Opinion

Class conflict: Can we make course scheduling better?

We’re all told to maximize our time here, and no one will argue that the classes you choose are going  impact that time. Part of what you choose is the options you’re presented with, and course times are a big part of how we schedule our lives. Who knows how many people have left Princeton without experiencing that one life-changing class, that one class that made it all worth it, because Introduction to Spanish is at 1:30 p.m., and so is everything else.

The wrong way to increase Honor Committee accountability

This week, the USG election ballot includes yet another referendum to amend the Honor Constitution. Unlike the referenda from the fall, however, this proposal does not touch on the committee’s penalties or procedures. Instead, it focuses on the leadership of the committee itself. The referendum, if adopted, would create a procedure for a member of the Honor Committee to challenge the incumbent chair or clerk for their position. Regardless of your views on the Honor Committee and the fall referenda, this proposal should concern every student. 

The subtle uneasiness of being Chinese-American

Feeling ridiculed and disrespected is a universally shared experience that all types of people have felt on different scales.

To PDF or not to PDF

Let's be honest: The Panera shooting was a tragedy

So, what we’re left with is simply more questions, and it’s incumbent on good journalists to dig further, and for the State Attorney Generals’ office to release more information on the exact circumstances of the shooting on March 20. For our community’s part, Princeton seems to want to sweep the memory of the shooting away. A window was shot out in the Panera on the day of the shooting; it was replaced by evening the next day, as I walked by. And then a week later, Panera reopened, as if nothing had ever happened. “We remodeled,” read a cheery sign outside the storefront. 

Letter to the editor: Panel values student input on dining plans

We are eager to share more about our recommendations with students and continue to gather their feedback. The committee is holding three focus groups on the recommendations next week. For information, visit the committee’s website, https://boardplan.princeton.edu.

Me and my mother: Not part of the Tiger Club

Alongside my godmother and father, my mother taught my brother and me the discipline and hard work ethic that drove us to pursue our own dreams, without tightening nooses around our necks to study or completely secluding us from outside friendships. There were fights about grades and tests, but there were also fights about car privileges and party rights. My mother spearheaded the path I have taken, but she is by no means part of the club that most Asian American women are forced into as a result of the “tiger mom” narrative. 

An always overriding risk: U.S. strikes in Syria and superpower nuclear war

Precluding his earlier vaunted “element of surprise” (remember the election campaign?), Trump's residual policy options could lead inexorably to a direct U.S.-Russian military encounter. Among other “simple” things, the president's most capable strategic thinkers (not tactical military planners) will need to work very quickly through the unimaginably complex dialectics of virtually all possible nuclear scenarios and outcomes.

The "Real" Problem

[APPLY NOW!] Waste(Land) of Opportunity

The University should have more consistent institutional guidance for underclassmen, who are still confused as to where they see themselves in the near future.

Adulting 101

Fighting fire with fire: Campus carry

It is imperative, in today’s environment, to seriously view campus carry as a burden in an intellectual sense, as Makalani writes, and in a physical safety sense. 

Pset Paradox

Mixed Bearies

Alliance of Jewish Progressives: Open letter to Eric Fingerhut

We join our peers on campuses across the country in imploring you to revoke your endorsement of Kenneth Marcus and ensure our safety and the safety of all students.

The rigor that Princeton students take for granted

When course selection comes out right after the grind and frustration of midterms, it's tempting to seek out the classes whose course evaluations promise an “easy A.” Another semester of all-nighters in Sherrerd Hall sounds less appealing than two hours of lecture a week, one hour of reading, and an in-class midterm plus final. But, as we plan for our limited semesters here, we should keep in mind that it is this academic rigor — the constantly challenging material and ambitious curriculum — that drove us to Princeton in the first place.

Never too Late

On April 12, 2011 — seven years ago today — a much-loved senior Spanish lecturer at the University killed himself. The University had suspended him without due process, and in seeming violation of its own procedures. In the time since, there has never been an independent investigation of what the University did. Whenever I think of my Princeton experience, the University’s actions around the death of a beloved community member is what I remember most of all. 

Finding flowers in a snowstorm

But more than anything, my professor’s ability to find beauty on that seemingly forsaken day left me speechless. I was prepared to let the afternoon go to waste, just as I was ready to declare my day earlier this week a total failure. But my beloved professor wasn’t. Instead of seeing the obvious ugliness that sometimes surrounds us, she chose, instead, to see something beautiful. She saw blossoms in the midst of a snowstorm.

Modest and radical proposals

I disagree. While these people do hold severely and deeply incorrect views, I don’t think they are, for the most part, stupid, deranged, or vicious people. If the Republican thinks, for instance, that the U.S. government has a primary obligation to its citizens and that immigrants are bad for the country, then his conclusion about DACA would follow from his beliefs.

In defense of architectural modernism: The School of Architecture

I hope to show that many of the qualities that some deride in fact possess tremendous value. When we critique other modernist buildings on campus like it, we should be careful not to overlook their perhaps subtle beauty.