Columns

The hidden power of writing seminar

As a bright-eyed, eager freshman at the beginning of the fall semester, I was sure that I had passed all the rites of passage to become a Princetonian. I had gone on my Community Action trip, participated in the myriad of orientation activities, and endured the line at Labyrinth Books for my first textbooks. 

Princeton Public Schools: Valuing public education

Denouncing the Princeton School Board for spending on psychology interns and innovative programs attempts to force education into a box, limited by narrow ideas on what educational goals should be. 

Togetherness

The minimalist composer John Cage had a catchphrase: I have nothing to say and I’m saying it. That’s me. I text my friends all the time, especially when I have nothing to say. I do this because I hate being alone. I stay for hours when I eat dinner at Terrace, not so much to procrastinate working as to procrastinate leaving a social space for a carrel in Firestone that I find to be way too quiet.

Integrating graduate students on-campus as a priority for the University

The past two Executive Committees of the Graduate Student Government have published statements highlighting the central issue of integrating Princeton’s graduate students into the University campus. 

Ivy Madness is fair

Letter to the Editor: Stand up for human rights

Dear President Eisgruber, We believe that the University, as an internationally-renowned liberal arts institution, has an obligation to fight for the interests of its students, faculty, and the larger community. 

Princeton and its Charter School dilemma

Outside of our campus, the education of this town’s children is at stake. Toward the end of last year, Princeton Charter School requested that the state expand its class size by 76 students — draining $1.2 million per year from the Princeton Public Schools district in the process.

​Princeton Public Schools: Something needs to go

This Thursday, Mar. 16, the Princeton School Board will vote on the proposed budget. I recommend that the Board delay the vote, and thoroughly reexamine its proposal. The Board cannot continue relying on taxpayers to foot the bill for its inability to make budgeting decisions. 

Princeton Geographic

It’s time to start taking ‘locker room humor’ more seriously

In the specific context of the swimming team, I have heard from members of the women’s team from different classes spanning several decades who attested to this behavior as common when they were undergraduates. It made them feel uncomfortable, but they felt too intimidated to speak up, lest they be ostracized for not being willing to allow “boys to be boys.”

Why men should buy women their birth control

It is now generally accepted in our society that childcare is not just a woman’s responsibility. We believe that women should be as entitled to a job and equal wages as men, and reciprocally, man should equally bear the responsibility of childcare.

Troubling troll torments Princetonians

Martin Shkreli may be a rich hedge fund manager whose likeness was plastered across CNN for a week, but this stock jock is still just a lowly internet troll. The current practice of responding to him — as students are currently doing — will not solve the larger problem of Internet trolling. However, we can shun him into silence.

The cost of compassion

Imagine what it would be like to be cast out in a world that is at your throat. A world in which the most capable, wealthy nation has shut its borders to you.

Pious at Princeton

“Anyone who dares to voice a religious opinion is regarded as unintelligent,” wrote Carrie Pritt in her column “Diversity for the Sake of Democracy,” published in the Quillette. She makes the bold claim that religious beliefs — she is presumably implying Christian statements of faith — are not welcome at Princeton University. The idea that voicing a religious opinion marks the speaker as uninformed and unintelligent is a persistent and dangerous myth on campus; portraying Christians as disadvantaged in a society steeped in Christian tradition and favorable to Christianity equips Christians on campus with a false sense of victimization and undermines the fatal persecution Christians faced historically and continue to face in parts of the world today.

Window of opportunity

Collecting people

During Bicker I was asked a question that, like most Bicker questions, was banal: What do you look for in a friend?

Will the action continue?

I was thrilled when I saw so many people taking time out of their day on Monday to participate in the Day of Action. But as with the other actions after the election, this inspiring, heart-warming moment tends to be followed by a deep cynicism. Where were all these people before the election? 

MasterChef College

Is satire enough?

The most vocal and effective response thus far to the Trump presidency appears to be comedy; it often feels like the liberal left has a powerful command of comedy beyond that of the conservative right. 

Princeton Admissions: Recruitment

Princeton is one of the most selective undergraduate colleges in the world. That is guaranteed, as there are more students who want to attend than spaces.