News

Ramona isn?t like other robots. Created in 2001 by artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and author Raymond Kurzweil, Ramona is an Aquarius who likes tight clothes, cannoli and Australian sheepdogs, but that?s not what sets her apart from the proverbial robot pack.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Vaccination rates steady in first year of FluMist offering

Vaccination rates steady in first year of FluMist offering

In the first year that University Health Services (UHS) offered FluMist in addition to the traditional flu shot at FluFest, total vaccinations held steady.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Signs on seats 'speak out'

Students attending lecture Thursday may have found a startling message on their seats. As part of an ongoing campaign, SpeakOut put up posters in the largest lecture halls on campus that read: ?[One] in 4 women is a survivor of sexual assault by the time she graduates college.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Economy hits college newspapers

Correction appended

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Lewis Library dedicated

Lewis Library was officially dedicated today to University trustee Peter Lewis ?55, who funded the building with a $60 million gift.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Planning Board and University reach deal on traffic plan

The University has received preliminary approval from the Princeton Regional Planning Board for its plan to address traffic congestion as it moves forward with the implementation of the 10-year Campus Plan.At its Nov.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

Undergraduates to face hurdles for graduate courses

Due to a new University policy, undergraduates wishing to register in graduate-level courses now face more obstacles than in recent years, including an extensive form, in-person enrollment at the Registrar?s office and no option to take the course with Pass/D/Fail grading.The policy change is an effort to ensure that students are prepared for their classes and fully understand their professors? expectations, Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler said.

NEWS | 11/20/2008

GS Dean urges better funding

Correction appended

NEWS | 11/19/2008

PULP celebrates winners of ‘Grinch’ translation contest

The scattered conversations in Spanish and French faded as students ate Chinese take-out and listened to a translation of ?How the Grinch Stole Christmas? in Twi, a language spoken in Ghana.The language-themed feast was part of the awards ceremony for the PU Language Program (PULP)?s inaugural translation contest, held in early October.

NEWS | 11/19/2008

Xiao ’12 wins $1,000 in ‘Princeton Pitch’ competition

Instead of having just interior airbags to protect passengers, the cars of the future should have exterior devices that can predict a collision and then inflate to protect the vehicle from damage.

NEWS | 11/19/2008

Effects of alcohol policy still hazy

A year after the implementation of Residential Hallway Patrols (RHP) and a new RCA policy, students are still questioning what some have criticized as contradictory University policies toward alcohol consumption in dormitories.Since October 2007, Public Safety officers on RHP have been making rounds in dormitory hallways at night.

NEWS | 11/19/2008

Lu '88, Brown '82 tapped for Obama staff

President-elect Barack Obama selected two University alumni for his White House staff on Wednesday afternoon.

NEWS | 11/19/2008

Klaus: Survey to help decide potential dorm reallocation

The University has no specific plans to make additional upperclass dormitories part of the four-year residential college system, representatives of the Housing Department said in an interview Wednesday.There has been ?no predetermined decision that any or a certain quantity [of upperclass dorms] are going to be reassigned,? Assistant Vice President for Facilities Chad Klaus explained.The department plans to send undergraduates a survey on Friday to evaluate student opinion on potential additions to the college system and overall housing preferences.The survey allows students to rank their preferences for adding parts of upperclass dormitories to the four-year colleges in the event that ?demand for upperclass spaces in residential colleges next year exceeds planned supply,? according to the text of the survey.Proposed additions to the college system listed in the survey include parts of Scully, Cuyler or Patton-Wright halls to Butler College; parts of Little, Lockhart or Foulke halls to Mathey College; and parts of Spelman, Cuyler, Patton-Wright or Pyne halls to Whitman College.Klaus said that these dorms were not selected based on their room configurations, how recently they were renovated or their popularity during room draw, but rather by their proximity to residential colleges.In the event that additional upperclass housing is incorporated into four-year residential colleges, the current requirement that all students in residential colleges buy a University meal plan will not be changed.?I think the requirement for being in a residential college and having a University meal plan would stay,? said Matt Kinsey ?98, associate director for planning and administration in Executive Vice President Mark Burstein?s office.The survey asks students which factors are important in ?determining a positive housing experience.? Choices include room size and location, proximity to kitchens and study spaces, and the age of the building.

NEWS | 11/19/2008

USG elections process under question

The USG may reform its online election system to remove the potential for internal tampering, USG president Josh Weinstein ?09 said in response to inquiries from The Daily Princetonian regarding the integrity of the system.Currently, certain USG members have the ability to view the list of students who have cast ballots, and there is a chance that they could exploit this ability by altering the results of the election without leaving a trace, said James Chu, a senior systems developer in the Office of Information Technology (OIT). Chu was the original designer of the WebSurvey facility used in the elections process.?Both as past senior elections manager and president, I take these issues very seriously, and I think we need to look at fixing [the system] as soon as possible,? Weinstein said.Under the current election framework, the USG creates a survey using the WebSurvey facility and then deploys that survey as an election, Chu explained.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

NOM was the top donor to fund Proposition 8

The Princeton-based National Organization for Marriage (NOM), founded in 2007 by Maggie Gallagher and politics professor Robert George, was the largest monetary supporter of Proposition 8, whose passage on Nov.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

Program mixes arts and engineering

While the engineering school is more commonly known for rigorous technical courses and rigid sequences of requirements, the Engineering and the Liberal Arts program offered by the civil and environmental engineering (CEE) department gives students breathing room to design their own interdisciplinary course of study.The program combines traditional civil engineering coursework with liberal arts classes to broaden students? education to include topics they might not otherwise have had the chance to explore, program director and CEE professor George Scherer said, explaining that ?we have a lot of students who have interests that go beyond conventional engineering careers.?Students in the program are still required take a total of 36 courses and fulfill the eight math and basic science requirements dictated by the engineering school.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

Isaacson: Creativity required for success

Intelligence is not enough to really distinguish oneself: Creativity is critical, biographer Walter Isaacson told an audience in a packed McCosh 50 on Tuesday night.Isaacson is currently the CEO of the Aspen Institute and was the former chairman and CEO of CNN and a former TIME magazine managing editor.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

Housing survey to ask for best, worst dorms to add to res. colleges

To evaluate student opinion on proposed changes to the residential college system and to better understand what factors are important to students when choosing their rooms, the Housing Department will distribute a survey to undergraduates on Friday.The survey, which has already been sent to several members of the USG and other students in a trial run, allows students to rank their preferences for adding parts of upperclass dormitories to the four-year colleges in the event that ?demand for upper-class spaces in residential colleges next year exceeds planned supply.?Proposed additions to the college system include parts of Scully, Cuyler or Patton-Wright halls to Butler College; parts of Little, Lockhart or Foulke halls to Mathey College; and parts of Spelman, Cuyler, Patton-Wright or Pyne halls to Whitman College.?I think that it?s a great survey,? USG president Josh Weinstein ?09 said.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

Proposition 8 stirs little public outcry at University

Though students at peer institutions have organized and participated in sizable public rallies against Proposition 8, the ballot measure that revoked gray marriage right in California, there has been little public outcry at Princeton in the weeks following election day.The proposition, which passed with 52 percent of the votes cast in favor, amended the California state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and woman.Members of the campus LGBT community expressed deep discontent with the outcome of the referendum, but many said they felt that there wasn?t much they could do to make a difference.Proposition 8 was discussed at a meeting of students and religious life leaders at the LGBT Center last Wednesday, but no protests or large-scale public events have been held on campus.Chris Simpson ?09 said he is organizing a satirical campaign on Thursday that would ban freshmen from walking on campus sidewalks to parallel the injustice of the proposition.?I think it?s a shame that there is so little debate taking place on a campus that is as well-informed as ours,? Simpson said in an e-mail urging students to participate.Matt McMahon GS, an openly gay first-year architecture student who tried to organize a sit-in at the Nassau Street office of the National Organization for Marriage, the biggest funder of support for Proposition 8, said he has received few responses to his campaign.He explained that he felt obligated to act because campus felt like a ?radiant silence.??It led me [to be] disheartened about the state of LGBT affairs at Princeton,? said McMahon, who lived in New York City and was an undergraduate at Penn State.

NEWS | 11/18/2008

Chaplains address religious views of marriage and sex

Representatives of five different religious backgrounds cautiously recommended abstinence before marriage and agreed that marriage is crucial for reaching God in the highest spiritual sense during a discussion titled ?Perspectives on Sexuality: Religion and Sexuality? on Monday night.The chaplains began by briefly explaining their own personal views of sexuality in light of their respective religions.

NEWS | 11/17/2008

Most Popular