February 23, 2015

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Monday february 23, 2014 vol. cxxxix no. 17

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In Opinion Barbara Zhan responds to the “Hose Bicker” movement, and Lea Trusty justifies the current AP U.S. History curriculum. PAGE 4

ALUMNI DAY

Queen Noor of Jordan ’73 talks women, injustice at Alumni Day By Annie Yang staff writer

Today on Campus 5 p.m. Journalist, author and filmmaker Tariq Ali will be giving a lecture on “The State of Palestine” at the 12th Annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture. McCosh 10.

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The Archives

Feb. 23, 1990 The University’s 250th anniversary prompted production on a documentary film focusing on major events in Princeton’s history, under Alan Greenspan’s direction.

PRINCETON By the Numbers

1951 The year the first AfricanAmerican undergraduate to be admitted by the University’s admissions process graduated from the University

News & Notes Cornell hosts Ivy League Vegan Conference Cornell hosted the fourth Ivy League Vegan Conference, with over 300 anticipated visitors, this past weekend. The event, hosted by Cornell for the first time, was free for Cornell students. The conference is the only Ivy League conference dedicated to discussions about vegan diets, academics, policy and bioethics. Attendees, through facilitated discussion, learned more about new perspectives on global issues related to veganism and explored the relationship between health and a vegan diet. Events included a career fair and a lunch, as well as presentations from several speakers. The conference also included discussion periods and a networking event for students, in which attendees could learn more about opportunities with companies and organizations committed to promoting vegan lifestyles. Ithaca was rated the fifth most vegan-friendly city in the United States by VegNews Magazine in 2013. The last Ivy League Vegan Conference was held at Princeton last year.

LU LU:: SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Queen Noor of Jordan, formerly Lisa Halaby ’73, was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award. STUDENT LIFE

Panel discusses women’s experiences in eating clubs By Pooja Patel staff writer

Gender and the eating club experience cannot always be separated, a panel of alumni and current students concluded at a discussion, “A Conversation on Women and Eating Clubs,” held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Alumni Day. Panelists were Joanna Anyanwu ’15, a Women’s Center intern and member of Cap & Gown club; Julia Blount ’12 former president and trustee of Quadrangle Club; Hap Cooper ’82, president of the Tiger Inn graduate board; Joe Margolies ’15, former president of Quadrangle Club and president of the Interclub Council; Sydney Kirby ’15, vice president of Cannon Club; and Lucia Perasso ’16, president of Terrace Club. The event was moderated by Lisa Schmucki ’74, a trustee of Cap and an adviser to the ICC and Graduate Interclub Council. Both Blount and Perasso said they initially considered running for vice president of their respective eating clubs instead of president. “Traditionally, [Quad has] had a lot of female vice presidents,” Blount said. “I took the leap to run anyway, and I ran against seven men.” Being a female president of an eating club does involve a certain degree of behavior modification, Perasso said. “It became very gendered in a way I didn’t expect,” she explained. “Once I was elected, I did realize that there is an element of having to fulfill the expectation of norm male behavior that people assume that presidential people in positions of power will have.”

Kirby, however, said she had a different experience. “I think that ‘being one of the boys’ or having to act in an agentic manner or display typical male traits isn’t necessarily something that I found at Cannon,” she said. “I think the women officers that were elected in Cannon are fairly feminine, stereotypically.” TI had to confront issues of equality especially painfully last year, Cooper said. “Ever had one of those mornings where you second guessed your decision to get out of bed?” asked Cooper. “[TI’s graduate board] had one of those years last year.” Since two TI officers were fired last fall for the alleged distribution of a sexual photograph, the club accepted more women than men in the Bicker process this year, instituted a tip line through which any member can call the graduate board anonymously with an issue without having to deal with undergraduate officers and changed the officer training program to include more on sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse awareness, Cooper said. Newly elected members do not assume office until fall of their senior year, after they have completed the training, he added. “It took a lot of learning to develop the tools that were necessary to make the decisions that drove the behavior that had to change. It was a tough year but a really important year,” he said. “There was a slippery slope of behavior that went from inappropriate to misogynistic to dangerous.” TI conducted a poll of its members last November, See EATING CLUBS page 2

F E AT U R E

Women are the key to progress in the Arab world, Woodrow Wilson Award winner Queen Noor of Jordan — formerly Lisa Halaby ’73 — said during Alumni Day on Saturday. The award is given annually to an alumnus or alumna who embodies the ideals former University President Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, set forth in his speech, ”Princeton in the Nation’s Service.” With training, education and economic opportunity, women become capable of stabilizing nations and radically increasing GDP, she said. She added that microfinance allows women to play an active role in their communities. “No strategy that marginalizes women can succeed: To stifle their rights, hamper their work and to deny their contributions not only demeans women but also women’s progress,” she said, adding that she noticed in her work that women have extensive experience with reconciliation and nurturing peace. The primary problems that prevent women in the Arab world from receiving their rights are in fact social and economic, she said. However, these problems are often presented in religious terms, she added. Addressing a belief that Islam is the reason for misogyny in the Arab

world, Queen Noor noted that seventh century Islam allowed women political, legal and social rights that were unheard of in other countries. Current practices seen as coercive are not mandated in the Quran but are holdovers from pre-Islamic social culture, she added. “Women are not simply a special category of problems to be addressed or ignored — they are the key to the solution,” she said. Queen Noor also addressed the economic and political prospects of Arab youth. A majority of the population in the Arab world — about 60 percent — is under the age of thirty, she said, adding they face one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. State-based tyranny will also continue until a government based on the rule of law is created, she said. “ISIS or ISIL/Daesh are neither Islamic nor a state,” she said. The difficulty in addressing extremism is that the majority of the money spent in military and humanitarian aid often lines the pockets of leaders, she explained. The interventions of the United States in Arab countries such as Syria serves only to strengthen militants’ convictions, she added. Education and human rights reforms are essential to peace and development, she said, adding that when force must be used, it should See INJUSTICE page 2

ALUMNI DAY

Eakes GS ’80 discusses homes, inequality By Annie Yang staff writer

Home ownership is one of the most important factors in breaking the cycle of poverty because it can stabilize the family and neighborhood, James Madison Medal winner Martin Eakes GS ’80 said at an Alumni Day lecture on Saturday. The James Madison Medal was established in 1973 and is conferred upon a Graduate School alumnus who has had a distinguished career, achieved a record of outstanding public service or advanced the cause of graduate education. “Economist and community builder, tireless advocate for social progress, and economic justice and opportunity,” reads the inscription on the medal. Eakes received a Master in Public Affairs from the Wilson School. He said he was at first unfamiliar with life away from home, and that his

Southern accent and careful manner of speech did little to help him fit in. “When I first came to Princeton, I considered myself a foreign student; even the students from India, when I first started arguing with them, were not sure that I was speaking English,” he said. The year he earned his graduate degree, he established two organizations in Durham, N.C. — the Center for Community Self-Help, where he continues to serve as CEO, and the law firm Gulley, Eakes, Volland & Calhoun. Self-Help had humble origins in a $77 bake sale, but grew to become worth more than $2 billion, loaning over $7 billion to businesses, non-profits and low-income people, according to Eakes. Eakes insisted on providing fair mortgages and allowing everyone the opportunity to own a home See INEQUALITY page 2

STUDENT LIFE

Black History Month: Look- USG senate tackles Mental Health Week ing back from 1792 to 1950s By Katherine Oh staff writer

By Shriya Sekhsana staff writer

Race relations at the University have transformed significantly from a time when admitted students were turned away because of their race to a time when multiple diversity initiatives and ad hoc committees have been created to make students feel comfortable on campus. According to sources, the history of African-American students at the University has been complex starting from 1792. 1792: The potentially first African-American University student Although John Chavis, a young African-American man, was nominated for the Leslie Fund Scholarship set aside for poor and pious students who wanted to get a Presbyterian

education, he does not appear in contemporary class rolls, and there are no records of him having ever attended the University. Melvin McCray ’74, who has spent considerable time preserving campus AfricanAmerican history, said Chavis’ nomination for the Leslie Fund Scholarship is recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1792. “All the history in his family places him at Princeton as a student,” McCray said. “I am searching for documents to prove it without a reasonable doubt, but I haven’t come across that. And I may not ever.” Chavis moved on to study at another college upon the death of then-University President John Witherspoon for unknown reasons. In 1799, Chavis became the first African-AmerSee FEATURE page 3

Committee applications, Mental Health Week and increased access to New York City were among the topics discussed by the Undergraduate Student Government at their weekly senate meeting on Sunday night. Members of the senate discussed the recently received committee applications, and members noted that the number of applications received was lower than the numbers from the previous semester. “I think it was much higher in the fall; I tried to maximize the amount of responses to the committee app,” USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said. “I think the timing was bad. We tried to avoid the first week, but it still looks like the apps are a little lower than we wanted.” Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. Cheng also explained that she met with University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 last week, and that Eisgruber encour-

aged members of USG to seek more direct contact with administration. Led by treasurer Hunter Dong ’17, the senate also reviewed the procedure for requesting funds, and noted that USG also hopes to increase the transparency of its finances. “The budgets are actually available to the public, but I doubt that anybody has tried to see them. So I will try to actually make them as public as possible, so people can see what we’re spending,” Dong explained, adding that he welcomed feedback about the budgets from the general student body. U-councilor Naimah Hakim ’16 said that the programming for the upcoming Mental Health Week will include the “Dear World” photography project. Students who wish to participate in the “Dear World” project can get a ticket and have their photo taken. Former U-council chair Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 explained that participants can write something on their arm and share a story behind the writing, along with a photo

of themselves. The stories can be positive stories of hope, or about vulnerabilities and insecurities. “The feedback we received from last year’s Mental Health Week, a lot of students said they liked the photography aspect; they liked seeing this project where people shared their stories, but they wanted something with a more positive outlook,” Okuda-Lim said. U-councilor Jacob Cannon ’17 noted that the photography project is a fun, new way for students to get involved. “The other thing is that ideally there will be conversations as well, but those are harder to schedule because of the pace of this place,” Cannon said. Hakim said that the Mental Health Initiative Board plans to increase collaboration with other groups on campus. The board is also working with the Counseling and Psychological Services Director Calvin Chin to discuss ways in which students could better respond to friends or peers going through stress. Hakim noted that See USG page 2


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