PrincetonUniversity Communications Office, Stanhope Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA Tel 609-258-3601, Fax 609-258-1301   Feedback Princeton in the News Enclosing directory   The American Banker, February 14, 2001 Reed Warns: Banks Not Equipped for Crisis Former Citigroup Inc. chairman and chief executive officer John S. Reed, speaking in the first of two scheduled lectures at Princeton University, delivered a relatively pessimistic view of the banking industry's ability to manage risk. Mr. Reed, who retired from Citigroup in April, is a senior visiting fellow at Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance. Roughly 100 people gathered Monday night to hear Mr. Reed's hourlong talk, "A Retrospective on the Banking Industry, 1965-2000." Risk managers in the banking industry should assume and plan for the worst by boosting reserves, Mr. Reed said. Risk management tools work well in helping banks get ready to handle potential problems along a relatively narrow continuum, but they are not equipped to deal with big shocks like stock market crashes, currency devaluations, or oil price spikes, he said. Despite all the time and money invested in improving bank systems, "risk management does not deal with discontinuities" or cataclysmic financial forces that upend the economic status quo, Mr. Reed said. "I can't find any instance in the literature where the industry has been able to assess the dangers of a discontinuity," he said... The Palm Beach Post, February 14, 2001 Contenders for W. Palm Library Down to 4 Leon Krier is a personal adviser to the Prince of Wales. Dr. Demetri Porphyrios is a Greek-born, American-educated architect living in London. Michael Graves has taught architecture at Princeton University since 1962. Scott Merrill is the former town architect of Seaside. In the next three months, one of these men will be chosen to design a $30 million library for West Palm Beach. Regardless of whether city commissioners actually approve the project in August, Krier, Porphyrios, Graves or Merrill can help earn their team of architects, planners and engineers the $100,000 awarded to the winning design... The Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 2001 LEARNING In many respects, Vanessa Wills is your typical college junior: She's got a lot of homework, is sleep-deprived, her laundry is stacking up in her dorm room - and she's more than $ 10,000 in debt. Now the philosophy major at Princeton University is likely to get help with at least one of her problems: the unbalanced checkbook. Under a pioneering plan, Princeton is becoming the first university in the United States to do away with all student loans. Instead, it will give out only grants. No more student debt. No more pressure to become an investment banker just to be able to pay off big loans. "It was fantastic and so totally unexpected," Ms. Wills says. "There have been other initiatives to decrease the amount of student loans, but I don't think anyone expected the university to get rid of them completely." ... But Princeton's tectonic shift seems destined to fundamentally influence how aid is distributed - and the number of institutions that feel increased pressure to compete. Some say it represents a long-overdue, morally sound move by a school with an endowment that bests the gross national product of some small nations. But others argue that the new policy may reduce the aid available to students who truly need it. Less-flush schools may also push to offer bountiful packages to top students, thus limiting the pool of students who will get aid. Either way, the battle for the top 1 percent of students is sure to intensify. "It's another blast in the financial-aid wars," says David Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and an expert on higher-education finance. "It quite clearly gives Princeton a leg up, and gives others a powerful incentive to respond." ... The Star-Ledger, February 13, 2001 All New Jersey Colleges Take Pledge to Cut Air Pollution All 56 colleges and universities in New Jersey agreed yesterday to join a statewide effort to reduce air pollution. The voluntary agreement calls for the schools to take steps such as switching to lighting that uses less electricity and constructing buildings that use less energy. The schools also plan to develop curriculums to teach engineering and architectural students how to design energy-efficient buildings. New Jersey is believed to be the first state to have all of its institutions of higher learning sign on to such an agreement... Many of the schools already have taken steps to reduce pollution. Rutgers University, Princeton University and The College of New Jersey have installed devices known as "cogenerators" that generate two forms of energy, usually electricity and steam, from one fuel source. The Washington Times, February 12, 2001 THE U.N. REPORT ... Probing Rights in Israel The U.N. panel investigating human rights violations in Israel and the occupied territories began its eight-day visit on Saturday, despite vigorous objections from the Israeli government. The group began by meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday at his Gaza headquarters. The panel - Richard Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton University; South African John Dugard, who teaches at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and former Bangladesh Prime Minister Kamal Hussein - also will visit Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Beit Jala... Telegraph Herald, February 11, 2001 Human-rights probe begins Violence continues: Israelis say they won't cooperate with the U.N. mission Palestinians and Israelis exchanged fire Saturday even as a U.N. human rights mission arrived for a fact-finding tour of the Palestinian areas - a visit Israel said it would not cooperate with... The mission was appointed in October in Geneva by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which adopted a resolution accusing Israel of "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights." The team consists of American Richard Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton University, South African John Dugard of Leiden University in the Netherlands and former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Kamal Hussein. After meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat late Saturday in Gaza, Dugard said if Israel does not cooperate, the mission will obtain its information by other means... Telegraph Herald, February 11, 2001 Human-rights probe begins Violence continues: Israelis say they won't cooperate with the U.N. mission Palestinians and Israelis exchanged fire Saturday even as a U.N. human rights mission arrived for a fact-finding tour of the Palestinian areas - a visit Israel said it would not cooperate with... The mission was appointed in October in Geneva by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which adopted a resolution accusing Israel of "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights." The team consists of American Richard Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton University, South African John Dugard of Leiden University in the Netherlands and former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Kamal Hussein. After meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat late Saturday in Gaza, Dugard said if Israel does not cooperate, the mission will obtain its information by other means... The Associated Press, February 10, 2001 Princeton professor named to top U.N. advisory spot An American scholar and international affairs expert has been appointed to a senior advisory position in Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office, a U.N. spokesman said. Michael Doyle, director of the Center of International Studies and a professor at Princeton University, succeeds one of Annan's most trusted advisers, John Ruggie, who is taking up a position at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. As an assistant secretary-general, Doyle will be Annan's special adviser, concentrating on policy analysis and strategic planning, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Friday. The appointment is effective April 2... The Associated Press, February 10, 2001 Israel boycotting U.N. human rights mission to Palestinian areas As heavy fighting flared between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel said it would not cooperate with a U.N. human rights mission that arrived Saturday for a fact-finding tour of Palestinian areas. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari said the mandate of the mission is "biased and unacceptable to us and its findings are predetermined." The mission was appointed last October in Geneva by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which adopted a resolution accusing Israel of "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights." The team consists of American Richard Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton University, South African John Dugard of Leiden University in the Netherlands and former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Kamal Hussein... The Washington Times, February 10, 2001 World Scene .... Princeton Man Named to Aide U.N. Chief NEW YORK - A Princeton professor and author on international affairs has been appointed as one of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's senior advisers, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday. Michael Doyle, director of the Center of International Studies and a professor at Princeton University, succeeds John Ruggie, who is taking up a post at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Doyle was appointed to the rank of assistant secretary-general and will work as a special adviser to Mr. Annan on policy analysis and strategic planning, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. ... SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, February 9, 2001 Poetic parlance C.K. Williams' writing looks at problems, defining self C.K. Williams says his poems are "always, in one way or another, about problems." "You could call them tensions," he says. "That's probably the most succinct definition of where I begin." Williams, who teaches creative writing at Princeton University, opens the 34th annual Sophomore Literary Festival at 8 p.m. today with a reading in the LaFortune Ballroom on the University of Notre Dame campus. His eight poetry collections include 1969's "Lies," 1983's "Tar" and 1987's "Flesh and Blood," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. "Sometimes they're personal problems, sometimes they're about political problems or social problems," he says of the tensions his work explores. "Even when I'm writing about political problems, I try to find a personal connection." That's true of the narrator in "King," one of the poems in 1999's collection, "Repair," which won the Pulitzer Prize. In the poem, the narrator recounts an incident 30 years after the fact, at a time when "something still feels unresolved between us, as so much does in our culture." As he walks to a memorial for Martin Luther King Jr. in Philadelphia, the narrator witnesses two white police officers accost a black man on his way to the service. As the black man continues down the street, he meets a white friend he had planned to join at the memorial but spurns the white man's company. Three decades later, the narrator says he still feels the black man's anger, "because it's still in my helpless despair." "That's been a constant in my work, to bring it down to the personal, even to just the self, to find out how in one's self larger issues are being resolved or dealt with," Williams says... The Associated Press, February 9, 2001 U.N.: rights team to check Israeli-occupied areas from Saturday A team of U.N. human rights investigators will visit occupied Palestinian territories starting Saturday to collect evidence of alleged Israeli abuses, the United Nations said. Israel said last year it would refuse to cooperate with the three-member team of experts from South Africa, the United States and Bangladesh, created by the 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission last October. A U.N. statement said Friday that the team would be in the occupied territories until Feb. 18 "to investigate humanitarian rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law committed since the resumption of violent confrontations in the area on Sept. 28." ... The team consists of American Richard Falk, a professor of international law at Princeton University; South African John Dugard of the Netherlands' Leiden University; and former Bangladesh Prime Minister Kamal Hussein. The commission set up the inquiry on a 19-15 vote with 17 abstentions during an emergency meeting last October. The resolution, proposed by Arab countries, condemned Israel for "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights." ... Sacramento Bee, February 9, 2001 Entertainment industry's Mighty Poo ... (Thumbs Up) Princeton University has decided to use its massive endowment - $8 billion - to help more needy students get one of the country's most coveted educations. Princeton, which has a need-blind admissions process, says students needing financial aid will no longer have to take out loans to cover the cost of tuition, room and board (now $33,613 a year). Instead, Princeton will make strings-free grants to students whose low- and middle-income families meet financial criteria. Students on financial aid will still be asked to do work-study jobs on campus, but the required hours will be reduced. Princeton is the first of the nation's universities to dip into the vast wealth of its endowment to ensure that needy students don't graduate in debt. Here's hoping the competition will follow suit. Malaysia General News, February 08, 2001 Japan: Mathematicians Prove Taniyama-Shimura Conjecture Four United States and French mathematicians have proved the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture posted in the 1960s through the studies of two Japanese, Japanese academic sources said today... The conjecture was originally posted by the late Yutaka Taniyama, a mathematics genius, and was developed into equations by Goro Shimura, a Princeton University professor emeritus, in the 1960s. It referred to an equation -- y squared equals x cubed plus the product of a and x plus b -- that is related to a calculation of the length of circumferences of ovals... The Nation, February 5, 2001 The 'Tiananmen Papers': authorship of papers unverifiable Critical Essay ... On January 7, Mike Wallace interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes an anonymous person in disguise who claimed, at some undisclosed time and place, to have hand-copied a massive number of Chinese secret documents that included transcripts of meetings, telephone conversations and other communications that the top leaders of China had with one another at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. He said he smuggled out transcriptions of a portion of this data on computer disks. He has assumed a disguise so he would have the option of returning to Beijing. A portion of this material has been published in a book, The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People (Public Affairs), edited by Andrew Nathan, professor of political science at Columbia University, and Perry Link, professor of Chinese language and literature at Princeton University, with an afterword by Orville Schell, an author and former consultant to 60 Minutes... National Public Radio/MORNING EDITION, February 1, 2001 Group of Universities Looks at Promoting Women Working in the Science and Engineering Fields The leaders of nine of the top universities in the country this week conceded that women face institutional barriers to careers in science and engineering. The university presidents and provosts promise to work together to try to eliminate gender inequalities and biases at their schools. The declaration followed a meeting this week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From Boston, NPR's Jason Beaubien reports. ... Ten years ago, Barbara Grosz led a committee that looked at the status of women in the sciences at Harvard University. Grosz, who's a professor of computer science at Harvard, says the report showed very few women teaching science at the school in 1991. ...Grosz this week was at MIT with the leaders of some of the top science schools in the nation to discuss why women are underrepresented on science faculties. The heads of Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Caltech, Stanford and UC Berkeley released a statement pledging to do more to accommodate and promote women in their science and technology ranks. Grosz says this week's proclamation is a first step in getting science departments to address the issue... [Said] Mr. HAROLD SHAPIRO (President, Princeton University): These are disciplines which are occupied overwhelmingly by men. And the attitudes, social patterns and behaviors, are really defined around things that are much more characteristic of men than they are of women. And the fact is, however, that these characteristics have little or no relationship to one's capacity to have a successful scientific career and make a contribution in science and engineering... The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 12, 2001 The Boss Pays a Call to a Princeton Classroom His parents couldn't make him go back to college, but Greil Marcus succeeded, if only for a day. Bruce Springsteen rode the backstreets from his home in Rumson, N.J., last month to Princeton University, where he caught the final day of Mr. Marcus's course, "Prophecy and the American Voice." ... ...[H]igh praise wasn't enough to persuade the visiting professor to let Springsteen audit the course last fall. As The Daily Princetonian, the campus newspaper, noted, Mr. Marcus "insisted that if the rock icon was going to play, he had to pay -- and do all of the assigned reading." That didn't stop Springsteen from dropping in for one three-hour seminar in December... "It was really surreal," says Mr. McParland. "We acted very professional. But at the break, we were all just like 'Wow.'" "My knees were buckling so bad," Sara Isani, a senior, told the student newspaper. Ms. Isani had the honor during the class break of escorting Springsteen to a campus store, where he bought a Power Bar and bottled water. Despite his taste in refreshments, he looked every bit the working-class hero, dressed in jeans, a thermal undershirt, and work boots...