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Monday September 25, 2017 vol. CXLI no. 72
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Graduate students: New U. daycare is not affordable regardless of U. statement ON CAMPUS
staff writer
Many graduate students with children disagreed with a University statement that claimed that the new on-campus facility for the University-National Organization for Women Day Nursery will make affordable childcare more accessible to all members of the University community. UNOW focuses on playbased learning, low staffto-child ratios, and nature, incorporating the latest research on early education and childhood development into its approach to childcare. But this high-quality care is expensive. Tuition for infants is upwards of $25,000 per year, which many graduate students say is completely unaffordable even with University assistance like the Student Child Care Assistance Program, which reimburses students for up to $5,000 of their childcare expenses based on their household income. Joshua Wallace GS, a fourth-year student in the astrophysical sciences department, is the publicity chair and advocacy liaison of Tigers with Cubs, an organization for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students with children. He said he was “very angry” because the University’s press
COURTESY OF PRINCETONUNOW
A view of new construction of the UNOW day nursery.
release suggested that between SCCAP and UNOW’s expansion, on-campus child care was affordable for all members of the University community. A representative in the Graduate Student Government for his department, Wallace calls himself a “de facto representative for families” on campus. Wallace explained that his wife stays
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
home because childcare costs more than she would be able to earn by working a job, which would require her to pay for care for their children. Wallace added that childcare is particularly expensive for graduate students who are single parents and international graduate students whose spouses are unable to work due to visa restrictions. U . A F FA I R S
FIRE releases new set of ratings for colleges By Marcia Brown head news editor
COURTESY OF ANTOFRAN VIA WIKICOMMONS
Building in Mexico City partially destroyed by 2017 earthquake.
Mexican Student Association raises disaster relief funds By Marcia Brown head news editor
The Princeton University Mexican Student Association is raising relief funds to donate to Mexican NGOs that specialize in rescue and disaster management in light of the recent earthquake devastation. Carla López Castañeda GS is one of the students spearheading PUMSA’s efforts. She explained that the effort is largely the initiative of several Mexican students in the community. “It’s really the [University students] who have been sharing the information with classmates and all the people they know,” said López Castañeda. “All of us are involved and have been
In Opinion
Other graduate students have had similar reactions to the press release. “I was just so angry because it’s not true,” said Christine Philippe-Blumauer GS, who is a research associate at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program. PhilippeBlumauer, whose husband is also a graduate student at the University, said she
shocked in the past days because we all know someone who has been affected in a way.” The group has set up a Venmo account to receive the donations, and has been promoting its efforts on social media. The organizations to which funds will be donated include Cruz Roja Mexicana, Amazon, Oxfam México, Topos, and Cadena. Since Wednesday, the group has raised $4,778.50. According to López Castañeda, the money is being donated through local Mexican bank Multiva. The bank is matching what the group raises, effectively doubling the funds. “We don’t have a specific goal See DISASTER page 3
Guest contributor Marcus Norkaitis writes about living through Hurricane Irma, and senior columnist Bhaamati Borkhetaria writes about the difficulty of communicating abroad. PAGE 6-7
For the first time, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has rated the top 53 universities in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, on their due process rights for students accused of various offenses on campus. In its ranking “Spotlight on Due Process 2017,” 45 of 53 universities received “a D or F rating from FIRE for at least one disciplinary policy,” and similarly 79 percent of these universities received a D or F for “protecting the due process rights of students accused of sexual misconduct.” The new rankings come as the handling of sexual misconduct and campus rape cases are increasingly under assessment with the new administration. Communication coordinator for FIRE William Rickards noted in an email that “Princeton received a D for sexual misconduct due process protections and a C for other due process protections.” FIRE is a nonprofit dedicated mainly to advocating for free speech and due process rights on college campuses. “The schools were judged based on whether they guarantee those accused of campus misconduct 10 core elements of
fair procedure, including adequate written notice of the allegations, the presumption of innocence, and the right to cross-examine all witnesses and accusers,” he wrote. The report analyzed disciplinary procedures at 53 schools, but focused on nonacademic disciplinary cases. The group did not consider faculty disciplinary procedures. Furthermore, “where institutions maintain different policies for academic and non-academic cases, we analyzed only the procedures for nonacademic cases,” and even then only looked at procedures involving potential suspension or expulsion. Due to these parameters, FIRE did not look at the Honor Committee’s procedures and thus did not speak to any of the members of the committee, according to Committee Chair Carolyn Liziewski ’18. Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter explained that the University pays some attention to releases and studies from groups such as FIRE. “We don’t pay particular attention,” she continued, “but we are always interested in external organizations.” “We make all of our decisions based on what we See FIRE page 3
Today on Campus 7 p.m.: Pete Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times lectures on his book “Obama: The Call of History.” Robertson Hall, Arthur Lewis Auditorium.
first realized how expensive childcare near campus was when she was pregnant, noting that the issue came up “quite frequently” in her conversations with her colleagues. Ph i l ippe-Blu m auer praised UNOW’s “amazing approach to childcare,” its low staff-to-child ratios, and its proximity to campus, and she said that this quality of care was understandably expensive. “But,” she added, “it’s a fact that it’s not accessible or affordable to most graduate students and postdocs.” Philippe-Blumauer also asserted that because SCCAP is taxable, no graduate students are able to use all $5,000 dollars — even if that were enough. Merle Eisenberg GS, a sixth-year in the history department, often works with Tigers with Cubs to push for more affordable childcare through GSG. Most recently, he has collaborated with Tigers with Cubs to create a series of policy proposals that the GSG would be willing to support. Eisenberg said that he doesn’t expect to achieve every goal listed in the proposal, but he hopes that it will mitigate the “astronomical costs” of having children in general. He echoed Wallace’s earlier comment, asserting See DAYCARE page 3
U . A F FA I R S
Betsy DeVos ends Title IX claims from Obama era By Marcia Brown head news editor
In an announcement this morning, Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a directive reversing some Obama-era rules surrounding Title IX claims and sexual assault. Notably, some rollbacks could give accused students greater protection against campus rape and sexual misconduct claims if universities choose to invoke the rules. Colleges may now use a higher standard of evidence before finding students responsible for sexual assault. Resolution agreements, decided upon during the previous administration, are to remain in place. Because the University has been in such an agreement since 2014, no changes will be made at this time, said Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter. As the Title IX coordinator, Minter explained that the the University plans to review the new rules and FAQ. “We have to really review it,” she explained. “We think that the policy we have is working well for our campus. We think it’s fair and gives significant, equivalent rights to both parties.” When asked if the University would consider advocaSee DEVOS page 5
WEATHER
By Rose Gilbert
HIGH
88˚
LOW
66˚
Sunny, humid chance of rain:
10 percent
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Monday September 25, 2017
PUMSA will have all funds doubled by local Mexican bank Multiva DISASTER Continued from page 1
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in mind, and we are still trying to have the fundraiser for a few more weeks,” López Castañeda added. The effects of three earthquakes in a month have drastically shaken Mexico. On Sept. 19, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico, toppling at least 60 buildings and killing more than 155 people in Mexico City alone, according to The New York Times. Aside from the buildings already collapsed, dozens more are afflicted with severe structural damage, posing challenges and extreme risks to rescuers and residents of the city. “As a Mexican student, I am glad to see how our small but vibrant community on campus has come together to support our fellow Mexicans back home,” said Soraya Morales Nuñez ’18. “News of the various earthquakes in the last few days has been emotionally heavy, especially since it was only last weekend that Mexico was celebrating its Independence Day. Some students have family
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in Mexico City and in surrounding areas, so it’s been an emotionally distressing time for some of our community members.” “It’s something that’s really personal to all of us and being abroad [from Mexico] is really frustrating and not being there and being able to help is frustrating,” said López Castañeda. “This is why we’re really putting an effort in this.” The recovery will take years and a large amount of funding, even as Mexico continues to be besieged by aftershocks and several more earthquakes. On Saturday, Sept. 23, another earthquake, of 6.1 magnitude, struck Oaxaca state around 275 miles southeast of Mexico City. This particular earthquake’s epicenter was roughly between the other, more severe earthquakes from earlier this month — of 8.1 and 7.1 magnitudes. López Castañeda explained that as recovery needs change, the group will assess and determine whether to change the destination of its fundraising to meet the changing needs. Anyone interested in donating can Venmo to PU-Mexhelp with the title MEXDONATION.
Graduate students’ spouses stay home caring for children to save money
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Minter: Everyone is trying to figure out how to do the right thing FIRE
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think our own community values are,” Minter added. “So we don’t pay superclose attention to these organizations but we are always happy to learn.” Minter explained that around the country Title IX cases are handled very differently on different campuses, largely due to the diversity of the institutions themselves.
“It makes it a little hard to make those comparisons,” said Minter. “Everyone is trying to figure out how to do the right thing.” In 2014, when the University came under a resolution agreement with the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education, its policies and procedures were all reviewed and revised for Title IX cases. Under the agreement, the University continues to be monitored for how they handle such cases. Minter explained that
the University works hard so that both parties in any nonacademic disciplinary case have equal rights to appeal. “We do work really hard to ensure that they’re fair,” Minter said. “In every way they have exactly the same rights.” On Friday, Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced new interim rules for Title IX cases, which are included in FIRE’s analysis.
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DAYCARE Continued from page 1
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that the partners of graduate students and postdocs often stay home with their children instead of working “purely out of financial necessity.” According to Eisenberg’s proposal, SCCAP has been capped at $5,000 since the program’s inception in 2007, but the consumer price index for child care has gone up 33 percent, more than college tuition. Eisenberg said that he would prefer that families could receive larger amounts of money through SCCAP but added that he is currently moving forward with another proposal. This proposal would expand the number of families eligible for the full $5,000, which would be given as a block grant rather than as reimbursement for childcare. Katie Donnelly GS, a firstyear sociology Ph.D. student with a nearly 1-year-old son, said that the SCCAP stipend is helpful but added that daycare remained a “significant financial burden.” According to Donnelly, rent takes up about two-thirds of her pre-tax stipend and it is “hard to stretch” her remaining income to cover the cost of daycare, food, clothes, toiletries, and medical expenses. Eisenberg said that improving the University’s benefits for graduate students and postdocs with families will help attract the best researchers. “I know a number of graduate students who chose Princeton because they already had families, and they believed that Princeton had a pretty good set of family initiatives,” he said. “But it could be made better.”
Panel Discussion
Capturing Transient Effects Thursday, September 28, 5:30 pm | 101 McCormick Hall Art historians and scientists explore how art can decipher fleeting natural events and defy the limits of vision, in conjunction with the exhibition Transient Effects: The Solar Eclipses and Celestial Landscapes of Howard Russell Butler. A reception in the Museum will follow. Speakers include:
Rachael DeLue
Joshua Winn
Richard Woo
Art and Archaeology
Astrophysics
California Institute of Technology
Rolf Sinclair
Centro de Estudios Científicos, Chile, and University of Maryland
always free and open to the public artmuseum.princeton.edu
Howard Russell Butler (American, 1856–1934), Solar Eclipse, Lompoc, California (detail), 1923. Oil on canvas, center panel of a triptych. Princeton University, gift of H. Russell Butler Jr.
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Jack Halberstam Professor of Gender Studies and English, Columbia University
becoming feral: The Intersections Working Group presents
Sex,Death, and Falconry
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Reversal may affect U. policy on sexual assault investigation DEVOS
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cy on behalf of any Title IX policies, Minter explained that it will consider that but wait until the University has a better grasp on the changes — and what may unfold in the future. “It is common that we consider joining forces with others in the major consortiums we’re a part of,” she said. Recently, the University has joined an amicus brief against the administration’s travel ban executive orders. President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83 has also engaged in other advocacy this past summer, such as urging Congress to protect DACA enrollees. “We have joined amicus briefs and lots of different mechanisms that we use when we think it’s an issue particularly important to the community,” she said. The University currently requires “a preponderance of evidence” standard for sexual assault and rape cases to find an accused student guilty of rape sexual misconduct claims. A preponderance of evidence requires
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decision-makers to be more than 50 percent sure an assault occurred in order to convict. Prior to 2014, when this level of evidence became required at the University, the University required “clear and convincing” evidence. DeVos’s interim rules do not require colleges and universities to adopt — or in the University’s case re-adopt — the higher standards, but they do suggest the administration wants colleges and universities to strongly consider the change. Assistant Vice President for Communications Dan Day deferred comment to Minter. In its statement, the Department of Education explained that it will “engage in rulemaking on Title IX responsibilities arising from complaints of sexual misconduct. The department will solicit comments from stakeholders and the public during the rulemaking process, a legal procedure the prior administration ignored.” Minter explained that the University plans to take time to read and consider this new set of actions to determine how they intend to react.
“There will also be a public comment period we will also consider,” she explained. The new interim rules also rescind any suggested timeline for investigations, as opposed to the recommended time of 60 days under the previous rules. Requirements for schools to have a Title IX coordinator and report all incidents of sexual assault, as required by the 1990 Clery Act, remain in place. The release withdrew the “Dear Colleague” letter from 2011 which elucidated the Obama administration’s policy. The letter informed colleges receiving federal money to use “a preponderance of evidence” standard in their cases, to allow accusers to appeal not-guilty findings, and to accelerate adjudication of cases, with a recommended 60-day limit. The 2011 letter also discouraged cross-examination of accusers. The DOE is also withdrawing the “Questions and Answers on Title IX Sexual Violence dated April 29, 2014.” The University has been in a resolution agreement since 2014, and according to the new interim rules, these agreements are to remain
in place. Resolution agreements, much like consent decrees, require Universities to work with the Office of Civil Rights to reach an agreement for future conducting of cases, and include a period where the Department of Education reviews the University’s handling of cases. That review period is ongoing. Director of Government Affairs Joyce Rechtschaffen ’75 explained that the interim rules do not carry the same weight. “My office will be following the Department’s rulemaking procedures along with Michele Minter’s office and the General Counsel’s office but the rulemaking process has not yet begun,” explained Rechtschaffen in an email. The 2014 agreement included several major shifts in University policy. The shifts, influenced both by the OCR and the Violence Against Women Act, included moving to a “preponderance of evidence” standard, switching from having a hearing with the Committee on Discipline to an investigator model with highly trained investigators who review all of the evi-
dence. The investigators can adjudicate the case, according to Minter, but they can’t administer the punishment. Finally, both parties have equal rights to appeal. “We think that removes a lot of the stress of being asked to confront the other party in the moment in these lengthy hearings,” said Minter. “All those documents are exchanged in writing to people have time to study them.” Minter emphasized that the University provides the same information, rights, and opportunities to both parties in a sexual misconduct or rape case investigation. Minter stressed that the University’s system is not the same as a criminal justice system. Instead, cases are treated as violations of the code of conduct in a learning community. She explained that, in a sexual misconduct case, the evidence standards treat both parties exactly the same way. Each party has the right to choose advisors, appeal, and receive material in the same time frame. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Opinion
Monday September 25, 2017
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A different kind of bubble Bhaamati Borkhetaria senior columnist
W
hen I first got to Chengdu, China, ready to begin a summer internship where I was meant “learn about a new culture” and “gain perspective,” it became obvious to me how arrogant I had been. I’d shown up to a country that I had very little prior knowledge of, where I knew no one, and where I couldn’t speak a word of the language. But, that was okay. I would learn. I would meet people. I would pick up words in Mandarin, or rather, in the Sichuan dialect that is prevalent in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan, a southern province in China. The catch: things I learned were mostly through conversations with other non-Chinese people. Most of the people I interacted with were from countries like the U.K. or the U.S. Clearly, language remained a barrier. The observation that knowing the language of a country helps you understand the culture is not a new one, but what has fascinated and worried me is how not knowing the language can cause biases even in people who are well-traveled and well-educated. On my first day in Chengdu, I was told “the Chinese are very rude and will try to rip you off.” I was also told “girls in Chongqing [also a city in Sichuan] are the hottest” while the “girls in Guangzhou [a city in Guangdong Province] are mostly known for being timid.” I was told that “the people in Chengdu were simple and lived uncomplicated lives.” I was told to observe the strange custom of Chinese men holding their girlfriends’ purses like an aspiring zoologist is told to observe particularly strange animals. Following these series of generalizations were many attempts by the people I met to “explain China” to me. Maybe my disdain at the comments was an overreaction cultivated by my “liberal Ivy League bubble,” as I was told. “Don’t be such a snowf lake. This is China. They don’t care about political correctness” was a chastisement often repeated to me in my first couple of weeks in China. It took me all of a week and a little reading on the Chinese government’s political censorship to see
the irony in that “political correctness” comment. I hoped to find friends there who would not make such generalizations. Maybe even Chinese friends who lived in Chengdu, instead of just expats. But before I knew it, a bubble had formed around me. To accommodate for the language barrier, I sought out bars that were known for being expat haunts, stores that were known for carrying imported items, clubs that Chinese people avoided, restaurants where the staff was mostly nonChinese. In these places, I was able to communicate in English, which made me feel more comfortable. But it was a stark fact that I had more Chinese American friends back at home and in Princeton than I had in China. Which is why subtle comments about “the Chinese” made me uncomfortable. “The Chinese” don’t care about creating a mess. “The Chinese” are always late in doing everything. “The Chinese” have very boring and materialistic conversations. All these comments were made with no malice, but also not with a hint of irony. And, in retrospect, I am imbuing them with a lot more cynicism than I experienced at the time I heard them. Although I knew how harmful these sorts of generalizations were, I couldn’t help but start to wonder if my lack of knowledge and experience in China was causing me to miss all these things that my fellow foreigners were seeing. I had seen the same kinds of broad and incorrect generalizations being made in Mumbai, where I interned last summer, and felt an appropriate amount of disdain for such comments. In Mumbai, I had known the language and had been able to navigate Indian society very freely through my associations with people who lived there. I could hear first-hand how complex and diverse people in this Indian city were. I could not make any generalizations about “the Indians” because the Indian people I associated with on a daily basis would prevent anything of the kind. And it filled me with a profound anger whenever someone made a generalization about how “rude” or “childish” the “Indians” were. I could not understand this sheer disrespect of the complexities of the “Indian” identity. Yet, in
China I was lending an ear to the same kind of ignorant generalizations and maybe even making them involuntarily based on what I heard. As I travelled around China on business trips and in tour groups — as I met and spent time with women from Chongqing, went to KTV with my Chinese coworkers in Guangzhou, and hung out with friends in Hong Kong — I could filter out the generalizations that catalogued themselves in my mind. I let myself acknowledge my ignorance. I asked questions that were comparable to asking a black woman “Can I touch your hair?” in order to educate myself: “What do Chinese people generally talk about?” “Are all Chinese women told to be ‘cute’ by the culture?” “Can I say Mandarin to describe the language that you are speaking?” “What do you mean your Chinese name isn’t Flora?” These sorts of questions were met with hilarity from Chinese people who had never been so brashly questioned by a foreigner. But the answers were kindly given, even if they were also condescending. I accepted it and took the time to understand that the answers were usually this one person’s opinion or explanation, not representative of the entire Chinese populace. After all, as an Indian American, I am intimately familiar with the experience of having to speak for an entire culture when asked questions about what it means to be Indian. Although I met many people who were willing to answer my questions, most people in China weren’t prepared to accommodate a blundering foreigner who hadn’t bothered to learn the language. In all my arrogance, before coming to China, I had assumed that people here would speak English — that in this one key way, they would accommodate my Western self. It’s hard not to get irritated when the restaurant cook dumps a bunch of beef into your noodles because he didn’t understand what you meant by “meiyou rou” (I don’t want meat). Or when the bus driver kicks you off the bus at the Chunxi Lu stop because he didn’t understand that you actually wanted to be dropped off “èr” (2) stops after Chunxi
Lu. Or when the hotel you are staying at does not have a single staff member that can understand your complaint about how the ceiling is leaking. It would be really easy to blame “the Chinese” for their incompetence in these situations. But, it is obvious that it is actually mine and my fellow foreigners’ own lack of language ability that leads us to frustrations like this. It is needless to say that making generalizations about the “rudeness” of an entire people based on a couple of bad experiences with certain individuals is ignorant. That is the definition of xenophobia and racism. But, if there is anything that I’ve learned during my experience in China, it is how easy it is to fall into a mentality that suits you — a mentality that puts you above those who refuse to accommodate you. I have spent my entire time in China fighting this impulse and regretting that I don’t know the language. I am certainly not saying that I regret spending my summer in China; I’m saying that I am acutely aware that so much of my experience has been through secondhand sources with biases to boot. While living in Mumbai, I learned how important language is to understand the culture of the city. While living in Chengdu, I once again learned the same lesson, but this time on the f lip side of the coin. My lack of Chinese language ability left me unable to even marginally understand the place where I spent over three months. My argument here is not just that learning a language is important to experiencing a culture — that is obvious. Rather, I’m saying that it is easy to fall into the trap of generalizing negative characteristics onto a group of people that you haven’t taken the time to communicate with. It becomes easy to slip into a mentality that stops just short of colonialist superiority. That is what I urge that we fight when we travel to countries where we don’t know the language. Or perhaps try to learn the language before we travel to a new place. Bhaamati Borkhetaria is from Jersey City, N.J. She can be reached at bhaamati@ princeton.edu.
Sophomore Year Pulkit Singh ’19
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vol. cxli
Sarah Sakha ’18
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Matthew McKinlay ’18 business manager
BOARD OF TRUSTEES president Thomas E. Weber ’89 vice president Craig Bloom ’88 secretary Betsy L. Minkin ’77 treasurer Douglas J. Widmann ’90 Kathleen Crown William R. Elfers ’71 Stephen Fuzesi ’00 Zachary A. Goldfarb ’05 John Horan ’74 Joshua Katz Kathleen Kiely ’77 Rick Klein ’98 James T. MacGregor ’66 Alexia Quadrani Marcelo Rochabrun ’15 Randall Rothenberg ’78 Richard W. Thaler, Jr. ’73 trustees emeriti Gregory L. Diskant ’70 Jerry Raymond ’73 Michael E. Seger ’71 Annalyn Swan ’73
141ST MANAGING BOARD managing editors Samuel Garfinkle ’19 Grace Rehaut ’18 Christina Vosbikian ’18 head news editor Marcia Brown ’19 associate news editors Kristin Qian ’18 Claire Lee ‘19 head opinion editor Nicholas Wu ’18 associate opinion editors Samuel Parsons ’19 Emily Erdos ’19 head sports editor David Xin ’19 associate sports editors Christopher Murphy ’20 Claire Coughlin ’19 head street editor Jianing Zhao ’20 associate street editors Lyric Perot ’20 Danielle Hoffman ’20 web editor Sarah Bowen ’20 head copy editors Isabel Hsu ’19 Omkar Shende ’18 associate copy editors Caroline Lippman ’19 Megan Laubach ’18 chief design editor Quinn Donohue ’20 cartoons editor Tashi Treadway ’19
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Monday September 25, 2017
Opinion
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CAT 5 in the VI
Marcus Norkaitis
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had just finished a packed summer working in the Frick Chemistry Lab at Princeton and was therefore so relieved and excited to see my parents. I had not seen them in over eight months, the longest I have ever gone without seeing them. Stepping off the plane and walking into the airport lobby, I was warmly greeted by my parents and two shots of flavored Cruzan Rum, a true reminder that I was home and a taste that I missed. We spent the next couple of weeks getting back to our old family life, living life how it was before I went to college. I am proud to call myself a native U.S. Virgin Islander of 18 years. With over three quarters of St. John reserved as a national park, the pristine elegance is almost untouched by humanity, fully able to flourish and bring out the colors of the Caribbean. Each time I return home, I gain a new appreciation of how special a place it is that I come from. I can only ever hear awe mixed with envy from state-siders when I tell them where I hail from. But then, all of a sudden, a rapid transformation occurred. Almost out of nowhere, a hurricane popped up on the local radio and radar of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A strengthening storm was on a direct collision course with our tiny cluster of islands. By the time Hurricane Irma would hit the Virgin Islands, it would be classified as a Category 5 hurricane, the worst hurricane ever to be recorded in the history of the existence of NOAA – actually, if Category 6 was a thing, Irma would have been considered that, but there isn’t such a category because such a powerful hurricane had never been seen before. Tell me climate change isn’t a thing and you are a complete fool. The island prepared for an oncoming hit, buying essentials like canned food and bottled water. My dad and I prepared our home by putting up iron shutters around our house that would protect sliding glass doors and windows from debris flung around by the hurricane’s winds. We would soon feel the full force and indescribable wrath of 220+ mile-perhour wind gusts on our tiny 32-square mile island, and boy, would the island never forget it. The date was September 6. The news said that the force of Hurricane Irma would hit later that day. We were as prepared as we could be and braced for the storm. The wind gradually grew stronger as the day got longer and the night drew nearer. My Mom, Dad, and I stepped outside on our patio many times to see increasingly worsening conditions. Our last outside visit before Irma invaded was seeing one of our fondest trees enduring such high wind force bashing that it cracked in half, like an inflatable stick man used in car advertisements. Unsure of what was to come and hoping for the best, we went back inside and hunkered down. Soon after, our house lost power, like much of the entire island, and then all anyone could hear was the howling of the wind, the sound of an enormous, unending freight train passing by. With candlelight illuminating the inside of our closed-up, dark house, we heard the unmistakable roaring and hissing of the wind, but then a new sound arrived
— the battering of the iron shutters from, with what we could hear, all sorts of debris: from tiny pebbles and sticks, to huge branches and formidable stones that could crush a human body with one strike. We could hear our trees fighting the wind. As mentioned earlier, my family loves nature, and so, in the 20 years my parents have been on St. Thomas, we surrounded our house with a buffer zone of trees, not only for beauty’s sake and a sense of privacy, but also for protection in case of a hurricane. But that barrier couldn’t protect us for the circumstances we were going through. The one time we attempted to open one of our wooden doors, the sky was pitch-black and we couldn’t see a thing. Once again, all we heard was the whistling of raging wind, and the pelting ping of threatening objects against the iron shutters. Yet once more, a new sound arose — the sad cracking of trees that resembled the falling effect of dominos one after another … Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Bam! Bam! Bam! Boom! A cacophony of chaos and mayhem swirled around us as we clung to each other, trying to stay sane with the feeling of pressurized changes throughout the rooms. We kept trying to equalize and pop our ears constantly to ease the ongoing discomfort of the changing pressures to no avail. However, that would soon be the least of our worries. A few hours later, with Irma still wreaking havoc, we did our rounds of the house. Flooding had started to occur, so we plugged some leaks with towels. I manned the damp mop machine and continually wrung out the wet towels. It was nonstop tedious work, but it was necessary. And let me tell you, the worst flooding was coming from a solid wooden door inches thick. I don’t know how on Earth the water could be pouring in from a closed door, but it was. I was honestly scared shitless. I had been through some tropical storms before and some minor hurricanes, but never a serious hurricane, let alone a Category 5 event. The last hurricanes to seriously impact the Virgin Islands, Hugo and Marilyn, blew off the entire floor of my house, as if it was built out of toothpicks. And Hugo and Marilyn were nowhere near as strong as Irma was. After the flooding subsided and the eye of the storm was past us, we tried to get some rest, but with the wind barrages still ongoing and not letting up in magnitude, not to mention a thunderstorm pouring down around us, it was one of the worst nights I have ever had in my life. I had the feeling of not being safe and truly scared for my life. All it would take was for one window to crack, one pipe to rupture, one door to implode, and we would have been sucked away into the abyss. Somehow, we made it through the night in one piece. With daylight dawning, we tried to open up one of our doors. It wouldn’t budge, as it was warped from heavy flooding and blockaded with wreckage. We opened a back door and went up to our roof to have our first glimpse of the aftermath. Our house resides on the north side of St. Thomas on its highest mountain, Crown Mountain. Irma’s force came from the northwest. Since we are so high up on the mountain, we have a complete panoramic view of three quarters of the island. We climbed up our spi-
ral staircase to the roof. We gasp. “HOLY SHIT! GONE, EVERYTHING IS GONE...” It was as if an atomic bomb had detonated. The entire island was in ruins. Trees that weren’t cracked or uprooted were leafless. Most houses were demolished, in pieces, or roofless. Power poles were down, horizontal on the ground. Power lines were strewn across the road, dangerous live wires that could electrocute someone to their death with a misstep. We could barely look because it hurt so much. We could barely believe and come to terms with what had happened. I grabbed the binoculars, and my attention turned to Magen’s Bay, my favorite beach on St. Thomas. Once rated one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, it looked now like a heavily war-ravaged battlefield. The winds blew what foliage would be greeting you at the beach away. The once inviting water that once showed countless colors of blue was one shade of lime green, as if the island and water surrounding it was sick with some indescribable disease. My Mom turned to the right and saw the Norfolk pine that she planted 20 years ago. Just a week ago, it was once the healthiest and tallest Norfolk pine on the island, and a landmark that we used to locate our house if someone was looking up from the sea. Its once lush and grandiose branches were now entirely stripped off. My Mom burst into tears, and just about at that point, so did my Dad and I. She said that the trees gave their lives to protect our house and she was right. They did. Our house was still standing. The once graceful Norfolk pine now looked like a large jagged knife sticking up from the ground. Another huge tree had crashed on top of our roof. Thank God the house was built out of solid, poured concrete. Unfortunately, many other houses were not. All were affected. The rich the poor, no matter how much you prepared or how much you thought you were protected; there was no escaping the wrath of Irma. We were now, all of us, officially refugees of a catastrophe. Many had lost everything, their homes and personal belongings, all they had accumulated in their entire life, gone with the wind. And so began the islandwide cleanup effort. I, like everyone else, had to help my family out first. If I hadn’t been there at home, my parents would never have been able to clean up our property, which was in a sad state, ankle-high in leaves and with fallen trees. The ground itself was so soaked that your foot would sink a couple inches into the soil when you tried to move. Years of my father’s sweat, blood, and tears spent gardening and managing our property was gone in a matter of hours. While my Mom and I cleared our road, he salvaged what he could of the plantings he had put life into and given a home so long ago. It was heartbreaking. And, one could say that these are only trees. I could still only imagine what the rest of the island looked like and what the people were going through, tourists and locals alike. I spent the next three days cleaning up with my parents, hauling piles of leaves, palm fronds, and dead trees, spending more time with my mom then I ever did since the time I was home. Navigating the St. Thomas roads was like an ongoing obstacle course, avoiding dead trees, crossing over fallen power lines, trying to squeeze through the small openings without falling off
the mountain. I helped my mother recover the last of her important surviving files out of her office at the Territorial Public Defenders. Her office was wiped out, leaving only wet, soggy piles of ripped up carpet, fallen roof, and forcibly disassembled wood. Outside was pandemonium. There was an island-wide curfew from 12 noon to 6 p.m. So, you can imagine the lines for obtaining essentials like food, water, and gas. Lines at the surviving gas stations wrapped on and on. There was talk of looting, robbing at gunpoint, and other walks of crime that occurred in supermarkets, ATMs, and with people in their cars, all that were left vulnerable, exposed from Irma. Those acts of conduct were completely unacceptable, but what would you do if your family was in desperate need and it was, truly, a matter of life or death? After helping my parents out enough, my primary concern was to get back to Princeton, because school was starting and I did not want to get behind on the surely-to-be-hectic academic year. Move-in day on Princeton’s campus for all returning students was September 9. I could not even leave my house by then. I was still clearing debris from our driveway. Classes started on September 13. Would I even make it back on time? How would I even get off the island? The airport had suffered heavy damage. The communications tower used to relay information from the ground up to aircraft was destroyed in the storm, and therefore commercial flights would be inoperable for days, maybe even weeks. No one really knew what was going to happen. All I knew was that I could not wait that long. More importantly, other people, tourists and locals alike, with other, more dire needs, could not wait that long. Days passed. By this time, island restoration had begun, but not at a fast enough pace. People were still homeless, without power, food, water, Internet service, or other forms of communication. My family and I, like others, developed a system to get water. Since the Virgin Islands are so small, there has never been a public water pipeline system, so the majority of residents have personal cisterns. We hauled buckets and water pails up from water cisterns, sending us back to a bygone era. Tuning into WSTA 1340, Lucky 13, again as we often did, and listening to Addie Ottley, word had it that mercy cruise ships were being sent from Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines in coordination with the Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, to transport people who needed to get off the island to Miami, Florida, or San Juan, Puerto Rico. Not knowing when the airport would be functioning again, my parents decided that if those cruise ships did arrive, that would be the call. I would leave my island, my home, by water, and take a flight out of San Juan, which had luckily avoided the full force of Irma, back to Princeton. I packed up my belongings. This might be the last time I would see my parents for a while. The next day, I said farewell to my Dad, not sure if I would see him again. My Mom and I waited by the Smoking Rooster Bar in Havensight Marina, the place where one would be admitted to board a cruise ship, for as long as we could. We spent the entire day there. Although first in line, it felt like we were waiting for an
eternity. We weren’t the only ones, though. More and more people showed up, exhausted and desperate to leave. My Mom had to leave before curfew ended, so I had to say goodbye to her in a most informal way. I have always known there is a special bond between a mother and son, and I felt it more strongly here than all the other times I had to leave my Mom. We embraced each other in a hug that I did not want to let go of, and neither did she. Tears filled our eyes. I hated myself for having to leave both my parents in such a state, but life was going on elsewhere whether with or without us, and for now, duty called me away from St. Thomas. Later, it was another pitchblack night, as the cruise ship pulled into the Havensight cruise dock around 10:00 p.m. Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas was like a beacon of hope for those wanting to get off the island. The massive crowd and I boarded and at once were granted amenities that we sorely missed: showers, power, food, Internet service, and phone service. I felt so relieved, yet at the same time, so guilty that many still could not share in the delights that I was enjoying. Majesty of the Seas, initially scheduled to depart at midnight that same night, ended up staying docked a whole extra day to let extra passengers on until the cabins were filled to the brim. We finally departed at 7:00 p.m. that day, September 13, and I was taken away from my home, saying another heart-aching goodbye. I finally slept better that night and we arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the cruise ship port by 7:00 a.m. on September 14. I debarked immediately from the cruise ship, wanting to waste no time. We were greeted by the U.S. Coast Guard, Army, and San Juan police. I was shocked by the way we were treated. I appreciated the attention, but I wish, from what I saw at St. Thomas when I left, more attention and resources would be spent there. Two police motorcycles escorted me on a shuttle from the cruise ship dock to the San Juan Airport. Whizzing over, we stopped not even once: running every light, the police cutting off traffic from incoming merging lanes. My heart raced and blood pressure rose even if it did not want to. After that, the details escape me. Now, I am back at Princeton, safe and sound, but I cannot get my parents out of my mind. I cannot get the picture of the state of my home out of my mind. The image is too starkly imprinted, too vivid, too unforgettable. I wish I could just blink my eyes and have it all go back to the way it was before Irma, but that’s not possible. All I know is that when I graduated from St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as a senior from the Peter Gruber International Academy, I meant what I said, that I would come back to help the Virgin Islands. Before, it was one thing that I aspired to do: to bring what knowledge I gain from the outside world back to better my home. But, now it is my responsibility as a native Virgin Islander. St. Thomas and the Virgin Islands will recover, perhaps not to their former glory, but to a different and better beauty that reflects the magic within the Caribbean. I cannot leave my home in such a state. I will return. Marcus Norkaitis is a junior in Chemical and Biological Engineering from St. Thomas, USVI. He can be reached at marcusn@ princeton.edu.
Monday September 25, 2017
Sports
page 8
{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } FOOTBALL
Tigers continue strong performance on the road, defeat Lafayette 38-17 By Jack Graham staff writer
This Saturday, Princeton football posted another strong performance, defeating Lafayette on the road, 38-17. After falling behind 7-3 early in the game, Princeton’s offense began to produce at a dominant pace, and its defense bared down en route to a blowout victory. With the win, the team improved its record to 2-0 and appears poised for another strong run in Ivy League conference play. As was the case in last week’s season opener against San Diego, Princeton’s passing attack proved unstoppable for much of the game. With senior quarterback John Lovett still sidelined with an injury, senior Chad Kanoff, receiving all the snaps at QB, shone once again, passing for 256 yards and throwing three touchdowns for the second consecutive game. Junior Jesper Horsted led the receiving effort with 58 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and junior wide receiver Stephen Carlson, who hauled in three receiving touchdowns last week, added 52 yards. As a whole, the offense benefitted from a balanced passing attack, with 10 differ-
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Quarterback Chad Kanoff shone again passing for 256 yards and three touchdowns in the Tiger’s win.
ent players contributing at least one reception, as well as strong protection from the offensive line, which only conceded two sacks. Junior running back Charlie Volker, who missed the season opener with an illness, returned to the lineup Saturday and boosted the
Princeton rushing game, running the ball 20 times for 111 yards and a TD. Princeton’s rushing attack was also critical towards their offensive success; the team ran the ball 45 times for a total of 219 yards behind its powerful offensive line. On the other side of the
ball, Princeton was able to shut down the Lafayette running game almost entirely, allowing only 57 yards rushing on 17 carries. Senior linebacker Mark Fossati anchored the stout Princeton run defense, contributing 11 tackles, and junior defensive back Ben
Ellis and freshman defensive back C.J. Wall added 10 and eight tackles respectively. Junior linebacker Mike Wagner was a dominant force on the pass rush, sacking Lafayette Quarterback Sean O’Malley twice, and senior defensive line Kurt Holuba added another sack. With Princeton’s defense controlling the rungame and protecting a lead, Lafayette was forced to try to pick up yards through the air, throwing the ball 44 times. Princeton, with its relatively inexperienced secondary, struggled at times to defend the pass, conceding 325 yards through the air. Wall, named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for his performance against San Diego, intercepted O’Malley once, continuing an impressive start to his career. Returning a large amount of talent from last year’s Ivy League champion team, Princeton appeared, on paper, well-positioned for another stellar season. Through the team’s first two victories, Princeton’s impressive performance so far leaves no reason to question that assumption. The team will return home this Saturday, hoping to continue its success against Ivy League foe Columbia.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Women’s volleyball begins Ivy League play, sweeps Penn in opener By David Xin head sports editor
In a repeat of last year’s result, women’s volleyball opened the season with another win over Penn. The reigning Ivy League champions swept the Quakers, 3-0, in an encouraging performance as they look to defend their title in the Ancient Eight this year. The Tigers (1-0 Ivy) have now won 21 of their last 22 games in conference play and will look to extend this impressive record when they face Brown and Yale next week. The first set proved the most exciting. While Princeton took a narrow lead by the end of the set, the Quakers showed their resilience by fighting off three set balls before freshman defensive specialist Lauren Flaming clinched the set by hitting an ace. The Tigers carried the momentum as they moved into the second set, comfortably beating Penn 25-18. The Princeton squad would repeat its success in the third set, cruising to another 25-18 win. Sophomore outside hitter Natasha Skov led the offense with 13 kills. Fellow sophomores Maggie O’Connell and Devon Peterkin both added nine kills apiece. Senior co-captain
Maddie Huber spearheaded the Tigers’ defensive effort with 12 digs. Despite the win, the Orange and Black will not have time to celebrate as it faces two more important matches next week. Last season, the team managed an impressive 10-0 start en route to an Ivy League crown and NCAA bid. The Tigers will undoubtedly be looking to replicate this success and continue to build momentum as they start their Ivy League campaign. The Princeton team will start next week by traveling to Providence to face Brown. The Tigers swept the Bears in their two encounters last year. However, Brown could still be dangerous in front of a passionate home crowd. Princeton will need to show the poise and resilience that carried it out of many tough situations last year if it wants to record another win in Providence this year. Next, the Tigers will travel to New Haven for their match against the Bulldogs. This may prove to be a particularly challenging matchup for the Princeton team. Indeed, the Tigers sole loss last season came against Yale in New Haven. Despite a highly contested match that ultimately went for five sets, the Bulldogs
Tweet of the Day “Most exciting second of football I’ve ever seen!! #NYGvsPHI” Kelsey Koelzer (@ khockeyk), Women’s Ice Hockey
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The Tigers recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over the Quakers as they look to defend their Ivy League title.
narrowly edged out a 15-11 scoreline in the final set to clinch the win. Co-captain Cara Mattaliano recorded 24 kills in that Princeton effort, but the Tigers fell short. Yale also ended the Tigers’ 14-game winning streak, so the Princeton squad will
undoubtedly be looking to avenge its previous loss. The Bulldogs are currently on a three-game winning streak, having won their last three games by sweeping their opponents. Most recently, they defeated Brown in their Ivy League opener. Clearly, fans of Princeton
Stat of the Day
21 of 22 games The Tigers have won their last 21 out of 22 games in Ivy League play. Their sole loss came from Yale last year.
volleyball will have plenty to be excited about as the Tigers face Brown and Yale. Princeton’s women will travel to face their Ivy League rivals this coming Friday and Saturday. Both games will be streamed on the Ivy League Digital Network.
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