Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Friday march 25, 2016 vol. cxxxix no. 34
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } ACADEMICS
Independent major application to see more faculty oversight By Caroline Lippman staff writer
Starting this year, residential college deans will assume more active role in the application process for independent concentrators. According to Deputy Dean of the College Elizabeth Colagiuri, students will have to consult their residential college deans before submitting applications for independent concentrations. A faculty subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Course of Study will then evaluate the proposals. In the past, students did not necessarily have to go through their residential college deans, Colagiuri noted. “We have seen an increase in the number and variety of proposals in recent years, and we think it’s important that we have a degree of faculty oversight in reviewing those proposals,” she said. Dean of Whitman College Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu ex-
plained that this year residential college deans are taking a more active role in the process of pursuing an independent concentration. “What’s different is in fact that the residential college deans are now acting as a kind of departmental representative for the independent concentrators in their college, which means we’re just taking a more active role in supporting the students who are granted the opportunity to do an independent concentration as they move through their junior and senior year,” she said. Graves added that students interested in independent concentrations have often consulted residential college deans and that the students’ faculty advisors for their concentration always remain their main advisors. The deans of the residential colleges will now serve to facilitate and oversee the process for the students in their college, answering questions, making sure deadlines are met See INDEPENDENT page 3
STUDENT LIFE
MAYA WESBY :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Over spring break, eight new bike stations and 50 new bikes were added to campus as part of the Zagster bike-sharing program.
FLOWERS AND SQUIRRELS
TIFFANY RICHARDSON :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Squirrels enjoy spring as flowers bloomed on trees and grasses turned greener around campus. U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
Career Services to begin partnership with PICS By Kristin Qian staff writer
Starting June 1 of this year, Career Services will be partnering with Princeton Internships in Civic Service, according to Pulin Sanghvi, executive director of the Office of Career Services. The PICS program allows undergraduate students to participate in eight- to ten-week paid internships in nonprofit organizations, all of which are sponsored by alumni. The University has partnered with PICS since 2010 in order to offer more students greater access to these internship opportunities. Internships include multiple programs across the nation, including health and social services, public policy and education. The key change is that Career Services will serve as the primary starting point for internship searches, in addition to providing support through their resources and through various career and life vision programming, he noted. Director of the Office of Career Services Evangeline Kubu said that in addition to oneon-one advising, Career Services will provide assistance with the PICS application. The
application will be integrated into the HireTigers Handshake system, but all other counseling will remain the same, she added. Career Services hopes to create programming to help students prepare for PICS internships as well as engage with the internships afterwards to synthesize what they have learned. As Career Services undergoes a re-imagining process that seeks to put in place a new model based on helping students discover who they are, this new partnership will be a great opportunity to build on the way Career Services supports students, Sanghvi explained. The re-imagining process consists of an expansion of opportunities to help students define a unique career and life vision, including Career & Life Vision workshops which Sanghvi himself directs and teaches. “The heart of the career and life vision emphasis of Career Services has been to help our students engage with the Princeton experience in an intentional and mindful way, where they are able to leverage every component of the Princeton experience as a laboratory to frame questions about themselves, answer those
questions and develop a worldview of what matters most to them, where our primary goal is to find a path that will bring out the best in them,” Sanghvi said. Career Services is excited to work directly with PICS interns to make sense of their internships and help students understand how their internships will influence their choices going forward, he said. Sanghvi said that students find PICS internships to be helpful in transforming how they think about the world and how they think about the different ways to engage with the world. Students rave about the impactful experience of PICS and meaningful relationships they make with alums, he added. With new technology to support the application process, Career Services will also provide resources to publicize PICS internships and draw awareness to the program, Sanghvi said. Service and civic engagement is in the mission of Career Services, Sanghvi said. “This is really just a chance for continued collaboration with the PICS program and we are very excited to keep See PICS page 2
Zagster bike-share program expands reach on campus staff writer
The Zagster bike-share program added eight new bike stations and 50 new bikes around campus over spring break, according to Nate Taber, head of marketing at Zagster. This puts the campus total at nine bikeshare stations and 60 bikes. “More than ever, [the expansion] allows students to actually use [bikes] as a means of transportation, so instead of driving or using another motorized form of transportation, they can ride a bike to get to their destination,” Taber said. “These types of programs represent real progress and real success for bike-sharing as both a concept and a reality on the ground.” University Director of Transportation and Parking Services Kim Jackson said that the motivation to expand stems from a
need for students to have both easier and eco-friendly methods of travelling around campus. “I think that it is something that students — undergraduates, graduates — and faculty and staff are going to really embrace here on this campus because we are a pedestrian campus,” she said. She added that the student feedback she’s received has been enthusiastic. According to a press release from Zagster, Inc., potential users of the bike-sharing service pay a one-time $20 membership fee. Rides for members are then free for the first two hours, and then members have to pay $2 for every additional hour afterwards. Zagster’s website states that bike-share stations are located at the James Forrestal Campus of Princeton University, the Engineering Quadrangle, Firestone Library,
Richardson Auditorium, Frist Campus Center, Forbes College, Lakeside Apartments, Lawrence Apartments, and the original docking station at Princeton Train Station. Using a bike with the program requires the free Zagster app, according to Taber. “If you don’t have a smartphone, you can unlock the bike via text message,” Taber noted. A user enters a unique bike code, found on the bikes themselves, and then goes onto the app to unlock and use the bike. When a user is done with a bike, they can return it to a Zagster station, use a specific locking code to secure the bike and end their trip in the app, Taber said. He added that the uniqueness of the Zagster bike-sharing program is bikes being equipped with fourth-generation bikesharing software. In other words, all technology needed to
use a bike — such as locking and unlocking — are located on the bike itself, he said. Jackson said that when the University was looking for a bike-sharing company, they were especially looking for one with bikes that didn’t come with a lot of infrastructure and would allow for an easy expansion. “Unlike a lot of large municipal programs such as Citi Bike in New York City or Capital Bikeshare in Washington D.C., Zagster has a model that tuned towards medium and smallersized environments and communities such as the town of Princeton, New Jersey and the Princeton University campus,” Taber said. That makes the system cheaper than large, third-generation, kiosk-based systems, according to Taber. “[This] also makes it more
In Opinion
Today on Campus
The editorial board presents suggestions to improve the major declaration process, and columnist Imani Thornton questions why we evaluate current perceptions of evil on historical standards. PAGE 4
1:30 p.m.: The American Studies Graduate Student Conference, “Life & Law in Rural America: Cars, Cows & Criminals,” will take place. Bobst Hall Classroom 105.
nimble and easier to deploy in a diverse set of environments,” he added. Dean of Forbes College Patrick Caddeau said that bikes were a crucial part of University student life. “Clearly, based on the number of bikes you see around campus and especially in Forbes, I think [bikes] are a great resource,” he said. He added that biking is a healthy and affordable mode of transportation that also has no impact on one’s carbon footprint. “The thing that I really like about it is, if this succeeds and it’s in place and we have more bike stations around campus, we will be able to get the word out to students before they come to Princeton,” he said. He noted that incoming students won’t have to worry See BIKE page 2
WEATHER
By Maya Wesby
HIGH
71˚
LOW
38˚
Rainy. chance of rain:
80 percent