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Tuesday march 29, 2016 vol. cxl no. 36
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
STUDENT LIFE
Princeton Against Cruz initiates poster campaign By Jessica Li news editor
COURESY OF VIRGINIAMACGREGOR.COM
Jodi Picoult ‘87 will collect questions from students for her remarks for the first time in Class Day history.
Jodi Picoult ’87 to be 2016 Class Day speaker
By Andie Ayala staff writer
The Class of 2016 Class Day Committee announced Monday morning that the speaker for this year’s Class of 2016 Day will be novelist Jodi Picoult ’87. Molly Stoneman ’16, a member of the Class Day Committee, noted there have only been two women speakers, including Queen Noor of Jordan ’73 and journalist Katie Couric, as well as one person of color, Bill Cosby, in the history of Class Day. “We decided that we wanted to see more of the values of our class being reflected in the Class Day speaker,” Stoneman said. She added that Class Day speakers have tended to be
white males from Hollywood or business fields but that the committee has recognized that many more students from the Class of 2016 were interested in hearing from people in professions in the arts, screenwriting, creative writing or advertising. She noted that in the past four years she has witnessed seniors who have collaborated with Career Services, the Pace Center for Civic Engagement, the Women*s Center, the LGBT Center and other organizations on campus in order to find work after graduation, a departure from the stereotypical Princeton career path. This departure is reflected in the speaker choice, she explained. For the first time in Class Day
U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S
history, Picoult has asked the Class of 2016 what they would like to hear about in her remarks. “I did ask the Class Day Committee to tell me a little about the things on campus during your four years that have been resonant, as I am sure the university is a very different place now than it was when I was there — and as a writer, I find it important to do my research,” said Picoult in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “I was sure someone had made a mistake,” Picoult described her reaction when being asked to be the Class Day speaker, “I mean — Colbert, Stewart, Nolan, Couric — it’s See SPEAKER page 2
Posters with the words “Better Dead Than Ted” and “Ted’s a Mess” flooded various parts of the University this past week as part of a campaign by Princeton Against Cruz, a newly formed student group calling for the University community’s opposition to the presidential candidacy of Texas Senator Ted Cruz ’92. Walker Davis ’17, a member of Princeton Against Cruz and a self-described Democrat, said that the seven-member group believes Cruz does not embody the values of the University, namely that of “serving the nation.” Hence, the group is taking an anti-Cruz stance, Davis added. Davis said that, at its core, the Princeton Against Cruz campaign is meant to raise awareness about the election in the community, adding that the group does not speak for the University. He explained the purpose of posters was to “grab attention,” adding that in this day and age, putting forth a provocative message is one of the only ways to gauge conversation. He noted that he believes not only that Cruz embraces many conservative economic policies that are damaging to the economy but also that Cruz’s platform bears many striking similarities to that of Donald Trump, including Trump’s stances on immigration and treatment of Muslim minorities. On its website, the group further denounced Cruz’s health care platform, which calls for more money to be placed into health savings accounts, as
something that “understate[s] the complexity and scope of the nation’s health care woes.” The group also disapproves of Cruz’s policy towards ISIS, claiming that the senator “speaks casually of ‘carpet bombing ISIS until the sand glows.’” “One thing… about Cruz is that you can’t say he doesn’t believe in what he says.” Davis said, explaining that he believes that Cruz will bring an element of rigidity to his presidency. Davis explained that in order to show opposition to Cruz, many group members have exhausted their printer queues to distribute several hundred posters with six different designs across campus. Some of them were torn down last weekend, Davis said, but he and his team will be re-posting them in due time. “I’m finding it to be an emboldening thing. There’s discussion that’s going on, we can all relate to it and it doesn’t cost me too much other than time, so we’ll post it right back up,” Davis said. Paul Draper ’18, president of College Republicans and the State Director of the New Jersey Millennials for Ted Cruz, described the posters as “childish and irresponsible,” as they lacked substantive critiques of Cruz. Draper explained that Cruz has fulfilled the promises he made to his constituents, as he is willing to fight for the principles he believes in, including opposition to Obamacare and support for pro-life positions even when the higher echelons of the party don’t see eye-to-eye with him. “When many college students have grown up in a system where See CRUZ page 2
LECTURE
Sanger discusses foreign affairs debate, CPUC discusses campus planning, U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts sustainability By Christina Vosbikian news editor
staff writer
The Council of the Princeton University Community held a meeting Monday to discuss the future of campus planning and University sustainability efforts. The meeting highlighted the efforts of students involved in the CampusAs-Lab initiative, which seeks to use engineering techniques and data collection to shift the perception of sustainability on campus. University Architect Ron McCoy GS ’80 described the goals of the 2026 Campus Plan. “We use historical trends of understanding the growth of the University in order to plan for the future,” McCoy said. “Understanding where we have been in terms of growth is extremely important in order to plan and anticipate the future growth of the campus.” A crucial aspect of the plan, McCoy explained, lies in addressing parking and transportation for students, staff and faculty. He added that the University should continue to embrace biking culture as a more efficient and environmentally-friendly method of transport. McCoy also noted that if the rate at which cars are currently being
brought onto the campus community continues, the University will soon require six and a half more parking garages. McCoy said that the community should prevent this by using cars at such a rate that will necessitate adding only one additional parking garage. He recommended the University community reduce car usage habits by 35 percent over the next 30 years. “That has huge implications into the amount of traffic we bring into the community, the amount of land we have to use for parking garages, the opportunity costs of that land… and the quality of the parking garages,” he said, referring to how a lack of need for additional parking garages would save the University time and resources. Geocoding data reveals that most University staff live in the Trenton and Hamilton, N.J. areas, according to McCoy. This proximity, McCoy said, makes it easy to implement specific bus routes for staff members to get to and from campus in a more eco-friendly manner. Another key element of the 2026 Campus Plan is the reuse of empty or underdeveloped space, McCoy See CPUC page 2
It is important to think about where the foreign affairs debate fits in the current political discussion, David Sanger noted during a lecture Monday. Sanger is the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, specializing in U.S. foreign policy and the debate over
Sanger explained. Throughout the lecture, Sanger repeatedly noted how the lessons of the Obama and even the Bush administration regarding American involvement in foreign conf licts have shaped today’s debate regarding how Americans should respond to conf licts overseas, specifically in the Middle East. Sanger explained that See LECTURE page 2
CHRISTINA VOSBIKIAN :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Journalist David Sanger discussed the Obama administration and Syria during a lecture on Monday.
In Opinion
Today on Campus
Columnists Jacquelyn Thorbjornson and Bhaamati Borkhetaria debut, encouraging students to heed Socrates and urging peers to step back and enjoy Princeton, respectively. PAGE 4
12 p.m.: Jacco Dieleman of UCLA will head the African Studies Open Seminar “Pharaoh Alexander the Great: The Egyptian background of the Alexander Romance.” 216 Aaron Burr Hall.
WEATHER
By Maya Wesby
cyber warfare. He is also the author of two best-selling books and a two-time member of Pulitzer prize-winning journalist teams. “I came here to talk to you about Syria and the Obama doctrine not only because Syria is a huge humanitarian crisis but also because it poses such a challenge to us but because it’s typical of the kinds of crises we’ve seen in the past couple years,”
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