Today’s Briefing: 

On October 21st, over four thousand people attended a Zoom lecture by Dorian Abbot, a University of Chicago Associate Professor of Geophysical Sciences on “Climate and the Potential for Life on Other Planets.” Abbot was introduced by Robert P. George, ​​the Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions (JMP), which hosted the lecture after MIT canceled it because of Professor Abbot’s statements against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in an Op-Ed written for the Newsweek.

“I am extremely worried about our ability to do effective science in [an] atmosphere [of] ... illiberalism, intolerance, and censorship,” Abbot wrote in an email to the ‘Prince.’ 

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In a town council meeting on October 25th that lasted over five and a half hours, the Princeton Town Council passed an unprecedented ordinance banning gas leaf blowers, debated whether to allow Claridge Wine and Liquor to open on Nassau Street, and discussed rezoning areas around the Hun School for educational purposes. While the banning of gas leaf blowers was met with unanimous public support due to environmental reasons and support from landscapers, approving Claridge Wine and Liquor to move from their original location in the Princeton Shopping Center to Nassau Street drew criticism from other local businesses, such as Hamilton Jewelers, Labyrinth Books, and the Princeton Arts Gallery. 

“A liquor store at this location will actively detract from the Princeton experience, particularly on this block of Nassau Street,” wrote Hank and Andrew Siegel, owners of Hamilton Jewelers in a letter to the Council.

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From Opinion

• The University has committed to partial divestment from certain segments of the fossil fuel industry. But, Contributing Columnist Lucia Wetherill argues these actions are far from adequate. Whetherhill opines that the University’s unwillingness to completely divest from fossil fuels — maintaining partnerships with companies like ExxonMobil — reflects a lack of resolve to counter the rapidly accelerating effects of climate change, contradicting the core values elaborated in its mission statement.

  “As those who stand to inherit a rapidly heating Earth, we cannot allow Princeton to favor promises and committees over decisive action, especially when our own divestment could push other universities or even states to do the same,” writes Wetherill.

• With the return to in-person classes this fall semester, many students have been afflicted by the notorious “Princeton plague,” and the resultant abundance of coughs, runny noses, and headaches have placed student health in flux. Guest Contributor Ana Blanco argues that the University’s reluctance to provide students sick with illnesses other than COVID-19 with accommodations and flexibility reflects a poor commitment to prioritizing public health beyond the pandemic.

  “Academic rigor is a glowing hallmark of this school, but if the ongoing pandemic has taught us anything, it is that academics are not everything; we cannot and should not continue to normalize practices that glorify work over health,” writes Blanco.
  
  READ THE OPINION

Sports

• On Saturday, Princeton defeated Harvard at the Homecoming football game, securing a close 18-16 victory. Click here to view photographs captured during the momentous game.
• The men’s water polo team played 6 games in 7 days last week and traveled to Santa Clara, California on Friday to compete in the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament, after suffering two losses earlier in the week. Over the weekend, the Tigers claimed two victories and experienced one loss. Princeton will face Harvard and MIT this Saturday in Cambridge, Mass., and Brown on Sunday in Providence, R.I. 
• Over the weekend, the Tigers competed against several schools in home and away games, securing a series of wins and losses. The teams that competed were the women’s volleyball team, the field hockey team, both women’s and men’s soccer, football, and men’s water polo. 

At Your Leisure

• THE PROSPECT: “The French Dispatch,” Wes Anderson’s latest avant-garde film, delivers a riveting account of three short stories published in a fictitious periodical modeled after the real-life, zany “New Yorker.” Head Editor of The Prospect Cameron Lee praises Anderson’s ability to establish tension between “authenticity and artifice,” merge flamboyant visual aesthetics in unique ways, and imbue his cinematic work with the essence of “camp.” 

  “Taken as an ode to journalism, ‘The French Dispatch’ is suffused with emotion, purposely forgoing all seriousness so that we, the audience, have permission to view the life of a journalist through rose-colored glasses,” writes Lee.

• SATIRE: In purely satirical and entirely fictional news, Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) will be replaced by “a larger, more robust collection of board games,” and President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 has announced the naming of Residential Colleges 7 and 8, but with 50-year expiration dates in case the chosen names age poorly. 
• DAYBREAK: Listen in to the latest episode from Daybreak, The Daily Princetonian's daily news podcast!