Lectures, awards highlight celebration of Alumni Day

Months of planning on the part of the Alumni Council will culminate tomorrow, as Alumni Day and Parents Program makes its annual appearance with featured speakers, ceremonies and receptions.

Alumni Day activities will begin in the morning, featuring both University faculty members and outside academics. For example Eric Lander '78, Director of Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research will address guests.

Other events include talks by anthropology professor Lawrence Rosen, and visiting mathematics professor Frank Morgan GS '77. Both speakers have planned interactive presentations.

Rosen, speaking on "Blasphemy and Freedom," said there is a benefit to listeners "who have very different experiences than 18- or 19-year olds. . . What I need to do is hear them responding to me."

Morgan, the host of Math Chat on TigerVision, will conduct a "Soap Bubble Geometry Contest" with demonstrations, explanations and prizes. "Soap bubbles illustrate deep facts about geometry," said Morgan. Those who attend will attempt to correctly predict properties of soap films and bubbles.

Afternoon events

The awards ceremony at the Alumni Day Luncheon and the Service of Remembrance are scheduled for midday. The service, held in the University Chapel, will commemorate alumni, University staff and faculty who died during the past year.

Annual prizes given at the awards ceremony, held in Jadwin Gym, will include the Woodrow Wilson Award to Lander for exemplifying "Princeton in the nation's service" and the James Madison Medal to author, critic and pianist Charles Rosen '48 GS '51. Rosen will play selections from Mozart, Brahms and Handel in a concert in Richardson Auditorium tomorrow afternoon.

The Alumni Council expects approximately 1,400 people to attend tomorrow's activities, with a split of roughly 80 percent alumni and 20 percent parents. Certain class years such as 1948, 1963, 1968 and 1973 are expected to attend in especially high numbers for their milestone anniversaries.

Lydia Sferra, assistant to the director of the Alumni Council, headed the effort to organize the day's events.

She could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Alumni Day was first observed on Lincoln's birthday in 1915. It took place on Washington's birthday the following year, and over time it came to be observed on the Saturday nearest Feb. 22. Although parents had been invited to the day's events for many years, specific programs for parents were not implemented until several years ago, according to Chris McKinley, assistant to the Dean of the College.