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Friday February 26, 2021 vol. CXLV no. 7

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NEWS

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Princeton plans for in-person, outdoor Commencement for Class of 2021

By Evelyn Doskoch and Caitlin Limestahl Head News Editors

The University plans to hold an in-person, outdoor Commencement for the Class of 2021, according to an announcement made this afternoon. The event, currently scheduled for May 16, is set to take place at Princeton Stadium. The University believes it can “host a meaningful Commencement experience for its graduating students” based on current public health guidelines, according to the announcement. Still, the institution left the door open to change those plans. “We will continue to monitor the public health situation and state guidelines in the weeks ahead – should circumstances change significantly, we may need to pivot to a virtual Commencement ceremony,” the announcement states. While additional details will be announced in April, the University has released some information regarding who should be able to attend the event. Undergraduate seniors living on-campus or locally who have taken part in the University’s asymptomatic testing protocol will be invited to Commencement, though those who lose access to campus

JON ORT / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

housing due to a Social Contract violation will not be permitted to attend. Similarly, graduate students taking part in the asymptomatic testing protocol who have, or will have completed their master’s degree or Ph.D. within the 2020-21 academic year will be invited to attend. The University also hopes to invite graduating seniors and graduate students who are studying remotely to participate in Commencement. This decision will be “informed by New Jersey’s health and travel guidelines,” according to the announcement.

The University does not yet know whether guests will be permitted to attend, and is “exploring” the issue in accordance with state regulations and public health guidelines. “Should guests be allowed, there would be a maximum of two guests per student,” the announcement states. “Families are encouraged not to make non-refundable travel arrangements.” For those who cannot attend, Commencement activities will be livestreamed. On-campus students in the classes of 2022, 2023,

and 2024 will be required to move out of their dorms within 24 hours of completing their last final exam. Final exams conclude on Friday, May 14, so at the latest, non-seniors must leave campus by May 15. Students in the Class of 2021 must vacate their oncampus rooms by noon on the day following Commencement — which, based on the current schedule, will be May 17. According to the announcement, the “official conferral date of degrees” will remain May 25, 2021. Students will receive their “diplomas, certificates and

official Commencement programs by mail after that date.” Graduating masters and doctoral students will have their Graduate Hooding ceremony on Monday, May 24. “The Graduate School will be in contact with advanced degree candidates who may be eligible to participate in the virtual Hooding,” the announcement states. Baccalaureate, Class Day, residential college end-ofyear events, and departmental or program celebrations will all be conducted virtually, as will 2021 Reunions. An in-person ROTC Commissioning Ceremony is currently being planned for graduating seniors. “Our top priority is to gather graduating seniors who are able to attend safely for this important rite of passage,” Dean of the College Jill Dolan and Vice President for Campus Life Rochelle Calhoun wrote in an email to the Class of 2021. “The times continue to be extraordinary and unpredictable. But University administrators and staff are working hard to preserve an experience we know is a vital milestone of your Princeton career,” Dolan and Calhoun added. This story is breaking and will continue to be updated as more information See NEWS for more

SPORTS

With Ivy League athletics canceled, Men’s Basketball’s Desrosiers and Schwieger look elsewhere By Wilson Conn Contributor

When the Ivy League Basketball tournament was canceled in March 2020, senior guard Ryan Schwieger and senior forward Jerome Desrosiers of the Men’s Basketball team were shocked. “It kind of came out of the blue,” Schwieger remembered. The Tigers (14-13 overall, 9-5 Ivy) had secured the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Ivy League tournament, the winner of which would earn an automatic March Madness bid. On March 9, the League became the first Division I conference to cancel its postseason basketball tournaments. “At first, we thought it was kind of unfair,” Schwieger said. “In hindsight, we were kind of silly for that … It was obviously the right decision.” Some leagues continued play in their tournaments until the morning of March 12, but soon enough, all winter and spring NCAA championships were called off. “We were really bummed for the seniors, who had their last game come a little early,” Schwieger added. Little did Schwieger and Desrosiers know that the team’s 85-82 loss against Cornell, just three days before the cancellation of the Ivy League tournament, would be their final time suiting up for the Tigers.

In Opinion

“As the months went by, I figured it was better to expect the worst,” Desrosiers said. “I was working out and getting ready to play, like the season was going to happen.” The decision to transfer The Ivy League officially cancelled competition for winter athletics on Nov. 12 — and is the only Division I conference yet to hold an athletic competition this academic year. While athletes have been able to attend sociallydistant and masked practices while on campus this semester, there are no plans to hold conference competition. For both Desrosiers and Schwieger, one thing quickly became clear. If they wanted to compete in another basketball season, it wasn’t going to happen at Princeton. The NCAA provides a service known as the “transfer portal” for both undergraduate and graduate students who wish to move to another institution to finish playing out their eligibility. The portal is essentially a database which coaches can use to contact and recruit players who have indicated interest in transferring away from their current school. Additionally, most Division I universities — with the notable exception of Ivy League schools — regularly allow graduate students to com-

TOM SALOTTI AND JACK GRAHAM / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Ryan Schwieger ’21 (left) and Jerome Desrosiers ’21 (right) will compete as graduate transfer students next year at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Hawai’i, respectively.

pete in athletics, assuming they have not exhausted their athletic eligibility at their undergraduate institution. Desrosiers and Schwieger are both still enrolled at Princeton and set to graduate this spring, but they’ve chosen to use their previously-unforeseen extra year of athletic eligibility elsewhere as graduate students. Desrosiers said he was not expecting to go into the portal until a few weeks after the Ivy League canceled winter sports. “Jerome, coach [Mitch ’98] Henderson, and I had a few conversations about … transfers,” Schwieger said, “but not until they cancelled the season did it become kind of real.” The process for entering the transfer portal is fairly simple. Athletes interested in entering the portal contact their athletic department’s compli-

We asked columnists to respond to the following prompt: “Imagine a more racially just and racially inclusive Princeton, and write about how we can get there.” We hope their resulting columns encourage readers in our community to not only reflect on Princeton’s complicated past but to imagine a more just future.

ance officer, who, for Princeton athletics, is Kelly Widener. Not long after, the recruiting begins. “As soon as I put my name in … I started hearing from schools,” Schwieger said. “I didn’t make an announcement that I was entering the portal,” Desrosiers added. “If coaches are interested, they really just reach out.” Desrosiers ultimately decided to transfer to the University of Hawai’i, a current No. 7-seed in the Big West Conference. Desrosiers said he was looking for a school where he could play basketball — and possibly jump into the professional basketball world. He was also attracted by the team’s scheme. “Hawai’i run their offense through their four-man,” he explained, referencing his potential role as a power forward with the Rainbow Warriors.

In Puzzles

“They also shoot a lot of threes, and that’s something I was attracted by,” he added. Schwieger settled on choosing the Loyola Ramblers at Loyola University Chicago, a team that made the Final Four in 2018, and is currently near the top of the Missouri Valley Conference standings. “They’re a great team,” Desrosiers said. “I thought that was the perfect fit for me.” Looking back and ahead While both Schwieger and Desrosiers have been focused on transferring for some time, the Ivy League recently granted relief to some current senior athletes by announcing that they would be granted an extra year of eligibility should they enroll at their institution’s graduate school. See SPORTS for more

Check out this week’s crossword from Gabriel Robare: “Cup o’ Joe.”