As the 2016-2017 academic year comes to an end, the University is already preparing to welcome the next incoming class in the fall. First-years will participate in a host of activities that comprises the University’s orientation program. This program is designed to ease the transition to campus life “by introducing first-year students to the values, expectations, and resources of the inclusive Princeton community.”
In recent weeks, there has been considerable debate in the opinion pages of The Daily Princetonian about the Honor Committee. Recent columns have touched on the very nature of the Honor Code itself, even opposing the current penalties for academic integrity violations during in-class exams. The Board supports the current standard penalty of a one-year suspension for Honor Code violations because this appropriately upholds community standards and provides opportunity for rehabilitation.
Given the celebration of Earth Day this past Saturday, the Board finds it appropriate to commend the University on its successful sustainability measures and to propose some campus-wide recommendations for future implementation.
The Undergraduate Student Government recently released a report on the winter 2016 referendum regarding eating club transparency. The document contains a summary of findings and several proposals, including the formation of a permanent USG subcommittee on eating club transparency and diversity that would work to collect demographic data on club membership.
We believe both the process of choosing a major and students’ experience within their departments can be further improved in the form of creating departmental summary sheets, hosting open-houses earlier, appointing student ambassadors, forming departmental listservs, and increasing uniformity in department courses.
The Honor Committee and the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline are two bodies on campus that are responsible for enforcing disciplinary actions following violations of student standards outlined in "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities."
One commendable effort organized by the University to gain a better understanding of the incidence of sexual assault and sexual misconduct is the annual We Speak Survey. As we have in past years, the Board encourages all students to participate in the survey, to which all students received a link via email.
We echo our editorial from April 21, 2016, in which we rejected private prison divestment, and contend that private prisons do not meet the threshold of community consensus and moral unacceptability required to justify divestment.
At the start of each April, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors eagerly make living arrangements for the following academic year through the room draw process. Since there is a considerable disparity in the quality of different housing arrangements, the rules for room draw enhance living choice for some students while restricting it for others.
It is currently a common practice for instructors not to return Dean’s Date papers or final exams with feedback — or at all.
