News

News and Notes: Columbia graduate students trying to form a union

News and Notes: Columbia graduate students trying to form a union

Daily Princetonian Staff

Columbia graduate students are attempting to unionize, in an effort to gain greater recognition and rights, according to The Columbia Spectator. More than 100 of the graduate students rallied on Friday in an effort to have Columbia recognize their union, and more than 1,700 student workers have signed cards since September in support of the cause. The union would be a subsection of the union that represents clerical workers at Columbia, Barnard and Teachers College — the United Auto Workers Local 2110.

NEWS | 12/07/2014

‘Dark Knight’ trilogy director Christopher Nolan to speak on Class Day

Grant Golub

Acclaimed British-American film director Christopher Nolan will be the Class Day speaker this year, the Class of 2015 Council announced Friday. Nolan is widely known for directing “Interstellar,” which was released last month, as well as the latest “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception” and “Memento.” He has been nominated for three Academy Awards. He graduated from University College London with a degree in English Literature. According to an email sent to the senior class, Nolan has been making films since he was 7 years old and is known for his “unconventional story lines” and “innovative filmmaking.” “While his films have entertained us and captivated us for the past 20 years, they have, more importantly, made us think,” the Class Council wrote in the email.

NEWS | 12/07/2014

Gender-neutral housing on the rise according to USG panel

Shriya Sekhsaria

Gender-neutral housing at the University has been on a steady rise since it was implemented in 2008, according to an Undergraduate Student Governmentpanel discussion on Friday thatdiscussed the current policies and practicesregarding gender-neutral housing. The panel, which only had five people in the audience, included Associate Director for Student Housing Lisa DePaul, Director of Housing Dorian Johnson and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Bryant Blount ’08. Based on data gathered in 2014, there are 529 gender-neutral housing spaces on campus,208 of which come from the 52 quads present in Spelman Halls, while the remaining 321 spaces come from a combination of upperclassmen housing and residential colleges. Gender-neutral rooms are marked with an “e” for “either” or an “a” for “any” during the room draw process, while rooms that are not gender-neutral are marked as “male” or “female,” according to DePaul. Wilson and Rockefeller Colleges cannot currently provide gender-neutral housing, DePaul noted, as they do not have rooms that are in line with the “N+1 policy,” which states that a gender-neutral room must be a suite that allows each student to have his or her own sleeping space and a common area, such as five-room quads and three-room doubles. The “N+1 policy” was drafted by the University based on guidelines from the students on the University Campus Life Committee that first discussed gender-neutral housing in 2007, DePaul said. “[The students] felt that, while they wanted to make sure that there was an option to live together within the same suite, that they felt that it was fairly important that everybody had their own private sleeping space in those types of arrangements,” she said. DePaul added that the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and a lot of student committees were involved in the drafting of the gender-neutral housing policy, which was finally approved by the Council of Masters.

NEWS | 12/07/2014

Women leaders discuss gender disparity in light of USG election

Christina Vosbikian

The gender disparity in visible leadership positions at the University, as well as the general challenges women face in pursuing leadership positions, were discussed at a Women’s Mentorship Program panel on Friday. Politics professor Tali Mendelberg, who moderated the discussion, explained that the event was motivated by the recent Undergraduate Student Government presidential election, in which the unique pressures women face during campaigns became central topics of discussion. Speakers included former USG vice president and former USG presidential candidate Catherine Ettman ’13, former USG presidential candidate Molly Stoneman ’16 and recently elected USG president Ella Cheng ’16. Cheng is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. Mendelberg began the discussion by noting that while women have come a long way in gaining ground in the political arena, there is still much progress to be made.

NEWS | 12/07/2014

Police close investigation into Tiger Inn sex photo scandal, no charges filed

Chitra Marti

No criminal charges will be filed in last October’s reported distribution of a photo featuring a sex act that took place at Tiger Inn. The Princeton Police Department announced in a press release on Friday afternoon that it had found no evidence to support criminal wrongdoing and closed the investigation.

NEWS | 12/05/2014

‘Dark Knight’ trilogy director Christopher Nolan to speak on Class Day

Grant Golub

Acclaimed British-American film director Christopher Nolan will be the Class Day speaker this year, the Class of 2015 Council announced Friday. Nolan is widely known for directing “Interstellar,” which was released last month, as well as the latest “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception” and “Memento.” He has been nominated for three Academy Awards. He graduated from University College London with a degree in English Literature. According to an email sent to the senior class, Nolan has been making films since he was 7 years old and is known for his “unconventional story lines” and “innovative filmmaking.” “While his films have entertained us and captivated us for the past 20 years, they have, more importantly, made us think,” the Class Council wrote in the email.

NEWS | 12/05/2014

Updated: Cheng '16 wins USG presidency

Grant Golub

University Student Life Committee chairElla Cheng ’16 won the Undergraduate Student Government presidential runoff election with 63.8 percent of the vote, according to an email sent by outgoing USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 on Friday afternoon. Her opponent, Will Gansa ’17, took the remaining 36.2 percent of the vote. Cheng will start her year in office at the beginning of the spring semester, in February. Cheng is also a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian. Voter turnout was 15.2 percent higher than the voter turnout during the general election with 3,116 students casting votes, while the general election only drew 2,704 voters. The runoff election between Cheng and Gansa was announced Nov.

NEWS | 12/05/2014

News & Notes: Nancy Snyderman apologizes for violating quarantine

Daily Princetonian Staff

Princeton resident and NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman returned to broadcast news on Wednesday and apologized for “scaring [her] community,”according to the Princeton Packet. After coming into contact with a colleague infected with Ebola, Snyderman went on a voluntary 21-day quarantine. However, she was found to have violated that quarantine when she was seen in public before the quarantine period ended and was forced to go on a mandatory quarantine for the remainder of the 21 days. “I’m very sorry for not only scaring my community and the country, but adding to the confusion of terms that I think came as fast and furious as the news about Ebola did,” Snyderman said to Matt Lauer on the Today Show on Wednesday. She explained that she wears “two hats” as both a journalist and doctor, and that “messaging sometimes collide.” Snyderman said that her crew did not appreciate how frightened the American public was of Ebola at the time and added that the public should focus on helping those in West Africa.

NEWS | 12/04/2014

Big Sibs reincarnated into campus-wide effort

Sharon Deng

After the Big Sibs community service project initiated by the Class of 2016 was cancelled last year, Big Sibs is back and now accepting applications from the current freshman, sophomore and junior classes. Now called Community House Big Sibs, the program is a revamped version of the Big Sibs project of the Class of 2016 and pairs University students with elementary school students one-on-one to engage in long-term mentorship relationships. Class of 2016 president Justin Ziegler ’16 said that the original project, which involved around 300 students, lasted a year and a half and was terminated last spring when the partner school was shut down by New Jersey’s Department of Education. The partner school, City Invincible Charter School, was an elementary school located in Camden, N.J. Ziegler said that as soon as he found out that City Invincible Charter School was closing, he and Big Sibs Board co-chair Sofia Gomez ’16 started looking for options to continue the project. “I saw first hand how well it worked last year and how people were really excited about it, and we had a positive impact,” Gomez said.

NEWS | 12/04/2014

Graduate School to reinstate diversity dean position following complaints

Aana Bansal

The University is in the process of reestablishing a dedicated deanship position within the Graduate School to deal with issues of diversityfollowing complaints voiced by graduate students, faculty members, trustees and alumni. A job description for the position of associate dean for diversity and inclusion was posted on the University's website on Nov.

NEWS | 12/04/2014

Iranian Nobel Prize recipient discusses relationship between fundamentalism and women’s rights violations

Pooja Patel

Fundamentalist violence is still a prevalent issue and should be addressed through education rather than military response, Nobel Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi said in a lecture Thursday.

NEWS | 12/04/2014

Hundreds gather on campus to protest racism, recent grand jury decisions

Hundreds gather on campus to protest racism, recent grand jury decisions

Lorenzo Quiogue

Close to 500 students, faculty, administrators and staff participated in a protest on the lawn north of Frist Campus Center at noon Thursday. “We seek to interrupt the daily routine of Princetonians to symbolize the constant interruption racism plays in the lives of people of color,” protest organizer Khallid Love ’15 announced at the protest. Love explained that the organizers had been planning the demonstration for several days as a strategic response to recent national events.

NEWS | 12/04/2014

News & Notes: Police implement year-end campaign to crack down on drunk driving

Daily Princetonian Staff

The annual “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” holiday statewide campaign will begin this Friday as local and state law enforcement officials will conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints to watch for potentially intoxicated motorists. The program seeks to combine high-visibility enforcement and public education about the dangers of drinking and driving. Twenty-two percent of all motor vehicle fatalities in New Jersey were alcohol-related last year, with about 10,000 deaths nationally. In Princeton, there were 62 arrests for DWIs in 2013 and 71 in 2012.

NEWS | 12/03/2014

Students and administrators meet to discuss mental health policy

Jessica Li

Rachel Bronheim ’15, Alexandra Marino ’18 and Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15, members of the Undergraduate Student Government's Mental Health Initiative Board met with Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler Wednesday afternoon to explore the possibility of publishing the official policies for mental health withdrawals and readmissions in the Undergraduate Announcement. The Undergraduate Announcement is a document that outlines the academic regulations, programs of study and course offerings of the University. Okuda-Lim said Fowler explained during the meetingthat the Undergraduate Announcement was established as a succinct and concise compilation of regulations rather than a detailed set of procedures. Fowler suggested that the Mental Health Initiative Board work with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students to revise the current FAQs on mental health withdrawals and readmissions, which were published by ODUS this past May, to be recognized as the University's official protocol. The protocol would be characterized by specificity about current policies and would be made available to the public. Okuda-Lim further noted that a meeting is planned with Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students MichaelOlin to analyze the feasibility of this proposal. Fowler could not be reached for comment. The conference came after 95.5 percent of voters approved of a referendum question that appeared on the recent USG elections ballot thatcalled for greater transparency in mental health withdrawal and readmission policies. Referendum question 1 was drafted by Okuda-Lim. While concerns surfaced about the absence of demand for change, Okuda-Lim wrote in a Facebook post that releasing the official policies, which are currently not publicly accessible, is an indispensable stepping-stone for potential remediation. “It's difficult to push for a policy change when the policies are not even public,” Okuda-Lim added. According to Okuda-Lim, the few paragraphs published in the Undergraduate Announcement relevant to this issue are ambiguous.

NEWS | 12/03/2014

Former President Carter discusses violations of women’s rights in talk promoting new book

Former President Carter discusses violations of women’s rights in talk promoting new book

Annie Yang

Former President Jimmy Carter argued that the greatest unaddressed violation of human rights is the deprivation of equal opportunities for women in a talk about his new book, “A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power” on Wednesday.

NEWS | 12/03/2014

Blackboard next to be updated after introduction of HireTigers, TigerHub this year

Do-Hyeong Myeong

The Office of Information Technology will be gradually implementing changes in Blackboard Learn, the learning management system used by the University, in order to make it simpler to use, Associate Chief Information Officer and Director of Academic Technology Services Serge Goldstein said. These changes will be implemented over the next two years. Goldstein explained that the changes will be implemented in two phases — the first phase includes uploading the Blackboard system, which has been running at the University server, to the cloud, and the second phase includes implementing new features of the Blackboard system, including a new user interface. Some of the new features of Blackboard include reduced menus, streamlined presentation of the interfaceand Gradebook, a new grading tool. Director of the McGraw Center and Associate Dean of the College LisaHerschbach explained that the new system will also allow for easy upload of student-created content and can be used to create open online courses and blend them with on-campus courses. One key change is that the new interface will make the functions previously hidden under complicated menus visible by creating icons. “The number of clicks is enormously reduced,” Goldstein explained.

NEWS | 12/03/2014

U. searching for special assistant to Eisgruber ’83

Grant Golub

The University is looking to hire a special assistant who will report directly to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 in advancing his presidential initiatives and managing his projects. According to the job posting on the University’s hiring page, the special assistant to the president for strategic initiatives will work closely with Eisgruber and will “operate at the nexus” of his agenda.

NEWS | 12/03/2014

News & Notes: Turnout in USG run-off election up from regular election

Jessica Li

3,116 students cast votes in the run-off election for USG president between Ella Cheng ’16 and Will Gansa ’17, according to statistics released by the Undergraduate Student Government today.

NEWS | 12/02/2014

Panel ends in heated discussion about diversity, student criticism

Linda Song

A panel regarding socioeconomic diversity ended in a heated question and answer session between students and panelists on Tuesday evening. The panel — titled “What Kind of Diversity: Is Princeton Too Narrowly Focused on Race and Ethnicity Rather Than Economic Diversity?” and moderated by professor Peter Singer — included a protest by a group of students who said they criticized the way the panel discussion had been framed. The students, mostly dressed in black, waved a handout with a blue Post-it note attached to it whenever a panelist said something they disagreed with.

NEWS | 12/02/2014

News & Notes: Over 30 contract gastrointestinal disease over Thanksgiving weekend

Daily Princetonian Staff

Over 30 individuals reported gastrointestinal diseases to the Princeton Health Department between Thanksgiving Day andTuesday, Planet Princeton reported.

NEWS | 12/02/2014

Most Popular