Town Topics Newspaper, May 25, 2022 by Witherspoon Media Group

Volume LXXVI, Number 21

Young Princetonians Pages 14-15 Panel Discussion on Achievements of Black Scientists at Bell Labs . . .5 Council Passes Two Resolutions to Make Rosedale Road Safer . . . 8 Residents Meet with PU to Air Concerns About Blasting . . . . . 11 Finding Dylan and Whitman in Deutsch’s Bookstore Utopia . . . 18 Theatre Intime, Princeton University Players Present Shrek The Musical . . 19 PU Men’s Lax Defeats Nemesis Yale to Make NCAA Final 4 . . . . . . 27 Hun Softball Rolls Past Lawrenceville to Win Prep A Title . . . . . . . 32

Elle Anhut Helps PDS Girls’ Lax Win Prep B Crown . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 25 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 36 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 16 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 26 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 35 Performing Arts . . . . . 22 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 36 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Dr. Fauci Urges PU Seniors to Combat Failings of Society Emphasizing the challenges of “the failings in our society” and “our divided nation,” Dr. Anthony Fauci urged about 1,200 Princeton University seniors, along with families and friends gathered on Cannon Green on May 23, to commit to fighting injustice “and work with all our might to remedy the cultural disease of racism, just as we fight the viral disease of COVID-19.” Fauci was selected by the Class of 2022 as keynote speaker at the University’s first in-person Class Day since 2019. Chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and the leader of the White House COVID-19 task force, Fauci is also director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He has advised seven presidents on health issues and in 2008 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Fauci pointed out lessons learned from the pandemic. “Our country’s experience with COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on one of the great failings in our society: the lack of health equity.” He continued, “Many members of minority groups are at increased risk of COVID-19 simply because the jobs they have as essential workers do not allow them to isolate from social activity. More importantly, when people in minority groups are infected with the coronavirus, they have a much greater likelihood of developing a severe consequence due to elevated rates of underlying conditions … that lead to an increased risk of hospitalization and death.” Emphasizing the effects of “the undeniable racism that persists in our society,” Fauci called on his audience for a promise that ”the tragic reality of the inequities experienced with COVID-19 does not fade after we return to our new normal.” He went on to point out that in his extensive career in Washington he has experienced firsthand “the intensity of the divisiveness in our nation” and the “egregious distortions of reality” that have at times accompanied that divisiveness. “Sadly, elements of our society have grown increasingly inured to a cacophony of falsehoods and lies that often stand largely unchallenged, ominously leading to an insidious acceptance of what I call the ‘normalization of untruths,’” he said. Continued on Page 10

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Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Eisgruber to PU Graduates: “Persisting Matters” Presiding over his second graduation in the past week, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber told a gathering of more than 1,200 graduating seniors, plus graduate students, families, and friends assembled in Princeton Stadium, that persistence would be the quality that mattered most “across the many dimensions of achievement or talent … the ability and drive to keep going when things get hard.” Eisgruber praised the students for overcoming “challenges that none of us could have imagined when you began your studies here,” and for persisting “brilliantly” throughout their time on campus and away from it, remotely, during the first year of the pandemic. Eisgruber emphasized the value for students to persist to graduation and the value of a diploma, but noted that many students at other universities, because of financial barriers or other difficulties, have not been able to persist. “One way or another, we need to add back the chairs missing from graduation ceremonies around the country,” he said. Last Wednesday, May 18, Eisgruber presided over the graduation of the Class of 2020, which returned to campus for a traditional ceremony nearly two years after their virtual graduation. The Class of 2020 is the only Princeton class ever to have two commencement

ceremonies and is the first class since World War II to wait two years for an inperson graduation. The students of the Class of 2020 were sent home to finish their studies online at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. At its May 24 275th commencement, the University awarded five honorary degrees. The recipients included civil rights attorney Fred David Gray; U.S. Ambassador and former University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann; attorney and

health care industry leader Brent Henry; pioneering neuroscientist and Brandeis University Professor Eve Marder; and FedEx Corporation Founder, Chairman, and CEO Frederick W. Smith. The full text of Eisgruber’s commencement address follows: “The Value of Persistence” In a few minutes, all of you will walk out of this stadium as newly-minted graduates of this University. Before you do, Continued on Page 12

After Months of Local Discussion and Debate, Council Does Not Approve In-Town Dispensary

Cannabis, legal and illegal, is available and in use in Princeton. Sales of retail cannabis have been legal for adults in New Jersey since April 21, with the nearest store just a few miles away on Route 1 and deliveries available throughout the state. The aroma was in the air at the P-rade and at various other Reunions gatherings on the Princeton University campus over the weekend. But there will be no dispensary opening in town in the foreseeable future, as the May 17 Princeton Council Virtual Special Meeting on the issue of cannabis retail provided a relatively quiet culmination to six months of often fierce debate over the pros and cons of opening a cannabis store or stores in Princeton.

The meeting was advertised as a continuing listening session for Council. At the previous session on March 29, there were about 35 members of the public still lined up to speak at the end of a four-hour Zoom session attended by about 345 people. Only 14 of the 35 returned on May 17, however, and after 45 minutes, with 13 of the 14 voicing opposition to a cannabis dispensary in town, the Council members began their discussion. Councilwoman Eve Niedergang, who had headed the Cannabis Task Force that recommended in November 2021 that Council pass an ordinance allowing up to three cannabis retail establishments in town, expressed reluctant acceptance of the fact that despite potential advantages Continued on Page 10

THE P-RADE RETURNS: Grand Marshal Heather M. Butts ’94, center, and other officials lead the way as the Princeton University P-rade, which has been held virtually for the past two years, returned on Saturday afternoon with a march through campus during Reunions Weekend. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)