Recently in Campus News

Rep. Jim Marshall ’72, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, addressed the University’s Veterans Day observance in the Chapel Nov. 11.

“People ask me why I fight. I do not fight for some ideology. I fight for that man to my left, and the one to my right. They are men of their honor. When called, they responded and did their duty. They did not run away. If you believe in nothing else, believe in them.”

Last weekend, the Princeton Tigertones performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the San Diego Chargers' home game against the Tennessee Titans. The performance, part of a weeklong tour of California during Princeton's fall break, had the largest audience in the all-male a cappella group's 64-year history.

Video courtesy of Gini Meyer p'12.

Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06, dean of students at Coney Island Prep. (Arjun Jain '14)

In an Oct. 15 panel discussion titled “Education as the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time,” New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, Newark School Advisory Board president Shavar Jeffries, and Coney Island Prep dean of students Leslie-Bernard Joseph ’06 discussed educational reform in the United States and the role of undergraduates in the reform movement.

“Students around the world vote with their feet to study at our colleges, but we are not preparing our own students to attend these institutions,” said President Tilghman, the panel's moderator. “This is the challenge we are here to discuss.”

Joseph, who holds a B.A. in politics from Princeton, kicked off the panel with an anecdote about his sixth-grade student who, unable to answer any questions on a quiz, had simply written “I need help” instead of the answers on the quiz. Joseph keeps the note in his office to remind himself of his mission as a teacher.

“What I realized from the moment I walked into the classroom is that schools look nothing like what they were supposed to,” he said. He explained that this isn’t because of crumbling paint or old books, but rather a missing sense of possibility and hope.

The WMAP spacecraft, shown in this NASA rendering, has measured the oldest light in the universe for the last nine years. (NASA/WMAP Science Team)

From WMAP's beginning -- and in a preceding project, the Cosmic Background Explorer -- Princeton scientists played an important role in the measurement of background radiation, the oldest light in the universe. Key contributors include the late astrophysics professor David Wilkinson (WMAP's namesake), the late physicist Robert Dicke, current professors David Spergel ’82 and Lyman Page, and senior research physicist Norm Jarosik.

This fall, 54 Princeton students are spending time in prisons – not as inmates, but as tutors and teachers. They’re working with the Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program, founded by Jim Farrin ’58 and Charles Puttkammer ’58 in 2008, which organizes Princeton students to help inmates learn basic academic skills.

Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program co-founder Jim Farrin '58. (Courtesy Jim Farrin '58)

In both the Albert C. Wager Youth Correctional Facility (ACW) and Garden State Prison, undergraduates tutor inmates in reading, writing, and math. Some also have taught courses in health, art history, economics, and poetry. ACW has 1,200 male prisoners, ages 18 to 30, in low- to maximum-security cells; the Garden State facility has fewer hardcore prisoners. Participation in the program helps inmates get into credit-bearing programs in the future.