News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Communications and Publications, Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Tel 609/258-3601; Fax 609/258-1301
Date: October 16, 1996
Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732
Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison to Give Keynote Address as Princeton University Celebrates 250th Anniversary
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The nation is invited to help Princeton University celebrate its 250th Anniversary with 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 celebration. 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 Charter Weekend events, 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."
The Anniversary Convocation on Friday will feature a procession of faculty, students, alumni and staff; local officials; and visiting representatives of other colleges and universities. 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, "The Place of the Idea, the Idea of the Place."
After the convocation, the campus will be the scene of party celebrations, entertainment and refreshments. The whole community is invited. 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 a fireworks display.
A videotape of the day's events will be broadcast by satellite every hour on the half-hour, beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT, and alumni in regions as far away as Alaska will gather to enjoy the festivities. Anyone in North America with access to satellite reception can view the broadcast via Ku-band at SBS-6/Transponder 11 or via C-band at Telstar 402/Transponder 20.
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.