News

USG senate discusses Mental Health Week, access to the arts in NYC

USG senate discusses Mental Health Week, access to the arts in NYC

Katherine Oh

Committee applications, Mental Health Week and increased access to New York City were among the topics discussed by the Undergraduate Student Government at their weekly senate meeting on Sunday night. Members of the senate discussed the recently received committee applications, and members noted that the number of applications received was lower than the numbers from the previous semester. “I think it was much higher in the fall; I tried to maximize the amount of responses to the committee app,” USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said.

NEWS | 02/22/2015

Black History Month: Looking back from 1792 to 1950s

Shriya Sekhsaria

Race relations at the University have transformed significantly from a time when admitted students were turned away because of their race to a time when multiple diversity initiatives and ad hoc committees have been created to make students feel comfortable on campus. According to sources, the history of African-American students at the University has been complex starting from 1792. 1792: The potentially first African-American University student Although John Chavis, a young African-American man, was nominated for the Leslie Fund Scholarship set aside for poor and pious students who wanted to get a Presbyterian education, he does not appear in contemporary class rolls, andthere are no records of him having ever attended the University. Melvin McCray ’74, who has spent considerable time preserving campus African-American history, said Chavis’ nomination for the Leslie Fund Scholarship is recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1792. “All the history in his family places him at Princeton as a student,” McCray said.

NEWS | 02/22/2015

Queen Noor of Jordan ’73 talks women, injustice

Queen Noor of Jordan ’73 talks women, injustice

Annie Yang

Women are the key to progress in the Arab world, Woodrow Wilson Award winner Queen Noor of Jordan — formerly Lisa Halaby ’73 — said during Alumni Day on Saturday. The award is given annually to an alumnus or alumna who embodies the ideals former University President Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, set forth in his speech,"Princeton in the Nation's Service." With training, education and economic opportunity, women become capable of stabilizing nations and radically increasing GDP, she said.

NEWS | 02/21/2015

Breaking: Smith to leave U., become President at Swarthmore

Daily Princetonian Staff

Dean of the College Valerie Smith will leave her position to become the President of Swarthmore College. Her appointment at Swarthmore will begin on July 1. Smith began her term as Dean of the College on July 1, 2011. As Dean, she was the chair of the Committee on Grading, which reviewed the controversial grade deflation policy and encouraged its repeal.

NEWS | 02/21/2015

James Madison Medal winner Martin Eakes GS ’80 talks home ownership and wealth inequality

Annie Yang

Homeownership is one of the most important factors in breaking the cycle of poverty because it can stabilize the family and neighborhood,James Madison Medal winner Martin Eakes GS ’80 said at an Alumni Day lecture on Saturday. The James Madison Medal was established in 1973 and is conferred upon a Graduate School alumnus who has had a distinguished career, achieved a record of outstanding public service or advanced the cause of graduate education. “Economist and community builder, tireless advocate for social progress, and economic justice and opportunity,” reads the inscription on the medal. Eakes received a Master in Public Affairs from the Wilson School.

NEWS | 02/21/2015

Panel discusses women's experiences in eating clubs

Pooja Patel

Gender and the eating club experience cannot always be separated, a panel of alumni and current students concluded at a discussion, "A Conversation on Women and Eating Clubs," held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Alumni Day. Panelists were Joanna Anyanwu ’15, a Women’s Center intern and member of Cap & Gown club; Julia Blount ’12 former president and trustee of Quadrangle Club; Hap Cooper ’82, president of the Tiger Inn graduate board; Joe Margolies ’15, former president of Quadrangle Club and president of the Interclub Council; Sydney Kirby ’15, vice president of Cannon Club; and Lucia Perasso ’16, president of Terrace Club.

NEWS | 02/20/2015

News & Notes: Penn law professors condemn new sexual misconduct policy

Ruby Shao

Nearly one-third of law professors at the University of Pennsylvania wrote a letter criticizing the school's new procedure for handling sexual misconduct on Wednesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. In response to guidelines for enforcing Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, Penn created the position of sexual violence investigative officer, lowered the burden of proof for a student to be found guilty of sexual assault and stopped allowing lawyers of accused students to cross-examine witnesses. "We do not believe that providing justice for victims of sexual assault requires subordinating so many protections long deemed necessary to protect from injustice those accused of serious offenses," the sixteen faculty members wrote, adding that OCR's approach violates basic safeguards of the lawmaking process. The professors recommended upholding access to lawyers in preparation for and during the hearing, the right to cross-examine witnesses against the accused student the ability to present defense witnesses and evidence and the right to a fair and unbiased hearing panel.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

Dining halls, stores close in response to measles case

Christina Vosbikian

The University notified certain members of the faculty and staff on Thursdaythat they will be required to provide proof of protection against measles before they are allowed to return to work. The University previously said on Wednesday that a student had been diagnosed with a suspected case of measles. The notified faculty and staff were born after Dec.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

News & Notes: Eating clubs welcome new presidents, more women elected to office

Daily Princetonian Staff

The six bicker eating clubs – Cannon Dial Elm Club, Cap & Gown Club, Cottage Club, Ivy Club,Tiger Inn andTower Club – have recently elected their officer elections. Three women were elected as officers of TI, which was the last club to admit women in 1991. Hap Cooper '82, president of the TI Graduate Board, stated in an email on Thursday that the club elected Grace Larsen '16 as president, Maria Yu '16 as treasurer, and Victoria Hammarskjold '16 as safety and communication chair. Ivy, which was the second-to-last club to admit women in 1991, elected Eliza Mott '16 as the new president. Ian McGeary '16 was elected aspresident of Cannon,Tyler Rudolph '16 was electedas president of Cap,Forrest Hull '16 was electedas president of Cottage and George Papademetriou '16 was electedas president of Tower. The sign-in eating clubs elected their presidents last year.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

Princeton Board of Health to introduce new tobacco sale prohibitions

Christina Vosbikian

The Princeton Board of Health plans to introduce an ordinance that will prohibit stores from selling tobacco products and electronic smoking devices to anyone under 21 years old. The ordinance is set to be introduced by the Board of Health on March 26 and may be adopted by April 21. The Board of Health was concerned with the problem of youth smoking, Charles Rojer, a member of the Princeton Board of Health, said. “I think, if hopefully passed, [the ordinance] will prevent a significant number of teenagers from becoming involved in smoking, which, along with obesity, is one of the two main problems that we encounter in our society that causes so many health problems,” Rojer said.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

Former Treasury Secretary Summers talks secular stagnation and possible solutions

Chitra Marti

The most profound macroeconomic challenge of the next 20 years is secular stagnation, or the idea that the economy has equilibrated to downward growth, Lawrence Summers argued in a lecture on Thursday afternoon.Summers served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

Q & A: Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso

Olivia Wicki

Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso joined the faculty of the Wilson School on Feb.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

USG launches project to develop meal exchange app

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government, Campus Dining and the Office of Information Technology are creating an application that would allow upperclassmen in eating clubs and students on residential college meal plans to exchange meals on their mobile devices.USG expects to begin the pilot operation this spring and launch the app for use by the fall of 2016, USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said.While the number of students who will participate in the pilot has not been determined, Cheng said the focus is to include students from all the different eating clubs, rather than having a large number of students.Plans for the project began last fall, and the developers of the app met last Fridaywith representatives from USG to discuss progress on the app.Former USG president Shawon Jackson ’15, who was at the meeting, said the meeting gave USG members the chance to voice their opinions.“We were trying to understand what the next steps would be and ensure that the members on the technology side had all the information necessary,” Executive Director of Dining Services Smitha Haneef said, adding that Campus Dining is frequently working on projects with OIT.Currently, students in eating clubs have to use slips of paper to exchange meals with students outside of eating clubs.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

News & Notes: Yale students petition for Af-Am House director's ouster

Daily Princetonian Staff

Members of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale presented a petition to administrators there on Tuesday calling for the ouster ofAssistant Dean of Yale College and Director of the Af-Am House Rodney Cohen, the Yale Daily News reported. The meeting saw a petition signed by 147 students presented toYale College Dean Jonathan Holloway and Kimberly Goff-Crews, who is secretary and vice president for student life. Students who attended the meeting and letters submitted by students before the meeting alleged that Cohen was inaccessible and had engaged in poor financial stewardship of the Af-Am House.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

TFA recruiting numbers drop, U. among top contributors

Jessica Li

As the economy improves, recruiting teachers is becoming increasingly challenging for Teach for America. The idea for Teach for America, which matches college graduates with hard-to-fill teaching vacancies, came out of the senior thesis of Wendy Kopp ’89. An increasingly political conversation around public education has led to a decrease in interest for the profession, particularly for people who may have once had more idealistic expectations, Becky O’Neill ’07, senior managing director of communications for Teach for America, said. “At schools like Princeton with such competitive candidates, students are getting offers often and early from lots of great companies,” O’Neill said, adding that her group usually reaches out to individual students for recruitment based on recommendations from professors, career services offices, campus staff, student leaders, current corps members and alumni. “This year, we had 17 Princeton alums join the TFA corps," she said.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Well-being of patients most important in abortion cases, Parker argues

Jessica Li

It is a moral imperative to put the well-being of patients above personal concerns in abortion cases, Willie Parker, a physician in practice at the sole remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, said in a lecture on Wednesday. Current social trajectories are unsettling, Parker said, noting that in a country where one in three women will pursue abortion during their lifetimes, restrictions against the procedure are becoming increasingly stringent. In Mississippi, recent laws have mandated women to receive counseling, accept ultrasound exams and, for minors, obtain parental consent before they can step into an abortion clinic. “Women don’t have the health care called abortion,” Parker said. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Parker grew up with five siblings all raised by a single mother.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Student diagnosed with suspected measles case, no longer contagious

Daily Princetonian Staff

A student was diagnosed with a suspected case of measles but has now recovered and is no longer contagious, the University announced in an email to students on Wednesday. The preliminary medical test results were received on Tuesday, and more tests are currently being conducted. More than 99.5 percent of University students have been vaccinated for the disease, the email said. Faculty and staff who have not been vaccinated for the disease may be at risk if they were inWhitman College dining hall, Baker Hall, Holder Hall, McCosh Health Center, Frick Chemistry building, Wallace Hall, Blair Hall, Friend Center, Spelman Hall, 1938 Hall, Frist Campus Center, Dillon Gymnasium or the New South Building from Feb.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Student begins collecting signatures for a petition to end Bicker process

Jacob Donnelly

A student began collecting signatures for a referendumpetition to end the Bicker process on Wednesday. The referendum, which was drafted by Ryan Low ’16, specifically calls for each eating club to end Bicker not later than the first day of the 2019-20 academic year, to establish an ad hoc USG committee to facilitate ending Bicker and to call on the Interclub Council to appoint a non-voting member to the ad hoc committee to work with it to facilitate ending Bicker. Low presented the referendum and began collecting signatures Wednesday evening at the Mental Health Initiative’s meeting. The proposed referendum requires 500 signatures before students can vote on it, U-council chairZhan Okuda Lim ’15said. Low coordinated with the Undergraduate Student Government to draft the text of the proposed referendum.USG assists students in drafting referenda they are interesting in running, but the referendum is not endorsed by USG,said Okuda-Lim, who assisted in drafting the resolution’s text for conformity to USG’s typical style. The process toward creating the referendum began in late January, Low said, when a Counseling and Psychological Services counselor told him that early February was a busy time of year in their offices due to Bicker.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

News & Notes: Harvard considering implementing honor code pledge

Daily Princetonian Staff

Harvard students will probably have to sign an honor pledge on their final papers and examinations if the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approves a proposed honor code, the Harvard Crimson reported. Harvard has never before had an honor code. Around 125 Harvard students were investigated for cheating on the final examination of a government class in 2012, and approximately 70 students were forced to withdraw but returned in the fall of 2013. The Faculty Council approved the honor code proposal last week, and the entire faculty now needs to vote to approve it.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

U. researchers co-author paper on using satellite constellations to predict floods

Corinne Lowe

Satellite constellations can be optimized to better predict flooding around the world, researchers from the University, Cornell University and The Aerospace Corporation said in a study published on Feb.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

Most Popular