News

Chasing the superstory: Baker outlines the modern media's downward spiral

Chasing the superstory: Baker outlines the modern media's downward spiral

Dressed in a crisp blue jacket with his white hair neatly combed, renowned journalist Russell Baker looked like he was about to give a serious academic speech.Yet, from his first words during a lecture in McDonnell last night, he made the audience chuckle again and again with witticisms aimed at his colleagues ? members of the news media.Baker would probably take offense at being categorized as a part of the media, however ? a group that he feels has "nothing to do with news."Part of the Princeton University Lectures Series, Baker's talk, titled "The Age of the Superstory," addressed the evolution of journalism.

NEWS | 10/16/2000

University student testifies on abortion before state legislature

Erica Shein '04, one of a few teenagers who testified at yesterday's New Jersey state assembly meeting, said she experienced nervous excitement while defending her emphatic belief that minors should have the right to seek abortions without parental consent.Up for discussion was an initiative that requires parents of minors to be notified of all medical procedures, including abortion, performed on their children.The initiative ? which may appear on the November 2001 ballot if approved by the state assembly ? is opposed by many pro-choice activists, including Shein."The point I was trying to make was that maturity and responsibility and wisdom do not have anything to do with age," Shein said.Susan Wilson, executive director of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University, introduced Shein and two New Jersey high school students who also testified before the assembly.

NEWS | 10/16/2000

Support for alcohol ordinance seems weak on Borough Council

As discussion of the possible alcohol ordinance lags in Princeton Borough Council's public safety committee, an overwhelming majority of key players expressed hesitation about pushing the issue further.The public safety committee tabled discussion Friday morning of the state law ? which allows municipalities to enact ordinances that would permit police to cite underage drinkers on private property.

NEWS | 10/16/2000

Freshmen select officers in run-off

The votes have been sorted and counted: Eli Goldsmith and Rishi Jaitly will assume the presidency and vice presidency of the freshman class after a two-day runoff election, the USG announced yesterday.Fifty percent of the freshman class voted in the elections, choosing between Goldsmith and Nicole Apollon for president and Jaitly and Emily Minkow for vice president.After being notified yesterday evening, Goldsmith said, "I'm tremendously excited . . . Just getting [into Princeton] was such an honor and such a shock ? [Winning the class election] is almost too good to be true."Jaitly also said he was excited to take on his new responsibilities and meet the students and other class officers with whom he will be working.

NEWS | 10/16/2000

Steering them toward service

Russell Eckenrod '01 is facing a tough decision. In a few months, he, along with many of his classmates, will have to sign on the dotted line and choose between public service, consulting and law school.Eckenrod says he is inclined to seek employment in the public sector, working for the government, a special interest group or a nonprofit organization.

NEWS | 10/16/2000

Faculty, students respond to attack on U.S. ship off Yemen coast

As news of the supposed terrorist bombing of a U.S. ship in Yemen on Thursday sent Princetonians racing to their televisions and computers, history professor Jeremy Adelman had a sobering suggestion.In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, he recalled, many Americans were quick to conclude that the attack was the work of a Middle Eastern terrorist."Well, guess what?" Adelman said.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

Fiery Nader unleashes pointed attacks

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader '55 last night gave the Princeton community an hour-long social commentary ? and the audience loved every bit of it."It's nice to be back," Nader said.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

Nader forces some to reconsider their views about two-party politics and upcoming presidential election

Many of the students who attended Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader '55's speech last night went to the event to see a man whom many have come to view as a curiosity ? an almost sure loser in next month's election.But a substantial number of the students who listened to the presidential hopeful's passionate speech said late last night that their experience was something of an education.Brett Chevalier '02, an independent voter from Massachusetts, said Nader's words were far more moving than she had expected."I thought what he said was very powerful.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

Shein '04 set to argue for abortion rights

When Erica Shein '04 received her absentee ballot this year, she noticed that the meanings of various ballot initiatives were clouded in a haze of confusing ? yet innocuous ? political jargon.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

The Computer Science Gender Gap

Princeton prepared Erin Mulder '98 to work in a male-dominated field. Two years ago, Mulder was one of only six women to graduate from the computer science department in a class of 38 majors.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

Borough unlikely to decide on alcohol ordinance in near future

Princeton Borough officials continued to slow the momentum of a possible alcohol ordinance at a public safety committee meeting Friday morning by tabling a decision to recommend the ordinance to the Borough Council.The possible ordinance is the product of a state law, which allows municipalities to adopt measures granting police permission to cite underage drinkers on private property.

NEWS | 10/15/2000

University distributes regulations supplement

Seeking to clarify the University's plagiarism rules, the office of the Dean of the College is distributing a supplement to "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities."The 45-page booklet, titled "Academic Integrity at Princeton," is divided into 13 clearly labeled sections.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

Princeton to relocate tiger skeletons from natural history museum to Frist center

Of all the tigers at the Oct. 20 Frist Campus Center dedication, the most controversial will be two tiger skeletons now moving to the new building from an exhibit in Guyot Hall's Museum of Natural History.The Guyot exhibit, a gift from the Class of 1927, is titled "The Leaping Tiger and the Saber-Tooth: A Study in Comparative Anatomy," and contrasts the skeleton of a Bengal tiger with the 28,000-year-old skeleton of a Smilodon, or Saber-Tooth, tiger from which the Bengal evolved.The tigers' displacement follows the University's decision this summer to close and relocate the natural history museum ? a move that geosciences professors and alumni said indicated a lack of respect for the department.Geosciences professor emeritus William Bonini said the University hired Phil Fraley Productions ? a company renowned for mounting a $8.36-million Tyrannosaurus Rex called 'Sue' for The Field Museum in Chicago ? to move the skeletons.The tiger skeletons officially are "on loan" from the geosciences department for an indefinite period of time, Bonini said.When President Shapiro's office requested the tigers, faculty members in the geosciences department stipulated certain conditions for the move in a memorandum."The memorandum cites the fact that [the skeletons] are valuable, museum-quality items, and that because it's an exhibit in comparative anatomy, they should not be split," Bonini said, responding to the University's original request for only one of the tigers.Geosciences professor Lincoln Hollister said he worries, however, that moving the tiger skeletons ? coupled with the University's closing of the natural history collection ? suggests a lack of appreciation for the museum.The University closed the museum Sept.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

Models, actresses . . . and one dashing University professor

When Maxim needs a hot new model, it knows exactly where to look: the University's English Department.And that's just what the men's magazine did when it contacted professor John Fleming to pose as the centerpiece of the September issue's "Rebellious Behavior" photo series.The photo editorial opened with a shot of a decked-out and smoothly coifed Fleming seated at an East Pyne desk, surrounded by three pierced and tattooed youths in designer punk clothing.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

Firestone, Then the World

Prologue:Friends, it brings me great pain to blow open yet another under-reported campus scandal.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

The Professor vs. The Institute

Astrophysicist Piet Hut says the support he has received from colleagues across the country is overwhelming.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

'Partners in Science': Professors team up with local teachers

Members of the University community collaborated with the community at large last summer in the Partners in Science program, through which chemistry professors and graduate students worked with area high school science teachers in a research laboratory setting.Partners in Science ? co-directed by University chemistry professor Andrew Bocarsly and Jay Dubner of Columbia University ? is a joint program implemented by Princeton, Columbia, New York University, Rutgers University at Camden, Seton Hall University and Stevens Institute of Technology.The program's goal is to promote interaction between the research and educational communities of the science world.For eight weeks during the summer, Louis Gatto of Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, James Looney of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School and Paul Lucuski of McCorristin Catholic High School in Hamilton worked alongside Princeton professors and graduate students in Bocarsly's laboratory.Each teacher was paired with a professor and given a long-term research assignment that will span two summers, Bocarsly said.The assignments related to research on fuel cells ? which are a possible substitute for gasoline power in the future.The program, according to Bocarsly, was designed to emphasize the dynamic aspect of scientific discovery."We want [the teachers] to get excited," he said.

NEWS | 10/12/2000

Predicting the elections with 'political junkies' . . . online

John McIntyre '91 recently co-founded a political Website called realclearpolitics.com along with Thomas Bevan '91.

NEWS | 10/11/2000

Grad school alum wins Nobel Prize

James Heckman GS '71 was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics yesterday.Heckman and Daniel McFadden of the University of California at Berkeley received the award together, and will split the prize, which is worth $915,000 this year.Heckman, who has served as the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago since 1995, received his Ph.D.

NEWS | 10/11/2000

From Frist to Forbes, students express dissatisfaction with Bush-Gore debate

Students from across the political spectrum gathered at spots around campus to watch the presidential faceoff last night.

NEWS | 10/11/2000

Most Popular