Opinion

A tale of two libraries and a revolution

Will the new Firestone, with its massive ranks of dead-tree media, attract student readers who have always read on screens? Will the new NYPL keep up its world-class collections of books in dozens of languages — Slavic, Semitic, and African — and the staff of specialists needed to keep finding and cataloguing them — books, most of them, that won’t be available in digital form in the foreseeable future? Will the new Firestone work as social space? Will the new NYPL still support scholars — especially the independent scholars who need it most — and give students a chance to know and love real books as well as their digital shadows? Can public library budgets support the constant upgrading needed to keep a digital workspace usable?

Editorial: On ALTA

The ALTA committee is currently completing a full report they will release later this month, which will include all of the committee’s suggestions on how to improve academic life. The Editorial Board is eager to see the committee’s suggestions for remedying work during midterms and addressing the weaknesses of the P/D/F policy and strongly urges the administration to consider relevant policy changes.

Breaking out in class

But a Breakout trip should not be the first time that a Princeton student has real-world experience with theoretical concepts — service and learning should be connected, and community involvement should be a part of the regular Princeton curriculum. It’s a cliched complaint, but one worth revisiting: If Princeton really wants us to be in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations, shouldn’t we have experience with service and community learning in our academics?

Cartoon: Back to the future

Cartoon: In like a lion, out like a lion

Love college or shut up

We need to accept the unhappy students in our midst as a fact of every college environment. No matter how wonderful our University is, there will inevitably be students whose overall experience here is negative.

Editorial: Banning Greek life

The Editorial Board accordingly urges Nassau Hall to seriously reconsider the Committee’s recommendations before formulating and issuing an official policy.

The getaway

This spring break, I broke out of more than the Orange Bubble. I broke out of my natural shyness. I broke out in song. I broke out my walking shoes. I broke out my wallet. I broke out of 19 sheltered years in suburbia. I broke out of a generation of societal conditioning that demonizes those who the system fails. But most importantly, I broke out of the apathetic mindset I had cultivated since middle school when I thought that there was too much wrong with the world for me to be able to fix it.

Letter to the Editor: March 30, 2012

Ms. Jones’ article admirably concludes that no one is entitled to a job and that the rest is, indeed, up to you. My only concern is her analysis of the employment market for law school graduates, which is not comparable to the employment market for recent college graduates.

Blind date

Make a decision, Princeton

With the consistent prospect of separation, the students in our residential colleges can only hope to part of artificial, temporary groupings, always planning for that last day of sophomore spring, when the ties are broken and new niches must be found, in eating clubs or elsewhere. And, of course, the search for a consistent, university-long niche actually starts far before the end of sophomore spring. So, the formula is corrupted before it ever begins to grow. In England, residential colleges, having evolved slowly to become the core of the system, work. At Harvard and Yale, they come close to being useful communities. From the outset at Princeton, they risk being almost useless.

The curse of liberal arts

Not long after I got here I realized that I would have to question everything I believed myself to be, everything I thought I had concluded to be true. Slowly but surely all that we stand for becomes open to question. Our goals, our belief in ourselves, others, the education system, the economy, even our belief in religion and God — everything is challenged.

The relief of acceptance

One word. That’s all it will take on this day: March 29, 2012. Nothing more than one word. One word that those receiving it have undoubtedly heard a million times over, but none so great as this particular instance of this one word. One word that so many have been so ready to hear for what seems like forever. One word that has the potential to change a life forever.

Suing school

According to ­­­­the New York Post, last August three graduates filed a $200 million lawsuit against the NYLS alleging the school falsely claims that 90-95 percent of its graduates gain employment within nine months of graduation. They feel the school used the term “employment” to include even those jobs that do not require a J.D. at all. The graduates argue that the realistic number of those with law-related jobs is closer to 50 percent. They feel the school’s abuse of the loose definition leads prospective students to enroll based on the delusion of guaranteed employment post-graduation.

Cartoon: Regrets

ESC: Expected Student Contribution

In short: In what sense do I owe my parents for the unique opportunity they’ve provided me?

The heart of our campus

The Frist Campus Center is a unique building on the Princeton campus. You probably pass through there once, twice or even several times day for various reasons, such as checking your mail or purchasing items from late meal, Cafe Viv or the C-Store. But what is it about Frist that makes it so special? What is it about Frist that makes it an exemplar among all other student spaces? The Frist Campus Center is a hub for students to come together as a community. In fact, the first line of Frist’s mission statement reads: “The Frist Campus Center is an inviting, inclusive and exciting gathering place for the entire campus community.” Unlike many failed attempts to create that elsewhere, Frist actually substantiates these goals in a couple of ways.

It's that time of year again

The art of viral video design

Ultimately, the people behind Kony 2012 have tapped into us. They have figured out how to use social media, and how to use us using social media, to spread their message so quickly and effectively, almost blindly. They have harnessed the psychology behind social media in order to promote their cause.

Controlling birth

Policy makers might be wise in emulating, or taking lessons from, the Princeton model of wide-reaching education and contraception subsidies. The New York Times reported that a mass-media education campaign aimed at promoting and explaining safer sex could save American taxpayers around $431 million a year, while sex education and teenage-exclusive pregnancy prevention programs could potentially save $356 million. The biggest savings would come from increasing the amount of subsidized birth control available to less privileged women. At a cost of $235 million a year, such programs could save an estimated $1.32 billion annually.