Tuesday, April 30, 2013

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Tuesday april 30, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 54

WEATHER

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BALLET FOLKLORICO

ACADEMICS

Sinha ’13 named valedictorian; BenschSchaus ’13 salutatorian

Overcast with a chance of rain. chance of rain:

20 percent

Follow us on Twitter @princetonian

In Opinion Aaron Applbaum reviews the bars of Nassau Street and Bennett McIntosh mulls over what food means to us. PAGE 4

Today on Campus

By Jean-Carlos Arenas staff writer

12 p.m.: Professor Dixa Ramirez talks on ‘Exile, Race, and Gender: Alternative Genealogies of Dominican Culture.’ 201 Stanhope Hall.

Members of Ballet Folklorico perform on Saturday at Firestone Plaza during the University’s Arts Weekend.

The Archives

ACADEMICS

April 30, 1969 Peter C. Wendell ’72 was elected president of the Class of 1972 in the second vote for the office. He gathered 261 votes. Second place got 208 votes.

SHANNON MCGUE :: SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Faculty approves Statistics and Machine Learning certificate By Daniel Johnson staff writer

On the Blog The Prox covers the Arts Weekend in photos, capturing performances by Ballet Folklorico and BodyHype, chalkboard artists at work and a MIMA showcase.

By the Numbers

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Number of dogs owned by University president-elect Christopher Eisgruber ’83.

News & Notes Yale to offer students coverage for genderreassignment surgery

yale university’s medical center will now offer students health insurance coverage for gender-reassignment surgery, the Yale Daily News reported. The news was announced in an email sent by Yale Health, the nonprofit health plan that operates the center, to the student body on Thursday that contained a host of new coverage changes. Princeton does not currently cover gender-reassignment surgery, though University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua told The Daily Princetonian in February that the University was actively considering the possibility. In the email, Yale Health said that it would provide coverage for gender-reassignment surgery “subject to preauthorization based on widely accepted standards of care.” Yale had already offered this coverage for faculty, staff and their dependents in the past but is only now making it available to students. Insurance coverage for gender-reassignment surgery is currently offered by the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Harvard, Brown and Cornell Universities. The changes in coverage in Yale’s health plan will be effective Aug. 1.

4.30news.indd 1

University faculty approved a new undergraduate certificate program in Statistics and Machine Learning at a faculty meeting on Monday. The certificate program was or-

ganized over two years by computer science professor Robert Schapire, associate computer science professor David Blei, molecular biology professor John Storey, associate politics professor Kosuke Imai and Operations Research and Financial Engineering professor Jianqing Fan, according to Scha-

pire. He said that the impetus for the certificate program came from the increasing importance of data to companies, governments and organizations as well as from greater student interest in the fields of machine learning and statistics. See RECEPTION page 2

STUDENT LIFE

Aman Sinha ’13 was named valedictorian at a meeting of the Faculty Committee on ExamiAMAN nations and StandSINHA‘13 ing on Monday Valedictorian afternoon. Amelia Bensch-Schaus ’13, a classics major from Swarthmore, Pa., was named the Latin salutatorian. Sinha and AMELIA BENSCHBensch-Schaus were SCHAUS ‘13 informed that they Salutatorian had been nominated for their respective positions on April 18, both students said. Sinha is a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Ivyland, Pa. He is also pursuing undergraduate certificates in applied and computational mathematics and applications of computing. “When I entered as a freshman, it was sort of a choice between physics and MAE because I liked fluid mechanics as well, but MAE seemed like a natural fit,” See SENIORS page 3

EISGRUBER

USG discusses Class of 2017 Facebook group, next COMBO By Anna Mazarakis staff writer

The USG discussed the USG-moderated Class of 2017 Facebook group and the upcoming COMBO IV survey at its meeting Sunday evening. The Princeton 2017 team has been working on updating the Princeton 2017 website and publicizing it through the Path to Princeton and Undergraduate Admission websites, as well as the Princeton 2017+ Facebook group. The Princeton 2017+ Facebook group, which is administered by members of the USG for the first time in part due to problems with the Class of 2016 Facebook group, currently has 2,126 members from the Class of 2017 and classes of current undergraduates at Princeton, according to U-Councilor Paul Riley ’15, one of the administrators of the group. The problem the group’s administrators now face is how to handle the transition from the 2017+ Facebook group to a group only for the Class of 2017. The administrators are also experiencing difficulty managing the posts and comments of so many group members. “We’re going through the post approval system where people will send in posts and then we’ll approve them,” Riley said. “We’ve had problems with trolls on the site, posting things, discouraging people from coming, so the question is, how do we handle that?” U-Councilor Katherine Clifton ’15, another Facebook group administrator, added that managing the posts has been “a little bit overwhelming” at times and wondered if members of the USG had ideas for a more authoritarian body that could manage the page, such as members of the admissions office. She noted that the Facebook groups of other schools are run by their respective admissions offices. See MEETING page 2

MONICA CHON :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Eisgruber’s wife and son look on at the press conference announcing Eisgruber’s new position as president of the University.

Eisgrubers and dog scheduled to move into Lowrie House in Jan. 2014 By Loully Saney staff writer

University Provost and President-Elect Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said he plans to move into Lowrie House, the University president’s official residence at 83 Stockton Street, as soon as repairs and renovations have been made. Tilghman explained that the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is “completely out-of-date” and said that the best

time to make the big repairs that the house needs is during a transition between presidents. “We will move as soon as the renovations are complete,” Eisgruber said, explaining that the “offhand prediction” date for the move is January 2014. Lowrie House, which Tilghman described as “very practically useful,” serves as a home for the president and his or her family, as well as a place for the president to entertain guests.

“It’s a wonderful place to entertain, and the president, by definition, does a great deal of entertaining,” she said. “It has been my experience that students love to come to Lowrie House, faculty like to come, trustees, alumni. There’s something special about going to the place where the president lives as opposed to one more University building.” Tilghman noted that she has always felt as though her family’s priSee RESIDENCE page 2

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Students form campaign to “Ban the Box” on job applications By Alexander Jafari staff writer

University students have recently formed a grassroots campaign called Ban the Box NJ in hopes of mobilizing political support for the NJ Opportunity to Compete Act, according to the campaign’s website. This act, referred to as “Ban the Box,” aims to make the job application pro-

cess more fair by removing the “box” on job applications that applicants are asked to check if they have past criminal convictions. If passed, the bill would shift the criminal check to after a conditional offer is given to an applicant, according to Shawon Jackson ’15, associate director of communications for the campaign. “The NJ bill is fairly progressive because it bans the box for all private

and public employees,” Ray Chao ’15, the campaign’s executive director, said. “The bill would set a national standard.” According to Chao, approximately 45 students are participating in Ban the Box NJ. The organization contacts state legislators, circulates petitions for the act and reaches out to local businesses and other colleges. He said that Ban the Box NJ is working closely with Students

for Prison Education and Reform and the Petey Green Prisoner Assistance Program. According to Chao, the public advocacy campaign was “completely initiated by Princeton students and run by Princeton students.” Jackson said the primary reason behind the initiative was students’ interest in criminal justice. See ADVOCACY page 3

4/30/13 12:10 AM


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