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Friday September 30, 2022 vol. CXLVI no. 18
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U. AFFAIRS
STUDENT LIFE
U. TO DISSOCIATE Students raise awareness, money FROM 90 FOSSIL for floods in Pakistan FUEL COMPANIES, INCLUDING EXXON By Michelle Miao and Jackie Zhou News Contributors
COURTESY OF AARON SERIANNI ’25
Members of Divest Princeton gather in front of Nassau Hall on Sept. 23. By Paige Cromley Staff News Writer
On Sept. 29, Princeton University announced that its Board of Trustees voted earlier in the month to dissociate from Exxon Mobil Corp, NRG Energy, and 88 other corporations “active in the thermal coal or tar sands segments of the fossil fuel industry.” The announcement also stated that the Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) will “eliminate all
holdings in publicly traded fossil fuel companies” and “ensure that the endowment does not benefit from any future exposure to those companies” as part of the Board’s “commitment to achieving a net-zero endowment portfolio over time.” Princeton has current or recent financial relationships with 10 of the 90 companies listed as subject to dissociation, including Exxon Mobil, NRG Energy, and Canadian Natural Resources.
The PROSPECT
The mysterious case of a Persian polymath in the Princeton University Chapel By David Chmielewski | Guest Contributor In an experience I think is common for many Princeton students, I often find myself searching for more immediate significance to my studies: it is one thing to spend a lot of time reading and thinking about postcolonialism, but an entirely more difficult thing to find out how to work with an abstract name for a very real phenomenon in the contemporary world. So, when doing some reading in a collection edited by Mahmoud Eid and Karim H. Karim titled “Reimagining the Other: Culture, Media, and WesternMuslim Intersections,” I was shocked and excited when I encountered a reference to the very campus where I was reading. Finally, here was the immediate significance I was looking
for: a one sentence mention of a single window in the Princeton University Chapel. Chapels are, by conventional definition, places of Christian worship and Princeton’s chapel is no exception; the most common events at the Chapel remain Christian services. According to its official website, the building was constructed to “permit the University to maintain its religious heritage” as an institution closely linked to the Presbyterian church. The visual elements of the Chapel represent this Christian identity, such as the building’s Collegiate Gothic style, a reference to Gothic cathedrals in England, or its stained glass windows filled with New Testament iconography. See CHAPEL page 12
According to the announcement, the “quantitative criteria used to determine the dissociation list were based on recommendations made by a panel of faculty experts in a report submitted in May.” The Faculty Panel on Dissociation Metrics, Principles, and Standards had been created after the Board of Trustees first announced its intention to dissociate from “companies engaged in cliSee DISSOCIATION page 3
University Provost Deborah A. Prentice nominated to lead University of Cambridge By Bailey Glenetske Assistant News Editor
On Sept. 26, Princeton announced that University Provost Deborah A. Prentice has been nominated to take the lead at the University of Cambridge as the university’s first American Vice-Chancellor, the equivalent of the presidency at an American university. With one of the University’s most powerful administrative positions now soon to be vacated, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 shared in an email to faculty and staff that “the search for [Prentice’s] successor will begin immediately.” The announcement said that Prentice “would be the first American to fill the top academic and administrative role at the [University of Cambridge], among the world’s oldest, which was founded in 1209.” Prentice, the University’s Provost for the past five years and professor of psychology for over 25 years, called the nomination “a huge honor” in the University announcement. Varsity, a British news outlet, reported that Prentice will serve as the longterm successor to current
WOMEN NEEDED IN SCIENCE, STUDY SAYS S E P T. 3 0 , 2 0 0 3
See PAKISTAN page 2
U. AFFAIRS
HEADLINE FROM HISTORY
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The South Asian Progressive Alliance (SAPA) held a teach-in event on Monday, Sept. 26, and organized speeches in front of Frist Campus Center to promote their goal of raising $5,000 this week for Pakistan flood relief efforts. The speakers discussed the devastating impact of the floods, the implications of climate change, and the University’s responsibility to create change. Since mid-June, heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan have led to catastrophic floods and landslides that destroyed homes, crops, and critical infrastructure. Speaking to students gathered on Frist’s North Lawn, graduate student Meher Ali recounted the devastating effects of the floods. “This is the worst flooding in Pakistan’s recorded history,” Ali said. “The rains are running at more than 780 percent above average levels of certain regions.” Ali stood in front of a poster that showed one-third of Pakistan submerged in water. She explained that there has been “two million acres of crop trip and damage so far, one million livestock animals dead, [and] 250,000 homes destroyed.” More than 33 million people have been affected
by the floods. Aleha Amjad ’25, an international student from Lahore, Pakistan, equated the damage in Pakistan to “the entire state of New York being underwater and destroyed.” Other speakers recounted their personal connections to Pakistan and urged the Princeton community to help in any way possible. Aly Rashid ’26, an international student from Pakistan, described messaging his friends back home and realizing how bad the conditions had become. “The most important text [my friend] sent me was ‘don’t just go by the numbers’ because the numbers on Al Jazeera, the numbers on CNN, [and] even the numbers that the Pakistani government is sending out aren’t painting the complete picture,” Rashid said. Rashid is a features and newsletter contributor at The Daily Princetonian. “[These sources] might tell you that these many schools have been destroyed,” he added. “They’re not telling you that those children are probably never getting education again. They might tell you that these many people are displaced, but they’re not telling you the amount of waterborne diseases that are spreading.” Ali added that scientific ev-
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ANGEL KUO / THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN
Deborah Prentice speaking at a CPUC meeting in November 2021. Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope. “I am confident that Professor Prentice will bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to Cambridge, and I look forward to seeing our world-leading university continue to flourish under her guidance,” Toope told Varsity of his successor. The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, is regarded as one of the most prestigious higher-education institutions in the world. Eisgruber said Prentice is a “brilliant choice” for the role in the University state-
ment. “I am delighted by the prospect that [Prentice] will lead another of the world’s great research universities,” he said. Prentice also shared her gratitude for the nomination, saying that it is “a huge honor.” Prentice has served the University in a variety of roles over the past 34 years, most recently as the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, and has helped lead “nearly 20 [initiatives] stemming from the University’s 2016 strategic planning framework.” According to her biography See CAMBRIDGE page 2
This Week on Campus ARTS | Icarus and Other Party Tricks by Sarah Grinalds ’23 — Friday and Saturday in Drapkin Studio at the LCA SPORTS
ACADEMICS | Decentering Song-dynasty China: The Chanyuan International Order, 1004-1226 C.E. — Wednesday, Oct. 5 in Jones Hall 202 @ 4:30-6 p.m.
| WOMEN’S SOCCER VS. DARTMOUTH — Saturday, Oct. 1 @ 1 p.m., Roberts Stadium