News

The University will make lectures and other classroom content available online due to a new partnership with the educational web platform Coursera, a major advancement in the University’s effort to improve online learning on campus. Coursera, a for-profit company founded in 2011 by two Stanford professors, announced on its website that it will offer eight Princeton courses in the fields of history, computer science, sociology and statistics, beginning as early as this June.Coursera offers free interactive lectures supplemented by short quizzes, assignments and online forums. The company also announced Wednesday that it has formed partnerships with Stanford University, University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania.

NEWS | 04/18/2012

Undergraduate course assistants received well

Undergraduate course assistants received well

Graduate students and professors are no longer the only people grading students’ work, as this year the physics and computer science departments launched a pilot program in which selected undergraduates were employed as course assistants for selected lower-level classes. After conducting the program for almost one academic year, program coordinators in both departments and several course assistants praised the success of the system and said that they expect it to continue.

NEWS | 04/18/2012

Whitman buildings renamed

When Adam Smyles ’15, a current resident of North B Hall in Whitman College, logged onto the Residential College Facebook a few months ago and the search results informed that his building no longer existed, he said he was a bit confused.But after logging onto SCORE, he learned that his residence — and the adjacent North C Hall — had not disappeared but rather had been renamed.

NEWS | 04/18/2012

Smith wins poetry Pulitzer

There are few better ways to start off your 40s than by winning a Pulitzer Prize. On Monday, her 40th birthday, assistant professor of creative writing Tracy Smith was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her 2011 collection of poems titled “Life on Mars.”“I didn’t learn the news until it was public,” Smith said. “It was a big shock.”ONLINE EXTRA: Learn about the other Pulitzer-winning Princetonians

NEWS | 04/17/2012

Faculty members receive Guggenheim Fellowship

Four University faculty members have been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in its 88th annual competition.Wilson School and psychology professor Eldar Shafir, politics professor Melissa Lane, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Laura Landweber and visual arts professor Eve Aschheim were named winners last week.

NEWS | 04/17/2012

Fund finances students’ recreation ideas

The College Community Fund, established as part of an effort to increase bonding and camaraderie among the residential colleges, is now kicking into high gear. Conceived and created by the masters of the residential colleges last fall, the CCF is intended to support a variety of student-initiated programs to foster a sense of community both within and across the different residential colleges. Programs have been running through the CCF all semester, and the deadline for students interested in applying for funding for projects to implement next year is April 25.

NEWS | 04/17/2012

Despite local furor, quiet and excitement on the rails

More than 25 years ago, neither Robert Gibbs nor Tom Sparich — the two weekday Dinky conductors — anticipated having careers on the railroad.

NEWS | 04/17/2012

Dean for Research to depart

A.J. Stewart Smith, the University’s current and first dean for research, will change administrative roles to serve as vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the University announced Tuesday. Smith will be the University’s primary liaison to the U.S. Department of Energy.The dean for research position, which oversees the PPPL and manages research funding and grants, will be vacated in January when Smith assumes the newly created position. A search committee has been formed to determine his successor.

NEWS | 04/17/2012

Local yoga studio taps into community’s “consonance and camaraderie”

Recently, Gemma Farrell has had a number of Princeton students arrive at her yoga classes stressed from thesis work and papers. They attend donation-based sessions at Farrell’s Witherspoon Street studio, Gratitude Yoga, for relaxation and rejuvenation, yet many students are unaware that their teacher — who eats a raw food diet and is the mother of five children — has more in common with them than they think.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

Student beekeepers visit White House

At 6:30 a.m. Friday morning, 21 students piled into a rented school bus and took off for Washington, D.C., for a visit to the White House beehives, hoping to run into First Lady Michelle Obama ’85.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

U. hosts Politico debate on election strategy

Politico senior political reporter Jonathan Martin moderated a debate between Washington political heavyweights and insiders on the 2012 election on Monday.The debate pitted former Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan and former George W. Bush communications adviser Jim Dyke against Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Jesse Ferguson and former Communications Director for the House Budget Committee Nu Wexler.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

3 states absent from Class of 2015

The 1,304 freshmen that moved onto campus this past September began their journeys from 47 different states across the country. But three states — Wyoming, Alaska and South Dakota — were left out.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

News & Notes: Smith wins Pulitzer Prize for poetry

On her 40th birthday, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Tracy K. Smith was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book “Life on Mars,” a collection of poems published in 2011.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

With vote, battle over Dinky right-of-way initiative continues

Proponents of a proposal to preserve the current Dinky right-of-way — an action that would give the Borough legal rights to use the Dinky’s present route through University property for future mass transit — scored a victory last week. In last Tuesday’s Borough Council meeting, the council voted 3-2 in favor of sending the right-of-way initiative to the Regional Planning Board for review.

NEWS | 04/16/2012

Congressmen Rush Holt, Leonard Lance GS '82 discuss economy, health care

New Jersey congressional representatives Rush Holt and Leonard Lance GS ’82 spoke Friday on economic policy, health care and the politicization of Congress in a discussion moderated by Anne Case GS ’88, an economics professor at the Wilson School. Holt, a Democrat, and Lance, a Republican, first responded to questions from Case before answering questions from the audience, which included many Wilson School alumni since the discussion followed the Wilson School graduate alumni weekend dinner.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

News & Notes: East Asian Studies professor dies at 66

University professor of East Asian studies Richard Okada died of natural causes on April 4 at the age of 66. Known for his work on Japanese literature and culture across a broad range of time periods and disciplines, Okada received his Ph.D. from UC, Berkeley, in 1983 and joined the University faculty in 1985 after serving as the director of the Program in Asian Studies at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

USG discusses elections, new student groups and community initiatives

The USG is currently planning to launch a “restaurant week” that will offer students a fixed-price dinner at eating locations in town, the USG announced at its Senate meeting Sunday night. The Princeton Restaurant Week will take place the week before winter break.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

Breaking: Professor awarded Pulitzer

On her 40th birthday, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Tracy K. Smith was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book “Life on Mars,” a collection of poems published in 2011.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

From Princeton to White House, sharing a love of bees

Members of the Princeton BEE Team — a student group formed in fall 2009 which maintains two beehives across from Carnegie Lake, tends them once a week and makes honey and lip balm — visited the hives outside the White House last weekend. These hives were added to the White House gardens in 2011, reportedly with the support of President Barack Obama, and now provide the honey used by the White House pastry chef.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

Referendum could retool freshman class government

A USG referendum on the spring ballot would, if passed, change the structure of the freshman class government. Sponsored by Class of 2012 social chair Tulio Jose Alvarez Burgos ’12, the referendum would create a council of five officers for the freshman class and delay the election of the president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and social chair until the end of freshman year.

NEWS | 04/15/2012

Most Popular