Opinion

Editorial: Safety abroad

Our studies at Princeton often seek to address human struggle, be it through technology, medicine, policy or the arts. To do so, we must often stray from the ivory tower and go out into the world. The opportunity to study abroad is vital to the academic and professional success of many students. Unfortunately, the current study abroad program does not always allow for students to engage with the cultures and issues that they study.

Finding our voice

Half of American youth is not voting.

Cartoon: Majors by shoe

Same-sex parenting: A response

On Tuesday, Sept. 25, The Daily Princetonian published a guest column from Dr. Ana Samuel, a fellow at the Witherspoon Institute.

2013 shirt, explained

Small indignities, large empirical mistakes: Another view on so-called “research” into gay parenting

Ana Samuel’s Sept. 25 opinion piece in The Daily Princetonian, “Understanding gay parenting: research or romanticism,” contains an awful lot of politics and very little empiricism. There are literally dozens of published critiques of the Regnerus study, from those that suggest he didn’t really capture gay parents at all to others that argue he was motivated by purely political, rather than intellectual, goals.

How to pick a president

Princeton last searched for a new president more than a decade ago when the University looked to replace Harold Shapiro GS ?64.

A Democratic voice

Last month, a firestorm erupted when Todd Akin, a Republican Congressman and Senatorial hopeful from Missouri, made his now-infamous comments about “legitimate rape.” The reaction from the Republican establishment, seeking to quash any renewed talk of a “Republican war on women,” was rapid: Mitt Romney and others urged Akin to remove himself from the race — a suggestion that he refused — and sought to clarify that Akin’s beliefs about rape were not those of the Republican Party. To be fair, we should not conflate Akin’s ideas with the GOP platform (although Newt Gingrich was back on the campaign trail for Akin on Monday, and Rick Santorum offered his endorsement yesterday).

Cartoon: No free lunch disproved

In my opinion

Opinions are delicate creatures. Frequently asked for, seldom remembered, the opinion lives on its candor or provocativeness. Opinions lose themselves somewhere in the purgatory between conviction and statement and have the ability to create a martyr or destroy a statesmen.

A Republican voice

Undecided voters could be forgiven for believing that the fundamental issue of the 2012 race is whether or not the government will stand between women and the pill. At the Democratic National Convention, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards warned of a Republican Party “committed to ending insurance coverage of birth control.”  President Obama’s campaign website warns that Mitt Romney will “give employers the authority to limit women’s access to common forms of birth control.”

The "undeserving"

Whether we state it out loud or just think it to ourselves, there is a notion that minority students and athletes are somehow less deserving of an Ivy League education than their peers. Proponents point to laxer SAT and GPA standards for blacks and Latinos, claiming these students are chosen over more deserving applicants. There is a fundamental flaw in this way of thinking, a way of thinking that is not only insulting and demeaning to many students at Princeton but also one that perpetuates racial and social misunderstanding and mistrust between student groups.

Doing something with your vote

Consider voting third party.

Cartoon: Alumni

Free speech, responsible speech

It is important that bullying from abroad does not force policies and mindsets that infringe on local rights or norms, but at the same time there is an obligation for those that create art and media to be mindful of the worldwide community.

Cartoon: That sinking feeling

Taking charge of email

There is something very interesting in the manner in which the Office of Information Technology chose the replacement for Princeton’s Webmail system: The transparent process shows how important emailing tools are to our everyday workflows. But email today remains problematic in many ways, and it may be worth our time to think about how we want to communicate.

Improving campus security

Just a few days ago, The Daily Princetonian reported that new security guards have been placed at the Labyrinth Books entrance along with an electronic gate.  In addition, just within this past month, we’ve seen our own University ID cards being used to gain access to not only certain buildings on campus but also to our own rooms with the addition of a pin code.  The latter example proves that Public Safety and the University are successfully working together to reduce the hassle it takes to issue new keys and charge students.

Understanding gay parenting: research or romanticism?

In the firestorm that followed the publication of the NFSS, I reflected a lot about the role of descriptive academic research in the gay parenting debate. So far, much of the debate has appealed to normative principles of justice, fairness, equality, civil rights, natural rights, children’s rights, etc. Very little of the conversation has been about just plain understanding what the gay parenting phenomenon is.

Cartoon: The Journey