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Wilson School reacts to dean’s departure

Wilson School reacts to dean’s departure

Last Tuesday, Shirley Gao ’13 sent an email to Christina Paxson, dean of the Wilson School, asking if Paxson would be her thesis adviser. For a couple of days last week, Gao waited for a reply, uncertain about whether Paxson would guide her into the next year. “Well, I never got a response, but I certainly found out why that was the case just a few days later,” Gao said in an email. On Friday morning, Brown University announced that it had selected Paxson to succeed Ruth Simmons as its 19th president. Just as Paxson’s departure leaves Gao in flux, it also leaves the Wilson School in flux, given the recent overhaul of the undergraduate concentration that Paxson has overseen since being named dean in 2009.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Borough Council discusses Dinky, Merwick-Stanworth apartments

The Borough Council discussed a variety of local issues at its meeting on Tuesday night.Residents in the Borough said that they were placing trash outside of their homes that were not being collected. Borough Council President Barbara Trelstad said that this was troublesome for the multifamily homes and apartments in her residential area.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Chemistry outreach mixes learning, fantasy fun

The department of chemistry is seeking to replicate Professor Snape’s potions class for local kids.The department’s Chemistry Outreach Program seeks to connect trained student volunteers with the wider Princeton community — young students in particular — in hopes of sparking an interest in chemistry. The program, which includes Harry Potter-esque magical potions, looking-glass molecules from “Alice in Wonderland” and maps from “Treasure Island,” has expanded from 17 students in its first year to 31 undergraduate students and three graduate students. The program was established in September 1997 by professor Warren Warren (now chair of the department of chemistry at Duke University), professor Andrew Bocarsly and lecture demonstrator Kathryn Wagner.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Wilkes ’83 seeks mayoral nomination

Borough Council member and local business owner Kevin Wilkes ’83 announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination for mayor of the newly consolidated Princeton, setting up a primary challenge with Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Princeton Seminary: The Other Bubble

Despite being a mere five-minute walk from Forbes and McCarter Theatre, the Princeton Theological Seminary is beyond the radar of many University students.Though Seminary students often enroll in University courses, Princeton undergraduates rarely take courses through the Seminary. Students at both institutions noted a lack of social interaction between the two groups. Additionally, despite a long and intertwined history, University and Seminary students said that the two lack a strong relationship at the institutional level.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

News & Notes: Constraints on social media prevent accurate U. history timeline

If its social media is taken at face value, Princeton — the nation’s fourth-oldest university — is having trouble figuring out exactly when it was founded.According to its new Facebook Timeline, the University, which was founded in 1746, was actually founded on July 1, 1800. University Social Media Strategist Ian Cahir said in a tweet that the new Facebook Timeline prevents the University from accurately registering when it was founded.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

Faculty replace 2 introductory Italian courses at meeting

Changes to the curriculum of the Department of French and Italian were proposed and approved at the University faculty meeting on Monday.On behalf of the Committee on the Course of Study, Dean of the College Valerie Smith proposed dropping from the curriculum ITA 221: Introduction to Italian Literature, Language and Society: From the Beginnings to 1700 and ITA 222: Introduction to Italian Literature, Language and Society: From 1700 to the Present. Italian professors Simone Marchesi and Pietro Frassica previously taught ITA 221 and ITA 222, respectively.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

Enforcing grade deflation

Every September, each University professor receives an email from the Office of the Registrar.The email is an annual grading report, formatted as a PDF document with three rows. The last row displays the grading distribution for each of the courses the professor taught the previous year; the second row indicates the number of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s and F’s given out by all faculty members in his or her department; and the top row shows the University’s grading distribution as a whole.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

U. licenses professor’s new speaker technology

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Edgar Choueiri has worked in 3-D audio since 2003, developing a system known as BACCH that reduces the problems of speaker interference, which has since been licensed to commercial companies.Throughout the technology development process, Choueiri’s work was backed by the protection that the University provides for his intellectual property.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

At U., candidate led troops, made enemies

Classmates of Pete Hegseth ’03 — especially those of the liberal persuasion — have called the former publisher of the Princeton Tory many things, but seldom a coward.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

News & Notes: Majority of Americans approve of college’s effects

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found in a recent poll that 60 percent of Americans think college has an overall positive effect on American life, according to Inside Higher Ed.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

Local board approves battlefield construction

The Institute for Advanced Study received the go-ahead on Thursday night to develop new faculty housing on a controversial plot of land on which George Washington and his troops fought the 1777 Battle of Princeton. In a unanimous 10-0 vote, the Princeton Regional Planning Board voted in favor of the IAS, despite continuing opposition from the Princeton Battlefield Area Preservation Society.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

Committees present projects at USG meeting

The USG meeting Sunday night featured presentations by several student implementation committees.Catherine Ettman ’13 spoke on behalf of three initiatives, first on the Leadership Implementation Committee. She said the committee’s purpose was to “find many ways to engage students in the practice of leadership,” explaining that its goals were to expand access to leadership to all students and to improve support of student leaders.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

As student, new mayor shadowed by race, gender

When it comes to town-gown relations, Borough Mayor Yina Moore ’79 has a dog on both sides of the fight.The Moore family has lived in Princeton since her grandfather settled in the town in 1890. Moore attended local public schools and graduated from Princeton High School in 1973.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

USG, Sustained Dialogue promote mental health

Today marks the launch of Mental Health Awareness Week, co-sponsored by the USG and the student group Sustained Dialogue. Among the events planned for the week are group yoga sessions, free fitness classes, a student panel about stress and mental health-themed study breaks.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

Wilson School dean named Brown president

Brown University announced Friday morning that it had selected Wilson School Dean Christina Paxson as its 19th president and the successor to current president Ruth Simmons. Simmons announced in September that she would step down at the end of this year.

NEWS | 03/04/2012

Pro-Life group unveils 'Demographic Winter' project

Princeton Pro-Life engages current students, recruits students and holds events advocating its cause. But the group’s motto — “for the sake of our missing classmates” — indicates it is motivated less by a desire to engage current students than by its concern for students that may have missed out on the opportunity to attend the University because of abortion, members said.An advocacy group that opposes abortion, the organization is also active in many other issues and is gearing up for the next semester with a new theme, what it calls “Demographic Winter.”

NEWS | 03/01/2012

Cheeburger Cheeburger to open Nassau Street 100-seat restaurant this May

Cheeburger Cheeburger, a national burger chain, is set to open at 182 Nassau Street this May. The 1950s-style restaurant will replace Carousel Luncheonette — which has occupied the space since 2004 and another Nassau Street location since 1955.The restaurant will be locally owned and operated by partners John Lim and Adam Pasieka, residents of nearby West Windsor and Cream Ridge, respectively.

NEWS | 03/01/2012

News & Notes: SFER chosen as finalist for White House competition

Students for Education Reform, an advocacy group which aims to close the achievement gap in American public schools founded by Catharine Bellinger ’12 and Alexis Morin ’12, was named a finalist in the White House’s Campus Champions of Change Challenge, which aims to give student-led organizations the opportunity to demonstrate how their project has helped improve their campus communities and American society.

NEWS | 03/01/2012

U. assesses impacts of new UMCP

The upcoming move of the University Medical Center of Princeton to its new Plainsboro location is presenting logistical challenges to University officials, especially regarding referrals from University Health Services and the administration of rape kits.The new hospital will be located right across the border of Mercer County in Middlesex County, which is under the jurisdiction of a different police department and prosecutor’s office. The University is currently holding discussions with health and law enforcement officials over allowing students to travel to the new hospital location for sexual assault forensic investigations, known as rape kits, University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said in an email.

NEWS | 03/01/2012

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