Student opinion can influence calendar
Regarding 'Malkiel proposes new calendar' (Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006):
Your article leads me to write to clarify the work the Committee on the Course of Study is doing with respect to the academic calendar, how the work is being done and, most importantly, how student leadership and opinion influence that work.
The Faculty Committee on the Course of Study — nine faculty members, five undergraduates and several administrators ex officio — is engaged in a long process of considering whether Princeton's current academic calendar best supports and furthers our educational needs and objectives. Asking that question isn't new. Course of Study engaged in a similar inquiry in the early 1990s, and it seemed to all of us that it was time to do it again.
We began that process in the fall of 2005 by talking at length in committee, and then — as most of your readers will recall — we surveyed every undergraduate, graduate student and faculty member in the spring of 2006, asking many specific questions about aspects of the current academic calendar and gathering narrative as well as quantitative data. By year's end we had a vast amount of information in hand, and the members of the committee set about trying to make sense of what we had learned.
The process continues this year, as we seek to test some ideas about ways of meeting challenges in our current calendar arrangements that faculty and students have identified as likely to benefit from some attention and improvement.
We have started that testing by asking questions of academic departments and certificate programs, since it would be members of the faculty who would need to vote to approve any calendar changes we might contemplate. Student members of the Committee on the Course of Study have played a central role in shaping this discussion from the very start, and in soliciting feedback from academic departments and certificate programs, we invited chairs and program directors to involve members of their student advisory committees in their conversations. We absolutely plan to continue our habitual practice of soliciting and taking seriously student input, but we believe that that input would be most valuable once we know better whether there are some credible calendar reforms (reforms we may or may not have imagined at this point) that might win support in the faculty.
There is absolutely no plan to announce any recommendations to the faculty in December. By December the Committee hopes to have received comments from most, if not all, of the departments and certificate programs. Then we will begin the next stage of our work: making sense, again, of what we have heard and trying to determine whether we have some credible reforms that could conceivably win sufficient support in the faculty to be worth continuing to discuss. If we believe we have credible reforms that are worth further discussion, we will most certainly make them widely known and, once again, actively solicit student comment on them.
Nancy Malkiel Dean of the College
Guttann posed for photo in poor taste
Regarding 'Gutmann photo draws criticism' (Monday, Nov. 6, 2006):
I was shocked, to say the least, to see a picture of Amy Gutmann posing with a Penn student dressed as a suicide bomber. The picture hit even closer to home as she is a member of the Princeton family. It is mind boggling that Gutmann, a former director of Princeton's Center for Human Values, did not have the moral judgment to distance herself from people whose goal is the murder of innocent civilians. Her apology, in which she noted that the student has a right to free speech, does not cast her in a better light. Yes, people have the right to say things, but do you have to support them? To Gutmann I ask: Would you have been willing to take a picture with a student dressed up as a member of a lynch mob?
Jeremy Stern '97
Nominations for the M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize
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, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007. 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, Jan. 5, 2007.
Kathleen Deignan Dean of Undergradute Students
U. cosmology project deserves recognition
Regarding 'Where art and atoms collide' (Friday, Oct. 27, 2006):
It is with a certain joy to learn of the cosmology project at Princeton. I recently had the privilege of exhibiting my large high resolution digital painting: "The Universe Knew We Were Coming" on Princeton University's unique massive 18 foot "scalable, high resolution display wall."
This was facilitated by Grant Wallace (Research Staff, Princeton Computer Science Laboratory). While the Princeton scalable wall was designed for scientific immersive visualizations, it was gratifying that my cosmic painting was singled out for exhibition on this remarkable display wall, which represented a collaboration between science and art.
Roger Ferragallo
U. promotion of public service hindered
Regarding 'Letters to the Editor' (Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006):
While it is tempting, initially, to accept William Robertson's arguments at face value, he makes one critically flawed assumption that undermines his argument entirely. "A recent survey by the highly regarded Partnership for Public Service found U.S. college students nearly as interested in federal government careers as in private sector careers." I don't doubt that this is true. "U.S. college students," however, implies a very different sampling pool than the students applying and being admitted to the Wilson school.
Many opportunities at investment banks and consulting firms are only available to the top U.S. college students. In fact, these are the same students capable of gaining admission to the Wilson school. I cannot believe that Robertson is advocating the admission of lesser applicants just because they are likely to go into the public service due to a lack of attractive alternatives.
While administrators such as Dean Slaughter may do her best to convince her graduates to enter the public service, opportunities are available to recently minted Wilson School AB's and MPA's that are not available as alternatives for the general population of "U.S. college students" in their survey. Perhaps the Robertson family would see its interests better served at this point by allowing the University to focus on public service promotion rather than defending itself against costly and frivolous lawsuits.
Rob Biederman '08
Americans ignorant of hottest fight in DC
Regarding 'Ninjas, nerds and net neutrality' (Friday, Oct. 27, 2006):
As one of the "samurai" advocates and bloggers fighting for net neutrality, I was pleased and delighted to see Avi Flamholz '07's piece. Despite the high profile "net neutrality" has in the blogosphere and even on such cable shows as "The Daily Show," the total blackout by broadcast news on the issue leaves most Americans totally ignorant of what has morphed into one of the hottest fights in Washington.
The big news is citizen activism stopped special interest legislation dead. You won't find that in mainstream media. But at least you can still find it on the internet.
Harold Feld '89
'Prince' clearly biased
Regarding 'Front Page' (Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006):
Upon seeing the cover of The Daily Princetonian, I had no doubt in my mind as to which way the staff wanted the election to go — a big bold headline in blue letters proclaiming "Blue America" was a bit much. Interestingly enough, I looked up in the archives the cover of the 2004 presidential election, which carried a little more weight than a midterm congressional election. Not surprisingly, after a close election, there was no big headline proclaiming "Red America!" or "Bush wins!" The day after the election the headline read "Election Outcomes Remains Uncertain" and by the next day, when it was called for Bush, it was only a side bar on the front page, hardly a proclamation such as the one that students woke up to last week. And this election's results were hardly even a surprise.
No bias on this campus? Psh ... yeah, right.
Tiffany Andras '07
Read More
Why do two-thirds of your summer research wages go to Princeton, anyway?
Isaac BarsoumThe income that students earn from employment is not “miscellaneous.” So Princeton must decide: Does it want its students — all of them, not only those who can afford it — to be able to work on the important research happening at Princeton, or be forced to go home?
The income that students earn from employment is not “miscellaneous.” So Princeton must decide: Does it want its students — all of them, not only those who can afford it — to be able to work on the important research happening at Princeton, or be forced to go home?
Seniors deserve better than Jay Shetty
Izabela Konopka and Joshua YangWe are writing to express our strong disapproval of the selection of Jay Shetty as the 2025 Class Day speaker. We deserve better than a self-help guru and repeated plagiarist who runs a “school” that an expert claims exhibits “similar patterns” to a multi-level marketing scheme.
We are writing to express our strong disapproval of the selection of Jay Shetty as the 2025 Class Day speaker. We deserve better than a self-help guru and repeated plagiarist who runs a “school” that an expert claims exhibits “similar patterns” to a multi-level marketing scheme.
The CPUC must not gut its Judicial Committee
Bill HewittEnding the Judicial Committee’s jurisdiction over initial complaints would embolden abuses of power, allowing the administration to evade accountability for University rule violations without the pressure of student and faculty authority.
Ending the Judicial Committee’s jurisdiction over initial complaints would embolden abuses of power, allowing the administration to evade accountability for University rule violations without the pressure of student and faculty authority.