News

USG social chair defends donation of Lawnparties proceeds

USG social chair defends donation of Lawnparties proceeds

Durva Trivedi

USG social chair Logan Roth '15 defended the committee's decision to donate proceeds from Spring Lawnparties at the Senate meeting on Sunday. Responding to an audience member’s question, Roth replied that “that specific charity was chosen by a team of people on the social committee, and we chose it because it was local, education-based, and we thought they did very good work.” He cited TEAM Charter Schools’ high matriculation rates and work in extremely impoverished areas as examples of the "good work" they provide. “I understand it’s somewhat politically controversial but I’ve said this before, I didn’t think it would be sensational, but this is a pilot year,” Roth said.

NEWS | 04/13/2014

7 faculty members awarded Guggenheim Fellowships

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

Faculty members Mung Chiang, Emily Thompson, Serguei Oushakine, Claire Vaye Watkins, Meghan O’Rourke, Andrew Cole and Devin Fore were among the 178 winners chosen from a pool of almost 3,000 applicants to receive fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim Fellowships recognize accomplishments and propositions in academics, the arts or the sciences. Winners receive grants to further their work in time blocks lasting between six and 12 months.

NEWS | 04/13/2014

Tiger Admirers removed from Facebook

Ray Mennin

Tiger Admirers, a Facebook page that allowed University students to express love, affection and secret crushes for other members of the University anonymously, was recently removed from Facebook because it was found to be in violation of the website's policies. The page’s format was that of an ordinary Facebook user, and students would submit poems, YouTube links and confessions to the Tiger Admirers inbox as if they were instant messaging a friend.

NEWS | 04/13/2014

News and Notes: Flaherty ’70, former Canadian finance minister, dies at 64

Daily Princetonian Staff

Jim Flaherty ’70, who served as finance minister of Canada from 2006 through March of this year, died Thursday.

NEWS | 04/10/2014

University General Counsel Peter McDonough announces retirement

Paul Phillips

Peter McDonough, who has served as general counsel for the University since 2002 and provided legal advice to the University since 1990, intends to step down at the end of the academic year.

NEWS | 04/10/2014

Lawnparties charity has ties with USG

Durva Trivedi

The charity that will be featured at Lawnparties this year, TEAM Charter Schools, was selected because several people on the USG social committee liked the organization and had worked with it before, social committee chairLogan Roth ’15 said. He also said the social committee’s decision to contribute to a charity through Lawnparties had been floating around for several years, and he really wanted to move forward with it this year. TEAM Charter Schools, a region of schools in Newark and Camden, N.J., will benefit with proceeds from the sales of raffle tickets and merchandise, while no money originally budgeted for Lawnparties will be handed to the charity.

NEWS | 04/10/2014

Class of 2014 only allowed two guests for Reunions

Jeron Fenton

The University has reduced the number of guests that graduating seniors are allowed to bring to the 2014 Reunions in an attempt to slow down the growing Reunions attendance numbers. Graduating seniors were allowed to purchase tickets for up to five guests for Reunions in previous years.

NEWS | 04/10/2014

Shortened Preview disappoints admitted students

Jasmine Wang

Seven hundred and twentyadmitted students attended the first session of Princeton Preview on Thursday, compared to 700 admitted students in attendance at the first session of Princeton Preview last year. However, both students at the University and prospective studentshave expressed disappointment at the University’s decision to change Princeton Preview from a weekend visit to a one-day event. Cynthia Cherrey, vice president of campus life, announced in an email to the student body last week that the Princeton Preview program would be shortened in order to minimize the chances that prospective students not vaccinated for meningitis would contract the disease. Crystal Wang, 17, a prospective student and native of East Brunswick, N.J., said she was disappointed that the program had been cut short.

NEWS | 04/10/2014

News & Notes: New Jersey implements Distracted Driving Crackdown program

Chitra Marti

The state of New Jersey has implemented a Distracted Driving 2014 Statewide Crackdown program, ongoing until April 21.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

News & Notes: Lawnparties lineup called “easily the worst lineup of all Ivies”

Daily Princetonian Staff

Princeton’s Lawnparties lineup is “easily the worst lineup of all Ivies,” a Columbia Lion blog post said on Tuesday.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

Despite large Class of 2016, no shortage in upperclass housing

Sheila Sisimit

With three rooms remaining in upperclass housing for the Class of 2016 one day before the official end of junior upperclass room draw, at least 103 students had yet to draw into a room.Most of these students will have to place into the housing draw wait list. However, these numbers are not uncommon. "Every year we typically have between 100-120 juniors on the wait list,"Manager of Undergraduate Housing Angela Hodgeman wrote in an email, obtained by The Daily Princetonian, to 309 juniors who had yet to draw into a room as of 9 a.m.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

Room in Forbes burglarized

Lorenzo Quiogue

A room in Forbes College was burglarized last Friday, according to the Department of Public Safety's daily crime logs. Mike Caddell, University media specialist, said that the incident took place between 2:15 p.m.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

Administrators will not crack down on informal Princeton Preview hosting program

Sarah Kim

The University will allow student-organized plans for informal overnight hosting to continue in orderto supplement the shortened Princeton Preview for the Class of 2018,but it will not endorse these plans. Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Michael Olin said that while the University recognizes that the informal hosting program is well-intentioned, the formal hosting program was nevertheless cancelled for well-considered reasons.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

Obama advisor discusses White House science policy

Elizabeth Paul

The United States will suffer in the future if it does not invest in the basic research that is the foundation for applied technology, John Holdren, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a lecture Wednesday. Holden explained that Obama has stood behind his pledge to restore science to the forefront of the administration's attention, including investment in multi-disciplinary and high-risk research, support for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education reform and development of an advanced information technology ecosystem.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

Abel Prize winner Yakov Sinai: a lifetime of artful mathematics

Abel Prize winner Yakov Sinai: a lifetime of artful mathematics

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

While mathematics professor Yakov Sinai is known worldwide for his paramount contributions in dynamical systems, mathematical physics and probability theory, his students and friends say that he is, most strikingly, a gentleman. A few of Sinai’s major developments in math includeKolmogorov-Sinai entropy, Sinai's billiards, Sinai's random walk, Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measures and Pirogov-Sinai theory. Sinai was recently awarded the prestigious Abel Prize in mathematics by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for the cumulative impact of his research, adding to a long list of recognitions and accolades over the span of his 50-year career.

NEWS | 04/09/2014

News and Notes: Harvard student dies of apparent suicide

Jacqueline Gufford

Harvard sophomore Andrew Sun died Sunday of an apparent suicide after he fell from a downtown Boston Building, The Harvard Crimson reported. No additional information regarding Sun’s motivations has been released. Sun did not die immediately on impact and was taken to the hospital where he was treated for injuries caused by the fall.However, doctors believed Sun’s chances of recovery were slim and informed the dean of Sun’s residential house that his time on life support would be limited. He died Monday morning with his family present.Interim Dean of the College Donald Pfister announced Sun’s death to the Harvard community via email Monday morning. A New Jersey native, Sun was an Economics major, a member of Harvard College Faith in Action and Harvard Financial Analysts Club, according to the Crimson. This is not the first suicide reported at an Ivy League school so far this academic year.

NEWS | 04/08/2014

News & Notes: Former Yale employee files lawsuit for workplace discrimination

Daily Princetonian Staff

A former associate administrator in the Yale School of Nursing is suing the university, The Yale Daily News reported. Karen Curcio alleges in the lawsuit that she was fired from her position after she refused to fire a staff member on the basis of the latter's physical disability.

NEWS | 04/08/2014

Amid Dinky ridership decline, bus ridership rises

Amid Dinky ridership decline, bus ridership rises

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

Ridership for the Dinky train line, which runs between the University and Princeton Junction, declined by 10.4 percent from October to December of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012, according to New Jersey Transit, the state-owned company that operates the train line. However, according to the University, which operates a parallel bus system called TigerPaWW, total ridership went up by 5.8 percent when the University’s bus users are accounted for. NJ Transit’s analysis notes that the decline in Dinky ridership occurred around the same time as the implementation of TigerPaWW, the University’s shuttle bus system that was introduced last year due to the station’s temporary relocation. A new Dinky station is set to open this summer as part of the University’s Arts and Transit Neighborhood. Director of Community and Regional Affairs Kristin Appelgetexplained that the University implemented the free bus system in recognition of the fact that during the station’s transition phase the bus may be more convenient than the Dinky for some passengers. “Clearly the strong ridership numbers proved that that’s true,” Appelget noted. She added that there are additional options for passengers to connect to other transit roads from the temporary station, such as the municipality’s free bus system, which operates during peak commuter hours, or the TigerTransit bus, which is free to all members of the public. Craig noted that the TigerPaWW bus is susceptible to traffic and is only a temporary arrangement. The New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers, an organization that advocates for more citizen involvement in deciding transit affairs within the state, issued a press release saying that the 10.4 percent decline is actually more in the range of 20 percent because ridership in the rest of the Northeast Corridor line has risen by 10.4 percent. “We can never determine exactly what happened because it didn’t happen,” NJ-ARP vice president Jack May said of possible variables in this assumption.

NEWS | 04/08/2014

Princeton Energy Plant working to further increase U. energy efficiency

Elizabeth Paul

The Princeton Energy Plant, which provides electricity, steam and chilled water to the University campus, allows the University to take positive steps toward reducing its carbon footprint and energy-related costs. Plant manager Ted Borer explained that the plant is operated by a gas turbine that spins a power turbine which powers an electric generator.

NEWS | 04/08/2014

FDA awards Bexsero vaccine Breakthrough Therapy designation

Anna Mazarakis

Bexsero, the meningitis B vaccine created by Novartis that was offered to all undergraduate students over the course of the past four months, has received Breakthrough Therapy designation in the United States from the Food and Drug Administration. The drug received the new designation on Monday, which will allow for an expedited review, after an announcement last week that the company was filing an application for FDA review in hopes of obtaining a license. According to a press release on Novartis’ website, the Breakthrough Therapy designation “is intended to expedite the development and review of new medicines that treat serious or life-threatening conditions.” The FDA declined to comment and Novartis declined to be interviewed for this article. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sponsored the emergency use authorization of the vaccine at the University, has not shared any of the data collected from the vaccine clinics with the FDA, CDC spokesperson Jason McDonald said. “What [the] CDC did during the vaccination clinics at Princeton was monitor for adverse events,” McDonald said.

NEWS | 04/08/2014

Most Popular