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Tuesday March 7, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 22
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } STUDENT LIFE
Day of Action garners unprecedented success
MARCIA BROWN :: HEAD NEWS EDITOR
Hundreds of students turned out for the Day of Action in Frist Campus Center on Monday. The event included teach-ins, discussions, panels, and performances.
Head News Editor
In an unprecedented civic engagement event, University affiliates organized to create yesterday’s Day of Action; hundreds of students converged in Frist Campus Center to participate in what organizers called a “day of Teach-ins and Action.” Sixty-four teach-ins, discussions, and teaching sessions centered around a certain topic were conducted on issues such as civil rights, democracy and knowledge, international peace and security, as well as climate and environmental challenges. By 1 p.m. yesterday, over 500 University affiliates had “filled Frist Campus Center to participate in the March 6 events,” according to a press release from Dr. Paul Gauthier.
Teach-ins were solicited from all student groups and organizations at the University “irrespective of politics, ideology, or creed,” according to a packet detailing the day’s events. Furthermore, their views don’t necessarily reflect that of the organizing groups. The opening town hall at 9 a.m. allowed leaders of the parent organizations for the event to address an audience of about 75 about their reasons for organizing. Notably, this event has become the inspiration for similar initiatives at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and MIT. MIT’s event will take place April 18. Sarah Sakha ’18, editor-inchief of the ‘Prince,’ opened the day’s events. “We need to move from thinking about the problems
SCIENCE
to thinking about how we can take action,” Sakha said. “Let us consider what our legacy will be: we have to promote the values of equality and diversity.” Nicholas Wu ’18, one of the founders and leaders of Princeton Advocates for Justice, addressed the broad span of issues that would be addressed during the day’s events at the opening town hall. “I’m awed by the sheer diversity of the teach-ins today and the outpouring of support for the Day of Action,” Wu said in his speech. “It gives me and Princeton Advocates for Justice hope for future collective, intersectional activism. It’s incumbent on all of us to transform these discussions into action.” Wu is an associate opinion editor for the ‘Prince.’ ACADEMICS
Contributor
MARCIA BROWN :: HEAD NEWS EDITOR
Events throughout the Day of Action focused on the history of science and the role of science in modern-day politics.
Day of Action sparks discussion on science’s role Science Contributor
Members of the University science community gathered on the Day of Action to discuss the importance of science and its historical and current role in the political climate. Many of the day’s events were oriented around discussion and audience participation. History of Science Professor D. Graham Burnett ’93, moderated an audience discussion covering topics
in funds from various departments and offices for the event. According to a packet detailing the events of the Day of Action, the event’s mission is “to create a space and time where the Princeton University community can come together, have open and honest discussion, and launch ideas into reality. Institutions are shaped by those who participate in them; our mission is to empower the Princeton community by increasing our participation in local and public sector organizations.” At the town hall, physicist Zia Mian noted American intellectual Noam Chomsky’s famous 1967 essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals.” Mian is the co-director of the Program See ACTION page 5
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Reich ’04 Whitehead speaks about his career, reads prosecuted for fraud from most recent novel By Catherine Benedict
By Ariel Chen
The event came to fruition after the Nov. 9 election of President Trump, when members of the University community rallied in reaction. Almost immediately after the election, PAJ, an intersectional group composed of 25 student activist groups, was formed. In the past, PAJ organized the Immigration Day of Action and Arts without Borders. Princeton Citizen Scientists also formed in response to the presidential election and is composed of science, engineering, and social science graduate students. PCS conceived the idea for the Day of Action, and worked together with PAJ to create the University-funded event, involving local activist groups outside of the University community as well. According to Wu, the University supplied $12,000
ranging from the lack of education in mathematical logic to the popular distrust of scientists as an intellectual class. Later, Professor Joshua Shaevitz of the Lewis-Sigler Institute encouraged audience members to name reasons why people study science and ways that technologies from science that have changed human lives. At the “History of Science and Political Engagement” teach-in, See SCIENCE page 2
In a standing room-only lecture on March 6, author Colson Whitehead read an excerpt from his 2016 novel “The Underground Railroad,” which won the National Book Award, and discussed his path to writing. Assistant professor of English Kinohi Nishikawa first introduced Whitehead, calling him a prominent voice of his generation. “Looking over Colson Whitehead’s career, we see a recurrent theme. Every new book Whitehead writes seems to herald the voice of our age,” Nishikawa said. “To read Whitehead isn’t so much to enter a time warp, but a time continuum.” Whitehead infused his talk with humor and levity, as he discussed his upbringing and the dayto-day routines of being a writer. “I usually spend Monday afternoons in my apartment reeling over my regrets, so this is a nice change of pace for me,”
By Norman Xiong
Whitehead joked. He spoke about his childhood in Manhattan and his early love of books, including comics and novels written by Stephen King. Whitehead mentioned that his early experiences with books inf luenced his later decision to become a writer. “It seemed in sixth grade [that] being a writer was a great job; you didn’t have to wear clothes or talk to people,” Whitehead said. “At that point, I wanted to write the black ‘Shining’ — basically, if you take any Stephen King title and put the black before it.” He said that he started reading modernist authors, like Samuel Beckett, during his freshman year at Harvard University in 1987. However, he explained that his writing journey in college was not exactly smooth. “I considered myself a writer, but didn’t write any thing,” Whitehead said. “Eventually I gathered my forces and wrote two five-page stories to audition for the creative
Ex-Barclays swaps trader Ryan Reich ’04 is currently being prosecuted by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for personal profit between June 2005 and September 2007, according to a trial update by BloombergQuint. Reich is being prosecuted along with Greek Barclays trader Stylianos Contogoulas for rigging LIBOR. Contogoulas and Reich are not being prosecuted for conspiring together, as Contogoulas transferred to Merrill Lynch in July 2006, one month before Reich joined Barclays in August 2006. The LIBOR is a key benchmark rate that the world’s top banks charge each other for interbank loans. It is used to calculate interest rates on various short-term loans between banks. Thirty-five separate LIBOR rates are submitted each day for five different world currencies and seven different maturities. Reich and Contogoulas are on trial for manipulation of the U.S. dollar LIBOR. The U.S. dollar LIBOR is set each day by a panel of 16 sub-
See WHITEHEAD page 3
See REICH page 5
In Opinion
Today on Campus
While Max Grear scrutinizes the U.’s ties to private prisons, Lou Chen weighs in on how to treat Trump voters. PAGE 4
8 p.m.: So Percussion and guests will perform a free concert featuring University faculty and graduate composers in Taplin Auditorium.
staff writer
WEATHER
By Marcia Brown
HIGH
63˚
LOW
50˚
Rainy. chance of rain:
70 percent