Notebook: October 23, 1996

  • College of New Jersey Keeps Its Name

  • Most Students Prefer Clinton

  • Princeton Profile: The University's New Librarian (Karin Trainer) Sets Priorities

  • University May Lose Tree-Lined Gateway

  • Alexander Hall Postcard Dedicated

  • "Electronic Courtyard" Grows

  • In Brief (Habitat in Princeton, Deficit Erased, Electricity On Campus)


    COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY KEEPS ITS NAME
    Princeton gave up its fight to deny the former Trenton State College from using its newly adopted name, the College of New Jersey, when the two institutions settled out of court on September 19. As part of the agreement, Princeton dropped the lawsuit that was pending in the Chancery Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
    In June, the then Trenton State College changed its name to the College of New Jersey. Princeton then sued the state college, accusing it of unfair competition.
    Under the terms of the agreement signed by the trustees of both institutions, the College of New Jersey can continue to use its new name, but it cannot do so in such a way that might suggest that it has been called the College of New Jersey since its founding. Therefore, the state college must change the words on the logo it adopted in June, which state "The College of New Jersey, Founded in 1855." Except for this limitation, the College of New Jersey is free to use its new name and apply for trademark protection.
    According to the agreement, Princeton can use the College of New Jersey-its name from 1746 to 1896-only in "historical references or in context similar to the manner it has done so in the past" and cannot suggest that it is "currently known as or associated with" the College of New Jersey. The university cannot refer to itself as the College of New Jersey except in phrases such as "Princeton University, Chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey."
    In a joint statement, both schools agreed "to strive to make clear the entirely separate histories of the two institutions," so that the public will not believe that there is "any connection or association between our two institutions."
    The university and the state college said they would withdraw their applications for trademark protection with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the New Jersey Secretary of State.
    In their joint statement, both institutions said they would not comment further regarding the settlement.
    Although the legal dispute is over, the College of New Jersey is still hearing from disgruntled students and alumni who are unhappy with the hasty way the college's trustees adopted the new name. The day before the settlement, about 70 students protested for not being included in the decision to change the name. And one of the college's trustees, William Kane, who was absent from the meeting at which the board voted to change the name, made a motion at its September 19 meeting to rescind the name change. The trustees rejected the motion, 8-1.

    MOST STUDENTS PREFER CLINTON
    A campus poll conducted in September by The Daily Princetonian found that undergraduates prefer President Clinton over Republican challenger Bob Dole by more than two to one. When compared to the results of a national Gallup poll, students were more likely than the general population to support Clinton and less likely to support Dole. Students polled were asked two questions: "If the presidential election were held today, whom would you vote for?" and "What is the most important issue to you in making that decision?" About 60 percent of 183 randomly sampled undergraduates said they would vote for Clinton; about 26 percent would choose Dole; one percent would vote for Ross Perot; and 13 percent would vote for another candidate or were undecided. The three most important issues to students were the economy, education, and welfare, respectively. The Gallup poll found that 52 percent of Americans would vote for Clinton and 35 percent for Dole.

    PRINCETON PROFILE:
    THE UNIVERSITY'S NEW LIBRARIAN (KARIN TRAINER) SETS PRIORITIES

    Karin A. Trainer seems right at home behind famed editor Maxwell Perkins's old oak desk, which has been a fixture in the university librarian's office in Firestone Library for several years. Trainer has been at Princeton only since July 1, but already she is impressed with her new professional home and the intellectual curiosity of the student body. The Princeton library has the highest per capita student-circulation rate in the United States, she notes. "Our 5,000 students check out 1 million books a year," she says, "the same number that the University of Michigan's 33,000 undergraduates check out."
    Trainer isn't entirely new to Princeton. In 1972, with an M.S. in library science from Drexel in hand, she became a cataloger at Firestone. She keeps a photograph of the late William S. Dix, the librarian who hired her, on the bookshelf behind her desk, which used to be his. Trainer left Princeton a year later to become the director of technical and automated services at New York University before heading to Yale in 1983, where she was an associate librarian until she returned to Princeton this summer.
    Among Trainer's priorities for the campus libraries is continuing to expand electronic resources, including the online catalog. "One of the great glories of the Princeton library is its very large collection," says Trainer, and so the job of cataloging books, periodicals, manuscripts, and various resources grows. The library will continue to work toward integrating all its records into a single online catalog. Currently there are two online catalogs, one for books acquired after 1980 and another (done retroactively by electronically scanning the old catalog cards) for pre-1980 books. The latter has proven difficult for many people who find it slow and cumbersome.
    For most kinds of reference work, it's most efficient to start with online sources, says Trainer, but users run into difficulties searching because they learn one online system and then it changes. "It's not going to get better," she says. "It's not going to stabilize. The library has to find ways to help its users get the online information" they need.
    Trainer revels in the challenges of the electronic age. "That's what's so interesting about this line of work," she says. "You master one set of technological possibilities, and then in a flash, everything has changed. Two years ago the World Wide Web scarcely existed. Libraries made plans without taking it into account. Now we use it constantly."
    Advances in technology don't affect only catalogs and reference materials, she says, they also allow the library to rethink ways of handling circulation and its substantial supply of journals. Princeton subscribes to about 3,200 scholarly journals, and subscription prices next year are expected to rise 10 to 11 percent. Trainer hopes that online versions of some of these will help libraries get information into people's hands more quickly and cheaply.
    Technology has also allowed Internet users to access complete texts of some books via the World Wide Web. Online texts, she explains, are best used for reference work. It would cost the casual reader far more to download and print out Emma, for example, than to buy a paperback version at a book store. "Not to mention checking it out of the library," she says. But online material can be of inestimable value to searchers and browsers, says Trainer, citing Robert B. Hollander, Jr. '55, chairman of the Department of Comparative Literature, who is putting Dante texts and commentary online.
    Another priority high on Trainer's list is preserving priceless paper collections. During our interview, she eagerly steered me to the large, brightly lit preservation room in the basement of Firestone where staffers were restoring the pages of manuscripts and notebooks damaged by fire and water when Professor Toni Morrison's house burned down. Another staffer was working with a microscope and a television monitor to stabilize the gold on an illuminated manuscript from 15th-century Spain. Still others were repairing books from the stacks, some of which go back as far as the 16th century, says Trainer.
    Another goal for Trainer-promoting teaching in the library-already has a good foundation. "Students and faculty have always taught themselves in the library," she says, "but we do a lot of instruction in connection with particular classes. A class studying some aspect of Civil War history will hear a talk about the paper archives on the subject and learn about the electronic information available." Interdisciplinary courses present further challenges to teaching. Psychology, for instance, incorporates research from several different fields-neurology, anthropology, literary accounts, sociology. A librarian needs to show a psychology student how to access material on everything from family relations to census statistics.
    If Trainer seems enthusiastic about her new challenges as university librarian, she has good reason. She has not only a professional tie to Princeton and its library system, but also a very personal one: Her husband is William W. Stowe '68, a professor of English at Wesleyan University. "And English professors really use the library," she says.
    -Ann Waldron
    Ann Waldron is a frequent contributor to PAW.

    UNIVERSITY MAY LOSE TREE-LINED GATEWAY
    Those alumni who enjoy returning to campus by passing through tree-lined Washington Road may soon be disappointed. The section of Washington Road between Lake Carnegie and Route 1 could be abandoned under a controversial plan proposed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT).
    Citing congestion on Route 1 and Washington Road, public information officer John Dourgarian said the DOT wants to close off that part of Washington Road and direct traffic onto a new two-lane highway.
    The proposed 2.3mile highway-known as the Millstone Bypass-would be wider than Washington Road and built on university property, through what are now the West Windsor fields. The highway would then connect to Route 1 north of the current intersection, near the Millstone River bridge, Dourgarian said. The DOT estimates the project will cost about $45 million.
    The university supports the proposed plan, said Vice-President for Facilities Eugene J. McPartland, adding that Princeton will voluntarily sell the land the new road would occupy if the state decides to proceed with the project. The proposed plan would locate the bypass on the perimeter of the university's holdings on the West Windsor fields, said McPartland. That land is under consideration for future campus expansion, but the university has no specific plans for the development, he added.
    The Millstone Bypass is part of the DOT's long-term campaign to improve Route 1 by providing fewer at-grade intersections and more overpasses, thereby replacing traffic lights with on and off-ramps. The bypass would eliminate three traffic lights on Route 1 (at Washington Road, Fisher Place, and Harrison Street) by constructing an overpass between Washington Road and Harrison Street. Lights on Route 1 at College Road, Quakerbridge Road, Alexander Road, and Scudders Mill Road have already been removed and replaced with overpasses.
    DOT started working toward improving traffic on Route 1 by widening it and eliminating traffic lights in the late 1970s, said McPartland. The DOT considers the intersections feeding into Princeton to be the last remaining bottlenecks, he added.
    The state's plan, however, does not sit well with some local residents, who have a variety of concerns about the proposed bypass. One is the loss of the elm-lined entrance to the campus and town. "We're just going to lose that identity," said Jean A. Mahoney, coordinator of the citizens' group Sensible Transportation Options Partnership (STOP) and manager of the Office of Technology and Trademark Licensing. The trees, which are a variety known as Princeton Elms, have lined the stretch of roadway for 75 years and would, as a result of the new project, stand alongside an abandoned road.
    The future condition of the trees also concerns the university, said McPartland, adding that they would likely be incorporated into any new campus development on the site.
    The bypass is supposed to connect with a widened Route 571 east of Route 1, which in turn would connect with the proposed Hightstown Bypass-a major highway coming off the New Jersey Turnpike. Therefore, an extension of the turnpike would feed into Princeton near Carnegie Lake and exit onto Washington Road at Faculty Road, said Mahoney. Though the proposed road is supposed to consist of two lanes, its 64foot width is greater than that of many other twolane roads in the area, according to STOP. Members of STOP fear the bypass in its present configuration will increase truck traffic traveling through Princeton on its way to Route 206 via Harrison Street, and via Washington Road and Nassau Street, said Alan Goodheart, a member of STOP's steering committee.
    STOP is also concerned with the project's apparent "fast track" on the DOT time table. The project is a "design-build" plan, meaning the schematic design is given to the builder, who then makes the detailed construction decisions, explained Mahoney. Those contractors are often not from the local area, she added. STOP has proposed alternative options to the DOT's planned bypass.
    Numerous faculty members are opposed to the bypass and are planning to submit a letter voicing their reservations to President Shapiro, said Professor of Sociology Paul Starr. They will ask Shapiro to reconsider the university's endorsement of the project, which, according to Starr, will bring more traffic into Princeton. Starr also abhors the idea of an "ugly overpass" replacing the current entrance to campus along Washington Road.
    The project is scheduled to be awarded to a contractor this spring, and construction could begin as early as this summer, according to the DOT. It is expected to be completed by the summer of 2000. The state is currently soliciting public opinion on the project.

    This story was adapted from an article by Brian Rokus in The Daily Princetonian.

    ALEXANDER HALL POSTCARD DEDICATED
    Some regard it as Princeton's most beautiful building, others as its ugliest. Whatever one's esthetic take on Alexander Hall, it now appears on a 20-cent postcard in the Postal Service's Historic Preservation series. On September 20, in honor of the university's 250th anniversary, officials from the Postal Service dedicated the postcard depicting the historic building, as painted by stamp designer Howard Koslow of Toms River, New Jersey. Competition for inclusion in the series was stiff, said Dorothy L. Bedford '78, executive director of the 250th. The Postal Service issued only two new postcards in the series this year.
    Commissioned in 1892 and designed by architect William A. Potter in a Romanesque style, Alexander Hall was a gift of Harriet Crocker Alexander, who named it for three generations of Alexanders who served as Princeton trustees. Originally intended for Commencement, the building later was used for church services. It has also been the venue for major university convocations, including the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as Princeton's 13th president, and for lectures by public figures, including Andrew Carnegie, Albert Einstein, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The building now serves primarily as a concert hall.
    Alexander Hall Postcard Dedicated

    "ELECTRONIC COURTYARD" GROWS
    Alumni are keeping in touch with each other, and they're using the Internet to do so. As of mid-September, more than 6,500 alumni had registered with TigerNet's online directory of e-mail addresses. (About a dozen alumni register each day.) Faculty, staff, students, and alumni from the Class of 1925 to the Class of 1996 access the directory 150 times a day on average.
    As some alumni are catching on to TigerNet, the university's worldwide interactive communication network launched in May 1995, Princeton has added new services to help alumni connect with each other. Last spring, TigerNet started offering alumni permanent Princeton e-mail addresses, regardless of changes in their Internet access provider, employer, school, or location. So far, 400 alumni have obtained "@alumni.princeton.edu" e-mail addresses, said Jolanne Luchak Stanton '77, a consultant based in the Seattle area who works with the Alumni Council and the office of Computing and Information Technology to manage and develop TigerNet services.
    Last winter TigerNet launched its first online discussion group, on career networking. Any alumnus registered in the TigerNet directory as well as students, faculty, and staff can subscribe to discussion groups. In the career-networking group, participants exchange information and ideas related to career development and enhancement.
    Other online discussion groups include Parent-Net, a forum focusing on child rearing and related topics, balancing work and family, and caring for one's own parents; Asia-Experiences, for those who seek to understand more about Asia by sharing their experiences of it; Princeton-Arts, for Princetonians dedicated to creative pursuits who want to swap advice and moral support; Tigertones-List, for keeping in touch with fellow Tigertones; Venture-Net, which focuses on issues related to small business, venture capital, and entrepreneurship; and Princeton-84, a discussion group for the Class of 1984. About 1,500 alumni have subscribed to discussion groups.
    Princeton-Matters, an electronic conversation among far-flung Princetonians, is devoted to sharing information, advice, praise, and criticism about all things Princeton: events, activities, programs, curriculum.
    According to Stanton, discussion groups on athletics, law, medicine, and the nonprofit sector are in the works, as are groups for several classes and an online book club.
    To find out about TigerNet services and how they work, send an e-mail message that reads HELP to tigernet@ princeton.edu; look up TigerNet on the World Wide Web at http://tigernet.princeton.edu/; or contact Stanton at jstanton@princeton.edu.

    IN BRIEF (HABITAT IN PRINCETON, DEFICIT ERASED, ELECTRICITY ON CAMPUS)
    Habitat in Princeton: September 22 marked the start of the first Habitat for Humanity project in Princeton. Alumni, students, and staff members are helping to construct a house at 29 Lytle Street, set to be completed in December 1997 and turned over to a local low-income family. The house will be part of Princeton Borough's Affordable Housing Program. The Class of 1977 and the Borough of Princeton are the initial financial underwriters of the first phase of this undertaking. In honor of the university's 250th anniversary, the Class of 1977 has offered to donate one dollar for every two dollars raised toward the construction. Alumni of '77 have pledged some $20,000 and will work with the Princeton Habitat Committee to raise the remaining funds for this project. The borough has donated the house, paid for demolition work, and will waive certain permit fees-a "gift" worth about $45,000.

    Deficit erased: Despite forecasts of a year ago that the university would run a $4 million deficit in the 1995-96 academic year, Princeton finished the year with a slight surplus of $200,000. The good news is the result of an across-the-board four-percent cut in most administrative and support units, greater than expected federal support for research, and an Annual Giving total that exceeded its goal for the year.

    Electricity on campus: The university will soon begin producing its own electricity for the campus when a $35 million cogeneration plant becomes operational. Construction of the plant, located south of the MacMillan Building, began in May 1995. The trustees authorized the plant's construction two years ago, when the boilers that provide steam to heat and cool the campus were nearing the end of their 30-year life span. Instead of installing new boilers, the university decided to switch to cogeneration, which is the simultaneous production of heat and power through a single thermodynamic process. It will help Princeton trim about $3 million from its annual energy bill, which now runs between $10 and $14 million.


  • paw@princeton.edu