News

Urban Congo sparks social media storm

Urban Congo sparks social media storm

Jessica Li

Students voiced their outrage over social media this weekend about videos featuring Urban Congo, a student organization recognized and sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.One of the videos shows a dance performance by members of the organization at the annual Princeton Varsity Club “Tigers Got Talent” talent show in November that was deemed inappropriate by many, citing disrespect for multiple African and Native American cultures.In response to growing discontent, Urban Congo removed the video from its YouTube channel and deactivated its Facebook page.

NEWS | 04/05/2015

USG discusses concerns over Lawnparties headliner

USG discusses concerns over Lawnparties headliner

Katherine Oh

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed Lawnparties and the choice of Big Sean as the main act at its weeklysenate meeting on Sunday.USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said that she and social chair Simon Wu ’17care about making the process of choosing the main act more democratic than it has been in the past.“There was actually no possibility to make it more open with this particular act because it came in January, even before our terms had officially started,” Cheng said.Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.“We are never going to please the majority of the student body,” Class of 2016 senator Kristen Coke said.U-councilor Mallory Banks ’16 said that, in past years, students were surveyed in advance for their Lawnparties artist preferences.“The issue with that is that you will get Beyoncé, Beyoncé, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kanye West,” Banks said.

NEWS | 04/05/2015

Reduction in number of senior wristbands for Reunions causes distress

Melissa Curtis

Members of the Class of 2015 were upset last week when they were reminded in an email that all graduating seniors will only be allowed one guest wristband for Reunions.According to the April 2 email, graduating seniors can attend Reunions free of cost but can register one guest for $65, the same price as a wristband for students who are not guests of seniors.Last year, graduating seniors were given the opportunity to purchase two $60 wristbands for their guests, and the year before they were given the opportunity to purchase five.The Office of Alumni Affairs sent an email last year on April 2, 2014 to the then-senior and junior classes explaining that the number of guest wristbands would be reduced to two for the Class of 2014 and further reduced to one for the Class of 2015 and future classes.The wristbands are only required for activities that take place after 5 p.m.

NEWS | 04/05/2015

Updated: Students say 'No' to 'Hose Bicker'

Jacob Donnelly

Students voted against the referendum calling for the end of Bicker this week, Grant Golub '17, the Undergraduate Student Government's chief elections manager, said. The referendum would have called on the Bicker clubs to end Bicker by the 2019-20 academic year and on USG to create an ad hoc committee to facilitate ending Bicker. Voting took place fromMondaythroughWednesday, and 1,988 students voted during that time.In comparison, 2,015 students voted on the referendum about the length of winter break earlier this year. Of the students who voted this week,1,120, or 56.3 percent, voted against the referendum and 868, or 43.7 percent, voted in favor of the referendum. There are currently no plans for USG to examine the Bicker issue, Golub said. Golub is a former staff writer and former staff copy editor for The Daily Princetonian. Rene Chalom '17 said the outcome of the referendum was surprising because it was reasonable to assume people who were against Bicker would have turned out more.

NEWS | 04/03/2015

News & Notes: Harvard Law creates Title IX committee

Zoe Toledo

Dean of Harvard Law School Martha Minow created a Title IX committee to oversee the law school’s school-specific policy for investigating cases of alleged sexual harassment, the Harvard Crimson reported. Minow has appointed tenured faculty members to the committee, and the committee will appoint individuals to investigate and adjudicate reports of sexual misconduct within the law school. The Office for Civil Rights found Harvard Law School to be in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments in December 2014.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

Plan to demolish historic town property meets resistance

Annie Yang

A house in the town of Princeton constructed in 1870 that has been home to several generations of occupants faces possible demolition if Mary Moss Park is to be expanded. The town had planned to expand the half-acre park and renovate various aspects of the park, including replacing a wading pool with a “spray ground,” which would include a number of sprinklers. This plan met resistance, however, when local residents began to speak out against demolishing the house located at 31-33 Lytle St., and the town and residents are still discussing the next steps.The home is privately owned and was slated to be demolished in order to make room for two newly constructed houses, Mayor Liz Lempert said. “When the municipality learned that the demolition was slated to occur, we reached out to the developer to see if he’d be willing to sell the property to the municipality in order for the park expansion,” she said. Local real estate developer Roman Barsky holds the demolition permits, which he obtained last October, Lempert added. Barsky did not respond to requests for comment. Mercer County offered Open Space funding, which provides money to help preserve areas of land,in order to match the municipality’s contribution towards the park, Lempert said.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

Campus exhibits mixed feelings about ‘Hose Bicker’

Cassidy Tucker

Eating club presidents and other students have mixed opinions about the special referendum to end the Bicker process at eating clubs.The referendum called for each eating club to end Bicker no later than the first day of the 2019-20 academic year.In addition, if the referendum succeeds, the Undergraduate Student Government senate will be required to establish an ad hoc committee to facilitate ending Bicker no more than 45 days after the approval of the referendum.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

PPPL physicists move forward in understanding fusion energy obstacles

Catherine Offord

Physicists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, General Atomics and other research institutions have made new observations that help to understand one of the major barriers to developing fusion energy.The new findings, published in two back-to-back articles in “Physical Review Letters” on March 12, present novel observations from experiments that sought to control damaging heat bursts that routinely occur in a type of fusion machine called a tokamak.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

Website connecting students over the summer expanding to Ivy League

Kristin Qian

Summer Playbook, an online map of the summer locations of Ivy League students, is expanding later this month to encompass all Ivy League colleges, including the University.Neeraj Bajpayee ’17 is mapping University students’ summer locations, expanding the website founded by Harvard sophomore Luke Heine last April.Heine said that many people have asked why the site is only restricted to the Ivy League, with people raising concerns about elitism.“It’s not supposed to feel that way,” Heine said, “and I don’t want that to shine through.”He explained that he chose the Ivy League because there is camaraderie — or “shared culture” — between the schools.Ivy League students are also some of the most likely students to travel all over the world during the summer, Heine added.Summer Playbook is taking part in a venture capital incubator for startup companies but is currently a not-for profit project, Heine said.The endeavor started off as a Facebook post in which Heine asked his classmates to mark the places where they would be over the summer, he said.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

Robert George, prominent conservative U. professor

Olivia Wicki

Robert George, the University’s only professor of jurisprudence and one of the country’s most prominent conservative intellectuals, was not always a conservative.George, the grandson of coal miners, grew up in the West Virginia Appalachians.

NEWS | 04/02/2015

News & Notes: Stanford offers free tuition

Daily Princetonian Staff

Stanford University will now offer free tuition to students who come from families with less than $125,000 in annual income and assets, CNN reported. Stanford made this announcement when it released its regular admissions results last week. Room and board charges will also be waived for those students whose families’ incomes are below $65,000, which is more generous than the school’s previous threshold of $60,000. While the expected parent contribution is zero, Stanford still requires students to contribute $5,000 on their own from summer or part-time jobs. “Our highest priority is that Stanford remain affordable and accessible to the most talented students, regardless of their financial circumstance,” Stanford’s Provost John Etchemendy said, according to CNN. In comparison, Princeton grants free tuition for students whose parents earn less than $140,000, while those with incomes lower than $60,000 do not have to pay tuition, room or board. Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated the point at which Princeton grants students free tuition.

NEWS | 04/01/2015

Senator Menendez indicted for corruption, asserts his innocence

Christina Vosbikian

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, were indicted on Wednesday by the District of New Jersey for one count of conspiracy, one count of violating the travel act, eight counts of bribery and three counts of honest services fraud. Menendez was also charged with one count of making false statements. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Newark, New Jersey Division Richard Frankel. According to CNN, Menendez has asserted his innocence, pledging to fight the federal corruption charges brought against him.

NEWS | 04/01/2015

Whig-Cliosophic Society holds sexual assault policy discussion

Katherine Oh

The American Whig-Cliosophic Society discussed various aspects of the University’s new sexual assault policy on Wednesday. Wilson School professor Stanley Katz, whois an outspoken critic of the University’s decision in 2014to lower the evidence standardfor sexual assault cases,addressed the topic in a short talk at the beginning of the discussion. Whig-Clio senate president Jack Reed ’16 explained that the event was intended to be an open conversation, rather than a lecture. There were no representatives in support of the University's new standard of evidence at the discussion. According to Katz, the administration sent the entire faculty an email at the beginning of this academic year indicating a possible change in the disciplinary procedure to address sexual assault cases on campus.

NEWS | 04/01/2015

Karmapa visits Princeton, discusses women’s rights, social activism, environment

Zaynab Zaman

Women’s rights are a reflection of the degree to which everyone enjoys basic human rights, the 17thGyalwang Karmapa said in a lecture on Wednesday. Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel Alison Boden introduced the Karmapa, noting that Karmapa literally means “the one who carries out Buddha-activity” or “the embodiment of all the activities of the Buddhas.” The Karmapa was born in Tibet and fled to India, where he has continued his training as a monk, Boden said. The Karmapa explained that he was born into isolation and had no opportunity for formal education as a child.

NEWS | 04/01/2015

Falcon ’15 awarded David-Weill Scholarship

Olivia Wicki

Eric Falcon ’15 became the first University student to be awarded the Michel David-WeillScholarship, and he will pursue a master’s degree in European affairs at Sciences Po in Paris after graduation. Every year, the Michel David-Weillaward provides one American student, studying at one of twenty Sciences Po partner institutions, with an $80,000 grant to attend Sciences Po and obtain a master’s degree.Named after Michel David-Weill, the former chairman of the investment bank Lazard Frères, the scholarship is directed by the Michel David-Weill Foundation. “I was very excited.

NEWS | 04/01/2015

News & Notes: U. has third-lowest admissions rate among Ivy League schools

Daily Princetonian Staff

Only two Ivy League universities' admission rates were lower than that of the University's as of Tuesday night, although Harvard's admission rate had not yetbeen released, Business Insider reported. Columbia accepted only 6.1 percent of its applicants to the Class of 2019, and Yale accepted only 6.49 percent.

NEWS | 03/31/2015

Q&A: Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri

Shriya Sekhsaria

Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri spoke about her journey to the crown in a lecture entitled, "Celebrating Diversity Through Cultural Competency" on Tuesday.

NEWS | 03/31/2015

Big Sean to perform at Lawnparties

Big Sean to perform at Lawnparties

Jessica Li

Grammy-nominated rapper Big Sean will headline spring Lawnparties, Undergraduate Student Government social committee chair Simon Wu ’17 announced in Frist Campus Center Food Gallery on Tuesday night. Hip-hop singer Luke Christopher and pop singer Alus from Montville, N.J., will provide the opening acts, he added. Big Sean’s most recent album, “Dark Sky Paradise,” topped the Billboard 200 chart earlier in March.He signed with Kanye West’s GOOD music in 2007 and has collaborated with multiple artists including Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber.

NEWS | 03/31/2015

Miss America 2014 discusses personal journey, cultural standards

Miss America 2014 discusses personal journey, cultural standards

Shriya Sekhsaria

As the first Indian-American to win the Miss America crown in 2014, Nina Davuluri said at a lecture on Tuesday that the Miss America Organization is often misunderstood. “It felt so timely for this organization to finally reach out to a new demographic of young women that’s representative of what America is today," Davuluri said.

NEWS | 03/31/2015

U. office removes statement about safety of Wi-Fi radiation following activist pressure

Catherine Offord

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety removed a statement from its websiteabout the safety of radiation from Wi-Fi in June 2014 in response to activist pressure. The statement, which reflected the University’s position on the hazards of exposure to wireless radiation and authored in 2007, disappeared from the website after the University deemed it to be out of date. The move took place against a backdrop of activist concern about Wi-Fi safety in schools across the country and in Europe and was triggered by a series of emails from individuals outside the University who had viewed the University's statement on radiation safety. The process began with an email in February 2014 from a womanconcerned about Wi-Fi safety who had two young children, Sue Dupre, the University's Assistant Director of Environmental Health and Safety, said.The woman was not affiliated with the University. “She contacted us and everybody in our office, including more senior people in University management, expressing concern about our position statement and saying that there were other important, recent studies we needed to look at,” Dupre said.

NEWS | 03/31/2015

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