It was Thursday night, and the place was packed with students. Free drinks were handed out left and right.
After first considering a "social honor code" early this semester, the USG's Undergraduate Life Committee is depending on the community for advice on what, if anything, it should do to make students from all groups feel more comfortable on campus.When ULC chair William Robinson '04 initially proposed the social honor statement, he received a great deal of feedback from USG members.
You probably thought beauty pageants were no longer politically correct ? that a formalwear parade, talent contest and question-and-answer session could never happen at the University, let alone in the engineering school.You were wrong.And in the words of Jason Lawrence GS, emcee of Friday night's Mr. Engineering contest, the contestants were "rugged specimens of manhood."Twelve undergraduate male students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science heeded the call to compete in the less-than-traditional beauty pageant in McCosh 10 ? proving they could emerge from the E-Quad to entertain a very large crowd for more than two hours."If you are sick and tired of engineers being stereotyped as nerds who never leave the E-Quad, this is your chance to prove everyone wrong," said Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs Peter Bogucki's e-mail to the engineering students in early November.
There was no Kasparov or Deep Blue ? just four college kids taking on 55 murderers, rapists and kidnappers.On Friday, Princeton chess club members Brandon Ashe '04, Jonathan Heckman '04, Ian Prevost '05 and Samson Benen '07, traveled to Trenton to play chess against inmates at the maximum-security New Jersey State Prison.Each student played 13 to 14 inmates simultaneously.
David Robinson '04 is one of 32 recipients of this year's Rhodes Scholarship ? and the only winner from the University.And when his mother started screaming into her cell phone Saturday evening, people in the Washington, D.C., hotel lobby knew something had happened.A few moments later, the doormen were lined up to shake Robinson's hand as he arrived from the Washington bureau of The New York Times, where he had just learned he had been chosen from 963 applicants endorsed by 366 schools.The announcement was the culmination of a week-long, two-round selection process that whittled the pool from 450 to 100 to the 32 winners."I feel so fortunate," said Robinson, speaking to The Daily Princetonian on the train ride back to the University yesterday afternoon.
At first appearance, Vail Bloom '04 seems like an ordinary Princeton student. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration ? after all, it was her looks that won her a photo spread in the men's magazine Maxim.
THE FACTS Name: Francis Scott Fitzgerald '17 Hometown: St. Paul, Minn. What's so great about Princeton? "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you." What's not so great about Princeton? "The inhabitants have been so long out of the world that, though they make a show of keeping up to date in dress and manners and literature, they depend to a great extent on hearsay." ? "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" Favorite movie: "A good one-reel comedy in the moving-picture machine." ? "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" Best place to meet girls in your town: "Cottage, an impressive melange of brilliant adventurers and well-dressed philanderers." ? "This Side of Paradise" Even better place to make out: "Quiet halls with an occasional late-burning scholastic light." ? "This Side of Paradise" What did you do over Fall Break? "After a day without food I began to grow hungry.
This Monday, Princeton's women's lacrosse team scored a visit to the White House to celebrate its 2003 national championship victory.For the second consecutive year, the team participated in Champions' day ceremonies, meeting the President and posing for photographs.During the photo session, the President shook hands, made jokes and charmed members of the team."The President is so much cuter in person than he comes off on TV," said Kelly Darling '05 in an email.
Next year's freshmen will have a chance to experience the genomics center's integrative approach to science through a six-course, five-department experimental sequence.The intensive program, which will combine material from first-year biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics, will provide an alternative to the current prerequisites for any of the five departments.Students will take two courses each semester of their freshman year, followed by one course each semester of their sophomore year.
At a recent appearance in New York City by Taiwan's president Chen Shui-bian, five Princeton graduate students joined hundreds of other students from China to protest against Taiwan ? considered a rogue province by China's government.But many of the students were also there because of a $25 financial incentive provided by a student organization ? the Association for Chinese Scholars and Students.East Asian Studies professor Perry Link said the ACSS is commonly recognized as "government sponsored."Representatives in New York's Chinese consulate education department denied a "direct connection" with the ACSS.Founded in the 1980s, there are dozens of ACSS chapters at universities across the country, including Princeton.
Now surpassing its original budget, the construction of Whitman College will cost the University a projected $110 million.
Princeton researchers have proven that inorganic storage devices are so dead.In a paper published last week in the journal Nature, a group of scientists, including two Princeton researchers, described a new technology that could lead to a new inexpensive and effective way of storing digital data."The field it would play would be digital cameras, like flash [cards]," said Sven Moller, coauthor of the paper and a former postdoctoral researcher at Princeton.The technology is based on a newly discovered property of PEDOT, a common polymer plastic that has long been used as a coating on photographic film, according to the University press release on the research.The researchers found that although PEDOT is normally conductive, when subjected to large currents the polymer blows like a fuse and loses its conductivity.At the lowest level, all digital information is stored as a series of ones and zeros.
More than two years after the University purchased 90 acres of land across Route 1, the administration has yet to develop a longterm plan for its use.
The USG has established the Residential Advising Review and Recommendation Committee to review the current status and objectives of the advising programs and examining the effectiveness of the programs, said USG Undergraduate Life chair William Robinson '04, who chartered the committee.A primary focus of the committee is how well the advising programs serve minority students and promote an inclusive, diverse community, Robinson said.
Though the campus' thousands of squirrels enjoy the grounds' acorns and food throwaways, these unofficial mascots of the University face many unfortunate, fatal hazards.Bicycles, cars, and golf carts whizzing by, hawks circling above and massive trees from which to fall all provide for a grim responsibility of University groundskeepers: disposing of squirrel remains.Hundreds die on campus every year."My guess is somewhere around twice a week," Grounds Manager Jim Consolloy said of the frequency with which his staff finds a deceased squirrel.
Jessica Brondo '04, the Women's Issue Liaison for the Undergraduate Life Committee, has made several proposals to University health education and women's groups to raise eating disorder awareness on campus.According to "Focus on Women," the USG Committee on Women's Issues 2001 report, eating disorders are prevalent at the University."It has also been estimated that 10-25 percent of Princeton women have eating disorders, although forty percent of women surveyed believed that estimate to be too low," the report states.In addition, the report suggests such behaviors may be a result from the especially high-pressured campus environment.Brondo said she has three new initiatives in mind to treat individuals currently suffering from eating disorders and to prevent future cases.
Foreign Minister of Germany Joschka Fischer discussed yesterday American-European relations and the need for the two countries to work together toward the destruction of totalitarian institutions."America and Europe can master the crises of the 21st century, only if we work together," he said.Wilson School dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 and professor Wolfgang Danspeckgruber of the Liechtenstein Institute for Self-Determination introduced Fischer, who, in addition to serving as foreign minister under Gerhard Schroeder, is the vice-chancellor of Germany.Fischer is "the quintessential foreign policy maker of Europe today," Danspeckgruber said.Fischer identified three qualifications for better trans-Atlantic relations and security.First, he said, the European Union and the United States should remain "unconditional to our fundamental values" such as democracy, free markets, and freedom.In addition, the two powers should respect international values and shared values in lieu of force, Fischer said.Finally, he said, political deterrence is necessary to destroy totalitarian organizations like al Qaeda. The EU's potentialFischer spoke of the tremendous potential of the EU in global economic and political situations.
A successful Iraqi democracy will in large part depend on which Islamic Shi'ite leader garners the most support in the coming months, said the eminent Islamic scholar Roy Mottahedeh in a lecture last night.Comprising nearly 60 percent of the Iraqi population, the Shi'ite community is not unified in support of any religious cleric.In southern Iraq, where the Shi'ite community is most concentrated, Ayatollah Ali Sistani seems to have the most support among the more liberal, educated, and middle-class Shi'ites.
"Would the press leak a classified plan to track down Saddam Hussein? What about a memo indicating that the top Defense official does not believe Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction?"Kevin Baine '71, a lawyer who devotes much of his practice to First Amendment and media litigation, posed these questions yesterday in Robertson Hall in the third lecture of the series, "Secrecy, Security, and Self-Government."Sponsored by the Wilson School and the Program in Law and Public Affairs, Baine's lecture centered on the legal boundaries of unauthorized disclosure in the press."The fact that there is uncertainty among legal boundaries for leaking secrets is not a bad thing," Baine said.
Joseph Nye '58, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and University president emeritus Harold Shapiro GS '64 will be honored by the University on Alumni Day next February for their professional accomplishments.On Feb.
