Correction appended
In light of the passage of California?s Proposition 8, which eliminated gay marriage in the state, students and faculty gathered in Murray-Dodge on Friday to discuss Princeton?s response and plan further action.At the sparsely attended forum, titled ?University Community Forum: Prop 8 and LGBT Civil Rights,? participants discussed five possible actions to counter the proposition: fundraising to support LGBT organizations, submitting an amicus brief to the California Supreme Court, raising awareness on campus, organizing protests and gathering support via letter-writing, phone banks and petitions.One possible action, submitting an amicus brief, is on the USG elections ballot.
Psychology professor Anne Treisman has been selected as the winner of the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology.
USG president Josh Weinstein ?09 has apologized for indicating that unopposed USG presidential candidate Connor Diemand-Yauman ?10 supports Michael Weinberg ?11 for USG vice president. ?I'd like to apologize for implying that, because Connor asked Mike to be on a ticket with him, that he supports him in the Vice Presidential race ? Connor is impartial,? Weinstein said in an e-mail sent Sunday morning to many of Weinstein?s supporters from his own campaign.
Members of the USG held a special Senate meeting Thursday evening to discuss one of the two referenda that will appear on the ballot in the upcoming USG election and decided that they will take no action to alter, append or dismiss the referenda.The referendum in question, sponsored by the Coalition for Intellectual Liberty (CIL), formally asks the University to refrain from taking positions on controversial issues.
Public Safety is currently investigating a bias incident involving a swastika drawn on a wall outside a sophomore girls? quad in Witherspoon Hall.Several whiteboards in the building also contained inappropriate pictures and messages, and some bathroom doors had been defaced with markers, public safety investigator Alvan Flanders said in an e-mail.Two student-age males not affiliated with the University students were also reported to have been in the area around the time the graffiti was discovered early Thursday morning.At about 1:30 a.m., two males knocked on Witherspoon RCA Maria Salciccioli ?09?s door, having been let into the building on false pretenses.?They made up a story about how they were locked out and [that] one guy?s girlfriend had cheated on him and they had to find her, and someone let them in,? said Salciccioli, who is also a blogger for The Daily Princetonian.
While observers may note the historical value of campus architecture, Princeton?s flora has similarly historic roots.
Joseph Fox ?93, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Delaware, has identified a novel reaction that will allow for biomolecule tagging at different temporal points in the life of a protein at a rate thousands of times faster than preexisting methods.?The glory of the reaction is that it is significantly faster than other types of reactions in this class,? Fox explained.Fox? discovery comes in the wake of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to the scientists who discovered the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Fox? reaction, a variant on the Diels-Alder reaction, does not produce toxic byproducts and is potentially applicable to experiments that track the activity of proteins in live organisms.
USG president Josh Weinstein ?09 publicly endorsed vice presidential candidate Michael Weinberg ?11 early this morning in an e-mail to many of Weinstein?s supporters from his own campaign. In the e-mail, sent at 1 a.m., Weinstein said he would ?like to offer my absolute support for Mike Weinberg for USG Vice President? and invited recipients to contact Weinstein to ?help Mike?s campaign.? The e-mail made no mention of Nick DiBerardino ?11, the other candidate for vice president. The e-mail began with congratulations for unopposed USG presidential candidate Connor Diemand-Yauman ?10.
History professor Peter Brown will receive the John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday.
The University performs no regular ethical review of its investments, Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) president Andrew Golden said after an investigation by campus radio station WPRB revealed that the University may have investment ties to Zimbabwe.
As the financial crisis continues to impact the finances of institutions of higher education, Harvard?s endowment dropped by about $8 billion ? a 22 percent decrease ? in the first four months of the 2009 fiscal year, according to bloomberg.com.
Singer-songwriter and pianist Ben Folds joined the Nassoons, the University?s oldest a cappella group, to record his song ?Time? on Wednesday.
Roughly 70 students and faculty members gathered in Murray-Dodge on Wednesday night for an interfaith vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India last week.The vigil was preceded by a candlelight procession from the Frist South Lawn to Murray-Dodge, led by Associate Dean of Religious Life Paul Raushenbush.
A month after votes were cast in the still-undecided U.S. Senate race in Minnesota between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and his challenger, political commentator and former comedian Al Franken (D), voters and analysts eagerly await the result of the razor-thin election.When the recount began last month, Coleman had an edge of just 215 votes out of almost 3 million cast.
There is no God, at least not in the Judeo-Christian sense, Peter Singer said Wednesday night in a debate titled ?Can There Be Morality Without God?? before a capacity audience in Richardson Auditorium.The debate, co-sponsored by Princeton Faith and Action, the Fixed Point Foundation and the Christian Union, featured Singer, the Princeton professor and controversial ethicist, and Dinesh D?Souza, a conservative writer and former policy analyst for Ronald Reagan.In his opening argument, Singer explained that he would not focus on his personal beliefs but would instead debate more generally.?We are not discussing any particular moral views held by any particular atheist,? he said.D?Souza, however, begged to differ.
Tuesday?s Borough Council meeting began with a complaint from a member of the public questioning the constitutionality of the practices of Princeton Borough?s elected officials.Vic Fedorov of Laurel Road said that locally elected officials regularly violate the 10th amendment to the United States Constitution ?by doing what state and federal legislators should do.?Fedorov explained, without mentioning specific Princeton examples, that the public is not sufficiently notified of lawsuits, construction projects or meetings and cited quorum laws in New England as an example of proper procedure during his five minutes of allotted time during the public presentation portion of the meeting.Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman asked Fedorov to submit his notes to the Borough Clerk, explaining that the notes would be reviewed and that an administrator would decide whether the issue was of enough importance to discuss at a future council meeting.The council also discussed the ongoing matter of the three Borough Police officers under investigation for improper use of video recordings.
Despite the ongoing recession, the United States must continue to help developing nations, four panelists said at a discussion held on Tuesday afternoon in Robertson Hall.The panel, titled ?What are American Obligations to Financing Poverty Relief and Global Health in Economic Hard Times?? featured founder and president of Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) Jim Luce, Wilson School professor and World Bank researcher Jeff Hammer, bioethics professor Peter Singer and politics professor Charles Beitz.?American obligations to global health are exactly the same during hard economic times as at other times,? Hammer told the audience of about 40.Hammer explained that the United States spent only $16 billion in humanitarian aid last year, about .5 percent of the national budget.
