Letter from the Editor: What makes college meaningful?
Jon OrtIn the absence of peripheral community, how do we make Princeton meaningful? This issue, I hope, both poses that question and provides an answer.
In the absence of peripheral community, how do we make Princeton meaningful? This issue, I hope, both poses that question and provides an answer.
Princeton can make a bold statement among universities that it does not only rely on awards or similarly narrow external metrics in making decisions about hiring and promotion. Instead, broader criteria could draw more professors from all different backgrounds, who can bring in new ideas, instruct and inspire the next generation of scholars, and help the University live up to its ideals.
As Princeton students, we must fulfill our University’s unofficial motto, “in the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity,” and know that it is not only our civic responsibility but our duty to vote this year. We are fortunate enough to attend school with the future leaders of this country; we must act like it.
So unless club leaders can find a meeting time that’s not just workable, but also comfortable for the whole group, they need to vary the meeting time by week to work with everyone’s schedule. And yes, sometimes that will include Americans waking up when they don’t want to be awake.
As an institution that is committed to admitting students from diverse backgrounds, Princeton has to be equally as committed to ensuring their success. Many parents of queer students are often painfully aware of the leverage they possess, in that their student’s ability to complete their education is based on their willingness to provide their financial information.
What should now be clear for conservative voters heading to the polls is this: Mitch McConnell is not supporting the President—he’s selling him out.
If we transform the content of social media to be more profound, we must match the depth by taking deeper consideration into how we post as well. More deliberation needs to take place between the moment we begin first reading a post, and when we tap share.
To many, it remains “incredible” that a “faraway country” can affect us so deeply. Yet what many fail to remember is that “faraway” has never been so close.
In order to live up to its own ideals, Princeton should institute a curricular service requirement for all undergraduates, to be filled in one semester, for a local community partner.
A vaccine and little to no restrictions are vital to creating a true campus community and should be the guidepost for the university as it plans for the spring semester.
This is not the age to shy away from those awkward Zoom conversations. Part of our exploration comes from how we approach these situations and make the best of them. Think of it as a hurdle to jump through to partake in this remodeling of yourself and your ideas.
So, while I desperately wish we could mourn the passing of Justice Ginsburg properly, there is too much work to do. We have to pick up where she left off in the fight for equality and the preservation of our democracy.
Recently, it was announced that the Department of Education would investigate Princeton’s self-admitted propagation of systemic racism. First, even if the DOE fails to push Princeton around, its efforts will send a message to other, less prominent institutions that might one day step out of line, and second, it exemplifies the legalistic mind games that exist as surely at the University as in the Trump administration.
President Eisgruber and the Trustees say they have a duty to preserve the endowment in perpetuity. But there is nothing sacred about endowments — nothing noble in their origins, how they reproduce, or their role in society.
It is easy to criticize USG. Many criticisms are fair. Yet every critic should remember that, should they feel such anger against USG, they can join the senate, vote for officers, and give USG the power it needs. If USG is not to your liking, the action that should be taken is not complaining on Tiger Confessions but making USG better.
Many Americans, including Princeton students, are unaware of the Marshallese’s plight. As a group with disproportionally high rates of certain chronic conditions, access to Medicare and Medicaid could mean the difference between life and death even during regular times. During a pandemic, restricting Marshallese access to those programs is tantamount to condoning murder.
A numbers game is detrimental to our mental health, especially in a year where distance and isolation have become a social duty.
In this New Enlightenment we find ourselves in the midst of this renewed revolutionary process, and like Burke, we have regarded it with both awe and criticism. However, there was an important consideration Burke ignored when he published his “Reflections” in 1790: what would happen next.
The return of college football is not a positive sign of a country overcoming the pandemic; it is yet another example of a society unwilling to face the reality of the pandemic. And once again, young people and people of color will pay the price while the powerful profit.
Almost immediately after the Supreme Court announced the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, friends began reaching out. The women in my life all felt the need to check in, as we collectively experienced what felt like a personal blow. Her death meant an overwhelming loss to the women and girls who want to see a future where their worth was built into the foundations of their country.