Following scandals involving website buy-outs and Princeton Tonight, the Undergraduate Student Government presidential elections are now under more scrutiny, this time in regard to candidate finances.
Former U.S. ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, the recipient of the 2017 Adlai Stevenson Award, was not optimistic that the United States could help the world through “the bully pulpit” because of a lack of respect from the international community. “The prerequisite for making that bully pulpit work is that we been seen as a leader internationally, that we be respected internationally,” Kurtzer said.
President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Wednesday and announced plans to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the new capital. The move is divorced from decades of domestic and international policy, evoking responses from the University community.
The University’s newest official student group started almost two years ago with a meal and a group of friends. These meals evolved into more formal, discussion-based meetings. The number of students involved grew, too — with the group now boasting a membership of 15 students. As of Dec. 3, Princeton Plays is now even recognized by both the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and the Undergraduate Student Government as an official student organization.
After Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidates Rachel Yee ’19 and Matthew Miller ’19 raised concerns about fellow candidate Ryan Ozminkowski ’19 and his campaign tactics involving domain redirection, the Ozminkowski campaign faces further controversy.
Over the course of this month, the Iranian government has aired videos of two foreign prisoners—Xiyue Wang GS, sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage while conducting research, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British charity worker sentenced to five years for endangering national security—in an effort to pressure the U.S. and Great Britain to withhold sanctions and pay back debt, respectively.
On Wednesday evening, Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, history lecturer at King’s College in London, painted a detailed picture of the rise of Iranian nationalism to an audience of students, faculty, and community members in East Pyne 010.
Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate Ryan Ozminkowski ’19 drew criticism from his opponents after buying the domain names for their websites. Further comments by Ozminkowski during the USG presidential debate prompted the question: how seriously should USG take itself?
In a dinner discussion on Tuesday, Shirley Satterfield, a longtime Princeton resident who experienced Princeton’s racial integration first-hand, reflected on the intersection between Princeton’s history and African American civil rights. Satterfield’s family, the Van Zan(d)t Moore May family, has resided in Princeton for the last six generations. She explained that the “d” is left in parentheses to “separate the blacks and whites” in her family, since her great grandfather was white.
Charlie Sykes: I know that a lot of people think that I left my radio show because of Donald Trump, and that’s understandable, but actually I planned to leave the radio show anyway last year, but the rise of Donald Trump made the decision way easier. For the last 23 years I’ve been a conservative radio host in Wisconsin, and it played a significant role in Republican politics but was appalled by Donald Trump. Even though the audience was very receptive through the Wisconsin primary, you remember Donald Trump was defeated in Wisconsin; as the year went on, I was increasingly out of touch with the audience. I was one of those conservatives that refused to get on the Trump train.
This past Sunday, CVS Health announced that it would be acquiring Aetna Inc., the care provider through which University students who opt for the Student Health Plan receive their insurance. The acquisition, however, is unlikely to affect those on the SHP.
A mere week before voting began, USG presidential candidates Matt Miller ’19 and Rachel Yee ’19 discovered an alarming solicitation tactic used against their campaigns. On Monday, Dec. 4, Miller was informed that the website, www.mattmillerforpresident.com, existed, although it was not a part of his campaign. Upon searching this link, the user is redirected to www.ozforpresident.com, a currently blank page that belongs to Ryan Ozminkowski ’19, another USG presidential candidate.
The plan, which expands on a strategic planning framework proposed by the University in January 2016, identifies potential locations for new residential colleges, engineering and environmental studies facilities, and accommodations for new programs featuring partnerships with outside entities, according to a press release from the Office of Communications.
On Sunday, at the NASA Ames Research Center in Palo Alto, Calif., 13 past and present University researchers were awarded the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their “detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded galaxies,” according to a University press release.
“Science is not done in a vacuum, and what we do in the lab has a much larger effect on the community than we may perceive,” Jani said. “It’s important for us to be able to communicate and engage with that community.”
In three hours of public meetings and two executive sessions, the Undergraduate Student Government debated hot topics such as Honor Committee referenda, the upcoming USG elections, and a new BDSM student group in their Dec. 3 meeting.
On Dec. 4, 2017, two varieties of white supremacist flyers were found posted to various locations around campus. The first flyer was titled “The Truth about ‘White Privilege’ and Jewish Supremacy'" and addressed a person named Linda Oppenheim.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump’s travel ban on six mainly Muslim countries can now be fully enforced. Seven of the nine justices have granted the Trump administration’s request to lift the injunctions previously imposed by lower courts that blocked the policy. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor ‘76 were the two dissenters.
In August of 2018, Tobin, Shin, Singer, and Jain will join 138 other men and women from around the world at Schwarzman College on the Tsinghua University campus in Beijing, China. The scholars will spend a year pursuing a master’s degree in their chosen course of study and developing a better understanding of Chinese history, culture, economy, and motivations through a cultural immersion experience.
Shruthi Rajasekar ’18 of is one of 43 students who was awarded the 2018 Marshall Scholarship. The scholarship allows intellectually distinguished young Americans to pursue a graduate degree in the U.K. and funds up to three years of study at any British institution. Rajasekar plans to use the scholarship money to study at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, an independent music and dramatic arts school that was founded in 1880 in London, England and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
