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USG discusses new P/D/F policy, Thanksgiving buses

USG discusses new P/D/F policy, Thanksgiving buses

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government is discussing a complete reversal to the pass/D/fail policy in which students would be allowed to reverse a choice to take a class with a P/D/F option, academics committee chair Ramie Fathy ’16 said at the weekly senate meeting on Sunday.He noted that the committee also included an alternative in which students could reverse a P/D/F option only if the course was used for a concentration or a certificate program.“A lot of students have said that they didn’t have enough information about whether to P/D/F by the ninth week of classes,” Fathy said.He added that students also said they wanted to use the P/D/F option for introductory language classes, which students must currently take for a grade.USG president Ella Cheng ’16 noted that the USG could push for professors to publish midterm grades for higher-level classes, not just 100- or 200-level classes.Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.U-councilor Brandon McGhee ’18 said that the Thanksgiving buses this year were a success, with tickets selling quickly due to high demand.

NEWS | 12/06/2015

U. to offer P/D/F reversal option for concentration requirements

Caroline Lippman

Students will be allowed to reverse a pass/D/fail grade option for a course that could be used to fulfill requirements for a concentration or a certificate, according to Undergraduate Student Government academics committee chair Ramie Fathy ’16.Students would be able to reverse these P/D/F designations once they have chosen their concentration and/or certificates, Fathy said.Fathy will communicate with administratorsto finalize an implementation date for the change, according toUSG president Ella Cheng '16.Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.The committee, which organized the initiative to reform P/D/F policies, proposed several changes to the University’s current P/D/F policy on Friday to the Committee on Examinations and Standing, academics committee member Erika Kirgios’ 17 said.The proposal was based on data from a survey administered to the student body over the Thanksgiving break, which received over 2,000 responses.Kirgios noted that the survey revealed that 22 percent of students have chosen not to pursue a potential concentration or certificate because they used a P/D/F grade in an introductory course and could not use that credit to fulfill higher-level course requirements.“The students definitely wanted the policy to change,” Fathy explained, noting that the results show student interest in a new P/D/F policy.Kirgios added that the academics committee received notification shortly after the proposal from Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler that the Committee on Examinations and Standing was currently working on a process to allow students to appeal through their residential college dean to uncover a grade in a course that they took with a P/D/F if they need it to meet a departmental or certificate requirement."I would be very much in favor of students being able to reverse a P/D/F for a course they needed for a department or a certificate," Fowler said.“I wouldn’t like to think that choosing to P/D/F would prevent somebody from majoring in a department.”Kirgios said that the academics committee’s proposed revisions also included a reverse P/D/F policy, which would allow students to uncover their grade in a course and reverse their decision to opt for the P/D/F option up to two weeks into the following semester.However, this change will not be implemented, she noted.

NEWS | 12/06/2015

Princeton Public Library appoints new executive director

Jessica Li

New executive director of Princeton Public Library Brett Bonfield plans to spearhead educational initiatives for privacy protection, solicit input from the community and collaborate closely with the University.Bonfield’s appointment by the library’s Board of Trustees marks the end of the tenure of current PPL director Leslie Burger.

NEWS | 12/06/2015

Czulak '17 wins USG presidency in runoff

Andie Ayala

Undergraduate Student Government vice president Aleksandra Czulak ’17 won the 2015 USG presidential runoff with 56.9 percent of the vote, according to chief elections manager Sung Won Chang '18. Her opponent, USG Social Committee chair Simon Wu ’17, obtained the remaining 43.1 percent of the vote. Wu led the first round of elections on Dec.

NEWS | 12/04/2015

Q&A: Karla Hoff GS ’89, World Bank senior researcher

Durva Trivedi

Karla Hoff GS ’89is a senior research economist at the World Bank and shewas co-director of the World Development Report 2015 on Mind, Society and Behavior.

NEWS | 12/03/2015

Dolan, Calhoun hold town hall meeting

Annie Yang

The University Task Force on General Education plans to reevaluate distribution requirements which haven’t been changed in nearly 20 years, Dean of the College Jill Dolan said in a joint town hall meeting on Thursday. Dolan explained that working to reevaluate the general education curriculum is one of her priorities and that her goal is to see where the campus climate fits in the discussion. Vice President for Campus Life W.

NEWS | 12/03/2015

Drink Local Initiative to discuss bottled water sustainability measures with Eisgruber ’83

Marcia Brown

Three Office of Sustainability internsworking on the Drink Local Initiativewill present a plan of action toreduce waste and wasted energy from bottled water to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 in three weeks.The presentation is being made as the University shapes its 2016 campus plan and possibly its 30-year outlook.The initiative was launched in 2009 when the Office of Sustainability started giving out water bottles to all incoming freshmen, Director of the Office of Sustainability Shana Weber said.

NEWS | 12/03/2015

Teaching focus, interdisciplinary study contribute to U. researchers winning Nobel prizes

Andie Ayala

There are 40 current and previous members of the University, including faculty, staff and alumni, that have won the Nobel Prize since the prize was founded in 1901, according to the University’s websiteon the Nobel Prize. One University-affiliated individual has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, two in physiology or medicine, three in literature, four in chemistry, twelve in economics and eighteen in physics. Three scholars associated with the University were awarded the Nobel Prize this year — former postdoctoral researcher Tomas Lindahl in chemistry, economics professor Angus Deaton in economics and former physics professor Arthur McDonald in physics. A total of eleven laureates were granted the prize in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace this year. Neither Harvard nor Yale had affiliated Nobel laureates this year. Dean for Research Pablo Debenedetti noted how the University has traditionally been very strong in the quality of research it produces. “Princeton has been prosperous and keeps on getting better,” he said. While numbers show that the department with the most Nobel prizes is the physics department, Debenedetti said the University has top scholars and top researchers across the board.

NEWS | 12/03/2015

Barton ’16 awarded Rhodes Scholarship

Ruby Shao

Nicholas Barton ’16 won a Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford, the University announced on Wednesday.Barton, an astrophysics major, will pursue a M.Sc.

NEWS | 12/02/2015

Holy Cross professor discusses Islam in face of ISIS

Claire Lee

Muslims are in a state of relative weakness, College of the Holy Cross Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies Caner Dagli argued at a lecture on Islam in current affairs on Wednesday.“We need to rebuild our intellectual and cultural institutions,” he said.

NEWS | 12/02/2015

Firestone begins fourth stage of renovation

Hannah Waxman

Firestone Library began the fourth of six renovation stages inNovember.The fourth phase will introduce the new space for the Digital Center for the Humanities, a renovated Rare Books and Special Collections suite and a new home for the Video Library formerly located in East Pyne.There will also be additional open study and stacks areas completed on the A and B floors.Most of the fourth phase takes places within the original 1948 building, Design and Construction Project Manager James Wallace noted.These renovations primarily affect the A, B and C floors of the library as well as various projects in the former Rare Books and Special Collection Gallery.

NEWS | 12/02/2015

U. community shares perspectives on campus suicides

Shriya Sekhsaria

Scully Hall dormitory assistant Melody Falter ’16 was sitting in her hall’s study room on Oct.

NEWS | 12/02/2015

Milner, Tingley GS ’10 discuss partisan politics, foreign affairs

Maya Wesby

The famous phrase that “politics stops at the water’s edge,” meaning that Americans abandon partisan domestic conflicts when confronting international issues, is not really true, Wilson School professorHelen Milner said in a lecture on Tuesday.Milner and Dustin Tingley GS ’10, a professor of government at Harvard, were discussing their recent book, “Sailing the Water’s Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy.” Barton Gellman ’82, visiting professional specialist at the Wilson School and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, moderated the discussion.Milner, who is also thedirector of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance,explained that most books on foreign policy either focus on the international dimensions or zero in on how different presidents’ personalities affect their decision-making.

NEWS | 12/01/2015

Former Mathey DSL takes on senior position in Career Services

Zaynab Zaman

Matthew Frawley, the former Director of Student Life of Mathey College, has departed his position in Mathey to work as the Senior Associate Director of Career Education in the University's Office of Career Services. His new position became effective on Nov.

NEWS | 12/01/2015

Fenwick Hospitality Group to operate restaurant, bar in Arts and Transit Project

Betty Liu

The University will be partnering with the Fenwick Hospitality Group, a local restaurant group, to operate a new bar and restaurant along Alexander Street and University Place next spring as part of the Arts and Transit Project. Fenwick operates 37 Panera Bread restaurants in North Jersey and a farm-to-table restaurant called Agricola Eatery in Princeton. University Director of Community and Regional Affairs KristinAppelget explained that the University formed a selection committee comprised of a variety of University offices in choosing a partner to operate the bar and restaurant.

NEWS | 12/01/2015

Slaughter ’80 lectures on value of women's revolution

Abhiram Karuppur

Former Dean of the Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 discussed the focus of the second half of the women’s revolution in a lecture Tuesday, saying that American society should place a higher value on caregiving.“We focus more on ourselves and are missing the value of investing in others,” she said.

NEWS | 11/30/2015

Whig-Clio marks 250th anniversary as home for campus political groups

Olivia Wicki

Whig-Clio’s trajectory has been marked within the past few years by its decreasing centralization and its increasing support, as an overarching political organization for different political groups on campus, Whig-Clio president Cydney Kim ’17 said.“When Whig-Clio first started 250 years ago, or even in the late 20th century, it was actually one of the few political organizations on campus; there weren’t as many political groups as we see today,” Kim explained.The 250th anniversary of Whig-Clio was celebrated with a gala in Washington, D.C.

NEWS | 11/30/2015

USG Eating Club Accessibility Report recommends transparency of events, costs, other dining options

Kristin Qian

The Undergraduate Student Government released the Eating Club Accessibility Report last week, which has proposed several recommendations regarding transparency of events, eating club costs in relation to financial aid and information about eating clubs and other dining options.The motivation for the project was to understand how eating clubs relate to other entities, in terms of their social, dining and financial aspects, Aleksandra Czulak ’17, one of the project leaders and USG Vice President, said.Czulak said that the project started last fall when Shawon Jackson ’15 was USG president.A survey was sent out to students in the December 2014 in conjunction with town hall meetings, and another survey was sent out in the spring of 2015, she said.USG used the data from a 2010 University Task Force on the eating clubs and the new information collected from the 2014-2015 surveys to understand why they were seeing the same issues and if there was anything that could be done, she explained.“Eating clubs aren’t just an eating club entity; they affect many different parts of your life on campus,” Czulak said.Although around 70 percent of students are involved in eating clubs, the survey revealed differences in age and year affected how students related and engaged with eating clubs, Czulak explained.

NEWS | 11/30/2015

Strauss brings wealth of entrepreneurial, policy knowledge to Wilson school

Abhiram Karuppur

On top of advising governments on public policy issues around the world and writing numerous opinion pieces for The Huffington Post, Business Insider and Salon, visiting professor Steven Strauss played a key role in the growth of New York City's technology and entrepreneurship scene.“I’m pleased with the work I’ve done.

NEWS | 11/30/2015

Czulak ’17, Wu ’17 to enter run-off election for USG presidency

Caroline Lippman

A run-off election for the Undergraduate Student Government presidency will be held between Aleksandra Czulak ’17 and Simon Wu ’17, according to an email to the student body from outgoing USG president Ella Cheng ’16. Cheng is a former staff writer for the Daily Princetonian. Chief Elections Manager Sung Won Chang ’18 said the candidates will need to adhere to the same rules and regulations as in the primary election. The candidates will have a few days to campaign before voting officially begins onMonday, Nov.

NEWS | 11/27/2015

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