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Sophomore swimmer drowns in Florida

Sophomore swimmer drowns in Florida

A sophomore drowned late Friday night in Florida, where he was spending Fall Break training with the men's and women's swimming and diving teams.Alan Ebersole, 20, a Butler College resident from Vicksburg, Miss., drowned off the coast of Deerfield Beach, Fl., according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Map shows varied voting patterns

Four years ago, professor Robert Vanderbei created a project for his ORF 201: Computer Methods and Problem Solving class in which they took data from the 2000 election and made a map of America.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Campaign leads profs to debate ethics of stem cell research

Among the topics that Republican incumbent George W. Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry have debated during the presidential campaign, embryonic stem cell research stands out as one of the most contentious.While the Bush administration stresses the immorality of destroying embryos for the purpose of biomedical research, the Kerry camp supports embryos' use in researching cures for debilitating diseases.With passions running high on both sides of the debate, some University professors have chosen to weigh in on the stem cell research controversy.Professor Roblin Meeks of the Princeton Writing Program, who teaches the writing seminar "The Culture Wars in Philosophical Context," said he supports embryonic stem cell research.Meeks, whose father suffered from polio, said that opponents of stem cell research too often paint the issue as "a stark contrast between supporting life and opposing life." This attitude, he said, ignores the need to improve the quality of life for people like his father."We need to take into account quality of life as much as a definitive notion of 'this is life' or 'this isn't life,'" he said.Meeks said his background in cognitive science leads to "optimism as to where science can take us," but he fears the Bush administration does not share this attitude."I think the Bush administration is very distrustful of science," he said.Peter Singer, professor at the Center for Human Values, agreed.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Football looks to rebound against Cornell

If there's anything the football team has learned over the past few seasons, head coach Roger Hughes joked Wednesday afternoon, it's how to react to a tough loss.The lesson will undoubtedly come in handy as Princeton (4-2 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) prepares to travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to face Cornell (1-5, 1-2) on Saturday."I told the team you can't do anything about that loss," Hughes said, referring to the 39-14 drubbing the Tigers received from Harvard last weekend.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Bush-Kerry debates overlook higher education issues such as study abroad, financial aid, stem cell research

With the November elections fast approaching, debate over Iraq, terrorism and the economy has in many ways dominated the rhetoric of presidential candidates George W.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Harvard blows out football in Homecoming game

"We haven't been a dominant team," Harvard head coach Tim Murphy said. "We've just been an extremely resiliant, mentally tough football team."Based upon the Crimson's performance during Saturday's 39-14 win against Princeton (4-2 overall, 2-1 Ivy League), Murphy may be guilty of understatement.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

International students weigh in on election

With Election Day less than two weeks away, most Princeton students ? including international students ? have already decided how they intend to vote.Despite having no actual say in the matter, most foreign citizens on campus hold strong opinions on the upcoming presidential election ? and Sen.

NEWS | 10/21/2004

Students make online connections in live journals

Countless University students are closet addicts of sites like thefacebook.com. They surf the directory pages to look at people's pictures, read their witty and sometimes fantasized profiles, and maybe even check out their relationship statuses.But many of these students have not yet come across the extensive world of live journals."It's an even better stalker tool than thefacebook.com," Yvon Wang '08 joked in an email.

NEWS | 10/20/2004

University to shut down, update e-mail Saturday

OIT will temporarily shut down the University's IMAP email and Webmail Saturday to make long-overdue updates.An email sent on Monday to all students explained that the outage will take place approximately between 7 a.m.

NEWS | 10/20/2004

Hospital plans for future

The University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP) plans to build replacement facilities or relocate from its location on Witherspoon Street because of spatial constraints.The current building and the services provided within need to be expanded and updated to meet today's health care demands, Princeton Health Center President and CEO Barry Rabner said."The projections of the growth of the population in the areas we serve show a significant growth," Rabner said.

NEWS | 10/20/2004

Holt, Spadea court locals for House seat

As Election Day approaches, the contest between Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Bill Spadea for New Jersey's 12th District seat in the U.S.

NEWS | 10/20/2004

Seniors turn tiny carrels into personal study spaces

For most seniors, the prospect of moving in to their carrels is anything but inviting.Yet a few have begun to explore these cubicles already, some with more creative approaches than others.Blake Robinson '05 has been trying to improve the bleakness of his carrel by adding personal touches.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Indian students discuss pros, cons of arranged marriages

In her school in India, Arthi Ramachandran '08 didn't talk to boys. She would walk to school through the hot streets of Chennai, a city in southern India, covered in a salwar kameez ? traditional Indian garb concealing most of her form ? so men wouldn't look her way.Where Ramachandran is from, arranged marriages are still an accepted and prevalent Indian cultural custom.But when she arrived at the University this fall, she was in for a world of change.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Undergraduates take over the classroom as TAs

In many departments with large or challenging classes, the graduate students become the extensions of professors.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Number of students with ADD increases

University Health Services has seen a jump in the number of students with attention disorders in recent years as the wider availability of treatments enables more affected students to come to Princeton."There has been an increase in the recognition of the disorders, and we have seen more cases now than ever before," said Dr. Susan Packer, associate director of counseling and psychological services.Medications such as Ritalin, Straterra and Adderall allow students with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and an associated disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to focus for longer periods of time.Nationally, 1.6 to 2 million people have been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD.A slew of thorny issues arise with more ADD and ADHD students coming to Princeton, such as whether affected students should receive extra time on tests as they often do in high school.Packer leads a team in health services to help students who need remediation for their disorder or need help with psychological issues.Casey Riley '08, who was diagnosed with ADD this summer, said she thinks the University hasn't made enough accomodations for her condition."I did qualify for time and half on the SATs," Riley said, explaining she received 50 percent more time on the test because a counselor had diagnosed her as a slow reader."My report that qualified me for extra time on the SAT's doesn't [at Princeton]," she said. Extra timeAssociate Dean of the College Claire Fowler, who is in charge of the policies regarding learning disabilities and the process for requesting more time on exams, said students must have a compelling reason to get extra time on exams.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Professors travel from Pennsylvania, Paris to precept

Professor Lamine Sagna was surprised at his cousin's reaction when he told him he had a call from a scholarly acquaintance made while studying in Paris.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Deer culling plan enters final stage

Pending official approval from the New Jersey Fish and Game Council in December, Princeton Township will begin the last installment of its controversial five-year program to reduce the local deer population, Township Attorney Edwin Schmierer said.Driven by rising deer-related car accidents, the destruction of forest understories and concerns about the health of the deer population, the Township hired the group White Buffalo to kill the animals.

NEWS | 10/19/2004

Kerry tops Bush, 62-24 percent; students split on Baehr '05

If Princeton undergraduates were the only Americans allowed to vote in the upcoming presidential election, Sen.

NEWS | 10/18/2004

A social niche in religious groups

For incoming freshmen, move-in day brings a host of stressful factors ? unpacking, separation from family members and meeting new people.But for Maital Friedman '07, the hardest part of the day was that it fell on a Saturday, the Jewish holy Sabbath, which meant that she could not move in.Friedman came to campus the following Monday, but she said she was frustrated by the experience."I didn't have the same opportunities," Friedman said.

NEWS | 10/18/2004

Yale science faculty seeks to bring up course grades

Science professors at Yale University are considering awarding higher grades to students, especially those in courses for non-science majors."The primary issue was one of fairness to the students ? we don't want students to be penalized for taking any particular course, or courses in any particular division," said Yale astrophysics professor Charles Bailyn, emphasizing that it "is a special concern in terms of science."Yale's Science Council, a group of concerned science faculty members headed by Bailyn, proposed grading reforms entirely independent from the university's administration.Bailyn said the councilors convened informally to share grade distributions, talk about grading approaches and discuss possible reforms.Unlike Princeton's new policy, which would limit A's to 35 percent of undergraduate grades and 55 percent of independent work grades, Yale's proposed science grading reforms depend entirely upon professor discretion."Grading is the prerogative of the faculty," Yale College Dean Peter Salovey said.Bailyn said he senses little interest from students, faculty and administration "in moving toward the kind of global solution that is being attempted at Princeton."Princeton chemistry professor Michael Hecht said the University has aimed for the same grading outcome ? grading equality across disciplines ? as Yale with an entirely different approach."By leveling the playing field between other departments and the sciences," Hecht said."People won't be afraid to take science classes because now courses from the humanities departments are graded in the same way."Yale geology professor Mark Brandon, who teaches a course taken predominately by non-science majors, was concerned about the lack of information about the actual distribution of grades that Yale professors assign in their courses."Princeton made a brave move to publish detailed information about its typical grade distribution," he said.Yale's new guidelines are not official.

NEWS | 10/18/2004

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