October 12, 2017

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Thursday October 12, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 85

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U. professor wins MacArthur grant U . A F FA I R S

By Emily Spalding

DP: With that in mind, where do you hope your work takes you next?

senior writer

The Daily Princetonian: First of all, a massive congratulations on becoming a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. What does this recognition mean to you?

Betsy Levy Paluck: For me, the recognition is so special because my work is very deeply collaborative, and so I think of it as a ref lection of work that I’ve done with so many different people, both graduate students and colleagues.

But then outside of academia, people who work in NGOs and in schools, in communities, and activist networks and the people on

COURTESY OF JOHN D. & CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

Professor Betsy Levy Paluck was named one of of 24 MacArthur geniuses on Wednesday.

the ground who we hire to be interviewers and drivers. It takes a lot of people to do the research that I do, and so it feels like a communal, collective celebration. And then I guess, on another level, it’s exciting.

It’s, as some people have put it, a really great week for behavioral science because it feels as though this award goes out to people who are doing this kind of work more generally. Dick Thaler just won the Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics and that was very inspiring to me and a lot of people who do

this work, too. So, it’s just meaningful on all of those different levels.

DP: Your work with social norms and the impact of mass media on behavioral changes has led you to conduct studies in real world environments rather than in the laboratory, taking you to places such as Africa. What is the significance of working in these environments to your work?

BLP: It’s fun! I get a lot of meaning and motivation from being in these set-

STUDENT LIFE

Chemical and biological engineering senior sends email, sparks discussion

By Neha Chauhan contributor

Chemical and biological engineering students choose their major in part because they believe that upon graduation they will have their pick of dream jobs. However, a University senior recently sent an email to the engineering department rejecting this notion.

Nathanael Ji ‘18 sent the email, titled “CBE info - Jobs and Advice,” on

Sept. 24. Ji outlined career paths that CBE concentrators typically pursue after graduation. For each path — medicine, consulting or finance, computer science, pharmaceuticals, and oil — he explained why CBE isn’t the best choice.

“I guess a lot of people go into CBE for the job prospects, and it kind of just broke it down to why, like, in each major job field, how being part of the CBE program will put you at a disadvantage. I think that

was the most demoralizing part,” CBE concentrator Nicholas Bolanos ’19 explained.

Ji said that CBE majors graduate with low GPAs compared to other engineering majors, which creates greater challenges in applying to medical school.

Ji also cited some CBE majors’ plans to try consulting or computer science through certificate programs, and said that this makes students less comSee CBE page 5

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Change to Harvard alma mater mirrors U. past

By Amy Abdalla contributor

In April 2017, Harvard announced its decision to change the lyrics of its alma mater, “Fair Harvard.” The song, which students have been singing since its composition in 1811, features the final line, “Till the stock of the Puritans die,” a nod to the University’s religious roots.

The Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Be-

In Opinion

longing at Harvard sponsored a competition to change the line to “affirm that Harvard’s motto, Veritas, speaks to and on behalf of all members of [the] community, regardless of background, identity, religious affiliation, or viewpoint.”

Harvard has selected 20 choices from a list of 168 choices to replace the alma mater’s final line. Until the end of October, Harvard community members

Columnist Thomas Clarks masculine campus culture, columnist Kaveh Badrei reflects on the phenomenon of comebacks, and guest contributor Joan Ricart-Huguet weighs in on the referendum in Catalonia. PAGES 6-7

are invited to comment on this short list. At the start of the spring semester, a panel of judges will choose a winner.

In 1994, Harvard changed the lyrics of its alma mater by replacing the lyric “Thy sons to thy jubilee throng!” with “We join in thy jubilee throng,” to ref lect the school’s inclusion of girls.

Critics of the most recent decision have claimed See HARVARD page 3

tings because you have the feeling of working more directly on the problem by working with the people who are actually doing that work. So it’s motivation and inspiration by association. I’ve learned from our partners who are tackling issues of prejudice and violence and corruption. But I have to come back to the point that it’s really fun to do this work. I enjoy meeting all of the people who I get to meet in these field sites, and I learn an enormous amount from them.

I’ve been so privileged to be able to work in field sites.

BLP: We have right now a lot of projects going on at once. I run a research group of graduate students and also of Princeton undergrads who are fabulous and who take our model of engaged behavioral science research and they bring it to so many different places. One graduate student has just wrapped up a project with me in China, and another pair of former students, who are now off in their own jobs, and I just finished a paper in Nigeria. Another student of mine, who is also in her own job, and I just finished a paper in Colombia, and that was actually in collaboration with our provost, Debbie Prentice.

So we have this really dynamic group and there are a lot of different things going on. It could be hard to keep track of except everybody is just so great who I work with and we’re all really deeply committed to the work.

DP: In addition to being a professor of psychology, you are also a professor of public affairs in the Wilson School. How has your time spent between these two disciplines impacted your projects or directed See MACARTHUR page 4

ON CAMPUS

Iranian researchers discuss US relations

By Aishwarya Kalyanaraman contributor

“It’s about American trustworthiness which, at the moment, is very low,” said Rouzbeh Parsi, a senior lecturer in history at Lund University. Parsi, who is also the director of the European Iran Research Group, and another speaker, Kevan Harris, discussed the state of Iran-U.S. relations, Iranian politics, and the Iran nuclear deal in a panel Tuesday.

“Everyone thought that the biggest danger that could derail this agreement would be the Iranians cheating in the deal,” Parsi said. “As it turns out, the Iranians have been quite stable in their commitment to the agreement and the party that has become the biggest headache is the United States.”

In the panel, Kevan Harris, an assistant professor of sociology at UCLA and the lead researcher for the Iran Social Survey, began by speaking about the 2016 social survey he conducted in Iran, helping inform the discourse about Iran.

“This is the first social relations survey in Iran,” Harris said. “Most of the polls in Iran have largely been public opinion polls.

As a sociologist, I’m interested not just in opinion, but also in relations between individuals, between

Today on Campus 4 p.m.: Ned Wingreen, U. professor of molecular biology and associate director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute, presents on protein phase transitions in and out of cells. Jadwin Hall A10

families, between regions, and between individuals and the state government and how that’s changed over time.”

The survey consisted of 5,005 phone interviews conducted in November and December of 2016. Harris noted that response rates to polls in Iran are generally high — 64 percent in this particular survey.

Harris explained that there were several features which made the survey he conducted different from typical public opinion polls. A key point was asking open-ended questions about people’s ethnicity, as opposed to providing a list of options from which the participant could choose.

“The whole society has transformed within the last two generations with urbanization, marriage, high education, and that affects the way that people understand their own identity in ethnic terms,” Harris said. After asking the open-ended questions, the responses were coded into categories.

Harris’s survey examined voting patterns across demographics during both the 2013 presidential election and the 2016 parliamentary elections.

“We know that Iranians vote, and they vote at much higher rates,” he exSee IRAN page 4

WEATHER

Professor of psychology and public affairs Elizabeth (Betsy) Levy Paluck was named as one of the 24 recipients of the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant on Wednesday.

The MacArthur Fellowship is a “$625,000, no-stringsattached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential,” according to its website. Being named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow is an extremely high honor, with an extensive nomination and selection process.

Paluck is best known for her work with social norms and impacts of mass media on behavioral changes, with her experiments largely occurring in real-world environments.

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The Daily Princetonian

Thursday October 12, 2017 STUDENT LIFE

P.U.T.T.-P.U.T.T putters along

By Isabel Ting staff writer

COURTESY OF NICOLAS VIGLUCCI

Viglucci dreamed of buying a bus in high school but didn’t get funding until college. Now, he and his team are turning this 1998 vehicle into a sustainable, tiny house.

While in high school, Nicolas Viglucci ’19 won an online auction for a bus, but his father cancelled the sale since Viglucci had neither a design plan nor the funding to realize his dream of renovating it. Five years later, Viglucci has received generous funding from High Meadows Foundation Sustainability Fund and Project X Innovation Fund to finally build his dream - a tiny home inside a bus at the University.

Now, on weekends, Viglucci spends his free time turning a $2700 1998 Thomas Transit-Liner school bus into a tiny energyefficient house. As a mechanical and aerospace engineering major who is also pursuing a certificate in sustainable energy, Viglucci is deeply passionate about hands-on sustainability efforts.

Viglucci explained he has always been interested in sustainable energy and even intends to pursue a career in the field, largely because he is from Miami, Fla. The region, known for drastic flooding and other devastating effects of climate change, was a compelling reason for his passion. Viglucci explained that the project fits neatly into his interests, and is flexible enough to fit into a college lifestyle.

“The idea is that I’ll be able to park it in a driveway for 100 bucks a month, which is way cheaper than rent, work for a couple of years to pay off loans, and after that, drive around the country and live wherever for a little while,” Viglucci said.

“Our first deadline for High Meadows was Nov. 15, and we’re about a third of the way done,” Viglucci said with sheepish chuckle. However, Viglucci and the team plan to finish the entire project by the end of this academic year.

On average, Viglucci spends between 10 and 13 hours each week working on the bus behind Frick Chemistry Laboratory at the Architecture Laboratory, an offshoot of the School of Architecture space designed for collaboration between architects and engineers. During the summer, he worked as long as eight to nine hours every day, mostly by himself, although he occasionally recruited help from friends for more strenuous tasks like painting the exterior or grinding away rust.

While Viglucci uses his own background in engineering to design the electrical systems, he often pulls inspiration and advice from a variety of sources, including his advisor, Forrest Meggers, assistant professor in

the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Viglucci also receives help from his peers, such as Eric Teitelbaum GS, a graduate student from the civil and environmental engineering department who has experience working with treehouses, and Coleman Merchant ’19, who is also concentrating in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The interior design inspiration comes from the blog “Hank Bought a Bus,” which is run by Hank Butitta, a University of Minnesota graduate who converted a bus for his master’s final project.

The two main components that will distinguish Viglucci’s living space from other tiny houses will be its cooling system and lithium ion solar system.

Forty-eight percent of the energy consumed by homes in the United States is used for heating and cooling, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, so Viglucci is searching for ways to be more energy and cost efficient. He hopes to computerize the heating and cooling system through constant monitoring so that the two functions can happen independently without requiring intervention by the homeowner.

Moreover, while most people currently use lead acid batteries to power their houses, a lithium ion solar system, though more difficult to implement, is more environmentally friendly.

Consequently, Viglucci and his team aim to make both systems — particularly the lithium ion solar system — more accessible and affordable.

Despite aiming to solve engineering inefficiencies in the long run, Viglucci himself has encountered obstacles, most of which include “weather, flaky people, and technical difficulties.” While he expressed frustration with annoyances such as squalls while trying to paint the exterior, he has delighted in small successes.

“Once I finish one phase, it’s really satisfying,” Viglucci said.

“Putting together a lot of the photos has been particularly satisfying because day to day it doesn’t feel like progress has been made.”

The general public can also view the progress and pictures through his open source website, putt-putt-the-bus.com.

Viglucci said that this independent project is still nameless — even the acronym “putt putt” doesn’t stand for anything.

Yet once the bus is finished, Viglucci will make it available for sustainability events on campus and open houses on campus to demonstrate the progress of his work.

Thursday October 12, 2017

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Harvard students view forward-thinking shift necessary and appropriate for current undergraduate make-up HARVARD Continued from page 1

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that the change will undermine Harvard’s rich history. Some students, in contrast, have celebrated the move - which they view as Harvard prioritizing inclusivity. Linda Lee, a freshman at Harvard, believes that this shift is, “necessary and appropriate if it promotes forward change.”

“Harvard’s mission

to be more inclusive is a lot more important than keeping things ‘the same,’” Lee said. Unlike Harvard’s alma mater, “Old Nassau” contains no language with religious connotations.

However, the University made a similar decision to that of Harvard by changing the words of its alma mater in the winter of 1987 to be more inclusive towards women.

The University’s original alma mater, “Old Nassau,” featured the lines, “In praise of Old Nassau

my boys,” and “Her sons will give, while we shall live,” because at the time of its inception in 1859 the University was an all-male school. In the fall of 1969, when women first matriculated at the University, no one thought to change the alma mater.

It wasn’t until 1987, when Janet Sarbanes ’89 called for a lyric change in a column in The Daily Princetonian, that the decision to change the song was made. The words “my boys” and “her son” were replaced by “we sing” and “our hearts” respectively.

Despite the referendum’s controversial nature at the time, the student body overwhelmingly passed the Undergraduate Student Government referen-

dum on the alma mater’s lyrics, with less than 7 percent of undergraduates voting against the proposal. Sarbanes wrote in a 1987 issue of the ‘Prince’ that the decision was a “really important step that shows Princeton’s moving in the right direction.”

Jack McCarthy ’69 reported that although a small minority of alumni who were accustomed to the original version of the song would still sing the old lyrics as a form of protest, most accepted the change.

“I thought it was a great idea, and appropriate because the language that they had taken out ref lected an all-male institution,” said McCarthy, who had to adjust to singing a

new version of the song he had known since he was 5 years old.

Widespread acceptance of the Harvard lyric changes, however, has not come without some hesitation.

“While these changes are important, Harvard can’t expect to be perfectly inclusive just with this.

We still have a lot to improve within the culture of our school itself,” Lee said.

Indeed, Sarbanes expressed this same sentiment in her 1987 ‘Prince’ article.

“We just have to remember that it is a symbolic step and that there are a lot of practical issues that still need to be addressed,” she wrote.

The Daily Princetonian

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Thursday October 12, 2017

Paluck: It is a reflection of the work I’ve done with so Parsi: many people. It takes a lot of people to do the research Trust in MACARTHUR America is very low at the moment Continued from page 1

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your focus?

BLP: My work is very interdisciplinary, and that’s why I love being at the Woodrow Wilson School because it constantly brings me into contact with people who are not just trying to apply these ideas that are coming from our research. But then my colleagues are in political science and sociology and economics and engineering even, so that really affects my day-to-day life and the conversations I have in the hallways and the groups I get to be a part of, that’s re-

ally great for me. It’s always been a really unique thing about Princeton that psychologists are so integrated into the policy school. And we have Danny Kahneman and Eldar Shafir to thank for that, but also all of the leadership of the Woodrow Wilson School thought in advance to bring psychologists in.

DP: How do you envision the MacArthur grant factoring into your future work?

BLP: Do more research, support students to do this kind of work, and reach out more and more to the public and to activists who are trying to create social change. That’s the broad

strokes. I’ll be working on the details once I sort of wind down the celebration with everybody!

DP: Is there anything you are particularly excited about right now, more broadly, in the field of psychology and where things are going?

BLP: I’m excited about a lot of broad trends in psychology. I think we are becoming more engaged with real-world problems, and I think political and social developments in the past few years have heightened the demand for psychologists to engage. That’s really exciting. There are a lot of us who are ready to respond to that call and are

excited to. But there is a lot to do in terms of living up to that and providing pragmatic, useful, informative research. So another trend that I’m really excited about is increasing transparency in the social sciences. I’ve been involved in that movement as well.

That means things like making data more accessible, making the research process more spelled out so that other scientists, but also other people in organizations outside of the Academy, can go through the steps of how you found out what you found out. It’s really important that we do this, and I think it’s going to go hand in hand with making our science more applicable and useful to

IRAN

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plained. “Few studies have tracked vote choice across elections. There is sophisticated vote shopping among some groups of Iranian voters, and they can be swayed.

Part of [politics] is swaying individuals to vote one way or another.”

Harris’s survey provided political context in which Parsi could explain nuclear development in Iran and the current nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran.

“The first thing we have to remember is that the nuclear deal is a multilateral agreement and therefore the U.S. cannot dismantle it on its own,” Parsi said.

“Even the promise of not destroying the deal turned out to be difficult to uphold because the person who did get elected has been shall we say, rather hell-bent, to try and derail the deal,” Parsi added.

Parsi added that the United States imposing sanctions on Iran would only isolate the United States and not Iran, as most other nations agree that the deal is working. He said that President Trump is trying to destroy the deal “through a thousand papercuts.”

After the talk, audience members voiced appreciation for the speakers’ work.

“It was really quite informative, particularly in understanding the complexities of voter tendencies in Iran and how they are so very different from those in the U.S,” one audience member said. Another said that they appreciated the “focus on how Iran has continuously cooperated and upheld its end of the deal, as that’s something people may overlook.”

Current University student, Xiyue Wang GS, is currently being held in Iran after being sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage in July.

The lecture, sponsored by the Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, took place on Oct. 10 in Richardson Hall.

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Link: No tangible effect from email, no exodus of sophomores from department CBE

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petitive than those whose education and internship experiences focus more directly on those fields.

In addition, Ji claimed that CBE majors who seek manufacturing or design jobs in the pharmaceutical and oil industries tend to end up working in “middle of nowhere” locations.

Ji did not respond to requests for comments.

“I think the email was a little bit disheartening,” said Riley Stevens ’20, another CBE concentrator.

“Just to hear a senior kind of talk about CBE in such a negative light.”

“I’m sure everyone kind of felt a little horrified reading it the first time,” said Bolanos.

CBE concentrator Madison Parry ’18 had difficulty even reading the entire email.

“I don’t want to think about that stuff right now,” she said. “I think that throwing facts at sophomores like that, it’s just not the correct way to do it. I just think that positive note wasn’t there.”

CBE students expressed dismay that dedicating themselves to such challenging coursework at the the University might not have the expected payoff.

Yet the email’s discouragement did not persuade students that they would lack post-college opportunities.

“CBE remains an excellent choice of major for those students who want to get jobs right after graduation,” associate professor of chemical and biological engineering A. James Link wrote in an email. “This is true both at Princeton and more broadly across the U.S. The wide variety of

jobs that our graduates get is a reflection of the broad, rigorous preparation majoring in CBE provides.”

The email has not induced sophomores to switch to another major, Link said.

“Other than spurring a lot of discussion, which is healthy, we haven’t seen much of a tangible effect from the email. There has not been an exodus of sophomores from the department,” Link wrote.

CBE department chair Athanassios Panagiotopoulos said that he did not agree with Ji’s argument.

“I think that’s an opinion. I think there are many objective measures of job prospects that one can use and find that that statement is not correct,” Panagiotopoulos said.

Panagiotopoulos and Link also refuted Ji’s citation of a 2.7–3.3 average GPA. CBE does not have the lowest average GPA out of the engineering departments, according to Panagiotopoulos.

Stevens said that although the email’s message was discouraging, most prospective CBE majors have already heard warnings about the program’s difficulty and decided to pursue the program anyway.

“I think it’s really important that if you’re trying to study CBE, that you be interested in it and be willing to work for it, just because it is a very difficult major and it’s obviously not for everyone,” Stevens said.

Students also discussed positive aspects of the program as reasons the email hadn’t changed their minds about it.

“Everyone is really close with each other in the CBE department,” Bolanos said.

While views on Ji’s email vary, some students do

agree that it brings to light the lack of communication between seniors in the department and underclassmen.

“That’s one thing I appreciate about Nathanael’s email, is he kind of made it clear that there wasn’t enough discussion among seniors and underclassmen in CBE, and I certainly think that’s the case,” Bolanos said.

“I think we provide an environment that’s supportive of communication,” Panagiotopoulos said.

The CBE department holds question-and-answer panels and additional opportunities for students to speak with employers.

Parry cited a program that the Office of International Programs runs pairing upperclassmen with underclassmen and also expressed a hope that younger students would reach out to students and professors in the department.

Ji’s email was not entirely negative; he noted that the CBE faculty are “good people and I think they put in a solid effort.”

Bolanos said that Ji’s email stems from bitterness, but that he believes Ji truly wants to help underclassmen.

“He seemed honestly concerned for people who are undecided,” Bolanos said.

You could be this guy.

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Thursday October 12, 2017

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Old sins cast long shadows: Repressing ballots with batons in Catalonia Joan Ricart-Huguet guest contributor

T

he Oct. 1 referendum on Catalan independence made headlines, but not because of its result. As the CNN reported, “some 893 people were injured as riot police raided polling stations, dragged away voters, and fired rubber bullets during clashes.”

International media published videos showing Spanish policemen beating people up, from teenagers to old ladies. Nonetheless, about 42 percent of Catalans managed to vote, and among those, 90 percent voted to secede from Spain. Three of the four main Spanish political parties, making up 70 percent of the members of Parliament in Madrid, failed to condemn police brutality. The Spanish government condoned it by calling it “proportionate.”

In my recent article, I tried to explain why the Catalan government was so stubborn about holding a self-determination referendum and why the Spanish government was so adamant to forbid it.

Many observers expected the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, to continue to use non-violent repressive measures to impede the vote. Few expected these high levels of police brutality.

In light of them, friends and colleagues asked me: “Why did Spanish police repress peaceful voters so violently? Isn’t Spain a democracy?” And “what will happen next?”

Bewilderment at the violent repression stems from an unduly optimistic view of Spanish democracy. Some forget that Franco’s repressive regime ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975, 30 years after fascism had been defeated elsewhere in Europe. A proto-fascist regime also ruled Spain in the 1920s.

Before then, Spain’s political history combines absolutist monarchs such

as Charles V and Ferdinand VII with periods of oligarchic rule. These periods were characterized, among other things, by the repression of minorities such as Catalans, Basques, and non-Catholics. If practice makes perfect, Spain is short of democratic practice. On the upside, this makes Spain’s 40-year largely democratic run quite remarkable. On the downside, majority rule is but one central aspect of democratic rule.

In “On Liberty,” John Stuart Mill argued that two fundamental components of democracy need to be carefully balanced: the will of the majority and the rights of minorities. Considering only the first risks a “tyranny of the majority.” In devising rules, he said, the majority should consider whether they would accept such rules were they instead the minority. In practice, the majority considers whether it should accommodate the minority (when some political logic, such as the need to build a coalition, favors a compromise), ignore the minority (in the hope that it will eventually accept the status quo), or repress the minority (with the goal of inducing acquiescence by squashing dissent).

Disregarding the rights of minorities can be advantageous for the majority. For one thing, the majority can extract economic rent from minorities. For another, the majority does not have to alter its cultural, economic, or other policies.

Many governments and empires throughout history have followed this approach. However, repeatedly ignoring the demands of a minority has a key shortcoming: it prevents learning from and engaging with the minority’s viewpoints. After 150 years asking for a federal-type bargain and hoping for Spain to become more modern and

tolerant, many Catalans appear to have run out of patience. In a time when democracy and dialogue are the norm in Europe, Spain’s uncompromising political culture appears ill-suited to deal (peacefully, at least) with the 80 percent of Catalans that support an independence referendum — irrespective of their stance on it.

Historical baggage notwithstanding, why didn’t Rajoy limit himself to non-violent legal repression against Catalan leaders? He may believe that a strict interpretation of the Constitution combined with hard repression is the way to show Catalans who is in charge.

Many Spanish conservatives that grew up before 1975 were socialized into such a mentality.

Rajoy’s mentor, Manuel Fraga, was a minister under Franco in the 1960s.

Amidst complaints of police repression, Fraga infamously said, “The street is mine!” In other words, demonstrate at your own risk. On Oct. 1, his mentee let Catalans vote at their own risk.

Rajoy may have also balanced the pros and cons of using police force.

For the cons, Spain’s international image took a hit. Using batons against ballots is not the paragon of democratic tolerance. Also, Rajoy antagonized some Catalans even further. For the pros, he may have instilled fear in other Catalans — if not personal fear, fear of the political and economic instability that Spanish repression may generate.

Also, by condemning and violently disrupting the referendum, he reduced turnout to about 42 percent. Sardonically, the Spanish government can now claim that we do not know whether most Catalans want to secede from Spain. Finally, if Rajoy anticipated that the European Union cabinet and the German and French leaders, Angela Merkel and Macron, would fail

to explicitly condemn the violence, he was right.

The top EU leaders did not dare to criticize a proEU ally like Spain, even if Catalonia has always been unambiguously proEU. Some hoped that EU leaders would place human rights above political considerations and rise to the occasion. With a few exceptions, they did not. Negative international press and over 800 wounded notwithstanding, the Spanish government came out mostly unscathed.

What will happen next?

A majority of MPs in the Catalan Parliament (53 percent) were elected on explicitly pro-independence platforms in 2015, and they passed a law binding them to obey the results of the referendum.

However, Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, put independence on hold on Tuesday to give dialogue with Spain yet another chance. The Spanish government rejects any sort of dialogue, so the international mediation that the Catalan government desires is unlikely unless conf lict escalation threatens the EU’s economic or political stability. In that extreme case, EU leaders might pressure Rajoy to sit at the table. For now, the Spanish government threatens to suspend the regional government and imprison Puigdemont. More repression may subdue some Catalans through fear, but it may lead an everlarger number of them to favor independence. One wishes that Spain had the democratic culture of Britain, which agreed to Scotland’s independence referendum in 2014. But you cannot make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.

Or, as the Spanish saying goes, “You cannot ask for pears to an elm tree.”

Joan Ricart-Huguet is a graduate student in the Department of Politics from Catalonia. He can be reached at jricart@princeton.edu.

Toxic masculinity Thomas Clark

C

columnist

hitty chitty bang bang, she wants a pretty shitty gang-bang,” was the snippet of song I heard being chanted by at least a dozen drunksounding men as I happened to be walking by a dorm room during frat rush season last year.

Disturbing incidents like this are not anomalous; we all know that 1 in 3 undergrad women experience sexually inappropriate behavior at Princeton, and we know that men comprise the vast majority of perpetrators. Culture and biology both play into this.

But rather than writing off masculinity as inherently toxic, we need a healthy vision for the role of men in campus life. This issue continues to be addressed through efforts like MAVRIC and the newly hired men’s engagement manager, but there are three areas in need of change.

The first elephant in the room is pornography.

While many women increasingly report using porn, the statistics still reveal a stark divide between male and female usage of pornography.

Porn, created for a male audience, also informs male sexual attitudes.

Surveys have shown that porn inf luences teenage boys on what kind of sex they want to have. If we want men to treat women like people and not like objects, curbing porn addiction on campus is an obvious first step, yet one that receives little attention. Thanks to orientation, RCAs, and social media campaigns, I know who to turn to if I am suffering from depression or anxiety. But when it comes to resources for helping myself or others avoid or reverse the detriments of porn, resources are scant.

Secondly, college men need meaningful malemale friendships. When all-male groups gather in private after-hours, the fact that we sometimes get gang-rape songs reveals the superficiality of

many male relationships.

Too often, men come together over the glorification of sex and alcohol and not over the shared pursuit of virtue and excellence.

Princeton’s Greek-life ban is a testament to the problem — all-male social groups have caused more damage than the co-ed eating clubs. Healthy culture would have room for both co-ed and single-sex fellowship opportunities without tainting the concept of “fraternity” with debauchery and misogyny. That being said, it’s not all bad — I see many groups of men who bond over things that are good and true: service, religion, academic interests, and athletics. It is wonderful to see groups of men being vulnerable with each other, lifting each other up through difficult times, and passing on advice and mentorship. These sorts of community-building endeavors change a culture.

Lastly, our campus culture needs to promote a positive vision of mas-

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editor-in-chief

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Kathleen Crown William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73

141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 associate news editors Kristin Qian ’18 head opinion editor Nicholas Wu ’18 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Emily Erdos ’19 head sports editor David Xin ’19 associate sports editors Christopher Murphy ’20 Claire Coughlin ’19 head street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 associate street editors Lyric Perot ’20 Danielle Hoffman ’20 web editor Sarah Bowen ’20 head copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 associate copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19

culinity. Many students are wary of discussing gender differences for fear of stereotyping or denying intersex identity. On the contrary, it is possible to acknowledge unique traits of men while avoiding these pitfalls. Having exceptions to the binary does not imply that “male” is not a well-defined biological concept. For example, men in general tend to be larger, physically stronger, and more tolerant of alcohol than women.

Given that these biological differences partially explain why most sexual offenders are men, we should turn these factors into positive rather than negative forces. An essential part of healthy masculinity should be to channel these characteristics toward the defense and protection of the more vulnerable, instead of toward violence and aggression. This is not merely some nostalgic longing for chivalrous men who hold doors open for women. We should work for a culture where

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a guy walking a girl home would never think to have ulterior motives for doing so, where men who have the strength and ability are unafraid to intervene in potentially dangerous social situations — on the Street, at pre-games, or anywhere else on campus.

Toxic masculinity brings out the worst in men and damages the community at all levels.

Let’s reclaim what is positive and healthy about male identity and reject unhelpful stereotypes.

Let’s give men something to be proud of.

Thomas Clark is a junior studying computer science and can be reached at thclark@princeton.edu.

Thursday October 12, 2017

Opinion

page 7

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In love with the comeback

Kaveh Badrei

O

columnist

n Sunday, Oct. 1, Curb Your Enthusiasm — Larry David’s groundbreaking and widely acclaimed comedic television project — returned to HBO after six years off the air. In 2011, after eight Curb seasons, many fans considered the show to be finished and never to return to television again. But Sunday saw the modern comedic staple return. Only time and multiple viewings of the show will determine whether or not this season of Curb Your Enthusiasm will live up to the high expectations of its well-established past, but the buzz around Larry David’s comedic masterpiece’s return to television demonstrates fans’ intense and undying love for the comeback.

Larry David is unique.

With a career of not only one, but two, beats of pure comedic and societal success, he makes us heavily invested in his comeback dynamic.

Our affinity for the comeback — for the rise of something from the ashes of its own greatness — is something shared and common to the human experience. It is a story and a narrative that continues to draw

our attentions and our unconditional interests time and time again.

This intense connection to the comeback story lies in the tendency to develop our own sorts of hopes, ideas, and anticipations from the reality around us. We build up the reality around us and our conceptions of that reality to unrealistic standards. And because of this notion, there is often a large disconnect in the grounds of our expectations versus the grounds of actual reality. It’s the reason why we are moved to such excitement and surprised joy when a comeback is successful, and the same reason why we are overcome by sheer disappointment when the effort isn’t reached entirely as we envisioned.

A simple Google search of “comeback stories” will yield pages and pages of results. The Huffington Post shares “The 10 Most Inspiring Comebacks” while Buzzfeed posts a list entitled “10 Comeback Stories to Inspire Us All” and Business Insider shares “The 13 Best Celebrity Career Comebacks” to its readers. These are subjects that draw our attention and peak our interest on some of the most frequented sites and publications in our media.

Leading up to Curb Your Enthusiasm’s revival, host HBO created a promo campaign that aired months before the season premiere, interspersing tantalizing shots of Larry David and the familiar show’s tune.

Curb Your Enthusiasm evokes the human and societal phenomenon of the comeback, which can be observed and appreciated at its fullest.

When famous artists or athletes leave the public stage at the height of their success, we hold them at their best, and the images of them at their peak are the memories that stick in our minds. We retain these ideas of greatness in our own conception of the individual. Even after these people exit the spotlight and even after the hopes of return are slim to none, we retain these unrealistically high standards. And at the slightest mention of a comeback or return to the spotlight, we demand these standards be met at such a prospect.

This kind of heightened expectation that exists in our minds doesn’t always occur consciously. Inherently, we impart our own anticipations, our own ideas about how things should be, and these instinctual impressions guide us and our attitudes towards a sub-

ject. Investment into the return of a great or the comeback of a show that one found particularly legendary comes naturally, even if this human feeling isn’t consciously or deliberately conceived.

We’re moved to feel strongly and expect the most out of the subjects that touched us, that provided us the most enjoyment and substance. We so desperately want our expectations to match reality; we so desperately want a successful comeback story.

It’s such a deep desire, such a talked-about phenomenon in society and culture today because, more often than not, our expectations do not match our reality. In most cases, the comeback story is non-existent. It’s rare for the rigidly high standards and lofty ambitions of our minds to be satisfied by anything less.

Athletes returning to the big leagues out of retirement are not as strong or dynamic as they were in their primes; bands coming back together after years apart are not as skilled and musically in tune as before; the long-awaited return of a television show does not live up to the hype. The unfortunate reality of the “back-in-the-day” ideology makes the successful

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reality of a comeback all the more desired, all the more wanted. We love to see the revival of a great to the present stage because it’s the moment where our expectations — most often unrealized dreams in our minds — become the reality that we so desperately desire.

I should say that I too, like many others, was impatiently and enthusiastically awaiting the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I reminisced about the storylines and the jokes that filled the past seven seasons of Curb, and I couldn’t wait to see what the premiere of season nine had in store. In some parts more than others, it was a funny episode, and while I was somewhat happy with it, reality came up short of my expectations, as happens all too often.

My expectations — like they so often have a tendency to do — were too high, too lofty, too ambitious for my own reality. But it doesn’t mean that I won’t be rooting for the next comeback that comes to the scene in the future, that I won’t be envisioning and expecting so much from the next return from greatness.

Kaveh Badrei is a sophomore from Houston, Tex. He can be reached at kbadrei@ princeton.edu.

Thursday October 12, 2017

Sports

page 8

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FIELD HOCKEY

No. 14 Tigers emerge from gauntlet of ranked teams, face Brown Saturday

IMAGES BY JAMES CURRAH :: PRINCETONIAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The Princeton Tigers have had their fair share of tough opponents this season. This weekend, the No. 14 Tigers faced UConn, their second time going up against a No. 1 ranked team in the country. Also on the slate thus far for Princeton were two teams ranked No. 3 (Delaware, Penn State), the No. 4 team (Duke), the No. 7 team (Syracuse), the No. 10 team (Maryland), the No. 22 team (Rutgers) and the No. 24 team (Boston University). However the Tigers have risen to the occasion and currently sit at 6-6. Even better, Princeton is currently undefeated in Ivy League play after defeating Columbia 3-0 this Friday. However, the Tigers will have to conclude most of the season away from the friendly confines of Sherrard Field as 4 of their final 5 games are on the road. Up next for Princeton are back to back games against Brown and Northeastern this weekend. Then, the Tigers will match up against the Crimson in what should be an epic battle for control of the Ivy League title.

Tweet of the Day “college will really have you doing dumb stuff like setting an alarm for a 14 minute nap�

Amir Bell (@ A_Bell05), basketball

Stat of the Day

55 points Field hockey senior captain Ryan McCarthy has totaled 55 points over her last 32 games.

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