News

$100 million BRAIN initiative frozen by shutdown, but holds potential benefits for neuroscience at U.

$100 million BRAIN initiative frozen by shutdown, but holds potential benefits for neuroscience at U.

Elizabeth Paul

Pending the end of the government shutdown, University neuroscientists may play a crucial role in pioneering new neurotechnologies through President Obama’s recent $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

SURGE powers ahead with efforts to raise awareness about fossil fuel divestment

Do-Hyeong Myeong

Students United for a Responsible Global Environment has continued to advocate for the University to divest any holdings in fossil fuel companies. Since first circulating a petition in February, the student environmental group has beencollecting additional signatures, organizing related events and raising awareness among alumni, according to co-president Stephen Moch ’14.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

Following unfounded gunshot reports, Nassau Hall resumes normal operations

Marcelo Rochabrun

Following a two-and-a-half hour shutdown as a result of unfounded reports of gunshots inside Nassau Hall on Tuesday night, the University’s main administrative building resumed normal operations Wednesday morning. The police search that took place, which included local Princeton Police Department officers armed with rifles, did not damage the building or items within it, University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said Wednesday evening. The initial 7:55 p.m.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

News & Notes: Yellen nominated to succeed Bernanke

Daily Princetonian Staff

Ben Bernanke, the former chair of the University’s economics department, will step down from his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve at the end of January.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

Q&A: Washington Post reporter and Wonkblog editor Ezra Klein

Loully Saney

After reports of gunshots at Nassau Hall prompted attendees of Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein’s lecture to evacuate to the Whig-Clio Senate Chamber, Klein spoke to The Daily Princetonian in the crowded basement about his passion for blogging, views of American politics and obsession with charts. The Daily Princetonian:What sparked your interest in journalism? Ezra Klein:I got in through kind of a backdoor.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

Whitman College Night to be held less frequently for more 'high-end' experience

Daily Princetonian Staff and Anna Windemuth

College Night at Whitman will now take place every three weeks instead of each Tuesday in response to cumulative student feedback, the Whitman College Council announced in an email to Whitman College this week.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

PFA and Legacy merge as single Christian fellowship

Jasmine Wang

Two of the University's most prominent undergraduate Christian organizations, whose membership had been delineated largely along racial lines, merged this fall, following a lengthy discussion over the previous academic year. At Reunions this past May, Princeton Faith and Action, a campus Christian leadership ministry, and Legacy, a mainly African-American Christian fellowship group, co-hosted a number of religious panels, services and meals.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

Singer criticizes “speciesism” at animal rights panel

Singer criticizes “speciesism” at animal rights panel

Ruby Shao

“It's not species that makes a difference,” bioethics professor Peter Singer said in a three-person panel on animal rights on Tuesday afternoon.

NEWS | 10/09/2013

Nassau Hall reopens after reports of gunshot fire determined unfounded

Marcelo Rochabrun

Reports of gunshots at Nassau Hall prompted the Princeton Police Department to close the building and search it for two-and-a-half hours Tuesday evening.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

New research on grade deflation’s impact concerns Eisgruber ’83

Teddy Schleifer

University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said "lots of concerns" have been raised by a field study released this summer showing graduate schools do not consider an undergraduate program’s grading policy when evaluating applicants. Eisgruber, whocharged a University committeeMondaywith a wide review of the University’s 10-year-old grade deflation policy, mentioned the study in anevent that nightwith New York City alumni.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

Klein tells audience “why Washington is horrible”

Loully Saney

Award-winning Washington Post reporter Ezra Klein spoke on increasing polarization in Congress and ways to fix systemic problems within the government in a lecture titled “Why Washington is Horrible (In Charts)” Tuesday night.“Americans agree.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

Vargas Llosa claims Latin America is a step closer to democracy and equality

Charles Kyungchan Min

Latin America is improving and undergoing transformative democratization, Mario Vargas Llosa, a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, said in a conversation Tuesday with visiting lecturer in the Program in Latin American Studies Enrique Krauze Kleinbort.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

Q&A: Maen Rashid Areikat, PLO chief representative to the United States

Jacob Donnelly

Before his lecture at the Wilson School, titled “Twenty Years After Oslo: Lessons Learned and Future Options?”, Maen Rashid Areikat, the chief representative of the delegation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the United States, sat down with The Daily Princetonian to discuss his work and the ongoing peace talks between Israel and Palestine facilitated by the United States.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

News & Notes: Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng accepts fellowship at conservative Princeton research center

Daily Princetonian Staff

Chinese legal activist Chen Guangchenghas accepted a three-year fellowship at the Witherspoon Institute, a conservative research centerin Princeton. Chen will join University politics professor Robert George, who is theHerbert W.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

Sixth case in U. outbreak recovers from meningococcal disease; precautions encouraged

Emily Tseng

The female studentwho received treatment at a local hospital last weekfor meningococcal disease has been discharged from hospital care.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

New administrative center in Beijing to give U. legal standing in China

Austin Lee

The University has plans to open a new administrative center in Beijing at Tsinghua University by November 2013.

NEWS | 10/08/2013

News & Notes: Town parking enforcement officer fired

Daily Princetonian Staff

A town parking enforcement officer was fired Monday after allegations that he overlooked parking violations in return for bribes, the Times of Trenton reported. Chris Boutote, who is also a retired Princeton Borough police officer, and another enforcement officer, John Hughes, were suspended last month after passersby reported certain cars with menus and shopping bags on the dashboards remained at metered parking spots downtown for up to 10 hours without receiving a ticket, while other vehicles were ticketed immediately.

NEWS | 10/07/2013

PLO representative Areikat: Palestine must stop concessions to Israel

Jacob Donnelly

While Palestine continues to engage Israel in negotiations for an independent state, the nation cannot make any more territorial concessions, Maen Rashid Areikat, chief representative of the delegation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the United States, said in a Monday evening lecture titled, “Twenty Years After Oslo: Lessons Learned and Future Options?” “When we call for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, we are accepting a Palestinian state of 22 percent of what used to be historic Palestine," Areikat said before a packed Dodds Auditorium.

NEWS | 10/07/2013

New chair of the Alumni Council Newman ’78 hopes to increase participation among graduate alumni

Joseph Sheehan Joe

New Alumni Council chair Nancy Newman ’78 will make increasing graduate alumni participation in alumni events one of her top priorities, she said in a recent interview with The Daily Princetonian. Newman was elected to replace Henry Von Kohorn ’66two years ago, and in accordance with the bylaws of the Alumni Council, served as vice chair for two years before becoming chair this past summer.

NEWS | 10/07/2013

Princeton announces committee to review controversial grade deflation policy

Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic

The University’s controversial grade deflation policy — which stipulates that no more than 35 percent grades given out in anydepartment should be A's — will come under review over the next year, the UniversityannouncedMondaymorning. The review of the grading policy comes only three months after new University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 took over from former University President Shirley Tilghman, and also on the same day Eisgruber began a tour that will take him to three continents in order to introduce himself to alumni. At the first of these events, held on Monday night in New York City and moderated by University Trustee and journalist Charles Gibson ’65, Eisgruber noted that grade deflation was the number one issue raised during an initial 'listening tour' during the early stages of his presidency.He also acknowledged that Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye had told him that the grade deflation policy might be affecting the admission yield, since the policy has become part of Princeton's image for applicants. However, Eisgruber said in response to one of Gibson's questions that the committee's formation was not an admission of the policy's failure. “It's an admission that after 10 years of discussing a policy that I think has had two admirable objectives — and moved us in an appropriate direction — we should be thinking about whether or not we can learn anything from the experiences we've had,” Eisgruber said in New York. Eisgruber was not available for comment Monday, according to his assistant, Mary DeLorenzo, who said Eisgruber was in meetings all day before traveling to New York for the alumni event. In an April interview with The Daily Princetonian immediately following his selection to be the 20th University president,Eisgruber said he supported grade deflation, calling it the “grading fairness policy.” A committee of nine faculty members has been tasked by Eisgruber to reevaluate Princeton's grading policies, takinginto account student feedback on the policy and the impact it may have on their graduate school and professional school prospects, according to the announcement.

NEWS | 10/07/2013

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