Opinion

The world is bigger than the United States: why American students should study abroad

From minor inconveniences such as needing an adapter to charge an iPhone to bigger challenges like having math class taught in Italian, studying abroad forces American students to adapt.

Lifting the gender divide: Gendered divisions at the gym

Women are taught to exercise to lose something, rather than to gain something.

Free speech and its discontents

If today we allow Twitter to ban those who are despised, we may be building the guillotine for our own heads.

CAF: Center Absurdly Faraway

The first step to having a general feeling of inclusion at Princeton is to bring the presence of the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding closer to the center of campus. 

It’s time to Ban the Box

The University, an institution that wields international prestige as one of the best and most well-known universities in the world, must also lead the ongoing fight against systemic discrimination by banning the box.

Architecture as an antidote to digital fatigue

Contemplating a building in this way, I argue, is not just enjoyable. More importantly, such an exercise restores and reorients us to physicality and reality. Architecture, firmitatis, will liberate our generation from the chains of digital fatigue. 

To vote or not to vote: The ethics of voting for an unethical Democrat in the Trump era

There is something truly disappointing about the notion that even though I voted along party lines for Bob Menendez as a Democrat, I only did so because I saw him as the lesser of two evils compared not to Bob Hugin ’76 but to Donald Trump.

If the environment isn't the government's responsibility, whose is it?

The federal government should recognize that it is every citizen’s right to reside in a healthy and sustainable environment. 

Beyond artificial mentorship

Effective mentorship demands more organic roots than a random match.

Globalization: The act of commodifying culture

I propose a challenge to the reader: the next time you go on vacation to a different country, don’t forget to seek out its rich history and interesting heritage. Treat it like you’re doing research. 

The other side of Nassau Street

Princeton will never produce students “in the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity” if, in order to get there, students sidestep community service. If you’re a Princeton student, chances are you’re part of the I’ve-never-crossed-Nassau-Street club, and, even if you have, you’ve probably only made it as far as Starbucks.

We undervalue the sound of silence

Encourage your friends as well, so that more people are inclined to break that taboo precluding us from embracing silence. It may just be key to thriving during your time at Princeton.

Luxury of civility

It is crucial to step outside our privileged point of view and understand that while the status quo might work for us, it is not so for many of our fellow citizens. Civility is a luxury many cannot afford.

When synagogues and grocery stores are sites of butchery: The vulnerable lives of Trump’s America

As much as it is politically taboo to criticize “the American people,” President Donald Trump is simply a product of the hatred and ignorance of much of the country’s electorate. At a time when national unity is vital, we must first address why such unity is so hard to achieve.

Campus tour

How to spot a politics major

Midterm recollection

Voting without volition

People are judged not only on the basis of their ideological assertions; more than that, the overriding determinant for our respectability is whether or not we’ve chosen to vote at all.

A place for privacy

Before running blindly to the calls of free coffee and sweets at Shiru Café, I would only ask my fellow students to think deeply about the principled choice at hand. 

I need some alone time

There’s nothing selfish about taking care of yourself — which, in the case of introverts, includes being by yourself. I rarely see people after 11 p.m. or so because I’ll be doing both them and myself a disservice if I do.