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October 8, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Oct. 8, 2012

The cover of PAW’s Oct. 10 issue features a familiar face and an important piece of news: President Shirley Tilghman plans to step down at the end of the academic year, her 12th at the University’s helm. Read more about Tilghman’s announcement in Campus Notebook and the editor’s letter.

A 17-member committee of trustees, students, faculty, and staff is scheduled to meet later this month to begin the search for Princeton’s 20th president. PAW will provide updates on the search in the magazine and at PAW Online.

– Marilyn H. Marks *86, editor

	Slide show: Welcome to Princeton Browse images from the orientation activities for the Class of 2016 and this year’s new grad students, including the Freshman Step Sing, pictured at left. VIEW
	Ask the expert: Children’s literature in a digital age Read Professor William Gleason’s feature story on the future of children’s and young-adult literature, and send your questions to PAW. Responses will be published in a future issue and at PAW Online. READ MORE
	History: Year of the artist Musing about Ai Weiwei’s sculpture installation on Scudder Plaza, columnist Gregg Lange ’70 recalls Princeton’s own revolutionaries, circa 1776. Also available as a podcast. READ or LISTEN
	Video: Alum’s documentary follows Bradley ’80 in Egypt “Yes, there are other countries in the world that, like Egypt, are passionate about soccer,” says filmmaker Jeffrey Plunkett ’97. “But Manchester United’s fans didn’t help overthrow a regime.” WATCH
	Download a PDF of the Oct. 10 issue Our PDF version is a great option for tablet users. DOWNLOAD
FOLLOW PAW ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER	Recent alumni deaths A list of graduate and undergraduate alumni deaths recently reported to the University. READ MORE
	Highlights from the Oct. 10 issue: Tilghman to step down as president President announces plans to leave Nassau Hall in June 2013. Goodnight, iPad? Children’s literature in a digital age. American Lucifer Can Aaron Burr be redeemed? The world is his classroom A professor teaches a class online, and learns along with his students. A new round of college rankings High marks for Princeton from U.S. News, Forbes, and others.
More reader favorites: Multimedia archive \| Weekly sports updates \| Alumni blog directory

October 2, 2012

Names in the news: "All the news that's fit to print" edition

Seeing Princetonians featured in The New York Times is nothing new, but in the last few days the Gray Lady has seemed particularly orange and black. Here are a few of the alumni stories PAW noticed, with sections in brackets. Add your own links in the comments below.

A Q&A with Alex Gansa ’84 and Howard Gordon ’84, co-creators of the Emmy-winning TV series Homeland, explored the influences and politics behind the writing process. [Magazine]

“It’s not as easy being Meg Whitman [’77] as Meg Whitman might have expected,” the Times opined in a profile of the Hewlett-Packard CEO. [Business]

Fifty years after his creation, Spider-Man has brought his crime-fighting skills to Brooklyn, with help from writer Stuart Moore ’83. [N.Y./Region]

According to George Hirsch ’56 and Amby Burfoot, recent fabrications from a pair of high-profile distance runners contradict the spirit of the sport. [Sports]

Native Americans “have always been part of how America defined itself,” wrote David Treuer ’92, but the legacy is filled with contradictions. [Opinion]

PBS’ documentary Half the Sky, featuring Sheryl WuDunn *88, Mikaela Beardsley ’92, and Jamie Gordon ’92, is “thoroughly edifying, handsomely produced and buoyed by brave, resilient people fighting for basic equality,” according to a Times reviewer. [Television]

September 18, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Sept. 18, 2012

Faculty engagement with students is “a hallmark of a Princeton education,” Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 writes in her essay for the Sept. 19 issue of PAW. “Why should that stop just because students graduate?”

In Slaughter’s case, the extended faculty-student engagement has come as a result of her cover story in The Atlantic on “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” In PAW, she outlines some of the compelling responses she received from alumni. You can add your voice to the conversation online, in the comment box, or by sending an email to paw@princeton.edu. Responses will be published in a future issue and at PAW Online.

– Marilyn H. Marks *86, editor

	Slide show: Tigers in London Princetonians won a school-best seven medals at the 2012 Olympics. See Princeton’s Olympians in action in this collection of photos from the games. VIEW
	Slide shows: Global perspectives More images from the Global Seminars program’s trips to Poland and Japan, featured in the Sept. 19 cover story. VIEW
	History: Princeton’s plaid scramblers The Princeton University Band debuted its signature plaid jackets 60 years ago this fall – an anniversary that has columnist Gregg Lange ’70 thinking about campus music. READ MORE
	Essay: Stealing the clapper, 61 years ago Allen S. Johnson ’55 fondly recalls the freshman-week tradition of stealing the clapper from the bell in Nassau Hall. READ MORE
	Download a PDF of the Sept. 19 issue Our PDF version is a great option for tablet users. Recent alumni deaths A list of graduate and undergraduate alumni deaths recently reported to the University.
	Highlights from the Sept. 19 issue: ‘Respect the grievous history’ of this place In Poland, students reconcile a horrific past and a puzzling present The way back In post-tsunami Japan, Princeton students find hope, despair, and many questions You can’t have it all Princetonians respond to Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80’s essay Letters on George F. Will *68’s July essay, graduation ceremonies, online courses, the end of Hibben-Magie, and more
FOLLOW PAW ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER	More reader favorites: Reunions 2012 photos Commencement 2012 video Alumni blog directory

September 5, 2012

Alumni proposal has musical flair (and a trombone)

Love is in the air at the PAW news desk. First, we read an NPR story about Near Eastern studies graduate student Aaron Rock, his new bride, Cara Singer ’09, and their decision to start married life as the “Rock-Singers.” Then, we received a video link from recent Ph.D. recipient Dante Ricci *12, a postdoc in the molecular biology department, who did his own rock singer act to propose to fellow alum Audra Pompeani *09. The two met at Princeton while working in neighboring labs at the Lewis Thomas Laboratory. Pompeani is now a veterinary student at Penn.

We’ll let the video tell the rest of the story. Who knew a trombone solo could be so romantic?

August 31, 2012

Names in the news: Congressional candidates look ahead

As one national convention closes and another prepares to begin, PAW has collected updates on the Princeton alumni running for Congress in November. By our count, 10 Princetonians remain after the primaries – five Democats and five Republicans. If you know of other alumni candidates, please contact us.

Ricky Gill '08, a candidate in California's 9th Congressional District, addressed the Republican National Convention Aug. 28. (Photo: © Harry E. Walker/Mct/MCT/ZUMAPRESS.com)

On the Republican side, two alumni delivered speeches at the national convention in Tampa: Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz ’92, who in his remarks predicted a “free-market tidal wave” in November; and 25-year-old Ricky Gill ’08, running for a House seat in California, who later noted that it was his first time using a teleprompter.

In other convention news, House Speaker John Boehner billed Randy Altschuler ’93 as one of four New York GOP candidates who could unseat a Democratic incumbent. Princeton’s other two Republican candidates are incumbents: Rep. Nan Hayworth ’81 of New York and Rep. Leonard Lance *82 of New Jersey.

Among Democrats, only one Tiger candidate has been scheduled to speak at next week’s convention in Charlotte: Rep. Jared Schutz Polis ’96 of Colorado, who plans to share his vision for “an inclusive and prosperous future.” First lady Michelle Obama ’85 also will address the delegates.

Continue reading Names in the news: Congressional candidates look ahead…

August 22, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Aug. 22, 2012

The fall’s first issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly will reach mailboxes in about four weeks, and during the summer, we’ve continued to update campus and alumni news at paw.princeton.edu. Visit the links below to see some of the stories you might have missed.

– Marilyn H. Marks *86, editor

	Rouse named Wilson School dean Economics and public affairs professor Cecilia Rouse has been named the new dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, effective Sept. 1. READ MORE
	Princeton Olympians shine in London Seven of Princeton’s Olympians returned home with medals, including soccer star Diana Matheson ’08, left, who netted Canada’s bronze-clinching goal. READ MORE
	Dale Award winners spend summer exploring Our Dale Award profiles tell you about undergraduates who have used the grant to raft down the Mississippi, learn the fine points of European coffee, and more. READ MORE
	Tiger of the Week Recent honorees have included Mars rover scientist James Wray ’06, left; Senate candidate Ted Cruz ’92; and novelist Pauline Chen *96. READ MORE
	More letters online Browse Web-exclusive letters received this summer on topics that include Middle East policy, Princeton’s Olympic history, and undergraduate study habits. READ MORE
FOLLOW PAW ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER	MORE READER FAVORITES: Reunions 2012 photos Commencement 2012 video New books by alumni authors

August 17, 2012

Schlosser '49 helps to provide museum space for converging media

Herbert Schlosser '49 (Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of the Moving Image)

Herbert Schlosser ’49 knows show business. In a media career that spanned three decades, Schlosser had a hand in some of television’s greatest successes. As the president and CEO of NBC, he launched Saturday Night Live, secured broadcast rights for the Olympics, and helped create the A&E Network. He also played a crucial role in the early development of made-for-TV movies, satellite broadcasting, and home video.

But at age 86 — and only recently retired from a consulting post at Citigroup — Schlosser still finds that it’s “fun being part of something new.”

Schlosser currently is working on behalf of the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, which completed a major expansion and renovation in 2011 and has more changes on the horizon. The site of the museum has undergone continual reinvention, from its origins as the East Coast home of Paramount Pictures, to its World War II appointment as the Army’s Signal Corps Photographic Center, to its 1970s rehabilitation and addition to the National Register of Historic Places. The museum opened in 1988, and today it maintains more than 130,000 artifacts of moving-image history and screens more than 400 films a year in its three theaters.

Schlosser has served as chairman of the board of trustees for most of the museum’s history. “I’ve seen it develop at the same time that the visual media have changed,” he said. “Who would have thought 20 years ago that you’d be able to watch a film on a telephone? A moving image now comprises a lot of things.” Schlosser said that what sets the museum apart from other arts institutions is that “so many of these separate media converge.” The Museum of the Moving Image exhibits new media, including video games and interactive art, alongside more traditional relics of film and television history.

Continue reading Schlosser '49 helps to provide museum space for converging media…

August 16, 2012

New book on the first U.S. Olympic team features Princeton athletes

New book: Igniting the Flame: America’s First Olympic Team, by Jim Reisler (Lyons Press)

The book: Four of the 14 members of the first U.S. Olympic team were Princeton students: Robert Garrett 1897 won the discus and shot put, was runner-up in the long jump and third in the high jump; Albert Tyler 1897 was runner-up in the pole vault; Herbert Jamison 1897 was runner-up in the 400 meters; and Francis Lane 1897 competed in the 100 meters. William Sloane, a Princeton classics professor, was influential in establishing the team. Igniting the Flame tells the story of the Princetonians’ role in the inaugural modern Games in 1896. Another Princeton connection: Keith Wallman ’00, an editor at Lyons Press, acquired and edited this book.

From the book: “Equally remarkable was that the man most responsible for putting the team together — one William Mulligan Sloane — was noted more for scholarship than for athletics. And yet Sloane, the eminent Princeton University historian, had been a tour de force in building the U.S. team. As the American representative of an international committee appointed by the French nobleman Baron Pierre de Coubertin to revive the ancient Greek games, Sloane had worked for two years to assemble a U.S. Olympic team. Overlooked and belittled by U.S. amateur sports officials who showed no interest in the Olympics, Sloane had soldiered on, determined to find a way to get his small band of athletes to Athens.”

Review: “Reisler weaves a handful of narrative threads: the story of the resurrection of the Olympic Games, and of the men who accomplished it; the primitive means of travel and lodging; the stories of the individual American athletes and accounts of the events; and some whatever-happened-to-those-guys follow-up,” wrote Kirkus Reviews. Reisler “skillfully records the cries and struggles attending a nearly miraculous rebirth.”

August 14, 2012

Hilferty '82, Babbitt *92 live on in music documentary

The late composer and professor Milton Babbitt *92 is the subject of a documentary film created by Robert Hilferty '82 and completed by composer Laura Karpman. (Photo: Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications)

By Brian Jones ’82

Robert Hilferty ’82, a freelance writer, filmmaker, and AIDS activist best known for his 1989 short documentary “Stop the Church,” died on July 24, 2009. According to his companion, Fabio Toblini, Hilferty committed suicide while suffering from complications of a head injury he’d endured several months earlier. At the time of his death, he left his magnum opus unfinished: a full-length documentary about avant-garde composer Milton Babbitt *92, his former teacher and a longtime member of the Princeton music faculty.

But the story doesn’t end there. Toblini asked composer Laura Karpman, a former Babbitt student (at Juilliard) who had seen Hilferty’s work in progress and had discussed with him the changes he intended to make, if she would be willing to complete the film. Karpman agreed — and posted the result on NPR Music a few days after Babbitt’s death, in January 2011. (A YouTube version of the 64-minute film can also be seen below.)

Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composer provides a sampling of Babbitt’s atonal and serial-music compositions, including “Three Compositions for Piano” (1947), “Partitions” (1964), “The Joy of More Sextets” (1986), and “None but the Lonely Flute” (1991). The film contains interviews with the composer, his wife, Sylvia, and many former colleagues and students, including Princeton music professor Paul Lansky *73, retired professor J. K. Randall *58, professor emeritus Peter Westergaard *56, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, concert pianist Robert Taub ’77, and jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan ’81.

Continue reading Hilferty '82, Babbitt *92 live on in music documentary …

August 9, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Matheson '08's goal earns bronze for Canada

Diana Matheson '08 (Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia/Ann Odong)

Women’s soccer star Diana Matheson ’08 capped her Olympic run in dramatic fashion, scoring the game-winning goal in the 92nd minute of Canada’s bronze-medal match against France. The goal was Matheson’s first in the 2012 Olympics, and the medal is Canada’s first in the sport – and its first summer team-sport medal since 1936. Princetonians have now captured seven medals in London: one gold, two silver, and four bronze.

Coach David Blatt ’81 and the Russian men’s basketball team took one step closer to an Olympic medal Aug. 8, beating Lithuania 83-74 in the quarterfinal round. Russia faces Spain in the semifinals Aug. 10. In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Ian Thomsen, Blatt, a longtime pro coach in Europe and Israel, admitted that joining the Russian team seemed like an unlikely move when he took the job six years ago: “You take an American growing up in the time of the Cold War, add to it the fact that I’m Jewish and with an Israeli passport, and then you time-warp me into the ex-Soviet Union as the head of the Russian men’s basketball team. It’s almost mind-boggling. And I lasted! I didn’t get my head chopped off in the first year or two.”

The U.S. women’s field hockey team will play its Olympic finale in the 11th-place game Aug. 10. The Americans’ lone win was an impressive one – a 1-0 victory against gold-medal contender Argentina – and Katie Reinprecht ’13 sees a bright future ahead for the national program. “We know we can compete with the best teams in the world,” she told Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s a matter of learning how to finish games. … We’re a young team, and that’s something we’re still learning how to do.”

August 6, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Weekend wins double Tigers' medal count

Maya Lawrence '02, third from right, and Susannah Scanlan '14, second from right, celebrate their bronze medal win in women's team epee. (Photo: © Wu Xiaoling/Xinhua/ZUMAPRESS.com)

An eventful weekend in London included three more medals for Princeton Olympians and a pair of remarkable individual performances.

The medal-winning events began early Aug. 4 when Glenn Ochal ’08 and the U.S. men’s four rowed a solid race to earn bronze. The Americans were in third place at each of the splits and finished a comfortable four seconds ahead of fourth-place Greece. U.S. women’s single sculls competitor Gevvie Stone ’07 finished her Olympic run with a victory in the B final, placing seventh overall. Click here for official results.

In women’s team epee, Maya Lawrence ’02 and Susannah Scanlan ’14 contributed to a one-touch victory over Russia in the bronze-medal match. The win gave U.S. fencing its only medal in the London Olympics. Click here for NBC video of Lawrence and Scanlan discussing the match.

Men’s steeplechase star Donn Cabral ’12 reached the Olympic final in his event, placing eighth in the 15-athlete field, less than seven seconds behind gold medal winner Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya. Click here for official results.

Today’s United States vs. Canada women’s soccer semifinal will put Canadian midfielder Diana Matheson ’08 in the international spotlight. Canada already has made history by reaching the final four, and a win over the Americans would guarantee the nation’s first Olympic medal in women’s soccer. The game will be shown live at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on the NBC Sports Network.

Coach David Blatt ’81 and the Russian men’s basketball team will move on to the elimination round after posting a 4-1 record in preliminary games. Click here for official results and schedules.

August 2, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Tigers win gold and silver in the women's eight

Caroline Lind '06 (Courtesy Team USA)

The U.S. women’s eight, one of the most dominant crews in international rowing, lived up to its reputation in the Olympic final Aug. 2, winning by a 1.47 second margin over second-place Canada. That was good news for three Princetonians: American Caroline Lind ’06, who earned her second gold medal, and Canadians Andreanne Morin ’06 and Lauren Wilkinson ’11, who reached the medal podium for the first time.

Also on the water at Eton Dorney today: Glenn Ochal ’08 and the U.S. men’s four won their semifinal race, earning a place in the gold-medal final Aug. 4. Gevvie Stone ’07 of the United States finished fourth in her women’s single sculls semifinal and will compete in the B final Aug. 4. Robin Prendes ’11 and United States men’s lightweight four completed their Olympic run, placing second in the B final (eighth overall).

Two other Princetonians rowed in gold-medal finals yesterday. In the women’s pair, American Sara Hendershot ’10 and partner Sarah Zelekna were just 0.2 seconds shy of winning bronze. What does 0.2 seconds look like in a rowing race? Check out this screen shot posted by The Daily Princetonian. Sam Loch ’06 and his Australian crew placed sixth in the men’s eight. Click here for official results and schedules.

Continue reading Princeton Olympians: Tigers win gold and silver in the women's eight…

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October 8, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Oct. 8, 2012

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Names in the news: "All the news that's fit to print" edition

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September 18, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Sept. 18, 2012

September 5, 2012

Alumni proposal has musical flair (and a trombone)

August 31, 2012

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August 22, 2012

What's new at PAW Online: Aug. 22, 2012

August 17, 2012

Schlosser '49 helps to provide museum space for converging media

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New book on the first U.S. Olympic team features Princeton athletes

August 14, 2012

Hilferty '82, Babbitt *92 live on in music documentary

August 9, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Matheson '08's goal earns bronze for Canada

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August 6, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Weekend wins double Tigers' medal count

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August 2, 2012

Princeton Olympians: Tigers win gold and silver in the women's eight

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