Featured Stories Archive – April, 2007
Striking a chord for Communiversity
By Ruth Stevens · Posted April 30, 2007; 12:25 p.m.
The Princeton University Band struck a chord for town and University collaboration as it opened the annual Communiversity celebration with a concert at the intersection of Nassau and Witherspoon streets on Saturday, April 28. Communiversity annually brings the town and University together for a day of performances, food, games and more. It attracted a large crowd to the downtown and campus areas, which were turned into a colorful fairground with events for students and families alike.
Leading change: Conference looks at diversity in science and engineering
By Hilary Parker · Posted April 27, 2007; 03:29 p.m.
Change is inevitable and must be guided carefully to improve individual lives and society, Kneeland Youngblood said April 27 at a Princeton conference on leadership and diversity in engineering, science and mathematics.
Danson dazzles with tales of Shakespeare
By Jennifer Greenstein Altmann · Posted April 24, 2007; 01:29 p.m.
Professor of English Larry Danson paced the stage in McCosh 46, a worn copy of "The Taming of the Shrew" in his hand. Danson was knee-deep into his discussion of one of William Shakespeare's earliest comedies — a playful work that humorously examines married life and how to deal with a cantankerous wife — and had arrived at Act 4, Scene 1. He has been imparting the meaning of Shakespeare's plays to Princeton students since the mid-1970s, and has become a legend for the acuity and zeal he brings to that task.
Thinking critically about computing, biology and society
By Teresa Riordan · Posted April 20, 2007; 11:53 a.m.
The confluence between social forces and computing is a strong undercurrent in Bernard Chazelle's class, a Richard L. Smith '70 Freshman Seminar titled "What Do Your DNA and Your iPod Have in Common?" The premise of the class is that computing comes in different shapes and sizes and that DNA and iPods are different implementations of exactly the same principle.
'Troubling' students' beliefs about black music
By Emily Aronson · Posted April 17, 2007; 09:07 a.m.
Waiting for class to begin on a recent Tuesday afternoon, freshman Jess Jardine asked her peers to help settle a debate she's been having with her roommate. "Is Rihanna black music? Does she count?" Jardine asked of the Barbadian singer whose music is popular on MTV and Top 40 radio stations. It's a question one might expect to hear asked over lunch at the Frist Campus Center, but in Mendi Obadike's freshman seminar, "The Idea of Black Music," it's an extension of the scholarly debate in which the class has been engaged all semester.
Freshmen get a taste of chemistry — through chocolate
By Chad Boutin · Posted April 9, 2007; 12:05 p.m.
Stefan Bernhard passes around another small dish covered with shards of a familiar dusky substance and directs his 12 freshmen to make a scientific observation about them. "Let a piece dissolve in your mouth, and compare how the residue feels and tastes," he says — a bit indistinctly, for he is already making his own observations along with the group. A baker's dozen mouths swirl first with melting confection, then with words to describe it.
'Boris Godunov' premiere takes center stage
By Eric Quiñones · Posted April 6, 2007; 11:10 a.m.
After months of inspired collaborations between Princeton scholars, students and artists, the curtain will rise on the University's world premiere production of "Boris Godunov" Thursday through Saturday, April 12-14, at the Berlind Theatre.
Wrestling with great books and ideas
By Eric Quiñones · Posted April 5, 2007; 12:05 p.m.
As two of Princeton's most prominent public intellectuals on opposite sides of the political spectrum, Robert George and Cornel West might seem to be an unlikely team to lead a freshman seminar. That notion, however, is quickly dissolved by watching George and West engage their students and each other in "Great Books: Ideas and Arguments," a seminar that grapples with virtue, truth and justice through the works of thinkers ranging from Sophocles and Plato to W.E.B. DuBois and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Cotsen's 'Princyclopedia' brings magic to campus
By Emily Aronson · Posted April 2, 2007; 03:20 p.m.
Standing in a line that wrapped around Dillon Gymnasium, parents prepared their eager children to enter the building. Moms and dads straightened tall, black pointy hats, tightened sashes on colorful robes that dragged across the ground, and placed thick-rimmed, round glasses on the bridges of noses. When the doors opened at 10 a.m., families hurried inside to find the gymnasium transformed into the magical world of "Harry Potter," complete with live animals, wizards, ghosts and goblins. It was all part of "Princyclopedia 2007," the interactive book convention sponsored by Cotsen Children's Library.