Columns

When I nervously questioned upperclassmen prior to undergoing the experience myself, they labeled it a coming of age experience, or even a necessary evil... I am writing, of course, about the freshman writing seminar program, that supposed bane of every Princeton student’s existence

OPINION | 02/16/2017

Make debate meaningful again

Make debate meaningful again

Kaveh Badrei

On Feb. 6, CNN aired a town hall debate between Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Ted Cruz on the merits and drawbacks of the Affordable Care Act. CNN’s debate between Sanders and Cruz brought back something that I thought we had lost: respectful, substantive debate based on truth, defined ideology, and clear arguments.

OPINION | 02/16/2017

Laptop misusers in the classroom

Jared Shulkin

The use of laptop computers in the classroom is a subject of mixed opinion. Fully equipped with note-taking software, word processors, eBooks, Blackboard, Facebook, Twitter, iMessage, Youtube, iTunes, and much, much more, laptops can be very effective learning tools.

OPINION | 02/16/2017

Calhoun's conundrum

Liam O'Connor

Yale University succumbed to the latest activist hysteria this week without fully appreciating American history when it decided to change the name of Calhoun College.

OPINION | 02/14/2017

The new attention disorder

Luke Gamble

We are all good at completing assignments and we excel at following directions. But our mental awareness should not be solely occupied with the endless treadmill of tasks and expectations that are placed in front us. It would be a tragedy for us to live our whole lives with our heads down, tending diligently to whatever we are presented with, only to find later in our lives that we never attended to what was actually worth our attention.

OPINION | 02/14/2017

Smile: you're not perfect

Leora Eisenberg

A year or two ago, P!nk’s song “Perfect” was blasting on radios across the country. Her powerful refrain implored us “[not to] ever, ever feel like you are less than, less than perfect.” People — myself included — drank in her lyrics as a powerful message of self-affirmation and acceptance. P!nk meant well when she asked us to remember that we are perfect just the way we are, but she neglected to mention that we are humans — and thus, inherently flawed.

OPINION | 02/14/2017

Princeton’s ugly history lives on in its investments

Max Grear

This column is the first part in a series focusing on a student campaign for private prison divestment as a lens for examining questions regarding historical and present injustice, institutional responsibility and accountability, and mechanisms of change.

OPINION | 02/13/2017

Dean’s Date causes unnecessary stress

Bhaskar Roberts

When I have to write a paper, I like having as much time as possible. However, last semester, when my professor asked the class if we wanted our final paper to be due before winter break or on Dean’s date, we chose the earlier deadline. Professors should set earlier deadlines for their final projects.

OPINION | 02/13/2017

From fortnightly to daily: the history of the ‘Prince’

Maha Al Fahim

First appearing on June 14, 1876, as a fortnightly paper, The Princetonian existed before the College of New Jersey became Princeton University, before academic departments and precepts, before eating clubs and coeducation.

OPINION | 02/12/2017

Yes you can

Ryan Dukeman

In an era of unified Republican control of government, where the main levers of power are manned exclusively by factions of Ayn Rand conservatives and authoritarian populists, there is certainly much cause to wallow in defeat.

OPINION | 02/12/2017

No, Don’t Further Arm PUPD

Guest Contributor

Yesterday, our colleague Ari Maas wrote an op-ed urging the University Board of Trustees to “arm PUPD officers with handguns.” He started by rhetorically asking, “Princeton University wouldn’t have its carpenters do their work without a hammer, so why does the Princeton University Police Department not have the tools it needs to do its job effectively?” Unless PUPD’s job is to intimidate and kill, this insensitive analogy holds no merit in this debate.

OPINION | 02/09/2017

America never was America to me

Imani Thornton

In the wake of Trump’s executive order that “suspended admissions of Syrian refugees and limits the flow of other refugees into the United States by instituting what the President has called ‘extreme vetting of immigrants,’” many have called the first week of Trump’s presidency a nightmare.

OPINION | 02/09/2017

Archibald's temptation

Liam O'Connor

Fog blanketed Princeton's campus like a mask as I hustled toward Prospect Avenue. Earlier in the day, I had received a mysterious email from St. Archibald’s League, which proclaimed the group to be “Princeton’s newest, coolest, and most exclusive club” and invited me to its “admission events” at 5 Prospect Ave. — a humorously sophisticated way of indicating Campus Club.

OPINION | 02/09/2017

Postmodern Trump

Jack Bryan

Former Speaker of the House Daniel Monihyn used to say that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not to their own facts.” Apparently this is no longer the case with the White House. Unfortunately, this has not been the case on many college campuses for a long time.

OPINION | 02/08/2017

Princeton Admissions: Early Action

Beni Snow

Princeton is one of the most selective colleges in the world. That is guaranteed, as there are more students who want to attend than spaces at the university. The criteria by which Princeton decides who can be a tiger, and who cannot, are not set in stone. In this column, part of a three-part series on admissions, I will examine early admission.

OPINION | 02/08/2017

Dump DeVos

Marni Morse

In her hearing before the Senate, Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos remarked that “assault in any form is never OK”, a claim about which she “want[s] to be very clear.” Yet despite her conviction, DeVos refuses to promise to uphold the Obama administration’s guidance on how schools should handle campus sexual assault.

OPINION | 02/08/2017

Letter to the Editor: Princeton political scientists oppose Trump's executive order

Guest Contributor

We are signing this statement of protest against the President’s executive order entitled "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” of January 27, 2017.

OPINION | 02/07/2017

Letter to the Editor: Princeton Citizen Scientists

Guest Contributor

Over the past few weeks, over 800 members of the University community, including 68 faculty members, 641 students and postdocs, and 105 researchers, lecturers and staff members, have signed a letter supporting a call for a campus-wide day of conversation and action on March 6. This day is intended as an opportunity to put routine aside and focus our attention on learning from each other about the challenges that face us today, as well as what this means to us as a community devoted to scholarship, the use of knowledge for the common good, and the ideals of equality, diversity, freedom, democracy, and justice.

OPINION | 02/07/2017

Letter to the Editor: Take a stand against President Trump

Guest Contributor

This past weekend, I and dozens, if not hundreds of members of the Princeton community emailed President Eisgruber and other key administrators calling upon them to denounce the Trump administration's recent actions to ban entry into the country for people from a number of Muslim-majority countries.

OPINION | 02/07/2017

My Breakup Letter to The New York Times

Guest Contributor

Dear New York Times, In honor of Valentine's Day, I have decided to share a breakup letter that I wrote during a period of deep heartbreak not too long ago.

OPINION | 02/06/2017

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