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Wednesday october 23, 2013 vol. cxxxvii no. 93
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Announcement The Daily Princetonian is publishing on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule during midterm week. The next edition will be published on Friday, Oct. 25.
In Opinion Susannah Sharpless discusses feelings of newness, and Shruthi Deivasigamani reacts to Anscombe Society’s ‘What is Marriage?’ talk. PAGE 4
Today on Campus 8 p.m.: The Princeton Student Events Committee will be hosting a massage study break. Frist Campus Center.
The Archives
Oct. 23, 1995 Dan Oberdofer ’52 and J.T. Miller ‘70 chronicle the University’s first quarter-millenium in a 272-page book.
PRINCETON By the Numbers
300
BEYOND THE BUBBLE
Bernanke’s plans after Federal Reserve unclear
MIDTERMINATORS
By Charles Min contributor
With the end of his term as chairman of the Federal Reserve slated to expire in January, former professor and chair of the economics department Ben Bernanke’s plans for life after government are still unclear. “I prefer not to talk about my plans at this point,” Bernanke told reporters at a Sept. 18 press conference. “I hope to have more information for you at some reasonably soon date, but today I want to focus on monetary policy.” Before his appointment to the Federal Reserve by President George W. Bush in 2006, Bernanke served as the chair of the University’s economics department from 1996 to 2002 and resigned following his appointment. He will be replaced by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen, who was nominated to the position by President Barack Obama on Oct. 9. The Federal Reserve’s Public Affairs staff said that Bernanke was not available for comment. Michelle Smith, assistant to the Federal Reserve Board and director, confirmed in an email that Bernanke has not yet publicly announced his plans for See BERNANKE page 3
LU LU :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Students paint and enjoy each other’s company at the study break hosted by the Princeton Student Events Committee at Frist Campus Center. LOCAL NEWS
Local same-sex couple marries By Durva Trivedi contributor
Following Monday’s announcement that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped his challenge to a state Superior Court ruling approving same-sex marriage, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert officiated the wedding of a lesbian couple that had been waiting 30 years to be married and the University’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Center served wedding cake to over 60 students, faculty and staff members in celebration. “I am glad that the governor changed his mind,” Lempert said,
adding that she feels being able to officiate weddings is the best perk of her job as mayor. While Lempert said she usually officiates the marriages of young couples, many of the same-sex ceremonies she will officiate in the coming weeks for older couples who have been together for decades are “a different kind of special.” “It’s exciting to be a part of a change that’s such a good thing and a reason for celebration,” Lempert said. “At the same time it does feel like we’re too late — or not too late, but like it shouldn’t have taken this long.” The town of Princeton made
SLEEP ON IT
to react as soon as there was legal clarity to be able to provide marriage licenses,” Howard said in response to the news about marriage equality in the state. According to Lempert, support for same-sex marriage seems almost universal, especially in Princeton. The Princeton Community Democratic Organization endorsed marriage equality in 2009. The town council unanimously approved an Oct. 14 resolution in support of same-sex marriage, encouraging lawmakers in Trenton to vote against Christie’s expected challenge to the court ruling. See LGBT page 4
STUDENT LIFE
Projects Board mishap found to be clerical error
The approximate number of students who expressed interest in ‘Big Sibs’ when it was first presented.
News & Notes
By Anna Mazarakis staff writer
U. placed 13th in list of top national universities with most graduates entering public service
among the top 50 national universities, the University was ranked 13th in the rate of its graduates who enter public service, Washington Monthly reported. The list was created by Aspen Institute researchers who studied the LinkedIn profiles of graduates from the top 50 national universities and the top 20 liberal arts colleges as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. According to the data, 23.1 percent of Princeton graduates entered public service in public education, nonprofit organizations or government agencies between 2000 and 2010. It was not explained whether this referred only to the first jobs held by students immediately after graduation. The College of William & Mary was ranked first among national universities, with 32.1 percent of graduates entering public service. It was followed by George Washington University with 31.1 percent and the University of Chicago with 30.1 percent. Yale placed seventh on the list with 25.5 percent. Harvard placed 12th with 23.4 percent.
application forms available in the health office immediately following the Superior Court’s Sept. 27 ruling that allowed same-sex marriages to proceed beginning Oct. 21, according to Lempert. Due to a 72hour requirement, couples had to register by last Friday to be married as early as Monday. Heather Howard, a Princeton councilwoman, said the registrar’s office stayed open two hours later than usual to accept applications, during which two couples picked up applications and many phone inquiries were received. “From a local perspective, it just became important for us to be ready
LU LU :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” is displayed on a billboard on the Princeton University Art Museum lawn.
Projects Board did not violate the USG constitution in its funding request awarded to the Tango Club, Projects Board co-chair Jared Peterson ’14 and USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 confirmed Monday. While reviewing the budget at its meeting on Sunday, the USG found that Projects Board had allegedly approved $1,800 for Tango Club’s Tango Festival. According to the USG’s constitution, any Projects Board
fund request over $1,000 must also be approved by the Senate. The budget misrepresented the amount of money that was given to the Tango Club, leading to confusion Sunday evening. On Monday, Peterson explained that Projects Board only granted $900 to the Tango Club. The extra $900 was credited to the Tango Club’s account because it had previously been transferred from the Tango Club account to the Projects Board account by mistake. See USG page 2
STUDENT LIFE
‘Big Sibs’ restructured after former difficulties By Lorenzo Quiogue contributor
Despite difficulties in organization and logistics encountered after its launch last year, the Big Sibs program, the service project of the Class of 2016, will be continued this year under a different structure with lower participation. While
roughly 300 students expressed interest in the program when it was first presented, around 120 students are currently participating. According to Sofia Gomez ’16, this year’s Big Sibs cochair and a member of last year’s executive board, the new structure will do away with the one-on-one mentorship and instead contin-
ue as a group interaction, with groups of Princeton students writing to a class of students in the City Invincible Charter School in Camden, N.J. Gomez explained that the change was necessary after the logistical difficulties encountered under the old system. “Last year, it didn’t end up working out
because City Invincible, being a charter school, didn’t have the technological access they thought they would and they didn’t have the computers they thought they would. So it just ended up being complicated, and we were never able to actually have the email relationships,” she said. Aside from the weekly let-
ters, Gomez explained that Princeton students would be visiting the students at City Invincible on most Saturdays so that each group of Princetonians can interact personally with their assigned class of Little Sibs. In addition, the Little Sibs will come to Princeton one Saturday to tour and explore See SERVICE page 2
ACADEMICS
Delbanco, Katz discuss troubling trends in American higher education By Elliott Eglash contributor
Higher education has become dominated by a number of troubling trends over time, and students come to
college with little sense of why they are there, Columbia University’s American Studies program director Andrew Delbanco argued in a conversation on Tuesday afternoon.
In the course of the lecture, Delbanco and Wilson School professor Stanley Katz touched on a number of subjects about the state of education in the United States, from pre-kindergar-
ten programs to higher education. Delbanco said that Americans increasingly see colleges as lavish institutions that fail to teach students effectively.
“They’re wasteful, they’re inefficient, they’re not doing their job, and we have a problem,” he said of ordinary people’s view of colleges. See UNIVERSITY page 4