News

EEB professor Levin, Artin ’55 awarded National Medal of Science

EEB professor Levin, Artin ’55 awarded National Medal of Science

Myrial Holbrook

Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Simon Levinwill receive a National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony in January. The National Medal of Science is the highest presidential honor bestowed upon individuals in science and engineering who have contributed to knowledge in the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, behavioral and social sciences, and engineering. Chair of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science Judith Kimble could not be reached for comment. Professor of ecology and evolutionary biologyDaniel Rubenstein said that Levin’s work involves trying to understand patterns in nature and how they come to be.

NEWS | 12/29/2015

Princeton public schools adopt policy regarding transgender, gender non-conforming students

Jessica Li

The Princeton Joint Unified School District adopted a uniform code outlining the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students after a unanimous vote by the Board of Education last week, Vice President of the Board of Education Patrick Sullivan said. The code has taken immediate effect after the board’s vote, and will affect approximately 3,500 students from four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. Sullivan noted that the new policy establishes a unified protocol for staff members and students that allows choice in pronoun preference and use of bathroom, locker room and other public facilities.

NEWS | 12/24/2015

USG reforms referendum rules to streamline process

Paul Phillips

The Undergraduate Student Government implemented reforms lastSundayto make the referendum process more organized and to allow more student discussion and dialogue. USG president Ella Cheng ’16 explained that the reforms include a rule that referenda can only be sent out during an election cycle and must be signed by 10 percent of the student body in order to appear on the ballot. Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. She also explained that referendum sponsors must send the referendum to the USG five weeks before the election period.

NEWS | 12/17/2015

Ivy Club to participate in multi-club Bicker in the spring

Paul Phillips

Ivy Club will join the multi-club Bicker system starting in the coming spring, Ivy president Eliza Mott ’16 said. The multi-club Bicker process gives students the option of bickering two of the Bicker clubs at the same time, ranking their first and second choices.

NEWS | 12/17/2015

U. to consider offering non-credit ASL course next semester

De Vann Sago

The University might offer a non-credit American Sign Language course as early as this coming spring, Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said. The course would not be recognized as an official University course. Dunne explained that plans for the course came about when he met with members of the Princeton University American Sign Language Club and brainstormed how the course could be offered. “We do believe there’s a student interest here that we could meet and give people the opportunity to learn more about ASL and the Deaf community,” Dunne said. He said the first step in the process will be finding a lecturer to instruct the class, but did not provide further details. Colin Lualdi ’17, president of PUASL, said that when he first arrived at the University, there was nothing related to ASL on campus.

NEWS | 12/17/2015

Students at Princeton Theological Seminary write petition opposing anti-Muslim rhetoric

Hannah Waxman

Forty-three Princeton Theological Seminary students wrote and signed an open letter petition denouncing Liberty University President Jerry Falwell’s call to violent action against Muslims on Dec.8. “If more good people had conceal-carry permits then we could end those Muslims before they walk in and kill,” Falwell said during a Dec.

NEWS | 12/17/2015

Cruz ’92 surpasses Trump in Iowa polls, Christie gains support in N.H.

Annie Yang

U.S. Senator from Texas Ted Cruz ’92 has surged in the Iowa polls for the 2016 Republican presidential primary, while New Jersey governor and ex officio University Trustee Chris Christie is polling much lower. According to the Des Moines Register, Cruz made a 21 percentage-point increase in the Iowa polls since October 22, making him the lead among Republican candidates.

NEWS | 12/17/2015

Panel discusses free speech, discrimination in the context of BJL protests

Jessica Li

The relationship between the issue of free speech and the issue of combating discrimination is a complicated one, panelists said in a discussion hosted by The Daily Princetonian on Wednesday.The panel featured Joanna Anyanwu ’15 GS from the Black Justice League, Samantha Harris ’99 of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Joshua Leifer ’17 from The Princeton Progressive and Peter Singer, professor in the Center for Human Values.Harris initiated the conversation by noting that increasing calls of censorship from students are detrimental to unlearning prejudice.“In many ways, the highly visible student protests around the country are a sign of the robustness of free speech around the country,” she said, adding that she is disappointed to see student protestors issue demands that undermined the same rights that made free speech possible.Singer said he agreed with Harris, and that if we prohibit alternative viewpoints, the truth will simply become a matter of dogma instead of a living truth that we constantly have to think about.“The danger that we face today is that we are all going to agree on something or won’t have contrary opinions expressed because they seem too politically incorrect to be expressed,” Singer said.Leifer, however, noted that controversies over the limits of “free speech” are not at the core of ongoing debates.

NEWS | 12/16/2015

Seniors Cen, Ude named Sachs Scholars

Paul Phillips

Sarah Cen ’16 andOgemdi Ude ’16 have been named the recipients of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship.Cen, who is majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering, will pursue a master’s in engineering science as a Sachs Scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, while Ude, who is majoring in English, will spend a year as a Sachs Global Scholar studying Indigenous Australian physical theater in Melbourne, Australia.Cen is a former staff writer and web editor for the Daily Princetonian.Matthew Stewart ’85, an adviser for the Sachs Scholarship, said that the Sachs Scholarship at Worcester College is intended for two years of graduate study and a degree at Worcester College, while the Global Scholarship was intended as an option for students to spend a year abroad and devise a learning project of their own that might not fit into formal categories of pursuing a degree.Stewart explained that former Sachs Scholars and friends of the association conduct the interviews and read the applications for the Sachs Scholarship.

NEWS | 12/16/2015

MASJID launches anti-Islamophobia campaign

Marcia Brown

A campus-wide anti-Islamophobia campaign by the student group Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and Individual Dignity will begin soon. MASJID, which formed last year in response to anti-Muslim sentiment at the University and across the country, announced the campaign at an open town hall meeting last Friday. Around 20 people attended the meeting, according to Farah Amjad ’16, one of the founders of MASJID.

NEWS | 12/16/2015

U. admits 18.6 percent of early applicants

Jessica Li

The University admitted 785 students from a pool of 4,229 candidates for the class of 2020 through the single-choice early action program, representing the largest number of early-admits in the University’s recent history, according to University Dean of Admissions Janet Rapelye. This figure represents an 18.6 percent acceptance rate.

NEWS | 12/16/2015

Cruz ’92, Christie debate terrorism, foreign policy at last Republican debate

Paul Phillips

President Barack Obama has done an inadequate job combating the ISIS terrorist threat and if they were to be elected president, they would be much more effective, both Texas Senator Ted Cruz ’92 and New Jersey governor Chris Christie argued in a Tuesday republican debate focused on the terrorist threat. “If I am President, we will hunt down and kill the terrorists,” Cruz said. Christie said that the basic responsibility of the President is to protect its people and that Obama has not been doing that. Christie is an ex officio trustee of the University. Cruz also said that Obama and Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have not been sufficiently willing to fight against terrorism.

NEWS | 12/15/2015

U. task force holds discussions on distribution requirements

Maya Wesby

The University’s Task Force on General Education held three discussions with students last week about concerns regarding distribution requirements.Elizabeth Colagiuri, Deputy Dean of the College and member of the Task Force on General Education, saidthe discussions were centered on the goals of an undergraduate education at the University and what core values and lessons students should be equipped with by the time they graduate.Colagiuri noted that the Task Force hopes to give a report on its findings to the University administration by next fall.“At a high level, ideally, what should every Princeton student take away from their education?

NEWS | 12/15/2015

Number of low-income students at U. has increased since 2008

Andrew Brazer Drew

While the proportion of low-income high school graduates enrolling in two- and four-year institutions has experienced a significant drop since the economic downturn of 2008, the University’s low-income student enrollment has increased over the past seven years.According to U.S.

NEWS | 12/15/2015

U. psychology department creates 3 new labs

Myrial Holbrook

The psychology department at the University opened three new research laboratories in computational neuroscience, social neuroscience and developmental psychology in the past two years. Two of the labs, the Princeton Baby Lab and the Princeton Social Neuroscience Lab, were created at the beginning of this academic year. The Princeton Baby Lab is a joint initiative created by psychology professors Casey Lew-Williams and Lauren Emberson. “I primarily study language in the first years of life, and she primarily studies perception in the first years of life, but all with the focus on understanding how learning gets off the ground in the first place,” Lew-Williams explained. Lew-Williams noted an increasing desire in the psychology department to have the perspective of developmental researchers to better understand the origins of how adults process information in memory, attention and social interaction led the University to hire experts in the field. Psychology department chair Elizabeth Gould deferred comment to assistant chair Nicholas Turk-Browne.

NEWS | 12/15/2015

CPUC discusses faculty, graduate student diversification, entrepreneurship

Samvida Venkatesh

The Council of the Princeton University Community discussed diversifying the faculty and graduate student bodies through creation of new fellowship programs and better recruitment at its monthly meeting on Monday.Dean of the Faculty Deborah Prentice said that the solution to increasing diversity lies in understanding the “pipeline” problem, which means that while 17 percent of the undergraduate population is made up of underrepresented minorities, this number falls to 7 percent in the graduate student population and almost completely disappears at higher levels, including postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty and senior faculty.Increasing faculty diversity will require a broad-based approach that tackles all stages of the pipeline, she said.Citing the Report of the Trustee Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity in 2013, Prentice noted the University has overall become more diverse since 1980, but has very little growth in the percentage of certain underrepresented minorities — blacks and Hispanics.The report recommends faculty initiatives, which include refining the search process to yield more female and underrepresented minority candidates by creating watch-lists and tracking potential candidates, and improving recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented minorities by creating family-friendly initiatives and implementing cluster hiring, she added.“Historically, we have not paid much attention to [postdoctoral fellows] because they have been squirreled away in their labs across various parts of the campus, so much of the work lies in strengthening the sense of community amongst the post-docs,” Prentice said.Other initiatives include the development of a new competitive, honorific fellowship program to attract the top women and underrepresented minority candidates, she said.As for initiatives at the graduate student level, the work mainly lies in improving the selection process and creating bridge-year and summer programs to attract students who might not have otherwise considered graduate school, Prentice added.“The decision to hire a certain faculty finally lies with the academic department itself, so there needs to be strong leadership from faculty that are already in the department,” Prentice explained.She noted the molecular biology department of the University as a "best practice" case, where underrepresented minority populations in the graduate school went from 4 percent in 2008 to 24 percent in 2012, within the four years of the implementation of diversity programs.Prentice explained in the report's notes that the partnership between academic departments, administration and the Board of Trustees is key to setting up diversity and inclusion initiatives.

NEWS | 12/14/2015

Princeton one of 84 cities to sign amicus brief

Katherine Oh

Princeton is among 84 cities and counties nationwide to sign an amicus brief, put together by the Cities United for Immigration Action, that supports President Barack Obama’s Executive Order on immigration and opposes a Texas court decision that has put a hold on the executive action on a national level, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said.Obama’s executive order gives undocumented people, including people with children who are U.S.

NEWS | 12/14/2015

U. trustees commission committee to study Wilson's legacy

Abhiram Karuppur

The University Board of Trustees has commissioned a special committee to study the legacy of former University President Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, and determine whether or not the Wilson School and Wilson College should be renamed, in light of demonstrations by the Black Justice League, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said.Eisgruber explained that the committee has created a website to collect observations and opinions about Wilson, and to share these findings with the greater University community.

NEWS | 12/14/2015

CST StudioLab to open for the spring semester

Betty Liu

StudioLab, a new space developed by the University's Council on Science and Technology, will open in late December, according to Naomi Leonard, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.The Council on Science and Technology supports intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, according to its website.The space is being createdin order to bring people together and broaden connections between the STEM fields and the arts, humanities and social sciences.The StudioLab will be located on the B level of Fine Hall.

NEWS | 12/14/2015

Speakers examine discrimination at U. in 'Reach in, Teach in' colloquium

Linda Song

While the University has come a long way since its beginning in terms of addressing issues of discrimination on campus, the initial bar was very low and it still has a long way to go, panelists and members of the community said in a public colloquium Saturday hosted by the Black Justice League.The event featured panels and presentations by African American studies professors Joshua Guild, Eddie Glaude, Ruha Benjamin, Tera Hunter and Cornel West GS '80.Guild and Wilglory Tanjong ’18 began with a joint presentation, titled “Why Here?

NEWS | 12/13/2015

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