Today’s Briefing: 

UNIVERSITY INADVERTENTLY ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO COVID-19 TESTING PROTOCOL: On Tuesday evening, students became aware of an apparent update to Princeton’s COVID-19 resources webpage, which seemed to indicate a reduction in frequency of surveillance asymptomatic testing to only once a month. Later that evening, the update was removed. A University spokesperson confirmed that the posting was inadvertent and that "no decisions have been announced regarding changes" to COVID-19 policy. The unintentional update arrives amid an ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases on campus.

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21 SENIORS RUN FOR YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE: From Tuesday, March 1 through Thursday, March 10, members of the Class of 2022 will vote in primary elections for the 2022 Young Alumni Trustee (YAT). This year, there are 21 members of the Class of 2022 running for YAT. The elected graduating senior joins the Board of Trustees and will serve a four-year term following their graduation. 

Established in 1969, the YAT position was created “to ensure that the board would always include four members with recent experience as undergraduates,” as described on the Princeton University Alumni website.

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CAMPUS COVID-19 CASES REACH RECORD HIGHS: According to the University COVID-19 dashboard’s latest updates, the campus-wide COVID-19 positivity rate rose to 2.59 percent during the week ending on Feb. 25, a slight increase from the 2.32 percent reported the week prior.

There were 118 total cases on Feb. 28, including 110 undergraduates — the highest single-day number of undergraduate cases thus far. The seven-day average reached its highest since mid-January at 53 cases. 

Among undergraduate students, the positivity rate was 5.55 percent during the week ending on Feb. 25, an increase of 0.66 percent from the week prior. Out of 5,870 undergraduate tests collected, there were 326 positive cases. The campus risk status remains in the “Moderate to High” range, following the semester-high number of positive cases reported on Feb. 15.

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OPINION | Why won’t Princeton administrators lift the mask mandate?

Guest Contributor and Head Sports Editor Emeritus Tom Salotti argues that Princeton University needs to catch up to the rest of New Jersey and set an example for peer institutions by ending the mask mandate on campus.

“In my experience, on a given afternoon or evening in town, few people are wearing masks in shops or restaurants. The absurdity of the situation on campus is clear when you spot a friendly administrator or professor in Small World or Tacoria and chat with them for a minute or two, sans masks. But if you were on campus, you’d both have to mask up!” he writes.

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OPINION | The need for the mask mandate and an improved outlook on COVID-19

Columnist Gisele Bisch contends that the growing acceptance of COVID-19 as endemic overlooks its enduring disruptive effects on public health, citing the recent surge of COVID-19 cases on campus as evidence of its continued impact. Bisch emphasizes that the University should be instituting more, not less, restrictions geared toward preventing the spread of COVID-19, arguing that the preservation of the mask mandate until further notice is more than warranted.

“But the truth is that such a ‘sense of normalcy’, reminiscent of those times before the pandemic, is not possible anymore. There is too much at stake, and we don’t know how COVID-19 will impact the health of our community or the way that we interact with one another — academically and non-academically,” writes Bisch.

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At Your Leisure:

• FEATURES: Associate Features Editor Sydney Eck sat down with Heather Parker, a widely admired University employee in the Rocky-Mathey Dining Hall. In addition to greeting students and swiping their proxes, “Ms. Heather” brings an exuberance to her profession that leaves smiles on students’ faces long after they’ve left the dining hall.
• THE PROSPECT: Contributing writer for The Prospect Erin Fenno recounts the momentous turn his evening took when, instead of arriving to Richardson Auditorium to watch the Princeton University Orchestra perform, he found himself in McCarter Theatre, just in time to be seated for “Fuenteovejuna,” a fascinating blend of theatrical performance, heavy metal, and shadow dancing.
• SPORTS: Read a weekly recap of how the Tigers, including women’s hockey and men’s basketball, fared in their games over the past week here!