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Princeton endowment returns 3.1 percent, significant drop from recent years

Princeton endowment returns 3.1 percent, significant drop from recent years

The University’s endowment returned 3.1 percent in the most recent fiscal year, a much smaller return than the growth the endowment saw in years past. While the endowment did grow, the total value decreased by $100 million from $17.1 billion to $17 billion.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

After deanship, Malkiel returns to classroom

Patience Haggin

When history professor and former dean of the college Nancy Malkiel, was hired in 1969, she was one of the first women at the University.The late Lawrence Stone, the chair of the history department at the time, told Malkiel her hiring was a novelty.“It’s not that we have a policy against hiring women,” Malkiel said the chair told her. “It’s just that nobody’s ever suggested it before.”The sentiment behind those words — the novelty of introducing women to the University community as students and scholars — has become the subject of her current research and teaching.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

Yale mulls grade deflation, looks at Princeton

Yale is examining its grading policy and will analyze Princeton’s controversial, pioneering grade deflation policy, making it the latest Ivy League institution to rethink how it grades in the wake of Princeton’s policy change in 2004.Yale has created an ad hoc committee to examine its grading policies, and while it is unlikely the committee will recommend a formal grade deflation policy, the committee is currently gathering data. This data gathering will include an analysis of Princeton’s policy, according to Yale economics professor and committee chair Ray Fair.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stresses global interdependence

Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a visiting professor at the Wilson School, walked through the major players in the current international scene and highlighted his concerns for the future of America, both at home and abroad, in a lecture Thursday.Mullen began by speaking about what he called “strategic ecology,” which he described as the interdependence of the world today, including trends ranging from the decline of rural economies to increasing joblessness to cyber dependence. He expressed his concerns over how people have had an increasingly difficult time looking at the bigger picture, saying that people need to have a broader worldview.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

U. defends Arts and Transit Neighborhood

University officials defended the planned Arts and Transit Neighborhood at a lengthy meeting of the Regional Planning Board on Thursday evening, presenting its development plans for an arts center in great detail.Design and engineering representatives from the University’s development team gave a series of presentations detailing the technical and practical details of the proposal. The hearing will be continued on Nov. 1 at a meeting where opponents of the University’s proposal will present testimony.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

Carl Icahn ’57: Wall Street guru

Carl Icahn ’57, one of the University’s wealthiest alumni and biggest donors, has made a fortune, but not always friends, during his ascent on Wall Street. Icahn is known to his enemies as a corporate raider and a bully but to his friends as a generous and successful man who stands as a shining example of how hard work and talent pays off.Icahn, who now has a net worth of $14.8 billion, is 21st on Forbes’ list of wealthiest Americans. He founded his own firm only 11 years after graduating from the University and went on to become a giant in American finance.

NEWS | 10/18/2012

Princeton stores student ID data without policy

Someone at the University is able to know when you last used your University ID card to go to the gym, eat late pizza at Frist, have a meal at any dining hall, access your dorm room, enter a building after hours and check out a book from a campus library. Every time a student uses a PUID, the student leaves a trail that is recorded by a number of University databases.And starting next year, the dorm room information will not only be recorded but will be securely streamed real-time over the campus Wi-Fi network.

NEWS | 10/17/2012

News & Notes: Arts and Transit Neighborhood’s first performance hall named

The first building in the University’s planned Arts and Transit Neighborhood has been named following a $15 million donation, a largely symbolic step in the progression of the embattled development project.

NEWS | 10/17/2012

Coursera head talks online education

The co-founder of Coursera — the new online platform launched this summer at the University that has grown exponentially in the past few months — said, “education is the great equalizer,” in a lecture Wednesday afternoon. Coursera, she said, allows everyone around the world to access educational content online.

NEWS | 10/17/2012

Entire lecture course takes large-scale field trip

Using funds from the University endowment and departmental administrative allowances, the ecology and evolutionary biology department paid for 151 students enrolled in an introductory lecture course to travel to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History

NEWS | 10/17/2012

Psychology professor Darley cited in three-car crash

Psychology professor emeritus John M. Darley, 74, was cited by police for allegedly causing a three-car accident Tuesday morning in town. No one was injured.

NEWS | 10/16/2012

News & Notes: Racial slur discovered on bulletin wall in 1967 Hall

Public Safety responded to a report of a bias or hate crime in 1967 Hall in Butler College this weekend.

NEWS | 10/16/2012

Slaughter ’80, Londregan GS ’88 speak before debate

Before Mitt Romney and Barack Obama battled out their political differences on national television, Wilson School professors Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 and John Londregan GS ’88 discussed their opposing ideologies in Richardson Auditorium.

NEWS | 10/16/2012

Students look to expand gender-neutral housing

Student leaders are working with administration to look into expanding the growing gender-neutral housing program to all upperclassmen rooms in future years. The Princeton Equality Project, an LGBT activism student organization, is one of the strongest advocates on campus for the change. The Undergraduate Life Committee, a joint USG-administration committee, has considered the proposal, ULC chair Adi Rajagopalan ’13 confirmed.

NEWS | 10/16/2012

Student Life Committee to include 5 graduate students

The new University Student Life Committee will be composed of 10 undergraduate and five graduate students, reflecting a change to the charter of the USG's Student Life Committee.Last May, the USG passed a charter change to rename the Undergraduate Student Life Committee the University Student Life Committee and allow graduate students to participate in the group.

NEWS | 10/16/2012

News & Notes: USG has yet to deliver COMBO III survey findings as planned

Despite earlier plans to release the full results of its COMBO III survey in the first two weeks of October, the USG has not yet done so. This data set will include a recently conducted analysis of the results of the survey, which was administered in the summer of 2011.

NEWS | 10/15/2012

College Democrats, Republicans plan fall break campaigning efforts

The two largest student-run political groups on campus are taking advantage of the original purpose of fall break: participating in the elections. The week before the presidential election, the College Democrats and College Republicans plan to canvass in two crucial battleground states.

NEWS | 10/15/2012

U. hires additional faculty to meet large Class of 2016

The University hired additional lecturers and Assistants in Instruction for the academic year and increased the number of classes offered to accommodate additional students due to the over-enrollment of the Class of 2016.No new professorial faculty were hired because the University had already completed its faculty hiring process for the year by the time it learned the freshman class would be larger than usual.

NEWS | 10/15/2012

In high-stakes debate, Obama may use lessons from past advisor

When President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney trade jabs tonight in the second presidential debate of this campaign cycle, they won’t be making up their one-liners on the spot. According to Visiting Research Scholar in the Program in Law and Public Affairs Mark Alexander, who has helped numerous Democratic candidates prepare for debates, candidates get most of their language from a “debate book.”

NEWS | 10/15/2012

At the helm of their classroom - and of the University

In addition to being active members of the University administration, many high-ranking staff members teach as professors in the Freshman Seminar Program. For administrators with a background in academia, the program represents an opportunity to return to their original vocation, but those without teaching experience have to adapt.

NEWS | 10/14/2012

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