The Daily Princetonian: November 5, 2021

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Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998

Friday November 5, 2021 vol. CXLV no. 55

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BEYOND THE BUBBLE

U. AFFAIRS

Democrat Phil Murphy narrowly wins NJ governor’s election By Charlie Roth and Lia Opperman Contributors

JUSTIN CAI / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

Most of the Ivy League has divested Here’s what student advocates from Princeton, Yale, and Penn have to say By Kalena Blake

Assistant News Editor

Following the formal announcement from Harvard and Dartmouth, the majority of Ivy League institutions have now divested from the fossil fuel industry. Among those who have not divested are Princeton, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. While student leaders at these remaining universities maintain that significant challenges stand in the way of formal divestment, they remain optimistic about what the decision signifies. According to The Dartmouth, the investment office announced its formal divestment from fossil fuels on Oct. 8. This decision followed a 2017

ON CAMPUS

announcement that the college would be making no new investments and a 2021 decision that the direct public portfolio would no longer hold investments in fossil fuel companies. The office plans to allow its remaining public holdings in the sector to expire. Harvard formally divested from fossil fuels on Sept. 10. Similar to Dartmouth, Harvard will allow its remaining investments in the industry to expire. This decision followed prolonged efforts by on-campus student advocacy groups, including filing of legal complaints with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office and gaining seats on the school’s governing board. Prior to this fall, Columbia announced on Jan. 26 that it would not invest in any publicly

traded oil and gas companies. Additionally, as of March 2020, Brown is selling its direct investment and managed funds. Finally, Cornell announced a moratorium on new investments in fossil fuels in May of 2020.

Incumbent Democrat Gov. Philip D. Murphy won reelection against Republican and former General Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli, making him the first New Jersey Democrat to win gubernatorial reelection in the past four decades. The last Democrat to do so was Brendan Byrne ’49 in 1977. Tuesday, Nov. 2 was Election Day across the country, and there were a number of offices on the ballot in Princeton. These included elections for the Governor, State Senate and General Assembly, Town Council, and Public Schools

Board, as well as two ballot initiatives involving sports betting and one involving land preservation. The race was close — The New York Times did not call the election until 6:28 p.m. on Wednesday evening, shortly followed by AP, after Ciattarelli had been in the lead well into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Mail-in ballots, counted after election day ballots, pushed Murphy over the edge. Murphy sat comfortably in the lead in polls days leading up to the election. In the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, released on Nov. 1, Murphy was eight points ahead of Ciattarelli, with 50 percent of responSee ELECTION page 4

Editor’s Note: This story was last updated on Nov. 3, and updated election results may exist by the time you read this. Visit our website for more.

Landscape of Student Advocacy at Princeton, Penn, and Yale At the Ivy League schools have not committed to formal divestment, student organizers cite that significant progress has been made in the arena of climate action and sustainability. In May of 2021, Princeton announced its plans to divest from coal and tar sands. The University of Pennsylvania made a See DIVESTMENT page 2

PHIL MURPHY FOR GOVERNOR / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Undergraduate voting rate soars to 75% in 2020 election By Charlie Roth and Alexa Marsh Contributors

COURTESY OF JOE SHIPLEY ’22

The Vote100 banner.

The University’s 2020 undergraduate voting rate reached a record-breaking 75.4 percent — an increase of 24.9 percent from 2016, and the highest voting rate ever recorded for the University — according to a report by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE). College and university students across the country participated on a similarly unprecedented scale, boosting the Average Insti-

tutional Voting Rate from 53 percent in 2016 to 66 percent in 2020. Based within the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, NSLVE provides participating colleges and universities with analyses of the voting rates and patterns on their campuses and allows for easy comparison of results between peer institutions and national averages. The report contains data from 2016, 2018, and 2020.

The registration rate — the percentage of the eligible student population that is registered to vote — rose significantly as well. Whereas in 2016 Princeton had a below-average registration rate of 70.1 percent, in 2020 it surged above both its previous record and the new national average to a rate of 87.5 percent. NSLVE breaks its statistics down into demographic categories. Estimated voting rates were above 70 percent for all race and ethnic groups. The See VOTE100 page 3

STUDENT LIFE

USG to test off-campus dining initiative for student meal plans By Isabel Yip Contributor

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Community Dining Task Force has introduced a new off-campus dining trial program that will offer select students free meals off campus. On Oct. 29, USG announced its plan to involve 150 undergraduates in a dining trial to

In This Issue

explore the concept of incorporating off-campus dining options in the meal plan. After filling out an application, participants were randomly selected for USG’s Community Dining Task Force. The initiative will provide each participant three offcampus meals — lunch, dinner, and a snack — each week for four weeks, at no cost. In return, these undergrad-

uates will be asked to provide reviews of their off-campus eating experiences and the structure of the program. These focus groups will also provide feedback about the potential implementation of these meals into the unlimited dining plan. This pilot program is functioning through the Tigers in Town system, an existing

ZACK SHEVIN / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN

See DINING page 3

SPORTS | PAGE 16

PROSPECT | PAGE 13

The men’s cross country team finished first — and the women’s team second — at the Ivy League (Heptagonal) Championships this past Saturday. Both teams look ahead to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 12 for a chance to qualify for the National Championships the following weekend.

The closure of the Princeton University Art Museum, in conjunction with the shutdown of the museum during the COVID-19 pandemic, has affected the ways that many students, faculty, and members of the local community interact with the arts and humanities on campus.

OPINION | PAGE 7

In light of a recent interview with President Eisgruber in The Atlantic, columnist Rohit Narayanan writes: “If Princeton is going to segregate a talented few, it has to prove its value every single day.”


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