Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Friday February 3, 2023 vol. CXLVII no. 1
Twitter: @princetonian Facebook: The Daily Princetonian YouTube: The Daily Princetonian Instagram: @dailyprincetonian
U. AFFAIRS
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com }
U. announces increased ‘The Princeton I minimum salary for postdocs, postdocs say it’s wanted to join’: The evolution of not enough FEATURES
Wintersession By Sejal Goud & Gia Musselwhite Associate & Assistant Features Editors
ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Harrison Ritz, a postdoctoral researcher and organizer of the demonstration, stands in front of the Icahn building before marching to Nassau Hall.
By Sophie Glaser News Contributer
Gathered on the steps of Nassau Hall, a group of about 50 postdoctoral researchers read aloud their open letter calling for a higher minimum salary. Armed with a printed petition which spanned the length of the Nassau Hall steps, the protest comes just two days after an announcement from the University that postdocs would receive an increased minimum salary of $65,000 and follows months of discussion about whether postdoc pay is sufficient. On Jan. 19, a group of postdoctoral researchers sent an open letter addressed to Dean of the Faculty Gene A. Jarrett ’97 and Provost Deborah A. Prentice, urging the University to raise the minimum postdoc salary to $68,500, provide experiencebased increases, and adjust salaries annually to account
for costs of living. Over 400 individuals signed this letter, which called for administrative action before Feb. 6. The discussion about postdoctoral pay was in part catalyzed by the University raising graduate salaries by an average of 25 percent in January 2022. In an anonymous op-ed in the ‘Prince’ published in April of that year, a postdoc wrote: “the University seems to have forgotten to extend the same pay increase to the essential postdoctoral community.” The postdoc cited that Princeton’s minimum wage for postdocs was set at the NIH postdoc minimum, noting that under certain assumptions, postdocs could be earning less than graduate students and “paying up to 68 percent or higher of their after-tax income for rate.” Eight days after the open letter was delivered, the University announced that it would raise the minimum salary from $54,840
to $65,000, an 18.5 percent increase. In a letter to postdocs, Jarrett said, “Establishing this new minimum salary recognizes the vital role that postdocs play in our campus community as researchers, in advancing faculty scholarship, and in contributing to Princeton’s academic mission.” Jarrett also stated that “The new minimum salary will make [the University] even more competitive in recruiting excellent and diverse postdoctoral researchers to Princeton.” However, organizers from Princeton University Postdocs and Scholars critiqued that message in an email to fellow postdocs. “We deserve more than a salary increase that allows for ‘more competitive’ recruitment. We need a salary that covers the cost of housing, food, and childcare in Princeton,” the message See SALARY page 3
A N A LY S I S
Five key takeaways from Eisgruber’s State of the U. Letter By Laura Robertson Staff News Writer
On Jan. 31, President Eisgruber released his seventh annual State of the University letter, focusing on the lessons learned from COVID-19, the changing priorities of the University, and the dangers of technology. He discussed some high points of University life over the past 18 months — the end of COVID-19 restrictions in classes and performances, the high number of Nobel recipients this fall, and the “highest one-year fundraising total in Princeton’s history.”
NEWS
Next, he moved on to focus on the present challenges and future priorities of the University. Here are five take-aways from the letter: Eisgruber warned about the risks posed by technology to mental health and focus. While praising some of the benefits of the technology which has taken off over the last decade — including easy access to information and the ability to keep in touch with loved ones — Eisgruber also reflected on the perils of technology as he sees them. He noted that disinforma-
tion was not the only problem, writing that “even when the information they provide is fully accurate, online media facilitate distraction, remoteness, and provocation.” He wrote that the media landscape is “flooded with the intellectual equivalent of irresistible junk food,” and noted some scholars suggest online media may be “a major contributor to the epidemic of mental illness” in America. “These claims are controversial,” he wrote, “but it seems undeniable that the students who arrive at Princeton today have grown up very differSee LETTER page 2
In 2014, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate hosted the first-ever Wintersession, where undergraduate students had the opportunity to enroll in informal classes between the end of fall term exams and the beginning of the spring semester. Over the past nine years, this system has evolved, changed leadership, and expanded, while retaining its original mission of providing free, accessible programming to all students. This winter break, Princeton undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty are invited on campus from Jan. 16 to Jan. 29 to participate in the third annual Wintersession program sponsored by the Office of Campus Engagement (OCE). “It’s very rare that you, as a student at a historic institution, get to create something that becomes lasting way beyond yourself. [Wintersession] could really improve the lives of [our] fellow classmates around [us] for future generations to come,” said Laura Du ’14, one of the USG representatives who proposed the platform. Creating USG Wintersession Prior to the restructuring of Princeton’s calendar in the academic year 2020–2021, fall term exams were held at the conclusion of winter break in January. Following exams, students had the option of returning home or remaining on campus during a one-week Intersession break. Time and financial constraints limited some students’ abilities to return home over break. Du
See EVOLUTION page 11
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
U. alumni in Congress share thoughts on House speaker election
KATHERINE DAILEY / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
By Abby Leibowitz Staff News Contributor
Of the 434 congresspeople voting in the historic election for Speaker of the House, in which Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was elected Speaker after 15 rounds of voting, seven
INSIDE THE PAPER
OPINION
PROSPECT
University declines to ban ChatGPT, releases faculty guidance for its usage by Assistant News Editor Julian Hartman-Sigall
Letter from the Editor: The two Princetons by Editor-in-Chief Rohit Narayanan
Clinging on to Lunar New Year by Associate Prospect Editor Joshua Yang
PAGE 4
PAGE 8
PAGE 12
and two other U-Councilors, Katherine Clifton ’15 and Elan Kugelmass ’14, with support from USG President Shawon Jackson ’15 took note of these challenges and set out to create an alternative. “If you weren’t in a group that was touring — like a performing arts group — or part of a club that had a retreat at that time, there wasn’t much programming happening on campus. It’s kind of crazy to think about, a week that’s quieter that happens to overlap with the week when students have the most time. It seemed like this mismatch that we wanted to address,” Clifton explained. Inspired by enrichment programming at other institutions such as Williams College, the team of U-Councilors began work on a Princeton-specific model. “When we did a couple of focus groups with students, they were interested in being able to lead their own as well as take other people’s offerings,” Clifton said. “So that’s why we landed on this hodgepodge model,” with students able to enroll in multiple informal sessions led by others on campus. Clifton also shared that their Wintersession model was in part a product of USG’s budget constraints, though Du noted that the team was able to provide modest compensation to facilitators. “Our [USG] funding was pretty small. I mean, most of these sessions didn’t require anything but space and people’s time. I remember there was a Magic 101 [offering], and it was ‘bring your own card deck’ — pretty DIY,” Clifton recalled. Despite Wintersession’s limited budget and advertising at the time, the program with its tag-
FEATURES
‘The Princeton I wanted to join’: The evolution of Wintersession by Associate Features Editor Sejal Goud and Assistant Features Editor Gia Musselwhite PAGE 11
are Princeton undergraduate alumni. The only other time in the post-Civil War era when a vote required multiple rounds was in 1923, when it took nine tries. Princeton has traditionally been one of the schools See ALUMNI page 2
SPORTS
Grant Wahl ’96 to receive Colin Jose award for ‘significant, long-term contribution’ to American soccer by Head Sports Editor Wilson Conn PAGE 13