Recognition of longtime Tory staffer Solveig Gold is in order, as she was one of the two winners of the University’s Pyne Prize last month. The Pyne Honor Prize, established in 1921, is awarded to seniors who have most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. Congratulations, Solveig!
After an undefeated season in the Ivy League and a sterling record in the inaugural Ivy League Basketball Tournament in which the Tigers bested Penn and Yale, the Princeton men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011. The Tigers faced the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first round but came up short, rounding out a strong season with hopes for another run next year. Along with with an Ivy League Championship from the football team this year, Princeton athletics have dominated the Ivy League.
The Princeton Private Prison Divest coalition (PPPD) staged a teach-in on 27 March during a meeting of the Council of Princeton University Community (CPUC). PPPD urged CPUC to divest the University from private prisons—except that Princeton never had any investments in private prisons, according to a statement from President Eisgruber. It ain’t broke, snowflakes; stop trying to fix it.
In a recent article written for the Princeton Progressive, Katherine Stiefel wrote, “I realized this morning that to be socially conservative is to live off of assumptions.” She wrote this in response to what she feels as a violation of her physical space, which is the placing of Tory magazines under her door. Did we Tories forcibly enter her room and force her to read our magazines? Is it true that we wouldn’t let her leave until she conformed to our ideology? Are we the ones who put posters about our ideology in almost every single room on campus with propaganda supporting our cause? Do we also condemn anyone who seems “closed-minded” when they speak out against us, calling them culturally insensitive and ignorant? Don’t we even have entire programs to study our movement, as other forms of thought are not worth equal study, and any other school of thought being considered backwards? We aren’t the ones making assumptions. At least we welcome diversity of thought within our movement, as we can see with the different spectrum of Republicans. People are often looked down upon for not being liberal enough.
The Tory commends the Elizabeth Anscombe Society for its recent campaign against pornography. According to a recently-released UK Parliamentary Committee report, porn fuels sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, and in the US, Arkansas became the third state (after Utah and South Dakota) to declare it to be a public health crisis last month. Anscombe has for the past couple of years done tabling meant to educate students about the dangers of pornography, and we hope that they continue.
A post on Apriltfrom Princeton’s official facebook page themed “I am a white man and I access privilege and power because of my race and gender” apologized for the white race. We hope this was a bad April Fools joke.
Disney released the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which included a scene inwhich a gay character dances a waltz with another character who was shown in drag earlier in the movie. Poor Walt Disney must be rolling over in his grave. We’ll see this children’s movie again in two years or so on ABC Family—er, Freeform—because that’s what a “family” is nowadays.
For the March 22 issue of Princeton Alumni Weekly, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School Cecilia Rouse wrote a guest column highlighting the importance of intellectual diversity in University life. In her piece, she notes that true diversity involves not just tolerance of other views, but true inclusion of all viewpoints that allows everyone an equal platform in campus debate. We commend Dean Rouse and her support for rich intellectual discussion and inclusion—a cornerstone to the mission of the University.
Early in March, the Executive Board of the Princeton College Republicans (PCR) officially took a position against President Trump’s duplicitously dubbed “Muslim ban”, without consulting the members of PCR for a vote. In an email to the membership listserv, the Board offered the following justification for its unilateral decision: “In the age of Trump, we believe that it is very important to protect and conserve our traditional Republican beliefs and ideals,” and “We believe that the College Republicans have an important role to play in shaping and contributing to the political dialogue on this campus.” The Tory is saddened to see the PCR Board take a position—any position—on such a controversial issue without seeking the input of its constituents. Such is contrary to the spirit of conservatism. If an official stance is to be taken at all, there ought to be vigorous debate and an opportunity for various perspectives to be heard. The Tory is glad to see that the Board will be opening future decisions to discussion with membership.
Earlier this month the Princeton Progressive issued an article about The Tory’s distribution. Well, it was really just an excuse to make a sweeping disapproval of our main tenets, but that’s alright. It’s good to see they focus their efforts on writing about public policy and ideas.
