Wednesday November 6, 2019 vol. CXLIII no. 98
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Democratic incumbents reelected in local NJ races By Evelyn Doskoch Contributor
EVELYN DOSKOCH / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Students voted in Carl Icahn Laboratory. ON CAMPUS
Artist Maya Lin discusses her artwork on campus and environmental activism By Marissa Michaels Staff Writer
Before the Lewis Center for the Arts was built, Maya Lin discussed the possibility of creating art around it. Now, several years later, she has finally completed her two contributions to the University campus, “Princeton Line” and “Einstein’s Table.” On Tuesday, Lin — who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. and has won numerous awards, including a 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom — came to Richardson Auditorium to discuss the artworks, her earthworks, and environmental activism. James Steward, Director of the Princeton University Art Museum, joined her in conversation. Lin’s hope for her art on
campus is that it reminds people to slow down. “For me,” she said, “the ‘Princeton Line’ is about getting to know what’s going on right underfoot.” Much of her talk focused on understanding the environment around you through her famous earthworks and water tables. As Steward said, Lin asks “us to contemplate our relationship with the physical world around us, whether it’s natural or shaped by the human hand.” Lin’s continuing global project “What is Missing?” tracks the world’s lost species. As its website states, it is “showing us how to reimagine our relationship to the natural world and showcasing how we could live See MAYA LIN page 2
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Judge Sallie Kim ’86 fines Betsy DeVos for contempt of court
By Sandeep Mangat Contributor
Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim ’86 fined U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos $100,000 for contempt of court for violating a preliminary injunction. The Department of Education will be expected to pay, and the money will be given to the association of students affected by the fraud committed by Corinthian Colleges, Inc., a for-profit, post-secondary education conglomerate that operated a host of degree-awarding schools across the United States and Canada. In 2014, the U.S. government revoked federal funds for Corinthian after it was discovered that the company falsified its graduation and job placement rates. This caused most of Corinthian’s schools to apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Students affected by the organization’s tactics were eligible to receive full relief from any federal loans through a process termed the “Corinthian Rule.” However, both current and
In Opinion
former students of Corinthian schools were expected to pay any outstanding debt accrued from their time at the institution. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who had launched an investigation of the incident, wrote to then-Education Secretary John B. King Jr. that “it is unconscionable that instead of helping these borrowers, vast numbers of Corinthian victims are currently being hounded by the department’s debt collectors — many having their credits slammed, their tax refunds seized, their Social Security and Earned Income Tax Credit Payments reduced, or wages garnished — all to pay for fraudulent debts.” The Department of Education under the Obama Administration had provided full relief to affected students. This changed under President Trump and Secretary DeVos, whose Education Department, according to Judge Kim, “had erroneously sent 16,034 notices that payments See SALLIE KIM page 3
Guest contributor Leopoldo Solis responds to a recent column by columnist Zach Sippy, while senior columnist Hunter Campbell discusses the ways student organizations should and shouldn’t promote themselves on campus.
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The 2019 elections, despite being an off-year for much of the country, yielded meaningful results for the state of New Jersey and for local races in and around Princeton, N.J. This year, Princeton residents voted on races for the New Jersey General Assembly, the Mercer County Executive, the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Princeton Town Council, and the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education. Residents were also asked a public question regarding the allocation of veterans’ benefit funds. Polling took place at the Carl Icahn Laboratory, which was open for voters from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day.
STATE Incumbent Democrats Andrew Zwicker and Roy Freiman were re-elected to the NJ General Assembly as members of the 16th district with 42.72 percent and 40.76 percent of the vote, respectively. “It’s a real honor to represent the University and the entire 16th legislative district,” Zwicker said. A member of the state legislature’s Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee, Zwicker says he plans to focus his next term on issues of digital privacy. “So much of our [lives] is digital right now, and so my committee is going to focus on how we protect people, and how we balance the fact that our lives are online versus who controls and who owns our data.”
Zwicker also expressed interest in issues of environmental protection and access to voting: “I’m gonna continue to work on environmental protection and make sure New Jersey is a leader in the climate crisis. My other big thing is around access to voting … making sure young people [come] out to vote, and doing everything we can to take all this dark money out of politics.” “That’s all in the first week,” Zwicker joked. Zwicker and Freiman ran against Republican challengers Mark Caliguire and Christine Madrid. Neither were available for comment at the time of publication. COUNTY The Mercer County Board of See ELECTIONS page 2
ON CAMPUS
KRIS HRISTOV / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Professor Aaron Friedberg and Michael Mazza spoke on Hong Kong protests in Robertson Hall.
Professor Aaron Friedberg and visiting fellow Michael Mazza discuss US-Hong Kong-China relations By Kris Hristov Staff Writer
On Monday, Nov. 4, professor of politics and international affairs Aaron Friedberg and American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow Michael Mazza discussed China’s policies toward the ongoing Hong Kong protests and the American response. Michael Mazza specializes in U.S. defense policy, China’s military modernization, and broader Asian grand strategy. Friedberg is an expert on American strategy in East Asia, international relations, and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Mazza began by explaining the causes of the present violence in Hong Kong. Over the past 22 weeks, there have been ongoing protests in the special administrative region of Hong Kong. Hong Kong was transferred to China from the United Kingdom in 1997. Since then, Beijing has increased its control. The current protests began due to an extradition bill that would allow for the Chinese government to arrest and extradite political dissidents in Hong Kong. Following the massive growth of the protests, they began to encompass broader issues, such as democratic reforms and retaining autonomy from China. The
protests have also escalated due to violence between police and protestors. “Hong Kong is well on its way to becoming just another Chinese city. Hong Kongers want to prevent that fate,” Mazza said. Mazza pointed out two future inflection points. One is Hong Kong’s upcoming district council elections, which could see anti-Beijing parties lose seats in the Legislative Council and legitimacy in the region. Meanwhile in Taiwan, Mazza said the anti-Beijing Democratic Progressive Party could potentially regain support it would have otherwise lost due to domestic controversies. This would be a blow to Beijing and president Xi Jinping, who, according to Mazza, sees both Taiwan and Hong Kong as parts of mainland China that need to be re-unified. Mazza noted that the United States has responded strongly, with President Trump mentioning Hong Kong to the United Nations and calling for China to respect its treaty guaranteeing Hong Kong’s autonomy. However, Mazza said, a clear end is not in sight. Friedberg noted that China has not followed the path that Western countries expected in the 1990s. Rather than industrializing and democratizing, Beijing increased its wealth while
Today on Campus 6:30 p.m.: Dance faculty Rebecca Lazier, Cameron McKinney, and Alexandra Damiani will share their stories and knowledge of navigating the profession. Wallace Dance and Theater
adopting a more authoritarian system under Xi Jinping and establishing itself as a power in Asia, putting pressure on the United States. Friedberg compared the current situation in Hong Kong to the protests in Warsaw, Poland, in 1989. The Soviet Union was unwilling to commit forces to stop protests, pressuring Warsaw’s own security forces to deal with protestors. Mazza and Friedberg agreed that the use of mainland Chinese military to disperse protests was unlikely, as it would result in international condemnation and potentially severe repercussions from the United States in the form of sanctions, visa restrictions, and publicly disclosed statements on the wealth of Chinese elites. Neither Friedberg or Mazza saw a decisive outcome as likely in the near-term future. “The best outcome is for the process of Hong Kong’s integration to be deferred and delayed until there is meaningful change in the Chinese mainland’s political structure,” Friedberg stated. The lecture, entitled “USChina-Hong Kong Relations,” was sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Society. It was held in Robertson Hall at 4:30 p.m.
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