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Monday october 21, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 92

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U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

Endowment grows to $18.2 billion By James Evans

In Opinion The Editorial Board suggests expanding ESL offerings to undergraduates, and Tehila Wenger argues that Princetonians are big fish in a big pond. PAGE 6

Today on Campus 7:30 p.m.: The USG sponsors a free BodyPump exercise class and a punch card raffle. Dillon Gymnasium.

The Archives

Oct. 21, 1960 A female student at the University of Georgia seeks a male Princetonian to be her date for the PrinceTiger dance on Nov. 4.

By the Numbers

11.7

The percentage return on the University’s endowment this year.

On the Blog Rachel Klebanov serves up a playlist for your midterm blues.

News & Notes Yale is not actively considering honor code

yale college Dean Mary Miller told the Yale Daily News that the school is not actively considering the creation of an honor code. In place of an honor code, Yale students are expected to abide by the school’s regulations, which include guidelines for academic honesty. Miller explained that Yale students accept the code by the fact of their matriculation to the school. She said this informal contract is not very different from a formal honor code like Princeton’s. At Yale, 30 charges of academic dishonesty were reported in spring 2013. A referendum passed in April will require Princeton’s Honor Committee to publish statistics stating the number of Honor Code violations reported. Violations will be published in a fiveyear aggregate to protect the confidentiality of cases. At Harvard, in the wake of the spring 2012 cheating scandal in which about 125 students were investigated for academic dishonesty and about 70 were required to temporarily withdraw from the school, an honor code is in the works. A subcommittee of the school’s Committee on Academic Integrity began drafting what would be Harvard’s first-ever honor code, with plans to complete the first draft by November, according to the Harvard Crimson.

staff writer

The University’s endowment returned 11.7 percent in fiscal year 2013, falling in line with other recently announced returns across the Ivy League. The total value of the endowment grew to $18.2 billion. This year’s return surpassed the 3.1 percent gain in fiscal year 2012, when the value of the endowment shrunk slightly since spending outpaced growth. The Friday announcement follows a Thursday meeting of the directors of the Princeton University Investment Company, which manages the endowment. The double-digit gains reported by the University and its peers reflect increasingly bullish activity in foreign and domestic markets. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, a portfolio considered a broad indicator of market conditions, rose 17.9 percent between June 30, 2012 and June 30, 2013. In the same period, Harvard’s endowment posted an 11.3 percent return — the See ENDOWMENT page 3

U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

An ‘overwhelming’ reaction Early on, officers realized Nassau Hall situation was a ‘non-emergency’

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Petraeus GS ’87 defends fracking By Teddy Schleifer news editor emeritus

David Petraeus GS ’87 said on campus Saturday that fracking could be a solution to U.S. energy challenges for the next 100 years, according to attendees. The final speaking event at the University’s weekend conference for graduate alumni was closed to press but held in the University’s largest auditorium and could be attended by any of the 1,000 graduate alumni who registered for the conference. It was one of the few speaking events that Petraeus has participated in since he resigned as CIA director in November following the news that he had an extramarital affair with his biographer. Petraeus launched into a defense of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technology more commonly known as “fracking” that can be used to extract natural gas from shale rock, at the beginning of the event. Attendees said Petraeus described natural gas as a tremendous opportunity for the United States, which the country has in abundant reserves. Detractors of fracking cite its environmental impact. Petraeus also said he supported improvements to American pipeline infrastructure so that crude oil and other forms of energy can be transported more easily, attendees said. Petraeus is teaching a seminar at the City University of New York this semester that focuses partly on fracking and the potential pipeline. Petraeus departed from his expertise in military policy in an answer given to Michael O’Hanlon GS ’91, a fellow at the Brookings Institute and a lecturer in the Wilson School, who interviewed Petraeus at the event in Richardson Auditorium. O’Hanlon was one of several individuals close to Petraeus who confirmed last year that the former See FRACKING page 7

LILIA XIE :: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

By Chitra Marti & Marcelo Rochabrun contributor & associate news editor

“Public Safety is receiving reports of possibility of shots fired in Nassau Hall,” a Princeton Police Department dispatcher said around 7:57 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8, alerting all officers on duty. At that time, a concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra from St. Petersburg was going on in Richardson Auditorium, directly west of Nassau Hall. Directly south, journalist Ezra Klein was delivering a lecture in Whig Hall. Together, these two events gathered hundreds of people in the area. A few minutes earlier, a University administrator, working after business hours, had reported hearing noises below her third-floor office in Nassau Hall. Although unsure, she thought the noises could possibly be gunshots. In the back of her mind, she remembered an incident

that had occurred earlier that morning in Nassau Hall, where a visitor had received medical attention for exhibiting strange behavior. “I’m not sure, probably nothing, but it almost sounded like shooting,” she said in a phone call at 7:52 p.m. to the University’s Department of Public Safety, according to a transcript of the call provided by DPS. The call prompted a substantial response from the local Princeton police, as well as multiple nearby agencies, who came to the University as support. In the next couple of hours, officers armed with rifles entered Nassau Hall twice before declaring the building clear. Eventually, the University determined that the reported gunshot sounds actually came from a hammer striking a chisel on the second floor and closed the investigation. But an examination into the sequence

WEB SPECIAL Go to our website for an interactive look at the events of Oct. 8. of events that took place that day, reconstructed using records obtained under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, as well as through interviews with those directly involved, shows that Princeton police officers realized early on that the situation was not an emergency involving an active shooter. In a call to the nearby Lawrence Police Department asking for support minutes after the University issued its first campus-wide alert, Princeton police officers See NASSAU HALL page 2

ACADEMICS

ESL resources target graduate students By Jean-Carlos Arenas staff writer

While the University requires a minimum proficiency in English for both undergraduate and graduate admission, some students arrive on campus still facing challenges with the language. According to University English as a Second Language tutors, the problem is especially seen among graduate students, who often turn to formal and informal ESL resources.

For admission to the University, undergraduate students whose native language is not English or who did not attend an English-speaking school are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language, according to the Undergraduate Admission website. Similarly, graduate students whose native language is not English or who have not received their undergraduate degree from a U.S. university must submit TOEFL or International English Language Testing System scores.

Despite facing similar entry requirements, University ESL tutors say graduate students tend to require language assistance more than undergraduates. “Undergraduates, of course, rarely … have a problem since they’re pretty much selected to be already fluent or close to it in English,” said Brian Zack ’72, who runs an informal English language class for members of the Princeton community who are non-native English speakers. “So See ESL page 4

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

Eisgruber suggests improving career resources for graduate students By James Evans staff writer

University President Chrisopher Eisgruber ’83 said higher education was still a worthy investment during a Q&A on Friday in Richardson Auditorium as part of this weekend’s “Many Minds, Many Stripes” conference for graduate alumni During the 45-minute conversation, Eisgruber spoke about his vision for the University, as well as graduate student life and education. When asked about the largest challenges facing the University, Eisgruber reiterated his belief that higher education was coming under pressure, a theme he stressed at his Installation ceremony in September. “People are asking questions about the value of education. You can’t pick up the newspaper without someone saying

that maybe people shouldn’t go to college,” he said. “So, I think one challenge that this University has always faced and faced well … is how do we sustain a model that makes this place so distinctive and so special?” At his installation, Eisgruber said that attending great colleges and universities requires big investments, but these are among the most valuable kinds of investments that Americans and citizens of other countries can make in their futures. He returned to this observation in his Friday speech, citing one study that said an undergraduate degree can return as much as 15 percent per year of the cost. He also underscored the importance of encouraging students to channel their education into public service in accordance with the University’s unofficial motto: “Princeton in See EISGRUBER page 3

MERRILL FABRY :: PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

President Eisgruber ’83 spoke at “Many Minds, Many Stripes,” a conference for graduate alumni.


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