Wednesday, December 20, 2006

 

2006: The year at Princeton

A month-by-month look at the headlines, with links to PAW stories

January
Peter B. Lewis ’55 gives a record $101 million to Princeton to support a broad expansion of the University’s programs in the creative and performing arts. Lewis’ gift will help to fund a new “village” for the arts, slated to be built near McCarter Theatre and the Dinky station.

February
Samuel Alito ’72 is sworn in as a supreme court justice, becoming the 10th Princetonian to serve on the nation’s highest court. Princeton played a role in Alito’s confirmation hearings when senators cited his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), a defunct conservative group that Alito had listed on a 1985 job application.

March
Princeton men’s squash star Yasser El Halaby ’06 becomes the first male collegian to win four individual national titles in the sport, defeating Harvard’s Siddharth Suchde 9-2, 9-0, 9-6.

April
Dan-el Padilla Peralta ’06, winner of the Sachs Scholarship, makes national headlines when the Wall Street Journal reveals a dilemma caused by Padilla’s immigration status. If Padilla, an undocumented immigrant, chooses to pursue studies abroad, he may not be able to return to the United States, where he has lived since age 4, for 10 years. Padilla, who told his story in a PAW essay, received a student visa in the summer, allowing him to study classics at Oxford University, but he must apply for waivers to return home and visit family members.

May
Alumnus H. Vincent Poor *77 is named dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, taking over the post vacated by Maria Klawe, who became president of Harvey Mudd College in California. Poor, a professor of electrical engineering, says that he hopes to help the engineering school move forward as it adds physical space, new collaborations with industry, and innovative educational ventures.

June
About 17,000 alumni, family, and friends brave the rainy weather at Reunions 2006, and the showers break in time for alumni to march through campus in the P-rade. Events on campus include forums with alumni and faculty experts, class dinners, and musical performances.

July
In recognition of her first five years as Princeton’s leader, President Tilghman sits down with PAW to reflect on her time in Nassau Hall and talk about her plans for the University’s future. Tilghman, who was a Princeton molecular biology professor for 15 years before becoming president, says that she still misses parts of research science, particularly when she reads about exciting discoveries in journals. “I can feel the juices start to boil in me, because the thing I like best is designing a new experiment,” she says. “So that’s a momentary twinge, but I enjoy what I’m doing now so much that there isn’t time or the inclination for regret.”

August
The University announces that Leonard Milberg ’53 will donate one of the world’s largest collections of Irish theater materials and manuscripts to Firestone Library’s rare books department. In October, Princeton celebrates the gift with an Irish theater symposium, an exhibition of works from the collection, and a production of Brian Friel’s Traslations at McCarter Theatre.

September
One week after Harvard decides to eliminate early decision from its admission structure, Princeton follows suit, announcing that 2006-07 will be its last year of early decision. Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye tells PAW she is “quite convinced that we will be able to enroll the very best class for Princeton, and send a message to the outside world that we care about equity and fairness.”

October
The Princeton University Investment Co. (Princo) announces a 19.5 percent return on endowment investments for 2005-06, increasing the endowment’s value to $13 billion. The return is Princo’s highest since 2000.

November
For the first time in more than a decade, Princeton football beats Yale and Harvard in the same season, earning a celebratory Big Three bonfire on Cannon Green Nov. 17. A day later, the Tigers beat Dartmouth at home to finish the season 9-1 and share the Ivy League championship with Yale. The title is Princeton’s first since 1995.

December
The Princeton University Store leaves the textbook business after more than a century as a bookseller, and the University announces that Labyrinth Books will open a store on Nassau Street in November, at the site of Micawber Books, and serve as Princeton’s official textbook supplier. The U-Store also will set up shop on Nassau Street with a satellite store that sells apparel and insignia goods.

A note to our readers
The Weekly Blog will not post on Dec. 27 but will return with more news and notes in the new year.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson
Princeton Alumni Weekly

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

 
In the saddle

Allison Harding ’08, right, captain of the University equestrian team, rides her horse, Yogi, at Silver Dollar Stables in Cranbury. With about 30 members, the equestrian team is a club sport at Princeton.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski


Insiders share tips about sports business

Two dozen professionals from the front offices of sports business joined more than 100 Princeton undergraduates at Robertson Hall Dec. 8 for the first Princeton Sports Symposium, a career day for sports enthusiasts sponsored by Career Services and the Princeton Varsity Club. Included in the afternoon’s panel discussions were two of professional basketball’s top agents: Marc Fleisher, who represented several of the NBA’s first European stars, including Vlade Divac and Sarunas Marciulionis; and Bill Duffy, whose clients include the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming and the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash. Fleisher, who started his career in the music industry, said that to get a foot in the door as a sports agent, one has to have a niche. For some, the niche is being a friend of a top athlete; Fleisher noted that top agent Leigh Steinberg was a student when he met his first client, Cal quarterback Steve Bartkowski. But there are other niches, such as close relationships with college coaches, expert knowledge of a particular sport, or strong command of a foreign language. The language skills are particulary useful in the NBA, where players hail from 37 countries. With more recruits likely to come from African nations in the next 10 years, Duffy said, “The world is shrinking more and more.”

Princeton’s other Heisman winner

Fans of Princeton football have no trouble recalling the name of the 1951 Heisman Trophy recipient: Tigers halfback Dick Kazmaier ’52. Since Kazmaier, no Ivy League player has won college football’s top prize, which was presented to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith last weekend. But one other Princetonian is included on the list of Heisman winners: Pete Dawkins *79. Dawkins, who won the award as a senior at West Point in 1958, earned his M.P.A. and Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School and is now vice chairman of Citigroup’s global-wealth management group. In late October, Fortune magazine featured the multitalented Dawkins – a former Rhodes Scholar, brigadier general, and senatorial candidate – in a story about “cross-training” your brain. Of his wide range of experiences, Dawkins said: “They’re kind of reservoirs in your consciousness that you can reach back into for insights you’re applying to something totally dissimilar. I think the broader, the more of these reservoirs you have available, the more likely you can see through the fog.”

Basketball teams to complete 2006 Jadwin slate

Princeton men’s and women’s basketball will play their final home games of 2006 in a double-header at Jadwin Gym Dec. 16. The men’s team opens the action, hosting Marshall at 4 p.m. The Tigers (6-3) split their two games last week, edging Lehigh 44-43 Dec. 6 on a Marcus Schroeder ’10 free throw with no time remaining and losing 53-47 to Rutgers Dec. 9. The women play St. Francis (N.Y.) in the nightcap at 7 p.m. Princeton (4-6) routed Rider 74-45 Dec. 12. Four players scored 10 points or more, including Meg Cowher ’08, who leads the team with 16.8 points per game. The women’s team will not play again at Jadwin until its home opener against Columbia Jan. 12. Men’s basketball plays Rice at home Jan. 6.

More at PAW Online

Under the Ivy – Gregg Lange ’70 tells how, in the dark days of Christmas 1943, President Harold Dodds *14 sent to each of the 1,300 Princetonians serving in the military a gift “that transcends that time and desperate circumstance.”
On the Campus – Elyse Graham ’07 writes about election night at the Prince and fall practice with Princeton rowers.
A Moment With Greil Marcus – Read an extended version of PAW’s interview with the culture critic and visiting professor.

Posted by Brett Tomlinson.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

 
Streep’s latest role: Belknap Visitor

Oscar- and Emmy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep spoke to a packed McCosh lecture hall Nov. 30 as this year’s Belknap Visitor in the Humanities. “My achievement is that I’ve pretended to be extraordinary people all my life and now I’m being treated like one,” she said in the introduction to her talk. Streep emphasized the importance of empathy, which connects her to the characters she plays and is, she said, what “civilizes us” and “the one thing that can stop us from killing each other.” When it came to revealing how she practices her craft, Streep demurred. “I have a deliberate reluctance to analyze what I do,” she said. “I’ll make myself self-conscious and being self-conscious is death to an actor.”

Powers’ gridiron gift

Bill Powers ’79, standing second from left, and members of his family were recognized by the University during the Dartmouth game for Powers’ $10 million gift to Princeton’s football program, the largest donation ever to Princeton athletics. Powers, a managing director of the California-based Pacific Investment Management Co. and a former All-Ivy punter, also gave $500,000 to establish two scholarships. The University is naming Princeton Stadium’s artificial-turf field Powers Field in the family’s honor. From left in the photo are Powers’ wife Carolyn, Powers, their son Will, President Tilghman, Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67, and Powers’ stepson, Tommy Cleator.

Photo by Beverly Schaefer


Annan addresses the nuclear threat

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered one of his four farewell policy addresses at Richardson Auditorium Nov. 28, speaking at length on the threat of nuclear weapons and the lack of progress in non-proliferation and disarmament efforts. Without movement on either front, “mutually assured destruction has been replaced by mutually assured paralysis,” Annan said. The secretary-general urged nations to support both non-proliferation and disarmament. “We need a renewed debate,” he said, “a renewed debate which must be inclusive, must respect the norms of international negotiations, and must reaffirm the multilateral approach – Woodrow Wilson [1879]’s approach – firmly grounded in international institutions, treaties, rules, and norms of appropriate behavior.”

Basketball’s long road home

After playing its first seven games on the road, Princeton men’s basketball opens its Jadwin Gym schedule Dec. 6 against Lehigh at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers also will host Rutgers Dec. 9 at 2 p.m. and Marshall Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. Princeton has played Rutgers 112 times, more than any other non-Ivy opponent, but after the Scarlet Knights’ 54-44 win in Piscataway last season, then-coach Gary Waters said that since Rutgers’ Big East opponents do not use Princeton’s style of play, his team had little to gain from the matchup. In a preseason interview with PAW freelance contributor Jay Greenberg, Princeton head coach Joe Scott ’87 said, “Rutgers may feel that way about us, but guess what, you had better beat us.” The Tigers have won 13 of their last 24 meetings with Rutgers and lead the all-time series by a wide margin (72-40).

War, in the words of the troops

Andrew Carroll, editor of Operation Homecoming (Random House), a recent book of journal entries, short stories, letters, and poems by U.S. troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, spoke about his experiences collecting wartime correspondence with students and community members at Robertson Hall Dec. 5. Among the stories in Operation Homecoming are two fictional accounts by Woodrow Wilson School graduate student Ross Cohen, who participated in the discussion with Carroll.

The National Endowment for the Arts spearheaded the Operation Homecoming project, funding seminars in which leading writers such as Bobbie Ann Mason and Tom Clancy worked with soldiers to help them bring their stories to print. Carroll, who heads the non-profit Legacy Project, said he initially wondered whether soldiers would be willing to write openly so soon after their combat experiences. But their work proved remarkable, with vivid descriptions not just of what they saw but what they felt. The stories, and war letters in general, are a rich source of history, according to Carroll. “They don’t move men across continents the way that generals’ orders do,” he said, “but in many ways, I think they’re every bit as important historically.”

Posted by Brett Tomlinson, with reporting by Fran Hulette and W. Raymond Ollwerther ’71.
Princeton Alumni Weekly

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