Ranking Residential Colleges by the Political Aspirations of their Namesakes

Continuing our mini-obsession with a certain Princeton graduate's run for office out in the Sunshine State, we decided to take a look at all the residential colleges through the political prism.
1. Wilson College
Woodrow Wilson: President of Princeton University, Governor of the great State of New Jersey, the 28th President of the United States, and the hands-down winner of this list.

2. Forbes College
Malcolm “Steve” Forbes ran in the 1996 and 2000 Republican Presidential primaries. His pseudo-libertarian flat tax agenda only won him Arizona and Delaware in 1996, and he dropped out early in 2000. Still, he remains an important financial supporter and logistical adviser to many members of the Republican Party.

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3. Whitman College
While she isn't running for President, Whitman and her Gubernatorial aspirations out in the most populous state in the union are nothing to cough at. If Meg ends up winning in California, she’ll vault herself past Forbes to the number two spot on this esteemed list (though she’s got her work cut out for her if she wants to pass Wilson).

4. Rockefeller College
Though John D. Rockefeller III never ran for political office, he was something of a foreign policy junkie, founding the Asia Society and accompanying then Secretary of State John Dulles on a trip to Japan to broker a treaty. But the rest of his family (full list of famous and quasi-famous Rockefellows here) includes a Vice-President, a handful of Governors, and a Senator from West Virginia.

5. Butler/Mathey
Neither Dean Mathey or Lee Butler seemed particularly interested in Politics; Mathey was a tennis star and bond trader, and Butler a Washington, DC businessman.

SKG

Making Harvard proud

Larry Summers, head of Obama's National Economic Council and once-beloved Harvard president, attended yesterday's "fiscal sustainability summit" in the White House. For the event, Obama convened over a hundred policy makers and intellectuals to discuss bipartisan approaches to deficit reduction.

If anyone was wondering why Larry was a bit quiet during the whole thing, well, the Financial Times reports that "Lawrence Summers . . . fell asleep on the podium." Falling asleep in the audience is understandable, sure, but the podium? It's enough to make Rick Santelli mad!

The good news for students is that apparently Harvard's unofficial motto now extends to the White House: "The hard part is getting in."

WAS

(image source: ustreas.gov)

New Butler displaces old Scully

Glamorized depictions of the new Butler dorms often leave out these more seedy images:


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Especially noteworthy is the fact that a blockade of a primary Scully entrance has led many residents to resort to maneuvering through this narrow passage in order to save a few steps on the way home:


SJP

IN PRINT: Actress Glenn Close Reveals her True Character

Alex Forrest, the bunny-boiling other woman in the 1987 film “Fatal Attraction” was not an easy character to love. But actress Glenn Close found it necessary to do just that.

”I just wanted to do the role justice,” Ms. Close told an audience at Princeton University on Thursday night, in a lecture titled “Are you who we think you are?”

”I’ve always felt that in order to truly commit to a character, I must love her,” she said. “Without love there’s judgment and if you’re judging you can’t understand.”

Ms. Close said she sought to discover whether it was plausible for a woman to act in the ways Alex did. From psychologists, she learned that Alex’s psychotic behaviors — which included boiling a child’s pet rabbit — were typical of someone who has experienced incest at an early age...

Read complete article at centraljersey.com
[photo credit: www.tiff08.ca/blogs]

SJP

George, for the win

Right-leaning Princeton professor Robert P. George recently launched a new blog, moralaccountability.com, or "the most elaborate pursuit of 'I told you so' since 'An Inconvenient Truth.'" 

According to an interview with the Catholic News Agency (expecting anything less?), George's blog responds to pro-life constituencies that voted for Obama under the assumption that Barry's economic policies would alleviate poverty and, by extension, abortion. In other words, he wants to prove just how wrong they are.

As for the blog itself, a flurry of intellectual masturbation has ensued among scholars that apparently think they'll solve the issue. And George, well, he just knows that in the end, "somebody is going to be right, and somebody is going to be wrong." Here's to you, Bobby.

WAS

(image source: moralaccountability.com)

Slate.com: "Harvard, Yale, or Princeton?"

On the occasion of tonight's Oscars, here's a December piece from Slate.com that looks at "how F. Scott Fitzgerald decided where to send his characters to college."

The impetus for the article stems from the omission of Harvard references in the Best Picture nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is based off of Fitzgerald's short story. In the story, Benjamin Button is a Harvard man, though in the film, he is Brad Pitt, so, like, whatever dude.

(image source: slate.com)

Whitman to Spend $150M on Gubernatorial Run

vs.

Meg Whitman '77, who has announced her intention to run for governor of California, has predicted that her campaign could cost $150 million, much of it self-financed.

The $150 million figure is about the same amount of money it took Princeton to build Whitman College ($136 million). But Whitman didn't finance the entire cost of the fieldstone/limestone clusterfuck that was built to last 200(!) years: she "just" donated the initial $30 million to kick start the project.

This, of course, means that Whitman loves California about five times more than she loves Princeton. Alternatively, it could also mean that her campaign will be five times better than Whitman College, which can only be a good thing because the 250,000 sq. ft. complex is an ugly monstrosity.

(Also: Did you know that Community Hall, Whitman's dining hall [a.k.a. barn], isn't named for the Princeton University community, but for the eBay community? WTF?)

(image source: princeton.edu, britannica.com)

Remembering Lorin Maurer

Lorin Maurer, one of the victims of the Continental flight that crashed en route to Buffalo, played an integral role in the University's athletic department, albeit one that was largely behind-the-scenes.

An article in tomorrow's New York Times shows Maurer's impact on the Princeton community (Ceremony to Rename Princeton's Court Is Also a Sad Reminder). She was organizing the renaming ceremony of Princeton's basketball court to Carril Court.

An article from The Trentonian reveals some of her Princeton coworkers' thoughts.

“We are stunned, grief-stricken and angry that someone so young and full of promise and vitality was taken from us so suddenly and unexpectedly,” Princeton Director of Athletics Gary Walters said. “We can only think that we never appreciate what we have until it is taken from us.

Maurer's friends have turned her Facebook.com profile into a messageboard of sorts, a forum for their messages of support for the Maurer family and a place to share memories or say their goodbyes. One post reads, "Lorin you were the most positive person I have ever met in my life..."

Her photos and status updates remain posted, and her profile commemorates the warm and cheerful personality that her friends revealed in their wall posts. She had recently added a new friend. She "wish[ed] people would clean the snow and ice off their sidewalks..." She planned to attend Princeton Men's Basketball vs. Cornell & Columbia.

According to Maurer's brother, Chris Maurer, a scholarship has been established in her honor. In a Facebook wall post he wrote:

"Checks can be made payable to "The Wilson Education Foundation" and please put Lorin's name in the memo field of the check. Mail all checks to:

Lorin Maurer Scholarship
Care of Kati Farrer - Executive Director
Wilson Education Foundation
2601 Grandview Blvd
West Lawn, PA 19609"

(image source: facebook.com)
AW

Underwear Displayed in the Lucas Gallery

The Lucas Gallery, housed in 185 Nassau St., is currently running an exhibition of artwork from students in fall semester ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and sculpture classes.

Here’s a glance of what you’ll see as you walk through the gallery:

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One of the most prominently-featured pieces is this work by Cristina Flores Monckeberg '12:

Monckeberg said that the idea for this piece came from an assignment where her class was told to make a drawing from a collage of photos. Monckeberg said that she "tried to create an impossible space that the viewer felt they could step into."

While Joaquín Sorolla and Édouard Manet are Monckeberg's artistic inspirations, she said that this particular piece sought to emulate M.C. Esher's work.


(image source: brentfordgallery.com)

SJP

Meg Whitman: The Historical Precedent?

About a week ago Meg Whitman '77 threw her hat into the ring for the California Gubernatorial race (info here.) And while the rest of the world may know her as the former Ebay CEO, we of course think of her first and foremost as a Princeton alum. But did you know that, if elected, Whitman wouldn't be the first California Governor somehow linked to Princeton?

That honor belongs to Princeton-born Robert Stockton, a Navy Commodore who in January 1847, during the Mexican-American War, appointed himself the first Military Governor of California. His tenure, however, was short lived, as in February of that same year he was ousted by the actual appointed (by the US government) Governor, General Stephen Kearny.

And while Stockton never actually attended Princeton University (he joined the Navy when he was 16), he was born in Princeton, he died in Princeton, and he's buried in the Princeton cemetery (there's also apparently a rest stop named after him on the New Jersey Turnpike.) So remember Robert Stockton, just in case Meg ends up winning and calling herself "the first Princeton Governor of California."

SKG

Breaking news: Men objectify women, editors love bikini stories.

From a survey of 21 undergraduate Princeton sons, Princeton psych professor Susan Fiske has concluded that ...men view half-naked women as objects.

That might just be the best Prince headline we've ever seen.

This has been all over the news, from One India ("Sensual Women Viewed as 'Objects'") to National Geographic ("Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm").

But the best article so far? Probably from The Independent ("University of the bleedin' obvious").

But the real question is, why is this obvious, obvious story so popular?

Probably for the accompanying photos and page views:

From National Geographic:

(image source: nationalgeographic.com)

From the Daily Telegraph:

(image source: telegraph.co.uk)

AW

21 Questions with... Alex Barnard '09

SACHS SCHOLAR DUMPSTER DIVES, FIGHTS SCARY CITADEL CADETS, & SCREAMS LIKE A GIRL (refer to video after the jump)

Name: Alexander Vosick Barnard
Age: 21
Major: Sociology
Hometown: Flagstaff, Arizona
Eating club/residential college/affiliation: One man Spelman vegan cooperative.

Who's your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?
Sean Gleason.

What's the best meal you've eaten in Princeton?
Full Eggplant Parmesean (minus the Parmesean) from Hoagie Haven. By merit of being from Hoagie Haven, it's probably 80% meat by osmosis, but we all have indulgences.

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day?
Sit around and read about people who are trying to change the world, and try to figure out why everything still sucks.

What is your greatest guilty pleasure?
Tormenting librarians. There's nothing that I get more of a kick out of than wandering into a university at library at 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday and joining the band in a serenade of "Tequila." We were definitely not planning to do that at the Citadel before our plans were derailed by the cadets attacking us.

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What's the last student performance you saw?
"Boy Gets Girl." Jordan Bubin ’09 was playing a porn producer so there was no way I was missing it.

Do you know all the words to Old Nassau?
Being from the band, I've sung and played Old Nassau after more Princeton sports losses than you can possibly imagine, so yes, I know the words.

What do you hate most about Princeton?
Entitlement and apathy.

What's your drink?
Beast. I'm a philistine.

How often do you cook?
A few times a week, depending on how strict the meal checkers at the eating clubs are feeling.

What's your favorite medication?
Running in the Institute woods.

What's hanging above your desk and/or bed?
An "Anti-Flag" (it's a band...) poster on which the lead singer has written "Fuck Printston" [sic]. I also have a picture of Steve Prefontaine and the seal for my cult that reads "Elk Kicks Ass" in Latin (long story).

Where do you do your best thinking?
Eating thrown away fruit salad at the Whole Foods on Houston St. in NYC with my freegan friends.

When's bedtime?
Midnight.

New Butler or Old Butler?
Old Butler. Making you walk through the bathroom to get anywhere was a masterstroke.

What do you think of Dean Malkiel?
Seems like a nice lady.

Where is the worst place on campus?
While I'm tempted to name an eating club, I'm going to go with Wu Library. I've been traumatized ever since I wrote my final for Robbie George's Civil Liberties there.

Who is your mortal enemy?
Whomever is in charge.

When's the last time you used cash?
Too recently.

In 25 years, I will be…
Hiding from the CIA in a Bolivian Rainforest (hopefully), or maybe writing books about obscure anarchist movements at whatever university will take me, contemplating whether I'm so old I ought to shave my mohawk.

Where do you go to study alone?
The train to New York.

What makes someone a Princetonian?
Bad taste in clothing. Madras pants? I find better things in the trash.

[Also, here's a video of Barnard screaming...?]:



(image source: princeton.edu)

Moral philosophy: IT'S ALL LIES!

Spotted in a PHI 202 moral philosophy lecture on Hobbes and game theory, two minutes ago:

A young man with a jock-like appearance, wearing a heavy green backpack, stands up and runs down the aisle of McCosh 10, shredding his notes in the air above his head as he shrieks:

"It's all lies! It's all lies! It's all lies!"

AW

Kathy Kiely on the Real Story Behind Obama's New Hampshire Primary Speech

On a recent Wednesday evening Kathy Kiely, USA Today writer and current Mathey College Faculty Member in Residence (she lives in Blair Arch!) had dinner with a group of about a dozen students to talk about the rapidly deteriorating state of print journalism and her own coverage of the November election.

While Kiely spent most of her time discussing the demise of newspapers, perhaps the most interesting moment of the evening came when she told a story from the Obama campaign trail that hasn’t yet been anecdotally beaten to death by the rest of the media. With apologies to Ms. Kiely (she’s a very good storyteller, and this is a mediocre paraphrase at best), here's the real story of Obama's speech the night of the New Hampshire Primary:

After Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucus, Kiely’s editors at USA Today assumed that Obama would win the New Hampshire primary easily and go on to win the nomination (pretty much all the polling data and public opinion was predicting a big Obama victory in New Hampshire). So her editors assigned Kiely to a big profile on Obama that would run after his victory.

Kiely drove from Concord to Nashua on the day of the primary on interview Obama. She went to his hotel room and sat down for the interview. Kiely said she remembered thinking, “Hillary Clinton is out there shaking hands. Why aren’t you?”
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She went back to Concord, wrote the story, and sent it in to her editors. Around that time, results were starting to come in, and it was clear that Hillary had won. So, her profile suddenly rendered obsolete, she drove back out to Nashua to hear Obama give his concession speech.

Kiely said that, in her 28 years of covering presidential elections, Obama’s speech that night in New Hampshire was one of the best she’d ever heard. A few months later, having a drink with some of Obama’s speechwriters, she asked about that speech. They told her it was his victory speech; all he’d done is add a line at the beginning congratulating Clinton on her victory.

If you look back at the speech (full text) it certainly looks like a victory speech, especially bold statements like, “when I am president of the United States.” And while past examples to be assertive in loss have not gone very well in the Democratic primaries (see also: Dean, Howard), Obama's "concession" speech seemed to work just fine.

Squash is no joke.

Trinity College's men's squash team defeated Princeton men's squash yesterday in a close 5-4 squash game that gave the No. 1 ranked squash team its 11th perfect season of squash in a row, with a 16-0 record of squash wins. Trinity men's squash team's last loss was in a game of squash against Harvard in the College Squash Association National Team Championship in February 1998.

Squash squash squash.

Trinity's men's squash team has now had 199 victories in a row. No. 2-ranked Princeton ended the season with a 11-1 record. As No. 1 and No. 2, the two teams are favored to face off again next Saturday at Jadwin Squash Courts for this year's National Team Championship game.

But does anyone remember that gem from the New York Times published about a year ago? We do. It's another article about how "anxious parents are looking for some edge, any edge, to help their child gain entry through the back door of the nation’s most selective universities," but it's an article about squash. Because that's how you get into Princeton. Squash.
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In the article, the best description of squash yet:

"Unlike basketball or Greco-Roman wrestling, however, squash does enjoy a prestige that some think makes it attractive to college admissions boards. With roots in the English public schools of the 19th century, squash conveys an aristocratic quirkiness, a bit like a taste for Sanskrit poetry. More than its preppy cousins lacrosse and rowing, it is also considered a cerebral sport — chess in short pants.”

Sources:
www.goprincetontigers.com
www.athletics.trincoll.edu
www.nytimes.com
www.sports.espn.go.com
Photo from:
www.goprincetontigers.com

AW

Princeton Then and Now: Dancing

Here are some pictures of a Princeton dance in 1960, before coeducation.


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Now:



(via ivy-style.com)

Feinberg Hall Architect to Design New Campus Building

The couple who brought you Wilson College's Feinberg Hall (1986) has been hired by the university to design the building for the new Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

The firm, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, is most famous for designing the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

(image source: princeton.edu)

Provost Eisgruber: We're F*cked

At the monthly CPUC (Council of the Princeton University Community) meeting last week, Provost Eisgruber presented on the university's financial health.

It was, not surprisingly, very depressing.

We've all heard about plummeting university endowments across the country in recent months. PRINCO (which manages Princeton's endowment) predicts our $16 billion endowment will fall 25% this fiscal year. That amounts to roughly $4 billion of Princeton's endowment.

But even more shocking was the Powerpoint slide that showed that, under realistic conditions, Princeton's endowment will not return to $16 billion until 2020, at the earliest (see chart above). By then, we will have children and a mortgage.

Eisgruber said it was time for us to get used to a new "normal" (in other words, being somewhat poorer). The university is facing an $82 million shortfall, and is in the midst of budget cuts. Eisgruber also said he is almost certain that Princeton will make a second round of budget cuts next year.

One piece of good news, however: Princeton will increase the financial aid budget by 13% next year.

Also at the meeting, President Tilghman promoted a new web page where anyone can suggest ideas for administrative budget cuts. So email away! Save your university!

(image source: dailyprincetonian.com)

"Let me tell y'all what it's like being male, middle-class and white..."

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds kicked off his winter tour here at Princeton tonight to a packed McCarter Theatre. The audience appeared to be a mix of Princeton students and area residents, including a fair number of middle-aged people (this is Princeton, after all).

Folds played a raucous two-hour set list that had the audience often singing along with him. Though he is officially promoting his last album "Way to Normal" that was released in September, Folds played nearly all of his best known songs from over the years like "Army" and "Rockin' the Suburbs" (the latter of which is the source of the lyrics in this post's title).

One of the two opening acts was the Nassoons, who will be featured in an upcoming compilation album of Ben Folds covers by a capella groups. The Nassoons performed three songs tonight, including Folds' "Time," which is the song slated to be on the CD.

The Nassoons were chosen by Folds after he announced a national contest, and were one of 18 a capella groups chosen from about 250 submissions, according to the Daily Princetonian. You can see the Nassoons' winning Youtube submission to Folds after the jump:

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Ben Folds w/ Princeton Nassoons from jmharper on Vimeo.

(image source: nymag.com)

Has the Population of Green Haired Students Plateaued?

Has the population of "green haired" high school students plateaued? Shirley Tilghman's now-infamous desire to attract students with a penchant for hairdye may be backfiring!

Princeton has suffered a second major blow to its ego in less than six months! In August, the university dropped down an entire spot to number two in the annual US News & World Report rankings, and two weeks ago, Janet Rapelye’s admissions office announced that this year's applicant pool for the class of 2013 grew just two percent.

This figure, so far, represents the smallest growth in applications among its peer schools (Columbia and Penn have yet to release their data). As the table above shows, Brown saw a whopping 21 percent increase in applicants this year, and even Cornell reported a higher increase with three percent.

After the jump, the second table shows that Princeton's application numbers haven't grown as quickly over the past three years, compared to Harvard's and Yale's:

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Princeton’s two percent increase this year does, however, constitute the largest applicant pool in the school’s history, but it’s basically the same story at all of Princeton's peer schools.

No word yet why Princeton's application numbers seemed to have plateaued this year, so let the speculation begin. Aside from a national shortage of green hairdye, other reasons may include grade deflation, and, umm, grade deflation. And Dean Malkiel.