The Prez.

What’s on Shirley Tilghman’s mind these days?

Besides dealing with a $3.7 billion drop in the University’s endowment (thanks, Great Recession!), Tilghman said at this afternoon’s CPUC (Council for the Princeton University Community) meeting that moving ahead with establishing the nation’s premier neuroscience department is her biggest priority. Tilghman also said the lack of funding to renovate the soon-to-be vacant Frick Laboratory has been worrying her.

The construction of a neuroscience and psychology building below Icahn Laboratory was postponed after the economic climate turned sour, but Tilghman said she’s trying to secure enough alumni donations to break ground as soon as possible. She said the new building is “shovel-ready” and said it was urgent that the University take advantage of today’s historically low construction costs. (Basic Wall Street, y’all – buy low, sell high, you know?) Channeling Sarah Palin, Tilghman said she’s reaching out to a small group of loyal alumni benefactors “to get our ‘base’ energized,” though we’re not sure what this exactly means.

Tilghman’s also concerned about the soon-to-be vacant Frick Laboratory. (To be honest, I wouldn’t want to go in there anyway – those big chemical showers give me the creeps.) When the Chemistry Department moves into its new building next fall, the University had originally planned to convert Frick into a classroom space for the humanities and social sciences.

Place looks almost as miserable as three-hour lab makes you feel

But Tilghman said recent cuts in the capital budget are going to force Frick to sit vacant for the foreseeable future. Of course, she’s also worried about the symbolism of an empty building in the middle of campus.

But Shirley Prez still seems optimistic. She said she’s been telling alumni that the past year’s been “Princeton’s finest hour” because the community came together during the difficult financial crisis (aww!). After two rounds of budget cuts, Tilghman said she doesn’t see any others in the near future. “We’re going to be just fine,” she said, “But we do want to keep moving forward.”

Our fearless leader!

Martin had been explaining a bar graph that showed social sciences, the most popular category of majors, with the lowest percentage of students who said they chose their major based on “academic passion.” Fortunately for Tilghman, the bar graph had been scaled so that the lowest category of majors (social sciences) appeared to be at about 50 percent, instead of the 70+ percent that it actually was. After someone pointed this out to her, Tilghman was able to calm down, but not before exclaiming, “I was ready to shoot myself!”

The CPUC had just gotten a little bit awkward. But the nervous laughter soon subsided, and the presentation moved forward.

We also learned a couple disconcerting factoids about our psychological well-being when the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at McCosh, Anita McLean, gave a presentation about the office’s services. McLean reported that Public Safety had conducted many more “welfare checks” on students this semester than usual.

What are welfare checks? When a student cannot be reached (i.e. doesn’t answer the door, phone, email, etc.) and there is worry for the student’s well-being and safety, one can request Public Safety to unlock and enter the student’s dorm room to make sure he or she is, well, alive.

Despite the increase in welfare checks, McLean said there were usually fluctuations in these sorts of psychological concerns over time. So no worries! McLean also reported that percentage-wise, graduate students received more psychological and counseling services than undergraduates.

While the University does not test all reported flu cases for H1N1, they are assuming–and treating as if–they are. Kolligian said campus figures are roughly in line with national and state trends.

Vaccines for H1N1 are scheduled to arrive in small batches in the next few weeks. Kolligian also said the seasonal flu vaccines that were administered a couple weeks ago in Frist do not protect against H1N1.