Why Princeton University should donate the Butler Tract to a community land trust
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Content warning: The following column contains references to sexual assault. If you or a friend have experienced sexual misconduct and are in need of assistance, Princeton has a number of resources that may be of use. You can also reach SHARE, Princeton’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education service at 609-258-3310.
Wars, humanitarian crises, politics, shifting COVID-19 regulations, and many other issues dominate the media and public discourse week in and week out. To better help students fully utilize their education and responsibly enter this global discourse, Princeton should encourage faculty to develop adaptable course curricula that incorporate current events into classroom discussions. This will enable students to connect the theoretical or historical aspects of courses they are taking to real-world situations.
In a recent column, Rohit Narayanan ’24 argues that “Princeton [should] eliminate its admissions department and form an admissions collective with other private colleges of similar size, expense, and offerings.” For Narayanan, it seems, meritocracy in the college admissions process is a sham. Drawing an analogy between the college admissions process and Princeton’s residential college system, he claims that it is easy to see why the current general admissions process is “absurd,” especially given that elite colleges do not randomly assign students among themselves.
Most of us have lost count of the number of times we’ve seen or heard the words “mental health” in the last two years. The pandemic and other crises have taken a huge toll on our mental health and underscored the need to invest more in resources like counseling. Administrators, professors, and our classmates have acknowledged the challenges of the past two years and encouraged us to get help when needed. However, acknowledging mental health crises and responding to them is not enough. In order to truly improve mental health on campus, Princeton’s administration must take a proactive approach to mental health.
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At a party in the early morning of Nov. 20, 1960, a man stabbed his wife with a penknife: once in the stomach and once in the back, nearly killing her. When another partygoer attempted to revive her as she lay bleeding on the floor, he reportedly said, “Get away from her. Let the bitch die.” The man was Norman Mailer, American novelist and essayist. His wife was the artist Adele Morales Mailer.
Princeton University often promotes its commitment to a diverse student body with members hailing from varied backgrounds. But the same standard of diversity is not apparent in the demographics of Princeton’s faculty. To ensure varied teaching perspectives in Princeton classrooms, faculty diversity desperately needs to increase.
The Supreme Court recently announced that it will hear the Harvard and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill cases challenging affirmative action. In light of the court’s new conservative supermajority, that news is alarming. If the 2016 Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas is overturned, there is a high likelihood that Black and Latino populations at universities across the nation will be severely diminished.
I recently asked my roommate about her experience in a tap dance class at Princeton. I was completely unfamiliar with the dance program and was curious to learn about the class structure and format. As our discussion unfolded, I learned that the University, understandably, reimbursed the cost of dance shoes for this class, which hovers around $100. Such reimbursement is important for many reasons: it encourages students to try dance classes by eliminating the burden of cost for participation, and it ensures that all students are given an equal chance — at least based on equipment — to perform well in the class. I was glad to see a system in place that works to foster an environment where all students are able to experiment and take advantage of the opportunities around them.
Prior to coming to Princeton, I watched a Woke Wednesdays video in which an interviewee stated, “Princeton is the worst place in the world to be with your friends.” I was shocked and worried. I began to wonder if I had made the right choice of college, and I hoped that I would never know what the interviewee meant.
On March 2, 2022, Princeton University announced that masks will not be required indoors in any setting except classes where a professor or TA chooses to mandate them from March 14 onwards. In addition, Princeton will now only test undergraduate students once a month — mostly to monitor COVID-19 spread on campus.
Author’s Note: A medical diagnosis made by a counselor during one of my encounters with CPS is redacted due to medical privacy concerns and referred to as “X” throughout this column.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The following open letter is a guest contribution and reflects the signatories’ views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
Earlier this month, a group of students sent an email to all the listservs with a petition attached, urging the University to end its mask mandate. Due to the apparent decline of COVID-19 cases across the country and several states’ subsequent decisions to eliminate the mask mandate, some students have argued that Princeton should follow suit. However, considering people with different immune systems and the welfare of the student body overall, I think we should do otherwise.
A Princeton University administrator once asked me if I had ever experienced “Princeton magic.” I was puzzled at the question, so I asked him to elaborate. Princeton magic, he said, is “the feeling that this place is special or that an event that occurred is something that could only happen here.”
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
One thing is for sure: The University wants us to know that it’s committed to in-person learning. Dean of the College Jill Dolan, along with Acting Dean of the Graduate School Cole Crittenden and Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett, took to the pages of The Daily Princetonian to set that principle in stone. Dolan has stuck by that policy in an interview with the ‘Prince,’ and sent a letter to the student body on Feb. 18, insisting that “the success of your education demands that you be present and healthy at each class meeting so that you can participate actively.”
Last December, the Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Several countries followed suit, refusing to send their top officials to Beijing as a form of protest against China’s well-documented human rights violations against its Uyghur ethnic minority. These diplomatic boycotts, however, have widely been regarded as mere symbolic gestures. Some critics, such as Susan Brownell, a former U.S. Olympic trialist, have gone so far as to call the boycott a “waste of time,” claiming that it “will most likely have no impact on China’s domestic policies.”