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For Princeton graduates, the tradition of planting class ivy dates back to the 1870s, when seniors would gather before Commencement for the ivy oration and reflect on their time at Old Nassau. In the decades following World War II, though, the tradition lapsed, leaving many classes without a permanent presence on the walls of Nassau Hall.

 

Last year, Jim Parmentier ’66, secretary for his class, asked fellow class leaders why they’d never had an ivy ceremony. No one could recall the idea being raised before, but once it was mentioned, classmate Charles Plohn said, “it took us about a nanosecond to approve it.”

 

On Alumni Day Feb. 26, an audience of about 50 classmates and family members gathered to dedicate the Class of 1966 stone and plant the ivy. More ’66ers will be able to see the ivy in May, when the class holds its 45th reunion. The plaque is on the west stairwell of Nassau Hall, not far from the class’s staging area for the P-rade.

 

Plohn joked that the class was “a mere 45 years” late in its installation, but Robert Rawson ’66, a former University trustee who delivered the ivy oration, said that the unintended delay allowed classmates “to apply a longer and deeper perspective concerning the meaning of this significant ceremony.”

 

“We can now reflect on the reality of who we have become, both as individuals, but importantly, as a class maturing together,” Rawson said in his address. “Individual and unique as we are, this great University has nurtured us and molded us into a singular unit.”

 

Below, view images of the Feb. 12 stone installation, captured by Plohn’s son, Charles R. Plohn k’66. The elder Plohn is pictured in the orange cap. Installing the granite plaque are two masons from the University Mason Shop, Carmine Fiocca, in the white sweatshirt, and Richard LaMothe, in the blue jacket.

In December, we introduced the “Where are we?” contest, which tests your knowledge of campus architecture. Through July, The Weekly Blog will continue to post a new contest on the publication date of each printed edition of PAW. 

 

Today’s photo, courtesy of PAW art director Marianne Nelson, features a doorway that should be familiar to many Princetonians. Where are we? Post your answer on PAW’s Facebook page or e-mail it to PAW. The first correct response will earn a Princeton T-shirt. (Past winners are not eligible for the prize.)

 

Update: Farhana Sultana ’96 was the first to correctly identify the Frist Campus Center, formerly Palmer Physical Laboratory.

 

To see a wider view, check below.

(This is a corrected version of an earlier post. The correction appears at the end of the story.)

 

Samer Shehata *00 is an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The author of Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt (SUNY Press 2009) and numerous articles, Shehata has tried to explain the recent uprisings in Egypt and across the Middle East in forums as diverse as Foreign Policy magazine and The Colbert Report. This week, he spoke with PAW senior writer Mark F. Bernstein ’83.

It is still not entirely clear. Egypt has been very important for the United States. It has a peace treaty with Israel and has played an active role, not only in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but in mediating conflicts between Palestinian groups. It is also important in the so-called war on terror. We don’t know what will happen next because we don’t yet know what sort of government will take shape in Egypt. Although I don’t think the revolution jeopardizes American interests, it will make the relationship more complicated and require more negotiation by the United States to secure the things it has taken for granted in the past.

 

They are a well-established, organic, and legitimate player in the Egyptian political scene. Their history goes back even before the Egyptian Republic was established in 1952. I don’t believe that they are a threat to a democratic Egypt. Since the 1970s, they have been a peaceful political organization that has regularly participated in elections and provided social services. In fact, they were a primary victim of the old regime’s repression. There are some elements of their ideology that are illiberal, relating to full political rights for women and religious minorities. Those are issues of concern, but they can be overcome. But the Muslim Brotherhood are not clerics, they do not believe in a theocratic state. They are middle-class professionals.

 

Cheryl LaFleur ’75, one of five commissioners on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, highlighted the need to improve the nation’s energy transmission infrastructure at the American Wind Energy Conference in February. [Associated Press]

 

According to former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, protestors in Egypt reflected the Internet generation’s “very different conception of leadership” by actively refusing to appoint a leader. [The Daily Beast]

 

In a recent opinion piece, Harvard professor and international relations expert Joseph Nye ’58 argued that the United States’ decline as the world’s leading superpower is a “misleading metaphor.” [Wall Street Journal – subscription required]

  

Lizzie Pierce ’13, a Princeton softball player, wrote a touching tribute to teammate Khristin Kyllo ’14, who died in January. Pierce said the team is coping with its loss, “but sometimes, it’s hard not to feel like a we minus one.” [SportsIllustrated.com]

 

Two years ago, two of the Big Three automakers declared bankruptcy and accepted federal bailout funds. The American auto industry had been in a steady decline, but suddenly it fell through the floor.

 

“As a young boy growing up in Detroit, if anybody had ever said to me that I would live to see the day when Chrysler and GM declared bankruptcy, I would have said, ‘no chance,’” William Clay Ford Jr. ’79 told an audience of about a hundred people at the Friend Center Feb. 15.

 

Ford Motor Company was the only automaker that refused federal funds, and William Ford, the company’s executive chairman and speaker at the annual G.S. Beckwith Gilbert ’63 lecture, could not be happier about the decision not to.

 

“We wanted to chart our own course, and we thought we had the ability to do so,” Ford said. 

 

International correspondent (and former Daily Princetonian managing editor) Griff Witte ’00 has been covering the unrest in Cairo, filing daily stories for The Washington Post. [Washington Post]

 

Former Ambassador Frank Wisner ’61, who visited Egyptian leaders as a special envoy for the United States, drew criticism for suggesting that President Hosni Mubarak’s “continued leadership is critical.” [Associated Press]

 

Georgetown University professor Samer Shehata *00, an expert on the Middle East, told PBS that even the Egyptian military may now view Mubarak as “ a liability.” [NewsHour]

 

Colgate University professor Bruce Rutherford *93, author of the 2008 book Egypt After Mubarak, told CNN that for democracy to emerge in Egypt, major constitutional changes will be needed. [CNN]

In December, we introduced the “Where are we?” contest, which tests your knowledge of campus architecture. Through July, The Weekly Blog will continue to post a new contest on the publication date of each printed edition of PAW. 

 

Today’s photo features blue skies, reflected in the window panes, and a small clue on the rain spout. Where are we? Post your answer on PAW’s Facebook page or e-mail it to PAW. The first correct response will earn a Princeton T-shirt. (Past winners are not eligible for the prize.)

 

UPDATE: Dennis Murphy ’72 earned our prize this time, correctly identifying Dod Hall. Full photo is posted below.

 

Bruce Reed ’82, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, has taken a new job as chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden. [New York Times]

 

Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker ’49 has departed President Barack Obama’s circle of economic advisers. [Bloomberg]

 

Ted Cruz ’92, a Republican and former solicitor general of Texas, announced his plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. [Austin American-Statesman]

 

Former New Jersey Gov. Brendan Byrne ’49 will be one of 13 inductees to the New Jersey Hall of Fame this year. He joins a class of honorees that includes Martha Stewart, Queen Latifah, and Bruce Willis. [Star-Ledger]

 

In December, we introduced the "Where are we?" contest, which tests your knowledge of campus architecture. Through the end of the publication year, The Weekly Blog will continue to post a new contest on the publication date of each printed issue of PAW. 

 

And so we ask, where are we now? Post your answer on PAW's Facebook page or e-mail it to PAW. The first correct response will earn a prize.

 

UPDATE: James Colman '95 is our winner. He correctly identified the building as Chancellor Green. View the rest of this entry to see the image in context.

Caltech professor Frances Arnold ’79 and colleague Willem Stemmer will share the $500,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize for their pioneering work in DNA sequencing. [USA Today]

 

TV producer David E. Kelley ’79 knows his new show, Harry’s Law, is a long shot, but he’s optimistic that it can find its niche. [Washington Post]

 

Calgary lawyer and former Princeton hockey captain Kirk Lamb ’01 was named the new chairman of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, an umbrella group that oversees Canada’s 10 junior-A leagues. [Calgary Herald]

 

Indiana governor and presidential prospect Mitch Daniels ’71 has received a vote of confidence from an unanticipated group of supporters: Yale undergrads. [Indianapolis Star]

 

Ellie Kemper ’02, a cast member on TV’s The Office, talks about comedy writing and her role in Sofia Coppola’s recent film Somewhere. [St. Louis Magazine]

When Auburn and Oregon kick off tonight’s Bowl Championship Series national championship game, one Princeton alumnus will be able to watch knowing that he played a small but important role in determining the participants: Wes Colley *98, who teaches modeling and simulation at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, created and maintains the Colley Matrix, one of six computer rankings that help to rate BCS hopefuls.

 

Colley started his rankings in the mid-1990s, while studying astrophysics at Princeton. Computer rankings were growing in popularity, and Colley, a longtime football fan, had reservations about their effectiveness. He began playing around with a few models of his own, including the one that would become the Colley Matrix, a comparative system that relies on wins, losses, and schedule strength.

 

“You could do different things – throw in margin of victory, offensive points, defensive points-allowed – but I settled on the system I’m currently using because it did about as well as any other and it was by far the simplest,” Colley says.

 

In the fall of 1998, Colley started posting his weekly rankings on a website at Harvard, where he was working as a postdoctoral researcher. Without making much of an effort to promote his system, Colley found a following – drawing “five times as many hits as any other website at the Center for Astrophysics,” he recalls – and after the 2000 season, the BCS contacted him, asking to include his ranking in the group of computer ratings that account for one third of the BCS formula.

 

By this point in the academic year, most Princeton juniors have several things in common: They’ve stayed up late, downed too much coffee, and spent hours in the library working feverishly on their junior papers. But few can say they have discussed their junior papers with administrators like Massie Ritsch ’98, deputy assistant secretary for external and outreach services at the U.S. Department of Education, or bumped into Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on their way to a meeting.

 

A dozen undergraduates did both of those things Jan. 5 when they traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their independent work to Department of Education staffers as part of the Woodrow Wilson School task force “Secondary Education and College Preparation: What is the Federal Role?” Students were given about 10 minutes each to talk about their research and policy recommendations, after which they received feedback on the feasibility of their projects.

 

“The purpose of the trip was to assemble a panel of real politicians from the Department of Education who work on the ground on all these issues that the juniors spent a semester researching,” Miheer Matre ’11, a senior commissioner of the task force, explained. “It’s neat to share those findings.”