violations that are discovered in connection with allegations of student sexual misconduct, and said it has been working through how to ba lance s t u dents’ safety during the COV I D-19 p a n demic with the need to encou rage survivors of sexual misconduct to come forward. “The Social Contract is new to the University. As such, our approach to certain issues related to the Social Contract, including reported violations that come to light through reports of sexual misconduct, has evolved as we better understand the situations that may arise,” Deputy Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss said in a written statement last semester prior to the lifting of restrictions. Hotchkiss was also clear that a report of sexual misconduct does not by itself mitigate a violation of other University policies, and that the Social Contract was not
“I just feel like the University did everything wrong.”
- Anna, student under a pseudonym
IX Sexual Harassment policy and the University Sexual Misconduct policy, the University may offer leniency with respect to other violations which may come to light as a result of such reports, depending on the circumstances involved.” The policy was updated with a 2020–21 Addendum to accommodate the new regulations outlined in the Social Contract. “Leniency may also be applied in certain situations involving violations of the University’s Social Contract, and/or other health and safety requirements related to COVID-19,” the addendum reads. “However, leniency may not be applicable in situations involving students who host others in violation of the Social Contract and/or other policies, depending on the circumstances.” Students are encouraged on the website to reach out to SHARE staff for a “confidential consultation.” SHARE director Deitch-Stackhouse said in her statement that consulting with her office “allow[s] a student to remain confidential while obtaining meaningful information that may inform their decision to pursue or not pursue a Title IX or sexual misconduct process.” But, under the circumstances of the Social Contract, Anna said that she did not reach out to SHARE at first because she was “scared that they might tell on me.” Hotchkiss acknowledged that “navigating intersecting University policies and campus resources can be complicated and add stress to already difficult situations.” He added that the University is “open to learning from such experiences as we continue to im-
See MISCONDUCT page 11
Friday September 3, 2021
Features
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‘A long battle fought’
The history of Princeton’s Asian American Studies program and a renewed push to expand By Tanvi Nibhanupudi and Anna Chung
Associate Features Editor and Features Staff Writer
In 1988, Asian American students met with then-UniversityPresident Harold Shapiro GS ’64 to request an Asian-American studies program. 30 years, one sit-in, a 14 page report, and 692 signatures later, the University approved the creation of an Asian American Studies certificate program on in April 2018. Still, the establishment of the program is far from the end of the fight for Asian American representation in academia on campus. “I think the Asian American Studies at Princeton as a larger project is ongoing — it has to be maintained, it has to be expanded,” said Anne Cheng ‘85, professor in the Department of English and the Programs in Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies. “It has got an institutional foothold,” she added, “but then we really need to build on it.” Following the rise of violence against the Asian American community across the nation earlier this year, the Asian American Students Association (AASA) began demanding support for the Asian community with urgency. In part, AASA leaders have called for expansion of the Asian American Studies program. “In light of the numerous attacks on elderly Asian Americans that’s been occurring all through-
MISCONDUCT Continued from page 10
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choose to pursue her misconduct allegations. “While we cannot comment on specific situations,” Hotchkiss said in his statement, “it is important to remember that very specific rules and processes apply to investigations under the Title IX Sexual Harassment policy and/ or the University Sexual Misconduct policy.” Hotchkiss continued: “The University seeks to ensure that other University disciplinary processes do not impact or infringe on any rules/processes related to sexual misconduct investigations.” But the students found it difficult to explain the circumstances without including what they felt was one of the prime reasons for the violation. “All the questions skirted around that instance, which felt very, very wrong,” Anna said. “Because that was why this was reported in the first place. The main instance of the violation was to help me, and they wouldn’t let us talk about that. And that felt like I was being silenced.” “It just felt really wrong that they got a sexual assault case and turned it completely into a Social Contract violation,” Katherine said. “They kind of re-traumatized all of us through this.” Anna’s interview with ODUS was delayed because a Title IX coordinator spoke to her first, which she initially viewed with relief. “I thought I was off the hook,” she recalled. But, she said the coordinator told her that the ODUS interview was just postponed to the following day and that going through with a Title IX case would not prevent the risk of being punished with disciplinary probation. Rather than receiving amnesty, Anna said she was told her position as a victim would be considered a “mitigating circumstance,” which Anna said was never clearly defined. The students then endured what they said was the most anxiety-inducing part of the process: the wait. A week after the interviews, they each got an email from their Director of Student Life (DSL), explaining that they were being charged with violating the Social Contract, but that the disci-
out 2020, AASA recognized a need to connect and utilize the power of college students,” explained Jennifer Lee ’23, co-president of AASA. As part of advocacy efforts by the Intercollegiate APIDA Coalition (ICAC), an alliance of student groups from nearly 50 universities across the nation, AASA has called on the University administration to “openly address the ongoing violence and racism, and support Asian and Asian American community members.” The ICAC’s list of demands in-
cludes that “universities must hire and retain Asian American faculty, offer courses in Asian American studies, and install ethnic studies programs.” While the ICAC statement is intended for an intercollegiate context, AASA is specifically asking that the University make a strong commitment towards maintaining the Asian American Studies program, according to Kesavan Srivilliputhur ’23, co-president of AASA. “Asian Americans are so often forgotten. For us, there’s the wor-
ry that this is just a temporary flare up, and then we’ll go back to being forgotten in five years,” Srivilliputhur noted. “We want the University to make a financial and public commitment towards Asian American Studies.” “While the program itself is robust and we are growing in the number of certificate takers, it still needs more financial support,” Lee added. “On an administrative level, nothing speaks louder volumes than a commitment to an annualized budget, and to hiring more tenured professors.”
Currently, Princeton’s Asian American certificate program is staffed by three professors who also have teaching commitments in other fields. As an interdisciplinary field, professors in the program have stated the need for more teaching staff to allow students pursuing the certificate a wider variety of courses to choose from. “Even though I think it’s amazing that we have three faculty now, it’s actually still not enough,” said Cheng. “Asian American Studies See AASA page 12
POANING WU / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Photos from the April 1995 protests to establish Asian American Studies and Latino Studies programs. plinary board had not yet reached a decision on the consequences. The search for support: A cycle of self-advocacy, “reliving that night,” and grappling with a “conflict of interest” In the weeks as the students awaited a conclusion, Anna was determined to argue her case. “I had contacted the DSL on my own. I contacted another dean. I was just reaching out and Zooming a bunch of people, just trying to advocate for myself,” she said. “How is this allowed? Why would anybody report anything if they’re going to get in trouble? This perpetuates a culture of victim-blaming.” In his statement to the ‘Prince,’ Hotchkiss expressed the Univer-
(RCAs) during the process, but said that even the support of their RCAs didn’t come without strings attached. Chris described how he only felt comfortable talking to his RCA once the investigation was already underway, for fear of incriminating himself. Further, according to Anna, they couldn’t provide anything other than emotional support — they were “just as confused about the policies as everybody else.” Chris’ RCA described in an interview to the ‘Prince’ how he and other RCAs repeatedly asked members of their residential college teams, as well as University Health Services (UHS) personnel, for more information and never received any. “We were unable to, at any
Almost a month after Anna was contacted by PSAFE, she and her three friends all received a formal reprimand as punishment. A formal reprimand does not appear on academic records, but can be taken into consideration in any future disciplinary proceedings in their time as students. Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities, the University code of conduct, lists a reprimand as an informal sanction, “intended to signal that the student has committed a minor infraction, conveying that the student must be vigilant against future infractions, and providing a disincentive against future infractions.” Despite ultimately receiving a punishment, Chris remembered that he and the others “still kind
“It just felt really wrong that they got a sexual assault case and turned it completely into a Social Contract violation. They kind of re-traumatized all of us through this.” - Katherine, student under a pseudonym sity’s continuing commitment to addressing issues of sexual misconduct under the new circumstances of last semester. “To provide a safe, inclusive and welcoming educational and working environment for all members of its community, it is critical both for the University to receive and address reports of sexual misconduct and also to ensure that students on our campus are abiding by health and safety requirements,” Hotchkiss wrote. In recounting these weeks, however, Anna described a learning environment that felt far from safe or healthy. She said she fell behind in her classes, struggling to handle the barrage of meetings with administrators and added stress and anxiety. “And I had to keep explaining the instance of sexual misconduct and reliving that night, over and over again, to every single person that I spoke to,” she said. All three students expressed gratitude for the presence of their Residential College Advisors
point, get very clear answers about what circumstances lead to what disciplinary actions,” he said. “We never got those answers.” The RCA qualified his frustrations by emphasizing how positive his interactions were with the DSL when he met with her to advocate for his advisees — he noted that the DSL was “very responsive, and also very compassionate.” He also argued that administrators should be given the benefit of the doubt as they worked to grapple with difficult issues. “I think we did not receive clarity because there is not a body of cases that [people] were able to point to and say, ‘These cases lead to these outcomes,’” the RCA said. “And so I do trust my DSL and believe that they are reasonable people, in the college office and at UHS. And I know that they too are trying to figure it out.” “I don’t understand who they’re protecting here”: Students still look to the administration for answers
of celebrated because we thought we were all going to be sent home and face lengthy probations.” Hotchkiss declined to address the specifics of the students’ cases, but said that “[t]o date, leniency has been granted in all disciplinary matters that have been adjudicated in which Social Contract violations arose in relation to a report of sexual misconduct.” But the reprimands were not the end of the process. To the students’ astonishment, a week following the initial sentencing, Katherine — the student in whose room the infraction took place — said she received an email from ODUS explaining that her original sentence of a reprimand contained an error, and she would instead be receiving three months of disciplinary probation. Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities categorizes disciplinary probation as a “formal sanction” that will appear on an individual’s permanent record at the University. Hotchkiss likewise declined to address the specifics of Kather-
ine’s case, but explained that leniency is applied differently based on an individual’s involvement in a case. “Generally speaking, it is likely that leniency will be applied more flexibly in certain situations (for example, alcohol violations or certain Social Contract violations such as attending a gathering that exceeds the number of permitted guests),” he said. “There may be less flexibility for leniency in other situations (for example, involving distribution of drugs or Social Contract violations such as hosting a gathering that exceeds the number of permitted guests).” The surprise change in her sentence had a severe impact on Katherine, who chose to leave campus early and return home. “I don’t feel supported or protected here,” she wrote in a text message to the ‘Prince.’ The other students expressed similar sentiments. “I would think, and I had hoped, that their priority would be to protect the students on their campus, because that’s the whole point of the Social Contract … but I don’t understand who they’re protecting here,” Anna said. “I was physically harmed, and they were constantly putting me through all of this stress and anxiety and waiting,” she added. “It did not seem like they cared about me or my friends at all; they just wanted to uphold the Social Contract.” For Chris, even though the University intends to open up campus to full residential life and in-person classes in the fall, the experience has left an irreparable mark. “I was disappointed,” Chris said. “I chose Princeton for the community. And from my research I understood that it was going to be a place where the kids were going to care about each other and help each other succeed. And also, we’d all be protected and taken care of by the administration.” “It felt like that dream was kind of shattered.” Alex Gjaja and Rachel Sturley are Head Features Editors at The Daily Princetonian. Alex can be reached at agjaja@princeton.edu or on Twitter at @AlexGjaja, and Rachel can be reached at rsturley@princeton.edu.
Friday September 3, 2021
Features
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AASA
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is a very diverse field ... so we need to have a good amount of those fields covered.” In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ University spokesperson Ben Chang explained that a fourth professor focused on Asian American studies was set to join the faculty for the 2021-2022 year but withdrew for personal reasons. “We continue, nonetheless, our efforts to build Asian American Studies, including the hiring of professors, distinguished visitors, and lecturers,” he said. Chang added that the University recognizes the impact that acts of violence and harassment across the country have had on the Asian and Asian American communities at Princeton and beyond and welcomes input from Asian student leaders. “The University welcomes continued conversations with students from the AASA — we value their perspectives on these important issues,” Chang wrote. Thus far, AASA leaders said their demands have made little headway. While they have been in contact with both ODUS and the Office of Communications, they are waiting to be put in contact with various University committees focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that they were advised to speak with. “It often feels like the University has created a perfect system to stall change,” noted Srivilliputhur. “While the committees may represent our best shot, they will take time, and this is unfortunately not something that we can make happen overnight.” The current standstill from the University is reminiscent of the 30 years it took students and professors advocating for the creation of an Asian American studies program to see their demands fulfilled. Much of AASA’s work today is built on the work of past activists. “I’m always reminded of the legacies that we stand on and how many alumni have stood in our
shoes in the past. But there is so much left to do, and moving forward we hope to pave that path for other students,” Lee noted. “Part of what Asian American student groups can do is to ensure that [people know that] the fight for Asian American courses was a long battle fought,” said Paul Nadal, professor in the Department of English and the Program in American Studies. In 1992, the Asian American Student Task Force released a 14page report to request a program. Apart from the introduction of a singular Asian-American history course in 1995, this request was not fulfilled. In April 1995, 17 students staged a sit-in at Nassau Hall to demand the establishment of Asian-American and Latino studies programs. They occupied the office of Shapiro’s administrative assistant, whom University officials alleged the group “pushed” out of her office. The sit-in continued for 36 hours, during which student negotiators beyond Nassau Hall coordinated efforts and other students organized large rallies outside of the building.
On the lawn, students addressed a growing crowd and denounced the existing Asian American studies and Latino studies curricula. A petition supporting the demands of the students inside Nassau Hall was passed around. “Diversity, we must! Ethnic studies, or bust,” the crowd outside chanted. During the sit-in, Shapiro referred to the alleged pushing of a staff member as “deeply offensive.” However, he noted that the demonstration would not dissuade the University from their “continuing efforts … to develop courses and appoint faculty in the areas of Asian American and Latino studies.” The University soon created committees to expand the number of Latino Studies and Asian American Studies professors. However, despite the University’s promise that this was an “area of priority,” expanding
PHOTO VIA THE @PRINCETON TWITTER ACCOUNT
Faculty vote to create the Asian American Studies program.
the programs was a slow-moving process. The Program in Latino Studies, now Program in Latin American Studies, would not be established until nearly 14 years after the protests. Even compared to this timeline, progress toward an Asian American Studies program lagged behind. In 2008, professors Anne Cheng ’85, Hendrik H artog, and Chang-rae Lee submitted an alumni petition, backed by 692 signatures, for an Asian-American studies program. This petition had little impact on the slow pace of progress towards a certificate program. As a result, in 2011, AASA formed a committee dedicated to the establishment of an Asian American studies program — which they formally proposed in 2013, and continued pushing for throughout the decade. Seven years later, in April 2018, faculty voted for the creation of the program. Even so, those who had fought for the program felt that the establishment alone was only a small step in the right
direction. Hartog, former director of the American studies program, told Princeton Alumni Weekly following the faculty vote that the program had “a very thin set” of course offerings, and that more faculty were needed. At the onset, the program included a total of three course offerings. In the coming 2021-2022 Fall semester, the program will have four. “The biggest frustration is the lack of professors and the lack of courses offered every semester,” explained Susan Baek ’23, a certificate student. While taking classes in the program like HIS270: Asian American History with Professor Beth Lew-Williams, Baek noted that all of her preceptors were of non-Asian-American descent. Lew-Williams told her the demographic inconsistency among the faculty stems from there being no Asian American history doctorate programme, so preceptors are drawn from the general history department. “From my viewpoint, because the program is so new from the
institution, it feels very student heavy,” Baek added. “As always, the burden is put on students who need this stuff in the first place and shouldn’t need to ask so late.” To many, the fight to further develop the Asian American studies program, as well as other ethnic studies programs, marks a push towards a more inclusive definition of American history. “History has failed us, for the most part,” Lee explained. “Perhaps the best way to rectify that is through an institutional change that can happen only when administrators provide the attention necessary to these issues.” Tanvi Nibhanupudi is an Associate Features editor and Chairperson of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Board at The Daily Princetonian. She can be reached at tanvin@princeton.edu. Anna Chung is a features staff writer and can be reached at akchung@ princeton.edu.
the PROSPECT. The Daily Princetonian
Friday September 3, 2021
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ARTS & CULTURE
Triangle’s Frosh Week Show and the future soon to begin
By José Pablo Fernández García Associate Prospect Editor
Just about a year ago, I sat at home — like I am now as I draft these words — to write about losing out on “the possibility of filling McCarter with laughter and pure joy” during Triangle’s Frosh Week Show. A year ago, I wrote after working on a virtual version of the show. This year, I write not long after a production meeting to plan Triangle’s long-awaited return to the McCarter stage. Of course, so much more has changed in this intervening year: changes in who I am, changes in what Princeton is like, seismic changes in what the broader world is like. But in this instant, the most tangible change I feel is a resurging joy, almost childlike, after a somber year, all thanks to the promise of soon, finally, participating behind the scenes in the Triangle tradition that helped me fall in love with this school and this club when I was only an audience member. I’m sure I’m not alone in sharing this sort of joy, within Triangle or across the University community. Within The Daily Princetonian community, the news of all sorts of things returning — from Lawnparties to the Coffee Club, and even access to our own newsroom — has been met with excitement, even if mostly in the form of Slack’s reaction emojis. In all honesty, it’s fairly odd to write about joy like this. It’s not a practice I’ve made much of throughout this past year. I’ve written about loss both personal and universal. I’ve written about frustration both regarding specific events and aimed at life in general. Moreover, I’ve seen the
‘Prince’ filled with so many similar stories of loss and frustration in this past year. Sometimes, these sorrows have belonged to the authors themselves. Other times, my incredible colleagues and friends have shed light on the sorrows of others. Suffice to say, life has been molded by so many forms of grief lately. In this instant, however, I feel the hands of joy, of excitement, of glee at work, molding life once again. The prospect of classrooms and lecture halls, dormitories, eating clubs, and dining halls across the campus filling in a way they haven’t since March 2020, is a prospect that brings such joy. It brings memories as well — mostly memories of previous joyful moments. It brings back the chaotic laughter from Triangle’s last hurrah before being sent home all those months ago. It brings back the warm pride upon hearing a professor of mine praise the ‘Prince’ for stepping up to the task as the pandemic first began to unfold. Even the meager cheerfulness of one too many Zoom social events comes back. Despite all this joy, despite my eagerness for all the upcoming semester seems to promise, and despite all the change from this past year, one thing remains the same as the last time I wrote about Triangle’s Frosh Week Show and the song “Old Folks’ Home” specifically: the future that lies ahead isn’t guaranteed to be the future you wished for. This was certainly true of my predictions for this past year. Yet, while a year ago the notion of a differing year felt
like losing out on something I had once wished for, somehow, now, the lack of a guaranteed future feels almost liberating. Likely, this is just due to the magic of perspective or the difference in viewing a moment in time as a start or an end, an opening or a closure. Now, as I write these words during one of the last nights I’ll spend, at least for a while, in the childhood bedroom I’ve concealed with my Zoom virtual background for the past 17 months, this moment certainly feels more like a start, an opening. Maybe this notion is also responsible for the excitement Triangle’s Frosh Week Show currently brings me. It marks the start of the year — a moment of new beginnings for first-years and a moment of reunion for older students. And of course, it marks the first of many times the McCarter curtain will open under triangleshaped lights in the coming year. A year ago, I sat at home writing and waiting, unsure of “the next time [I’d] get to hear ‘Old Folks’ Home’ in McCarter, instead of on my laptop screen.” Now, I’m sitting at home writing again, but this time, I’m waiting only a handful of days, if all goes well, before I get to hear “Old Folks’ Home” and so many more of my favorite Triangle songs and jokes fill McCarter once more. José Pablo Fernández García is a junior from Ohio and Associate Prospect Editor at the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at jpgarcia@princeton.edu.
Why you should memorize poetry No, really. If you like poetry, commit it to memory. What do you remember? Which words float to the front of your mind in moments of stillness? Consider the following lines, the beginning of “Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt,” a poem by Ross Gay. “No one knew or at least I didn’t know they knew what the thin disks threaded here on my shirt might give me in terms of joy this is not something to be taken lightly the gift of buttoning one’s shirt slowly top to bottom or bottom to top or sometimes the buttons will be on the other side and I am a woman that morning slipping the glass through its slot” Over the summer, I memorized this poem, line by line. (It’s a bit longer than this: follow the link above to read the whole thing. Reader, it does not disappoint.) I wrote the poem from memory here. Disclosure: I had to check the original for the line breaks. I made a hobby of memorizing poetry this summer. To memorize poetry is to make it sacred, to create its full meaning, and to let it grow within one’s own mind. To memorize poetry is the best way to value the medium. First, though, I’ll address the solemn fact that lots of students are forced into memorizing poetry as part of elementary English classes. That’s bogus. Many students at my high school had to memorize Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” and every student who had that assignment hated the poem afterward. Forcing a student to memorize poetry is like shoving it down their throat — the poem’s ruined, and no one likes it.
By Gabriel Robare | Senior Writer
Instead, one ought to memorize poetry that they love and choose. If you’ve read this far into this article, you likely love poetry. And you likely have a poem or two you return to. A poem like that for me was Emily Dickinson’s poem 314, which begins like this: “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers — That perches in the soul — And sings the tune without the words — And never stops — at all — ” When I need hope, I reach for that poem. After a time, I memorized it, just from repeated reading. The poem wore into my mind, its page growing soft from use. You may have poems (or quotations of any kind) like this. They’re repeated so much in your mind that you know them as well as you know the names of your family or the address of the home where you grew up. This is one method of memorization — through mantra-like repetition, over long periods of time. Learning poems this way imbues them with emotion through time. The reader who remembers the poem today is different from the person who remembers it a year from now or a year ago. The three selves all load the poem with gobs of feeling. After years of calling back the same lines, they glow with dense sentiment. The word “poetry” derives from the very old Proto-Indo-European root “kwei-,” meaning “to pile up.” The meaning of poetry is in revisiting it time after time, piling up different meanings and feelings married to it. This mantric method is slow but effective, if you have the time. But you may not have a poem which calls to your emotions, or you may not want to wait to learn a poem over a long time. Fear not, reader. There’s another method that works too: simple, rote memorization. This method takes more effort. That can’t be denied. You have to sit with the poem for hours, days maybe, as long as it takes. I memorized “Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt” this way, during a long shift at my menial job. It’s hard. I don’t have a real skill for memorization — I don’t have a photographic
memory or anything near it. This article doesn’t have hot takes on how to memorize things quickly and easily. That’s because it’s good that it takes a long time. Investing intention into the task infuses it with importance. To spend hours on a task is to make it sacred. You gift the poem with your attention and effort — in other words, you read it generously. It’s important, too, that these are words that we choose to remember. The memory is a filter for what is important. So much happens in our complex lives that we only can remember the important stuff, and everything else slips away. By choosing to remember a poem that is important, you not only deem those words important to you; you actively choose to make them important. You find words you love, and you decide intentionally to love them more. We began with the beginning of “Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt”; we will end with the end: “We practice like this pushing the seed into the earth like this first in the morning then at night we practice sliding the bones home.” The poet Ross Gay is referring to the buttons on his shirt in these lines. But I think they can refer to poetry, too. Memorizing poetry, especially by rote, is like pushing seeds into earth. It takes effort. It’s repetitive and boring. You move from one line to the next, crouched low over the dirt, lodging each word in your mind’s fertile soil. But once in the ground, they can grow. They are alive, germinating among your thoughts. To memorize poetry is to plant it. To memorize poetry is to give it life. Gabriel Robare is a Senior Writer for The Prospect and co-Head Editor of the Puzzles section at the ‘Prince.’ He often covers literature and the self and can be reached at grobare@princeton.edu.
Friday September 3, 2021
Sports
Tigers in Tokyo
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MEN’S TRIATHALON
Brad Snyder, Ph.D. candidate at Princeton, wins Paralympic gold medal in Tokyo By Wilson Conn
Staff Sports Writer
A navy veteran and Ph.D. student in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) has won Princeton’s second gold medal of the summer. Team USA’s Brad Snyder, who had previously won five Paralympic gold medals in swimming, won gold in the men’s triathlon on Aug. 27 (ET). He is the first American man to win a gold medal in the event. The grueling event course included ¾ kilometers of
swimming, 20 kilometers of biking, and 5 kilometers of running. It is the same course that the Olympic athletes competed on roughly one month ago. The 37-year-old Snyder ran a brisk 19:31 for the final 5 kilometers, holding off some of the younger competitors to secure his place at the top of the podium. The gold is Snyder’s eighth Paralympic medal overall. Snyder’s path to Olympic triumph has been no easy task. Although Snyder was a successful swimmer in college — even captaining the
team varsity team at the Naval Academy — his world was flipped upside-down when he tragically lost his vision in an IED explosion while serving as a lieutenant in Afghanistan in 2011. “I had witnessed a number of other folks in similar situations, none of whom were in good shape afterwards. I thought well I didn’t make it, there is no way I did. So I laid there kind of reflecting on my life. In a way, I had kind of accepted that I was OK with my death, I was OK with dying. I was ready to pass on and do whatever you do after you
die,” Snyder told towntopics. com. Amazingly, Snyder came back just one year later at the London 2012 Olympics to win three medals — two of them gold — in various freestyle events in the pool. He won the 400m race on the one-year anniversary of the explosion. He went on to win three more golds and one silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics while also setting a Paralympic 100m freestyle record. Snyder’s transition into the sport began just three years ago in 2018. He credits his guide Greg Billington,
PHOTO VIA TOYOTA PRESS ROOM
Brad Snyder previously won gold in swimming events.
a 2016 Olympian, in being instrumental in the transition. Proving his incredible athleticism, Snyder won two bronze medals in 2019 at two separate world championship events in Yokohama, Japan, and Banyoles, Spain, respectively. The Floridian had planned to finish his career in Tokyo last summer after being accepted into the graduate program at SPIA in early 2020, but the pandemic delayed his training and his plans to retire from competition. Snyder was determined to compete at this year’s delayed games, so he and Billington moved to Hawaii to train. His excruciating daily regimen included training for all three disciplines — for instance, 2.5 miles of swimming, 2530 miles of biking, and 8-12 miles of running. The three-time Paralympian hopes to work at the Naval Academy once he completes his degree at Princeton, but this doesn’t mean he’s done racing yet. “If you had asked me in February of last year, I would have said Tokyo is going to be the last one,” he told Town Topics before the games. “I want to enjoy Tokyo and make the most of that moment, have the best race possible, and see how I feel when I come back.” Wilson Conn is a staff writer for the ‘Prince’ sports section. He can be reached at wconn@ princeton.edu or on twitter at @ wilson_conn.
WOMEN’S WATERPOLO
Ashleigh Johnson ’17 wins gold with USA women’s waterpolo By Wilson Conn
Staff Sports Writer
After a two week wait, Princeton finally had its first gold medalist of the Tokyo Olympics. American water polo goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson ’17 emerged victorious in the women’s water polo final on August 7 in Tokyo, leading her team to a 14–5 victory over Spain. This is Johnson’s second Olympic gold medal, as she was also a member of the winning US team in Rio 2016. The US women have now won gold at three consecutive Olympics. Johnson and her teammates’ journey at the Tokyo Games began in the group stage, where they went 3–1, their only loss coming by one goal against eventual bronze medalists Hungary. The Americans then cruised in the quarterfinals against Canada, winning 16–5, before winning a closer match against the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with a score of 15–11. Spain, who had knocked out Hungary in the other semifinal by two goals, proved to be no match for Team USA on either end of the pool. The Americans were especially dominant on the defensive end, thanks in large part to Johnson’s world-class performance. The former Tiger blocked 11 of Spain’s shots for a save percentage of 73 percent. She also blocked all six of Spain’s shots in the third quarter. Johnson was just as domi-
BEVERLY SCHAEFER / GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
Ashleigh Johnson ’17 playing water polo during her time at Princeton.
nant during her time at Princeton. In her four years as a Tiger, the Miami native led the Tigers to a 100–17 record, while racking up numerous individual accolades, including 19 College Water Polo Association Defensive Player of the Week awards. Johnson holds a number of school records, including career saves (1,362) and season saves (367). She also broke her own record for single-game saves multiple times during
her career, eventually setting the school and NCAA record in the 2015 NCAA fifth-place game against UC Irvine with 22 stops. In her senior season, Johnson recorded a 69.3 percent save percentage en route to a 22–4 record and the Cutino Award, an honor given out annually by the Olympic Club to the best player in collegiate water polo. In 2016, Johnson became the first African Ameri-
can woman to make a U.S. Olympic water polo team. After winning the gold medal this year in Tokyo, Johnson spoke about the importance of representing athletes of color in aquatics, a discipline typically dominated by white athletes. “I represent Miami. I represent people of color in aquatics. I represent this team. I represent women in sport,” Johnson told reporters. “Every single person on our team
represents their own community, represents their own group, and we carry that very seriously.” In total, Tigers have now recorded 70 medals at the summer and winter games, and Johnson’s is the 20th gold. Wilson Conn is a staff writer for the ‘Prince’ sports section. He can be reached at wconn@ princeton.edu or on twitter at @ wilson_conn.
Friday September 3, 2021
Sports
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{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } MEN’S FENCING
Mohamed Hamza ’23 finishes seventh in men’s foil at Tokyo Olympics
By Allan Shen
Senior News Writer
Egyptian foil fencer Mohamed Hamza, a junior, upset two former world championship medalists on his way to a top-eight finish in individual men’s foil at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The left-handed 20-year-old member of the University’s varsity fencing team entered his second Olympic Games ranked 29th in the world. In the table of 32, Hamza was matched against Marcus Mepstead of Great Britain, the individual silver medalist at the 2019 World Fencing Championships. Hamza fell to a 3–0 deficit but tied up the bout to 3–3 by the end of the first period. The back-and-forth continued in the second period as the two were tied at 8–8. Mepstead’s scoring took him to a 13–12 lead over Hamza, but Hamza was able to score three consecutive touches to complete the upset, 15–13, and advance to the table of 16. Hamza was up against a massive obstacle in the table of 16 in Andrea Cassarà of Italy.
The Italian veteran and former individual world champion was fencing at his fifth Olympic Games and was one of the top-seeded competitors in the event. The bout went much more quickly than Hamza’s matchup against Mepstead and never entered the second period. Hamza again found himself in an early 3–0 deficit and was only able to score one touch before Cassarà widened the lead to a substantial 6–1. Hamza found his form and began to score against Cassarà, but the latter was in full control of the bout until the score became 13–7. However, Cassarà would never get the last the two touches he needed to advance to the quarterfinals, as Hamza miraculously scored eight straight touches to pull off another 15–13 upset, this time over a former world champion. Hamza’s campaign would end in the table of eight, as he was defeated by Alexander Choupenitch of the Czech Republic, 15–9. Hamza finished seventh in the event while Choupenitch went on to win the bronze medal.
In a message to The Daily Princetonian following his seventh-place finish in the individual event, Hamza thanked members of the University community for believing in him and hyping him up for competition. “Being so close to the medal round and finishing 7th is bittersweet because it was a great competition but I know I could
have done something greater to be honest,” he wrote. “That said, I’ll definitely take this momentum into my team event and the following individual Olympic event in Paris 2024 hopefully!” Hamza added. “So motivated for what lies ahead!” Soon after, Hamza competed in the team foil event with his Egyptian teammates,
Alaaeldin Abouelkassem and Mohamed Hassan. They finished in eighth place. Allan Shen is a senior writer who often covers research and obituaries and previously served as an Associate News Editor. He can be reached at fuluns@princeton.edu, or on Twitter at @fulunallanshen.
BEVERLY SCHAEFER / GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
After competing in Tokyo, Trippas ’22 and Guttormsen ’23 look ahead to season By Rachel Posner
Senior Sports Writer
Two members of the Princeton men’s track and field team represented their home countries in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Ed Trippas, a rising senior, competed for Australia in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Sondre Guttormsen, a rising junior, competed for Norway in pole vault. Neither athlete advanced to the finals, but both are set to return to campus this fall. Trippas was a late qualifier for the Summer Games, achieving the Olympic standard of 8:22.00 on the last day of the qualification window. The Princeton athlete finished with a time of 8:19.60 to earn a spot on the Australian Olympic Team. Trippas’ time was the third-fastest ever run by an Australian and the 10th-fastest in the NCAA alltime list. When asked about his Olympic preparations, Trippas credits his time spent training, traveling, and racing in Europe before the Tokyo Games, while on a gap year. “It was motivating being
able to do hard workouts and long runs whilst seeing so many beautiful places,” Trippas wrote in a message to The Daily Princetonian. “When I look back now on what I consider to be my Olympic experience, I include those months leading up spent in Europe because of how much I loved that time and how it helped me make it to the Games.” Guttormsen also achieved major success heading into the Summer Games. The Princeton student-athlete currently holds the Norwegian national record in pole vault with a clearance of 5.81m (19’0.75”). He made his record-setting jump May 30, 2021 at the Chula Vista High Performance competition, two years after setting the national record at 5.80m (19’0.35”). Earlier this year, Guttormsen cleared 5.66m (18’7”) to set the record for highest ever jump by an Ivy League pole vaulter and stadium record in Gothenburg, Sweden. Guttormsen transferred to Princeton from` UCLA in the fall of 2020, joining his younger brother Simen Guttormsen ’23 on the men’s track and field
team. Both Sondre and Simen train in their hometown of Ski, Norway, coached by their father Atle Guttormsen. Sondre spent the year before the Tokyo Games training in Norway. Trippas competed in the second heat out of three, finishing the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11th place with a time of 8:29.90. To advance to the final, athletes must finish in the top three of their heat or among the next six fastest. “The Olympics were an incredible experience and running against such strong competition taught me so much for future races. Just being able to compete with the world’s best has shown me what it takes to be successful at that level. Walking out into the Olympic stadium was breathtaking and being able to race there representing my country, team, and family was such a privilege,” Trippas wrote. Guttormsen, the 22-yearold pole vaulter, entered the Olympic Games ranked 32nd in the world for the event, according to World Athletics. In the qualifying round, Guttormsen finished 11th
in his group after clearing 5.50m (18’0.045”) on his third attempt. He suffered a minor strain to the left quad during his first attempt at 5.65, putting him out of the rest of the competition. “Of course this was heartbreaking and frustrating but I quickly realized that I had done everything I could to be in top shape (which I was) and that not everything is under my control,” Guttormsen wrote to the ‘Prince.’ Guttormsen finished 24th overall, missing the finals. “Being in the Olympics was a dream come true. It has been my goal as an athlete ever since I first started pole vaulting at the age of 7. It is definitely a surreal experience and everything about the Olympics is so special,” Guttormsen reflected. In fact, he’s not quite over. “Seeing the results from the final (bronze medal 5.87) makes me very hopeful for my future career because I know that I am capable of those heights (my PR is 5.81m) and I have already set my goal for the next Olympics in Paris 2024: Medal!” Guttormsen wrote. The Princeton men’s track
and field team has a promising year ahead of them with Trippas and Guttormsen back on board. Besides being named Honorable Mention All-American and earning First Team All-Ivy League honors in the steeplechase, Trippas was also the Ivy League Champion in steeplechase and competed at the NCAA East Regional competition. “I am already excited to race the steeplechase again for Princeton and try win [sic] an NCAA title,” Trippas wrote. “But first is Cross Country season which I am looking forward to because of how unique it is being able to race with your teammates. I would like to contribute to the team doing well at NCAA championship and hopefully doing better than any other Princeton team has before.” Trippas will return to campus in the fall after deciding to not enroll for the 2020–21 academic year. He will serve as captain of the men’s cross country team. Guttormsen is excited to arrive on campus as a Princeton student-athlete for the first time after transferring from UCLA amid the pandemic and virtual learning. “I think the track and field team and coaches at Princeton will be a great environment for me to train and develop as an athlete, and I’m very much looking forward to representing Princeton in the NCAA competitions,” he wrote. Guttormsen also told the ‘Prince’ he hopes to break a few records and win some championships. “Apart from that I want to be the best teammate possible so that Princeton can continue to dominate the Ivy League.” Rachel Posner is a senior writer for the ‘Prince’ sports section. She also previously served as an Assistant Sports Editor and can be reached at rposner@princeton.edu.
BEVERLY SCHAFER (LEFT) / GOPRINCETONTIGERS.COM AND KRISTIN GUTTORMSEN (RIGHT)
Ed Trippas ’22 (left) and Sondre Guttormsen ’23 (right) each competed in the Tokyo Olympics.
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The Daily Princetonian
Friday September 3, 2021