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Different paths to Princeton . . . leave some feeling a step behind

Different paths to Princeton . . . leave some feeling a step behind

When the members of the Class of 2004 first set foot inside a Nassau classroom next September, in many ways they will all be on the same academic footing ? the same graduation requirements, the same standards of excellence, the same number of hours in each day.In another sense, however, these students will face staggered starting lines for their University education, based in part on the educational paths they took to get here.Alberto Puentes '00 said he felt completely under-prepared by his urban public high school for the rigors of the University.

NEWS | 03/05/2000

Baker '52 looks back

During a visit to campus last week, James Baker '52 showed no hint that he had ever left the state department for private life.

NEWS | 03/05/2000

Denouncing D-Bar restrictions, grad students march on Nassau Hall

A throng of more than 50 graduate students filed into Nassau Hall yesterday afternoon to demand meetings with graduate school deans to discuss the restrictions recently implemented at the D-Bar.Last week, both graduate student D-Bar managers ? known as bar czars ? resigned their positions and closed the facility to protest the University's decision to limit D-Bar access to students living in the Graduate College and their guests.Before descending on Nassau Hall, graduate students gathered in McCosh 46 to discuss a proposal by the Graduate College House Committee and the graduate school administration to incrementally increase the number of graduate students with access to the D-Bar.House Committee chair Adrian Banner GS explained that the plan calls for raising the number of graduate students with access to the bar by 200 on April 16 and 100 on May 16.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

Ivy League students unite in refusing to work for Coke, GM, BP-Amoco

NEW YORK ? Students from Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania pledged yesterday not to accept jobs with several corporations until they meet certain environmental standards."Students have always been idealistic, campaigning to save the world.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

It's a bird, it's a plane . . . No, it's just a 'Go-ped'

While most students trudge around campus to get where they're going, Jennie Platt '01 would rather rumble.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

Near Eastern studies receives grant from federal government

The University's Program in Near Eastern Studies will receive a $318,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

A squirrel, a trap, a prank and the miracle of life

You are about to read a tale of a plan, nuisances that refuse to leave, a capture, an escape, then the acceptance of life itself.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

Department chairs question faculty redistribution plan

The chairs of the University's smaller departments are promising to cling to their faculty a little more tightly these days after a suggestion by Paul Wythes '55 that the University redistribute its faculty to accommodate his committee's proposed addition of 500 undergraduate students.Wythes said in an interview this week that as a faculty member of a smaller department retired or left the University, he would not necessarily be replaced.

NEWS | 03/02/2000

Exhibit to showcase minority life at Princeton

In an effort to promote a greater awareness of minorities at Princeton, the Rockefeller College Core Group will unveil an exhibit addressing the theme in the college common room March 28."The general initiative is just to increase awareness of diversity and people of color on this campus," said Janelle Wright '00, an RA in Rockefeller who acted as a facilitator for early meetings on the project.RAs and MAAs doing research for the project plan to include in the exhibit many different groups and organizations such as Native Americans, women and the Third World Center.They will try to raise awareness of the smaller "hidden communities" on campus, Rockefeller College Assistant Master Denise Dutton said.

NEWS | 03/01/2000

Graduate students speak out on tougher language standards

The University's recent plan to use a tougher test for evaluating graduate students' English language proficiency before allowing them to become TAs has drawn various reactions among those whom the standards will affect most ? graduate students.Many said they believe that stricter standards would be beneficial to both graduate and undergraduate students.Geng Wu, a third-year chemistry graduate student from China, said he believes the test would be advantageous to both the teacher and the students.

NEWS | 03/01/2000

Police arrest alleged Campbell trespasser

A man police believe to have entered a women's restroom in Campbell Hall last week was charged Monday night with criminal trespassing, according to Borough Police Lt.

NEWS | 03/01/2000

Princeton, Penn to share courses

Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania are collaborating on a program that will allow students at one institution to take foreign language courses from the other via video conferencing technology, Associate Dean of the College Hank Dobin said yesterday.The program ? slated to begin in September 2001 ? will enable a professor to teach students concurrently in his classroom and at the other school by using remote-activated video cameras and microphones, Dobin said.Princeton faculty and administrators proposed video-conferenced classes in response to concern that undergraduates are unable to take foreign language courses that the University does not offer, Dobin added."We have at Princeton been concerned for a while to provide instruction in lesser-taught languages like Hindi and Swahili," he said.The program will allow Princeton students to take Penn courses in Hindi and Swahili, and Penn students to take Near Eastern studies professor Erika Gilson's Turkish language classes.

NEWS | 03/01/2000

Tagliabue tackles challenges facing NFL

A black sedan with tinted windows and New York license plates slowed to a stop in front of the white pillars of Whig Hall yesterday, and the tall, thin frame of National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue emerged from the back seat.A cadre of casually dressed welcomers ? some sporting black Princeton Football jackets ? formed a semi-circle, ready to greet the guardian of the nation's most popular sport.Dressed in a dark business suit, Tagliabue warmly shook hands with the University's new head football coach Roger Hughes.About 30 minutes later, Tagliabue, who has served as commissioner of the NFL for the past decade, delivered a speech ? titled "The NFL: America's Sports Passion in Internet Time" ? to a packed Whig Hall Senate Chamber.In an interview prior to the speech, Tagliabue addressed the role of the Internet and other new communications technology in the NFL, as well as several other important issues facing the league."I think the biggest changes you'll see will come from the digital and Internet revolution," Tagliabue said.

NEWS | 03/01/2000

Alain Kornhauser, a University professor, predicts computer-operated cars are just down the road

The daily commute to and from work, tedious errands and long drives will soon be more enjoyable, according to Alain Kornhauser GS '69, '71, an operations research and financial engineering professor.Kornhauser ? who serves as co-director of the Transportation Information and Decision Engineering Center, an organization that develops and researches systems for automated travel and conducts research for the technology ? predicts that cars of the future will have more "intelligence," increasing driver and passenger safety, comfort and convenience.These cars will have information systems that provide road maps, report traffic conditions and may even suggest driving routes, noted Kornhauser, who is also the founder of ALK Associates, a transportation technology firm.Thus, for all those drivers who are easily frustrated on the road, avoiding traffic jams and finding shorter paths will becomes simpler tasks ? even if the driver is already traveling."In terms of knowing what the traffic is ahead, [the technology] could suggest the right way to go, extending the vision on the road ahead," Kornhauser explained.

NEWS | 02/29/2000

Grand jury indicts Pentchev '01 on multiple charges of computer fraud

Peter Pentchev '01 is facing charges for allegedly hacking into the computer systems of a Palo Alto e-commerce company and stealing nearly 2,000 credit card numbers, according to Debbie Husnik, a spokeswoman from the U.S.

NEWS | 02/29/2000

PRINCO boosts endowment as IPOs, emerging markets roar

Princeton University Investment Company, which handles more than $6 billion of the University's endowment, earned an average investment rate of return of 21.7 percent during the 1999 fiscal year, according to PRINCO president Andrew Golden.The results represented the fifth best returns of any university among a group of more than 400 schools, Golden said."We were very fortunate that every part of our portfolio did well," he noted.

NEWS | 02/29/2000

Television station zooms in on German students at Princeton

You may already have seen them. On Saturday, they might have witnessed you getting your groove on at the freshman semi-formal.

NEWS | 02/29/2000

Bradley campaign bets on Washington, and loses

Bill Bradley '65 came up short in his drive for a win in the Washington Democratic primary yesterday, despite intense campaigning in the last week.

NEWS | 02/29/2000

Separated by a Generation, United by a Common Passion

When Constance Foster '00 came back from summer break for junior year, she found she had a new knack for annoying her friends."I wouldn't shut up about this awesome summer job I had," explained Foster, who had spent 10 weeks interning at the nonprofit Quebec Labrador Foundation, based in Ipswich, Mass.

NEWS | 02/28/2000

Grad students will face tougher test of English proficiency to be TAs

Beginning this summer, University graduate students seeking to become preceptors or teaching assistants will be tested for English proficiency as part of a Graduate College training program, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the Graduate College David Redman said yesterday.Though student complaints about language barriers between undergraduates and their graduate student instructors have contributed to the move toward tighter procedures, the initiative is part of a national trend of universities developing English-proficiency programs for international students, according to Jacqueline Mintz, director of the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.In the revamped system ? which is being coordinated by the McGraw center ? all graduate students who are not native English speakers or have not earned their undergraduate degrees at a U.S.

NEWS | 02/28/2000

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