Opinion

Talking to professors

From scholarships to travel, Princeton creates amazing opportunities and the opportunity to create amazing opportunities, and I keep being too chicken to take advantage of them. And as I talk to my friends here, my friends at other schools and my friends worried about applying to other schools, something becomes very obvious.

Editorial: Self-scheduled exams

Schools such as Haverford, Caltech, Williams and Carleton already use self-scheduled exams, which students can choose to take during any one of multiple prescheduled sittings. Implementation of such a policy at Princeton would afford students greater flexibility, eliminate the need for take-homes, make exams fairer and decrease student stress.

Smash the gargoyle, Shirley

The University picks us from a pool of supposedly talented, largely reliable, self-motivated people. We are repeatedly told we have the best minds and the best prospects. Yet, when we get to campus, we aren’t always trusted to look after ourselves. The administration must reverse its policy of social engineering.

Sexual standards

We should be unafraid to defend the merit of chaste lifestyles over promiscuous ones. By encouraging our friends’ chastity, we can do them a great service. It is an act of love to help a friend quit hooking up.

Editorial: Schedule improvements

The Board strongly advocates against the current proposals that increase the days for Thanksgiving break at the expense of fall break. Instead, we argue for the implementation of an academic calendar that would preserve fall break and extend Thanksgiving break by starting the academic year a few days earlier.

On the beaten path

With the only prerequisites often being simply a single class or two in the department, what the humanities most powerfully provide is the individual freedom to follow your heart. And that, Princeton tells us, is what college is really about.

Letter to the Editor: December 6th, 2012

 I think that women and men should make whatever choices work for them and their families. But if they do find that they need to stop working or work differently, then they should be able to get back on the track later.

Tracking the clubs

With respect to newly founded clubs, the USG should also be sure to task individual representatives to observe the progress of the new group and comment on suggestions for potential improvement.

Attack versus healthy debate

While I do not necessarily agree with President Tilghman’s statement that “anonymous debate is no debate at all,” I do believe that a debate, regardless of whether or not the participants are revealed or anonymous, should remain relevant so that the dialogue will not turn hateful. There’s a difference between attacking an issue and attacking a person — here’s where I believe Chen has made an error.

Five stages of sexile

Like getting struck by lightning, mauled by a bear or biting into an oatmeal raisin cookie when you’re expecting chocolate chip, sexiling usually only exists dimly in the back of one’s mind.

Give me a break

I am more than willing — I am eager, I am hungry to sacrifice two weeks of summer vacation for a normal, stress-free winter break. Working through academics at Princeton frequently feels like wrestling with an enormous, invincible, many-headed monster. Winter break should be a respite, not the apex of the battle.

Cartoon: Necessary renovations

Something's gotta give

This week has been the first time at Princeton I’ve been paralyzed by stress. Not to say that I’ve never been overwhelmed here, but when I’ve been faced with encyclopedias of writing, mountains of reading or textbooks of problem sets before, my type-A self has kicked into overdrive making calendars and to-do lists, breaking large problems into tackleable chunks.

Hipsters were straw men before it was cool

Most recently, the critique that piqued my interest out of the constant slew of condescension is the article “How to Live Without Irony.” The author uses hipsters to illustrate an epidemic of irony among today’s youth: the use of sarcasm and disingenuousness to shirk personal responsibility. It surprised me to learn the writer of a piece with such a pessimistic thesis about America’s young adults, Christy Wampole, is a Princeton professor. Her perspective is only representative of a narrow sample of contemporary culture and is therefore not indicative of the country as a whole, and certainly not of Princeton.

Not easily said or done

Anonymity is one of those words I?ve always had a hard time pronouncing ? like Pixar?s Nemo describing an ?anemone.? And yet, this year I?ve had a lot of chances to practice this tricky word.

Stereotype threat and college admissions

The exclusion of race in admissions would make it an unfair process due to the psychological concept of stereotype threat.

Where is your identity?

The issue of identity — who we are, why we’re here, what we’re living for — is crucial but often overlooked. The day-to-day grind, at Princeton especially, can force us to spend most of our time focusing on the next urgent thing to get done. However, the overarching purpose we each choose to live out ultimately flows into all other aspects of our lives and, as such, deserves serious reflection.

Cartoon: Hook, line and sinker

Fast-paced and fun

Nathan Mathabane’s column last week raised a question that I think many of us have struggled with for some time: What are we doing here? I mean specifically here, at Princeton. To what end goal do we put in all this work?

Vassar's honor, Princeton's...

A well-informed friend tells me that Princeton may have decided to join the Yellow Ribbon Program after all. I very much hope this is true.