News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications, Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Tel 609/258-3601; Fax 609/258-1301
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 16, 1996
Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732
University Invites Community to Celebrate 250th Birthday; Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison to Give Keynote Address
PRINCETON, N.J. -- Members of the University community and the surrounding communities are invited to help Princeton celebrate its 250th Anniversary at a convocation, birthday party and open house October 25 through 27. The keynote speaker at the convocation will be Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.
The University was founded October 22, 1746, when John Hamilton, acting governor of the Province of New Jersey, granted a charter to the College of New Jersey in the name of King George II of England. Exactly 150 years later, Princeton President Francis Patton proclaimed the change of name to Princeton University. In the keynote address at that sesquicentennial celebration, Professor of Politics Woodrow Wilson coined the phrase that has become Princeton's unofficial motto: "Princeton in the Nation's Service."
Service has been a theme throughout the 250th Anniversary celebrations. Alumni groups have begun many new public service projects in honor of the anniversary, and plans are under way to establish a new Center for Community Service on campus, which will provide a locus for such ongoing efforts as the Student Volunteers Council, which involves 900 students in regular service projects, and Community House, which offers tutoring and other services to local families.
As part of the celebratory events over Charter Weekend, Princeton will dedicate a stone on the front campus honoring the many contributions of Princeton alumni to the University and celebrating an expanded ideal of service: "Princeton in the nation's service, and in the service of all nations."
Convocation
The Anniversary Convocation on Friday will feature a procession of faculty, students, alumni and staff; local officials; and visiting representatives of institutions active in such groups as the Association of American Universities, Council on Financing Higher Education, and Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey.
Harvard President Neil Rudenstine, former Princeton provost, and Yale President Richard Levin will greet the assembled guests. Specially commissioned poems by Reginald Gibbons, editor of the TriQuarterly Magazine at Northwestern University; Alicia Suskin Ostriker, professor of English at Rutgers University; and James Richardson, professor of English at Princeton, will be read. Toni Morrison, Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, will deliver an address entitled "The Place of the Idea, the Idea of the Place."
The convocation is open to all Princeton faculty, students, alumni, and staff, as well as members of the surrounding communities. Tickets are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis at Encore Books at the Princeton Shopping Center, the University Store and Princeton Public Library.
Any tickets remaining will be distributed from the 250th Anniversary tent on Cannon Green near East Pyne, starting at 9 a.m. on October 25. (Note to campus press: Holders of University IDs may pick up two tickets to the convocation and two wristbands for a late-afternoon picnic supper in the Hyphen of Chancellor Green between noon and 4:00 p.m. through October 18.)
Celebrations, entertainment
After the convocation, the upper campus will be the scene of party celebrations, entertainment and refreshments. The whole community is invited; no tickets are required. Among the activities will be an effort by the Garden State Ice Sculpture Team to create a record-breaking likeness of Nassau Hall that will be 12 feet long. At dusk Nassau Hall will be illuminated by electric candlelight. Guests will be given small flashlights for a torch-light parade to Poe-Pardee Field for dessert and a fireworks display beginning at 7 p.m.
A videotape of these events, including selected portions of the convocation, will be broadcast by satellite around the country, and alumni in diverse regions as far away as Alaska will gather to enjoy the festivities.
On Saturday and Sunday, the University will host an open house featuring an array of lectures, panel discussions, films, demonstrations, tours and exhibitions, all of which are free and open to the public.
A full calendar of celebratory events is available here.