Evan Thomas, former editor-at-large at Newsweek who has taught journalism at the University for seven consecutive years, will be leaving Princeton at the end of the academic year.
Comedian John Hodgman will perform at the Comedy Show on Friday night during Houseparties, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students announced Monday in a Facebook post. Hodgman, a Yale graduate, is best known for his gig on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and for his role as the PC in Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign with Justin Long as the Mac.
Beth Lew-Williams, who will join the University next year, will become the first professor in Asian-American history.
With 155 new members in the Class of 2016, the Wilson School has seen an increase of 76 percent in its student body in two years.
Katherine Pogrebniak ’14, a computer science major, was named valedictorian on Monday at a faculty meeting.Alexander Iriza ’14, a mathematics major, was named the Latin salutatorian. Both Pogrebniak and Iriza were nominated by the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing.Pogrebniak, who is from Jacksonville, Fla., and Iriza, who is fromAstoria, N.Y.,were informed that they had been nominated for their position on April 18. Both students said that they received an email asking to meet with Dean of the College Valerie Smith. “I would have never expected that that was why I was being called in,” Pogrebniak said.
Members of the USG discussed University mental health policy in light of recent wider public discussion of the subjectat their weekly senate meeting on Sunday.U-Councilor Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 noted that the Mental Health Initiative board was hoping to write an editorial to publish in The Daily Princetonian within the next week to express the USG’s position on mental health policy.
Nine students were awarded the 2014 Spirit of Princeton Award, which recognizes students who have made positive contributions to the University community. Ray Chao ’15, Estela Diaz ’14, Sara Figel ’14, Jenesis Fonseca-Ledezma ’14, Adam Mastroianni ’14, Matthew Vengalil ’14, Benedict Wagstaff ’14, Tiana Woolridge ’15 and Trap Yates ’14 were selected from a group of students who were nominated by members of the University community. The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students uses the award to recognize students whose contributions to the arts, community service, student organizations, residential living, religious life and athletics go unrecognized by the University at large, according to the award's website. Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said that the students were chosen by a selection committee made up of undergraduate students, alumni and administrators from campus life.
Rino Rappuoli, global head of vaccines research for Novartis Vaccine and Diagnostics, posed the possibility of a meningitis-free world in a lecture last Thursday. Rappuoli, developer of the Bexsero meningitis B vaccine that is being administered by the University, walked the audience through the immunological history of the meningococcus bacteria and the discovery and usage of Bexsero. He opened up the lecture by explaining the chemical and biological structure of the meningococcus bacteria. As soon as they enter the blood system, the bacteria multiply rapidly and pass the blood-brain barrier, which separates blood from brain fluid, causing inflammation of the meninges, Rappuoli said.
A total of 607 students participated in a public health study conducted by University researchers from April 17-23.
USG will not be offering summer storage to students this year, USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 announced in an email sent out to students on April 21. “After considering the effort we'd have to put into the program and knowing that Princeton Student Agencies offers a similar service in a similar price range, we voted against continuing it,” Jackson said in an interview. Aaron Ave ’15, the student director for Moving and Storage within PSA, said that the service PSA will offer is identical to what USG provided in the past. “We’re just taking over [USG's] portion and adding it on to our existing services,” Ave said, adding that this is PSA’s first year offering summer box storage.
Tobias Kim ’17 died while abroad in Argentina on Friday. He was 19. Kim was visiting his mother's family in Argentina, according to an email sent by Kim's former high school to alumni on Friday evening.
Jonathan Ma ’15, Justin Ziegler ’16 and CJ Harris ’17 have been elected presidents of their respective class councils, and Benedict Wagstaff ’14 was elected president of the Class of 2014 Alumni Council officers, USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 announced in an email to students Friday evening. “It was a good election, and we had good voter turnout overall, I believe,” chief elections manager Amara Nnaeto ’17 said. Additionally, the referendum to separate the class governments from the senate passed with 1661 votes in favor and 277 opposed. "I'm pleased that [the referendum] passed," Jackson said.
Four Dartmouth students debated in front of an audience the possibility ofeliminating the Greek systemfrom their campus on Monday,the Dartmouth reported.While all participants agreed that the campus’s Greek system must undergo changes due to the dangers of binge drinking and sexual assault, the Dartmouth reported thatthey disagreed about whether the faultlay in the system as a whole or in individual members.About half of Dartmouth undergraduates are members of a Greek organization, according to public policy professor Charles Wheelan GS ’93.Dartmouth math professor Alex Barnett opened the debate, claiming that fraternities serve as a “training ground” for violence against women.
John Hodgson announced his decision to retire from his position as dean of Forbes College in an email sent out to the Forbes listserv on Wednesday. After 20 years at the University, Hodgson said in the email that he will spend his free time working on his next book, titled “Ventriloquism Becomes American: Richard Potter and the Origins of an American Performance Tradition.” Hodgson explained in the email that he had found limited periods of time to work on his book, primarily during weekends and summer vacation, while acting as dean.
The sociology department saw the greatest increase in concentrators among all the social science departments, with 12 more students entering the department this year than last year. The department had 42 sophomores declare as sociology concentrators this year, compared to the 22 sophomores who joined the department last year.
The University will contribute $2.75 million to the town of Princeton’s municipal budget in 2014, an increase of over 10 percent from last year’s contribution of $2.475 million. The new agreement, which was announced on Thursday afternoon, is scheduled to last seven years, with an annual increase in contribution of 4 percent. Under New Jersey law the town can only increase its property taxes by a maximum of 2 percent per year, University Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee ’69 explained, ensuring that the relative value of the University’s contribution will grow consistently. The contribution over the seven-year timespan will total $21.72 million by 2020, the University said in a press release.
Two hundred sixty-nine members of the Class of 2016 declared concentrations in the humanities by the end of the sophomore major declaration period on Tuesday.The same number of students declared a humanities concentration in the Class of 2015, whereas 286 did in the Class of 2016.The humanities majors with the largest number of concentrators remain history, with 90, and English, with 48.
Both the geosciences and the astrophysical sciences departments experienced a near doubling in the numbers of declared sophomore concentrators this year. Ten students in the Class of 2016 signed into astrophysics, compared to five students from the Class of 2015, while 19 students signed into the geosciences department, compared to 10 students from the previous year. Astrophysics department representative Neta Bahcall said the department has not done anything differently this year to attract more students.
The University will expand access to the unapproved meningitis vaccine Bexsero to include University-affiliated individuals under 30 years of age who are in intimate relationships with students. The decision was made after ongoing discussion within the University in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, University spokesperson Martin Mbugua said.
The University will contribute $2.75 million to the town of Princeton’s municipal budget in 2014, an increase of over 10 percent from last year’s contribution of $2.475 million. The new agreement, which was announced on Thursday afternoon, is to last seven years, with an annual increase in contribution of 4 percent.
