April 15, 2015

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Wednesday april 15, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 47

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In Opinion Will Rivitz describes the burden to educate others in regards to minority viewpoints, and Imani Thornton questions oncampus camaraderie. PAGE 4

Today on Campus Noon.: A midweek worship service called “Hour of Power” for students, faculty and staff will take place. It is sponsored by the Office of Religious Life. Murray Dodge West Room.

The Archives

April 15, 1998 A survey conducted in residential college dining halls, co-ops and eating clubs (except for the Tiger Inn) asked students a range of questions about sexual behavior and relationships. The survey indicated infrequent sex on campus and students cited lack of time as an obstacle.

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News & Notes Dartmouth alumni demand college divest from fossil fuels Dartmouth alumni released an open letter on April 2 demanding that Dartmouth president Phil Hanlon, the Board of Trustees and the Advisory Committee on Investment Responsibility divest from fossil fuels, The Dartmouth reported. The signatories were 79 Dartmouth alumni who said they would donate to the Multi-School Fossil Free Divestment Fund instead of the Annual Fund. Divest Dartmouth, a student-run organization, joined divestment groups from 16 other colleges to create the MultiSchool Fossil Free Divestment Fund in December. The new fund calls for the involved Universities to immediately cease new investments — and divest from current holdings — in the fossil fuel companies within the next five years. The fund aims to pressure universities by collecting taxdeductible donations that will be given to the universities only if they divest from fossil fuels by Dec. 31, 2017. According to The Dartmouth, Dartmouth alumni are trying to get more people to sign the letter and donate to the divestment fund. The next steps will be discussed at an upcoming conference call.

U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

New study suggests excise tax on U. endowment

NEST

By Christina Vosbikian staff writer

The University’s tax-exempt status generated more than $100,000 per full-time equivalent student in taxpayer subsidies in 2013, according to an estimate from a study from the Nexus Research and Policy Center. A full-time equivalent student is a unit that denotes either a fulltime student or a number of parttime students whose course loads add up to a full course load. In contrast to the University, the figure was $12,000 per student at Rutgers, $4,700 per student at Montclair State University and $2,400 per student at Essex County College. The study, called “Rich Schools, Poor Students: Tapping Large University Endowments to Improve Student Outcomes,” recommends that Congress repeal the exemptions from taxation that very wealthy, private, not-for-profit educational institutions receive. Specifically, the authors Jorge Klor de Alva and Mark Schneider suggest an excise tax on private colleges’ endowments of more than $500 million. The study also says the proceeds from the tax could be a way to pay for President Barack Obama’s proposed tuition-free community college plan, which requires around $6 billion annually. However, while the revenue from the tax could help to fund Obama’s proposal for free community college, Klor de Alva, a former professor of anthropology at the University, said this was not the purpose of the proposed tax. “Free community college is already available to most people in need,” he explained. “What we did focus on was the great need for additional funding able to support See TAX page 3

YICHENG SUN :: PHOTO EDITOR

Students interact with the Nest, a student art project that was installed last week and is located between Dodd Hall and Brown Hall. LOCAL NEWS

Town council to vote on ban on tobacco sales to people under 21 By Durva Trivedi staff writer

The town council will vote on an ordinance next week to ban the sale of tobacco and electronic cigarettes to people under the age of 21. The Princeton Board of Health made the recommendation last month. The move followed a report from the Institute of Medicine earlier this year finding that raising the minimum age to 21 to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products would reduce youth smoking by 12 percent. Members of the Princeton

Board of Health and town council either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment. However, in a Feb. 19 Daily Princetonian article, health board member Charles Rojer told the ‘Prince’ the rationale for the ordinance would be to reduce youth smoking. If the ordinance passes, Princeton will become the fourth town in New Jersey to have this kind of restriction on tobacco purchasing, along with Englewood, Sayreville and Teaneck. New Jersey raised the minimum age for buying cigars, cigarettes and other

tobacco products from 18 to 19 in 2006, making it one of five states to do so. In June 2014, lawmakers in the state legislature introduced legislation to raise the tobacco buying age to 21. The measure passed the state senate by a vote of 23-10 and is pending in the assembly. Students at the University, many of whom are under the age of 21, would make up a significant proportion of the people who fall under the purview of the ordinance. Students interviewed said they wondered whether raising the age to 21 would really help to reduce the rate at which young people

choose to smoke. Luke Hamel ’16 said that while he doesn’t smoke and he is 21, his younger friends who smoke would likely resent the ordinance. “They’ll be mad,” Hamel said. “They have the feeling like ‘Old enough to fight, old enough to smoke.’ It seems silly that if you can choose to vote, you can’t choose to buy cigarettes.” Hamel added he didn’t know if the enforcement of the ordinance would have much of an effect. Ciara Corbeil ’17 said she doesn’t smoke herself and doesn’t think this ordinance will affect her very much. See TOBACCO page 3

ACADEMICS

LOCAL NEWS

Dale Fellowship winner to write play on Roma in Serbia

Planning board approves plan to construct new post office, 7-Eleven

By Kristin Qian contributor

Katherine Clifton ’15 was awarded the 2015 Martin A. Dale ’53 Fellowship, and will travel to Serbia to write a play about the re-

lationship between the Serbs and Romani people in hopes to bring healing through theater. The fellowship, in honor of Martin Dale ’53, comes with a $33,000 grant, provides the winner the opportunity to spend a year after

COURTESY OF WILSON COLLEGE

Katherine Clifton ’15 will travel to Serbia next year as a Dale Fellow.

graduation to pursue a meaningful project “of extraordinary merit that will widen the recipient’s experience of the world and significantly enhance his or her personal growth and intellectual development,” according to its citation. Clifton, who is concentrating in English with a certificate in theater, was a participant in the Bridge Year Program prior to freshman year, and lived in the Serbia during that time. She first thought of this project idea while she was there four years ago. “What could be a way I could somehow facilitate conversation, instigate dialogue and generate empathy?” Clifton said of her thoughts leading her to pursue the project. Clifton will conduct interviews with Roma and non-Roma Serbians to begin to write her play. She said she intends to assemble their words in a creative way in order to create a conversation between the two groups. She will have four actors portray multiple Serbian and Roma characters by delivering monologues inspired by the words of the people she interviews. “The Dale will allow me to delve more deeply into what makes us human: what unites us and what divides us,” she said. With the fellowship, Clifton said she hopes to use theater as “a tool to embrace humanity and challenge prejudices.” In the future, she said she hopes See DALE page 2

By Zaynab Zaman staff writer

Princeton’s planning board unanimously approved plans late last month to locate a 7-Eleven and a post office at 259 Nassau St. This location was formerly the West Coast video site, but the site has been vacant for nearly a decade, according to The Times of Trenton. The 7-Eleven will be constructed to face Nassau Street, and the post office will be located in the rear. The 7-Eleven will be approximately 4,945 square feet, and the post office will be approximately 3,505 square feet. Currently, there are two post offices located in Princeton – one at 20 Palmer Square and the other at 213 Carnegie Center. The Palmer Square post office is the one that will be relocated. The 7-Eleven will not operate between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., in accordance with a town ordinance that was unanimously adopted earlier this year. The ordinance prohibits any retail establishment that touches a residential area from operating between those hours. The majority of 7-Elevens nation-wide are typically open 24 hours and seven days a week, though the chain originally only operated between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The post office would be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and would be closed Sunday. The new post office location previously housed a car dealership, a furniture store, a Wawa and an Eckerd Pharmacy prior to the West Coast Video. Grace Marisi, the customer service supervisor at the post office in town, explained that the relocation of the post office will be good for the community as a whole. She noted that though the post office will be easier to access by car, particularly in terms of parking, the post office may still receive more foot traffic. “I’m under the impression that the post office will continue to be open and easily accessible to the public,” Marisi said. Audrey Chebet ’18 explained that she is unenthusiastic about the move because the new post office location will be less convenient. “Sometimes I just have a little break, like 15 minutes, and I need to run back and attend my classes,” she said. “That is very inconvenient because I use the post office frequently, and now it will be more difficult.” Other students said that they have gotten used to the current post office location and See 7-ELEVEN page 2


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