Don’t glamorize smoking
Regarding “Smoking at Princeton” (Thursday, April 22, 2010):
Wow. Smoking is “a neat way to meet people.” “I’ve met a lot more people smoking than drinking. It’s like our own little club.” “It’s like those 19th century philosophers who sat around talking, drinking coffee and smoking for hours and hours.”
Are you people for real? Yes, it’s extremely addictive and incredibly hard to stop, and if you’re already hooked, you’re more to be pitied than censored. But for God’s sake, don’t glamorize it. Denial doesn’t work once you’re in the cancer ward.
If you’re going to ignore the medical facts, the community’s opprobrium and your own common sense, at least meditate a bit on those lines of wisdom from Hobbes: “Life is nasty, brutish and short. And then you die. Slowly and painfully. Particularly if you smoke.”
Brian Zack ’72, M.D.
Inside the mind of a ‘waitlistee’
Regarding “Inside the head of a prefrosh” (Tuesday, April 20, 2010):
As I read Haley White’s column, which described many of the spectacular sights that prefrosh could expect to see at Princeton Preview, my heart crumbled into tiny, bite-sized pieces. I am one of hundreds of applicants currently stranded in admissions purgatory, waiting for a miraculous glimmer of salvation. Admittedly, the numbers are stacked against us.
According to The Daily Princetonian, Princeton’s acceptance rate hit an all-time low of 8.18 percent, with 1,451 students placed on the waitlist. The dean of admission expected about half to remain on the list, and the number of waitlisted students Princeton has admitted in each of the past five years has varied from zero to 148.
Despite my hopes, I am mature enough to understand that dreams do not always come true. I may be fated — as are hundreds of others — to choose another institution and grow content with it, letting time glue back our broken hearts. C’est la vie!
To all current Princeton students and accepted high school seniors: You are truly blessed to be chosen to be a part of such a fine institution filled with tradition, culture and academic rigor. Despite the odds, we hope to join you in the future.
And to the current waitlisted applicants who have chosen to cling to their faith: May the gods (or admissions officers) have mercy on our souls.
Amen.
Yoo Jung Kim
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A ‘climate apocalypse’ is all but inevitable. Why aren’t we planning for it?
Alexander MargulisNot only must every Princeton student think about what sort of life they can — or should — build in the context of an ever-warming world, but also that the climate activists on campus who intend to spur this sort of thinking often end up discouraging it.
Not only must every Princeton student think about what sort of life they can — or should — build in the context of an ever-warming world, but also that the climate activists on campus who intend to spur this sort of thinking often end up discouraging it.
Princeton, don’t budge on Title IX
Charlie YaleTrump’s changes to Title IX signal more dire attacks on education are to come in the future. Princeton has a responsibility to do everything it can to prevent them.
Trump’s changes to Title IX signal more dire attacks on education are to come in the future. Princeton has a responsibility to do everything it can to prevent them.
In case you haven’t noticed, the target is already on our back
Isaac BarsoumIf I could say anything to the University about this, here is what it would be: when there is a target on your back, you do not stand still and wait for the arrow to strike. You put on a bulletproof vest, hunker down into a foxhole, and fire back.
If I could say anything to the University about this, here is what it would be: when there is a target on your back, you do not stand still and wait for the arrow to strike. You put on a bulletproof vest, hunker down into a foxhole, and fire back.
