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Most students comfortable with new rifle policy, survey finds

Most students comfortable with new rifle policy, survey finds

Christina Vosbikian

A majority of students, faculty and staff on campus are comfortable with sworn Department of Public Safety officers having access to rifles during an emergency, according to a survey conducted by the Daily Princetonian.The survey respondents do not necessarily feel safer now than before knowing that the officers will be able to access these rifles, though.DPS Executive Director Paul Ominsky announced on Monday at the Council of the Princeton University Community meeting that sworn DPS officers will soon have access to rifles in case of campus emergencies involving active shooters or armed suspects.The survey received a total of 641 responses from graduate and undergraduate students, faculty and staff.

NEWS | 10/13/2015

Gillispie, professor emeritus, renowned historian dies at 97

Alfred Burton

Charles Gillispie, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus died on Oct. 6.

NEWS | 10/13/2015

Through the Decade: the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education

Annie Yang

Interest in entrepreneurship among students at the University has grown dramatically, and the Keller Center has responded to this by providing opportunities to explore these interests and pursue innovative ideas beyond traditional settings in the classroom and laboratory, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science Vincent Poor GS ’77 said. The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education celebrated its tenthanniversary with a symposium on Tuesday featuring keynote speaker Tom Leighton ’78, who is an applied math professor atMIT turned CEO of Akamai, and an introduction by University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83. Director of the Keller Center Mung Chiang said that innovating education has been a core mission of the Keller Center since its founding in 2005.

NEWS | 10/13/2015

Former Representative Frank lectures on U.S. government's "vicious cycle"

Former Representative Frank lectures on U.S. government's "vicious cycle"

Tea Wimer

A “vicious cycle” plagues America’s ineffective government by causing frustrated Americans to vote based on empty promises for candidates who still do not serve the people, retired U.S.

NEWS | 10/12/2015

News & Notes: Intoxicated driver hits cyclist on Alexander street

Daily Princetonian Staff

A Hamilton Township woman was charged with driving while intoxicated after allegedly hitting a cyclist on Alexander Street on Friday, according to a report by the Princeton Patch.Stephanie Mulryne, 23, was allegedly driving north on Alexander Street toward Dickinson Street in a 1998 Ford Windsor when she hit Arthur Diringer, 66, of Princeton, as he was riding his bicycle along Alexander Street at 1:35 a.m.

NEWS | 10/12/2015

CPUC discusses emergency response, sexual misconduct policy updates

Andrew Brazer Drew

The Council of the Princeton University Community discussed university policy updates with regard to emergency response and preparedness, sexual misconduct and student diversity on campus at its meeting on Monday.Executive Director of Public Safety Paul Ominsky announced that sworn Department of Public Safety officers will soon have access to rifles in the event of emergency situations on campus.Though the University had been discussing the policy for several months, the announcement comes soon after shootings at Texas Southern University in Houston, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore.In response to data from the “We Speak: Attitudes on Sexual Misconduct at Princeton” survey, Professor Deborah Nord addressed the issues surrounding sexual misconduct at Princeton.The “We Speak” report, released last month, found that approximately one in three undergraduate women have experienced inappropriate sexual assault behavior.The Council said administrators should consider the effects of bystander intervention and alcohol with regard to sexual assault.

NEWS | 10/12/2015

Updated: Public Safety to have access to rifles in emergencies

Andrew Brazer Drew

Sworn Department of Public Safety officers will have access to rifles in the event of emergency situations on campus, DPS Executive Director Paul Ominsky announced at the Council of the Princeton University Community meeting on Monday.“The national best practices for responding to an active shooter have evolved,” Ominsky said.

NEWS | 10/12/2015

Deaton wins Nobel Prize in economics

Paul Phillips

Angus Deaton, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Wilson School and the economics department at the University, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday.The prize is eight million Swedish krona, or about 977,000 U.S.

NEWS | 10/12/2015

Number of recent graduates in startups on the rise, finance careers remain steady

Shriya Sekhsaria

The number of University students pursuing careers in startups and technical services has increased substantially in the past decade, while participation in finance and insurance jobs has remained relatively steady, according to the Office of Career Services.The Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry has seen a 200 percent increase in alumni employees.

NEWS | 10/11/2015

News & Notes: Harvard launches teaching fellows program

Daily Princetonian Staff

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education has launched Harvard Teaching Fellows, a program intended to expose recently graduated students to a new model of teaching, the Harvard Crimson reported on Friday. Along with institutions like Yale, Brown, Stanford and the University of Texas, Harvard is seeking to provide prospective educators with an alternative to Teach for America. Teach for America was founded by Wendy Kopp '89 as part of her senior thesis. Harvard’s program hopes to provide more robust support for its teachers during and after deployment, an area critics have complained is lacking in TFA’s program. For example, while TFA has a six-week intensive training session for student teachers that has been criticized as overwhelming, HTF plans to begin preparing its students from the spring semester of their senior year and provide additional teacher preparation in the summer prior to deployment. Harvard president Drew Faust said that by launching the program Harvard could underscore the value of a teaching career while also giving excellent preparation for students.

NEWS | 10/11/2015

Center on Contemporary China launches, Beijing added as Global Seminar location

Andie Ayala

The University has launched the Center on Contemporary China, added Beijing as a destination for the Global Seminar Program and appointed professor Yu Xie jointly with the sociology department and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies as a result of a recent effort to gear courses and programs toward contemporary China, PIIRS director Mark Beissinger said.Beissinger said that the hope is that the appointment of Xie will invigorate student interest in the current issues of China, and will make the University one of the leading universities in research on contemporary Chinese society.He noted that while the University previously had a number of classes related to China under the Department of East Asian Studies, there was only one person in the social science department actually teaching about contemporary China.“It’s one of the most exciting things here to happen in the University, in terms of the study of contemporary China and it will be a transformative factor in terms of the opportunities available to students to study contemporary China,” Beissinger said about Xie’s appointment.Xie said that the study of China is a very contentious issue and that there is such an influx of information and opinions about the rapid development of China today, especially from foreign scholars.

NEWS | 10/11/2015

USG senate introduces Dean of College, discusses changing academic requirements

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government senate introduced Dean of the College Jill Dolan at its weekly meeting on Sunday afternoon.Dolan described the wide range of programs her office oversees, which includethe residential colleges, admissions, financial aid, the office of international programs, and the McGraw Center."It's quite a large operation.

NEWS | 10/11/2015

Zwicker runs for New Jersey state assembly

Kristin Qian

Andrew Zwicker, head of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Science Education Department, is running for New Jersey state assembly.The election takes place on Nov.

NEWS | 10/11/2015

News & Notes: Princeton Public Schools to start homework-free periods

Daily Princetonian Staff

Public schools in the Princeton area announced they will be implementing homework-free periods during a school board meeting last week, The Times of Trenton reported. The decision comes at a time when many other New Jersey schools are re-adjusting their homework requirements for students, through measures like homework-free weekends. Specifically, the Princeton plan includes a homework-free weekend once a semester, while also preventing teachers from assigning projects or tests right after a break. Princeton Superintendent Steve Cochrane ’81 explained that the homework-free periods would “provide our students with periods of time throughout the year when they can mentally step away from focusing on homework and projects and studying for tests.” In West Windsor-Plainsboro, no-homework nights received positive feedback from families and elementary and middle school teachers after the 2014-15 academic year, according to the Times. Cochrane also noted that the decision would hopefully “facilitate a district-wide discussion” about student homework load.

NEWS | 10/08/2015

Former U. postdoctoral researcher wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Jessica Li

Tomas Lindahl, who worked on his postdoctoral research at the University, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for mapping how cells repair DNA. Lindahl is currently a researcher at the Francis Crick Institute and Clare Hall Laboratory in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.He won the award alongside Duke University School of Medicine professor Paul Modrich and University of Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Aziz Sancar. While at the University in the mid-1960s, Lindahl discovered that RNA, a macromolecule closely related to DNA, is vulnerable to heat damage.

NEWS | 10/08/2015

Wilson School professor Mullen lectures on U.S. strategy

Maya Wesby

Wilson School professor Admiral Michael Mullen spoke on the values that the United States should have when interacting with other countries, whether for war or diplomacy, in a Thursday lecture.Mullen, a retired U.S.

NEWS | 10/08/2015

Students petition to open new food co-op

Jessica Li

More than 300 students have signed a petitionsince it was launched last week to open a new food co-op on campus, according toVidushi Sharma ’17, co-organizer of the petition. Sharma said that she and a few others launched the petition after seeing a shortage of accommodations for an overwhelming demand.

NEWS | 10/08/2015

NJ Transit’s fare hike put into effect, draws criticism

Nahrie Chung

New Jersey Transit has increased bus and rail fares across the state an average of 9 percent since Oct.

NEWS | 10/08/2015

News & Notes: Harvard endowment returns ‘concerning,’ says Faust

Daily Princetonian Staff

The performance of Harvard’s endowment in fiscal year 2015 is troubling, Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust told the Harvard Crimson on Tuesday. Although the fund remains the largest in the world and increased by 5.8 percent to reach $37.6 billion, Harvard's percentage gain was lower than all other Ivies who reported results except for Brown. Cornell and Columbia have not yet released figures. “We obviously did not do as well as MIT and Yale and others, and that of course is a concern, and it's very much a concern for Stephen Blyth, who has been making significant changes,” Faust said. Blyth has been president of the Harvard Management Company since January, according to the International Business Times. Harvard's endowment returns were the worst among the Ivy League from fiscal years 2009 to 2013, under then-Harvard Management Company CEO Jane L.

NEWS | 10/07/2015

In Anscombe lecture, Scruton discusses sexuality in academia

Charles Kyungchan Min

Today’s conception of sexuality is flawed in having non-reproductive aims, philosopher and public commentator Roger Scruton said at a lecture on Wednesday.“[Modern understanding of sexuality] cuts the future generation out of the deal,” he argued, criticizing the liberalization of intimate relations.Scruton noted that sex must be more than a physical act.“If sexual desire was merely a desire for sensation in the private parts … then rape would be as bad as being spat on.

NEWS | 10/07/2015

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