Coming to an eating club near you

Good news for all of you who are 1) somewhat hiphop-inclined, and 2) looking for some hope to keep you afloat in these trying pre-Dean’s Date times. Madlib, one of the finest producers alive, will be performing at Terrace on Tuesday night.  A Madlib beat is an odd specimen, radiating the hazy warmth of vinyl, constantly teetering on the verge of a groove before twitching and fracturing and meandering away to explore some other musical thought. He often eschews the typical hook-verse-hook template in favor of weirder, looser song structures, all the while sampling voraciously and multiculturally. Sometimes he raps, too. Maybe we’ll hear some of that at Terrace, but his beats alone will be more than enough to satisfy. Maddeningly prolific, he’s dropped tape after tape of instrumentals (see especially his jazz-inflected stuff), but he might be best known for his collaborations with rappers. Most recently with Freddie Gibbs, most mainstreamly with Mos Def, and probably best of all with MF Doom — their brainchild, Madvillainy, ranks among the top rap records of the last decade, and every time my stomach sinks with the dread of Tuesday 5 PM I just think about prospect of hearing some of those beats live. Hear the flute loop on this song and know that everything will be okay:

Opening acts Shigeto and Dabyre are sure to impress as well. Terrace sets are hard to predict, but I can’t imagine Madlib himself will go on anytime before 12:40 or so. Go listen.

A great 60s-tastic shot of Nassau Hall. (photo from www.princeton.edu)

As of this afternoon, Princeton has offered 726 students spots in the Class of 2016 from a 3,443-person applicant pool, the University announced at 3pm today.  It’s the first time Princeton has offered students the option of applying Early Action–meaning that admitted students are not contractually obligated to attend, and may apply to other schools for Regular Decision if they so choose–since 2006, when Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia all simultaneously eliminated their Early Decision programs.  Harvard took 772 students for the Class of 2016 out of 4,245 applicants, with an acceptance rate of 18.2%, while Yale had an 18% dip in Early Action applications this year, due in part to Princeton and Harvard’s reinstated programs.

Jury’s still out on how many admitted students will matriculate, though Dean Janet Rapeleye has said that the accepted Early Action students should represent about a third of the year’s total admits.

To read more about Princeton’s Early Action pool for 2016, including a demographic breakdown for admitted students, click here.

35.3% of students surveyed report having mental health challenges that they did not experience before coming to Princeton, and certain groups are more at risk than others. Women were significantly more likely to feel depressed, overwhelmed, out of place, or experience new mental health challenges, as were LGBT students, who are also more likely to take a year off from school than the average student. Black students were only 70% as likely as white students to rate their emotional health as “higher than average.”

Life does seem to be better if you’re an athlete. They’re less likely to report stress due to difficulties with friends or relationships and report feeling social anxiety much less frequently, and they rate their emotional health, social self-confidence, and leadership ability above the average Princeton student more often than non-athletes.

Athletes and Mental Health

Still, that’s only better by comparison. Over ¼ of us – athlete or not – are often overwhelmed and sometimes depressed.

Yes, we’re Princeton students. We’re competitive overachievers who thrive on stress and little sleep. Or so we tell ourselves. While COMBO doesn’t compare us to students at similar universities and it’s not exactly clear how students interpreted “new mental health challenges,” the fact that more than 1/3 of us checked “yes” can’t be good.

There is a wealth of other information (often surprising) on how students’ backgrounds affect how they experience Princeton in the USG report. Where COMBO I & II focused almost exclusively on race, family income, and dining and residential options, COMBO III aimed to look at even more ways students’ backgrounds affect how they experience Princeton.

As before, most of the stereotypes are true. COMBO committee members said income and ethnicity still strongly impact students’ dining and social choices, with wealthier and white students significantly more likely to join eating clubs. But committee members left these numbers out of their report, focusing on new findings from this year’s expanded survey.

Background also affects how comfortable students are using taking advantage of university resources. Some highlights:

• Athletes are more comfortable using networks to pursue job opportunities, and they’re more comfortable seeking advice from Career Services, the Writing Center, McGraw Center and Peer Tutoring.
• Men and religious students were less comfortable using academic and career resources. More religious students said they “tried to avoid” office hours, academic advisors, the Writing Center, and others.
• Students whose parents did not go to college are 91% more likely to feel they were less academically prepared for Princeton than the average student. For students from rural backgrounds, it’s 51%.
• Athletes are significantly more likely want to pursue a business degree than non-athletes – 23.29% vs. 13.94% – but they’re significantly less likely to want to pursue a Master’s (29.5% vs. 42.96%) or a Ph.D. (20.19% vs. 36.21%).

We’ll add a link to the full results as soon as the USG posts them online.

They took first place at the Facebook Camp Hackathon last weekend, beating teams that qualified at earlier competitions throughout the country. Their creation? Color Me Bold, a program that analyzes a photo and offers jewelry and accessory suggestions. Whether you want to give your outfit an extra splash of color or just want to see what it takes to win a hackathon, you can test it here.

Some tips from Zha:

• After uploading a photo from Facebook, click and drag your mouse over areas of the photo where the outfit you want to match is. If coloring inside the lines isn’t your strong suit, you can right click to erase.
• Next choose whether you want jewelry or accessory recommendations – jewelry works best at the moment.
• Princeton’s network isn’t the speediest, so give it some time.

If you’re skeptical about taking fashion advice from a computer algorithm, well, Facebook’s seal of approval is pretty convincing. It’s even more impressive considering they had just 24 hours to put it together.

Princeton’s team was also the only one with more women than men, which might account for the fashion-forward hack. Zha said she got the idea when thinking about day-to-day problems she’d like to solve – “accessorizing can definitely take up as much time as I have available. The girls were totally onboard–and outvoted our one male team member.”

Check out an interview with the Princeton team and video from the hackathon here – considerably tamer than the Hollywood version, but the Ripsticks do look pretty cool.

Whether you’re interested in fine dining and criticism or still have food on the brain after Thanksgiving break, join the University Press Club for the annual Louis R. Rukeyser ’54 Memorial Lecture Series featuring Pete Wells, the New York Times’ newly announced restaurant critic.

Wells, the editor of the New York Times’ Dining & Wine section since 2006 and a five-time James Beard Journalism Award winner, will give his take on food journalism and criticism and the future of food writing.

The details:

8:00 pm Wedneday, November 30

McCormick 101

So excited you can’t wait for Wednesday? Whet your appetite with this cheatsheet with some of Wells’ reviews & writing (and some of his best “zingers”).

The Louis R. Rukeyser ’54 Memorial Lecture Series seeks to promote interest in the pursuit of journalism and to raise awareness of the role of the media in society.

Over 50 students — undergraduates and grad students — as well as a Princeton High School student and an adult community member gathered in front of Frist (watch the videos here) at 4:30. Here are some key quotes:

“We have no leader. Everyone is equal in being able to describe how they feel and how they can take action” — Edna Bonhomme, grad student

“This is our time to stand in solidarity and proudly engage in peaceful civil disobedience.” — Polly Korbel, junior

“Growing up we were taught to question everything except our right to positions of power…. There is this perception that because we are very smart and work hard, we deserve more. All of us at Princeton have extraordinary privilege, whether we were born with it or not. I ask you, does a Princeton degree really make you better?” — Brandon Davis, junior

“I am so happy to see you all here tonight after two years of being on this campus and feeling like I was the only one who cared.” — Polly Korbel, junior

Student after student spoke to voice their concerns about:

• economic inequality
• treatment of University workers such as janitors
• the University’s investment in HEI Hotels & Resorts, which has been accused of abusing its workers
• immigration and the lack of financial aid for undocumented students (support the Dream Act here)
• LGBTQ rights and the need to extend gender neutral housing beyond Spelman
• human trafficking
• environmental injustice
• the criminal justice system
• the lack of a support group on campus for survivors of sexual assault

The rest of the world may see Princeton as part of the 1% and we certainly do create our share of Ibankers. But we are home to the 99% as well. The next General Assembly will be Tuesday.

Renovated over the summer, I just discovered this library’s new look a couple weeks ago (as a senior from Rocky, who now lives in Spelman, I don’t go to Wilson much). Whether you want to work (or nap) on a couch or at a table, this place has you covered. And with the blueberry blue walls and couches, it’s hard to get too depressed about those midterms…

What’s your favorite study space? Let us know!

“We are thrilled that Mr. Carell will be joining us as we bring our Princeton journey to a close,” the team said in the e-mail. “National media have crowned him as the funniest man in America — we could not agree more.”

Carell is perhaps best known for his role as the inept office manager Michael Scott on NBC’s The Office, which the actor left last spring. He has also starred in films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Date Night, and most recently, Crazy, Stupid Love.

In the recent past, Class Day speakers have not been announced until late spring. In fact, in 2010, Charlie Gibson ‘65 joked about his last-minute selection, claiming that celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Sarah Palin had turned down offers to speak at Princeton.

But this year’s Class Day chairs began to work on bringing Carell to campus over the summer, Debenedetti said. Debenedetti, Green, and Kiernan served as the Class of 2012’s Class Day chairs.

“We’ve been pushing for him for a long time,” he said. “We felt like he was one of the more iconic comedians of our generation, and a lot of people in our class have grown up with his comedy.”

Can’t wait till June 4? Here’s a preview:

The squirrel's got my key: how common is this?

It finally happened today — after almost half a semester of success with the old “trash-can-in-the-door” technique, I finally got locked out of my room. Considering my lock-out rate last year (thank you roommates), it’s pretty impressive I’ve made it this far. Drawing from my vast experience, I find the Top 3 most common lock-out scenarios are:

• The BrB: the Bathroom Break. You don’t have your own private bathroom, and you really gotta pee, leaving your key. See also its more awkward cousin: the Shower Situation.
• The Class Act: You pack your bags all ready for class in the morning. “Oh, I’m just gonna leave my stuff here and run down to get some breakfast.” You come back, and realize you did put everything in your bag — including your key. And now you’re gonna be late for class.
• The NO-I-JUST-MISSED-IT: You walk out of the room, remember you forgot your key, turn around right as the door shuts (in Whitman, with a omnious “hisssss–chk.”)

While in the past, the punishment for lockouts was merely a slap on the wrist (or that awkward moment when you knock on every hall door in a towel looking for a phone), with the new Lock-Out Policy, calling Public Safety will cost you $30 each time. If you trek down to Housing more than 3 times, you will be charged and additional $30 and be sent to the dean for “further action.”

What is this ominously vague warning, “further action”? Angela Hodgeman of Undergraduate Housing explains:

“If a student is repeatedly being locked out, that name will be given to the appropriate Dean or Director of Student Life. Any action taken will be at their discretion.”

This begs, the question, what would the Deans do? Also, is it just me, or are the various newer dorms with automatic-locking doors at a huge disadvantage with this new policy? Stay tuned as we dig out more info in the upcoming weeks about lock-outs.

Butler College energy use in kilowatt-hours on Friday Oct 7, 2011

Notice any gaps? Perhaps between midnight and 4:00 a.m.? And then again between 4:00 and 8:00 a.m.? Apparently everyone in Butler went to sleep at midnight Thursday night …. or went to the Street. And came back around 4:00 a.m.

The main purpose of the display, however, is not to tell us what we already know: that students head to the Street Thursday nights. It is to give us real-time electric, heating and cooling data, and long-term electricity patterns for Butler. A similar display screen is in Frick. And there are some funny energy conversions:

On Friday, Butler used 3,161 kilowatt hours of energy. That equals:

• 2,254 pounds of carbon
• 90,312 laptop hours
• 5,537 hamburgers