October 28, 2015

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Wednesday october 28, 2015 vol. cxxxix no. 97

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STUDENT LIFE

UMatter, Tiger Transit to offer late weekend buses

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In Opinion Columnist Marni Morse discusses the We Speak Survey and columnist Christian Wawrzonek explains why he appreciates Donald Trump. PAGE 6

Today on Campus 12:15 p.m.: The Davis International Center will be hosting a Tea and Talk about individualist and collectivist values on communication inside and outside of the classroom. Carl A. Fields Center in the 1985 room.

The Archives

Oct. 28, 1962 The University disabled a daytime prox alarm that sounded when dormitory doors were propped open due to student complaints, but the alarm was still activated at night.

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ANNA BERGHUIS :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Princeton Professor Emerita Joyce Carol Oates discusses her childhood memoir in Labyrinth. U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

Attendees of Nash GS ’50 memorial appreciated service By Ruby Shao news editor

The University mathematics department hosted a celebration of the life and work of John Nash GS ’50 Saturday because Nash amazed both mathematicians and nonmathematicians, according to organizing committee member and mathematics professor emeritus Joe Kohn GS ’56. “Nash was really extraordinary. I mean, you very seldom have people who cover such a huge area, bringing in so many new and original ideas,” Kohn said. “The other thing is that because of the tremendously difficult and traumatic life that he had, he became well-known throughout the world, even outside of math-

ematics, and we felt that we sort of owed it to the general public to have a procession.” Nash and his wife Alicia died in a taxi accident in May. The celebration on Saturday opened with welcoming remarks at 9:30 a.m., then featured lectures on Nash’s work by experts in economics and mathematics, a lecture on Nash’s life by Nash’s biographer Sylvia Nasar and a remembrance service in the evening. Kohn, who had known Nash since Kohn’s undergraduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explained that he collaborated with department chair David Gabai GS ’80, acting chair Igor Rodnianski and professor Sergiu Klainerman to plan the

events. Kohn said they selected one economics speaker and three pure mathematics speakers to reflect the fact that less than 10 percent of Nash’s work lay in economics. Mathematics professor Janos Kollar, who said he had known Nash as a colleague since 1999, said Nash had a major effect on the field of mathematics despite losing many years to his illness. He noted that Nash made several contributions in the 1950s, including discoveries in algebraic geometry, differential equations and game theory, whose effects continue today. “Maybe his most important contribution from science’s point of view, and that’s what he got a Nobel Prize for, is See MEMORIAL page 4

UMatter, a university-wide health communication initiative on bystander intervention, is partnering with Tiger Transit, the university bus services, to provide a nightly bus service for students from Prospect Avenue to their dorms on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, UMatter student fellow Adam Cellon ’17 said. Director of Transportation and Parking Services for the University Kim Jackson did not respond to a request for comment. Cellon explained that the bus will run from 12:30 to 3 a.m. on these three nights, taking a

special route by Prospect Avenue, Frist Campus Center and the residential college dorms. Students can use an app called TigerTracker to follow the routes of the buses. “In theory, this sounds like an effective initiative,” Lauren Richardson ’18 said. ”The main issue is going to be tracking the buses using the app. Not all students may be in the state of mind or have the patience to track and wait for the bus.” Cellon said that the bus will provide a safe space for students going home from the street and will include two sober host students. He added that these two sober students will include a Sexual Harassment/Assault See UMATTER page 5

STUDENT LIFE

Princeton Neuroscience Network approved as club By Marcia Brown contributor

Princeton Neuroscience Network, a student organization to help community members engage with and learn about the field of neuroscience, was approved as an official club by the Undergraduate Student Government on Oct. 18. The officers of the club have been planning the creation of the club since last spring. Although the Cognitive Science Society had been established last year, no group on campus had sup-

ported neuroscience alone, PNN president Seong Jang ’18 noted. “It’s amazing to see something like this happening. We were up at Lewis on the chalkboard writing ideas and now they’re pretty much all going to happen,” PNN Vice President Andy Schilling ’17 said. In initial conversations about establishing PNN, the founders planned to connect students on campus, but then wanted to go beyond just being a society, Jang said. Co-director of the See NEUROSCIENCE page 2

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U. researchers find negative correlation Icahn ’57 threatens Congress with creation, between African savanna rainfall, trees funding of new super PAC

News & Notes Harvard’s Fox Club accepts women

The Fox Club, one of Harvard’s eight original all-male final clubs, became the second final club to accept women into its membership on Monday, the Harvard Crimson reported. An email sent to prospective members of the club said that a group of women had become members of the club, and that the club intended to transition to being fully co-ed over the next year. The move comes six weeks after the Spee Club, another formerly all-male final club, voted to invite women to participate in its punch process. It is still unclear whether women have been admitted into the Spee Club, as the punch process is still ongoing. Undergraduate officers wrote in a letter to the Fox Club’s graduate board that they felt that Harvard had forced their hand, noting that they feared repercussions from administrators if they did not make the move by Nov. 1, according to a separate report by The Crimson.

ACADEMICS

By Maya Wesby contributor

By Christopher Umanzor contributor

Carl Icahn ’57 threatened Congress on Oct. 21 that he would form a super PAC worth $150 million should the legislature not pass legislation slashing corporate tax rates. Icahn did not respond to a request for comment. Icahn, founder and majority shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, explained in the letter that he hopes that this threat will push Congressmen to highly consider passing the Portman-Schumer framework which would lower taxes on overseas funds recovered into the United States economy. The taxes collected on these funds would then be contributed toward the building of new highways, according to the letter. Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of the Every Voice Center, a civil rights nonprofit organization that focuses on campaign finance reform, explained that super PACs are political organizations and structures that can spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they, in theory, do not coordinate with a campaign. He added that people can give unlimited amounts of money through a super PAC.

Nyhart also noted that while highly unusual, Icahn’s move is not unprecedented. “It’s unusual, but it has happened,” he said. “You could start with the Koch Brothers, who have announced that they and their network are going to put close to $900 million into politics this year. I don’t know if anyone has ever put that much money into one policy — $150 million is up there.” When asked about the feasibility of the threat, Nyhart noted it should not be taken lightly. “I think the threat of that kind of money will impact people who are on the fence about this issue, particularly if Icahn can put some money into the races this year. They may think twice before prosecuting,” Nyhart said. Richard Phillips, an analyst at Citizens for Tax Justice, explained that the framework Ichan supports came up from democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, and republican Senator Robert Portman. Both Schumer and Portman did not respond to requests for comment. The idea was to come up with different ways to discuss different aspects of the tax code, Phillips explained. One of the provisions, he See ICAHN page 5

More rainfall on the African savanna could lead to fewer trees, according to a recent study conducted by University researchers published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. Authors for the study were David Medvigy, an assistant professor of geosciences, and

Xiangtao Xu GS, one of his doctoral candidates. Ignacio Rodríguez-Iturbe, a professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at the University, co-authored the study. This strange phenomenon of a negative correlation between rainfall and trees in the region can be partially explained by grass’s relationship to rain, Xu said. In an environment with heavy

rainfall, grasses are better able to absorb the moisture and use it to support photosynthesis. Trees, though, are better suited for drier environments, where roots and leaves aren’t susceptible to heavy rains, he said. When these trees are exposed to long, heavy periods of rainfall, they have difficulty taking advantage of the newlySee STUDY page 3

TEA AND TREATS

JASPER GEBHARDT :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Bubble tea and snacks were served in Campus Club as part of PSEC’s Midterms Relaxation Week.


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