Opinion

Editorial: A linguistics department

As of 2010, six of the eight Ivy League universities offer undergraduate single concentrations in linguistics. Princeton, however, is not among them, even though we do offer a certificate program in linguistics, and undergraduates commonly create independent concentrations in the subject. The Editorial Board feels that this gap in our academic offerings must be filled in order to provide the most enriching intellectual environment for our students and to continue to attract the highest caliber of prospective students.

The American university and the world

In recent years, universities and research centers from Berlin to Beijing have caught up or passed us in many fields. The states have decided that higher education isn’t a public good, which they should support, but a private one, which students and their families should pay for.

Editorial: Knowing the numbers

In order to adequately assess the success of our efforts to increase the socioeconomic diversity of the student body and in order to effectively discuss future modifications to our efforts, it is necessary that we possess accurate and clear measurements about the current state of affairs.

Appreciating veterans

Since we cannot personally thank the dead, we most certainly should show our appreciation for the living veterans. It’s men like the following four who we thank on this day. Each epitomizes the soldier’s duty of putting his own life at risk to protect others.

Cartoon: Dining halls

Letter to the Editor: November 11, 2011

Beth Covin asks that students be happy during their time at Princeton.

When the best of the best are not the best

After a little time and too much wallowing to the mind-numbing sounds of dubstep, the sting of rejection has worn off, and we have since let our bitter resentments go. The truth is we’ve all moved on to other things. Our rejections nudged us and pushed us and forced us towards new possibilities.

Unhelpful advice

It seems that there are enough advisers per student to take care of every social and academic aspect of our lives. And yet, one semester into my college career, I have difficulty identifying ways my advisers have benefited me in concrete terms.

A different kind of service

The way she saw it, loads of kids come into Princeton having done community service by volunteering throughout high school, but something happens during their time here, and, instead of graduating loads of kids into not-for-profit, volunteer-oriented jobs, we place them at consulting firms, banks or other corporate entities. This career trajectory was presented as a non sequitur for the once civically minded. She wanted to know: What was it that happened?

Cartoon: To smell the roses

Editorial: The tradition of the Ball

We believe that pessimism about the Orange and Black Ball, at least at this stage, is unwarranted, and we support the class governments’ decision to hold the ball

Midterm class evaluations

If students could give preceptors and professors midterm evaluations, the second half of the semester could be better for both the students and the teachers.

Cartoon: Decision

Being happy at Princeton

What we don’t understand is that being happy isn’t like being a good student; emotions aren’t graded. If they were, the only way to get an A would be admitting to others and, more importantly, to ourselves when all we want to do is cry.

The Orange and Black Ball

A ball. There are very few things that inspire such a romantic notion in a girl’s mind as a ball, especially a girl who grew up watching Cinderella and who until age 8 would leave single shoes in parks, classrooms and hotels so that “Prince Charming could find her.” So when the idea of an all-school ball was presented in a random class government meeting last winter, I was sold.

Cartoon: Fall break

Not another wristband

My red bracelet traveled a long way before Grillo tied the strings around my wrist. The bracelets are handmade by Nepalese women and girls at a safe house near the Indian border. The safe house is a temporary home for girls either rescued from sex traffickers or girls who have nowhere else to turn. The bracelets are distributed in the United States by the Red Threads Movement, a student-run charity affiliated with Eternal Threads, a Texas-based non-profit that supports impoverished women throughout the world by selling their products in the United States.

Just occupation

So when is civil disobedience justified? “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty,” said King. “I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

Editorial: Jachera for mayor

We endorse Jill Jachera for Princeton Borough mayor.

Give me your undivided attention

Put aside your laptop and your phone to spend a bit of quality time with the people right around you.