Opinion

Being backstage

It’s difficult to say how I ended up backstage at the Naacho show. I absolutely cannot dance ... or do theater ... or sing ... or really anything that involves a stage, actually. However, I have always admired those who seem to own the stage with their various talents. Growing up with a mom who was an opera singer might have been a part of the reason I have such respect for dancers, singers and thespians. That admiration has only increased since attending Princeton. There are so many incredibly talented performers on our campus. From watching Triangle’s fall show to supporting my friends in the Shakespeare Company’s “Macbeth,” I have been unduly impressed with the multitude and quality of performances at Princeton. It seems every week that Theatre Intime is putting on a new show or PUP is performing a new musical. Most impressively, many of these shows are either choreographed or written by Princeton students themselves.

Careful ambition

Five weeks ago, with exams finished and days to spare before Intersession, I marched proudly out of Labyrinth with 20 new books under my arm. The shiny covers stared out at me, and I was happy. This was going to be a superb Intersession: a bit of knowledge and a bit of skiing. I packed my suitcase, books included, and jetted off for a week of pure, unadulterated fun.

Oz is no wizard

None of this is to say that Oz shouldn’t be allowed to speak at Princeton. USG and SD, like student groups everywhere, have every right to invite whichever speakers they think will fill seats. The problem here is that CPS has lent Oz and the mounds of pseudoscience he peddles its imprimatur by not fleeing, hard, at the first sight of his name.

In the service of ... ourselves?

Question: What ever happened to the life or death of the soul?

Cartoon: Highbrow humor

Editorial: Toward stronger editorials

Today, instead of an editorial, the Editorial Board would like to inform you of a decision we have made after much discussion and contemplation. We would like to take this opportunity to explain our reasoning so that one is not struck with an utter sense of abandonment, disappointment and shock upon opening next Wednesday’s paper — yes, you will find a column where an editorial once was. We have decided to publish two editorials per week, instead of three. We see many benefits in this “downsize,” and we are excited to make this shift.

The 35.9 percent

I’ve realized that what bothers me and others on campus in this regard is the appearance that some of our peers have given up the romantic notion of working as an end in itself and not just a means. The rest of us, not completely irrationally, dismiss the possibility that a good number of the 35.9 percent might actually enjoy their careers on Wall Street. But far from pitying them out of concern for their futures — futures we assure ourselves we’d hate to live — their choices make us uneasy.

The best four years of your life

A working class

Working a job is virtually the only way to establish in one’s mind the connection between hard work and money that provides a foundation for a responsible adulthood. Those “wealthier” students — to use the words of the Board — who don’t have to work for money and therefore don’t learn this crucial lesson are the most at risk. Academic work is the sometimes the only industrious outlet which they have on campus. This one-dimensional existence can be corrosive to one’s sense of perspective and ultimately generate an utterly skewed set of values in an individual.

Low standards, more happiness

I am going to pose a question, responding to Chris Doubet’s March 1 article, and I want you to consider it with the highest level of personal honesty: Why do you go out to the Street? Take a moment and really think this through. I am somewhat confident that, if we all apply sound logic to this question, we will arrive at the same conclusion: Honestly, who cares?

Creativity, not selectivity

In college, we are constantly encouraged to try out new disciplines and embark upon new territories. But how can anyone do this if there are constant roadblocks in the form of applications? If a student wants to improve upon a skill, such as creative writing, he or she won’t have the opportunity because of selectivity.

At the expense of health

For better or worse, challenge and competition are integral to the Princeton culture. Students, faculty and administrators all expect that these four years are our time to prove ourselves and excel. For example, the student who came to my class sick last week might have been motivated to attend in fear of the work she would have missed or by how she thought the professor would have viewed her absence. But for every time you come to class sick to surmount an academic challenge, I challenge you to stay home instead.

For affirmative action

In an ideal world, affirmative action would not be necessary. Unfortuately, that time has not yet come. Should affirmative action programs be banned, colleges and universities would lose one of the crucial ways in which they provide students with a well-rounded education. Because this policy not only provides students of all races an opportunity to obtain an education but also all students the chance to interact with people of different cultures, Princeton should continue to defend its ability to admit racial minorities under affirmative action policies.

Only in Princeton

Supportive and inclusive

I am disheartened and disturbed by the anonymous ‘Prince’ comments, which run the gambit from uncivil to downright cruel. Many contain nothing of reasoned argument, but much of ad hominem attack. Furthermore, this is not the first time that I have read vicious comments on The Daily Princetonian website or Princeton FML. The latter site, though less conducive to ad hominem bullying, has nevertheless become an outlet for juvenile sentiments that are disgusting and unpleasant at best and offensive at worst.

Hijacking 101

Although Princeton has in fact been spared, the New York Police Department has been conducting surveillance on Muslim student organizations at colleges like the University of Pennsylvania and Yale. Multiple articles and blog posts — including those of this newspaper — have already dealt in depth with the ethical issues raised by this surveillance. I agree wholeheartedly with them. Racial or religious profiling, and the violation of basic rights to privacy, is inexcusable. But in this article, I want to draw attention instead to the sheer uselessness of spying on a University student organization.

Cartoon: Seriously nature, make up your mind

Passing the banana

I was hoping the Girls would have more faith in their audience. I was hoping to hear a thorough and intelligent discussion of the intricacies of 21st-century feminism and its future after the heydays of second- and third-wave feminism. I wanted the Guerilla Girls, whose potent social commentary was so crucial for women’s rights in the 1980s, to investigate modern issues or at least describe their feminist experience with more than a stilted, self-congratulatory speech that glossed over the intellectualism at its center.

Editorial: Speaking responsibly

Because we have more influence than we think, we also have an obligation to know and understand what we are talking about when we comment on current events. Princeton teaches us to research thoroughly, evaluate both sides of the argument and use reliable sources. However, we neglect to apply these standards when commenting on current events. When we do this, we cloud the facts and contribute to the confusion surrounding certain issues. Given both the influence social media has on society and our ability to shape social media, we have to be cautious both about the sources we trust and what information we choose to disseminate.

A case against commitment

This column is not an argument for reneging on the many extracurricular commitments in your life. On the contrary, it is an attempt to persuade you to add one more. This one, however, should be solely and selfishly for you.