Opinion

Letter to the Editor: December 15, 2011

HEI prides itself on some of the highest employee satisfaction scores in the hospitality industry, we fuel local economic prosperity by investing in the communities where we operate, and our commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability was recently recognized by winning numerous awards and by our inclusion in the Obama administration’s “Better Buildings Challenge.”

Our freedoms

Even if we believe that the bill does not affect us personally (which it could), we cannot allow these perpetrations to continue. Already, we allow citizens to be monitored under the Patriot Act. Already we allow torture to take place in secret prisons. Already, we have allowed military law to carry on outside of due process, and now we are allowing it to extend to our own fellow citizens.

'diStracted' or dispirited?

All of a sudden, I saw one girl walk onto the stage; she then jerked her neck to the side to simulate lynching. Then, “Strange Fruit” began to play. For those of you who don’t know what “Strange Fruit” is, this song was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol to vent the horror of seeing a photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two black men, in an almost carnival-like background. I couldn’t believe my ears — or my eyes.

Editorial: Revise final exam policies

Sports teams are not the only valuable extracurricular on this campus, nor are they more important than the other extracurriculars that the University sponsors. Therefore, they should not be the only ones with this opportunity — members of organizations like the University Band, the Debate Team and Mock Trial — groups that sometimes have events scheduled during finals week — should also have this option.

Cartoon: How a textbook spends winter break

Leaders of men?

Our society already provides enough incentives, including financial ones, for college graduates not to take risks. The concept of leadership that we accept ought not further pave the road to inaction.

Admitting that we don't know

There seems to be a campus ban on appearing unworldly, uncultured or unintelligent, an unspoken agreement to position Princeton not as a place for learning but as a place for the learned. What is it about being among the often remarked “best and brightest” that makes us wary of ever admitting that in some areas we are the “worst and dullest”?

Cartoon: The final(s) countdown

The disease of cliche

A global torrent of cliche and banality forever undermines what we truly believe. Anonymous commentators do something to highlight this consistent danger and diminish it; however, much more can and should be done.

Why we drink

I do not hyperbolize when I say that ethanol, or what we have come to refer to as alcohol, is a significant component of the American college, and therefore the Princeton, undergraduate experience.

Cartoon: Princeton Black Friday

Editorial: Don't invest in HEI

Now that Princeton is well aware of allegations against HEI, the school ought to follow the example of Brown, UPenn and Yale and not reinvest with the company. This is a policy Princeton should follow whenever it is faced with clear evidence of wrongdoing on the part of its investees.

Smiling at strangers

In late October I was averaging what I thought to be an impressive four hellos on my daily mid-morning walk from my dorm room to Italian class. They weren’t people I knew exactly, for “know” is a strong word to describe our poorly defined relationships. They were other freshmen that I’d met in passing, friends of friends or people who happened to have the same dining schedule as my own. In those early months of school, there was the idealistic possibility that each fleeting conversation of “What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “What’s your major?” could yield some blissful friendship or, at the very least, another lonely soul to acknowledge your presence as you trudged from one class to the next.  

Cartoon: Home in 7 days

Editorial: Cannon's bicker process

We oppose Cannon’s decision to bicker students at a different time from the other eating clubs. The Bicker process works best when all clubs hold the process at the same time. Under this model, students are forced to choose one club to bicker. When all the clubs start bickering students at the same time, no club is able to gain an unfair advantage over the others.

Occupy Princeton

You may have noticed us the past few weeks. Since Nov. 17, we have been congregating weekly outside of Frist Campus Center, standing in a circle and shouting echoes of what speakers say. We are Occupy Princeton.

The value of classical languages

Latin and classical Greek are not merely linguistic puzzles on a page. They develop one’s ability to negotiate real-life cultural barriers as effectively as any living language, while providing peerless access to the treasures of Western civilization.

The proliferation of waffle

Verbal vagueness is a time-honored college tradition. It is the overworked student’s trusty standby in those seminar sessions when everyone except the teacher knows that no one did the reading. However, there’s such a thing as excessive equivocation, and too many students at Princeton are toeing the line.

Cartoon: Steaming pile of homework

In focus: the CNR reviewed

While reality television has launched many a CNR, with the rise of social media, we move away from the traditional CNR pattern to the introduction of self-made CNRs. These self-mades jolt into the public eye without so much as a Celebutante Ball or wardrobe malfunction.