Opinion

Teaching styles, grading disparities, high school backgrounds, and departmental politics all play roles in who’s crowned Old Nassau’s top students. I will explore each of these factors in depth for subsequent columns. But first, I’ll give a brief overview of who at Princeton is winning the nine prestigious academic awards to show why their results are so baffling.

OPINION | 04/13/2020

Extend the P/D/F deadline

Extend the P/D/F deadline

Claire Wayner

Like it or not, grades are a way by which society evaluates us, but Princeton can alleviate the burden in this unusual semester by giving us the full ability, through an extended PDF deadline, to choose which grades we reveal while navigating the challenges of online learning.

OPINION | 04/12/2020

Patterns in the pandemic: What racial data tells us and why we need more

Patterns in the pandemic: What racial data tells us and why we need more

Shannon Chaffers and Julia Chaffers

As we eventually negotiate the aftermath of this crisis, this data should be a moment of reckoning that motivates reparative and preventative measures to support the health of people of color, pandemic or not.

OPINION | 04/09/2020

Hope isn’t cancelled

A building with trees and a lamppost in the foreground.

Hope isn’t cancelled

Guest Contributor

This year, when we are all restricted from leaving our homes and passing through the threshold of our doorways into the world, let us stand up despite our isolation, anxiety and despair, and open our doors and our hearts with singing.

OPINION | 04/08/2020

Bernie drops out, leaving only one path forward

Bernie drops out, leaving only one path forward

Richard Ma

The responsibility is sole and simple, and that is to vote for Joe Biden. It is not only your duty as an American, but also your duty to the future.

OPINION | 04/08/2020

How to interpret the big numbers in the news

Ollie Thakar

In an effort to comprehend the exponential growth and the resulting large numbers associated with coronavirus, I have furnished some heuristic analogies that I hope will help display the full expanse of the disease more concretely. If we take the time to comprehend the intuition-defying numbers of confirmed and new cases of the coronavirus, these numbers, while terribly disheartening, should become more manageable.

OPINION | 04/07/2020

The solution to coronavirus is political

Braden Flax

We must remember that the crisis we face is societal, not biological. Its solution lies not in moral principles, but in political struggle.

OPINION | 04/06/2020

How to stay happy during social distancing

How to stay happy during social distancing

Richard Ma

The compromises we need to make aren’t always optimal. But ultimately, by living the way we are now and through the sacrifices that others are making, we can keep things bright for the future.

OPINION | 04/05/2020

An open letter to the Dean of the College

A photo of a gothic building in springtime on an overcast day. The building has a dozen windows, and trees with pink flowers surround the building.

An open letter to the Dean of the College

Juan José López Haddad

Adopting the universal PDF measure will demonstrate Princeton’s commitment to not just creating smart leaders, but empathetic leaders, who prioritize their communities and vulnerable populations in times of need.

OPINION | 03/31/2020

Politicizing People: American lives aren’t up for debate

Politicizing People: American lives aren’t up for debate

Julia Chaffers

Columnist Julia Chaffers argues that the current government response to coronavirus in the United States prioritizes profits over lives.

OPINION | 03/30/2020

A silver lining: the resurgence of journalism in the face of coronavirus

A silver lining: the resurgence of journalism in the face of coronavirus

Kate Lee

Editorial Assistant Kate Lee discusses the rise of journalism’s importance amid the coronavirus crisis.

OPINION | 03/30/2020

Coronavirus, structural injustice, and moral responsibility

Sebastian Quiroz

Structural change requires collective action: action that is possible only if we all take responsibility for our choices and for making better ones.

OPINION | 03/29/2020

On losing friendships to the coronavirus

On losing friendships to the coronavirus

Leora Eisenberg

Three months before I planned on having these thoughts (i.e. at graduation), I am having them: will our friendships survive?

OPINION | 03/29/2020

When life gives you COVID-19, start learning for learning’s sake

When life gives you COVID-19, start learning for learning’s sake

Ollie Thakar

With examinations, the pressures of job applications or graduate schools, and our own internal wills to maintain high GPAs looming over each semester, we often forget that learning can be fun. The coronavirus, while wreaking havoc in almost all aspects of our lives, can — if we make the most of the opportunity it has provided us — bring back the joys associated with being curious.

OPINION | 03/26/2020

Digital living must be our new normal

Claire Wayner

This is the life that we are going to increasingly have to live if we want a shot at limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius, a threshold that climate scientists believe marks the difference between manageable and catastrophic global change.

OPINION | 03/26/2020

Departmental disparities pervade Phi Beta Kappa

Departmental disparities pervade Phi Beta Kappa

Liam O'Connor

While its motto is “love of learning is the guide of life,” a cheeky Princeton parody of it could be “love of science is the guide to Phi Beta Kappa.”

OPINION | 03/25/2020

The need for nature in the COVID-19 crisis

The need for nature in the COVID-19 crisis

Claire Wayner

The ultimate goal of all of these initiatives should not be alienation of our planet. Rather, it should be to promote a culture and global worldview that sees humans and nature as inextricably linked and that recognizes the need to preserve one, nature, in order to keep the other, human, healthy.

OPINION | 03/24/2020

Coronavirus, AIDS, and the need for uncompromising empathy amid a pandemic

1024px-CARE_International_–_friendship_and_love.jpg

Coronavirus, AIDS, and the need for uncompromising empathy amid a pandemic

Samuel Aftel

No one is too old — or too queer, or too poor, or too black, or too disabled, or too incarcerated, or too undocumented — to be worthy of life, or worthy of grief.

OPINION | 03/23/2020

Want a Shapiro Prize? Study STEM

Want a Shapiro Prize? Study STEM

Liam O'Connor

Records show that STEM concentrators have won the majority of Shapiro Prizes every year since they were established, despite comprising half or less of the student body.

OPINION | 03/23/2020

The ivory tower is not immune to pandemic

The ivory tower is not immune to pandemic

Daily Princetonian Editorial Board

We applaud Princeton’s previous decisions to revise policy when confronted with the realities of the pandemic and encourage similar action before the disparate effects of the current grading policy become even more self-evident.

OPINION | 03/22/2020

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