Opinion

Deep thoughts

Take a look at a syllabus from a bygone class. There’ll probably be a lot on there: the lectures and precepts, the required readings, the response papers, problem sets, Blackboard posts, the term papers and projects, the take-home midterm, the final exam, enrichment and recommended readings. Now ask yourself: how much of that work did you do, and how much did you do thoroughly?

Cartoon: Small devices

The Bermuda Triangle

Take a moment to consider your precepts and seminars. If you had to, could you name each of your classmates correctly? This task would be nearly impossible for me; precepts played the name game on the first day and have since avoided this touchy subject. What is the result of this? Perhaps students are less eager to participate because of these unfamiliar surroundings.

Who’s been reading in my book?

Knowing which books are in someone’s library gives a glimpse into his or her soul, and poring over the marginalia in these books — and, of course, in library copies, where scribbles of past users regularly inspire amusement, wonder and disgust — can sometimes get deep into that soul.

Cartoon: Procrastination prevention

When Facebook and academia collide

Some weeks later, my undergraduate adviser told me I had pissed off faculty members at one of my prospective grad schools with my blog postings. Apparently some faculty at that school had found my blog, presumably while Googling me, and subsequently followed my updates with sufficient zeal to catch the perceived slight.

Editorial: Hiring for the future

With so many universities cutting back, there are many excellent academics searching for limited, open faculty positions at top universities. The institutions that capitalize on this market will assure themselves a better future.

And the Wall came tumblin' down

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago this week. It concretely divided East and West, and now it figuratively divides our generation from our parents’. Yet one suspects that many college-age American students remained unaware of the anniversary.

Editorial: Laying off responsibility

As members of the University community continue to adjust to the “new normal” after a severe economic downturn, it is more important than ever that we have debates over what is critical to Princeton and what is tangential. The recent staff layoffs raised this question.

Honoring the honor system

We should look to institutions like Haverford and Wellesley for models of an honor system that reflects community values.

Cartoon: Hide and seek

PrinceCast #20: Club presidents, U. spending and admin. diversity

Columnists Charlie Metzger, Peter Zakin and Monica Greco discuss female eating club officers, the cost of college and minority members of the University administration.

Living a good life, without God

Humanism can be as fundamental an aspect of one’s worldview as any religious belief.

Criminal minds

In examining heinous criminal behavior, we uncover an intellectual and ethical obligation to draw a line in the sand, to say, at the very least, that there are some desires that ought not to be pursued and that are inherently, incorrigibly disordered.

Cartoon: Trying Triangle

Letters to the Editor: Nov. 12, 2009

Equalize retirement contributions for all employees; Public Safety should give students advance notice before confiscating bikes

Climbing Mt. Princeton

A little more than two years ago, I was one of the eager travelers at the foot of this Orange Mountain.

Editorial: Postponing the P/D/F

The P/D/F option often does not serve as a safety net for students who seek to challenge themselves by taking an unusual course but do not want to waste one of their P/D/F options.

Cartoon: What I actually did over Fall Break

Identifying with mental illness

This fall Break, I took the train up to New York with seven other Princeton students on a Pace Center-sponsored Breakout Princeton trip to learn about the particular stigmas associated with mental illness. We spent nights in sleeping bags on the floor of a church and the days descending into subway cars that deposited us in neighborhoods all over the city — Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan.