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University revamps course Webpages

University revamps course Webpages

During the summer, University officials made arrangements for every student to have his or her own blackboard, but they didn't have to buy a single chalk eraser.A new online service ? accessible from all the University's CourseInfo Webpages and unique for every student ? contains links to all courses in which a student is currently enrolled, messages from professors about upcoming assignments and even a picture of the student.My Blackboard is a feature of CourseInfo v4.0, a program that the University installed during the summer and used to create Websites for all this semester's undergraduate courses, approximately 950 in number.The new sites ? constructed at the request of Provost Jeremiah Ostriker ? all contain general course information compiled from the Office of the Registrar."It was a big project, a big undertaking," said Serge Goldstein, the CIT director of academic services.The week before classes began, Ostriker sent a memo to all University faculty encouraging them to develop their default CourseInfo Websites and incorporate them into their course curricula whenever possible.While this is the first time the University has provided Websites for every course, the CourseInfo service itself is not new to Princeton.

NEWS | 09/21/2000

Green Party declares insecticide spraying a serious health concern

New Jersey Green Party spokesman Nissim Almeleh, in an interview yesterday, condemned the use of insecticide spraying to check the spread of the West Nile virus.He said the organization considers spraying to be even more harmful than the virus-carrying mosquitoes themselves.The party believes the pesticides are extremely toxic and capable of impairing the human immune and endocrine systems, especially in children, Almeleh explained.Green Party officials announced Wednesday that they also opposed plans for aerial spraying of pesticides in New York City, citing environmental and personal safety concerns.Almeleh said insecticide spraying should be avoided if at all possible.

NEWS | 09/21/2000

A 'Unique' idea: Ahuja '02 capitalizes on college-admissions craft

Anand Ahuja '02 and Maxene Mulford are unusual business partners.Ahuja, an operations research and financial engineering major, and Mulford, a mother, writer and creative-writing teacher living in Stamford, Conn., teamed up three years ago to start Uniquely U ? a college essay consulting business that has already enjoyed great success.Three years ago, when Ahuja was applying to colleges, he asked his neighbor, Mulford, to read his college application essays.

NEWS | 09/21/2000

Passage of statewide law unlikely, say both sides of smoking-ban debate

Following the Princeton Regional Health Commission's recent decision to push for state legislation that would allow municipalities to enact ordinances banning smoking, both supporters and opponents of the local proposed smoking ban are mobilized for a fight.

NEWS | 09/21/2000

Princeton refuses to ban use of Napster

Responding to a request that it ban Napster use on its network, the University sent a letter to lawyers for Dr. Dre and Metallica on Wednesday stating that Princeton has decided not to ban use of the online music service, General Counsel Howard Ende said yesterday.Earlier this month, lawyers for the two music groups ? two of Napster's major critics ? sent letters to the presidents of approximately 20 universities across the nation, asking them to decide whether they would prohibit Napster use by today.The University's response explains that Princeton is "committed to the broadest possible use of systems" and therefore "will not block legal uses of the entire network," Ende said.According to Howard King, lead attorney for Dr. Dre and Metallica, the artists' letter was sent to many of the nation's most prestigious institutions ? including Princeton, Harvard and Columbia universities, MIT and UCLA.However, only about half the schools had responded by yesterday afternoon, he said.

NEWS | 09/21/2000

Western medicine meets shamans

Bryce Rogow '02 spent almost a month in small villages in Peru this summer as part of a medical expedition with a group of doctors.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

Stereotypically Princeton

"I'm a Jamaican." When I spent last summer at Duke, the first replies to that statement ranged from, "Do they speak English?" to more enlightened questions such as, "Do you have any weed?" (I don't, by the way.) So, you would think that, for someone who has spent her life correcting the stereotypes placed upon her by an ivory-towered world, I would know better than to reduce people ? strangers especially ? to stereotypical packages, Rastafarian stamped and sealed.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

Mahajan '03 survives four days in school bus to win contest

Americans this summer watched the contestants on CBS's "Survivor" eat rats, form alliances, endure hunger and bug bites, and do whatever it would take to be the one contestant on the island who would go home with $1 million.Akshay Mahajan, '03, was also a survivor this summer.But he did not have to spend months on a deserted island in the South China Sea ? just four days on a school bus.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

New professors fill vacancies left by departing faculty members

As academic years come and go, the University sees many professors enter and leave through its gates.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

Public Safety officers volunteer for community policing effort in colleges

In a proactive community policing effort, volunteers from Public Safety are working closely with each of the residential colleges and the Graduate College this semester.Initiated last year by Wilson College Master Miguel Centeno, and continued by Public Safety officer and volunteer Jim Lanzi, the Adopt-A-PUPS program involves six proctors and security officers."I felt that students and proctors didn't know each other very well, and that relations between the two could, perhaps, improve if they started to become acquainted," Centeno said.Members of the policing effort work at their respective colleges before and after their normal police or proctor shifts or in free time during shifts with the permission of their supervisor.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

With nation watching, Holt and Zimmer square off

With less than two months until election day, a New Jersey race has grabbed the national spotlight.The 12th Congressional District contest ? between incumbent Democrat Rush Holt and former Republican congressman Dick Zimmer ? is being targeted by both parties and watched by pundits and politicians as an indicator of voters' moods in the heart of a major swing state.Holt, who was formerly the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, won one of the biggest upsets of 1998, slipping past Rep.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

A class-action suit, and the birth of a new law

New state alcohol legislation has sparked controversy among residents of New Jersey towns who fear it could infringe on individuals' right to privacy.But this method of preventing underage drinking ? giving police powers to cite underage drinkers on private property ? is not new to the state.Avalon, N.J., adopted a similar ordinance more than 20 years ago to combat underage drinking at rented homes during the summer, when the town's population swells from 2,000 to 30,000.State officials in Atlantic County began pushing for the new state law last year when Avalon was forced to repeal its ordinance ? which made underage drinking a punishable offense even on private property ? under the settlement terms of a federal class-action lawsuit.Under the original Avalon ordinance, violators faced fines of $125 for the first offense and mandatory community service, according to Avalon police Chief Steve Sykes.But in 1996, Avalon police stepped up their enforcement of the ordinance to combat the drinking, which they believed was rising to alarming levels.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

Career services' new policies push back job offer deadlines

With hundreds of companies slated to visit campus in the coming months to begin their annual recruiting efforts, seniors can be found hurrying between meet-and-greets with consulting firms, investment banks and other companies.Armed with freshly printed resumes and practiced smiles, these students are putting their hopes in the hands of recruiters who often give them nothing more than a business card and a handshake.Some, however, do not need to attend these meetings.

NEWS | 09/20/2000

President Clinton to deliver keynote address earlier than scheduled

President Clinton's keynote address at the conference on American progressive politics next month now is scheduled to be delivered at 2 p.m.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

The Weather Man

During the past several years, the climate event known as El Ni

NEWS | 09/19/2000

Local law enforcement officers anticipate president's arrival

They guard critical traffic flow points for the President Clinton's motorcade, provide on-site crowd control, secure buildings and entryways used during presidential visits ? but they are not the Secret Service.Officers from the Princeton Borough Police Department ? along with New Jersey State Police and University Public Safety ? will be closely involved with Clinton's visit to campus next month.Ensuring the president's safety is not a new job for Borough officers, who participated in Clinton's visit to Princeton this past summer.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

University plans to clean graffiti-plagued Serra sculpture

A $1 million sculpture by renowned artist Richard Serra erected between Peyton and Fine halls in May has been the target of repeated graffiti attacks recently.Vice President and Secretary Tom Wright '62 said the University is making plans to completely clean the sculpture, which stands about 15 feet tall and 80 feet long and is composed of three S-shaped steel plates.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

New ecstasy law increases penalties for possession

Gov. Christie Whitman signed legislation in late June that increased criminal penalties in New Jersey for the possession, manufacture and distribution of the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy.The legislation ? passed June 22 ? is meant to discourage young people from experimenting with the drug and more severely punish dealers.In the past, possession or distribution of ecstasy was considered a third-degree offense.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

Health Commission addresses ban on public smoking, underage drinking

The Princeton Regional Health Commission announced last night at a public meeting that it will push for state legislation to allow municipalities to issue ordinances against smoking.The decision came in response to a superior court judge's Aug.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

Class of 2004 Website helped incoming freshmen make ties

Thanks to Jennifer Brea '04, many freshmen experienced less than the requisite dose of anxiety before arriving on campus this month.In January, after she was accepted early decision, Brea constructed a Website ? which can be found at www.geocities.com/princeton04 ? to help incoming freshmen get to know each other."I've made probably about three really good friends because of this," Brea said of her own experience making use of the site's features, which include a housing section and a photo gallery."I have tons of different sections," she added.Brea said she started working on the Website after people she met on the Princeton Review Website encouraged her.

NEWS | 09/19/2000

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