Today’s Briefing: 

USG: At the weekly Undergraduate Student Government (USG) meeting, the USG Senate voted to create a Lawnparties Review Committee “to gather information, deliberate internally, report to the Senate, and develop recommendations around relevant issues within its scope,” according to the committee proposal.

The proposal cited USG’s decision to change their headliner act from LANY to A$AP Ferg as a key reason for the establishment of the new committee.

In other USG-related developments, Vice President for Campus Life Rochelle Calhoun also attended the USG meeting to stage a Q&A session with students in attendance, discussing topics such as international travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, disciplinary actions related to Social Contract violations from last semester, progress on anti-racism initiatives, and the University’s plans on avoiding student mental health crises.

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KATZ LAWSUIT: In February of this year, classics professor Joshua Katz filed a lawsuit alleging “viewpoint discrimination” against the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a federation of 75 scholarly organizations. Katz claimed the society had retracted his invitation to serve as one of the society’s representatives due to controversy regarding a column the professor wrote in July 2020.

However, on Oct. 5, Katz’s lawsuit was dismissed because it fell short of satisfying the required standards for jurisdiction in federal court in New Jersey. The decision leaves the door open for Katz to refile his lawsuit against the ACLS in New York, where the society is based.

Katz sought monetary compensation for the purported damages the ACLS caused him, including claims that the decision to retract his invitation damaged his reputation and compromised his “potential for future advancement.”

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In Opinion

• CHANGE MIDTERMS: Associate Opinion Editor Won-Jae Chang addresses the flawed structure of Princeton’s midterm system, describing the detrimental effects that the system has on students’ mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Chang writes that during midterms week, students must contend with making “a near-impossible tradeoff: do we give half-effort on assignments and focus solely on studying for exams, or do we try to balance both and risk doing poorly on such heavily-weighted assessments?” Ultimately, Chang advocates for institutional change from the University to remedy the grueling challenges introduced by midterms week.

In The Prospect

• Princeton’s diversity of critters makes the experience of dwelling on campus a scenic, unique experience, what with the consistent presence of deer, foxes, black squirrels, and hornets, among many other creatures characteristic of the Princeton environment. Contributing Writer Guanyi Cao compiles the accounts of several first-year students’ wildlife encounters, emphasizing the memorable nature of such rendezvous.

Tiger Q: Does Princeton have school spirit?

At Your Leisure

• SATIRE: The Band recommends placing orders as soon as possible, as requests for popular campus figures like That Guy Who Has Been Hacking Up a Lung in The Back of Your 200-Person Lecture and Any Res College Staff Who Still Use The Phrase “Unprecedented Times” may fill up quickly.
• SATIRE: Last week, senior meteorologist Dr. Syukuro Manabe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on climate change. The University has formed a committee, a subcommittee, and a working group that will take Manabe’s work into consideration in deciding whether to make a divestment plan.

• PODCAST: Check out the latest episode of Daybreak!