PHOTO ESSAY: A LENS INTO R.O.T.C. p.7-8
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Thursday december 5, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 115
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In Opinion Jason Choe argues that Princeton should focus more on alcohol safety, while Rebecca Kreutter argues that our current alcohol policy is right to promote self-responsibility. PAGE 5
In Street Street asks why we get all dressed up, Seth Merkin Morokoff gives us the deets on Princeton Pi, and Jennifer Shyue defends top bunks. PAGE S1
The Archives
Dec. 5, 1955 The sophomore bicker committee begins hosting a series of “bicker precepts” for those interested in joining clubs.
On the Blog Aaron Robertson shares what he believes are the two paradigms of social service.
STUDENT LIFE
Website gives data on eating club members
By Lorenzo Quiogue staff writer
The launch of a new official website about the eating clubs has provided a unique window into the clubs’ real membership numbers, one which suggests that a significant number of students drop the eating clubs before graduating. As of the beginning of the current semester, 1,710 students in the Classes of 2014 and 2015 are members of the eating clubs according to the InterClub Council website. However, of the students who joined eating clubs between spring 2012 and spring 2013 — the period that accounts for all current members — at least 333 of 2,043, or 16 percent, have dropped or left, according to historical aggregate data maintained by The Daily Princetonian. The aggregate numbers do not count Quadrangle Club, which currently has a membership of 113 students according to its website, because until very recently the club did not disclose membership numbers to the ‘Prince.’ The numbers also do not include the most recent fall bicker and sign-in season. Although some of the students who joined in that period were members of the Class of 2013 and
have since graduated, this number is minimal, according to membership lists obtained by the ‘Prince‘ last spring. The largest difference is in the case of Terrace Club, which saw 343 students join between spring of 2012 and 2013, including 183 who joined last spring alone. Terrace, however, currently lists a membership of only 230 members, a full third less than the number of students who signed in. Terrace is also the club listing the most members in total, although Tower Club follows closely with 220 members. In the case of Tiger Inn, the number of members has actually increased compared to the number of students who joined through Bicker. Between spring 2012 and spring 2013, 179 students joined TI, but the club now lists a membership of 188. TI President Christopher Hamm ’14 did not respond to multiple requests for comment asking whether TI allowed students to join between fall and spring Bicker. Quadrangle Club — which recently lowered membership fees in See NUMBERS page 2
Priorities Committee examines efficient use of U. funds staff writer
U. researchers look at how targeted ads affect web experience In a study examining how the commercialization of online data has personalized web users’ experience, researchers at the University and Belgium’s KU Leuven have released “bots” that mimic the behavior of real people online, according to “Freedom to Tinker,” a blog hosted by the University’s Center for Information Technology Policy. Their research studies the different personal experiences that arise due to the practices of companies like Google, which stores data on users’ web history and filters their search results based on this history. The study will compare the search results, ads, offers and prices shown to their various bots to determine what kind of discrimination occurs across different sites. “What all these and many more examples have in common is that they are ways of using personal information for differential or discriminatory treatment,” assistant computer science professor Arvind Narayanan wrote in a blog post. “Our long-term goal is to be able to run the tool on a web scale to publish a frequently-updated ‘census’ of online privacy and discrimination.”
KASSANDRA LEIVA :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of Theatre Intime rehearse for their adaptation of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’ The show, directed by Kanoa Mulling ’15, will run in Theatre Intime Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 10.
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
By Lorenzo Quiogue
News & Notes
FRANKENSTEIN
Due to recessionary pressures and diminished federal funding for research, this month the Priorities Committee is examining ways to more efficiently use the University’s funds. The Priorities Committee will make preliminary recommendations on Dec. 10-11 and present them to the Finance Committee on Dec. 13, 2013. Committee members will
then conduct final discussions in January before University president Christopher Eisgruber ’83 and University provost David Lee GS ’99 present the final budget recommendations to the Board of Trustees on Jan. 24, 2014. At the November meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Committee, Lee explained that the University “was a little bit closer to having to think about trade-offs” and mentioned that sequestration and budgetary inf lexibility would
continue to pose significant financial challenges. In a late November interview, Lee explained that it was much easier to fund new academic initiatives before the recession but that as endowment returns dropped significantly after 2008, the Priorities Committee was forced to reexamine the University’s use of funds, especially in the face of ongoing uncertainty about the strength of the national economy. “We’re sort of in the post-reces-
sion period and we don’t really know what’s going to happen – are we going to go back to high returns like we did before or are we going to experience another financial shock?” Lee said. “We really have to make sure that we’re more rigorous in examining these initiatives, and we really have to think about which ones go first.” Carolyn Ainslie, vice president for finance and treasurer, explained in an interview last month that the See TRADE-OFFS page 3
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
STUDENT LIFE
U. purchase becomes a donation
Residential colleges allow mixed housing
By Daily Princetonian Staff Princeton formally donated $4.1 million to the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro in fiscal year 2012. The charitable contribution, however, did not function as a donation, but rather was used to complete the sale of a parking lot, whose price had been agreed upon before the recession and has since dropped dramatically. Before moving to its current location on Route 1 in 2012, UMCPP was on Witherspoon Street, less than one mile north of the University. As part of the move, which was planned years in advance, the University bought a parking lot from the hospital for $5 million. “We bought a parking lot on Franklin Avenue from the hospital for an agreed-upon price of $5 million, which at the time of contract we believed represented fair value for that property,” University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said. Nevertheless, the University was not allowed to actually close on that property until the hospital formally relocated outside Princeton, Mbugua explained. The property’s value dropped when it was reSee HOSPITAL page 3
By Loully Saney senior writer
Students had the option to live in gender-neutral housing in the residential colleges for the first time this academic year. The program, which allows students to live with roommates of the opposite gender, is popular with students who choose it, though some suggested certain improvements. For Brenaea Fairchild ’16, who lives in Butler College, gender-neutral housing is a necessity. “I am married, and so I wanted to live with my husband obviously,” she explained, adding that the situation wasn’t perfect. “The residential colleges don’t really fit the needs of a married couple.” Fairchild said the couple has difficulty sharing the college’s communal kitchen, among other disadvantages. She does not regret the decision to live in gender-neutral housing, she explained, as her commitment to her marriage is what allows her deal with issues that arise. “If you are not married, you don’t have that commitment of knowing you are going to work through this no matter what,” Fairchild said. She suggests that couples should only live in genderneutral housing if they have a commitment to making things work. “Living with someone, even of the same sex, is a lot of work because of the demands of Princeton.” Currently 56 students live in gender-neutral housing, according to information provided by Manager of Undergraduate Housing Angela Hodgeman, who declined to comment further. Of See GENDER page 4
LU LU :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ballard Metcalfe ‘14 and Izzy Kasdin ‘14 share a room in 1901 Hall.