News

Case of bedbugs reported in Forbes College

A case of bedbugs was reported in a room in Forbes College on September 26,marking the first bedbug case of the 2014-15 academic year, said University spokesperson Martin Mbugua. After the case was reported and an inspection of the room confirmed the presence of bedbugs, the two residents of the room were relocated to other campus housing to make room for heat treatment, Mbugua said.

Digital availability for senior theses resumes

Senior theses for the Classes of 2013 and 2014 are now available online, with a few changes to accessibility. Mudd Library and the Office of the Dean of the College made Class of 2013 theses available digitally via an online database called DataSpace in October of last year.

Town appoints next municipal administrator

Marc Dashield has been appointed the town’s next municipal administrator by a unanimous vote by Mayor Liz Lempert and the town council. Dashield is currently the township manager of Montclair Township where he has served since 2009.

Campus crime increases in comparison to last year

The overall number of crimes reported on campus in 2013 increased to 56, compared to 48 in 2012, an increase due largely to a spike in the number of burglaries reported, according to the University’s latest Annual Security and Fire Report. There were 30 and 27 burglaries respectively in 2011 and 2012.

Fleury ’12 dies in motorcycle accident

Otavio Fleury ’12 died Sept.

Alumna publishes Chinese-language book on U. alumni

Danqi Shen ’11 has published a collection of stories highlighting the lives of different alumni in her first book, "Zi You De Lao Hu," translated as “Free Tigers.” The book was released in China in April and is only available in Mandarin.

Recognition of human rights is key to peace in Middle East, AlAttiyah says

Qatar is a nation committed to facilitating international peace and self-determination for all peoples in our uncertain world, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar His Excellency Dr. Khalid Bin Mohammed AlAttiyah argued in a lecture Monday. “We are once again living in a time of profound instability and change, but also a time of great opportunity,” AlAttiyah said. AlAttiyah, who was appointed minister of foreign affairs in 2013, holds a bachelor’s in aviation science from King Faisal Air Academy, a law degree from Beirut Arab University and a master’s and a Ph.D.

CPUC votes in favor of proposed sexual misconduct policy changes

The Council of the Princeton University Community voted in favor of adopting changes to the University’s sex and gender discrimination and sexualmisconduct policy two weeks after facultyapprovedchanges to the waydisciplinary procedures are adjudicated. These changes will be incorporated into section 1.9 of the University's "Rights, Rules Responsibilities" and through changes to the University's anti-discrimination and harassment policy. The approved policies create one comprehensive document for all sections related to sexual misconduct, clarify the rights and responsibilities of parties involved in sexual assault cases and incorporate definitions and penalties related to sexual misconduct that were approved by CPUC in a previous meeting. A new website outlining the changes will go liveon Tuesday, and members of the community will receive an email informing them of the changes and providing resources for additional information. “We want to make sure that the campus community understands the changes as quickly as possible,” University Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter said during her introductory presentation. University Provost David Lee explained that disciplinary and policy changes were discussed extensively this summer after the U.S.

Whig-Clio trip to expose students to education reform

Eight students will be going to Washington, D.C., to study education reform through a Breakout trip sponsored by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society this fall break, Whig-Clio president Adam Tcharni ’15 said. “When I came in as president, one of my goals was to establish community service for Whig-Clio,” Tcharni said.

Conservative columnist and professor discuss intellectual culture in higher education

The current culture in higher education is afflicted by a situation analogous to regulatory capture in industry, nationally syndicated political columnist George Will GS ’68 said in a two-person discussion with politics professor Robert George on Monday. Just as companies learn to produce changes in regulatory bodies that are favorable to themselves, it is possible that the tenure system produces professors who are largely replicas of the tenure committee, Will explained.

Number of fall bickerees down from last year

USG Senate addresses grading policy, sexual assault policy

The Undergraduate Student Government Senate passed several resolutions regarding its position on the Report from the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Policy Regarding Assessment and Grading, and welcomed Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources & Education to discuss its policies and future goals at its weekly Senate meeting Sunday. Among the resolutions made were resolutions stating that numeric quantities should be removed from the grading policy, that departments should be in charge of their own grading standards, that A-pluses should translate to a 4.3 GPA and that there should be no changes made to freshman year academics.

News & Notes: Yale leads in Ivy League endowment returns

Over the last two weeks, four of the eight Ivy League schools posted their endowment investment gains in the past year, with Yale leading the pack at 20.2 percent, according to Bloomberg News. Yale’s endowment grew from $20.8 billion to $23.9 billion, the Yale Daily News reported. Dartmouth reported a 19.2 percent gain in its endowment, the University of Pennsylvania reported a 17.5 percent gain, and Harvard trailed with a 15.4 percent gain. Although Harvard beat its internal benchmark with an endowment of $36.4 billion, illiquid investments in its private-equity portfolio negatively impacted returns, Chief Executive Officer of Harvard Management Co. Jane Mendillo said in a report. In the last two years, Harvard has had the worst-performing endowment in the Ivy League, Bloomberg reported. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported a 19.2 percent growth in its endowment, while Duke University reported a return of 20.1 percent.

U. announces search to fill new Asian American studies professorship

A multidisciplinary search is currently under way for a senior tenured professor in Asian-American studies, according to anannouncement posted on Princeton’s Asian American Studies at Princeton blog. Professor and activist Anne Cheng said that she feelsthe University is tremendously lucky to have the administration’s support in conducting the search.

FindA aggregates student and campus information in easy-to-use app

A group of students in COS 333: Advanced Programming Techniques have created FindA, an app that enables University students to find, in one central location, five things:the nearest bathroom, the nearest printer, another student’s dorm room, the location and time of a class, and a professor’s office. FindA, listed in Apple’s App Store as Princeton FindA, was made by Curtis Belmonte ’16, Emily Hsu ’16, Lucas Mayer ’16 and Kyle Dhillon ’16.Students must log in through the Centralized Authentication System, the same system used to log into Blackboard or Integrated Course Engine, in order to access the app’s features. The app’s name was one of the first things they decided on, Dhillon noted. “What is our app doing?

News & Notes: Stratospheric spacecraft project to begin orbit in December

The University’s stratospheric spacecraft project, SPIDER, is set to begin its 20-day orbit 110,000 feet above ground level in December. The primary SPIDER apparatus is a 10-foot-tall multi-chambered orb, which comes complete with cameras and lenses nearly a foot long each. The spacecraft’s specific mission after launching is to search for gravitation wave patterns produced by the Big Bang that occurred billions of years ago, searching for any proof of remains or traces of the universe in its earliest stages. In mid-October, the SPIDER team of researchers intend to bring all SPIDER apparatus, which was built mostly in Jadwin Hall, to Antarctica to make preparations for the launch date in December. According to physics assistant professor William Jones, the location is particularly convenient with Antarctica’s constant sunlight as an energy source. However, Jones predicts that it is unlikely SPIDER will come back in one piece simply because of the dangerous and long nature of the journey so far up.

News & Notes: MIT student found dead in dorm room

A sophomore from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was found dead in her dorm room on Tuesday, VCB5 reported, citing an email sent to the student bodyby MIT President L.

Q&A: William Deresiewicz

William Deresiewicz, author of the controversial column “Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League,” argues in his latest book, “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life,” that the current higher education system is facing a crisis.

Proposal seeks to require RCAs to disclose all reported sexual assaults to U. authorities

Starting this academic year and awaiting final approval, residential college advisers will be considered to be students with “special responsibilities” in regard to alleged instances of sexual misconduct, under proposed changes to “Rights, Rules, Responsibilities.”The proposed changes were approved by the faculty on Sept.

Annual Giving Campaign raises record amount

The University’s latest Annual Giving campaign raised a record-breaking total of$58,748,900, with an also record-breaking participation rate of 61.4 percent for undergraduate alumni. The previous record was $57,246,302 from two years ago, and the previous record for participation was 61.3 percent from 2010-11. Graduate alumniparticipation was 13.7 percent. University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said the combination of three factors —quality of the education provided by the University, character of and intense loyalty to the community, andlasting reminder of how much alumni owed to the people that came before them —makes the campaign successful year after year. “Annual Giving is something that affects the lives of every faculty member and everystudent on this campus,” Eisgruber explained.