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Wyss gives Harvard $125 million

Wyss gives Harvard $125 million

Harvard has received $125 million from Swiss engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjorg Wyss to fund the creation of the Hansjorg Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the university announced in a statement Monday.Wyss, who received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965, is head of the Wyss Foundation, an environmental charity, according to The Harvard Crimson.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

Freshman election runoff delayed

The freshman class elections were beset by technical difficulties and rule violations this year, causing the candidates for the runoff elections to be announced Tuesday, one day behind schedule.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

Cell phone use skews surveys

The surge in cell phone usage, as well as absentee and early ballots, are handicapping the accuracy of polls for the 2008 presidential election, pollster Joe Lenski ?87 said in a panel discussion on voting behavior and the trustworthiness of polling in Dodds Auditorium on Tuesday.Lenski, who studied mechanical engineering at the University, was the third speaker on a panel composed of social scientists and pollsters.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

Tilghman to be trustee of new Saudi university

President Tilghman will serve on the board of trustees of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), a new research university in Saudi Arabia, Princeton announced Monday.?There is nothing comparable to [KAUST] right now in the Middle East,? Tilghman said, noting that she believes the opening of the nondenominational graduate-level research university will significantly increase opportunities for women.?One of the reasons I have agreed to join the board is because they have made a strong commitment to educate women along with men,? she said, adding that women at the university won?t have to wear hijabs, and non-Muslims will study alongside Muslims.While the opening of the university will not change the fact that women in Saudi Arabia live by very different rules from men, Tilghman said she sees it as ?a promising beginning.??I think you have to begin somewhere, and this is something that is important for those of us in the West who believe in women?s rights,? she said, noting that KAUST aims to have a gender-balanced student body.The new university, which will operate according to the American model, will be a unique institution in Saudi Arabian higher education.?One of the hallmarks of the new university is the commitment to [changing the status quo], and the university is supposed to be run on the same norms as American universities and other reputable foreign universities,? said Wilson School professor Daniel Kurtzer, who served as the United States? ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005.?[Saudi Arabia] is a place where there are still traditional values that preclude women from advancing in society to equal treatment,? he noted.He said he hopes that this university will begin to break down some of the obstacles that women face.?This clearly is different from anything else that is going on in Saudi Arabia ? a place in the Kingdom where there will not be barriers to women?s equal advancement and participation in academic progress,? Kurtzer said.Barbara Bodine, a lecturer in the Wilson School and former U.S.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

History of Gallup: Polling’s past in Princeton

Seventy-three years ago, George Gallup founded a national political institution on Nassau Street, just across from the University.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

Borough to re-evaluate property tax values

At its weekly meeting Tuesday night, the Borough Council hired an assessor to re-evaluate all property in the Borough for tax purposes, marking the beginning of the first complete property tax revaluation since 1996.The council also discussed efforts to publicize the FreeB jitney service, debated ways to recover money owed to the Borough by the Township and passed an ordinance regulating the maintenance of construction sites.Council members said they worried that the property tax revaluation could upset Borough residents, some of whom may end up paying more taxes.?This makes people very nervous, and with reason,? Councilman David Goldfarb said.

NEWS | 10/07/2008

Felten finds NYT, YouTube site vulnerabilities

Until last week, The New York Times? website was susceptible to malicious outside attacks, potentially jeopardizing users? private information, according to a paper published last Monday by computer science professor Ed Felten and Bill Zeller GS.The site allowed attackers to ?recommend articles with commentary [and] they could capture e-mail addresses,? Felten said in an interview.Because the website keeps members logged in for longer than most websites, he explained, members remained susceptible to security breaches long after they had navigated away from the site.The vulnerability arises from the ?e-mail this? feature, which makes user e-mail addresses available to the attacker, according to the report.An attacker can remotely take advantage of the flaw by determining that a user has left the webpage without logging out and then returning to the page to access that account as if he were the user.?We take the security of our site and our users very seriously and act quickly to address any vulnerabilities,? a Times spokeswoman said in a statement to cnet.com, a technology news website.

NEWS | 10/06/2008

Microsoft research officer discusses future of computing

Use of technology in the classroom will only become more integral and transformative to education, Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said on Monday to a crowd of about 70 undergraduate and graduate students in Dodds Auditorium.Mundie discussed how several recently developed technologies could be applied in educational contexts and, more generally, in improving the free flow of information.Someday walls and desks ?will essentially have computers built into them,? Mundie said, explaining that touch screens could ?take social computing processes and use them directly in the educational process? by connecting the user to content created by his or her classmates.Mundie presented a sheet of a flexible material called ?e-ink? that was only slightly thicker and wider than a sheet of paper.

NEWS | 10/06/2008

Gay conservatives say they're bridge-builders, not paradoxes

A gay Republican may seem like a contradiction in terms to some, but four public figures said that they have no trouble identifying with being both.They discussed their experiences as conservatives in a predominantly liberal gay community during a panel discussion sponsored by the LGBT Center in McCormick Hall on Monday.?We have been called selfish and self-hating,? said University of Minnesota law professor Dale Carpenter, who specializes in civil rights and civil liberties.

NEWS | 10/06/2008

Borough fire permit fee increase puts the squeeze on student groups

Fees for fire safety permits in Princeton Borough have more than doubled since last year, leading the University and student groups to dig into their budgets for more money to cover the additional costs, University Fire Marshal Robert Gregory said Monday.The Borough Council voted to raise the fees for fire-safety permits in April 2008.

NEWS | 10/06/2008

Study reveals impact of wealth on academic choice

Despite the University?s Major Choices initiative ? launched in 2004 to encourage students to choose their concentration based on their academic passions and not their future career aspirations ? students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to take post-graduation employment opportunities into account in declaring their major, according to the recently released Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) survey results.Though 30 percent of self-identified lower-class students said that ?expected financial prospects? was a significant factor when choosing a major, only 12 percent of upper-class students responded the same way.Moreover, nearly a third of all students in each socioeconomic category cited ?finding a job? as a significant factor for their selection of major, except for those who identified as upper class, of which only 22 percent said ?finding a job? significantly influenced their choice.On the whole, however, 80 percent of respondents across all socioeconomic backgrounds cited ?academic passion? and ?interesting classes? as reasons for choosing their major.Five-year data from the Career Survey Report, in which Career Services polled graduating classes from 2004 to 2008 about their post-graduation plans, show that the average starting salary for a computer-science graduate was $67,000, while the average comparative-literature graduate earned a salary of about $37,000.

NEWS | 10/06/2008

Alcohol violations spike after new patrol policy

The number of liquor-law violations reported on campus increased sixfold from 2006 to 2007, according to the 2008 Annual Security Report released by Public Safety last week.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

News & Notes | Oct. 6

Singh pleads guilty to Lewis Library briberyA sixth defendant, Tejinder ?Tony? Singh, has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery connected to construction of the Lewis Science Library, according to court documents.Singh, the chief executive of Fine Painting, pleaded guilty to one count of commercial bribery, The Times of Trenton reported.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

Tilghman not surprised by income, happiness findings in COMBO

After the Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) survey reported inequalities and divisions among University students, President Tilghman said in an interview on Friday that she was not surprised by the results and that changes in campus social dynamics must come from the students.?I think there is little new news in this survey,? Tilghman said.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

University improves in Trojan sexual health rankings

On the recently released 2008 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card, the University was ranked 29th out of 139 colleges evaluated nationwide.The survey, conducted by independent research firm Sperling?s BestPlaces, rated universities on a scale of zero to 10 in 13 separate categories, including students? opinions of their school?s health resources, availability of sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing and contraceptives, quality of awareness programs and website usability.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

Service honors former dean of religious life

Family and friends of former Dean of Religious Life Joseph Williamson gathered Sunday afternoon to give thanks for his role in their lives and to celebrate his creed of joy.Williamson, who served at the University from 1989 to 2001, died of heart failure in Baltimore on June 7, after a long battle with Alzheimer?s disease.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

USG Senate supports moving polling location

At its weekly Senate meeting last night, the USG passed a resolution voicing its support for moving the polling location for District 1 of Princeton Borough to a spot on the University campus.David Christie ?10 presented the resolution ? a joint venture betwen the College Democrats, College Republicans and P-Votes ? at the meeting and explained that ?basically what we?re trying to do is get more students to vote.??For 91.8 percent [of eligible voters] it would be more convenient to vote on campus,? he said.Christie presented 2007 statistics provided by the Princeton Borough Clerk showing that the Borough?s District 1 was composed of about 92 percent students, 4 percent University-affiliated voters and 4 percent non-University voters.

NEWS | 10/05/2008

University professors identify novel collective state of electrons

A recent discovery by professors at the University may change the understanding of the fundamental behavior of electrons and lead to significant developments in electronics.For the most part, electrons are solitary, whirling haphazardly through space as a complex hybrid of wave and particle.

NEWS | 10/02/2008

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