From the USG FrostFest
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Orszag ’91 to leave post as White House budget director
White House budget director Peter Orszag ’91 will step down from his position in the Obama administration in July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Obama named Orszag to head the Office of Management and Budget in November 2008, and since then Orszag has served as a key economic advisor, working to shape the economic stimulus bill the passed in the first few weeks of the administration and the health care reform bill that passed in March.
Previously, Orszag served as director of the Congressional Budget Office under President George W. Bush and on the Council of Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton. Orszag, an economics major at the University, wrote a thesis titled “Congressional Oversight of the Federal Reserve.” He then studied the London School of Economics on a Marshall scholarship, earning his master’s and Ph.D. in economics.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Whitman '77 wins GOP nomination for California governor
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman '77 secured the Republican nomination for California governor in Tuesday's primary. Whitman, the billionaire donor and namesake behind Whitman College, defeated state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner for the nomination. She will face California attorney general and Democratic candidate Jerry Brown in November's general election.
by Ameena Schelling
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tilghman to consider banning frats
President Shirley Tilghman told the Princeton Alumni Weekly that she would consider banning fraternity and sorority organizations from campus, along with the options of maintaining the current policy of nonrecognition and moving to recognize and regulate the groups in a summer review of Greek policy.
"At the moment I am keeping an open mind about all options,” she added in a May 5 e-mail to the PAW.
The increased scrutiny comes in the wake of a 5-part series on Greek Life published April 26–30. In the first article in the series, John Burford ’12 described the hazing he underwent as a Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge.
In the last article in the series, Tilghman expressed a firm backing of the current policy.
Tilghman said that she could not “in good conscience” back University recognition of the Greek organizations, since they were “antithetical to Princeton’s educational mission.”
Tilghman also said at the time that she did not support a ban. “The major thing that’s holding us back from doing something that dramatic is respecting freedom of association,” she said. “If I were to say what would get us beyond the freedom of association arguments, it would be the judgment that these organizations, particularly the fraternities, had simply pushed the envelope so far that we were now putting students’ lives at risk.”
But Tilghman told the PAW her administration will undergo a review of the policy over the summer. “The Prince articles have clearly brought forward vividly one of the reasons why we have not supported the recognition of these organizations,” she said. “I cannot promise, however, that there will be a change in policy.”
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Princeton curator targeted in Italian investigation
Italian authorities are investigating a criminal conspiracy involving J. Michael Padgett, the antiquities curator at the University Art Museum, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The case, which names three other defendants in addition to Padgett, alleges that nearly two dozen Italian artifacts have been “sold, donated or lent” to the Art Museum by Padgett and Edoardo Almagia ’73, a former New York antiquities dealer, from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. Almagia is also accused of illegally acquiring other works of art and selling them to several American museums in the 1980s and 1990s.
The University is aware of the investigation and is conducting its own, University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 told the Times.
Italy has previously used legal means in its efforts to reclaim archeological objects and works from around the world.
In October 2007, the Art Museum returned eight works to Italy – one of several agreements struck between American museums and the Italian government in an effort toward better cooperation. The previous agreement led many in the art world to be surprised by news of the current criminal investigation.
The charges have yet to officially be made public.
Padgett came to the University in 1992 and is also a lecturer in the department of art and archaeology. Padgett, who is primarily interested in Greek art and has authored several books on ancient art, earned a B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1975, an M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1984 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1989.
by Christina Henricks
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Layoffs Plague University Medical Center
Fifty-seven employees, including six nurses, were laid off by the University Medical Center at Princeton last week, according to the Times of Trenton. The layoffs occurred after the hospital conducted a review of operations to increase efficiency. The employees affected included 33 full-time workers and 24 part-time workers. All nurses laid off worked in outpatient departments.
The University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro, which is currently under construction, is expected to replace the facility on Witherspoon Street in 2011. The new hospital, which will be twice the size of the current hospital, boasts an environmentally friendly infrastructure. Soliant Health has already ranked it as one of the 20 Most Beautiful Hospitals in the United States. According to the Times, the new medical center is expected to generate new jobs in construction and after completion, but no specifics on long term employment were given.
In an attempt to cut costs and remain profitable, the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton, NJ also laid off 19 employees last October while adding a four-story tower wing.
By Sean Wu, staff writer
A Gift that Keeps on Giving
It’s been over a decade since chemistry Professor Edward Taylor retired from Princeton. Yet, according to the Times of Trenton, the University still reaps the benefits of his famous discovery. In the 1980s, Taylor teamed up with a colleague to create Alimta, a drug that treats mesothelioma, a lung cancer “caused by exposure to asbestos.” After 11 years of trials and countless years of refinement, the drug went on the market in the mid 1990s.
Remarkably, the profile reveals that the University is still collecting royalties on Taylor’s drug. These royalties will fund much of the construction costs for the new chemistry building set to open next fall.
Such a discovery, Taylor reveals in the profile, would be highly unlikely today because of universities’ and research grants’ unwillingness to provide funding for such an audacious project: "Imagine [today] asking for funds for a project to investigate butterfly wing pigments and the occurrence of their structure in a compound found in liver. And, by the way, it's remotely possible that, 60 years from now, the result may be a blockbuster cancer drug.”
The full profile, which details Taylor’s remarkable career, can be found here.
By Andrew Sartorius, staff writer
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Man arrested for lewdness
Borough Police charged a 50-year-old man with lewdness after an officer found him allegedly "exposed and masturbating" in his car at the intersection of Witherspoon and Nassau Streets on May 4.
An officer on foot patrol noticed that Paul Stuart, of North Brunswick, was apparently not wearing a seatbelt as he sat in traffic, police Lt. Nicholas Sutter said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian.
The officer then approached Stuart, who was the driver and sole occupant of the car. The officer saw Stuart allegedly “exposed and masturbating,” Sutter said.
Stuart was arrested and was later released on his own recognizance, Sutter said. He is due in court May 10 to face the lewdness charge, which is a disorderly persons offense in New Jersey.
While this incident did not involve members of the University community, the campus has experienced five separate lewdness and criminal sexual contact incidents involving students or staff in roughly the past year.
By Henry Rome, staff writer
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Smisek ’76 flying high
Jeff Smisek ’76 will lead the world's biggest airline if a planned merger between Continental Airlines and United Airlines is finalized.
According to the New York Times, a possible merger between United and US Airways prompted Smisek, currently Continental's CEO, to quickly renew talks of a deal between Continental and United. The airlines agreed upon a plan just three weeks after Smisek contacted Glenn Tilton, chairman of United Airlines.
“I recognized that United was the best partner for Continental, and I didn’t want to marry the ugly girl; I wanted to marry the pretty one,” Smisek told the Times.
Though the two companies were close to merging two years ago, Continental backed out at the last minute due to United’s weak finances.
During his five months as CEO of Continental, Smisek has made headlines for criticizing the federal government’s rule of limiting planes with passengers to three hours on the tarmac.
He graduated summa cum laude in Economics and went on to Harvard Law, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1982.
By Omar Carrillo, senior writer
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Rural high schoolers pass on top colleges
In the 2008-2009 school year, the largest number of entering students came from New Jersey (715), California (589), New York (573), Pennsylvania (268), Maryland (209), Texas (207), and Virginia (192).
A recent study may help shed light on why states such as South Dakota and Montana are underrepresented. Rural students are 2.5 times less likely to attend an elite college than students from urban or suburban areas, according to one study being presented at the annual American Educational Research Association today.
The study found that even after controlling for several other factors, students from rural areas were more likely to turn down colleges listed in U.S. News and World Report’s top-ranked institutions and attend a non-ranked four-year institution.
Still, the researchers conceded that the study had limitations. They acknowledged that part of the phenomenon they observed might stem from the fact that many top-ranked institutions are on the East and West Coasts, which have a disproportionate amount of urban and suburban areas.
Read the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Top Students From Rural America Shun Elite Colleges,” for more details.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Is my thesis hot or not?
For those of you who’ve ever wondered on the final stretch of an all-nighter whether your essay’s argument is total garbage—which is probably most of us at some point—the world of academia may have finally answered your prayers.
A few days ago GradShare, an online community of graduate students, opened a website called Is My Thesis Hot or Not, which allows grad students to post their essay’s thesis statements to be judged by other users of the site. Respondents rate the thesis as “hot” or “not,” while the website keeps track of the total number of votes a thesis receives in each category. Users are given an option to write comments to the poster as well.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the website now has 75 theses, titles, and topics posted, with roughly 5,000 comments in total. Posts range from “Cyber charter schools can have a positive effect on inner city scholastic achievement,” to “1001 Ways to Penetrate a Body: corporeal boundaries and the experience of s/m.” As the Chronicle reports, “Most of them are decidedly not hot.”
By Jonathan Dec, staff writer for News
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Ivy Watch: Cornell considers a collaboration abroad while Dartmouth proposes internal changes
Brown: Shedding light on the surge in apps
The number of applications to Brown was 30,136—more than a 20% increase from the previous year. However, its yield rate has declined since the class of 2010 applied. Last year 53.1% of accepted candidates chose to attend Brown, though the figure was 58.9% three years ago.
Columbia: USenate writes proposal to allow Dec. 23 exams to be rescheduled
Effective next fall any Columbia student with one or more exams scheduled for December 23 can request to take them on an earlier date. Currently, undergraduate students are allowed to submit a request only when they have three final exams scheduled for the same day.
Cornell: Cornell Partners With Hong Kong to Create New Veterinary School
Cornell may be involved in starting the first veterinary school in Hong Kong in collaboration with the city’s government. Cornell’s own College of Veterinary Medicine would help develop curricula and mentor faculty members.
Dartmouth: Administration to undergo restructuring
Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim has announced several changes to be made to the senior administration structure. The reorganization includes a new chief-of-staff position and will be implemented June 1.
Harvard: Masters Urge Caution Over Unofficial Class
Someone unaffiliated with Harvard has been teaching unofficial classes on its campus. The Harvard University Police Department has gotten involved in trying to stop it.
Penn: U. starts Fling room checks
In anticipation of Penn’s Spring Fling this past weekend—its version of Lawnparties—the administration started doing its annual bag checks but did so one week later than usual. It also did room checks focused on violations such as possession of alcohol and tampered smoke detectors.
Yale: Public in uproar over murders
Three murders have occurred in the past week in New Haven, bringing the murder toll since January to 11. All three men who were killed were black, and the murders have not been resolved.
By Jason Jung, staff writer for News
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Meet the Pre-frosh! Part 2
Margaret Van Cleve of St. Louis, MO is a high school senior at Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School. She was recognized by the Missouri House of Representatives for her academic accomplishments, receiving the "Glory of Missouri" award. She is deciding between Princeton and Yale.
Andrea Keriazakos of Hilton Head Island, SC is a high school senior at Hilton Head Prep. She is a varsity cheerleader and plans to major in pre-med. She is choosing between Princeton, Harvard and Duke.
Maria Guardado of Milpitas, CA is a senior at Milpitas High School, where she is a member of her school's cross country and track teams. She is deciding between Princeton, Yale and Stanford.
Asmaa Rimawi of Brooklyn, NY is a senior at Al-Noor High School. She is student body president at Al-Noor and was recently named a New York Times Scholar (the scholarship includes a summer internship at The New York Times). She is choosing between Princeton, Harvard and Yale.
-- Interviews conducted by Associate Editor for Sports Gabriel Debenedetti, Executive Editor for Multimedia Tasnim Shamma and Staff Writer Tara Thean.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Meet the Pre-frosh!
We caught up with a few pre-frosh today at the Activities Fair.
Katie Underwood of Briarcliff, NY is a senior at Briarcliff High School, where she plays on the girl's soccer team. She is deciding between Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
David Byler of Parkersburg, West Virginia is a senior at Parkersburg High School, where he is co-captain of the swim team. He holds state records in the Butterfly, Backstroke, and the 200 and 400 Freestyle Relay Teams. He is deciding between Princeton, UPenn, UVA and Washington and Lee, though he says he is 90 percent confident he will be choosing Princeton.
Stacey Menjivar of Hyattsville, MD is a senior at High Point High School, where she is editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Beacon. She is deciding between Princeton and Dartmouth and says she is currently leaning toward Princeton.
Hojung Lee of Ellicott City, MD is a senior at Mount Hebron High School who has won numerous journalism awards and honors. Most recently, she participated in a multimedia program at The Washington Post. She is deciding between Harvard and Princeton.
-- Interviews conducted by senior writer Gabriel Debenedetti, executive editor for multimedia Tasnim Shamma and staff writer Tara Thean.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Somehow Princeton economists keep coming up...
An article today in The Huffington Post takes a look at the rising cost of the performing arts, a problem studied by professors of economics emeriti William Baumol and William Bowen. Bowen was also president of the University from 1972 to 1988.
The author of the article, Michael Kaiser, came to McCarter last month to share his thoughts on management in the arts. The event was called "Arts in Crisis".
Baumol and Bowen's claim is that the performing arts will inevitably rise in cost and that their management must take this into account. Applied more generally, this phenomenon is known as "Baumol's cost disease." This so-called disease affects industries that cannot increase in efficiency.
For example, as technology improves most industries can synthesize more X for a lower cost. But, as the article points out "we cannot perform Hamlet with fewer players than when Shakespeare wrote it, nor do we play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony faster and faster every year".
Incidentally, another field that is affected by Baumol's "disease" is education, possibly explaining why our tuition is always on the rise...
By Aaron Hosios, editor for Blogs
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Seton Hill students to receive iPads in the fall
As part of the Griffin Technology Advantage Program, Seton Hill University, a small Catholic university in Greensburg, Penn., (no, not Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.) plans to distribute new iPads to all 2,100 full-time students in the fall.
In addition, all incoming freshmen will receive MacBooks, as well.
Seton Hill administrators believe that the iPad will “lighten the backpacks of Seton Hill University students” and will be widely used by all for its “mobility and the ease with which faculty and students … will have immediate access to e-textbooks,” Seton Hill administrators told The Chronicle.
The iPad costs $499 at its lowest retail price, which means that Seton Hill University plans to invest roughly $1 million in this iPad initiative.
Sound too good to be true?
Students will have to pay $500 per semester for fees for the new technology program, a portion of which will go into the cost of the iPads. In any case, students will essentially be charged an additional $1,000 annually for these new technologies.
By Wonpyo Yun, staff writer for News
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Virtual TA: Grading, outsourced
With graders in India, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as the United States and other locations, Virtual-TA turns papers around within three to four days of submission with electronic feedback, based on a rubric provided by professors. Dubbed “Your expert teaching assistants” by the company slogan, Virtual-TA graders, or “assessors,” as they’re called, all hold at least Master’s degrees.
The company—and the professors who use it—contest that it frees faculty up to focus on their teaching and their research, without overburdening inexperienced grad students. Its detractors highlight the graders’ absence from class discussions as a problem, while also arguing that the cost of the service could be better spent hiring more teaching assistants.
The average cost of Virtual-TA—though variable depending on the nature of the assignment—is $12 per student per assignment.
By Jonathan Dec, staff writer for News
Monday, April 5, 2010
The story continues...
Apparently February's sexual-assault-column controversy in the Prince was of sufficient noteworthiness to be covered by The Huffington Post. You can read all about their take on the scandal here with commentary from your peers.
Observing that students at the University tend to be relatively passive when it comes to such incidents, the Post attempts to explain why we are the way we are:
It bears mentioning that numerous students declined to comment on-the-record for this story, citing the controversial nature of the subject and the Huffington Post's high visibility. That Princeton students can be uneasy about publicly stating a position may partly explain this apparent "passivity." Perhaps it's when the conversation moves beyond personal circles, or anonymous online comments, that dialogue breaks down.I guess many of us just fear the public relations backlash.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Unpaid Volunteer Interns of the World Unite?
An article in the New York Times Friday explores the growth of unpaid internships and that the US Department of Labor has begun to prosecute internship programs that violate minimum wage laws. In particular, internships that displace paid workers or do not include vocational or academic training can run afoul of laws, that until recently have rarely been enforced because interns rarely complain.
Have you had an unpaid internship? Did it break the laws outlined in the article? Should the Department of Labor continue to crack down on unpaid internships and will this make finding summer work harder?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Goldstein appointed to Obama administration
Among the new appointees is Jeffrey Goldstein, who has been appointed to the position of Under Secretary for Domestic Finance. Goldstein began teaching economics at the University in 1982, but left a year later to join the public sector.
Goldstein is the former Managing Director of the private equity investment firm Hellman & Friedman LLC. He also served as Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer at the World Bank from 1999 to 2004.
He has also worked at the Brookings Institute and the Department of the Treasury.
By Randy Khalil, staff writer for News
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