Columns

Many academic awards select winners using predetermined criteria. Committees evaluate students’ accomplishments on the same abstract scale. This approach seems egalitarian: everyone plays on the same field. In practice, though, it ignores substantial cultural divides between fields of study that affect class arrangements, study habits, relationships with professors, the amount of free time they have, and how they spend it.

OPINION | 04/16/2020

Communalism: What the U.S. is lacking to fight the coronavirus

U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Wil Acosta

Communalism: What the U.S. is lacking to fight the coronavirus

Kate Lee

We must learn to see each other, all of us, as people whose lives could just as easily be our own, whose destinies are linked together. We must be willing to cease prejudice toward other cultures and countries. We must learn to see “communalism” as separate from Communism.

OPINION | 04/16/2020

Black Lives Matter: It must be said

Black Lives Matter: It must be said

Rachel Kennedy

As I think of the thousands of black people mourning loved ones now, I doubt pointing to institutional disregard and devaluation provides them with any solace. But by addressing and changing those systemic patterns, we can help prevent others from enduring the same treatment.

OPINION | 04/15/2020

The GPA debacle

Harsimran Makkad / The Daily Princetonian

The GPA debacle

Liam O'Connor

It’s high time to stop using GPAs as a rigid measure of undergraduates’ talents.

OPINION | 04/15/2020

COVID-19 and student athletes: Response from President Eisgruber

COVID-19 and student athletes: Response from President Eisgruber

Christopher L. Eisgruber

This public health crisis has required us to ask all Princeton undergraduates to do a difficult thing: to complete their semesters online, and, in the case of our seniors, to forgo experiences that they had anticipated throughout their time here.

OPINION | 04/14/2020

COVID-19 and student athletes: An open letter to President Eisgruber

The University’s announcement affects the Princeton eligibility of seniors such as men’s lacrosse captain Michael Sowers. 
Shelley M. Swazst / goprincetontigers.com

COVID-19 and student athletes: An open letter to President Eisgruber

Guest Contributors

We hesitated to write you because we feel you've done an outstanding job leading the University, and with the gravity of the pandemic backdrop, because you obviously are facing many unforeseen and serious challenges every day. However, we feel compelled to reach out to you on this issue because we feel strongly that Princeton has made the wrong decision on not permitting its students to withdraw and come back next spring.

OPINION | 04/14/2020

Princeton’s award paradox

Princeton’s award paradox

Liam O'Connor

Teaching styles, grading disparities, high school backgrounds, and departmental politics all play roles in who’s crowned Old Nassau’s top students. I will explore each of these factors in depth for subsequent columns. But first, I’ll give a brief overview of who at Princeton is winning the nine prestigious academic awards to show why their results are so baffling.

OPINION | 04/13/2020

Extend the P/D/F deadline

Claire Wayner

Like it or not, grades are a way by which society evaluates us, but Princeton can alleviate the burden in this unusual semester by giving us the full ability, through an extended PDF deadline, to choose which grades we reveal while navigating the challenges of online learning.

OPINION | 04/12/2020

Patterns in the pandemic: What racial data tells us and why we need more

Patterns in the pandemic: What racial data tells us and why we need more

Shannon Chaffers and Julia Chaffers

As we eventually negotiate the aftermath of this crisis, this data should be a moment of reckoning that motivates reparative and preventative measures to support the health of people of color, pandemic or not.

OPINION | 04/09/2020

Hope isn’t cancelled

The Center for Jewish Life.
Jon Ort / The Daily Princetonian

Hope isn’t cancelled

Guest Contributor

This year, when we are all restricted from leaving our homes and passing through the threshold of our doorways into the world, let us stand up despite our isolation, anxiety and despair, and open our doors and our hearts with singing.

OPINION | 04/08/2020

Bernie drops out, leaving only one path forward

Bernie drops out, leaving only one path forward

Richard Ma

The responsibility is sole and simple, and that is to vote for Joe Biden. It is not only your duty as an American, but also your duty to the future.

OPINION | 04/08/2020

How to interpret the big numbers in the news

How to interpret the big numbers in the news

Ollie Thakar

In an effort to comprehend the exponential growth and the resulting large numbers associated with coronavirus, I have furnished some heuristic analogies that I hope will help display the full expanse of the disease more concretely. If we take the time to comprehend the intuition-defying numbers of confirmed and new cases of the coronavirus, these numbers, while terribly disheartening, should become more manageable.

OPINION | 04/07/2020

The solution to coronavirus is political

Braden Flax

We must remember that the crisis we face is societal, not biological. Its solution lies not in moral principles, but in political struggle.

OPINION | 04/06/2020

How to stay happy during social distancing

How to stay happy during social distancing

Richard Ma

The compromises we need to make aren’t always optimal. But ultimately, by living the way we are now and through the sacrifices that others are making, we can keep things bright for the future.

OPINION | 04/05/2020

An open letter to the Dean of the College

Dormitories on campus.
Jon Ort / The Daily Princetonian

An open letter to the Dean of the College

Juan José López Haddad

Adopting the universal PDF measure will demonstrate Princeton’s commitment to not just creating smart leaders, but empathetic leaders, who prioritize their communities and vulnerable populations in times of need.

OPINION | 03/31/2020

Politicizing People: American lives aren’t up for debate

Politicizing People: American lives aren’t up for debate

Julia Chaffers

Columnist Julia Chaffers argues that the current government response to coronavirus in the United States prioritizes profits over lives.

OPINION | 03/30/2020

A silver lining: the resurgence of journalism in the face of coronavirus

A silver lining: the resurgence of journalism in the face of coronavirus

Kate Lee

Editorial Assistant Kate Lee discusses the rise of journalism’s importance amid the coronavirus crisis.

OPINION | 03/30/2020

Coronavirus, structural injustice, and moral responsibility

Coronavirus, structural injustice, and moral responsibility

Sebastian Quiroz

Structural change requires collective action: action that is possible only if we all take responsibility for our choices and for making better ones.

OPINION | 03/29/2020

On losing friendships to the coronavirus

On losing friendships to the coronavirus

Leora Eisenberg

Three months before I planned on having these thoughts (i.e. at graduation), I am having them: will our friendships survive?

OPINION | 03/29/2020

When life gives you COVID-19, start learning for learning’s sake

McCosh Hall houses the Department of English at the University.

When life gives you COVID-19, start learning for learning’s sake

Ollie Thakar

With examinations, the pressures of job applications or graduate schools, and our own internal wills to maintain high GPAs looming over each semester, we often forget that learning can be fun. The coronavirus, while wreaking havoc in almost all aspects of our lives, can — if we make the most of the opportunity it has provided us — bring back the joys associated with being curious.

OPINION | 03/26/2020

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