Academics

Yale's selective social science majors not likely to follow Wilson School to non-selectivity anytime soon

Yale's selective social science majors not likely to follow Wilson School to non-selectivity anytime soon

Regina Wang

Despite the entrance of the first non-selective class of undergraduate Wilson School majors this year, similar interdisciplinary majors at Yale University are not currently considering similar alterations to their application processes.Like the formerly selective Wilson School’s old application process, the Ethics, Politics and Economics major and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs major require prospective students to apply during their sophomore year.

NEWS | 12/03/2013

Faculty consider alternative to Coursera, new Committee on Teaching and Learning

Sheila Sisimit

Members of the faculty discussed the possibility of creating a University-specific alternative to Coursera, as well as the proposed creation of a new committee to oversee the continuation of online courses, on Monday at the December faculty meeting.Philosophy professor Gideon Rosen noted that the University is free to explore options outside of Coursera in order to avoid conflicts of intellectual property, such as whether the material is owned by Coursera, the University or the professors teaching the courses.In one alternative to Coursera, he said, the University can “invest considerable resources in developing [its] own proprietary platform.” He added that some members of the computer science department are interested in helping out.“I must say that developing our own proprietary platform gives me nightmares,” University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 replied.Eisgruber currently sits on Coursera’s board of advisers.The new committee would be called the Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Learning, and it would not only vet the online courses but would also be responsible for monitoring them and their procedures, Rosen explained.The committee could also expand the work of the Faculty Committee on Grading by leading a campus-wide conversation on the most effective methods of assessment, according to documents circulated at the meeting detailing the potential committee’s duties.

NEWS | 12/02/2013

In introductory language classes, discrepancies in proficiency not an issue

Paul Phillips

More than half of the students who take SPA 101: Beginner's Spanish I, a class for students with no previous background in the language, have studied Spanish before enrolling in the class, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese in spring 2012. The survey, which received 106 responses, also revealed that 29 percent of the students surveyed had taken at least three years of Spanish before beginning the introductory course. “Language teaching is very different in different institutions,” Spanish Senior Lecturer Alberto Bruzos Moro explained.

NEWS | 12/01/2013

4 graduate students awarded Jacobus Fellowships

Elliott Eglash

Four graduate students were named winners of the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton’s top honor for graduate students, the University announced Friday. The students, James Pickett GS, Emily Vasiliauskas GS, Sonika Johri GS and Cristina Domnisoru GS, will receive funding for their final year of graduate study.The fellowship is awarded to those whose work has exhibited the highest scholarly excellence. Pickett, a Ph.D.

NEWS | 11/25/2013

Li '14 awarded Marshall Scholarship

Durva Trivedi

Dixon Li ’14, an English concentrator from Sandy, Utah, has been awarded the Marshall Scholarship for further study in the United Kingdom.He is the only University student or alumnus to receive the scholarship this year.

NEWS | 11/25/2013

In some courses, break trips offer extra perk

Corinne Lowe

For some lucky undergraduates, fall break wasn’t a break from their courses, though it did involve zip-lining in Costa Rica and riding camels in Morocco.

NEWS | 11/14/2013

After mixed student response, COS 226 modifies 'flipped lecture' format

Elizabeth Paul

After receiving negative feedback from students last spring, instructors have restructured the lecture format of COS 226: Data Structures and Algorithms this fall.

NEWS | 11/14/2013

New department guides help familiarize students, new faculty with independent work

Charles Kyungchan Min

Juniors and seniors undertaking their junior papers and theses will now receive additional guidance from the Office of the Dean of the College’s newly published Guides to Independent Work, the University announced last week.

NEWS | 11/12/2013

Students with an evening exam followed by a morning exam the next day will now qualify for rescheduling

Anna Mazarakis

Students who have a final exam at night followed by an exam the next morning will now be able to reschedule their morning exam for the afternoon, according to the Office of the Registrar’s website. "Students who have an in-class night exam (7:30 p.m.) followed by an in-class morning exam (9:00 a.m.) the next day may request that the morning exam be rescheduled to the afternoon (1:30 p.m.) of the same day," the policy reads. The change is the result of efforts from the USG Academics Committee, whose chair Dillon Sharp ’14 presented a series of recommendations for the final exam period to the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing on Oct.

NEWS | 11/12/2013

Practical ethics precepts universally give to developing world over U.

Konadu Amoakuh

In an academic exercise with real-world applications, students in CHV 310: Practical Ethics were asked to determine whether charitable donations could be better used by the University or by charities that provide aid in the developing world.

NEWS | 11/11/2013

Digital access to Class of 2013 theses suspended due to ODOC concerns of copyright protection

Konadu Amoakuh

Web access to the Class of 2013's senior theses was temporarily suspended on Oct. 18 after the Office of the Dean of the College voiced concerns about the lack of adequate copyright protection for the theses, which were made available for downloadby Mudd Library on Oct.

NEWS | 11/11/2013

ORFE implements new graded work submission system to protect student privacy, better comply with FERPA

Sohee Khim

The Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering has implemented a new homework and exam submission and distribution system.

NEWS | 11/10/2013

Putting ethics to practical use: CHV 310 precepts to each donate $100 to a charity of their choice

Konadu Amoakuh

This week, students in CHV 310: Practical Ethics face an intellectual question with real-world consequences: Which of several charitable causes is most worthy of their support?

NEWS | 11/05/2013

Delbanco, Katz discuss troubling trends in American higher education

Elliott Eglash

Higher education has become dominated by a number of troubling trends over time, and students come to college with little sense of why they are there, Columbia University’s American Studies program director Andrew Delbanco argued in a conversation on Tuesday afternoon. In the course of the lecture, Delbanco and Wilson School professor Stanley Katz touched on a number of subjects about the state of education in the United States, from pre-kindergarten programs to higher education. Delbanco said that Americans increasingly see colleges as lavish institutions that fail to teach students effectively. “They’re wasteful, they’re inefficient, they’re not doing their job, and we have a problem,” he said of ordinary people's view of colleges. This attitude is reinforced by rising tuition fees, which are caused in turn by the increasing privatization of higher education, Delbanco explained. “Our public universities have been gutted,” he said, noting that public funds make up only 6 percent of the University of Virginia’s budget. Katz warned against public universities’ efforts to raise funds in the face of budget shortfalls, either through tuition increases or the admission of more out-of-state students. These strategies undercut the democratic purpose of public education in America, he said. Higher education has developed a “pernicious and perverse obsession with rankings,” Delbanco said.

NEWS | 10/22/2013

Expansion of entrepreneurship courses to follow recent surge in interest, support

Ruby Shao

Expanding the University's course offeringsin entrepreneurship will be a priority initiative for new provost David Lee GS '99, University President Christopher Eisgruber '83told the 'Prince' in September. Lee's initiative comes amid a climate for entrepreneurship on campus that has evolved significantly in recent years.

NEWS | 10/17/2013

Sedgewick pushes for increased investment in online education

Elliott Eglash

“How are we going to disseminate knowledge in the future? If we can disseminate knowledge for free, isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing?

NEWS | 10/17/2013

Yavetz ’14 provides novel explanation for why satellites stay in orbit

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Yavetz ’14 provides novel explanation for why satellites stay in orbit

Corinne Lowe

In the course of writing his junior paper, astrophysics major Tomer Yavetz ’14 developed a novel theoretical framework for why satellites stay in orbit around the Earth.

NEWS | 10/15/2013

Seminar explores U.'s little-known connection to slavery

Catherine Duazo

Under the guidance of three instructors, five undergraduate students in HIS 402: Princeton and Slavery are working closely with historical documents in Mudd Library to attempt to understand how slavery influenced the early development of the University. Following the 2003 appointment of theSteering Committee on Slavery and Justiceat Brown by president Ruth Simmons, Princeton is among a number of other universities that are now researching how slavery shaped their own educational institutions. History professor Martha Sandweiss teaches the class alongside University archivist Daniel Linke and postdoctoral fellow Craig Hollander.

NEWS | 10/15/2013

Personal lockers in Firestone to be assigned to seniors this week

Do-Hyeong Myeong

Seniors are being assigned new lockers in Firestone Library starting this week, according to an email sent to a portion of the senior class Tuesday morning with instructions to pick up their locker assignments. The email instructed seniors to stop by the library’s Privileges Office for their assignments by Nov.

NEWS | 10/15/2013

Former U. President Bowen GS ’58 argues online education is “here to stay”

William Bowen lectures on the future of online education and MOOCs

Former U. President Bowen GS ’58 argues online education is “here to stay”

Evan Draim

Former University President William G. Bowen GS ’58argued that “online education is here to stay”in a lecture in McCosh 50 on Monday night,saying that universities must work to find solutions to the challenges posed by technological advances. The national discourse surrounding the growing prevalence of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, has become increasingly relevant to the University in recent years, where several professors have adopted Coursera, a massive online education platform that allows professors to offer online courses to students off-campus. University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, who has indicated his support for a greater role for online education in the past, acknowledged the cost considerations driving the popularity of MOOCs in a May lecture.

NEWS | 10/14/2013

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