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Monday april 27, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 55
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STUDENT LIFE
8 students awarded Spirit of Princeton Award
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In Opinion
By Melissa Curtis staff writer
Columnist Lavinia Liang discusses the role of Tiger Admirers and true love, and guest contributor Matt Beienburg warns against substituting the words of others for our worst assumptions of them. PAGE 6
Eight students received the 2015 Spirit of Princeton Award, including Joanna Anyanwu ’15, Christina Chica ’15, Azza Cohen ’16, Brandon Holt ’15, Joe Laseter ’15, Janie Lee ’15, Hannah Rosenthal ’15 and Paul Riley ’15. The award is an effort of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students to acknowledge achievements in different areas of campus life, including athletics, community service, the arts, student organizations and religious life. The selection committee consists of administrators, current students and alumni, and the recipients are considered based on nomination letters. Anyanwu is a Wilson School concentrator from Frisco, Tex., with certificates in gender and sexuality studies and African studies, and is the Tom A. and Andrea E. Bernstein ’80 Scholar in the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative. She is on the varsity track team, an intern at the Women’s Center, a Community Action coordinator and the former co-chair
Today on Campus 12:30 p.m.: Novelist, television producer and writer Doris Egan will speak with students on fanfiction. Free and open to the public. East Pyne 010.
The Archives
April 27, 1999 Faculty members passed a motion changing the rules of testing schedules. They agreed on a reform to the final exam schedule, allowing students to reschedule their exams due to religious observance, illness, athletic commitments and “sleepthroughs.”
STUDENT LIFE
SUNNY HE :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
PRINCETON By the Numbers
2,032 The number of students who voted on the divestment referendum last week.
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News & Notes Drexel accidentally sends admission emails to 495 students
Hundreds of students received false admission emails from Drexel University last week, according to the Associated Press. Four hundred ninetyfive high school seniors who were originally denied admission from Drexel or had submitted incomplete applications received a follow-up congratulatory email from Drexel three weeks later. The email was to remind students of the reply deadline and was only supposed to be sent to admitted students, but was mistakenly sent to rejected students as well. Drexel sent out another email to the students seven hours later, apologizing for the error. Drexel made the same mistake in 1994, when it accidentally mailed admission letters to 25 students.
of Princeton Against Sex Trafficking. Anyanwu did not respond to requests for comment. Chica is a sociology concentrator from Los Angeles, Calif. She has worked with Students for Educational Reform, was the co-president of the Princeton Pride Alliance, was a part of the Princeton Equality Project and is an LGBT peer educator. She has also hosted weekly freshman lunches that address younger students’ questions and issues. Chica has worked in the Women’s Center, Murray-Dodge Café and as a Tiger Caller. “I don’t know if I was completely surprised,” Chica said, citing her wide range of involvement. She added that she was very happy about the award. Cohen, on the other hand, said she was completely surprised when she found out she won. As a history concentrator from Highland Park, Ill., Cohen has participated on the Breakout coordinating board, danced for the Bhangra team and worked in the Pace Center. Her documentary, “Specks of See SPIRIT page 4
Students enjoyed a night of delicious food and exciting performances at Night Market 2015. STUDENT LIFE
Divestment fails to pass by slim margin By Daily Princetonian Staff The divestment referendum did not pass, with 52.5 percent of students voting against divestment and 47.5 percent voting in favor of it. The referendum called on the University to divest from companies “that maintain the infrastructure of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, facilitate Israel’s and Egypt’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or facilitate state repression against Palestinians by Israeli, Egyptian, and Palestinian Authority security force.” Though 2,200 students participated in the election and vot-
ing process, only 2,032 students voted on the referendum. Princeton Committee on Palestine board member Katie Horvath ’15 explained that, although the movement for divestment had been significant, she was not surprised at the outcome of the referendum. “We knew from the outset that this was going to be an uphill battle, and we had done our research and looked at the previous divestment movements at Princeton,” Horvath said. She added that she was pleased to have lost by only 102 votes, because with more outreach and slightly increased support, the referendum would pass in a similar scenario. She explained that because win-
ning the vote was a long shot, the leaders of the campaign had multiple goals during the process. “We had three goals, and only one of them was the actual numbers of the referendum. The other two goals were education and reaching the broader audience outside of this University,” Horvath said. The University is a leader in the United States, so the relative success of the campaign will give hope to pro-divestment students at other colleges, she explained. “If we can run a campaign here, on a campus that has so recently been apathetic and historically has been very resistant See ELECTIONS page 3
Free speech discussed at USG open forum By Christina Vosbikian staff writer
The Undergraduate Student Government sponsored an open forum about freedom of expression on campus in Frist Campus Center on Sunday. The panelists included Dean of the Faculty Deborah Prentice, mathematics professor Sergiu Klainerman and University general counsel Ramona Romero. USG vice president Aleksandra Czulak ’17 facilitated the discussion with participation from both panelists and audience members. Klainerman said he had first submitted a petition signed by 60 colleagues on academic freedom in March because he and like-minded faculty members wanted faculty to take the lead in preserving freedom of
expression. The faculty voted on adopting the statement at the April 6 faculty meeting. Freedom, justice, equality and safety are in a state of permanent conflict, according to Klainerman. “A successful society has to somehow meet these four basic human needs,” Klainerman said. “Our main motivation was in reaction to events occurring at college campuses, rather than events occurring on Princeton University’s campus.” Klainerman said that while good intentions can make censorship seemingly nonthreatening, an environment in which students hear nothing but uncontroversial viewpoints will not benefit students. See FORUM page 5
SPRING FESTIVAL
STUDENT LIFE
USG presents update on support system for students taking leave at weekly meeting By Katherine Oh staff writer
The USG senate approved an amendment to the Honor Committee constitution that would give the incoming Honor Committee chair more time for training at its weekly meeting on Sunday. Honor Committee chairelect and U-councilor Dallas Nan ’16 noted that other changes to the constitution will require more time for review. “A concern that we need to pass as soon as possible is to make this chair transition time concrete,” Nan said.
“We decided that we wanted the chair to transfer at midyear, so that the outgoing chair has a semester to mentor the incoming chair.” Under the current system, the incoming chair has to call the chair emeritus whenever he has a question about anything, Nan explained. Because more than threefourths of the voting members in senate voted in favor, the amendment passed, and Nan will now become acting Honor Committee chair from this date. In an update on the recent election cycle, chief elec-
tions manager Grant Golub ’17 noted that run-off elections between Jenny Zhang ’18 and Yash Patel ’18 were taking place for the position of Class of 2018 treasurer. Golub is a former staff writer and senior copy editor for The Daily Princetonian. In addition, Golub said he wanted to encourage senate members to suggest specific ways to improve the elections handbook. U-councilor Jacob Cannon ’17 provided an update on a support system for students taking extended leave, which includes a mentorship See USG page 3
MELANIE HO :: STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students and the community gathered to decorate kites, climb inflatable slides and eat summer treats at PSEC Spring Festival.