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News & Notes: Columbia Law School postpones exams for students traumatized by racial violence

News & Notes: Columbia Law School postpones exams for students traumatized by racial violence

Daily Princetonian Staff

Columbia Law School has given students the option to postpone exams following the grand jury decisions not to indict police officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, The Wall Street Journal reported. “For some law students, particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect fairness, due process and equality,” interim dean Robert Scott wrote in an email to students on the eve of Columbia’s exam period. Students at Columbia can opt to reschedule exams if they feel their performance will be sufficiently impaired due to recent events, Scott noted.

NEWS | 12/09/2014

News & Notes: $95K theft reported at local boarding school

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

The Hun School of Princeton reported a theft of approximately $95,000 to the Princeton Police Department last week, according to a police press release.

NEWS | 12/09/2014

USG meeting discusses diversity, equity resolution

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government senate held an open meetingon Sundayto discuss a resolution on diversity and equity that was submitted by U-Councilor Sol Taubin ’16. The resolution called for mandatory cultural competency training — which would include taking a class and demonstrating an understanding of cultural diversity — for all students, faculty and staff, as well as a transparent system of reporting cases of discriminatory speech or behavior on campus.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

News & Notes: Yale College Council working to extend mixed-gender housing to sophomores

Daily Princetonian Staff

The Yale College Council is making a renewed push to extend mixed-gender housing to sophomores, according to the Yale Daily News.The option to have mixed-gender housing, which allows students of both sexes to live in the same suite — potentially also in the same room — was given to seniors at Yale in 2010 and to juniors in 2012.Sophomores and freshmen are currently mandated to live in same-sex housing.The 2013 Yale College Council report found that 90 percent of the current junior class supported extending mixed-gender housing to sophomores.Potential benefits of such a measure, according to the report, include an improved sexual climate and respect for queer and gender-queer students.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

News & Notes: Harvard Crimson publishes open letter to Obama, Holder

Daily Princetonian Staff

Nearly half of the Harvard Law school student body has signed an open letter to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the recent Michael Brown and Eric Garner decisions, according to The Harvard Crimson.Within 24 hours, the letter had over 1,000 signatures from more than 800 law students, 39 student organizations, 30 faculty and staff members and nine full professors.The letter, released by the Harvard Black Law Students Association, specifically protests the decision to not indict the police officers for the deaths of two unarmed black men.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

USG talks eating club cost, dietary options

De Vann Sago

The accessibility of the University’s eating clubs, both financial and social, was discussed Sunday night at a town hall discussion hosted by the Undergraduate Student Government. “Our project is centered around accessibility in eating clubs and assessing students’ opinions on accessibility both in and not in eating clubs,” said Nihar Madhavan ’15, one of the project leaders for this initiative. He said one way USG has addressed eating club accessibility has been to gather student feedback through the use of a survey that USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 sent to students in an email. According to Madhavan, the term “accessibility” is used to include eating options and dining accessibility, accessibility to social eventsfor eating club members and non-members of the clubs and information about bicker and financial aid. During the meeting, students in the audience expressed concerns with the eating clubs, including how difficult it can be for those with dietary restrictions to find satisfactory meal options in the clubs.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

Eisgruber ’83 discusses diversity, racial issues at packed CPUC meeting

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 charged the executive committee of the Council of the Princeton University Committee with developing recommendations to improve the University’s policies and practices regarding diversity, inclusion and equity on campus during a meeting on Monday afternoon. The meeting took place in a packed McCosh 10, a larger venue than usual.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

Princeton Theological Seminary, community members stage protest, die-in

Princeton Theological Seminary, community members stage protest, die-in

Zaynab Zaman

Approximately 400 community members and students from the Princeton Theological Seminary staged a walkout in protest of the recent decisions against indictments in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at 12:30 p.m.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

Jackson GS ’86, former EPA administrator, to give Baccalaureate address

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Jackson GS ’86, former EPA administrator, to give Baccalaureate address

Jacob Donnelly

Lisa Jackson GS ’86 will speak at this academic year’s Baccalaureate ceremony on May 31, the University announced in a press release on Monday. Jackson is vice president of environmental initiatives at Apple and is aformer administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the agency's top job.

NEWS | 12/08/2014

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

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