Students reacted with sadness and admiration as news of Pope John Paul II's death spread across campus this weekend, recalling his achievements that reshaped the papacy.
President Bush will nominate Federal Reserve Governor and University economics professor Ben Bernanke to a position on the President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the White House announced Friday.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) plans to subpoena the University for information on alleged music piracy by 39 students ? a number much higher than the previously reported 12.University officials recently received notices from the association about the forthcoming subpoenas, though the University does not know when, or if, the subpoenas will actually be served, University spokesman Eric Quinones said in an email Sunday."We also received one such notice in January and have yet to receive the actual subpoena," Quinones said.Quinones said several other universities had also recently received a high number of notices, but did not indicate which ones.Columbia and Harvard each received one pre-subpoena notice recently from the RIAA, the Columbia Spectator and The Harvard Crimson reported earlier this month.It is still unclear how the RIAA obtained information about the targeted students."We don't monitor students' computer activity and therefore don't know what networks may have been involved in any of the alleged acts or how the RIAA received its information," Quinones said.An RIAA spokesperson could not be reached for comment over the weekend.Some of the students targeted used a file-sharing program called i2hub, which is accessible to students at 206 colleges and affiliated institutions through the private Internet2 network.
Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities and a Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning author, discussed what she calls "a reader's debt" to support public and private libraries Sunday afternoon at Richardson Auditorium.Morrison spoke of the changes she has witnessed in her lifetime, begging with her childhood, when she remembers time, responsibility and expectations being measured differently ? when it took an hour and a half to walk to the library, when you carried home the three books you were allowed to take out in your arms, and when an overdue fine of three cents was considered a household insult.She also discussed how new technology, such as electronic resources and e-books, has affected the way we gain knowledge."So much is available now via computer screens that it has not been unthinkable in some quarters to dispense of stacks, reading rooms, even librarians, and to imagine the reader at home, undisturbed by other people," Morrison said.The speech, on the continuing importance of libraries in academia and elsewhere, marked the 75th anniversary of the opening of Firestone Library.
Launching into April's celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), the APAHM board has planned a series of events called "Beyond Borders" to commemorate the experience of Asians in America and abroad.The events are scheduled throughout the month until April 29, and include a writers' panel with University professors Chang Rae Lee and Susan Choi, concerts, notable guest speakers, themed banquets and movie screenings.In addition to showcasing various forms of Asian American culture, the board has addressed other topical issues such as identity concerns, stereotypes and Asian American presence in writing and politics."One of the biggest issues I see with Asian Americans today that is there is a general sense of apathy among them in terms of political issues," said Timothy Koo '06, co-chair of the APAHM board.
Prominent experts addressed international and local stability at the Coalition for Peace Action's 25th anniversary dinner on Friday."The most dangerous threat is terrorists plus nuclear weapons plus any state arsenal, including ours," nonproliferation scholar Joseph Cirincione said at the meeting.Cirincione, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently returned from a five-day tour of nuclear facilities in Iran.
With a Princeton architecture degree and a third-place finish in Maxim magazine's "Hometown Hotties" competition behind her, Vail Bloom '04 is making a name for herself in Hollywood.Bloom moved to Los Angeles after graduation to pursue acting.
Though the Middle East is often characterized as fertile ground for oppressive regimes, the region has a long tradition of liberal movements, Columbia University's Rashid Khalidi said at a lecture Thursday in McCormick Hall."Many people think [the Middle East] has never had any experience with democracy," Khalidi, the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, said.
Employees at Smith-Shattuck Bookbinding and Triangle Printing walked off the job late Thursday afternoon as part of a statewide strike initiated by the New Jersey Brotherhood of Printers and Binders (NJBPB)."Our demands and management's offerings are still miles apart," Brotherhood spokesman Simon Brown said.
The University has offered admission to 1,807 students out of a record 16,516 applicants to the Class of 2009, Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye will announce today.
Toni Morrison has been selected to speak at this year's Baccalaureate, an interfaith service for seniors that marks the beginning of commencement.Morrison, the Robert F.
Ballet Folklorico will bring the rhythm and colors of Mexico to the stage on April 2 at 7 p.m. in their third annual spring show, "Si nos dejan."In addition to traditional music and swirling skirts, Ballet Folklorico will incorporate a hat dance into their lineup.
University trustee and billionaire Peter Lewis '55, the biggest individual donor in the history of the school, has publicly broken with major recipients of his donations in the past ? but he says he remains impressed by Princeton.Lewis, who resigned from the board of the Guggenheim Museum earlier this year in a public fallout that made headlines across the country, is an auto insurance magnate who has given $117 million to the University."Princeton operates better than any other institution with which I've been involved," he said.
The Anscombe Society sponsored its first event Wednesday night, a talk titled "Androgynous Feminism's War Against Women" led by Dr. Steven Rhoads '61.Rhoads, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, focused on medical and psychological data that points to biological differences between the sexes.
A sorority has paid thousands of dollars to the Nottingham fire department after members caused damages to department's ballroom at an event earlier this month, police said.The sorority Pi Beta Phi ? which reserved the Nottingham Fire Company Ballroom for a March 3 formal ? paid $4,155 as compensation for a curtain that caught fire, damages to the floor and a case of stolen wine, according to Hamilton Police Detective Lieutenant James Kostoplis."They trashed the place," Kostoplis said.The formal event was cosponsored by the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, according to students at the event who asked not to be named.
Four professors and three teaching assistants were honored for their commitment to teaching on Wednesday at the Engineering Council's "Excellence in Teaching" Awards, held every semester since the Council's inception in 1988.The winners were selected by the undergraduate Council members from a pool of professors and TAs, based on nominations by students.This year's recipients include Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Maria Klawe for MAT 104: Calculus, physics professor Joe Fowler for PHY 103: General Physics I, chemical engineering professor Sankaran Sundaresan for CHE 341: Mass, Momentum and Energy Transport, and electrical engineering professor Paul Prucnal for ELE 203: Electric Circuits.Awards were also given to grad students Ken Kroenlein for MAE 427: Fossil Fuel Energy, Zhe Wang for COS 318: Operating Systems and Chrysanthos Gounaris for CHE 442: Design, Synthesis, and Optimization of Chemical Processes.Reading from comments submitted by nominating students, Jessica Lee '08 said Fowler deserved the award for "sacrificing personal time to make sure we all received the help we needed" in "a class notorious for making or breaking engineers."Prucnal showed "Beavis and Butthead" clips to his early morning class to wake them up and help them remember the material."Dedication to his students shines through everything he does," read one nomination.Sundaresan's nominations included descriptions of his classroom behavior.
President Tilghman emphasized the role of science in building a strong nation and focused on women's importance in this field in a panel discussion Wednesday night."We need to be tapping into the largest talent pool that we can, and this includes women," she said.Tilghman recounted her own childhood experiences with math and science ? growing up "in Canada, on the prairies, in the snow, just in love with numbers."She has been outspoken on the topic in recent months as fallout continues over the comments of Harvard President Larry Summers, including in a talk on women and science at Columbia last week.About 40 students and administrators gathered in the Rockefeller College common room on Wednesday night to participate in the discussion, which was titled "Women in the Sciences: A Panel on Gender Perceptions and Realities."Panelists and audience members deliberated for almost two hours on the importance of women in the sciences and other professional disciplines.
How do health and living conditions affect overall happiness? University Research Associate Jason Riis is exploring these and other possible predictors of happiness in his research for the Woodrow Wilson School's Center for Health and Well-Being.The results of Riis' investigation into the link between health and happiness, conducted at the University of Michigan in collaboration with other researchers, were published last month in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.The study compared the happiness levels of dialysis patients with end-stage kidney failure to those of healthy volunteers.
While other three-year-olds were learning the alphabet and playing in sandboxes, Soraya Umewaka '06 was beginning to master a traditional Japanese art form that has been carried in her bloodline for 600 years.
Brian Shiau '05 has created an online blog commenting on the status of various stocks which has received upwards of 20,000 hits, Shiau estimated, since he began posting in January."I wanted to create a medium where I could communicate things that I felt strongly about," Shiau said.
