Today's Briefing:

UNIVERSITY SELLS LITHIUM AMERICAS HOLDING: Princeton University sold the majority of its stake in the Lithium Americas Corporation during the second quarter of 2022, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings released on Aug. 10. Despite the University’s action, Protect Thacker Pass, a Nevada-based coalition of environmental and Indigenous activists, argued that the sale was insufficient as the University is “actively profiting from an industry that is violating human rights, destroying habitat, and polluting our planet.” This move comes after the University recently disassociated from 90 fossil fuel companies, including Exxon Mobil, and wrote in a recent statement that the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) would eliminate holdings in publicly traded fossil fuel companies in the endowment.

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ANTITRUST EXEMPTION EXPIRES, POSSIBLY AFFECTING ATHLETIC RECRUITMENT: The future of athletic scholarships in the Ivy League may be uncertain after Congress allowed a congressional antitrust exemption to expire last Friday, Sept. 30. The exemption permitted the Ivy League to unilaterally ban merit-based athletic scholarships without being in violation of antitrust law. Though Princeton determines financial aid independently and is not affected by the expiration, a change in policy by any Ivy League member may alter the dynamics of the conference. Princeton athletes gave differing opinions on the situation. Baseball pitcher Justin Kim ’26 said he thinks “Princeton has the funds necessary to give athletic scholarships to hard working athletes who put their education first.” Lindsey Lucas ’26, a goalie on the Women’s water polo team, expressed support for Princeton’s policies, saying  “the lack of athletic or merit scholarships at Princeton is made up for by the amazing financial aid here.”

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From Opinion: 

In the wake of former Princeton professor Maitland Jones being terminated from New York University after students called out his organic chemistry class for being too hard, Community Opinion Editor Rohit Narayanan writes that the firing calls into question the differences between what students and society want grades to represent: “students want grades to reflect that, given all the resources they needed, they mastered the content.” Narayanan writes: “Society wants grades to show which students succeeded and which floundered in a hard class. While we can’t say which is more valuable, schools should be optimizing for learning, not arbitrary faux-geniocratic sorting.”

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At Your Leisure

• THE PROSPECT: Sexpert: Managing expectations of doing well in bed
• THE PROSPECT: Existence, in theory and in practice
• PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode of Daybreak, The Daily Princetonian’s daily news podcast!