News

News and Notes: Sept. 29

Brinkley ?71 to step down as Columbia provostColumbia University provost Alan Brinkley ?71 will resign from his administrative position at the end of the academic year to return full-time to his duties as a history professor, the Columbia Spectator reported Thursday.Brinkley, a Wilson School concentrator while at Princeton, has served as provost for the past five years, presiding over the university?s academics, faculty and budget, as well as reviewing applications for tenure and selecting new deans, the Spectator said.In an e-mail to Columbia students, Brinkley cited a desire to return to research and teaching.

"Princeton 5000" raises money for village bank

Can singing and dancing give a poor family in Tajikistan financial stability? The Princeton Microfinance Organization (PMO) believes so.Last weekend, nine performance groups converged to perform a show to forge a creative solution to poverty.

Three clubs take 55 in fall Bicker

Fall Bicker concluded this past Friday, with a total of 55 new members being accepted into Cap & Gown, Ivy and Tower clubs.Cap accepted 21 bickerees out of more than 40, said a member of the club, whose name is being withheld because the person is not authorized to speak to the press.

Wall Street firms cut recuitment

As the latest turmoil on Wall Street has thrown numerous banks into a tailspin, anxiety is high for seniors who are still set on entering the field of finance after graduation.After undergoing momentous changes ? including the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America ? the finance industry may be loosening its grip on seniors? plans.Ankur Patel ?09, who spent his summer working in treasury and security services at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said he believes many of his peers will consider other post-graduation paths.?There is definitely a decreased interest in banking because of the lack of job security,? Patel said.

USG aims to extend hours at Firestone

The USG will make extending library hours a priority this semester, USG president Josh Weinstein ?09 said at Sunday night?s USG meeting.U-Councilor Julia Kaplan ?11 explained that the USG has set its short-term focus on ?doing whatever needs to be done to get Firestone hours extended.?The long-term focus, she added, is to ?publicize and make attractive? various study spaces and to extend hours for those locations in general.A second priority for the USG will be working with Labyrinth Books to address student dissatisfaction with the store.?This semester, [the] USG will be focusing on working with Labyrinth to see what we can do,? Undergraduate Life chair Arthur Levy ?10 said, explaining that ?a lot of students have been complaining [about the store].?Though Levy did not specify the nature of the complaints, he said that the USG would try to ?get a dialogue going.?The USG is also looking at a project to provide more comprehensive information on course books, such as which books are absolutely required for a course and which can be bought in less expensive earlier editions, Levy said.Regarding the upcoming class officer elections, senior elections manager Braeden Kepner-Kraus ?10 said that this year nine people are running for freshman class president, five for vice president, four for treasurer, three for social chair and one for secretary.

Hundreds fill Frist for first presidential debate (video)

Faces can be judged instantly

Spending an extra 20 minutes trying to assemble the perfect outfit may be a waste of your time according to a new study, ?The functional basis of face evaluation.? The study shows that human beings make split-second judgments about strangers based on facial analysis, judging them as trustworthy and approachable or deceptive and threatening based solely on facial structure.

Troubled Nassau Weekly looks to WPRB

Following a series of personnel problems, the Nassau Weekly is in the midst of discussions to merge operations with the campus radio station WPRB.Talks have been ongoing between the student leadership of both organizations: the Nass? three editors-in-chief, Colin Pfeiffer ?09, Uzoamaka Maduka ?09 and Chris Schlegel ?09, and WPRB station manager William Sullivan ?09 and news director Sebastian Jones ?09.Decisions have yet to be finalized and approved, but WPRB graduate board chairman William Rosenblatt ?83 has called the proposal an ?intriguing idea.??I?m excited that the undergraduate board is pursuing creative ideas to make the station stronger,? he said.Rosenblatt said that the WPRB board of trustees has not yet discussed the issue with the University.

Troubled Nassau Weekly looks to WPRB

Following a series of personnel problems, the Nassau Weekly is in the midst of discussions to merge operations with the campus radio station WPRB.Talks have been ongoing between the student leadership of both organizations: the Nass? three editors-in-chief, Colin Pfeiffer ?09, Uzoamaka Maduka ?09 and Chris Schlegel ?09, and WPRB station manager William Sullivan ?09 and news director Sebastian Jones ?09.Decisions have yet to be finalized and approved, but WPRB graduate board chairman William Rosenblatt ?83 has called the proposal an ?intriguing idea.??I?m excited that the undergraduate board is pursuing creative ideas to make the station stronger,? he said.Rosenblatt said that the WPRB board of trustees has not yet discussed the issue with the University.

Graduate schools consult Facebook

Calling all seniors: It may be time to clean up your facebook.com profiles. According to a survey conducted by Kaplan Test Prep between June and August, 15 percent of law school admissions officers and 10 percent of undergraduate admissions officers have ?personally visited personal networking sites to help [them] evaluate an applicant.?One hundred and fifty-two law schools and 320 of the top 500 colleges participated in the survey, though Princeton did not.

Fast-a-thon fights hunger in Trenton and around the world

Three hundred students went hungry Thursday so that Trenton?s poor won?t have to.The ?Fast-a-thon,? organized by the Muslim Students Association (MSA), lasted from sunrise to sunset as part of the Muslim custom of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.Any student who decided to fast could make a personal donation as well as recruit sponsors to pledge financial support.

To beat malaria, don’t rely on one drug

My first purchase in India this summer was a small plug-in ?Jungle Formula? mosquito killer unit that promised to fill my bedroom with enough vaporized chemicals to slay all mosquitoes within a 30-meter radius.

Goodell: Americans ignorant of nation's coal dependency

Americans probably don?t remember how many times a day they turn on the lights, but they also probably don?t think about the connection between flipping the switch and coal mined from West Virginia and Wyoming, Rolling Stone contributing editor Jeff Goodell explained to a packed audience in the Frist Multipurpose Room on Thursday afternoon.?The problem with dealing with coal is that no one knows we use coal for electricity,? Goodell explained, noting the general ignorance of how intricately involved coal energy is in everyday life.

Hitz '61 criticizes 'cultural divide' between intelligence agencies

What started Thursday afternoon as a self-proclaimed act of shameless self-promotion quickly became a comprehensive call for the revamping of the U.S.

Shapiro GS ’64 to chair DeVry

Former University president Harold Shapiro GS ?64 was elected to succeed Dennis Keller ?63 as chairman of the Board of Trustees of DeVry Inc., beginning on Nov.

Scholar makes historical documents available online

Leigh Bienen is a patient woman.She pored over 14,000 handwritten historical documents kept by the Chicago police department on 11,000 homicides in the city between 1870 and 1930 and has now made these documents available to the public via an online database.But she couldn?t get enough.

University will pay overtime to Borough Police

The University will compensate the Princeton Borough Police for overtime hours after members of the force responded to large crowds in attendance at the Quadrangle Club for Lawnparties, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said on

For University, Spelman 8 great success

The addition of Spelman building 8 to Whitman College was a major draw this year for upperclassmen eager to have both a kitchen and a meal plan, as the popularity of the independent dining option continues to decline.The apartment-style Spelman suites, each of which is equipped with a full kitchen, have traditionally been reserved for juniors and seniors who are independent and therefore have neither a meal plan nor an eating club membership.Interest in the independent dining option, however, ?has been steadily decreasing over the last 5 years,? Undergraduate Housing manager Angela Hodgeman said in an e-mail.This year, roughly 144 independent students are living in Spelman housing, Hodgeman said.Whitman?s expansion into Spelman affords some students the opportunity to combine independent and residential college dining options but may lead to a further decrease in interest in independent draw.Katie Zaeh ?10, for example, said in an e-mail that she dropped out of independent room draw in favor of the Whitman draw because her draw time in Whitman gave her a better chance of getting into a Spelman suite.Others, such as Mike Gilson ?10, get the best of three worlds.Gilson said that he is enjoying the benefits of having both a kitchen in his suite and a shared meal plan between Whitman College and Cloister Inn.

Mayer blasts interrogation tactics of CIA

Deception, incompetence and social indifference have led the Bush administration to breach ethical and legal boundaries in its anti-terrorism interrogation policy, New Yorker writer Jane Mayer said in a discussion of her new book, ?The Dark Side,? on Wednesday afternoon.?They redefined torture so that they were not torturing unless they caused organ failure or death,? Mayer said.

Greendesign store offers ‘eco-friendly’ products

After eight years in Europe, two kids and a high-tech corporate career, Tim McNulty and Chi Park have turned over a new leaf and opened Greendesign, an ?eco-goods? store, on Witherspoon Street.Not only does the store offer eco-friendly products, but much of the decor comes from American-made sustainable materials, and 90 percent of the store?s products are made in the United States.