February 09, 2016

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Tuesday February 9, 2016 vol. cxxxx no. 7

{ www.dailyprincetonian.com } U N I V E R S I T Y A F FA I R S

Students respond to Perry’s arrest By Jessica Li news editor and

Myrial Holbrook staff writer

In response to African American Studies Professor Imany Perry’s arrest on Saturday, some University students are collecting stories from students, alumni, staff and faculty who have had experiences plagued by racism with the Princeton police department, according to Asanni York ’17. York said that this effort has the aim of urging the University to issue a statement supporting Perry, he said. He explained that the University, which he noted prides itself on diversity and inclusion, needs to look at the fact that though Perry is a black woman with a dis-

tinguished background, she still experiences the troubles that face other black women at the hands of police brutality and at the hand of a police state. “The police department is already threatening Professor Perry and the University needs to stand in solidarity with her,” York said. York added that the students are issuing statements on Facebook, sending emails to campus listservs and tweeting to raise awareness. Perry was arrested on Saturday, Feb. 6 for driving while suspended, according to Lieutenant Jonathan Bucchere, a member of the Support Services Division at the Princeton Police Department. Perry declined to comment. Bucchere explained that Perry was stopped for speeding on See ARREST page 3

MORNING

EDISON LEE :: CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

In the early hours of the morning, the residential area on the campus was quiet and calm.

ACADEMICS

BEYOND THE BUBBLE

No student-faculty relationships under new U. policy By Caroline Lippman staff writer

PPPL researchers receive grant to use supercomputer for simulations By Abhiram Karrupur staff writer

Researchers from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory won a grant to use 80 million processor hours on the nation’s fastest supercomputer to conduct simulations of various phenomena. The researchers include University Astrophysical Sciences Professor Amitava Bhattacharjee GS ’81, PPPL physicist William Fox, University research scholar Yi-Min Huang and PPPL graduate student Jonathan Ng. In addition to the PPPL team, University Astrophysical Sciences Professor James Stone also won 47 million processor hours from the INCITE grant to pursue a project titled “Magnetohydrodynamic Models of Accretion Including Radiation Transport,” and Geology Professor Jeroen Tromp GS ’90 GS ’92 received 80 million processor hours from the INCITE grant to pursue a project titled “Global Adjoint Tomography.”

Bhattacharjee said that he plans to use the supercomputer to conduct simulations of highenergy-density plasmas. He explained that plasma is the fourth state of matter consisting of freely-moving electrons and protons and said that some of these highenergy-density plasmas, created in the laboratory, have the unique property of having self-generating large magnetic fields. “These magnetic fields are a major source of energy,” Bhattacharjee said. Fox added that since plasmas possess electrical and magnetic properties, it is possible to control and confine the behavior of the plasmas by modifying the surrounding electrical and magnetic fields. He noted that such plasmas comprise some large astrophysical objects. He added that such plasmas are very important for controlled nuclear fusion research since they can generate large amounts of energy from seawater that can be used as an

In Opinion Columnist Marni Morse addresses the CDC, and the Princeton Diversity Initiative calls on minority graduate students to express their views. PAGE 4

alternative source of power. Bhattacharjee explained that these plasmas have been created in the laboratory, specifically at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics and the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. “Our goal in the experiment is to understand the processes that might go on in astrophysical objects,” Bhattacharjee said. “Our ability to simulate them on the computer will give us confidence in understanding the laboratory experiments and how these processes will play out in the context of the universe.” “Specifically, we’re trying to understand what is the environment in the plasma around the Earth, and how does the Earth interact with the wind of plasma blowing from the sun?” Fox said. He noted that solar flares are very relevant today, since a large solar flare has the potential to See PLASMA page 2

Today on Campus

ACADEMICS

COS 126 ratings improve after switching to online lectures By Jessica Li News Editor

After traditional, in-class lectures were replaced by ones held online, lecture ratings for COS 126: General Computer Science improved from 3.3 to 3.8, according to Professor of Computer Science and COS 126 course head Robert Sedgewick. COS 126 is the largest course in the University by annual enrollment, with 318 students having completed it in the fall semester and 405 students currently enrolled for the spring semester, according to the Office of the Registrar. COS 126 lectures, coined as ‘flipped lectures,’ have been offered exclusively online since this past fall semester, according to

12 a.m.: Program in African Studies will host an open seminar “Vote-Buying as Status Affirmation in Competitive Elections with Secret Ballots: Evidence from Ghana” led by Elena Gadjanova, Fellow, Fung Global Fellows Program. 219 Aaron Burr Hall.

Sedgewick. He also noted that COS 126 achieved an overall course rating of 4.3 on a 5.0 scale, the highest recorded rating in the history of the course. More than 80 percent of surveyed COS 126 graduates from this past fall semester expressed positive opinions about online lectures and academic performance remained consistent after the transition to flipped lectures, according to Sedgewick. He added that he became keenly convinced that ‘flipped’ lectures were better for students than traditional lectures held in class. For anyone who has studied pedagogy, it is known that traditional lectures aren’t ideal, Sedgewick explained. These types of lectures often make a passive See RATING page 3

WEATHER

PHOTO BY ELLE STARKMAN OF PPPL COMMUNICATIONS COURTESY OF PRINCETON.EDU

Any kind of romantic relationship between members of the University where one has supervisory status or direct power over the other is forbidden under the revised University policy on faculty-student relationships, even if the relationship is consensual, according to Dean of the Faculty Deborah Prentice. Revisions to “Rules and Procedures of the Faculty” and the corresponding section of “Rights, Rules, Responsibilities” were approved at the faculty meeting in December. According to Prentice, the Faculty Advisory Committee on

Policy drafted the changes at the recommendation of a committee of faculty formed in the fall of 2014 to address sexual misconduct policies at the University. She also noted that peer institutions such as Harvard put out new policies in the last academic year and that the decision to make changes to the University’s policy on consensual relationships was not a response to any incidents or violations at the University but rather in response to peer institutions changing their policies. Dean of the College Jill Dolan, who also served on the FACP that drafted the policy changes, deferred comment to Dean Prentice. See FACULTY page 2

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Cloudy with chance of snow showers. chance of rain:50 percent


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February 09, 2016 by The Daily Princetonian - Issuu