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Alumni in education discuss issues in public school system

Alumni in education discuss issues in public school system

Paul Phillips

The American public system is in crisis, alumni panelists saidon Friday. Panelists included Alan Safran ’80, president and chair of the board at SAGA Innovations; Anne Herr ’85, director of school quality at Friends of Choice in Urban Schools; Dan Lips ’00, vice president for policy at the Goldwater Institute; and Matt Westmoreland ’10, a member of the Atlanta Board of Education. The discussion was moderated by Christopher Campisano, director of the Program in Teacher Preparation at the University.

NEWS | 05/29/2015

Reunions panel discusses problems with U.S. healthcare system

Nahrie Chung

The U.S. health care system demonstrates shortcomings in basing premiums on an individual’s health, economics professor Uwe Reinhardt said at apanelon Friday.

NEWS | 05/29/2015

Akinlawon '15 elected Young Alumni Trustee, to serve four-year term

Jessica Li

Tumi Akinlawon ’15 won the Young Alumni Trustee election and will begin a four-year term as a University trustee on July 1, the University announced on Friday.The general election ran from April 28 to May 20, and only members of the Class of 2015 could run for the position.Shawon Jackson ’15 and Hannah Rosenthal ’15 also made it to the runoff election.

NEWS | 05/29/2015

Q&A: David Petraeus GS '85 GS '87

Christina Vosbikian

David Petraeus GS '85 GS '87, decorated war general and former head of the CIA, has led a prominent career in public service and government.

NEWS | 05/29/2015

Architecture School appoints new dean

Kristin Qian

Monica Ponce de Leon will be the next dean of the School of Architecture, the University announced Wednesday afternoon. Ponce de Leon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Her predecessor, professor Alejandro Zaera-Polo, resigned in October 2014after two years as dean. Ponce de Leon will begin her position on Jan.

NEWS | 05/27/2015

Majority votes for divestment in GSG poll

Jessica Li

In an opinion poll conducted by the Graduate Student Government earlier this month, 58.8 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of divestment. The graduate students called on the University to“divest from multinational corporations that maintain the infrastructure of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, facilitate Israel’s and Egypt’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or facilitate state repression against Palestinians by Israeli, Egyptian, and Palestinian Authority security forces, until these corporations cease such activities.” Undergraduate students had previously voted against divestment by a small margin on a similar referendum. When combined together, the results of the undergraduate student referendum, in which 965 students voted in favor, and the graduate student poll, in which 417 students voted in favor, represent a 50.4 percent favorable view of divestment. “We see the combined favorability of divestment among undergraduate and graduate students as a mandate to continue pushing forward with the effort,” Kelly Roache GS, co-chair of the Princeton Divests Coalition, said.

NEWS | 05/24/2015

Updated: Nash GS '50 and wife killed in taxi accident

Zaynab Zaman

University mathematician John Nash GS ’50 and his wife Alicia Nash died Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike, according to Sergeant Gregory Williams of the New Jersey State Police.

NEWS | 05/24/2015

Special Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion releases recommendations on budget allocations

Nahrie Chung

After months of gathering community input and conducting discussions regarding campus climate, the Special Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion released its recommendations to the University on Wednesday. The task force was formed in December 2014 under the Council of the Princeton University Community, when University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 called upon the CPUC Executive Committee to assess the current campus climate and develop recommendations to create a safer, more inclusive community. His charge came in response to students who had openly expressed dismay over the events of Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y., uncovering related questions of racial discrimination and bias prevalent in University students’ own experiences, according to the Dec.

NEWS | 05/23/2015

U. revises yield, expects to draw from wait list

Jessica Li

The University adjusted its yield rate to 68.6 percent on Friday after 14 admitted students deferred their admission to the Class of 2020, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said.The yield rate is no longer a record yield rate.

NEWS | 05/16/2015

News & Notes: Fire in U. dormitory caused by candle

Daily Princetonian Staff

The University determined the cause of a small fire at Scully Hall on Saturday morning to be a candle, University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said on Monday. The fire was accidental, he added.

NEWS | 05/11/2015

News & Notes: Dartmouth fraternity banned from campus after losing appeal

Daily Princetonian Staff

After being accused ofbranding its pledges in the buttocks with hot pokers, the Dartmouth fraternity that inspired the movie “Animal House” lost a lawsuit appeal and can no longer stay on campus, according to the New York Daily News. Dartmouth administrators announced the decision on Friday. Alpha Delta had been previously disciplined for other misconduct, including hazing and illegal distribution of substances to minors. Alpha Delta is one among many fraternity houses that have been closed in the backdrop of increasing national dialogue about sexual misconduct, racism and sexism on college campuses. Last week, a fraternity at the University of Florida was shut down following allegations of intoxicated members yelling and spitting on disabled veterans.

NEWS | 05/10/2015

Municipality to consider upgrading town parking meters

Olivia Wicki

Municipality authorities are looking into replacing current individual parking meters with newer multi-space parking meters in the downtown area, the Princeton Packet reported. Potential plans include new parking meter implementation near University Place around McCarter Theatre. Currently, the central business district has single meters for each parking spot and each one uses coins or "smart cards," that can be loaded up with money to pay, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said. The newer parking meter model would employ individual pay stations for multiple parking spots and would also allow individuals to pay using credit cards or their smartphones. “Having something that interacts with smartphones is really appealing,” Lempert explained. As of September, the municipality has been conducting a trial run with the newer parking meters in the Dinky Station parking lot, Lempert said. Municipality evaluations of the technology have been positive, but some obstacles, including cooperation with American Express, still need to be addressed before municipality-wide implementation of the technology can be achieved, Lempert noted. Lempert added that a number of towns, such as DuBois in Pennslyvania, that have similar downtown geographies to Princeton have implemented the newer parking meter technologies. Currently, there are approximately 1,100 parking meters in Princeton.

NEWS | 05/10/2015

Q&A: Lisa Jackson GS ’86, 2015 Baccalaureate speaker

Christina Vosbikian

Lisa Jackson GS ’86, a University trustee and the 2015 Baccalaureate speaker, has been the vice president of environmental initiatives at Apple Inc. since 2013, and served as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2013.

NEWS | 05/10/2015

Ng '16, Xiao '16 found student-run investment fund

Zoe Toledo

Mitchell Ng ’16 and Edward Xiao ’16 founded a student-run investment fund that currently manages $150,000 in assets.The investment fund, Thessalus Capital Management, focuses on exchange-traded funds and large market cap stocks to minimize risk and maintain a stable portfolio, Xiao said.“It’s about balancing risk, some high risk and high reward, as well as long-term stable investments, such as healthcare and technology, as well as [exchange-traded funds],” Ng explained.Ng said the two main goals of the fund are to generate positive returns and to beat the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.If the fund is successful, over time Thessalus will increase risk by incorporating long-short strategies similar to those of a hedge fund, Ng said, adding that Thessalus will provide seed funding for start-ups on campus.Seed funding is an early investment in a start-up that helps pay the initial costs of launching a company.Xiao said his team is not confining itself to any one sector.“We are doing what traditionally investment funds do, but at the same time we are taking on a portion that is somewhat like a venture capital business in that we are investing in very small companies like start-ups,” he said.Devansh Gupta ’16, the chief executive officer of Wolfpak & Pack Inc., will receive seed funding for his start-up from Thessalus management.Gupta's company, co-founded with Rutgers junior Felix Young, created a social networking app called Wolfpak that applies the anonymous social media concept of Yik Yak to photos and videos.

NEWS | 05/10/2015

USG holds last senate meeting of the academic year

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government senate held its last meeting of the semester on Saturday, in which it wrapped up projects and invited committee members for an end-of-the-year celebration afterward.At the beginning of the meeting, Honor Committee chair and U-councilor Dallas Nan ’16 introduced newly selected Honor Committee and Committee on Discipline members to the senate.“We had a very strong applicant pool.

NEWS | 05/10/2015

At 69.4 percent, Class of 2019 yield highest ever

Daily Princetonian Staff

The University’s yield for the Class of 2019 is 69.4 percent, according to University Media Relations Specialist Min Pullan. The yield is the highest in the University’s history. Of the 1,909 admitted students, 1,324 have committed to the University. This year's yield represents a 0.2 percentage point increase from last year’s yield of 69.2 percent. The University expects that over the course of the summer, the yield number will be reduced by 20-30 students because of “summer melt,” Pullan said.

NEWS | 05/08/2015

Legacy status remains a factor in admissions

Shriya Sekhsaria

An applicant's legacy status has gone from being an important factor in admissions to a factor that is given some consideration over the past decade, according to the University’s Common Data Set.All eight Ivy League universities now indicate in their Common Data Sets that legacy status is a factor that is considered during the admission process. “Every year we review our process.

NEWS | 05/07/2015

News and Notes: Columbia Teachers College employees vote to strike

Lorenzo Quiogue

Employees of Columbia’s Teachers College voted on April 29 to authorize a strike as a response to proposed cuts to their pension and health care plans, according toColumbia Daily Spectator. The employees, members of the United Auto Workers Local 2110 union, voted to authorize the strike by a 95 percent margin after three months of unsuccessful negotiations with Teachers College representatives. Employees held a rally in March to protest the proposed cuts, but claim that negotiations have not made any progress since then. Union president Maida Rosenstein said that the Teachers College administration proposed reducing health benefits, requiring employees to contribute to their premiums and pay higher deductibles.

NEWS | 05/07/2015

Social sciences now popular concentrations for premeds

Melissa Curtis

Although many premedical students at the University concentrate in the natural sciences, data shows that a growing number of students choose to major in social sciences instead.The past four years of premed students have seen 143 molecular biology concentrators, 76 ecology and evolutionary biology concentrators and 111 concentrators in the social sciences, including anthropology, history, psychology, sociology and the Wilson School, according toDirector of Health Professions Advising Kate Fukawa-Connelly.Premedical students are able to pursue any concentration at the University, regardless of its association to science, she said, adding that the most popularconcentration among premeds over the past four years has been molecular biology.Fukawa-Connelly said that graduates who entered medical school in the fall of 2014 represented a variety of concentrations.

NEWS | 05/07/2015

On wait-list, 86 undergrads to receive housing assignments in the summer

Do-Hyeong Myeong

When Christopher Cross ’18 saw his name on the last page of the room draw list for Whitman College, he knew the rooms would run out before his draw time.As of Wednesday, 86 undergraduate students have applied to the wait-list for the 2015-16 room draw, according to University Media Relations Specialist Min Pullan.

NEWS | 05/07/2015

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