Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Thursday december 17, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 124
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
STUDENT LIFE
U. admits 18.6 percent Cen ’16, Ude ’16 are Sachs Scholars of early applicants for Class of 2020 By Paul Phillips news editor
By Jessica Li senior writer
The University admitted 785 students from a pool of 4,229 candidates for the class of 2020 through the singlechoice early action program, representing the largest number of early-admits in the University’s recent history, according to University Dean of Admissions Janet Rapelye. This figure represents an 18.6 percent acceptance rate. 767 students had been admitted last December early action for the Class of 2019, and 714 students had been admitted through early action for the Class of 2018. The University’s undergraduate admission office mailed notification letters to students today, and the deci-
sions were available to applicants via secure online access around 3 p.m. EST. Rapelye noted that this year represents the first time that the University admitted more women than men. Fifty-one percent of the early admits are women and 49 percent are men. “We are very pleased with the diversity of this group,” Rapelye said. According to Rapelye, the admitted students come from 33 countries and all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia except Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Eleven percent of the admitted students are international students and 42 percent of the admitted students are U.S. students from diverse backgrounds.
In addition, Rapelye said, 56 percent of the students who were admitted attended public schools, and 13 percent are the first in their families to attend college. Sixteen percent of the admitted students are sons or daughters of University alumni, while 21 percent of the admitted students said that they intended to major in engineering. Though some families have not completed their financial aid applications, Rapelye explained that she expects the final admit pool to demonstrate financial needs comparable to those from past years. Around 60 percent of University students receive need-based grant, and grants are on average above $40,000 each year. See ADMISSION page 2
STUDY BREAK
Sarah Cen ’16 and Ogemdi Ude ’16 have been named the recipients of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship. Cen, who is majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering, will pursue a master’s in engineering science as a Sachs Scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, while Ude, who is majoring in English, will spend a year as a Sachs Global Scholar studying Indigenous Australian physical theater in Melbourne, Australia. Cen is a former staff writer and web editor for the Daily Princetonian. Matthew Stewart ’85, an adviser for the Sachs Scholarship, said that the Sachs Scholarship at Worcester College is intended for two years of graduate study and a degree at Worcester College, while the Global Scholarship was STUDENT LIFE
MASJID launches antiIslamophobia campaign By Marcia Brown staff writer
GABRIELLA CHU :: ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
Students enjoy food provided by various Asian cultural groups on campus in the basement of Dod Hall.
intended as an option for students to spend a year abroad and devise a learning project of their own that might not fit into formal categories of pursuing a degree. Stewart explained that former Sachs Scholars and friends of the association conduct the interviews and read the applications for the Sachs Scholarship. The application consists of a research proposal along with resumes, transcripts and letters of recommendation, and the selection committees look for people they think are committed to putting their talents toward the public good, Stewart said. Cen said that she plans to work with information engineering professor Paul Newman in the mobile robotics group, adding that she will both present a thesis and take classes and attend seminars along the way. She said that her current plan after her two years See SACHS page 2
A campus-wide anti-Islamophobia campaign by the student group Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and Individual Dignity will begin soon. MASJID, which formed last year in response to anti-Muslim sentiment at the University and across the country, announced the campaign at an open town hall meeting last Friday. Around 20 people attended the meeting, according to Farah Amjad ’16, one of the founders of MASJID. At the town hall, Muslim students and other allies gathered to discuss issues of Islamophobia in the media, internationally and on campus. In a post in the Princeton Muslim Students Association Facebook group, the town hall was described as a call to action to counter Islamophobic actions, especially in the context of other social justice movements, and
to encourage diversity and tolerance. The meeting discussions yielded committees for the campaign, including ones that would run an op-ed with a petition and raise awareness through graphics, according to an email sent out after the meeting. The group’s outreach will include campus, community and educational efforts such as postering of Yik Yak posts after the Paris attacks. Campaigners also plan to coordinate a day on which Muslims on campus will wear IDs in response to presidential candidate Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim comments calling for Muslims around the country to wear IDs. The group will also put together a photo series relating to Islamophobia and marginalization. In addition, the campaign will look to involve engaging influential people on campus, such as University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, seeking responses to recent See CAMPAIGN page 2
LECTURE
Panel discusses free speech, discrimination on campus senior writer
The relationship between the issue of free speech and the issue of combating discrimination is a complicated one, panelists said in a discussion hosted by The Daily Princetonian on Wednesday. The panel featured Joanna Anyanwu ’15 GS from the Black Justice League, Samantha Harris ’99 of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Joshua Leifer ’17 from The Princeton Progressive and Peter Singer, professor in the Center for Human Values. Harris initiated the conversation by noting that increasing calls of censorship from students are detrimental to unlearning prejudice. “In many ways, the highly visible student protests around
the country are a sign of the robustness of free speech around the country,” she said, adding that she is disappointed to see student protestors issue demands that undermined the same rights that made free speech possible. Singer said he agreed with Harris, and that if we prohibit alternative viewpoints, the truth will simply become a matter of dogma instead of a living truth that we constantly have to think about. “The danger that we face today is that we are all going to agree on something or won’t have contrary opinions expressed because they seem too politically incorrect to be expressed,” Singer said. Leifer, however, noted that controversies over the limits of “free speech” are not at the See PANEL page 2
NATALIA CHEN :: PHOTO EDITOR
Samantha Harris ’99, Peter Singer, Joshua Leifer ’17 and Joanna Anyanwu ‘15 GS spoke in a panel on Wednesday.
In Opinion
In Street
Columnist Bennett McIntosh explains the difficulties of non-eating club options for upperclassmen, and columnist Will Rivitz argues that it is alright to be offensive as long as you accept someone else being offensive back. PAGE 3
We take a look at the ‘Prince’ archives on the history of arts at Princeton, senior writer Kristen Coke takes us down an ‘unfamiliar street’ in Tokyo and senior writer Danielle Taylor writes a letter to Santa. PAGE S1-S4
WEATHER
By Jessica Li
HIGH
59˚
LOW
47˚
Cloudy with periods of rain. chance of rain: 100%