Opinion

Graduate? No Thanks

The same independence that once fueled my desire for college now fuels my dread of graduation. This truth has increased my resolve and, I would hope, the resolve of my classmates to to enjoy this final chance we’ve been given the often-misunderstood paradise that is the Princeton undergraduate experience.

Editorial: Join the editorial board

Over the years, the unsigned editorials featured on this page have discussed a wide variety of issues, including the freshmen year rush ban, the room draw process and affirmative action. The Daily Princetonian Editorial Board is collectively responsible for writing these pieces. The Board is the independent body responsible for determining the position of the ‘Prince’ on matters that affect Princeton, our campus community and society as a whole. Today, instead of taking a stance on an issue, we would like to explain the editorial process and invite interested freshmen, sophomores and juniors to apply to join the Board.

You're doing the internets wrong

Before we begin another year, here’s something that we should all keep in mind: We need to stop willingly broadcasting ourselves all over the Internets.

The land of milk and money

It is crucial to recognize the importance of the MENA region. Awareness and involvement from the Princeton community can be very important for helping to bring peace and prosperity to the region.

Sophomoric advice

ust know this, dear freshman self, a year from now you’ll return to the campus that looks so foreign today and find that it really is the “best old place of all.”

Cartoon: Institutional memory

Response to Tilghman's Commencement Address

After four years at Princeton, I think the only profession I have really learned about is academia. We spend a lot of time with professors and begin to understand what their daily lives are like. So why can’t other people teach? Professors research part-time and teach part-time, so why not have professional computer programmers or doctors teach? They might be better teachers, and they will certainly expose students to other ways of using what they learn in class in their future careers.

The Princeton family

What Princeton Reunions have, that Facebook can never take a way or make obsolete, is the element of all-inclusiveness — grandparents, students and grandchildren all having fun simultaneously.

The people of Princeton

It is from these moments that I learned that what makes Princeton amazing is not the brand name, or the world it opens up to its students. It is simply the people it has brought to me. And when I charged through Bloomberg arch on Saturday, ending one history with Princeton as I begin another, it was those same people that ran beside me, who continued to make every moment as quintessentially Princeton as it is, and ever will be.

Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

It is time to restore the tradition lost in 1970 of acknowledging Princeton’s country and heritage. It is time to sing the national anthem during graduation and recognize that Princeton stands for more than itself.

Comprehensive exams

Tomorrow is Dean’s Date, with 5 p.m. marking the official deadline for all undergraduate written work with the exception of take-home and in-class exams. An unofficial holiday for the University, with the USG and ODUS sponsoring food and festivities in McCosh Courtyard, it is meant to be a time of ease and relaxation before diving once more into the books for the rest of exam period. For many seniors, this relaxation will be short-lived as they must prepare to sit for senior departmental exams on Wednesday and Thursday.

Summer plans

A tiger's tale

And there were the serious lessons. As a graduating senior, I can officially say that out of all the classes that I’ve taken here, there is only one, just one, that I would go back and drop. Every single one — sometimes in fields that I had never even been aware of before — broadened my mind, taught me something valuable, changed my outlook or simply fascinated me by virtue of the sheer coolness of what I was learning. And those snippets of knowledge have come from all over the academic world: philosophy, molecular biology, French theatre, politics, chemistry, classics, anthropology and more. So I learned the value of a liberal arts education too.

Wonkavision

In the final scene of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” a glowing Gene Wilder tells Charlie not to forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted. Charlie shudders for a moment. This is the final dose of the Wonka charm we’ve grown to love: He ignites fear and then extinguishes it with childish warmth. Like a bipolar peekaboo, Wilder beams: “He lived happily ever after.”

Cartoon: Dean's Date Drama

Editorial: Right to privacy

Individuals, be they students in dorm rooms or private citizens in their homes, deserve a high level of privacy in the places they live. For this reason, we encourage the University to voluntarily hold itself to the same standards to which police and sworn Public Safety officers are held by federal and state law.

Booze booze booze

My friends tend to assume that’s the title of my next column, unless I’m writing about eating clubs that time. They would be more correct if they thought my title were: Drinking for quality rather than quantity makes for happier, safer drinking. I write so much about those two topics because perhaps writing about alcohol and eating clubs makes for more entertaining Friday morning reading than sharing my opinions on the things smarter people spend entire lifetimes studying does. Or maybe it’s that most columns that I have written tend to focus on the same topics because I’ve drawn inspiration from the old ‘Prince’ columnist Brandon McGinley ’10.

Some final thoughts

After three years as a columnist for this paper, writing a final column is surprisingly hard to do. I’ve spoken my piece on most of the things about this place that have caught my attention. What’s more, I’ve experienced so much, owed so much and grown so much that I cannot possibly summarize it in 900 words.  In fact, that is the essence of Princeton: There is more to do here than can possibly be accomplished in four years. Happiness requires choosing the important parts and pursuing them without reservation.

Letter to the Editor: May 11th, 2012

The ‘Prince’s’ Editorial Board makes a factual error in its call for “Improving Precept.” Princeton’s teaching requirement for graduate students is just about the slightest among its “peers,” defined either narrowly as the Ivies or more broadly as American research universities.

Cartoon: Productivity