On Friday, Betsy DeVos unveiled her new plan offering guidelines to schools on how to adjudicate cases of sexual misconduct — in an attempt to increase justice, fairness, and equity in the system. It achieves the antithesis of those values.
I implore you to recognize your individual responsibility to speak up if you notice something in a friend or classmate, to educate yourselves, to open up honest conversations, before you — or someone you love — gets hurt. I implore you to advocate for the changes we need institutionally in your own life.
ROTC cadets wake up before sunrise three days a week for physical training, meeting at Jadwin Gymnasium to begin their two-mile ruck walks. People involved in the program reflected on their definitions of service. “When we call it service sometimes, it puts us on a pedestal that maybe it doesn’t necessarily deserve,” Lieutenant Colonel Kevin McKiernan said.
My greatest hope — for all of our community, not just journalists — is a realization of our shared humanity, and our ability to inspire, to make a positive impact, to effect real change.
Professor Sergio Verdú is teaching a course next semester: Information Theory, ELE 528, despite his being found guilty of sexually harassing his advisee by a University Title IX investigation. He sexually harassed someone. He is still here. And his still being here manifests just why the accused – and the guilty – in cases of sexual assault and harassment adjudicated at the University do not need to be afforded more rights and in fact, privileges, as Allison Berger posits in her first argument of a recent Letter to the Editor.
Today, so many of us mourn the lives lost in a mass shooting at a church in San Antonio – a gross violation of the sanctity of a place of worship and its community. Today, I hang my head in shame at our collective inaction and complacency. As a journalist, I hang my head in shame at the proliferation of fake news and a double standard in the reporting on recent attacks. As a student, I hang my head in shame at our silence. Prayers and condolences are not enough, so I ask each of us to critically consider our capacity and responsibility to act in the service of humanity. Our campus community seems confined to politically polarized echo chambers, and it can be rare to find a platform for discussion across ideological differences, as opposed to vitriolic debate defined by identity politics. I invite you to engage directly with someone who does not share your race, faith, or political stance, because we are all part of one community and the onus is on each and every one of us to act in its service.
This fall, the ‘Prince’ will revise its process for publishing unsigned editorials, which accompany the bylined columns, guest contributions, and letters on our Opinion pages.
Your class is taking – and will take – unprecedented strides forward in many respects, as the first class to enroll more women than men, the class with the highest percentage of first-generation college students, at 16.9 percent, and the first class to enroll five military veterans. So as Princeton serves this nation, serves humanity, as its unofficial motto prescribes, by moving towards greater equality in opportunity, expanding those opportunities for everyone, and redefining ‘public service’ and what it means to serve, it’s now your turn – as a part of our collective responsibility – to consider how you, too, will serve, not only your community here at Princeton, but humanity. Looking back, as an incoming freshman, I certainly didn’t give Princeton’s motto a second thought (granted, the University motto was different then too). In fact, the only conception of ‘service’ that I harbored before arriving at Princeton entailed volunteering at the local public library, hospital, or food bank.
46 people from 28 countries countries became naturalized U.S. citizens at the University today, in a special naturalization ceremony administered by U.S.
The power of journalism lies in its ability to share people’s stories and raise their voices. But with that power comes great responsibility — a responsibility to truth, and a responsibility to people. This is why such a passionate, committed staff collectively pours innumerable hours, words, images, and ideas into this publication almost every day without much recognition.
