News

Military press calls for alum Rumsfeld's ouster

A group of military newspapers added their voices this week to criticism of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld '54, calling for his resignation and charging that the Pentagon leader "has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large."The criticism of Rumsfeld's management of the Iraq war comes just days before midterm elections, as Democrats and some Republican candidates fault the Bush administration for its handling of the war.The Military Times Media Group, including the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps papers, are private newspapers published by the Gannett Company, which also publishes USA Today.The editorial said that a "new chorus of criticism is beginning to resonate.

At Chicago schools, alumni get their hands dirty

Taking to heart the University's unofficial motto of "Princeton in the Nation's Service," a number of alumni have taken a break from retirement to get their hands dirty with chalk, helping out in Chicago public schools.Last week, Oren Pollock GS '51 joined more than 600 volunteers designated by the Chicago Board of Education to serve as principals for the day, engaging firsthand with public school administrators.

Gutmann photo draws criticism

(U-WIRE) PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 3 ? A University of Pennsylvania student says it was just a joke, but his Halloween costume has resulted in serious criticism for University President Amy Gutmann.Engineering senior Saad Saadi dressed as a suicide bomber for Gutmann's annual Halloween party Tuesday night, and photos were taken of him with Gutmann and other school officials.Now, the pictures are popping up on the Web and alumni and others around the country are contacting the University to voice their distaste.University officials were not available to comment for this story because it developed late in the evening.Saadi told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Gutmann did not seem to take his costume too seriously.

Firm drops out of planning for arts neighborhood

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), the architectural firm tasked with planning a campus "arts neighborhood," told the University that it has insufficient time to spend on the project and has been allowed to withdraw from its obligations, the University announced Friday."We respect the decision by RPBW ... and we are hopeful that they may reengage when we are ready to begin designing buildings for the site," University Executive Vice President Mark Burstein said in the statement."They have been exceedingly helpful in shaping our initial thinking about the arts neighborhood, and we are very grateful for the creativity and insight they have brought to the project."The Paris-based firm, named for founder Renzo Piano, had been working on a site plan that would fit performance venues, galleries, classrooms, parking lots and shops onto University-owned land south of McCarter Theatre."Despite its enormous international distinction, RPBW remains a relatively small firm, and Renzo Piano himself takes a personal interest in every project," Burstein said.Among Piano's direct contributions to the plan is a "piazza" intended to evoke the bustling public squares of his native Italy, University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee '69 said in an interview earlier this fall.The entire arts complex will have a total area of about 250,000 square feet and cost more than $300 million, Durkee said.The University said that Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB), the firm in charge of drawing up a 10-year master plan for campus expansion, will continue design work on the arts neighborhood."BBB has been fully engaged in planning for the arts neighborhood from the beginning, and we will be in very good hands as they now take on sole responsibility for managing the project," Burstein said.It was not immediately clear whether the withdrawal of RPBW would delay the rezoning and site plan approval necessary before construction can begin.Preliminary plans released in September called for moving the Dinky Station several hundred feet south along existing track, straightening and extending University Place and relocating the Wawa convenience store."We look forward to building on the work that already has been done and to conversations about this project that we will be having with our trustees and with the community over the coming months," Burstein said."Because of where it is and what it is aiming to accomplish, this is a high-priority project for the University and for the community"

Not all colleges created equal?

Given the disparity in architecture among the residential colleges, rumors have long circulated that Rockefeller and Mathey colleges have more funds at their disposal than Butler, Wilson or Forbes.University renovations of up-campus buildings ? including the recent restoration of Rockefeller's Holder Hall and the overhaul of the Mathey college office ? have not helped quell these suspicions.

On break and hitting up the campaign trail

Students are bracing themselves for the results of Tuesday's election, especially those few who devoted their Fall Break to campaigning for their candidates.The tradition of Fall Break began in 1971, when the University introduced a week-long vacation so students could work on campaigns.

Where art and atoms collide

Hidden on a small grass lot behind Palmer Square lies a place where art, science and recreation converge.Quark Park, a temporary display named for the subatomic particle, was conceived, designed and organized by architect Kevin Wilkes '83, landscape architect Alan Goodheart and local landscaper Peter Sonderman.The park ? on Paul Robeson Place, between Chambers and Witherspoon Streets ? is designed to be a place where "people can forget about who they are, who they're supposed to be," Sonderman said.Each of the more than 20 creations in the park was built through collaboration between a scientist, an architect and a landscape artist attempting to present a scientific idea in a way that would make it more interesting and more accessible to the general public.One such installation is "Sensation," a series of glowing translucent fibers in bright primary colors traveling from three spheres to a series of thin disks that resemble oversized buttons.

No details yet on possible academic calendar reform

The Committee on the Course of Study is likely to announce plans in December regarding the future of the academic calendar, USG academics chair Caitlin Sullivan '07 said."This year our main agenda item would be to look at the academic calendar," Sullivan said yesterday.

Liberal bias hurts colleges, study suggests

In response to a recent report accusing college faculties of being overly liberal, several University professors said that political ideologies don't adversely affect the Princeton experience.The study by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, titled "A Profile of American College Faculty: Volume 1: Political Beliefs & Behavior," suggests that faculties' liberal leanings put them at odds with the beliefs of Americans at large.

Endowment climbs past $13 billion

The University endowment grew to $13 billion in the past year, Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) president Andrew Golden said yesterday.Investment returns for the 2005-06 fiscal year were 19.5 percent, surpassing last year's returns of 17 percent and the University's 10-year average of 15.6 percent.Golden described 2005-06 as "a fabulous year" for PRINCO's investments, explaining that "the return was very strong relative to our benchmarks."Returns trailed M.I.T., whose 23 percent returns brought the endowment there to $8.4 billion, and Yale, whose endowment returns of 22.9 percent outpaced all Ivies in 2005-06. Stanford's endowment generated returns of 19.4 percent last year, while Harvard saw returns of 16.7 percent.Harvard's endowment, now valued at $29.2 billion, remains the largest university endowment in the world, while Yale comes in at second with $18 billion.

New UK fellowship taps young scientists

Hoping to recruit the world's best scientists to work in Great Britain, the British government earlier this week announced a new fellowship program for talented young researchers.The program, called the Royal Society International Fellowship and based partly on Germany's prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowships, may attract some Princeton scientists who wish to collaborate with their peers overseas.Since "there's a lot of excellent research in my field" at universities in the United Kingdom, computer science professor David Blei said, the fellowship "would be a great chance to visit [those] institutions" and "work with colleagues that I usually don't see.""It's the first scholarship for assistant professors that I've heard of that does this."Alistair Darling, Britain's trade and industry secretary, announced the initiative on Oct.

Ninjas, nerds and net neutrality

Having spent the summer in Silicon Valley, that glorious land of technowizardry, hybrid cars, unabashed liberalism and startup companies floating on the hopes and dreams of nerds and venture capitalists alike, I was shocked to find that almost no one at Princeton knows anything about the mysterious idea of "net neutrality."To begin with, it's about the Internet.

Up, up and away

Athletes in Action hosted an ultimate frisbee game under the football stadium lights yesterday.

Court backs gay rights, but not marriage

The state supreme court ruled yesterday that New Jersey must grant same-sex couples "the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes," delivering a partial but important victory to gay rights supporters on campus and across the state.The court's 4-3 decision in the case of Lewis v.

Social site aids in job search

Students looking for jobs quickly learn that solid credentials are good, but personal connections may be better.Capitalizing on this reality is doostang.com, a "professional networking" website intended to enable students and alumni to build the personal connections needed to get noticed ? and hired.The site, which was launched in June 2005 by Stanford graduate Mareza Larizadeh and MIT grad Pavel Krapivin, has grown steadily in popularity at Stanford, MIT and Harvard and is beginning to generate buzz at Princeton.Doostang student representatives Jesse Creed '07, William Peng '10 and Hosham Eltahir '10 are currently working with full-time employee Chelsea Burkett on spreading the word at Princeton through organizations such as Business Today and the Pre-Business Society.

Oberdorfer '52 tells stories of the Cold War

Former Washington Post reporter Don Oberdorfer '52, who covered many of the defining moments of the Cold War, returned to campus yesterday to discuss life as a diplomatic correspondent.Speaking in Robertson Hall in a lecture sponsored by the Wilson School, Oberdorfer focused much of his attention on the 17 years he spent covering the Cold War.

University helps alumni entrepreneurs

Former Princeton roommates Randolph Altschuler '93 and Sumir Chadha '93, who each founded multi-million dollar companies by exploiting India's undeveloped potential, shared their secrets to business success in a panel discussion in the Friend Center yesterday afternoon.The talk, sponsored by the Princeton-Jumpstart Lecture Series on Technology Entrepreneurship and hosted by electrical engineering professor Ed Zschau '61, focused on entrepreneurship, particularly in India ? where Chadha said "every sector is booming."Altschuler and Chadha represent two sides of the same coin in the world of entrepreneurship: Altschuler created a business, while Chadha provides the funding for startups like Altschuler's.Altschuler, who started his company Office Tiger in 2000, sought to "use labor arbitrage and outsource work to Indians.""Watching as banks moved back offices to less expensive locations," in Manhattan or New Jersey, Altschuler wondered, "why not move the back office all the way to India?"Altschuler and classmates Joseph Sigelman '93 and Ravi Srinivasan '93 left prestigious Fortune 500 firms to try out their experiment: a company that performs professional services like data entry and accounting for leading banks.

Our man in Iraq

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus GS '87 is not easy to sum up. In a rapid-fire clip, he recalls studying in Firestone Library's now-defunct Halliburton Map Room, arranging elections in the Iraqi city of Mosul and coauthoring the American military's new counterinsurgency doctrine with equal enthusiasm.

Comparing Lewis with other gay marriage decisions

The majority and dissenting opinions in Lewis v. Harris closely mirror previous decisions in Vermont and Massachusetts, with the majority opinion in Lewis following the logic of the Vermont decision and the dissenting opinion adopting the logic of the Massachusetts case.In 1999, Vermont's supreme court ruled that gay couples should be given the same rights as opposite-sex couples, but that the state legislature should determine whether those rights should be offered through marriage or another institution.

Midterm monotony