News

USG crush website brings love online

When Meera Krishnan '07 checked her e-mail yesterday, she found herself reading an unusual message: an anonymous fellow Princetonian had a crush on her.Rather than being the victim of a stalker, however, Krishnan was merely a beneficiary of one of the USG's newest projects.

First 106 freshmen draw into Whitman

As the stone walls of Whitman College rise from land once used for tennis courts, some of its future residents are already lined up.The day after Dean's Date last month, 106 members of the Class of 2010 found out that they had been selected to live in the new four-year residential college, which will open its doors this fall.

Making a difference during a 'selfish period'

Six student leaders hurried around the Murray-Dodge common room yesterday afternoon, eating pizza while preparing for their open house.They laid out posters advertising their 50 yearly projects as students in search of volunteer opportunities trickled in.

Off on a tangent for Valentine's Day

A column by Z. Taylor Vinson '55 published in The Daily Princetonian for Valentine's Day on Friday, Feb.

USG solicits grading complaints

The USG is shifting its stance on the University's controversial grade deflation policy from trying to abolish the policy to ensuring that it is fairly and correctly implemented for all students."Ultimately, I would like it [grade deflation] to be overturned," USG president Rob Biederman '08 said.

Photographer was with the Times

The woman who followed Tower Club's pickups with a camera on Friday was a freelance photographer employed by The New York Times, a Times spokeswoman said in an e-mail yesterday.

A little cash on the side

Richmond Owusu '09 spends at least eight hours every week deep within the bowels of Firestone Library.

Students design new agency

One week after launching the Student Design Agency, managers Tiffany Wey '07 and Andy Chen '09 have received about 30 requests for T-shirt graphics, posters and web-design work.They created this student-run business to respond to the demand for graphic design among on-campus groups and to create a new graphic design center for University students.

A man, a bus and a cause: An alum's ride for gay rights

Bram Wispelwey '06 will climb on a bus next month and take a road trip with a purpose.Wispelwey will join 55 other young activists in the Soulforce Equality Ride, which will visit 32 colleges and universities that ban openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students from enrolling.

Anthropologist seeks methods to solve AIDS epidemic

Encouraging monogamy is an ineffective way to combat the spread of HIV, since people will have extramarital sex and put themselves at risk even if they are warned against doing so, public health anthropologist Jennifer Hirsch '88 said in a lecture yesterday in Wallace Hall."Unilateral monogamy is about as successful as unilateral disarmament," she said.Sponsored by the Wilson School's Princeton AIDS Initiative, Hirsch's lecture drew upon her research regarding intimacy and fidelity, which she uses to lobby for public health policy changes to fight the transmission of HIV."You cannot prevent heterosexual transmission [of HIV] by telling men not to have sex," she said yesterday.

Go the distance

Harvard's head, a child of Princeton

Drew Gilpin Faust, who was confirmed as Harvard's new leader on Sunday, has another presidential connection in the Ivy League: She's descended from two past presidents of Princeton.Among her ancestors, Faust counts the University's second president, Aaron Burr, Sr., and Jonathan Edwards, the University's third president.They are far from the only Tigers in Faust's family tree.

Computers' role in classrooms questioned

Technology may well turn out to be the new taboo on campus, as professors increasingly worry about laptops in lecture and other pitfalls of the 21st century.Faculty members and technology experts debated the role of computers on campus yesterday, during the first Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) meeting of the new semester.

Purported Times reporter follows pickups

A journalist armed with a camera who said she was with The New York Times followed Tower Club pickups Friday morning until she was told to leave campus by Public Safety officers.The reporter's presence is consistent with recent attempts by the Times to contact eating club presidents for a story on bicker clubs, but when questioned by the University, editor of the Times' Education Life section Jane Karr denied sending a reporter to campus on Friday."[The reporter] said she was from The New York Times," Tower president Jonathan Fernandez '08 said.

Faust gets Harvard's top post

In a long-anticipated move, Harvard confirmed the appointment of its first female president yesterday, announcing that Drew Gilpin Faust will be the university's 28th president.Dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a civil war historian, Faust beat out a strong field of contenders for the position, including Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan '81 and the presidents of several elite universities.Faust is the fifth woman ? the fourth in the last six years ? to become president of an Ivy League university.

WPRB students oppose plan to sell

Despite more than a decade of financial struggles, WPRB, the 67-year-old student-run radio station, will not be shutting down.On Saturday, WPRB's alumni board of trustees presented the student officers with possible plans for change, including selling the station's broadcasting license and then either donating the profits to the University or converting the broadcast format to webcasts.

USG proposes mini-golf course, crush website for upcoming year

Having increased student e-mail quotas, chartered buses to Yale and lobbied the University to make late meals start earlier, the USG is now aiming to help students find true love.Last night, USG vice president Josh Weinstein '09 presented a prototype "crush website" that will allow students to list the netids of five students they have a crush on.

Tower, Cap increase in selectivity

The five Bicker clubs saw a small increase in the number of students seeking to join last week, with Tower emerging as the most selective.About 60 percent of the students who bickered the five selective eating clubs last week were accepted this weekend.

RCAs comfort hosed advisees

As bicker clubs picked up newly accepted sophomores on Friday with noisy chants and generous dollops of shaving cream, other students whose bicker attempts were not so favorably received found far less enjoyment in the weekend's events.Anticipating the possibility of such emotional trauma ? as well as the more physical risks that can accompany Bicker, pickups and Initiations, such as sexual assault ? residential colleges increased efforts this year to inform sophomores about eating options and address their concerns during and after the bicker process."Clearly, last year's Bicker was a disgrace and certainly dangerous in certain respects," said Mathey College Master Antoine Kahn GS '75.

Mo' weather, mo' problems

The following weather column is in loving memory of Anna Nicole Smith, Barbaro and the dignity of the American space program.Brrrr, Weather Fans, it's dog sweater cold: I fervently hope you spent Intersession in a toasty fashion, much as I did.