Opinion

What are we actually being graded on?

What are we actually being graded on?

Thomas Clark

In order to differentiate the dozens of bright and hardworking students in a class, the grading system doesn’t measure how much a student learned, but how much he or she is willing to sacrifice for a class. For some students, this sacrifice will be sleep. For others, it will be extracurriculars. For yet others, mental health.

OPINION | 02/19/2018

Why I’ve Stopped Taking Life Too Seriously

Bhaamati Borkhetaria

Ultimately, my travels have taught me that Princeton is a stepping stool. It is not the end-all minting machine that stamps us with a completely certain and immovable identity

OPINION | 02/18/2018

Open Letter to Sophomores

Guest Contributor

Remember that eating clubs are only one potential aspect of your upperclassmen life. Decisions are scary, but they also lead to exciting changes!

OPINION | 02/17/2018

How three mass shootings became part of my story

Guest Contributor

Responsible gun safety legislation — or the lack thereof — is something that dominates my daily thoughts. Lately, I have even started having dreams in which I become a victim of someone armed with an assault rifle.

OPINION | 02/15/2018

Emptiness and consciousness: Still unseen limits of American politics

Louis René Beres

In the end, credulity remains America's worst enemy. Our still willing inclination to believe that personal and societal redemption can somehow lie in politics describes a potentially fatal disorder.

OPINION | 02/15/2018

Engaging with Science Culture

Engaging with Science Culture

Guest Contributor

At a time when so many scientists are eager to be civically engaged, it is critical for those in the technical fields to ask themselves — both as individuals and as a community — What does it mean to be an effective advocate? What does it mean to be socially involved? How does one act as a thoughtful ally?

OPINION | 02/15/2018

P/D/F-ing Happiness

Aparna Shankar

College students are unhappy, or at the very least, not living what they view as “the good life.” Cognizant of the fallacies in approaching happiness as academics, the new phenomenon of positive psychology in colleges must be approached cautiously.

OPINION | 02/14/2018

Not all noodles are ramen

Nicholas Wu

The way we think about unique cultural heritages in the United States needs to change. Differentiating culinary traditions across cultures — rather than conflating and generalizing these traditions — is vital to appreciating the qualitative uniqueness of cultures.

OPINION | 02/14/2018

Letter to the editor: a challenge to Rouse

Guest Contributor

Students who remained missed the opportunity to join their fellow students outside the classroom, to be curious about the histories and lived experiences that make this one word so intolerable.

OPINION | 02/14/2018

In defense of Ram Trucks’ MLK Super Bowl ad

In defense of Ram Trucks’ MLK Super Bowl ad

Rachel Kennedy

Super Bowl Sunday is essentially an American holiday. Rocky-Mathey dining hall featured a game day meal of wings, chili, and guacamole, and every TV on campus streamed in to the biggest day in sports. Some watch for the game, but some stick around just for the commercials. Companies are willing to pay NBC about 5 million dollars per every 30 seconds. Car company Ram Trucks invested heavily in a minute long slot for their ad featuring a recording of a sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years ago to the day. With his voice serving as the only audio, quick blips of a Ram truck trudging through mud spliced various scenes of service work.

OPINION | 02/14/2018

Letter from the Editor: Why I won't publish the word "n****r"

Marcia Brown

When we broke the story that night about the student’s reaction, we had to decide if we would print the word “n****r.” Because the story was explicitly about the word’s use, many expected that we would print it. In fact, some college newspapers have. We chose not to.

OPINION | 02/13/2018

Blood donation at Princeton: We're running low

Guest Contributor

We are lagging. Here at Princeton, a university devoted to serving the nation and all humanity, an institution with students committed to being change-agents in our world, we are falling behind. While our student body does its part in donating time, energy, winter coats, children’s books, and monetary support, Princeton is running low on blood donations. And with the February blood drive coming up just next week, it’s time for us to think about what that means for us as a community.

OPINION | 02/13/2018

Condemn or exonerate Rosen?

Ryan Born

Let’s settle this. Did Rosen do something wrong, or did the students overreact?

OPINION | 02/12/2018

It’s not you (and why you should accept that)

It’s not you (and why you should accept that)

Leora Eisenberg

When I look at myself on a good day, I don’t search for faults. I see an attractive, funny, smart young woman who enjoys life. But when I look at whatever goes wrong in my life, I see only faults. I see an ugly, stupid failure who ruins everything she touches — even when that’s just not true.

OPINION | 02/12/2018

Letter to the Editor: In defense of the students who walked out on Rosen

Guest Contributor

As an anthropologist teaching in the Princeton Writing Program whose courses regularly involve offensive material, I would like to weigh in on the recent controversy surrounding Lawrence Rosen’s use of the N-word in his class. In short, I write in support of the students who walked out on Rosen.

OPINION | 02/12/2018

Letter to the Editor: In defense of Black Princetonians

Guest Contributor

Letter to the Editor: I am hereby skipping my morning run to write a brief response to Professor Rouse's Feb. 8 letter.

OPINION | 02/11/2018

Letter to the Editor: In defense of the students who walked out of Rosen’s class

Guest Contributor

In her February 8th letter to the editor, Professor Carolyn Rouse offered a pedagogy for Rosen’s class as contextual background for why certain students should not have walked out. Unfortunately, her letter entirely misses the point as to why the students walked out of class.

OPINION | 02/09/2018

Letter to the Editor: In defense of Rosen

Letter to the Editor: In defense of Rosen

Guest Contributor

I write to provide important context to the events reported on Feb. 7 in the Daily Princetonian story “Students walk out of anthropology lecture after professor uses the word “n****r.” Like every semester, professor Lawrence Rosen started the class by breaking a number of taboos in order to get the students to recognize their emotional response to cultural symbols. Rosen was fighting battles for women, Native Americans, and African-Americans before these students were born.

OPINION | 02/08/2018

Letter to the Editor: Why we march

Guest Contributor

Princeton Pro-Life (PPL) is a campus group. The President may be reached at acavasos@princeton.edu.

OPINION | 02/08/2018

Letter to the Editor: Setting the table

Guest Contributor

At Princeton, another year has come and gone, and with it the cycle of all our peculiar rituals. This week, a significant portion of the junior and senior classes gather in big mansions behind locked doors (they’re locked: I’ve checked) to cast judgment on a significant portion of the sophomore class. They will display the sophomore’s names and photos, hear the case for and against the social merits of each, and then, one by one, vote on whether or not to admit the sophomore in question into their mansion.

OPINION | 02/07/2018

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