LIVE BLOG: Dean's Date, Fall 2022
5:12PM EST: We Did It
As I clicked send on my final Dean's Date assignment— on this, the last Fall Dean's Date of my Princeton career—one word came to mind: progress.
Yeah, we all made progress on our assignments today, and made it to the 5pm finish line. But I'm also talking about slower, longer progress: we've learned and been challenged and seen setbacks and celebrated accomplishments throughout this semester, and this first half of the academic year, and our Princeton journeys thus far. And that's pushed us forward.
Dean's Date (and the Dean's Date Live Blog) is always an insane 24-hour sprint. But this Dean's Date was the first time I only had one assignment to finish in the 24 hours, instead of my usual 2 or 3. That's progress!
If you managed to get even an hour's sleep yesterday, despite your deadlines, when you usually pull an all-nighter: that's progress!
If you calmed or commiserated with a friend today, and that helped them make the final push towards submitting their assignments on time: that's progress!
Dean's Date is officially behind us. And whether your essays were edited three times or not at all, you made it. Let's celebrate ourselves, and our progress—big and small—as we wrap up the semester and head into the holiday season.
Thank you for joining us for this Fall 2022 Dean's Date Live Blog. And congratulations, Tigers.
—AA '23 and the University Press Club
5:01 PM EST:Butler Basement
Today in summary:
- AB'26
5:00 PM EST: Butler Basement
- AB'26
4:59 PM EST: Butler Basement
60 seconds before Dean's Date:
1:56 PM EST: Aliya Kanji Hall
(To all of my fellow PSY 101 students, this one's for you)
The Coffee Club is conditioning your behaviour. Here's how.
In Psychology, one of the main schools of thought is behaviourism. Behaviourists argue that studying human behaviour should take precedence over the study of invisible, intangible mental processes. Not only that, they consider that human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning: the process of training or accustoming a person to behave in certain ways.
I imagine that most of you are familiar with Pavlov's Dog experiments, in which he trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, because they had learned to associate that very sound with food. This is an example of classical conditioning: associating an unconditioned stimulus (food) which draws an unconditioned response (salivating) with a conditioned stimulus (the sound of the bell) to draw a conditioned response (salivating at the sound of the bell, even if no food is present).
Now, I am not suggesting that any of you have started to salivate at the sound of Ed Sheeran's Shape of You when you hear it blasting in Campus Club, or that the sound of coffee beans being ground makes you shiver in anticipation. No, I wouldn't dare suggest that.
In fact, when I say the Coffee Club is conditioning your behaviour (a.k.a inciting you to act in certain ways), I am referring to operant conditioning. The American psychologist B.F. Skinner was a leader in expanding our understanding of operant conditioning. His experiments showed that our behaviours are increased or decreased by the consequencesof our actions. For example, if you steal a bag of coffee beans and you are sent to prison for 5 years, through operant conditioning you will learn to not steal coffee beans again. This is called reinforcement.
As you might have guessed by now, our lovely Coffee Club uses reinforcement to increase your coffee consumption, as if college students weren't already addicted to caffeine consumption (not that we mind).
You may be thinking: well, Alexandra, where's your proof? Don't worry, I gotchu.
If, like me, you are a devout Coffee Clubber, you may be using one of Coffee Club's punch-cards that give you a free coffee every time you go. Collect ten "holes" and your next coffee is free! What a deal, am I right?
Well, actually that's a prime example of positive, fixed-ratio intermittentreinforcement. Let's break this down. Positive reinforcement increases your behaviour by "adding" something. Here, the thing "added" to your life is a free peppermint white chocolate mocha with extra whipped cream on top. Or, you know, an Americano as bitter as us on Dean's Date. The fixed-ratio intermittent part of the deal is where it gets interesting: Coffee Club can't exactly afford to reward you with a free coffee every time you place an order, so they do it at regular intervals: every 10 coffees you order. While not the most effective reinforcement technique (I know, not quite as Machiavellian as you'd hoped), it does work for two reasons:
Your behaviour of buying coffee isn't exclusively tied to the reward (your 11th coffee free). This means that your behaviour will carry on for longer than it would otherwise, and you'd still get that happy rush from getting a free cuppa every now and then.
This builds community and trust. Every time you walk into Coffee Club, you are greeted by familiar faces, smiles and waves in your direction. However, something else is brewing beneath the surface. You are all on a mission, a collective one: get that free coffee. You feel united by this shared purpose, you feel like you belong.
Good job Coffee Club!
- AB'26
12:46 PM EST: Yeh/West Dining Hall
- AB'26
12:37 PM EST: Yeh/West Dining Hall
OLR'26 says "WE NEED MORE." More you shall receive.
- AB'26
12:35 PM EST: Yeh/West Dining Hall
Pyjama fits are starting to trickle in. The dam has broken, no more jeans and leather jackets peeps.
- AB'26
12:03 PM EST: Yeh/West Dining Hall
Yep, we're still in the Yeh/West dining hall, now in conversation with CL'25. His comment?
"The fact that it's been raining non-stop during reading period and the weather forecast says it will clear up at exactly 5pm today... I don't know. It's just a perfect summary of my Dean's Date experience."
- AB'26
11:06 AM EST: Yeh/West Dining Hall
Somehow I'm starting to feel that most of my updates on this blog are really a repressed ode to Yeh/West. Anyway, here's the tea on Fu Hall's bathrooms:
Not what you'd expect in an ode... hm.
- AB'26
10:50 AM EST: East Pyne
It's me again, the guy who woke up at 6:15am. The combination of caffeine, loud music, and terrible heating in this building has me shivering at frequencies never before reached by any human being.
Before I try to take what I reallyhope will just be a 15 minute power nap, I'd like to shout out three people from the survey who I think have really good music taste:
the person with a mostly classical music playlist mixed with some ska songs "to jumpscare me."
the person listening to minecraft music (I guess we're all on survival mode right now)
the person listening to "FAST MARIO KART MUSIC | MORE PRODUCTIVE WORK (https://youtu.be/-Js49GdidVk)"
-MR '24
6:45 AM EST: Small WorldCoffee
Today I have accomplished a monumental feat. Throughout the year, in a futile attempt to get "back on track" on the "just a few" assignments whose due dates were looming over me, I have tried and failed to get to the Witherspoon Street Small World exactly at opening, which is 6:30am.
I couldn't do it in April, when it was warm and the sun actually came out—so how did I do it on this windy, rainy and dark December morning? The answer is simple: stress.
I decided to ask the few other souls in this Small World how they did it. I met two: DS '24 and SKB '23. Combined, they have 2,300 words to write. A combination of stress, biology, and support brought them here: one half of the pair needs about 14 hours of sleep every night (and is currently running on three), and the other half of the pair has insomnia, so they're "fine." One woke the other up and they came to Small World together. I hope they get their work done quick and have time for a long, comfortable nap tonight!
Other tips for waking up this early (from the author):
Put your phone on the other side of the room, so you have to dash out of bed to turn it off
Turn the lights on right after waking up (people who don't live in singles, good luck with that)
Take a massive swig of ice-cold water as soon as you wake up
Use the farthest bathroom in the building—the walking will wake you up
Put in your headphones, blast the most energetic songs, and dance a little
Remember the assignments looming over you. It will activate your fight or flight response
flee
-MR '24
3:30 AM EST: Campus Energy Heat Map
In last semester’s Dean’s Date liveblog I looked at the Campus Energy Heat Map, a tool tracking energy use in different buildings around campus, around the same time in the early morning. This semester has been the most normal since COVID-19, so has anything changed?
Energy consumption map from Spring 2022.
Energy use from around 3 am.
Yeh/NCW are on the map now. Fewer people seem to be working at Forbes based on energy consumption, and more in the Lewis Arts Complex. Icahn and JRR seem to have higher energy consumption compared to last spring as well, and East Pyne and Firestone are in more use. Perhaps more group work? Or maybe everyone is more comfortable working in more public areas now. Hard to be definitive.
-RBH ‘23
2:07 AM EST: Puppy Profile (a Dean's Date procrastination project and because we've all earned a wholesome puppy story)
A deep dive into the life story of Bear, the Australian Shepherd Chow mix who hangs out in the Princeton School of Architecture’s model shop from time to time.
This is Bear.
Bear is the Princeton School of Architecture’s shop dog.
This is Bear’s life story (Bear turned one last month).
Bear is originally from Arkansas. At just 10 weeks old, Bear was abandoned at a high kill shelter—”high kill” is pretty self explanatory.
Bear is an Australian Shepherd Chow mix, which means that he’s half Australian Shepherd, half Chow Chow—that later half would save his life. A woman at the shelter called a rescue group in New York City that rescues Chow Chows. And sure enough, the rescue group was willing to take him.
Bear was eventually adopted by the SoA’s fabrication shop manager John Hunter. Now, he comes into work about once a week with John.
If I make enough progress on my paper, I’ll be back with the story of the shop’s first furry companion in residence, Caligula the cat, who is currently at Harvard.
1:31 AM EST: Encouragement Boost
It's the time of night (morning) when despair hits, just before hope and determination kick in. To get you through the 1am slump, here are some encouraging good-vibes animal pics + cheesy-but-true affirmations. :)
Sloth hanging on a rail with text "You're doin great." Original image: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/mother-natures-critters--91268329923885335/
Funny raccoon in green sunglasses showing a rock gesture isolated on white background with text "ROCK ON." Original image: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/animal-closeup
Two donkeys smiling with text "We believe in you!" Original image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/animal-smile
Happy dog running in field with text "It'll feel so great to finish your assignments and you're almost there." Original photo: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/happy-animal
Quokka hugging the camera with text "You've got this!" Original image: https://www.boredpanda.com/cute-smiling-happy-quokkas/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
—AA '23
12:01 AM EST: Whitman Courtyard
- AB'26
12:00 AM EST: Is it Dean's Date?
nvm jk it is deans date
-RBH ‘23
11:59 PM EST: Is it Dean's Date?
My fellow stressed scholars, given that this is the campus-famous Dean’s Date liveblog, I wanted to verify that it was, indeed, Dean’s Date. I turned to only the most official source of Is it Dean’s Date? information, https://isitdeansdate.com, which revealed an unexpected truth. It was not, in fact, Dean’s Date. The moment I saw the orange NO, I couldn’t continue reading. This news has shocked me to my core, but has also provided me ample assurance to continue procrastinating from my assignments. I will see you all tomorrow, after a very long 17 hour nap.
-RBH ‘23
11:40 PM EST: What's the craziest thing you've seen while walking to class?
I'll start: I was walking up a path toward Frist when this guy on a bike passed right by me. The back of his shirt said something like "wild bike, wild life" and I thought: "Huh. That's weirdly intense, it's not a motorcycle or anything. It's just a bike."
As if he could read my thoughts, the dude then proceeded to pop a wheelie and hold it for 20 seconds as he zoomed away.
"unicycle gang" - CFS '25
"a man holding an oar like it was nothing special" - AN '26
"a large amount of orbeez" - SW '25
"liquor truck pulling into the construction site" - QH '25
"free monster truck" - KY '23
"Squirrel punching a leaf... it was unbeleafable" - AK '22
"happy students" - MM '23
and finally:
"i don't go to class" - TT '25
—EW '24
10:50 PM EST: Whitman Dining Hall
What do you mean Whitman has donuts and cinnamon buns???
This illuminates IJ'26 statement:
"Whitman haters beware. Awooga awooga!"
- AB'26
10:49 PM EST:Yeh/West Dining Hall
Hordes of hungry students crowd the yeh/west dining hall. Bagels have been split, toasted and dipped in Fruit Loops cereal. Bacon has been drenched in syrup. The hot chocolate machine is serving milky water that the kind of brown drink you'd like to stay away from.
Welcome to Princeton late night breakfast.
I watch carefully as OLP'26 pours syrup onto her pancakes. "If you can't find the syrup, I stole it" Good to know. DG'26 stops by to chat: "I haven't started my 10 page freshman seminar paper." OLR'26 laughs. "I haven't started either." They part ways, ready to fight for their lives in the final hours of the day.
As I make my way towards the fruit counter, I make eye contact with Yeh/West's new psychotherapist: a Christmas werewolf. Don't move. Its white fangs gleam in the dining hall light. "BELIEVE" says the sign it clenches in its paws. I believe. I slowly back away.
When I look down, I will see a wide array of footwear. Electric blue crocs. Fluffy bunny slippers. Shark slides that "eat" the wearer's feet. UGGs. One might be tempted to scan the room and look for moon boots, ski boots, 5-inch heels. Full-body armour. Who knows, they might make an appearance. Keep your eyes peeled.
Finally, I make it out, balancing cereal and fruit and coffee (Coffee! Not delicious Coffe Club coffee, mind you. The diluted dining hall brew we know and love.) As I finally find my table, I remember: I forgot my muffin.
And so the cycle begins anew.
- AB'26
9:59 PM EST: Fu Hall
Christmas came early! Time for a selection of fine quotes from the lovely Princetonians that answered our Dean's Date survey:
What is the worst thing about our school's colors being orange and black?
"Halloween-coded... hate it."
"it's giving prison jumpsuit"
"when I went home for Thanksgiving I was only fed orange foods"
"You know how some people upon being accepted to college do a whole aesthetic photoshoot where they decorate their entire bedroom with merch and school colours? Princeton's colours look really tacky splashed across an entire room"
Most recent Google Search?
"Why does my laptop charger only work in certain positions"
"definition of affective"
"why does my best friend annoy me now"
"a with accent spiky"
"Sex iconography in Roman brothels and Common app transfer applications"
"Syrian Scientific Society"
What's the most jargon-y, nonsensical (but serious) sentence you've written for any of your papers?
"While social media facilitates the formation of like-minded enclaves in which individuals experience confirmation-biased selective exposure to political information, their impact is partially negated by the ability of social media to facilitate cross-cutting discussions."
"In Gaga's lyric video, the deprivileging of the image complicates the hermeneutics of indexicality such that the auditory conditions of viewing are prioritized."
Also:
"nO pAPerS tO wRiTe yeeeeeee"
What is the most ridiculous/hilarious thing you've overheard someone say on campus?
"lets manifest bad energy for everyone else in the room and good energy here" "i hope everyone fail so i can get on the good side of the curve"
"well its just like ... i've never skied in America before"
"What do you want for Christmas besides your mother’s love? Because that’s a little out of my control."
"and i told him "YOU"RE DEAD AT MORAN STANLEY' *shock*"
Tell me a secret
"Never have I ever been more tempted to do drugs to get my shit done than this week."
If you could write anything as an "end of paper" note at the bottom of your final (no repercussions, no questions asked) what would it be?
"moOoOooOOOOOoOO"
The vast majority of us are this meme:
- AB'26
8:55 PM EST McCarter Theater
Why are the intermissions at McCarter so long
- AB'26
8:54 PM EST: McCarter Theater
99% of Princeton students are currently checking high schools seniors they know got into Princeton instead of revising for their finals.
#princeton2027
- AB'26
8:46 PM EST: McCarter Theater
If you're wondering what is going through some of your peers' mind right now, let me tell you the tea about AK'26. He has 10 pages left to write, but he's watching A Christmas Carol at McCarter with me instead. Flash news: he's also googling how to attach (not embed!!) a photo in Google Slides (sorry, Gmail). He's excited to go back to his "purr-fect" Writing Sem paper though. Yay AK'26!
PS: He overheard the following in RoMa today: "Where are the fucking everything bagels, this is a nothing bagel” Tell no one.
- AB'26
8:03 PM EST: Everybody panic
Hi folks. I have some dire news coming to us live from InferKit, a random story-generator AI I found on the internet.
After plugging in the following excerpt from the Princeton website’s official description of reading period and dean’s date–
All written coursework, including term papers, homework assignments, lab reports, and projects, is due on the date set by the instructor, but in no case later than the date set by the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing for the submission of written work, normally the last day of reading period, which is known as "dean's date."
–the AI returned several rules regarding dean’s date that we undergrads weren’t aware of until now. Please pay careful attention to the following, because it seems like literally all of us may have failed all our assignments:
If you submitted your papers via USB drive, you’re done for.
The use of USB drives to submit assignments and term papers was banned in 2009.
It’s all over for me. I didn’t submit my Psychology paper to the Computer Science Department five days before the semester started.
Students must also submit coursework to the Office of Academic Accreditation ("OAA") of the Department of External and Family Studies and to the computer science department of the computer center at least five days before the term begins.
Oh, but you’re good if you’re in the new Department of Foreign Languages, Literature and Media (which foreign languages?? I guess… all of them). The due date is a secret, but don’t worry.
It is normal for an instructor to set his own term for examination and grading, but the new Department of Foreign Languages, Literature and Media (DFMLM) Orientation manuals do not list this date.
Students do not have an exact date when the examinations will be held, but it is expected that they will be sent the official date upon request to the Department of Languages, Literature and Media (DFMLM).
Students are also not required to submit their papers for marking.
THE DEAN’S SUM.
If the date set by the instructor for exams or papers is the same as that set by the Dean's Committee on Examinations and Standing for the submission of written work, the student will be charged the minimum sum that is payable to the faculty committee, the "dean's sum."
The "dean's sum" is the sum the student must pay for each assignment to his faculty committee.
The "dean's sum" is never to exceed an amount determined by the faculty committee, for example a minimum of $10 (10) if the course has 40 or fewer students enrolled.
Occasionally, the student may be charged the "dean's sum" even if there is an "Incomplete" or "Failed" grade.
Y’all, tomorrow isn’t actually dean’s date. Our assignments were due the moment we registered for our classes. We’ve all failed.
The Dean's date is set at the start of the first semester, and is not reset to the start of the second semester.
Classes may be scheduled to start at either the regular or an alternative start date (see below).
In both cases, the last day to register for the course is also the last day to turn in assignments and/or the last day to submit grades.
Wait, actually we’re good! Just don’t submit any of your assignments or apply for an extension.
Any assignment submitted after the dean's date is essentially cancelled, unless a student reaches the deans' date by staying home or by filing an extension request with the chair.
Disclaimer: none of these are real rules. Please don’t slip a $10 bill in with each of your dean’s date papers.
—EW '24
7:03 PM EST:Poesis
As I chip away at my final Shakespeare essay of the term, I can’t help but be inspired by the poetry of The Bard.
Although…some passages of his plays might need an edit or two, ya know?
Please enjoy these “edits:” blackout poetry from the plays of Shakespeare. (Citation :) The Complete Pelican Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, Penguin, 2002.)
Poem 1: Subway Surfers
—Hamlet
Poem 2: $$
—Measure for Measure
Poem 3: World
—The Tempest (Introduction)
Poem 4: Strawberries
—The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
Poem 5: Untitled (Scandal)
—The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Poem 6: Hero
—Henry IV Part 1
—AA ‘23
6:24 PM EST: Addy Hall Coffee Club
Update: the Coffee Club is still out of whole milk, leaving us with oat and soya options. The good news: we have officially found a way to convert +5,000 undergrads to veganism.
- AB'26
5:27 PM EST: Whitman Dhall
Tigers: here we are. The Day of all Deans, the Dean-est of Deadlines. It's Dean's Date Fall 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZE9gVF1QbA
And here at the University Press Club, rather than methodically working through our deadlines, we are here to help distract you from yours! Courtesy of: the Dean's Date Live Blog.
Before we continue... we know it's last minute, but... could you PLEASE!!!?!?!??! HELP US WITH OUR SENIOR THESIS SURVEY?? It'll take 2 minutes and you'll be entered into a drawing for a $100 Amazon gift card!!*
*There will not be a gift card.
You can do this, Tigers! 24 hours to go!
—AA '23