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Articles filed under “In the news”

From a survey of 21 undergraduate Princeton sons, Princeton psych professor Susan Fiske has concluded that… men view half-naked women as objects.

That might just be the best Prince headline we’ve ever seen.

This has been all over the news, from One India (“Sensual Women Viewed as ‘Objects’“) to National Geographic (“Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm”).

But the best article so far? Probably from The Independent (“University of the bleedin’ obvious”).

But the real question is, why is this obvious, obvious story so popular?

Probably for the accompanying photos and page views:

From National Geographic:

(image source: nationalgeographic.com)

(image source: nationalgeographic.com)

From the Daily Telegraph:

(image source: telegraph.co.uk)

(image source: telegraph.co.uk)

Feb 17, 2009

Breaking news: Men objectify women, editors love bikini stories.

By Angela Wu
Also posted in Goings On, Musings Tagged , , Leave a comment

ngwusiychyetjnf20061120164135

Trinity College’s men’s squash team defeated Princeton men’s squash yesterday in a close 5-4 squash game that gave the No. 1 ranked squash team its 11th perfect season of squash in a row, with a 16-0 record of squash wins. Trinity men’s squash team’s last loss was in a game of squash against Harvard in the College Squash Association National Team Championship in February 1998.

Squash squash squash.

Trinity’s men’s squash team has now had 199 victories in a row. No. 2-ranked Princeton ended the season with a 11-1 record. As No. 1 and No. 2, the two teams are favored to face off again next Saturday at Jadwin Squash Courts for this year’s National Team Championship game.

But does anyone remember that gem from the New York Times published about a year ago? We do. It’s another article about how “anxious parents are looking for some edge, any edge, to help their child gain entry through the back door of the nation’s most selective universities,” but it’s an article about squash. Because that’s how you get into Princeton. Squash.

Continue reading…

Feb 15, 2009

Squash Is No Joke

By Angela Wu
Also posted in Goings On Tagged , , , Leave a comment

feinbergThe couple who brought you Wilson College’s Feinberg Hall (1986) has been hired by the university to design the building for the newAndlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

The firm, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is most famous for designing the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

(image source: princeton.edu)

Feb 15, 2009

Feinberg Hall Architect to Design New Campus Building

By Brian No
Also posted in Goings On Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

eisgruber

At the monthly CPUC (Council of the Princeton University Community) meeting last week, Provost Eisgruber presented on the university’s financial health.

It was, not surprisingly, very depressing.

We’ve all heard about plummeting university endowments across the country in recent months. PRINCO (which manages Princeton’s endowment) predicts our $16 billion endowment will fall 25% this fiscal year. That amounts to roughly $4 billion of Princeton’s endowment.

But even more shocking was the Powerpoint slide that showed that, under realistic conditions, Princeton’s endowment will not return to $16 billion until 2020, at the earliest (see chart above). By then, we will have children and a mortgage.

Eisgruber said it was time for us to get used to a new “normal” (in other words, being somewhat poorer). The university is facing an $82 million shortfall, and is in the midst of budget cuts. Eisgruber also said he is almost certain that Princeton will make a second round of budget cuts next year.

One piece of good news, however: Princeton will increase the financial aid budget by 13% next year.

Also at the meeting, President Tilghman promoted a new web page where anyone can suggest ideas for administrative budget cuts. So email away! Save your university!

(image source: dailyprincetonian.com)

Feb 15, 2009

Provost Eisgruber: We’re Screwed

By Brian No
Posted in In the news Tagged , , , , Leave a comment
picture-2

Bad News Bears...

Has the population of “green haired” high school students plateaued? Shirley Tilghman’s now-infamous desire to attract students with a penchant for hairdye may be backfiring!

Princeton has suffered a second major blow to its ego in less than six months! In August, the university dropped down an entire spot to number two in the annual US News & World Report rankings, and two weeks ago, Janet Rapelye’s admissions office announced that this year’s applicant pool for the class of 2013 grew just two percent.

This figure, so far, represents the smallest growth in applications among its peer schools (Columbia and Penn have yet to release their data). As the table above shows, Brown saw a whopping 21 percent increase in applicants this year, and even Cornell reported a higher increase with three percent.

After the jump, the second table shows that Princeton’s application numbers haven’t grown as quickly over the past three years, compared to Harvard’s and Yale’s:

Continue reading…

Feb 11, 2009

Has the Population of Green-Haired Students Plateaued?

By Brian No
Posted in In the news Tagged , , , , One comment

obamalogo &  ivy

As Barack Obama prepares to take the highest office in the United States, he has begun to build a team of accomplished and skillful men and women that will help the young president lead America in these most troubled times.

Indeed, America stands at a crossroads in history, and Obama’s star-studded team hopes to answer some of the nation’s most pressing questions. How does America weather the recession? How does the nation withdraw its troops from Iraq? Which Ivy League school is really the best?

Come on. You thought it wouldn’t be a competition?

People have already noted that Obama’s team is noticeably “Ivy-tinged”. This, of course, begs the question that burns constantly in the American public mind:

Which of the “Ancient Eight” comes out on top?

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Dec 19, 2008

Change We Can… Compete For

By Will Saborio
Also posted in Alumni, Politics Tagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

awpost

Capitalizing on the tense economic climate, SmartMoney unveiled its“Best Colleges for Making Money” ranking (slideshow here) yesterday, compiling tuition costs and salaries to find the schools that offer the largest payback, and trying to convince us to transfer to the University of Georgia.

The magazine’s ranking calculated the “average payback” ratio of colleges across America by comparing the median salary of graduates to the cost of a degree, effectively seeing how the investment in higher education paid off.

Princeton University came in first out of the Ivy League schools with an “average payback” of 132%…

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Dec 18, 2008

Is An Ivy League Degree Worth It?

By Angela Wu
Posted in In the news Tagged , , , , , Leave a comment