Opinion

Love letter (sort of)

Consider this a thank-you-bordering-on-love letter to Princeton from someone with too many reservations to just say love letter and be done with it. Dear Princeton: I do not (yet) love you, but I appreciate and admire you with all the sincerity my icy skeptical heart can muster. Here’s why.

A matter of time

We need to stop viewing education — both our own as Princetonians and that of children across the country — as the sum of all the lectures we attend, papers we write and time we spend looking at a blackboard — or Blackboard. Instead of trying to extend the school day, policy-makers like Emmanuel should seek to promote those things which ultimately enhance learning: social free time, the arts, efficient lesson plans. Only when we rid ourselves of this obsession with over-structuring and numbers can we improve education in a fundamental and meaningful way.

Undecided, open-minded

Apparently the mere thought that anyone would consider wasting their time applying to college without a major firmly in mind or, even worse, that someone would actually spend up to two years in college without having success in one field planned out every step of the way was so stupid it was laughable. The representative assured me that students did not need to declare a major right away, but the damage was done.

Finishing your thesis with Paul Newman

Getting in from abroad

I am in no position to make a value judgment on either system, and I accept that this is an incomplete picture of both systems. These are merely possible conclusions that provide some sort of explanation to my school’s dilemma. Despite their effort to focus on the American application culture, students still find it hard to place themselves in the American essay mindset through no fault of their own; they are just not prepared to do so.

Intersections

The Lewis Center is relocating to the southwest corner of campus and getting seriously spruced up.

Taking back the night

As SHARE is Princeton’s premiere resource for fostering a community of consent and ending sexual assault and violence, I assumed that the event would be dedicated to something along those lines. But, as I quickly learned, the event was not meant to talk “along the lines” of rape, to say things vaguely or to talk unambiguously about the issue at hand.

Prosumerism

The Internet is such a powerful and unbridled outlet for creativity because it is a wide-reaching, interactive network that undergoes no censorship.

YOLO

While I obviously see the value of gaining a wide variety of experiences, I’m always struck by the pure and simple hedonistic value of these boys’ approach to life. I don’t doubt that it’s the result of being young, and that as they get older they’ll feel more pressure to subscribe to the “check and move on” approach. But I think there’s a nice quality to their style of ‘You Only Live Once’ ideology — one that avoids both the problems of overvaluing new experiences and retroactive application.

Mixing money and morality

"If all else fails, get a job in finance.” It is, increasingly so, the Princeton mantra, spoken from the mouths of students of every major, from philosophy to East Asian studies to mathematics to the engineering disciplines. And it is a sentiment that has come under quite a bit of scrutiny before, for many reasons.

Confessions of a campus pianist

I think the pianist has some right to play in the space, given that there’s a piano there. The impression I get from Princeton FML is that the pianists are always considered outsiders, either invading it with their offensive sounds or entertaining it with themes from Final Fantasy or the Godfather. Instead, they should be considered rightful users of the space. True, they can play the piano elsewhere, but others can study elsewhere.

Too soon?

Letter to the Editor: April 23th, 2012

I write regarding Aaron Applbaum’s April 13 reply to my article, in which he argues that the Obama administration has offered a satisfactory compromise in altering the contraception mandate. While the compromise does distance some organizations from what they deem to be participation with evil, it fails to live up to Aaron’s principle that “no citizen should be coerced into performing actions they believe to be wrong or morally reprehensible.” If an employer believes contraception is wrong, she will object to using it, to supplying it, and to purchasing health plans which provide it to her employees for free.

The responsibility for honor

Princeton university’s Honor Code was established by undergraduates in 1893, creating a system of academic integrity and trust between students and faculty to be used for in-class examinations. In order to uphold the ideals of the Honor Code and to enforce its regulations, an entirely student-run Honor Committee was formed. Together, the Honor Code and Honor Committee have established an environment that increases trust among students and faculty members by handling academic dishonesty among undergraduate students. Since the committee is entirely student-run, the undergraduate student body is the only entity influencing its decisions and membership.

Put a grade on it

Why not harness the motivating power of grades and apply them to other aspects of our lives? By doing so, we would become not only better students, but better friends, homemakers and lovers.

Prefrosh don't like Saturdays

Doing more

Ultimately, my biggest, yet most beneficial, error at times has been doing too much. It’s hard to regret those activities I had to branch out to enjoy at Princeton; it’s easy to regret not doing others. So for those of you who still have time, don’t lend yourself to easy regrets. Rather, give yourself over to great opportunity, and find a way to break the constraining mold that you had previously imagined for yourself. Like the two-dimensional figure being lifted off a page to see the real world, you have the unique chance to be liberated in your experiences at this University. Don’t waste it.

Editorial: Welcome to Princeton

Congratulations on being accepted to the best University in the nation. As you spend the next few days in the Orange Bubble, we, Princetonians, hope to pass on our love for this place we call home. Princeton Preview will be over before you know it, so the Daily Princetonian Editorial Board is dedicating today’s editorial to helping you prefrosh seize every moment you have on campus.

Somewhere to belong

Princeton isn’t a monolithic institution: That’s what I love about being here. It’s a place for settling in and creating a niche for oneself. Based on how much alumni give back, and how they come back for Reunions every year, there’s clearly something that made a large and diverse group of people fall in love with this University.

Cartoon: The four prefrosh you host