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The number of students vying to be Princetonians grew again in 2011. According to a Jan. 19 University release, a record 27,115 students applied for the Class of 2015. Applications have roughly doubled in the last decade, after hovering between 12,500 and 15,000 per year during the 1990s.

 

Part of the change is driven by demographics. The number of U.S. high-school seniors has been rising in the last decade and a half, and a 2008 New York Times story anticipated that the applications would peak in 2009 or 2010. But Princeton’s increase in applicants has continued. Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye credited the University’s financial-aid program and outreach efforts both in the United States and abroad.

 

Above, a graphic representation of the growth in applications from 2000 to 2011 (click graph to view larger version).

1.     Your favorite book to teach

2.     The must-read book in your field

3.     Your favorite pleasure read

4.     The book you are currently reading

 

Each Tuesday for several weeks PAW will post a professor’s suggestions on The Weekly Blog, starting with those of Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute Samuel S. Wang. In upcoming weeks, look for the recommendations of Director of the Program in Jazz Studies Anthony D.J. Branker ’80, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Michael G. Littman, Director of the Program in the Study of Women and Gender Jill Dolan, and Acting Chair of the English department Anne A. Cheng ’85.

Samuel S. Wang

For my course NEU101, “Neuroscience and Everyday Life,” I give readings from Phantoms In the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee. Rama is a well-known neurologist whom I have hosted for a Princeton public lecture; Blakeslee is an excellent science writer. They use the strange phenomenon of phantom limb syndrome to write about how everybody’s brain works. The representation of an amputated limb lingers in the brain. As a result it hurts even though it’s gone. Why that is, and how it can be addressed by simple tools that cost pennies, are the topic of the book. It’s a fascinating read.

 

I also love A Hole In the Head, a collection of essays by my colleague Charles Gross in psychology. Gross is an eminent neuroscientist and a lucid writer. His writings on everything from trepanation to dyslexia are amazing — valuable to scientists and historians of science alike.

 

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.”

 

Professor Robert George, left, looks on as Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will *68 speaks during a Dec. 15 visit to campus. Will joined several other alumni and visitors at the 10th anniversary celebration of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Click here to listen to Will’s speech on Madison and Woodrow Wilson, titled “Can someone from the Class of 1771 save the nation from someone from the Class of 1879?” (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

In May, after seven months of study, a task force concluded that the University and its students are “well served” by the eating clubs, but proposed a new method for selecting members that is modeled after the medical-school match program… Read more

Related story: Greek organizations, pub to get closer look

 

Princeton’s investments grew 14.7 percent in the year ending June 30, rebounding from the heavy losses suffered during the financial crisis and outpacing all but one Ivy League school… Read more

Related story: Princeton fiscally 'turns the corner'

 

In September, Nancy Weiss Malkiel announced her intention to step down as dean, a post she has held since 1987, at the end of this academic year. She will depart as Princeton’s longest-serving dean of the college, responsible for the undergraduate academic program… Read more

Related story: Princeton names Valerie Smith as next dean of the college

 

Valerie Smith, the founding director of Princeton’s Center for African American Studies and a longtime faculty member, will become the next dean of the college in July 2011, the University announced Dec. 14.

 

Smith, a literature scholar who has spent a total of 19 years at the University, succeeds Nancy Weiss Malkiel, dean of the college for the last 24 years. The dean of the college is Princeton’s top undergraduate academic officer, overseeing admissions, financial aid, and the residential colleges.

 

In an interview with PAW, Smith cited two areas of special interest to her: the University’s internationalization initiative, and how the dean of the college's office can support it and raise student interest in opportunities abroad; and the residential college system, which she called the “real centerpiece of the life of the University – the life of the college – where social life and academic life come together.” She said she hopes to create an “even more vibrant community in the life of the colleges.”

 

Smith also said she felt the Center for African American Studies had met the ambitious goals outlined by President Tilghman in launching the center. She pointed to growth in the faculty, creating a distinguished visiting scholars program, expanding the curriculum, partnering with departments and programs across campus, and increasing the number of certificate students and thesis projects. “Across the country, many institutions look to Princeton as a success story,” she said of the center’s activities. 

 

Not many college students can say they have performed on the main stage of Carnegie Hall or on the field at a San Diego Chargers football game. Even fewer could say they performed at a party thrown by First Lady Michelle Obama ’85 at the White House. The Tigertones can now say they’ve done all three.

 

Instead of going to class Dec. 1, the ’Tones traveled to Washington, put on their white-jacket tuxedos, and performed for about 500 guests and the first lady in the East Wing of the White House.

 

The invitation came only a few days before Thanksgiving, so they had little time to prepare.

 

“We were frantically learning some Christmas carols in the past week,” tour manager Will McCalpin ’12 said.

 

The facts are these: Insects are one of the world’s most environmentally sustainable sources of edible protein, and are enjoyed as such by many cultures as part of a nutritious meal. One hundred grams of silkworm larvae, for example, provides 100 percent of a person’s daily zinc and iron requirements.

 

But for most Americans, when push comes to shove – when those silkworms are staring out from a plateful of worm-and-mushroom risotto – facts fly out the window to make room for baser revulsion and fear.

 

Members of Environmental Discourses on the Ingestion of Bugs League (EDIBL), a new student group on campus, argue that this fear stems from nothing more than irrational social conditioning (crustaceans are basically the insects of the sea, right?). They argue that this conditioning can, and should, be reversed. 

 

And so on Nov. 13, EDIBL prepared a special bug-tasting dinner for 25 brave and lucky Princeton students (the author included) in the hopes of winning converts to its cause.

 

The aforementioned risotto didn’t appear until more than halfway through the seven-course meal, served small-plate-style in the Campus Club dining room. First up from EDIBL head chef (and president) Rena Chen ’11 were less threatening warm-up dishes like mealworm-sprinkled bruschetta. 

 

David E. Kelley ’79, the award-winning writer and producer of television hits like The Practice, Boston Legal, and Ally McBeal, spoke at Princeton Nov. 17 as part of the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Performance Central series.

 

In an on-stage interview conducted by Broadway producer Jordan Roth ’97, Kelley described an early foray into script writing at Princeton. Facing a deadline for a freshman course on Homeric literature, he decided to put his own spin on a class paper, writing a play that imagined Plato, Socrates, and Homer meeting in heaven and debating their views on literature. “I wrote a dialogue, turned it in, and then really ducked for cover,” he said.

 

The weekend after turning in the paper, Kelley traveled with the men’s hockey team to play Harvard and stayed behind in Boston, his hometown, missing class on Monday. He knew that skipping a lecture could cost him a letter grade – the professor, Lois Hinckley, had a rule against absences – but he decided to take his chances.

 

While other Princeton students spent their fall break catching up on work and sleep, three undergraduates were busy using their Chinese language skills to become minor celebrities in Singapore and the rest of the Chinese-speaking world.

 

Seniors Michael Medeiros and John Pardon and junior Jesse Murdick represented Princeton – and won their division – at the International Varsity Debate, hosted by Singapore Media Corporation and China Central Television.

 

The competition began in 1993 and debates are held every other year. The Tigers competed in the non-native speaker division, which also included the University of Sydney, the University of Nottingham, and Korea University.

 

Preparation for the competition began when the students returned to campus in September and auditioned for the opportunity to represent Princeton on an all-expenses-paid trip to Singapore. Professor C.P. Chou of the Chinese department supervised the trip.

 

“After we were picked we had practices two or three times a week with the Chinese teachers,” Medeiros said. They worked on debating style and learned what it would take to be successful in the structured, three-on-three debate format.

There were no hockey sticks, shoulder pads, or helmets at Baker Rink on the night of Nov. 11.

 

Instead, students held cameras, hot chocolate, and each other’s hands as they enjoyed a night of free open skating organized by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS). Grateful for a study break, students formed a long line for free skate rentals as they caught up with one another and sang along to the booming background music.

 

Alva Strand ’13 said skating with her friends reminded her of her family in Norway. “I hadn’t [skated] in six years, so it was really nice,” she said. “It was so much fun!”

 

“ODUS should definitely do this more often,” said Kai Sheng Tai ’13, who had never skated before the event. “I think it’ll be fun once I get used to sliding on a 2-millimeter strip of metal.”

In a Nov. 12 campus symposium on the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, former Sachs scholar and Latin salutatorian Dan-el Padilla Peralta ’06 discussed the urgent need for immigration reform in the United States. 

 

Speaking to a packed East Pyne lecture hall, Padilla Peralta called the treatment of undocumented immigrants in the United States “inhumane” and “a scathing indictment” of the country’s performance in democracy.

 

“I want everyone here to dwell for a moment on the inscrutability of the entire process an undocumented immigrant faces,” said Padilla Peralta, who was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City. “You’re always put in a position of feeling as if you are about to be tried … by a system whose principles defy logic. You are powerless.”

 

The audience also heard from other undocumented immigrants such as 17-year-old Carolina Munoz of Roselle Park (N.J.) High School. Munoz talked about the “frozen” feeling she experiences when guidance counselors talk to her about applying to college – an option not currently available to her due to her undocumented status.

 

“It brings us down so much,” she said. “People like me, we have so much potential but cannot take those steps to keep going further.”