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Surgeon, author and talk show host Dr. Mehmet Oz discussed health issues that are relevant to Princeton students and steps they can take to address them on Thursday night as part of the Mental Health Awareness Week being held by the USG and Sustained Dialogue.As the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions and the host of his own television program, “The Dr. Oz Show,” Oz was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2008 and is also the parent of a Princeton alumna.

NEWS | 03/08/2012

Yale bans freshman fall rush after controversial pledge task chants in 2010

Yale bans freshman fall rush after controversial pledge task chants in 2010

Starting next year, fraternities and sororities at Yale will be prohibited from holding fall rush for freshmen, Yale College Dean Mary Miller and Dean of Student Affairs Marichel Gentry announced to the Yale student body last Thursday.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

Tropical forests less able to absorb nitrogen

The Earth’s tropical forests play a key role in absorbing man-made carbon dioxide, and scientists have traditionally believed that tropical forests could absorb nitrogen-based pollutants as well. However, research published by a team including ecology and evolutionary biology professor Lars Hedin and geosciences professor Daniel Sigman suggests that tropical forests may be less able to absorb polluting nitrogen than previously thought.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

Most faculty donations go to Obama

All but one of the University faculty members and administrators who have given directly to the 2012 presidential candidates so far have donated to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, according to federal records of donations to presidential campaigns. In total, faculty and administrators have given $20,896 to Obama for America in the current election cycle.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

Survey predicts more foreclosures

A new survey by the Wilson School suggests that foreclosure filings in Mercer County may increase in the future. The 2011 Mercer County Community Issues Survey, conducted last fall, gathered information on social and economic issues affecting Mercer County residents from 2006 to 2011 — particularly on housing issues such as current mortgage debt and foreclosures — with the goal of disseminating this data to policymakers and the public.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

Career Services increases focus on nonprofits

Career Services is currently making an increased push to expand its offerings in nonprofit and social entrepreneurship.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

News & Notes: Movie adapted from graphic novel by Rubin '09

Warner Bros. will adapt the graphic novel “Bolivar,” written by Sean Rubin ’09, into an animated movie, according to a Monday article in The Hollywood Reporter.

NEWS | 03/07/2012

News and Notes: Congressional representative Donald Payne dies

New Jersey Democratic Congressman Donald Payne, who was elected to Congress in 1988, died Tuesday in Livingston, N.J., after a battle with colon cancer. Payne represented a heavily Democratic district in northeastern New Jersey, which includes most of Newark.Payne announced his illness last month. Despite his intention to fight the disease, Payne was transported back to New Jersey from Washington, D.C., on Friday.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

UHS, USG promote counseling resources

Halfway through Mental Health Awareness Week, organizers said they are focused on publicizing available counseling resources on campus and eliminating stigmas that may surround seeking out help.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Wilson School reacts to dean’s departure

Last Tuesday, Shirley Gao ’13 sent an email to Christina Paxson, dean of the Wilson School, asking if Paxson would be her thesis adviser. For a couple of days last week, Gao waited for a reply, uncertain about whether Paxson would guide her into the next year. “Well, I never got a response, but I certainly found out why that was the case just a few days later,” Gao said in an email. On Friday morning, Brown University announced that it had selected Paxson to succeed Ruth Simmons as its 19th president. Just as Paxson’s departure leaves Gao in flux, it also leaves the Wilson School in flux, given the recent overhaul of the undergraduate concentration that Paxson has overseen since being named dean in 2009.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Borough Council discusses Dinky, Merwick-Stanworth apartments

The Borough Council discussed a variety of local issues at its meeting on Tuesday night.Residents in the Borough said that they were placing trash outside of their homes that were not being collected. Borough Council President Barbara Trelstad said that this was troublesome for the multifamily homes and apartments in her residential area.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Chemistry outreach mixes learning, fantasy fun

The department of chemistry is seeking to replicate Professor Snape’s potions class for local kids.The department’s Chemistry Outreach Program seeks to connect trained student volunteers with the wider Princeton community — young students in particular — in hopes of sparking an interest in chemistry. The program, which includes Harry Potter-esque magical potions, looking-glass molecules from “Alice in Wonderland” and maps from “Treasure Island,” has expanded from 17 students in its first year to 31 undergraduate students and three graduate students. The program was established in September 1997 by professor Warren Warren (now chair of the department of chemistry at Duke University), professor Andrew Bocarsly and lecture demonstrator Kathryn Wagner.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Wilkes ’83 seeks mayoral nomination

Borough Council member and local business owner Kevin Wilkes ’83 announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination for mayor of the newly consolidated Princeton, setting up a primary challenge with Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert.

NEWS | 03/06/2012

Princeton Seminary: The Other Bubble

Despite being a mere five-minute walk from Forbes and McCarter Theatre, the Princeton Theological Seminary is beyond the radar of many University students.Though Seminary students often enroll in University courses, Princeton undergraduates rarely take courses through the Seminary. Students at both institutions noted a lack of social interaction between the two groups. Additionally, despite a long and intertwined history, University and Seminary students said that the two lack a strong relationship at the institutional level.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

News & Notes: Constraints on social media prevent accurate U. history timeline

If its social media is taken at face value, Princeton — the nation’s fourth-oldest university — is having trouble figuring out exactly when it was founded.According to its new Facebook Timeline, the University, which was founded in 1746, was actually founded on July 1, 1800. University Social Media Strategist Ian Cahir said in a tweet that the new Facebook Timeline prevents the University from accurately registering when it was founded.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

Faculty replace 2 introductory Italian courses at meeting

Changes to the curriculum of the Department of French and Italian were proposed and approved at the University faculty meeting on Monday.On behalf of the Committee on the Course of Study, Dean of the College Valerie Smith proposed dropping from the curriculum ITA 221: Introduction to Italian Literature, Language and Society: From the Beginnings to 1700 and ITA 222: Introduction to Italian Literature, Language and Society: From 1700 to the Present. Italian professors Simone Marchesi and Pietro Frassica previously taught ITA 221 and ITA 222, respectively.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

Enforcing grade deflation

Every September, each University professor receives an email from the Office of the Registrar.The email is an annual grading report, formatted as a PDF document with three rows. The last row displays the grading distribution for each of the courses the professor taught the previous year; the second row indicates the number of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s and F’s given out by all faculty members in his or her department; and the top row shows the University’s grading distribution as a whole.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

U. licenses professor’s new speaker technology

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Edgar Choueiri has worked in 3-D audio since 2003, developing a system known as BACCH that reduces the problems of speaker interference, which has since been licensed to commercial companies.Throughout the technology development process, Choueiri’s work was backed by the protection that the University provides for his intellectual property.

NEWS | 03/05/2012

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