Opinion
Friday march 11, 2016
page 4
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Retain Professor Barry: A petition
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ear President Eisgruber, University President, Dean Prentice, Dean of the Faculty, Professor Zaman, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, We, the Students, Graduate and Undergraduate, and Alumni of Princeton University, are writing to express our profound concern in regards to the rumors of the dismissal of Dr. Michael Barry from his functions in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. In the least, the possibility of this action takes us by surprise. As his students and advisees, we know Dr. Barry to be a rigorous scholar who espouses a unique, interdisciplinary methodology in his courses on Islamic history and his seminars devoted to medieval Persian literature. Signed, Aamir Zainulabadeen ’18 Abrar Choudhury ’16 Advait Chauhan ’17 Alexander Michael ’17 Alexandra Lanzafame ’17 Alexis Martirosian ’05 Ali Akram Hayat ’16 Alice Catanzaro ’17 Alicia Li ’16 Allan Marube ’16 Allegra Wiprud ’14 Amina Igeh Andrew Hanna ’16 Andrew Morgan ’19 Andrew Watrous ’09 Andrew Zhou ’18 Aneesh Rai ’17 Ankit Panda ’12 Ankit Sarkar ’17 Anna Novogratz ’18 Anna Stillman ’18 Ariana Mirzada ’18 Ariel Hsing ’17 Aryaman Jalota ’18 Asavari Sinha ’16 Asmod Karki ’16 Augustin S. Wambersie ’18 Austin O’Baker ’17 Avaneesh Narla ’17 Azza Cohen ’16 Baxter Ingram ’18 Benjamin C. Rosales ’12 Benjamin Lawton ’18 Bertha Wang ’18 Blakeley Harrison Lange ’18 Brett N. Harner ’17 Brian Degen ’18 Brian Ho Brianna Katherine Martin ’13 Brittany Ptak ’17 Brooke Smilen ’19 Bryant Switzer ’17 Cale Salih ’10 Caleb Gum ’18 Cara Mattaliano ’17 Catherine Ambler ’06
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Dr. Barry’s work has impacted our learning in Princeton in meaningful and lasting ways. His lectures about Afghanistan have bridged cultural gaps amongst students of diverse origins and invited them to find common ground in their thought and everyday lives. Others have started learning Persian influenced by his lectures on Sufism. For some of us, he is an advisor who provides critical feedback on our independent research. For others, he is a mentor whose generosity with his time and dedication have far exceeded the capacity of his professional obligations. We, therefore, would like to know if there is truth to this rumor; and if there is, we ask that the University take the students’ wishes and interests into account. We wish to know the motivations behind such a decision. We would like to know if it
Cemil Revan Purington ’16 Chad Mowbray ’15 Charles Bishop Ughetta ’19 Charles Kanoff ’17 Charles Shaw ’17 Charles Von Swatrington ’19 Charlie Ramirez ’18 Chloe Bordewich ’12 Chris Choo ’18 Chris Grubbs ’18 Chris Patacsil ’16 Chris Ren ’19 Christian Kelling ’19 Christian Rodriguez ’16 Christina Sola ’18 Clayton Marsh ’18 Conner Romeyn ’17 Conrad Legendy ’07 Coy Ozias ’18 Dan de Groot ’19 Daniel C. Korn ’09 Daniel Elkind ’17 Daniel Mozley ’17 Daniel Rounds ’1 Daniel Seungyul Kim ’16 David Asker ’13 David Crane ’18 David McFall ’17 David Prilutsky ’18 David Sahar ’17 David Samuel Perkins ’18 Derek S. Grego ’12 Divya Krishnan ’16 Divya Mehta ’18 Divya Thuremella ’18 Douglas Wallack ’16 Dr Arthur Dudney ’05 Edward Northrop ’16 Emily Yasmin Norris ’09 Emory Ruscus ’17 Eric Hagstrom ’13 Ethan Cohen ’18 Farah Naim ’10 Fatema G. Waliji ’12 Fatima Bakhtawar ’19 Flannery Becker ’09 Forrest Hull ’16 Francesco Fabozzi ’18
was made in a unilateral or collective manner, and how this reflects upon the University, which prides itself on honesty, transparency and the diversity of ideas. We want to know if it was financially motivated; and if so, while we acknowledge that financial concerns are real, we would also like to reiterate that the calculus of intellectual growth should transcend short-term economic savings. We are confident that the non-economic benefits of keeping Dr. Barry far outweigh the cost of Princetonians not having the opportunity to learn from him. We believe that as a University with tremendous resources devoted to undergraduate learning, we should be able to find a way to have Dr. Barry remain in our community. Dr. Barry’s courses are one of the few in Princeton where we grasp fully
Frederic Vystavel ’16 Georgie Howe ’17 Gordon Moore ’18 Grant Keating ’18 Gregory Colella ’12 Grzegorz Skrzypek ’18 Guy Johnston ’16 Hailey Reeves ’17 Hammad Aslam ’17 Hannah K. Martins ’13 Harrison Shure ’18 Hassan Ejaz Chaudhry ’18 Hassan Khan ’17 Heidi Miller ’18 Helen Greene ’15 Hiba Elbuluk ’17 Hilary Lloyd ’17 Hunter Johnson ’19 Ian Baker ’18 Jack Jiranek ’19 Jacob Moore ’17 Jacques Singer-Emery Jaime Flores Benabib ’16 Jake Levin ’18 James Burns ’18 James H Goble ’18 James Palmer ’19 James Sincavage ’18 James Wasserman ’19 Jan Bernhard ’18 Jason Yu ’16 Jenny Mu ’18 Jeremy Rotblat ’17 Jessica Li ’18 Jill Barton ’16 Joe Barrett ’14 Joe Sheehan ’17 John Bogle ’16 John Prentice Caves III ’12 Jonathan Lebeau ’18 Jonathan Lord ’18 Jonathan Naylor ’19 Jonathan Shifke ’10 Jonathan Wu ’17 Julia Rizio ’16 Julianna Wright ’17 Justin Vogel ’17 Katie Tyler ’18
how politics, sociology, philosophy, international relations and history all come together to shape the world in which we live. Currently, Dr. Barry’s classes have 286 enrolled students, in addition to the 127 taught in the previous semester. This speaks in itself to how much we value learning with Dr. Barry. We can confidently say that the material he presents teaches us not only about Sufism, Islam, and Afghanistan, but further invites us to question our own cultural assumptions and to think critically. We believe that this is a practice a liberal arts education holds dear. We are future policymakers, who will have the responsibility of shaping the course of this nation and nations around the world. We are members of various faiths who enjoy reading Sufi poetries, and spreading the message of tolerance in a world
Kayvon Tehranian ’08 Kelly Roache ’12 GS ’15 Kelsey Dennison ’16 Kevin Tang ’16 Kiana Amirahmadi ’16 Konstantinos Koutras ’17 Kristen A. Johnson ’17 Kristen Davila Kwasi Oppong-Badu ’18 Kyung Jun Paek ’17 Lamiah Anne Haque ’17 Laraib Ilyas ’18 Leo Toch ’18 Lila Currie ’18 Lily Reisinger ’18 Luis Legro ’18 Luisa Banchoff ’17 Maha Chaudhry ’16 Manbir Gulati ’18 Manraj Singh ’16 Mariam Rahmani ’10 Marissa Rosenberg-Carlson ’18 Martin Barakso ’16 Martin Gavin ’17 Martina Fouquet ’16 Mary Ann McNulty ’16 Masoomali Fatehkia ’18 Matt Wylie ’19 Matthew Benstead ’17 Matthew Doyle ’19 Matthew Miller ’19 Matthew O. Sanyour ’11 Max Goldstein ’18 Meisze Yau ’16 Michael Davis ’18 Michael Dudey ’17 Michael Lee ’16 Michael Schoenleber ’12 Michael Seaton ’18 Michael Shin ’18 Mika Devonshire ’12 Miklos Szebeni ’16 Mohammad Mousavian ’15 Muhsin Hassan ’12 Mya Abousy ’18 Nabil Shaikh ’17 Nadia Diamond ’17 Nadir Noordin ’19
increasingly filled with skepticism and misunderstanding. We pride ourselves on being an integral part of the University, alongside our tremendous faculty and staff, and want Dr. Barry to impart his wisdom, knowledge, and experience to as many generations of Princeton students as possible. We wish to respectfully note that this letter is an entirely student-initiated endeavor, and that Dr. Barry played no role in its creation. Despite the expanding rumors of his dismissal, Dr. Barry’s high level of instruction has not lapsed or waned in the slightest. We, the undersigned students, believe as a community that we owe it to ourselves to find a way to have Dr. Barry with us, not just for the next year, but for years to come. Thank you for your attention.
Neamah Abdulhusein ’17 Neeraj Bajpayee ’17 Nene O. Kalu ’07 Nicholas Fowler Jonsson ’18 Nicholas Mirda ’14 Nicolas Bayless ’18 Nitasha Siddique ’18 Norman Bonnyman ’12 Olivia Davis ’18 Olivia Fiechter ’18 Oluwatobi Aladesuru ’17 Omar Mukadam ’18 Osama Hassan ’18 Owen Cornwall ’06 Cason Crane ’17 Pallavi Koppol ’16 Patrick Eble ’16 Paul Spiegl ’19 Paul Tupper ’17 Payam Payseparg’14 Penina Krieger ’17 Peter L. L. McCall ’10 Philip Adams ’17 Poshak Agrawal ’13 Prateek Swain ’19 Prianka Misra ’16 Qin Xia ’17 Rabia Khan ’18 Raghav Gandotra ’16 Rana Ibrahem ’15 Raoul James Rodriguez ’18 Rasha Suleiman ’19 Raymond Han ’16 Rebecca Fleming ’17 Richard Freling ’16 Ritwik Bhattacharyya GS ’15 Robert Joyce ’13 Robia Amjad ’18 Rohan Patlolla ’18 Rohit Gawande ’11 Rund Abdelfatah ’13 Ryan Pristo ’18 Safa Syed ’17 Safeeyah Quereshi ’16 Sajal K. Tiwary ’17 Sajda Ouachtouki ’13 Salwa Ahmad ’17 Sanchali Seth Pal ’12
Sara Kushma ’13 Sarah Sakha ’18 Saud A. Al-Thani ’13 Scott Bechler ’17 Seamus Daniels ’16 Sean Cotter ’13 Sena Cebeci ’19 Seongjin Kwon ’16 Serena Editoiu ’18 Seung Jae Choi ’16 Shannon Mercer ’11 Shefali Jain ’17 Shikha Uberoi ’13 Shreyas Lakhtakia ’16 Sierra Goldstein ’17 Spencer Walle ’10 Spencer Zakarin ’11 Sukrit Singh Puri ’17 Sukriti Chadha ’15 Suleika Jaouad ’10 Tal Eisenzweig ’12 Tal Fortgang ’17 Tara Harrington ’16 Teresa Benvenuti ’16 Theodore Beers ’09 Theodore Moskovitz ’17 Therese Perales ’17 Thomas Facon ’18 Tiantian Zha ’13 Tlaloc Ayala ’19 Tom George ’18 Tori Rinker ’16 Trey Aslanian’18 Tyler Hoffman ’17 Usama Bin Shafqat ’18 Veenu King ’16 Victor Edward Prato ’15 Vishan Nigam ’18 Wardah Bari ’16 Wesley Morgan ’11 William (Yunsung) Lee ’16 William Chance ’18 William Jenner ’18 William Palmer ’16 William Simon ’19 Zachariah Smart ’19 Zachary Jonathan Sobel ’13 Zayn Siddique ’11
Paths through Princeton
y senior year of college has been filled with countless “what ifs.” As my time on this campus began to dwindle, I increasingly worried about everything I had accidentally forgone. Reminiscing with friends about the classes we’ve enjoyed, people whose paths we have crossed and our Princeton experiences as a whole — it becomes difficult not to question our decision-making these past three and a half years. It’s easy to wonder what I could have done differently, or, really, better. What if I had majored in comparative literature after falling in love with that “Don Quixote” course? What if I had pursued that summer opportunity in Washington, D.C.? What if I had taken the time to get dinner with an acquaintance that I imagined could be something more? I do not think there’s anything inherently wrong in reflecting and judging the choices that have shaped our paths. This is often a necessary, almost cathartic thing many people do. Still, the way I was scrutinizing my past was beginning to affect my present. I had suddenly become terrified that all the choices I’d been making were thoughtlessly misinformed. Worse, this fear was making me less confident in my ability to make choices concerning my life after Princeton. At these thoughts, I remembered a passage from “The Bell Jar” in which
Lea Trusty
columnist
Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical character is facing a fig tree representative of her life. Each branch and its respective figs represented a different course her life could take. They were all meaningful, all paths worthy of walking, but she struggled to take one because it meant losing all the others. Her inability to choose resulted in the loss of them all. I became overwhelmed and decided to take a step back from everything. I considered where I had been and all the places I could go. I allowed myself to look at my life, free from all the selfdoubt that had hit me so swiftly, free from those preconceived notions of what a Princeton post-graduate should look like. My life before Princeton, like most, was mostly linear. I made the conscious decision to succeed, and there was a very clear picture of what that meant. My time at Princeton has been less so. There are friendships I decided to foster, concentrations and courses I decided to take, entirely new countries where I decided to live. Still, in the midst of all this, there were still well-traveled routes that I knew I could trust. Finally, I looked at where my life could go after Princeton. I didn’t see a fig tree, but a wild mass of loops and twists. I could choose to travel
one, but it didn’t imply a direct path to a definitive end. It meant crossing paths with other curves. It revealed the possibility of being flung onto another path. It implied that having an ultimate goal in mind — even a superficially definitive one — did not guarantee it would remain. I was both terrified and comforted. Making decisions largely defines how we live, but there are also turns that are out of our control. Further, there is a very small likelihood that a single decision we make will determine everything to come. Life is not one simple decision after the other, but a culmination of all our choices under a cloud of chaos. There is no right turn that leads straight to the career I am destined to have. There is not a bend in the road that I must follow to find my soul mate. There are few choices that are so simple and direct. More importantly, there is no specific office I must work in to find fulfillment or a single person I must meet to find my happiness, not counting myself. More often than not, there is no right or wrong way to live — just different ways of life. Princeton has been proof. From where I am standing, Pablo Neruda-reading, tennis-playing Lea would have been happy. But I am also happy where I am standing. Lea Trusty is a politics major from Saint Rose, La. She can be reached at ltrusty@ princeton.edu.
Easier Said Than Done tyler simko ’18
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