News

Edward Snowden discusses ethics of surveillance and whistle-blowing with Gellman '82

Edward Snowden discusses ethics of surveillance and whistle-blowing with Gellman '82

Kristin Qian

Edward Snowden and journalist Barton Gellman ’82 discussed mass surveillance and privacy in a public conversation on campus on Saturday morning.Snowden, a former contractor at the National Security Agency who disclosed information about the NSA’s surveillance practices to Gellman and Glenn Greenwald, is in exile in Russia and joined the discussion via a live telecast.Since the disclosure of this information two years ago, “we’ve learned a lot that we didn’t know,” Gellman said.The interview-styled conversation between Gellman and Snowden focused on questions of cryptography, mass surveillance and the ethics of whistle-blowing.“[The problem is that information is] increasingly getting into the hands of average citizens,” Snowden said.“Culturally, the government has adopted a worldview that if it is out there, we should know it, and we should have access to it."Governments today have more investigative power than in the past, Snowden said.

NEWS | 05/02/2015

Third woman to chair an eating club graduate board to assume position during Reunions

Melissa Curtis

Caroline McCarthy ’06 will become the graduate board chair of Cloister Inn during Reunions, becoming the third woman ever to chair an eating club’s graduate board. She will be the University’s only female eating club graduate board chair. She previously served as a member of the club's graduate board. The first female graduate board chair was Kimberly Noble ’80, at Elm Club, which no longer exists as its own club, and the second wasAnne Lester Trevisan ’86 of Campus Club, whichhas not been an eating club since 2005. Noble and Trevisan did not respond to requests for comment. McCarthy said she is aware of the low number of female chairs historically, but does not feel uncomfortable by being outnumbered in terms of gender.

NEWS | 05/02/2015

Result of divestment referendum raises questions over campaign financing and biased language

Cassidy Tucker

The referendum to divest from contracting with multinational companies with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt was the most heated and contested referendum the University has seen in the 21st century, Undergraduate Student Government chief elections manager Grant Golub ’17 said. Both USG and student activist organizations have been riled by controversy over campaign financing and allegations of biased referendum language,even though the referendum has officially concluded.

NEWS | 05/02/2015

News & Notes: Clinton addresses criminal justice at Columbia

Daily Princetonian Staff

In her first major speech since announcing her presidential candidacy, Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the growing issue of mass incarceration and criminal justice at Columbia’s David N.

NEWS | 04/30/2015

Schmidt ’76 discusses machine intelligence, technological advancement, education

Jessica Li

Technology will transform societies in big and small ways, but harnessing the distinctive intelligences of men and computers is key to materializing a better future, explained Eric Schmidt ’76, executive chairman of Google, at a lecture on Thursday. We are in the era of apps, Schmidt said, citing whimsical mobile gadgets like Am I Going Down, Swearport, and SitorSquat that calculates odds of a flight crashing, translates curse words into foreign languages and locates proximal bathrooms in all corners of the world, respectively. With apps capable of predicting tomorrow’s hair conditions and automating text messages, it is foreseeable that in the near future, an intelligent alarm clock will be able to tell the user that he or she can snooze for eighteen more minutes because his or her boss is running late. He said that credit for the blossoming of modern technology must be due in partto Vannevar Bush, a lifelong engineer who advocated for increased science research funding in the postwar era, ultimately leading to the creation of the National Science Foundation. With this stimulus, the government and private sectors collaborated together and witnessed unprecedented progress for the military and the public, Schmidt explained, fostering industries that are still growing very quickly. But perhaps they are changing too quickly, he said, noting that while many people have just begun making websites, the current generation has already moved on to mobile apps. The impacts of technological advancement are far-flung across disciplines, he said. Improvements to photovoltaic cells, carbon dioxide processing and even the realization of automated driving are within our reach, Schmidt said.

NEWS | 04/30/2015

U. hires Sanskrit lecturer

Zoe Toledo

The University has hired Nataliya Yanchevskaya, an adjunct lecturer at Moravian College, to teach Sanskrit in the fall.The main qualification for the position was a very high level of training in the Sanskrit language, Jonathan Gold, chair of the search committee and professor of religion, said.

NEWS | 04/30/2015

U. sees increase in delivery services

Kristin Qian

The University has recently seen a rise in the number of delivery services marketed to students, including ontheway, Princeton Octopus and Delivia. Delivia is an app that was developedto create a crowdsourced system in which students on campus can be both deliverers and customers, according to Max Shatkhin ’15, who created the app with Juan Albanell ’15. The app started as a class project idea last semester for ELE 381: Networks: Friends, Money and Bytes, Albanell said, andwas launched on March 22. Albanell explained thatit is inefficient for a person go to a store and go back to his or her room without knowing that, perhaps, someone living two doors down also wanted something from that store. “We had a lot of friends who either were in Forbes or just in their rooms, and they were stuck and would say, ‘I would pay someone to deliver to me right now,’ ” Shatkhin said. With Delivia, people can input orders into an order feed, and people en route can get paid to deliver, Shatkinsaid.

NEWS | 04/30/2015

Appeal by U. to dismiss tax lawsuit declined

Jessica Li

The Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court declined to hear an appeal earlier this month from the University regarding its tax-exempt status.The University had motioned earlier to dismiss a lawsuit that challenged this status, but was ruled against by the Morris County Tax Court.Four town residents are challenging the University’s receipt of a property tax exemption from the town in 2014.

NEWS | 04/30/2015

News & Notes: Newark Airport AirTrain system requires expensive reconstruction

Daily Princetonian Staff

Major Newark transportation systems are calling for serious reparations, NJ Media for Advance NJ.com reported. The Newark Liberty International Airport AirTrain system requires over a billion dollars in reconstruction, the Port Authority Board of Commissioners announced. The current AirTrain system is 19 years old, and critics have condemned its slowness, lack of reliability and general wear and tear.

NEWS | 04/29/2015

Rosenthal '15 reflects on Club Nom success, future coordinators look to make changes next year

Christina Vosbikian

There have been 21 Club Nom events over the course of the past two years, founder and organizer Hannah Rosenthal ’15 said. Although not all eating clubs signed on to be involved with Club Nom last year, all 11 clubs joinedthis year, Rosenthal said. Club Nom is part of the Ask Big Questions initiative. Marni Blitz, associate director of the CJL, is the adviser of Club Nom along with Tennille Haynes, Director of the Fields Center. “[Club Nom] was a very low-barrier way to have important conversations,” Blitz said.“It was something that we were extremely supportive of from the very beginning.

NEWS | 04/29/2015

Report on Latino and Asian American studies finds room for change

Annie Yang

The University should provide the American Studies program with the necessary faculty hiring capacity to sustain the development of programs in Latino Studies and Asian American Studies, an April 3 report by the Asian American Student Association and Princeton Latinos y Amigosargued.The report highlighted the current state of ethnic studies at the University.

NEWS | 04/29/2015

Petraeus GS '85 pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge

Petraeus GS '85 pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge

Jessica Li

Retired four-star U.S.

NEWS | 04/29/2015

News & Notes: New Jersey First Lady leaves job on Wall Street

Daily Princetonian Staff

New Jersey First Lady Mary Christie, wife of governor Chris Christie, said that her decision to leave her job as managing directorat the Wall Street investment firmAngelo, Gordon & Co. is not an indication that her husband has committed to a 2016 presidential campaign, NJ.comreported. A statement released by a spokesperson for the governor’s office said that Mary Christie had decided to take a hiatus from her work to spend more time with her family and young children. She said in an April 16 interview with NBC that she was not sure if she would take a leave of absence from her job if her husband were to seek the presidency. She also noted that the governor has not made up his mind on whether to run for president in 2016. Mary Christie has accompanied her husband on recent ostensible campaign trips, including a trip to New Hampshire as well as fundraisers for his leadership political action committee.

NEWS | 04/28/2015

GSG forum debates divestment in preparation for graduate student referendum

Katherine Oh

The Graduate Student Government helda forum on Tuesday to discuss the divestment referendum that the graduate student body will vote on from Wednesday through Friday.Similar to the referendum that the undergraduate study body voted on last week, the graduate students' referendum calls upon the trustees of the University and the Princeton University Investment Company 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.”The University should not benefit from the conflict in Israel, Kelly Roache GS said on behalf of Princeton Divests. “The University’s current investment practices are inimical to Palestinian human rights and Palestinian dignity, and it is incumbent upon us to end our complicity in that action and stand up,” Roache said. While multinational corporations might participate in the Israeli conflict because of foreseeable profit, their involvement causes the average Palestinian to suffer, Alexander Berg GS, another representative of Princeton Divests, said. Though students cannot know exactly which companies the University’s endowment is invested in, there are several known “economic ties” to companies like Caterpillar and Motorola, Roache said.

NEWS | 04/28/2015

DPS arrests man after pursuit in Friend Center

Ruby Shao

The Department of Public Safety charged a 30-year-old man with aggravated assault and resisting arrest on Tuesday afternoon. Reginald Murph, of Teaneck, N.J., was arrested after a pursuit that began in the Friend Center at approximately 1:30 p.m., Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Casey DeBlasio said. Public Safety detective Michele Aversa first saw Murph on the third floor of the Engineering Library, and recognized him because she had previously charged him for theft and unauthorized use of credit cards stolen from the Engineering Library, according to DeBlasio. DeBlasio added that Aversa knew of active warrants for Murph from South Plainfield and New Brunswick municipal courts. The Department of Public Safety deferred comment to theMercer County Prosecutor’s Office. After noticing Aversa, Murph exited the Friend Center and confronted a University patrolman waiting outside.

NEWS | 04/28/2015

U. sexual misconduct climate survey sees over 50 percent response rate

Christina Vosbikian

Fifty-two percent of undergraduate students and 53 percent of graduate students responded to the University’s sexual misconduct climate survey, according to Vice Provost for Institutional Diversity and Equity Michele Minter. The University’s goal was a 50 percent response rate, Minter added. “This is a very high response rate for a survey of its type, so we are very pleased,” Minter said.

NEWS | 04/28/2015

Office of Sustainability, environmental groups discuss plastic water bottle use on campus

Melissa Curtis

The Office of Sustainability sent a survey to students last week about the use of reusable and plastic water bottles on campus and askedif the University should continue to sell plastic water bottles. The survey, which also asked if anything prevents students from using refillable bottles, was intended to improve the Office of Sustainability’s “Drink Local” campaign, according to Shana Weber, the director of the Office of Sustainability. The "Drink Local" campaign provides tall spouts attached to water fountains around campus to fill water bottles. Weber declined to say whether there was a possibility of eliminating the sale of plastic bottles on campus, although she said that the Office of Sustainability is trying to change the University’s approach to water distribution. “The Office of Sustainability is working in partnership with students, [Campus] Dining and the psychology department to develop a research-based approach that should significantly reduce bottled water usage on campus,” Weber said.

NEWS | 04/28/2015

Semenov ’15 named valedictorian, Hannan ’15 named Latin salutatorian

Christina Vosbikian

Misha Semenov ’15 was named the valedictorian of the Class of 2015 on Monday, and Neil Hannan ’15 was named the Latin salutatorian. The valedictorian and salutatorian were announced at the faculty meeting on Monday, when Dean of the College Valerie Smith announced that the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing had recommended Semenov and Hannan for the respective honors. Semenov, a native of San Francisco, is concentrating in architecture with certificates in urban studies and translation and intercultural communication. For his senior thesis, advised by Dean Stanley Allen of the architecture department and history professor Alison Isenberg, Semenov studied housing projects designed to accommodate residents’ expansion, and examined how more flexible, rule-based architecture can help fulfill larger social goals. “Professor Isenberg describes him as the most talented undergraduate she has encountered in 20 years of teaching,” Smith said. Hannan is a classics major pursuing a certificate in finance.

NEWS | 04/27/2015

Princeton Prize Symposium in Race Relations honors 27 high school students

Cassidy Tucker

The eighth annual Princeton Prize Symposium in Race Relations honored 27 high school students representing 25 different regions across the United States. The students were flown into campus free of charge after winning the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, an award that recognizes and reinforces the commendable work of high school students who have promoted better race relations within their schools or communities.

NEWS | 04/27/2015

Graduate students to vote on divestment referendum this week

Zoe Toledo

Less than a week after undergraduate students voted against a divestment referendum, graduate students will have the opportunity to vote on a similar referendum this week from Wednesday through Friday, May 8.The referendum calls upon the trustees of the University and the Princeton University Investment Company 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.”Graduate Student Government president Akshay Mehra GS said that Kelly Roache GS first approached the GSG at the April 8 graduate student assembly proposing a divestment referendum for graduate students. Roache said it is important for graduate students to weigh in on meaningful issues of conscience."In one sense, [the GSG divestment referendum] was an act to ensure our full student community was included in the decision-making process," she said.Roache noted that the Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community has asked to see a consensus and sustained student interest regarding divestment.The results of the upcoming GSG divestment referendum will be used by University planners, mainly individuals on the Resources Committee, trustees and PRINCO, “to serve as a barometer for graduate student interest and opinions on divestment," Roache said.The referendum is nonbinding, Roache said, adding that it was never an option for the USG or GSG to bind the CPUC, PRINCO, or the trustees to act.

NEWS | 04/27/2015

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