News & Notes

Dilday ’09 elected Young Alumni Trustee

elizabeth dilday ’09 confirmed in an interview on May 26 that she has been elected the young alumni trustee (YAT) for the Class of 2009.

“It’s a huge honor,” she said. “[Upon hearing the news] I was overwhelmed with feelings of humility, happiness and disbelief.”

Dilday, a history major from Long Beach, Calif., will serve a four-year term on the University Board of Trustees, along with fellow young alumni trustees Meaghan Petersack ’08, Jim Williamson ’07 and Brady Walkinshaw ’06. She replaced Matt Margolin ’05 on the board.

Dilday served as chair of the Alcohol Coalition Committee and was also a co-captain of the women’s water polo team.

This past summer, Dilday completed a 40-day National Outdoor Leadership School course in Brooks Range, Alaska, and last month she entered the postbaccalaureate premedical program at Bryn Mawr College.

“As Princeton enters the next decade, I will work to ensure the University’s intellectual prosperity, future Princetonians’ thorough enjoyment of this wonderful place, and the perpetuation of Princeton’s traditions, quality, and accessibility,” Dilday said in an e-mail.

Dilday defeated former U-Council chair Maria Salciccioli ’09 and former USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 in the second round of voting for the position.

“I am overly grateful to be a Princetonian, and I look forward to the opportunity to give back,” Dilday said. “I chose to run for the YAT position because I had hoped to remain involved in University affairs and because I feel indebted to Princeton for the myriad experiences and relationships that I have had and formed during my four years here. I respect all that Princeton offers its undergraduates, and I am eager to put my enthusiasm for the institution to good use.”

Couric delivers address at Class Day

“CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Katie Couric urged members of the Class of 2009 to “look beyond the paycheck and actually see possibilities” in her Class Day speech June 1.

Just as Gen. David Petraeus GS ’85 did in the Baccalaureate Address a day earlier, Couric mixed humor into a discussion of the serious issues facing this year’s graduates, such as the challenge of looking for a job in a volatile economic climate, and encouraged them to work in the public interest. “In this economic climate, graduates of the Wilson School might actually have to get a job in government,” she joked.

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Couric praised the University’s tradition of fostering commitment to public service but cautioned graduates against forgetting the importance of service work after graduation.

“It’s not all about you,” she said. “Obviously public service is part of Princeton’s DNA, but I just don’t want you to leave the concept of it on campus.”

Petraeus GS ’85 delivers Class of 2009 Baccalaureate address

While blending humor with a serious call to action, Gen. David Petraeus GS ’85 challenged the Class of 2009 “to make a commitment to something larger than self” and to devote their lives to service in his address at the University’s 262nd Baccalaureate service in the University Chapel on May 31.

Declaring that “routine responses won’t do” in an era in which “the old ways have become stale,” Petraeus urged the graduates to choose careers in public service.

“We need thoughtful, hard-working, talented people like you to help find and implement better solutions,” he said, explaining that there are countless ways to do this in the military, in neighborhoods and communities, in government and even in the private sector.

Choosing a career in the public sector requires real sacrifices from individuals who may “work twice as hard to earn half as much,” Petraeus admitted, adding that “the choices are never easy, and the solutions are seldom perfect.”

“Be determined, not deterred, in seeking opportunities to work hard at work worth doing,” he said. “Our world awaits the impact you will make.”

Obama taps Leach ’64 to chair NEH

visiting wilson school professor and former Republican congressman Jim Leach ’64 was nominated by President Obama on June 3 to chair the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

“I am convinced that little is more important today than trying to understand and reflect to the world the values of our unique American civilization,” Leach said in an interview. “The humanities — history, religion, literature and philosophy — are all about understanding ourselves and others, about providing perspective to our lives and to events of the days.”

Leach added that he believes the humanities are more important now than ever in an increasingly globalized society.

“Our times are hallmarked by change and its acceleration — also social and international traumas,” he said. “Little is more important in these circumstances than developing perspective to allow governments to determine paths to peace and prosperity and to allow citizens greater capacities to cope with family and community challenges. The humanities are at the heart of our national being.”

The decision to accept Obama’s appointment was a difficult one, Leach said.

“I had no intention of returning to Washington,” he explained. “My wife and I like this community so much, and I enjoy teaching so much. But the humanities [are] really the center of a lot of my interests, and I believe that it has never been more central to our time.”

A former University trustee and member of Ivy Club, Leach represented Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 2007. He served as interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government from September 2007 to September 2008. As a member of Congress, Leach founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus and also served as chair of the House Committee on Financial Services.

The NEH, created in 1965, supports scholarship and teaching in the humanities. Obama requested $171.3 million for the agency in the budget for the 2010 fiscal year that he sent to Congress last month.

“I am confident that with Jim as its head, the National Endowment for the Humanities will continue on its vital mission of supporting the humanities and giving the American public access to the rich resources of our culture,” Obama said in a statement. “Jim is a valued and dedicated public servant and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”

Leach broke party ranks in August 2008 and endorsed Obama for president. Leach also spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver later that month. After Obama’s election last November, Leach served as an emissary with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for Obama at an international economic summit in Washington.

All Ivies except Princeton take part in Yellow Ribbon

Princeton is the only Ivy League institution that will not participate in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon program to partially waive tuition for veterans.

More than 700 colleges and universities around the country are taking part in the program.

Prineton decided not to participate because it already provides substantial need-based financial aid, University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 told The Daily Princetonian in May.

“The key point in our consideration was that we have a finacial aid program that admits students on a need-blind basis,” she explained. “We meet the full assessed need of all qualifying students through a generous no-loan program in which grants don’t have to be repaid.”

Cliatt added that the average student aid grant for this academic year is expected to reach $36,000, adding that “any veteran who applies to Princeton and is admitted would be generously supported.”

Yellow Ribbon is the largest expansion in veteran education since the GI Bill of 1944 and is expected to cost the federal government $68 bllion over the next decade. The government will pay up to the highest in-state tuition and then match every dollar a school offers in financial aid. To be eligible, veterans must have served three years on active duty or at least 30 days before being discharged for an injury since Sept. 11, 2001.

Bridge year students jet off to foreign lands

After five days on campus at the end of August, the 20 students in the University’s inaugural Bridge Year program left the country bound for Ghana, India, Peru and Serbia for a year abroad before they join the Class of 2014 next fall.

The group of 20 students was chosen from 54 applicants. Over the next nine months, the five groups of four students will “volunteer with local service organizations, learn a new language and immerse themselves in the local society through homestay with a local family, culutural enrichment activities and in-country travel,” according to a University statement.

The program was first introduced in February 2008. In September 2008, President Tilghman said the program may eventually include up to 100 incoming freshman every year. She also said the pilot program would cost between $20,000 and $25,000 per student.

Borough Police Chief dies while on vacation

Anthony frederico, chief of the Princeton Borough Police Department and a 29-year veteran of the force, died late June 28 while on vacation in Maine. He was 55.

Frederico began his career in law enforcement in 1978 by serving for two years as a proctor with the University’s Department of Public Safety.

After joining the police department in 1980 as a patrol officer, Frederico served as a sergeant, lieutenant and captain before being named chief in 2005. He had announced tentative plans to retire in July of next year.

The Borough Council is interviewing the department’s three lieutenants and will select one of them to serve as the new chief.

Fire destroys two Nassau Street restaurants

A three-alarm fire on July 31 destroyed a Nassau Street building that housed two restaurants.

The blaze at 354 Nassau St. was reported around 1:30a.m. The structure was home to popular Thai restaurant Tom Yum Goong and Chinese take-out establishment Sultan Wok. Fireighters battled the blaze for two hours before it was completely under control.

This was the first three-alarm fire in Princeton since a fire gutted faculty housing on College Road back in January 2008.