The Alex Adams award was established in 2007 in memory of its namesake, Jay Alexander Adams. It provides financial support to undergraduates who elect to spend two months of their summer producing an original work of art. Halcyon Person ’10 was one of the two recipients chosen last spring. What follows are excerpts from her project, for which she spent the summer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, conducting interviews with members of her father’s and grandfather’s generation who had worked at the since closed Jones & Laughlin Steel Mill.

Intellectual awakening can often seem an accident in Princeton. It is an accident a number of people never has the misfortune of suffering. Inherent to the structure of the liberal arts system is an unlikely conflict between the academic and the intellectual, cast crudely, the conflict between getting a good grade and finding your passion (and discovering the tools which can help you communicate that passion to the people around you.)

A conversation with 4 Nass staffers on race, gender, sexuality and the 2008 election.

I’ll give it to you real quick: the state of political discourse on campus? It sucks

Statesmanship is the art of accommodating interests, of dialog and compromise. Bold leadership requires an appreciation for the democratic process. We don’t just trust our leaders to make the right decisions; we trust the process to work properly, so that different views are represented and decisions are made using the best available information.

This article flows from a simple assumption. Barack Obama will be elected the 44th President of the United States, and on January 20th, 2009 he will assume said office.

NW: On the topic of religious holidays: Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement. For the Princeton students, is there anything you must atone for?

[Pregnant pause]

JW: Caring too much.

The relationship between Public Safety officer and student is inherently complicated, as it is Public Safety’s job to both protect the student body, and enforce the rules of the institution upon it. While many students find the execution of University policy aggravating, they also understand that it is Public Safety’s job to keep the campus as safe as possible. However, recently there have been incidents where students feel Public Safety has intervened before it was necessary.

1. Your idea for a new campus publication

100. That night I held you and we just laughed and cried till morning

In a similar way, the most troubling thing about Sarah Palin is not that she lies. The problem is that she is not qualified, and in the very real event that John McCain would either pass or suffer a disease of old age during his presidency, like, say, Ronald Reagan may have, she would become the leader of the free world. So I wonder: why do the Republicans care so much about winning that they would actually put their country at such significant risk?

To side with Anscombe, or not to side with Anscombe: in regards to the controversial chastity debate, that seems to be the question flitting around campus conversations these days. For most, the question remains a simple one. After all, the dialogue – Anscombe versus the Rest of Campus – has been marked by a noticeable backlash mentality, sprung from personal offense and strong, if biased, conviction. But, dare I ask, when it comes to the assertion that chastity is a “way to find a much more fulfilling relationship,” does the conversation go beyond the simple, “Yes, of course” and “Hell, no” responses that the argument has elicited?