Opinion

How a hate group spurred Princetonians to action

I have always hesitated to do anything political. But students just like me took action that day against the Open Air Outreach protest. They did not have to respond at all. After all, the protest occurred while classes were in session, when many of us would be studying Locke or cleaning chemical glassware.

What do you mean by “academic freedom?”

My point here is not that everything that occurred on the Middlebury campus was justified, but that discussing Murray’s inability to lecture as an affront to academic freedom is irresponsible. The debate surrounding academic freedom is an important one, but not all ideas deserve to be protected in our academic spaces, and Murray’s certainly don’t.

The need for upperclassmen academic advisors

At the same time, many of the most rewarding and fulfilling classes one could take at Princeton exist outside of one’s major, and do require a substantial amount of work. Freshman year is an ideal time to explore these classes. 

Looking for grad student writers

To continue the conversation among the graduate student community, the section is looking for regular contributing columnists.

Let it die so you can live: The beauty of a dead phone

I’m the friend whose phone is always dead and I can tell you it’s liberating.

The emotional cost of gun violence

Gun violence takes lives. But it also takes some life away from the living. I’ve heard it said that our generation won’t stand for this kind of violence to continue once we are in power. Surely, our generation will do something. Please, my dear classmates and leaders of the future, let that be true.

Mental health reform starts with students

The University — specifically, the University’s student body — needs to undergo a cultural reformation. That is, we need to be more conscious of how we contextualize and frame mental illness, as this will affect how students with mental illness are socially ranked.

What happened to commitment?

After the initial excitement and compulsive netID distribution at the club fair, club involvement is often not all that it’s advertised to be. Despite our over-involvement in high school, at Princeton our student organizations suffer from a lack of commitment.

Turn out for what?

PAJ (and by extension, its leadership) suffers from a practical limit of effectiveness, an affliction of aimlessness, and a passivity of purpose.

Lewis Thomas Laboratory: Icon of architectural postmodernism

In a series of articles, I hope to draw attention to a few buildings on our campus that do not fall easily into one of the two architectural extremes. Possessing neither the timelessness of Collegiate Neogothic nor the novelty of contemporary architecture, they occupy a perhaps awkward, or in the eyes of many students even undesired, position on campus. 

Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough

In December 2014, one of my high school classmates, Paige Stalker, was killed in a hail of gunfire on the east side of Detroit. Police reports suggest that this was a case of mistaken identity in a dispute between drug gangs. But the circumstances of the shooting are irrelevant to the outcome of the case. About 30 shots were fired in the course of the altercation. Three other teenagers riding in the car with Paige were injured. Paige was 16 years old. 

Is “common sense” gun reform enough?

Gun control policy must be comprehensive — strict regulation, mandatory buybacks, prominent oversight — for gun violence to ever begin to approach an acceptable level: none. And by this metric, common sense gun reform is not enough. 

Is our campus really safe?

Harvard, Yale, Penn, Brown, and Cornell—the other schools in the Ivy League which possess their own campus police—have already made the choice to give their sworn officers handguns and effectively defend their campuses.

Stop ranting about politics on Facebook

Inevitably, feelings get hurt, friendships are broken, and the issue doesn't get any closer to being resolved. We should stop making and responding to political posts on social media because most people dislike or don’t care about them.

Letter to the Editor: Pedestrian safety on Washington

Please join me in imploring the university and the town to make the walk signal automatic before, rather than right after, the inevitable tragedy.

The day of judgment (and shoes)

I can only imagine how many meaningful relationships I’ve missed out on because of my fixation on shoes, instead of the story behind them.

What happens in the barn, stays in the barn

Reading for the sake of reading

Reading novels is an important investment in itself, and those who neglect to read fiction are at a loss. Fiction paints unexplored worlds that we cannot find in our textbooks.

Rethinking Distribution Requirements

The goal of these requirements should be to spur us into taking classes in new fields so that we may discover the breadth of our passions; instead, it is as if we take classes for the purpose of fulfilling these requirements.

For decisions about gun control, look to the past

It is critical that an emphasis be placed on using all past school shootings in policy decisions, not just the most recent ones.