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Klaus: Survey to help decide potential dorm reallocation

The Daily Princetonian

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 Daily Princetonian

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

Program mixes arts and engineering

The Daily Princetonian

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

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

The Daily Princetonian

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
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Proposition 8 stirs little public outcry at University

The Daily Princetonian

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

The Daily Princetonian

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

PriCom to alter budget to offset aid

The Daily Princetonian

PriCom to alter budget to offset aid

The University will slow the rate of employee salary increases, postpone construction projects and carefully evaluate spending proposals such as one to upgrade equipment in Stephens Fitness Center in light of the volatile economic circumstances, Provost Christopher Eisgruber ?83 explained Monday night at the annual public meeting of the Priorities Committee (PriCom).Construction projects that are ?nearly complete,? such as the new Butler College and the new chemistry building, will not be postponed, Eisgruber said in an interview after the meeting.When asked about delaying the development of the Arts and Transit Neighborhood, a part of the University?s 10-year Campus Plan, Eisgruber said that the University ?ha[s] to look right now at every project.? The neighborhood, which will transform the southwestern corner of campus, was estimated in 2006 to carry a price tag of more than $300 million.The University is aiming to finalize its decision on which projects will be postponed by the end of the term, Eisgruber added.Eisgruber is the chair of PriCom, a standing committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) that makes budget recommendations to the University president, who in turn offers a final budget to the Board of Trustees for approval.

NEWS | 11/17/2008

Chemists: Proteins may guide evolution

The Daily Princetonian

Chemists: Proteins may guide evolution

University researchers have discovered a molecular mechanism that may play a determining role in an organism?s evolution, according to a recent study that examined the evolution of proteins in the electron transport chain (ETC).?What we have found is that certain kinds of biological structures exist that are able to steer the process of evolution toward improved fitness,? chemistry professor Herschel Rabitz said in a University statement.

NEWS | 11/17/2008

Walzer, Kristol discuss Jewish political trends

The Daily Princetonian

Walzer, Kristol discuss Jewish political trends

In a lecture titled ?Should Jews Be Democrats or Republicans?? both participants declined to answer the question.But the two speakers ? William Kristol, the founder of the political magazine The Weekly Standard and a columnist for The New York Times, and Michael Walzer, a political philosopher and a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study ? did share their views on Jewish political thought, with Walzer approaching the subject from a historical perspective and Kristol tackling Jewish Americans? foreign policy concerns.?The near left is where Jews should put themselves, [it] is where they belong,? Walzer said, noting that Jews have historically aligned with the political left as a result of having experienced hostility and persecution.?Self-knowledge as well as self-interest led us to defend ? civil rights and religious toleration,? Walzer said, adding that the Jews are ?probably the strongest supporters of a liberal, open society.?He noted that 78 percent of the Jewish community voted for President-elect Barack Obama.Walzer cited the history of Jewish immigration to America to explain Jewish support for the welfare state in spite of their material interests.In 1652, Jews migrated from Brazil to New Amsterdam ? as New York was known before British rule ? where they promised the colonial governor that they would care for their own poor, he said.

NEWS | 11/17/2008

Back from Afghanistan

The Daily Princetonian

Back from Afghanistan

A year after being appointed assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, James Shinn ?73 is leaving Washington, D.C., to return to his alma mater as a professor.?It?s time,? he said in an interview in Robertson Hall last Wednesday, two days before he officially left the Pentagon job, which involved direct coverage of Afghanistan.Shinn spent the last five years in Washington.

NEWS | 11/16/2008

Panelists look ahead to Obama’s presidency

The Daily Princetonian

Panelists look ahead to Obama’s presidency

Though the three panelists at the Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) discussion on Friday about the 2008 election were involved in President-elect Barack Obama?s campaign, there was little self-congratulation during the discussion.On the panel, called ?Presidential Elections and the Law of Democracy? and held in Robertson Bowl 16, were Seton Hall Law School professor Mark Alexander, who was a senior adviser to Obama, and New York University School of Law professors Samuel Issacharoff and Richard Pildes ?79, who co-authored the acclaimed casebook ?The Law of Democracy.?The panelists discussed their roles in the election as well as problems with the election process.

NEWS | 11/16/2008

Tiger could be Obama’s chief techology guru

The Daily Princetonian

Tiger could be Obama’s chief techology guru

News outlets and political blogs have placed three Princetonians on the shortlist to be the nation?s first chief technology officer (CTO), a new cabinet-level position to guide federal technology policy and implementation in President-elect Barack Obama?s administration.Amazon.com CEO Jeffrey Bezos ?86, Google CEO Eric Schmidt ?76 and computer science professor Ed Felten have all been floated as possible CTOs for the BlackBerry-carrying Obama, whose campaign?s success was bolstered by online fundraising and social networking and who has been lauded as the most technologically aware president ever elected.Other candidates floated include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google Vice President Vint Cerf, Stanford Center for the Internet and Society founder Lawrence Lessig and Obama?s former Harvard Law School classmate and campaign adviser Julius Genachowski.Schmidt, who just finished his tenure as a University trustee this year, is currently serving on Obama?s transition advisory board and has already been in contact with Jason Furman, Obama?s policy director, to petition for the creation of jobs in the alternative energy sector, according to The Wall Street Journal.But Schmidt, who could not been reached for comment for this article, has said numerous times that he is not interested in leaving Silicon Valley for Washington, D.C.?I love working at Google, and I?m happy at Google, so the answer is no,? he said in an interview on CNBC last week when asked whether he would like to become the nation?s first CTO.Bezos could also not be reached for comment.Felten told BusinessWeek last month that Obama?s team had not approached him about potential involvement in the new administration, but he told The Daily Princetonian in an interview this week that he does find the new position appealing.?I think a position like this is hard to say no to on some level,? he said.

NEWS | 11/13/2008

Octogenarian alum gives it all to Grosse

The Daily Princetonian

Octogenarian alum gives it all to Grosse

President-elect Barack Obama?s promises of change may have won him the election over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), but older, experienced conservatives have not lost their foothold everywhere in America.Palmer Heenan ?43, the 86-year-old Republican mayor of Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., has served 13 consecutive two-year terms in office and said he plans to keep on going ?as long as the people want me, as long as my health is good and as long as I can recruit people to work.?And it seems like he may do just that.

NEWS | 11/13/2008

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