News

Volunteers cleaning canal find trash, sense of purpose

Sarah Barbrow '05 forged through the thigh-deep, murky water of the New Jersey Delaware-Raritan Canal on Saturday afternoon."I found a ski boot!" she exclaimed, placing it in her plastic trash bag.Barbrow, president of the University chapter of New Jersey Community Water Watch, was one of 25 volunteers who decided to spend the afternoon picking up trash around the canal.Among the items found were a hubcap, a doll's head, tires and the tail of a dead animal.The canal runs from New Brunswick to Trenton, and is parallel to the towpath for several miles.The cleanup began behind the canal house and continued about a half mile to the Mercer County Country Club, where there was more trash, said Catherine Chou '06, the media intern for Water Watch."We did a site visit here and felt there was a significant amount of trash," she said.Chou said she hoped that when people saw the volunteers cleaning up the trash, they might think twice before littering again.Volunteers were equipped with gloves and trash bags, donated by local residents.

Dwindling fan support means fewer cheers for Old Nassau at sports events

Attending the Homecoming football festivities is typically a college rite of passage. At some larger state universities, attendance reaches as high as 100,000 fans at weekly games, tens of thousands of those being students.Princeton students used to have such enthusiasm.

University declines U-Council request

In a busy meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community yesterday afternoon, President Tilghman rejected a proposal for an ad hoc committee on intellectualism, Director of Physical Planning Jon Hlafter '61 projected that Whitman College would run $10 million over budget and Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said the administration is studying suggestions for precept reform.It was a bittersweet meeting for the undergraduate U-Council in Dodds Auditorium.

Local biotech firm might help identify 9/11 victims

Princeton biotech firm Orchid Biosciences Inc. is developing a new technology to analyze the genes of Sept.

Nation, University confront low number of female engineers

James Sturm, interim dean of the University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, has a daughter in sixth grade who is interested in math and science.

Lewis tells audience of difficult choices facing Islamic world

"I'm right, you're wrong."In these few words of mock sincerity, Bernard Lewis, renowned University professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies, introduced his latest book, "What Went Wrong," to a packed audience of students, faculty and colleagues assembled in Dodds Auditorium on Thursday.While the line is more generally associated with playground taunts than the ideologies of the major organized religions, Lewis suggested that it expresses, if crudely, what he regards as the fundamental barrier between the Western world of Christianity and Eastern world of Islam.He distilled the basic conflict to a struggle over which faith defines modernization, emphasizing that the clash arises not so much from differences, but rather from strong similarities.Unlike other religions, which tend to not have the inclination to spread their practices, Lewis said both Islam and Christianity are steeped in a more aggressive tradition.In the spirit of "saved or damned," he said, each has historically regarded its own followers as the only true believers and all outsiders as infidels that must be converted.The primary objective for investigating Islamic history, Lewis said, is to examine the reasons why the East has been unable to compete with Western dominance over the last few centuries.Ever since the Islamic Empire's initial decline, Lewis said Muslims have been divided between two considerations: "What can we blame?" and "Who can we blame?"Regarding the former question as more historically pertinent, Lewis identified several interdependent factors, ranging from philosophical abstractions to more distinct issues involving gender and culture.In the years before, there was such a fierce movement against Western culture, many Islamic leaders adopted the perspective that the Middle East, and the rest of the world, had "contracted the Christian disease and should try the Christian remedy."This conformist attitude led to such measures as adopting European military tactics and industry, which proved ineffective in regenerating the region.Lewis attributes the Islamic world's failure to regain power to the ambivalence within Middle Eastern psychology.

USG Goo Goo Dolls Concert Photos

Trustees convene for exploratory meeting

The University Board of Trustees discussed intellectualism and the prospect of increasing private science research funding among other issues at an extended meeting this weekend, said Thomas Wright '62, University vice president and secretary.The session, which ran from Thursday evening to Sunday morning and included all 39 trustees, was "an opportunity for the trustees to step back and take a longer view of the issues that Princeton will be facing in years ahead," Wright said, noting that making final decisions was not the meeting's purpose.Trustees discussed what the University would do if it lost public science research funds.

New congressional regulations will not end WPRB webcasting

Congress has dealt Internet music exchange another blow with new regulations on webcasting, and college radio stations across the United States are feeling the strain.The University's student run station WPRB 103.3 FM has chosen to maintain its webcast despite significant fees, while other stations across the country have ceased webcasting altogether.The U.S.

Scholar, author Colley to join history faculty

Historian and author Linda Colley will fill a new position in the history department at the University next fall, becoming the first professor to occupy the recently endowed Shelby M.

Latino Heritage Month opens with speech, dinner and dance

The celebration of Latino Heritage Month commenced Friday night with a Guatemalan dinner at the Carl A.

Goo Goo Dolls to put on 'huge rock show' in Dillon tonight

Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac relaxed in his room in what he had been told is the best hotel in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Alcohol, academic infractions increase

Two students were expelled last year, and 108 students were penalized for alcohol policy violations ? among disciplinary actions that have been on the rise since 1999.In all, 291 disciplinary actions were taken last year ? the most since the 1996-97 academic year ? according to the Discipline Report recently released by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.Last year was the first time a student had been expelled since 1998-99.One of the expulsions resulted from a student committing 20 academic violations during four years, and the other from a student plagiarizing several papers in one semester, according to the report.Though the number of academic violations increased from 13 in 1998-99 to 32 last year ? mostly cases of plagiarism ? Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Marianne Waterbury said there was no single reason for the increase."When students write papers, because so much of what they do now is on the computer . . . they lose track of where they got the language from," Waterbury said.A student can end up forgetting whether he wrote a phrase or if it came from someone else, she added.Though such plagiarism may not be intentional, it is nevertheless an academic violation."It's reasonable to know this is not your language," Waterbury said.In other cases, students plagiarize from materials on the Internet ? a new trick that has quickly become old."The faculty has finally caught up with the students," Waterbury said.

Princeton 'Wa celebrating streak of accident-free days

The Wawa on University Place can now boast of more than its 24-hour production of killer sandwiches.Last week, the 'Wa achieved its thousandth consecutive accident-free day.

Then and now: A marriage proposal at graduation, three years and a baby later

Wick Schmidt '99, a classics major, gave the salutatorian address in Latin at his graduation. In the last line of his speech, he switched suddenly to English and proposed to his girlfriend Anastasia Rohrman '99.Wick said he would have liked to propose in Latin but Anastasia, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, would not have understood.Because he proposed in English, Anastasia was able to respond with a "Yes" sign given to her by Wick's friend Tim Webster '99, later his best man at the wedding.

Two years later, is 'The Organization Kid' any different?

David Brooks sugarcoated his potentially bitter lecture at Whig Hall.The writer, who stirred controversy on campus in spring 2001 with his Atlantic Monthly article "The Organization Kid," waffled on one of his main criticisms of Princeton students in the article.The talk, titled "You and Your Souls: The Organization Kid Revisited" addressed the superficiality of the overachieving life that dominates elite campuses across the country.Brooks was at ease, occasionally self-deprecatory, and related easily to the packed chamber, with more than 50 people standing in the back."Often when I speak to groups I know more than the people there," began Brooks, who is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard.

Tiger Food's Madden '03 to use profits to combat world hunger

While Tiger Food feeds hungry students on campus daily, it will also help serve an underprivileged population, according to manager Dave Madden '03.He plans to donate 25 percent of his $20,000 earnings to Oxfam, an international charity funding efforts to relieve hunger and poverty around the globe.Madden said he will distribute an additional 25 percent of his managerial profits to five charities that focus on AIDS, domestic violence, depression and the environment.

Township distributes Student Lifeline cards for free emergency taxi rides

The Princeton Township Police will distribute 1,500 Student Lifeline cards this week, which qualify their holders for free taxi rides in emergency situations ? but their program is not targeted at the University.Student Lifeline is a N.Y.-based company that produces the cards and subsidizes the rides from area cab companies, according to the organization's website.The card can be used to avoid drunk driving situations and threatening dates.

Tracking the Tiger: A history of Ivy League academics and athletics

While Princeton consistently ranks at the top of college lists for everything from Ivy League Championships to intramural participation, athletics have a larger effect than stocking trophy cases in Jadwin Gymnasium.

SCORE will allow students to register online for spring courses

Beginning Nov. 25, forget pencils and manila course cards. For the first time, students will be able to register for spring courses online.This change is part of the Student Course Online Registration Engine (SCORE) software, which was launched this fall.After posting course offerings on the Office of the Registrar's homepage approximately a year and a half ago, the University made the transition to putting registration online."The old system had several deficiencies," said Joseph Greenberg, University registrar.Primarily, the system of course cards was cumbersome for both students and departments, he said.Greenberg said he hopes the new system will ease access for students and add flexibility for departments in regulating course enrollment.The change will certainly cause adjustments both in the registrar's office and in the ways students and departments operate, Greenberg said."Responsibilities will be shifting [in the registrar's office]," he said.