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Former Treasury Secretary Summers talks secular stagnation and possible solutions

Former Treasury Secretary Summers talks secular stagnation and possible solutions

Chitra Marti

The most profound macroeconomic challenge of the next 20 years is secular stagnation, or the idea that the economy has equilibrated to downward growth, Lawrence Summers argued in a lecture on Thursday afternoon.Summers served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

Q & A: Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso

Olivia Wicki

Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso joined the faculty of the Wilson School on Feb.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

USG launches project to develop meal exchange app

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government, Campus Dining and the Office of Information Technology are creating an application that would allow upperclassmen in eating clubs and students on residential college meal plans to exchange meals on their mobile devices.USG expects to begin the pilot operation this spring and launch the app for use by the fall of 2016, USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said.While the number of students who will participate in the pilot has not been determined, Cheng said the focus is to include students from all the different eating clubs, rather than having a large number of students.Plans for the project began last fall, and the developers of the app met last Fridaywith representatives from USG to discuss progress on the app.Former USG president Shawon Jackson ’15, who was at the meeting, said the meeting gave USG members the chance to voice their opinions.“We were trying to understand what the next steps would be and ensure that the members on the technology side had all the information necessary,” Executive Director of Dining Services Smitha Haneef said, adding that Campus Dining is frequently working on projects with OIT.Currently, students in eating clubs have to use slips of paper to exchange meals with students outside of eating clubs.

NEWS | 02/19/2015

News & Notes: Yale students petition for Af-Am House director's ouster

Daily Princetonian Staff

Members of the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale presented a petition to administrators there on Tuesday calling for the ouster ofAssistant Dean of Yale College and Director of the Af-Am House Rodney Cohen, the Yale Daily News reported. The meeting saw a petition signed by 147 students presented toYale College Dean Jonathan Holloway and Kimberly Goff-Crews, who is secretary and vice president for student life. Students who attended the meeting and letters submitted by students before the meeting alleged that Cohen was inaccessible and had engaged in poor financial stewardship of the Af-Am House.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

TFA recruiting numbers drop, U. among top contributors

Jessica Li

As the economy improves, recruiting teachers is becoming increasingly challenging for Teach for America. The idea for Teach for America, which matches college graduates with hard-to-fill teaching vacancies, came out of the senior thesis of Wendy Kopp ’89. An increasingly political conversation around public education has led to a decrease in interest for the profession, particularly for people who may have once had more idealistic expectations, Becky O’Neill ’07, senior managing director of communications for Teach for America, said. “At schools like Princeton with such competitive candidates, students are getting offers often and early from lots of great companies,” O’Neill said, adding that her group usually reaches out to individual students for recruitment based on recommendations from professors, career services offices, campus staff, student leaders, current corps members and alumni. “This year, we had 17 Princeton alums join the TFA corps," she said.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Well-being of patients most important in abortion cases, Parker argues

Jessica Li

It is a moral imperative to put the well-being of patients above personal concerns in abortion cases, Willie Parker, a physician in practice at the sole remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, said in a lecture on Wednesday. Current social trajectories are unsettling, Parker said, noting that in a country where one in three women will pursue abortion during their lifetimes, restrictions against the procedure are becoming increasingly stringent. In Mississippi, recent laws have mandated women to receive counseling, accept ultrasound exams and, for minors, obtain parental consent before they can step into an abortion clinic. “Women don’t have the health care called abortion,” Parker said. Born in Birmingham, Ala., Parker grew up with five siblings all raised by a single mother.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Student diagnosed with suspected measles case, no longer contagious

Daily Princetonian Staff

A student was diagnosed with a suspected case of measles but has now recovered and is no longer contagious, the University announced in an email to students on Wednesday. The preliminary medical test results were received on Tuesday, and more tests are currently being conducted. More than 99.5 percent of University students have been vaccinated for the disease, the email said. Faculty and staff who have not been vaccinated for the disease may be at risk if they were inWhitman College dining hall, Baker Hall, Holder Hall, McCosh Health Center, Frick Chemistry building, Wallace Hall, Blair Hall, Friend Center, Spelman Hall, 1938 Hall, Frist Campus Center, Dillon Gymnasium or the New South Building from Feb.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

Student begins collecting signatures for a petition to end Bicker process

Jacob Donnelly

A student began collecting signatures for a referendumpetition to end the Bicker process on Wednesday. The referendum, which was drafted by Ryan Low ’16, specifically calls for each eating club to end Bicker not later than the first day of the 2019-20 academic year, to establish an ad hoc USG committee to facilitate ending Bicker and to call on the Interclub Council to appoint a non-voting member to the ad hoc committee to work with it to facilitate ending Bicker. Low presented the referendum and began collecting signatures Wednesday evening at the Mental Health Initiative’s meeting. The proposed referendum requires 500 signatures before students can vote on it, U-council chairZhan Okuda Lim ’15said. Low coordinated with the Undergraduate Student Government to draft the text of the proposed referendum.USG assists students in drafting referenda they are interesting in running, but the referendum is not endorsed by USG,said Okuda-Lim, who assisted in drafting the resolution’s text for conformity to USG’s typical style. The process toward creating the referendum began in late January, Low said, when a Counseling and Psychological Services counselor told him that early February was a busy time of year in their offices due to Bicker.

NEWS | 02/18/2015

News & Notes: Harvard considering implementing honor code pledge

Daily Princetonian Staff

Harvard students will probably have to sign an honor pledge on their final papers and examinations if the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approves a proposed honor code, the Harvard Crimson reported. Harvard has never before had an honor code. Around 125 Harvard students were investigated for cheating on the final examination of a government class in 2012, and approximately 70 students were forced to withdraw but returned in the fall of 2013. The Faculty Council approved the honor code proposal last week, and the entire faculty now needs to vote to approve it.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

U. researchers co-author paper on using satellite constellations to predict floods

Corinne Lowe

Satellite constellations can be optimized to better predict flooding around the world, researchers from the University, Cornell University and The Aerospace Corporation said in a study published on Feb.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

Hamm ’78 speaks on student activism, civil rights movement

Pooja Patel

People don't have adequate power to make needed changes to society, Lawrence Hamm ’78, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, a social and economic activism organization, said in a lecture on Tuesday. “Ultimately, that’s what we’re struggling for: to empower people," Hamm said. Hamm said he began his work as a student activist in Newark in 1971. “Newark is a key center among several centers for the black liberation movement,” Hamm said.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

Princeton Post Office to move to new location on Nassau Street

Zaynab Zaman

The post office in Palmer Square is moving to the former West Coast Video property at 259 Nassau St. There is no set timeline for when the move will take place, Ray Daiutolo Sr., a U.S.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

Sebelius discusses health care, responds to College Republicans

Charles Kyungchan Min

The Affordable Care Act, as well as other Obama administration health care efforts, has made health care more strongly rooted in adding value-based services and better delivery system reforms, former U.S.

NEWS | 02/17/2015

Syrian film collective presents screening and Q&A

Pooja Patel

The act of filming takes on special meaning during times of war, Charif Kiwan, Syrian filmmaker and co-founder of the Abounaddara Collective, said on Monday. The collective’s films, titled "Syria: A History of Snapshots in the Making," were presented on Monday night.

NEWS | 02/16/2015

Scheide '36 bequeaths 2,500 rare books to Firestone

Jasmine Wang

William Scheide ’36, a musician and philanthropist who died in November at the age of 100, bequeathed his rare books collection to the University, making it the largest gift in the University’s history. The collection is valued at nearly $300 million and is particularly notable for its breadth and depth, Karin Trainer, the University librarian, said. Scheide had announced at a luncheon hosted by the University for his 90thbirthday thathe would bequeath the collection to the University upon his death, Trainer said. After his father,John Scheide,Class of 1896, died in 1942, William Scheidepermitted the transportation in 1959 of the collection from his father’s home in Titusville, Pa., to Firestone Library, where he continued to oversee its care and occasionally add valuable items to it. “I think he was very happy with the way he thought it was being used and the care he could see we were taking with it even though it belonged to him,” Trainer said of Scheide’s decision to trust the University with the collection after his death.

NEWS | 02/16/2015

Tea With Strangers launches, fills quickly

Jacob Donnelly

Tea With Strangers, a student-organized chapter of an international group by the same name, launched on campus Sunday evening and all of the program’s time slots have already been filled. The program facilitates group conversations between students on campus who do not know each other.

NEWS | 02/16/2015

Copeland speaks on diversity in the ballet world

Lorenzo Quiogue

One of the most important responsibilities of the ballet world today is to empower young dancers who don’t feel like they belong, Misty Copeland said at a discussion on Monday. A soloist with the American Ballet Theatre, Copeland spoke as part of the Lewis Center’s Masters of Dance series, which features professional dancers and choreographers in a series of events at the University in January and February. "I wish people would ask, ‘How does it feel to be alone?’ Because there’s really a history of there not being much diversity in the ballet world," Copeland said. She explained that when she first joined American Ballet Theatre, she wasn’t really aware of how she felt about being the only black female dancer on the roster, but things gradually built up as she spent more time in the company.Copeland was the only African-American member of the company for 10 years. "By my third year in the company, I had this resentment, and I really didn’t know where it was coming from," she said.

NEWS | 02/16/2015

News & Notes: Cornell U. fraternity chapter recognition restored

Daily Princetonian Staff

Cornell University has restored its official recognition of its Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity chapter after an interim suspension was imposed on Feb.

NEWS | 02/15/2015

News & Notes: Meningitis B case confirmed at Yale

Daily Princetonian Staff

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a Yale student was diagnosed with a probable case of meningitis B, the Yale Daily News reported on Friday. The student has already been discharged from the hospital after reporting there on Thursday with headaches and vomiting. No other cases have been reported at Yale so far. Medical services at Yale will begin to offer a vaccine for meningitis B at no cost to those with the college's health insurance.

NEWS | 02/15/2015

10 bridges around Princeton structurally deficient or functionally obsolete

Grant Golub

There are 10 bridges in the Princeton area that are“structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete,” New Jersey Department of Transportation commissioner Jamie Fox said last month. There are 500 bridges around the state of New Jersey that fall under this category. The 10 bridges in the Princeton area include bridges that serve important commuter routes, including Princeton Pike and Alexander Street, according to a Feb.

NEWS | 02/15/2015

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