Letters to the Editor

Pyne Prize committee open to nominations

I write to solicit nominations for the Pyne Prize, the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate, which will be awarded on Alumni Day, Feb. 25, 2006. In thinking about nomination, I would ask that you consider the following description:

M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize. A prize awarded annually to the senior who has manifested in outstanding fashion the following qualifications: excellence in scholarship, character and effective support of the best interests of Princeton University. Founded in 1921 in remembrance of the life and character of M. Taylor Pyne, Class of 1877, Trustee of Princeton 1885-1921, by his cousin, Mrs. May Taylor Moulton Hanrahan, the prize is the highest general distinction the University confers upon an undergraduate. The prize consists of the income from this fund up to the prevailing comprehensive fee for one academic year.

The prize winner will be selected by the President of the University, the Deans of the College and of Undergraduate Students, and the Secretary of the University. We are eager to receive nominations from members of the University community. Please direct such names and, preferably, letters of nomination to Kathleen Deignan at 313 West College, by Friday, January 6, 2006. Kathleen Deignan Dean of Undergraduate Students

University health plan not so mysterious

Regarding 'Overlooking waiver, some students default to University health plan' (Friday, Oct. 28):

I just wanted to respond to this article as I've been through the process myself. I think students are given ample time to respond to this — reading forms and meeting deadlines is something that we will have to do once we leave the Princeton bubble.

There are also several opportunities to hand in the waiver. If you forget in June, you receive an email in the fall reminding you that if you do not turn in the signed form you will be signed up for the UHS plan.

If you are then signed up for the plan, you (or your parents) receive a revised tuition bill highlighting the changes. Christine O'Neill '06

A family of 'preps'

Regarding 'Novelist Sittenfeld chronicles "Prep" life' (Wednesday, Nov. 9):

I write with reference to the column of Nov. 8th by P. G. Sittenfeld regarding his sister Curtis' Nov. 9th reading. Having my daughter, being interviewed by my son, refer to me as a "shit-eating bottom dweller" is of no real concern. In private observations, each has been known to actually utter unkind words about me. My complaint regards the Nov. 9th interview, again of Curtis, in which the interviewer places F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Class of 1919; as the roommate of his late grandson Thomas A. Lanahan '69, I warrant that Fitzgerald was '17. Paul G. Sittenfeld '69.