Princeton life lists

While Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson compare notes on what they want to do before they die in the upcoming movie, "The Bucket List," 'Street' asks Princetonians to do the same. From Nassau Hall to the dining hall, everyone has a plan for their time on campus. To hear some of their ideas, turn the page...

Senior lecturer in economics

1. Find a student who loves learning regardless of grades.

2. Attend more great student dance performances.

3. Hear Sarah Vander Ploeg '08 sing again.

4. Hear President Hillary Clinton speak on campus.

5. Attend more seminars on income distribution, education and health outcomes.

6. See another great student performance of a Shakespearean play.

7. See more performances by the Black Arts Company and eXpressions.

8. See women's and men's lacrosse teams as national champions in the same year.

9. See women's rugby and both women's crews win national championships.

10. Inspire every student I have that economics is fun and useful.

Howard G. B. Clark '21 Professor and Chair of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts

1. Help the Lewis Center for the Arts become an even more vital force than it already is.

2. Make sure that students play an even more substantial role in the Lewis Center.

3. See poetry play an even greater role in the public life of Princeton, including setting up a Princeton Poetry Festival and developing the Princeton University Press Poetry Series, both underway.

4. See the Fund for Irish Studies at Princeton develop and diversify.

5. Initiate some new courses in Creative Writing, including "Poetry for Astrophysicists."

6. Attend a rock concert in the Stadium.

7. Play Leontes rather than Old Leontes.

8. Still have enough time to write a few more poems.

9. Publish a poem by a Princeton student in The New Yorker.

10. Not leave anytime soon.

Harold W. McGraw Jr. '40 Professor in Writing

There are really just two things I want to accomplish before leaving Princeton—which is in two weeks, as my "Life Writing" course has come to an end: The first is to get all my students' papers read, edited and graded; the second is to get through another big batch of Woodrow Wilson's papers for the biography I'm writing.

As an alumnus, I'll take the liberty of listing 10 things I think every undergraduate should do before leaving Princeton:

1. Attend a production at McCarter — maybe a World Premiere of an Albee play or this year's Triangle show (one of the very best in decades, with the best kickline I can recall).

2. Visit the Princeton Art Museum.

3. Go to Firestone or Mudd Library and actually hold an original literary or historical manuscript ... or visit the Scheide Library's "Gutenberg Bible."

4. Attend an athletic contest smaller than a football game at the Stadium — think squash or lacrosse or hockey or fencing or ...

5. Attend a musical performance — the University Orchestra is sounding good; maybe a Glee Club concert.

6. Observe somebody perform a scientific experiment —maybe something involving a rat or something with lots of smoke and bubbles.

7. Write a spectacular senior thesis — because, for the rest of your life, you will probably take more pride in that than anything else you do in your four years here.

8. Attend an extracurricular lecture, preferably outside your academic field.

9. Fall in love.

10. Make a note to give something back to Princeton after you leave this place — as generations of alums did for you.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students

1. Pop and lock it in a Sympoh show as a guest performer.

2. Witness one Lawnparties concert free of Lilly Pulitzer sundresses, Nantucket reds, popped collars and mirrored aviator sunglasses (not forever, just for one year to give everyone a chance to recalibrate).

3. Successfully suppress the urge to gag when freshmen talk about how "embarrassing" and "awkward" it is to tell assorted friends, relatives and classmates that they are attending Princeton (affectionately referred to as dropping the "P bomb," which was incidentally lifted from the concept of dropping the "H bomb," which pushes this to a sphere of lameness that exists outside of the bounds of language).

4. Get Taco Bell and Kettle Corn more formally incorporated into the Commencement ceremony. I'm thinking a free gordita as students exit FitzRandolph Gate. As I learned at the Dean's Date party a few days ago, stick with the chicken. A steak gordita is nearly inedible after it's been sitting in the back of the delivery guy's Camaro for three hours.

5. Get the strength to walk by the Bent Spoon without rationalizing my way into a large cupcake.

6. See at least one game for all 36 varsity sports teams. Squash and fencing, send me a schedule!

7. Take a quiet moment to remember those who came before me at Princeton when I step on the worn stone step into West College (all while secretly hoping I fall and permanently injure myself so I can sue the university for not fixing the step).

8. Play a junk instrument in the Princeton Marching Band. I'd like to play a plastic camel stolen from a nativity scene.

9. Understand the International Monetary Fund-like complexity of late meal credit transference that students talk about when eating late meals at Frist.

10. Successfully bicker an eating club (who am I kidding, it would probably be Tower) without subsequently being passed down any stairs. I am too old and could fracture my hip, which you will someday learn is a certain step down into a mortality spiral.

University President

1. Attend many more bonfires.

2. Sing in the Nassoons.

3. Take any course taught by Professor Jeff Nunokawa.

4. Discover the perfect shade of orange.

5. Become a cosmologist and understand the origins of the universe.

6. Change the fall academic calendar.

7. Live in Whitman College.

8. Have Princeton recognized as a leader in sustainability.

9. Win Dean Dunne's March Madness basketball pool.

10. "Aspire" and overachieve!

President, Princeton Texans; Social Chair, College Republicans

1. Beat the Original Super Mario Bros.

2. Un-deflate my grades.

3. BBQ 100 lbs. of beef brisket at one time.

4. Start a petition to remove some of the modern "art" around campus.

5. Make a Dean's Date run in a tractor.

6. Build a replica of the Alamo out of snow.

7. Attempt to fish in Lake Carnegie.

8. Drive the Public Safety Pickup without being arrested.

9. Thank the University staff for the hell we put them through (especially those of Buildings and Ground and Public Safety.)

10. Read the 'Prince.'

P.S. A couple of these I have already done since being at Princeton. I won't say which though.

Dining Services Worker in the Rocky/Mathey Dining Hall

1. Get a brand new card reader.

2. Learn at least 200 first and last names!

3. Have Mr. and Mrs. Clinton come through my door.

4. Serve Oprah Winfrey lunch in the Private Dining Room.

5. See complete peace and accord in the world.

6. Have lunch in Nassau Hall.

7. Spend one Reunion as a guest.

8. Have a closed circuit TV in my check station.

9. Get a whopping raise.

10. Leave happy with some of my best memories of my fondest friends — students and staff.

USG president-elect

1. Improve Princeton and the Princeton experience as much as I can.

2. Develop longterm, close friendships.

3. Become fluent in Chinese.

4. Play more chess, hockey and soccer.

5. Bench 200 for three reps, Squat 250 for six reps.

6. Entrepreneurial ventures: websites and velvet jackets.

7. Act.

8. Learn a martial art.

9. Cut my hair?

10. Enjoy COLLEGEEE.

Rocky Master; Professor of English

1. Never turn on my stove or oven.

2. Stop habitually craning my neck to make sure the person I'm talking about on my cellphone isn't right behind me.

3. Procure a gigantic goldfish bowl and fill it with Blue

Powerade to decorate my home. No fish.

4. Figure out exactly how long it takes me to walk from my domicile to West College, so that I stop arriving at meetings a half an hour early, with nothing to do but feel like a fool while trying to look all busy and important, with no one to witness but the four walls of an empty room.

5. Pass an entire year at 11 University Place (where I live now) without ever using the front door; rather, entering and exiting by this weird, "random" side door that looks like it was made for Hobbits.

6. Conduct classes and write books that will bring joy and light into the lives of my students and my readers.

7. Persuade Froma Zeitlin that I'm not actually a Hobbit.

8. Learn how to turn on my oven and stove.

9. Persuade Froma Zeitlin that I actually am a Hobbit.

10. Let my students know that I love them.

Associate Professor of History

1. Master the complex layout of Firestone Library. Currently, I don't go into its depths to search for a book without a GPS receiver and a flare gun.

2. Persuade the Astronomy Department that I have, in fact, discovered the center of the universe: my adorable, three-month-old daughter Maggie.

3. Understand the arcane mysteries of the bicker system.

4. Be able to walk into Hoagie Haven without feeling that somehow, somewhere, a cardiologist is sobbing uncontrollably.

5. Put an end to the weekly visitations and just move into the Princeton Record Exchange full time.

6. Discover the secret that gives Prof. Eddie Glaude the time and energy to be so active and involved all over campus. (My hunch? He's actually a set of identical octuplets.)

7. Complete the sitcom I'm writing about my upcoming paternity leave. I already have the title – "Professor Mom" – and I'm certain the rest will simply write itself.

8. Sit in on more of my colleagues' courses.

9. Convince every Princeton student that knowledge of this country's past is essential to its future. Remind them that some of the most significant changes in recent history have been accomplished by people their age and younger.

10. Never leave. They can have this university when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

President, Performing Arts Council

1. Go on an Orange Key tour.

2. PDF a class.

3. Host and participate in a dance company dance-off (BAC Dance, DiSiac, BodyHype, Expressions, Triple 8 and every other dance company!).

4. Go to President Tilghman's office hours.

5. Go fishing at the boathouse.

6. See a show in every theater on campus.

7. Enter every eating club and be able to recognize and name them all.

8. Play manhunt in Firestone on my last Deans Date Eve in May.

9. Tour Jadwin Gym (not just the basketball court floor).

10. Breakdance with Sympoh!

Get quoted in the 'Prince' on my own without my twin sister. — Christine Schoppe '10

Get quoted in the 'Prince' on my own without my twin sister. — Jennifer Schoppe '10

Camp out in Holder courtyard the night before graduation because my OA group did it the first night we were at Princeton. — Tracy Vu '09

Get into the Dillon steam tunnel line. Groom a protégé. — Will Scharf '08

Travel to Trenton to try delicious pizza at DeLorenzo's (both of them). Take Saturday off and have a picnic on Princeton Battlefield, wine optional. — Luke Cohler '08

Be on the winning dodgeball team during the annual Dodgeball Tournament. Have a snowball fight in the Whitman quad. Learn how to stop checking my email every 5 minutes. — Kelsey Berry '10

Go swimming in the Woody Woo fountain after a night at the Street. Sled down the big hill by Whitman. — Betsy Goodman '10

Go to Atlantic City. Consistently beat Billy Hepfinger at Mario Kart 64. And graduate. — Connor Diemand-Yauman '10

Visit the Institute for Advanced Study. Go inside Nassau Hall. Eat at Proctor Hall (Grad College). And learn how to juggle. — Emily Margolis '10

Pass a class. — Hannah Wilson '11

Rappel down the side of Blair Arch. Outrace the moving bookshelves [in Firestone] before getting squashed. Trampoline over Fitzrandolph gate. — Aran Clair '10

Take a photography class. Be asked out on a 'real' date. Learn how to tie a tie. — Daria Foner '11

Have ten absolutely incredible, never-forget-themas-long-as-I-live experiences. — Rob Biederman '08

For just one semester, average 8.5 hours of sleep a night. And with a thesis that I will write next semester, it doesn't seem like I will be achieving that goal. — Rohan Joshi '08

I would say go swimming in the Woody Woo fountain but I've already done that. Maybe spend an afternoon at the battlefield? — Margaret Walker '10

Mostly I just want to graduate! — Caitlin Paul '10

I'd like to be quoted in the 'Street' section. — Michel Jabre '11

Take HIS 380 with Paul Miles. Create the "Twister Club" where people can play Twister for fun (as a joke of course). Organize a famous band to come play a concert at Princeton. — Carolyn Littlefield '11

Get locked in Firestone for an enormous game of midnight sardines in the depths of C-floor. — Emily Sands '09

Eat one of the big cupcakes from Cafe Viv. Take a class with Peter Singer. Take a hip hop class.— Devin Walsh '11

Eat an entire sandwich in Marquand. — Jordan Bubin '09

Learn squash. — Lola Adekunle '08

Live with one of my best friends. Break my addiction to Frist candy. Go out one night without falling. — Megan Leahy '11

Not turn 25. — John Baker '09

Visit Forbes. Study in every library on campus. Go to the top of Holder tower. Go for an entire day without checking my email. — Mary Gamber '11

Travel to the Middle East to study. Elect Obama. — Michelle Thompson '10

Smoke out in Shirley's office. Bring down P-safety. — Anonymous '10

Have a crazy last semester. Get an acceptance letter from one of the master's programs I applied to. Get in the super hip hop piece BAC is doing. — Natalia Naman '08

Sleep over on top of the Grad Tower. — Gregor Schubert '11

Have the President of the U.S. come speak here. Say something so profound to Robbie George that it makes him a liberal. — Shelby Gai '10

Just get the hell out of here. — Anonymous '09

Climb to the top turret of the Princeton Chapel. Find a hidden room in Firestone. Find a lost piece of Princetoniana. — Anneliese Mondschein '11

Reinstate the Nude Olympics. — Jaimeson Rice '10

Be blonde. Have a great meal. — Courtney Quiros '10

Take a public speaking class. — Will Thanheiser '09.

Hold a campus-wide race between the Dinky and the E-quad. — Lauren Clark '10.

Pass orgo. — Virginia Byron '10.

Stay overnight in a building, like Frist or Firestone, just to say I've done it. — Andria Mirabal '08.

Swim in the Woody Woo fountain at night — Jennie Sirignano '10.

Go to sleep before midnight. Create a piece of art. Be in a senior thesis work. And return all the silverware that I have stolen (accidentally of course) — Lauren Ivey '11.

Throw a huge party for the 5th Quintilers of this world. Make at least one of the Frist package men smile. — Louisa de Carvalho '09.

Make Princeton a leading environmental campus, in addition to [a leading] environmental research institution. — Danny Growald '11.

Be on the front page of www.princeton.edu. — Brian Santana de la Rosa '08.

Graduate, which after my chemistry exam just now seems entirely unlikely, but lets keep our fingers crossed. — Veena Putcha '11.

Build an igloo. No joke. — Hannah Rich '11.

Go on a date with a professor. — Anonymous '11.

Sleep with a professor. — Chris Breen '08.

Hook up with someone in Firestone. — Chris Rucinski '10.

Have sex in my carrel. — Danielle Wolfe '08.

Hook up on the golf course ... it's so beautiful there. — Anonymous '10.

For the softball team, we have to hook up at our position on the diamond. — Anonymous '09.

Have sex on the Front Lawn of Campus. — Jordan Bubin '09.

Hook up on the football field ... wait, I already did that. — Anonymous '10.