Having been at Princeton for a mere six weeks, I have no right to give advice. I do have an interesting anecdote, though, that even the seniors among us can enjoy.
The dismal science seems to be the only one permitted to perform human subject research without consent, often with catastrophic effects.
In his 2011 budget proposal, President Barack Obama called on Congress to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent. This provides a $2,500 college tuition tax credit to individuals whose modified adjusted gross income is $80,000 or less, or $160,000 or less for married couples filing a joint return, as well as smaller credits to families earning above this threshold. Given the benefits this act provides to students and their families, the Editorial Board urges Congress to listen to Obama and make the tax credit permanent.
Princeton computer science is a fine department, but is it better than, say, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which came in third? MIT was second in 1995, after Stanford and followed by University of California, Berkeley; Carnegie Mellon University; and Cornell — a quite reasonable result. Other computer science departments were jerked around wildly; for instance, computer science at the University of Washington went from ninth to 38th, a most unlikely outcome.
Unfortunately, the war on terror, and terror itself, is all but normal. This is the story of a Pakistani struggling with that abnormality. The more we try to simplify the situation, the less we have in our arsenal against extremist ideology. The best I can do in this column is complicate things for you, since grappling with confusion is better than settling for simplification.
Your editorial incorrectly suggests that ROTC is considered an “outside organization” because of the conflict between its discriminatory practices and the University’s policy on non-discrimination. The reason that ROTC is considered an outside organization is because it is an outside organization: The ROTC program is sponsored, operated and controlled by the U.S. Army, not by the University.
When we are polite to a fault, we are no longer intellectuals engaging in debate, but politicians practicing the art of offending nobody.
The permanent repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” would represent an important opportunity for the University to reevaluate its relationship with the ROTC program and to grant it full recognition.
Imagine you inherit a house with a vast and very fertile garden, and surrounding that garden is nothing but deserts and starving farmers.
In a time when it’s infinitely valuable to have the ability to mold your ideology without being labeled a flip-flopper, it’s best never to have mentioned Proposition 19. Likewise, it’s better never to have joined the “One Million Strong for Barack Obama” group on Facebook. But it goes beyond this: It’s better never to have mentioned your feelings about any subject at all.
What would Princeton do without me? God knows that my detractors have spent thoooouuuusands of hours framing me as abusive, whereas in reality I am almost single-handedly responsible for all reasonable discourse on this campus. When columnists get out of line, I have come to consider it my responsibility to make sure they remember their place on the totem pole.
But the push to enact a University policy in response to such situations is a passive-aggressive way to tackle the issue. There’s a far more natural solution: If students don’t want to smell second-hand smoke, they’re free to talk to the smokers about it.
Contrary to what Vargas Llosa believes, it is only when we doubt and question society and ourselves that we are able to cast off the old order and travel down the road of progress.
Last Sunday afternoon, I stood in a taxi line next to a middle-aged man dressed as Scarlett O’Hara.
The Editorial Board debates the future of gender-neutral housing.
