In Short

Princeton was ranked No. 1 among national universities for the 13th consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report, which released its annual Best Colleges ranking Sept. 18. Princeton also finished first in the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse rankings, published in early September, and America’s Top Colleges, published by Forbes in August.

University spokesman Michael Hotchkiss said in a statement to PAW, “Whatever rankings show from year to year, Princeton remains committed to contributing to the world through research and teaching of unsurpassed quality. What has changed this year is that more Princeton undergraduates are receiving more financial aid, thanks to the University’s enhanced aid program. About a quarter of undergraduates now pay nothing to attend Princeton, and 66% of newly enrolled students receive aid … .”

About 80 student activists, professors, and staff gathered in front of Nassau Hall Sept. 21 to call attention to the struggles of unionized workers. The Workers’ Town Hall was organized by Princeton’s student-run Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter and included speeches by history professor Matthew Karp, graduate student activist Mauro Windholz, and Jeffrey Coley, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 175.

“I feel privileged to work here, and even more privileged to have a union behind me — to not have to shrivel in a corner and pretend that nothing is bothering me,” Debbie Sidoran, a union worker in Building Services, told PAW. “We live in strange times, and we need union strength more than ever.”

Princeton undergraduates received an average course grade point average of 3.56 during the 2022-23 academic year, matching an all-time high first recorded during the pandemic, when grading policies were relaxed. The 2022-23 course GPA was about 0.26 points higher than in 2005-06, the year following the implementation of the so-called grade-deflation policy, and about 0.17 points higher than in 2014-15, the first year after the revised grading policy went into effect. The annual grading report is available online at bit.ly/grading-memo.