Princeton in the News

February 11 to 17, 1999

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America
Copyright 1999 America Press Inc.
February 13, 1999

HEADLINE: Life in the 90's; corporate America want young people who will work long hours
BYLINE: Golway, Terry

IT DIDN'T BOTHER me when I became so long in the tooth--over the dreaded age of 35--that television advertisers (and, therefore, programmers) no longer wanted anything to do with me. I've never been much of a television viewer anyway, and my viewing choices have never been particularly hip. (You're reading the words of a man who's been known to watch Patriot League basketball games on cable TV.) And the advertisers probably were right to figure that my 35-plus years on earth were enough to convince me that mindless consumption isn't what it's cracked up to be. ...

 The Wall Street Journal interpreted the Pope's comments as a re-affirmation of his past celebrations of capitalism, or at least of the good that flows from competition and individual initiative. In an editorial entitled "The Good News," the Journal assured the Pope that he has "more allies than even he may know" in his crusades for human freedom, including the Pope's stated belief in the "right to private initiative." Now, the Journal publishes some wonderful pieces on religion and values (virtually alone among the national media, the Journal has been crusading against Princeton University's appointment of Peter Singer as a professor of bioethics, who would permit the killing of month-old infants). The newspaper is a staunch supporter of Catholic schools and appreciates the values Catholic educators seek to impart. ...


THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Copyright 1999 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
February 13, 1999 Saturday

HEADLINE: VOTE ON CENSURE RESOLUTION KILLED;
DATELINE: WASHINGTON

Closing a sad and sordid chapter of American history, the Senate on Friday acquitted President William Jefferson Clinton of both impeachment charges and left him with his office intact but his honor and reputation tarnished.

After a tumultuous year of scandal that tested the Constitution and tried the nation's patience, neither of the two articles of impeachment brought by the House garnered a simple majority, much less the two-thirds necessary to convict Clinton of high crimes and misdemeanors. Article I alleging perjury was defeated on a 45 to 55 vote at 10:21 a.m. Arizona time. Just 18 minutes later, Article II charging obstruction failed on a 50 to 50 tie. Five Republicans joined all 45 Democrats in supporting full acquittal. ... 

PHOTO: Ph.D. fellow Carson Kievman, from Princeton, N.J., applauds at the television at a Princeton University student center. "Finally, it's over!" he exclaimed.


Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ.)
Copyright 1999 Asbury Park Press, Inc.
February 13, 1999, Saturday

IN CONVERSATION

What women really want EDITOR'S NOTE: Looking for Mr. Right?

Authors Anaezi Modu and Andrea Walker wanted to know what women wanted in their men. They found that the answers weren't always the same when it came to white women and black women.

The two ran identical contests in two women's magazines asking readers to submit essays describing their ideal man.

One magazine, American Woman, has a predominately white readership. The other, Essence, is geared towards black women. While there were some similarities in the responses, the letters submitted (200 from the American Woman readers, 2,000 from Essence readers) revealed some intriguing differences in what white and black women want in their men.

Walker, of Newark, said the intensity of the responses from the Essence readers prompted her and Modu to change their plans for the book. Instead of writing about their findings, the two, both Princeton University graduates, decided to let the women speak for themselves. The result, culled from 350 of the Essence submissions, is the book "All The Man I Need: Black Women's Loving Expressions on the Men They Desire." (Gateway Publishers, $15.95, 264 pages, paperback). ...


The Boston Herald
Copyright 1999 Boston Herald Inc.
February 13, 1999 Saturday

HEADLINE: CLINTON ACQUITTED; History may take dim view of Republicans
BYLINE: By AZELL MURPHY CAVAAN

President Clinton may have misled the American people and demeaned the presidency, but 20 years from now it will be the Republican Party that suffers post-impeachment fallout, historians said yesterday.

"There's no question that partisanship was a part of the impeachment of Bill Clinton and it will be a profound part of the way people view it in the future," said Keith Whittington, a Princeton University American political history professor.

"The prevailing question will be if the whole thing was about trying to get the president at any and all cost." ...


The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright 1999 The Commercial Appeal
February 13, 1999, SATURDAY

SOMETHING NEW

High style doesn't have to cost a small fortune.

Target is introducing a line of clocks, utensils, small appliances, accessories and lawn and garden furniture with Space Age designs and affordable prices.

The items were designed by architect Michael Graves, the Schirmer Professor of Architecture at Princeton University. There are 200 items in the line.

They include: a tea kettle with a red coach's whistle over the spout, $34.99; a two-slice toaster, $39.99; black nylon utensils with blue handles, $3.99 each; a stainless steel watering can, $24.99; and a translucent plastic ice bucket with tongs, $29.99. ...


Daily News (New York)
Copyright 1999 Daily News, L.P.
February 13, 1999, Saturday

HEADLINE: BIG APPLE TENSE FOR THE BIG VERDICT

GRAPHIC: MARK BONIFACIO NEW YORKERS gathered in Times Square yesterday (l.) to watch historic impeachment vote display emotion (above) of the moment. Some express glee (below, opposite) after "not guilty." News of acquittal flashes on big screen at Princeton University (below).


The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT)
Copyright 1999 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
February 13, 1999, Saturday

HEADLINE: U.S. religions becoming 'spiritual hash' of beliefs
BYLINE: By Lisa Miller The Wall Street Journal

"I'm an Episcopalian, and I think of myself as a practicing non-Jew," says Katherine Powell Cohen, a 36-year-old English teacher in San Francisco. "I'm a Mennonite-Unitarian Universalist who practices Zen meditation," says Ralph Imhoff, 57, a retired educator from Chandler, Ariz.

"I call myself a Christian Buddhist, but sort of tongue-in-cheek," says Maitreya Badami, 30, who works in the Contra Costa, Calif., public defender's office.

If America has always been a melting pot, these days its religious practices have become a spiritual hash. Blending or braiding the beliefs of different spiritual traditions has become so rampant in America that the Dalai Lama has called the country "the spiritual supermarket."

Jews flirt with Hinduism, Catholics study Taoism, and Methodists discuss whether to make the Passover seder an official part of worship. Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, a prominent Jewish scholar, is also a Sufi sheik; and James Ishmael Ford, a Unitarian minister in Arizona, is a Zen sensei, or master. The melding of Judaism with Buddhism has become so commonplace that marketers who sell spiritual books, videotapes and lecture series have a name for it: "JewBu." ...

For the traditional denominations, this cross-pollination presents an excruciating dilemma. If denomination headquarters bend the rules to accommodate the hybrids, they risk watering down their identities. But if they stick to the straight and narrow, they may define themselves out of existence -- and extinction is a growing possibility. ...

Even the clergy of mainstream religions are starting to broaden their view of God. At St. Gregory of Nyssan, an Episcopal church in San Francisco, two senior ministers have created a service that includes the worship of Jesus Christ, dancing and the ringing of Buddhist cymbals. The ministers, Richard Fabian and Donald Schell, have impeccable Episcopalian credentials, with graduate degrees from Cambridge and Princeton universities respectively, but their service would be unrecognizable to most Episcopalians, as would their church's decor. ...


National Public Radio
SHOW: SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE
February 13, 1999, Saturday

HEADLINE: LATEST TAMOXIFEN STUDY RAISES ETHICAL QUESTIONS
ANCHORS: IRA FLATOW
REPORTERS: JOE PALCA

IRA FLATOW, host:

This is SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE. I'm Ira Flatow.

The drug tamoxifen has been shown to reduce some women's risk of developing breast cancer. Now researchers in Washington state are starting a study that will try to answer the question, Does tamoxifen help prevent breast cancer in certain women, those who have inherited a gene that predisposes them to developing the disease?' But the study raises difficult ethical issues since the women who will be evaluated did not explicitly agree to participate. NPR's Joe Palca has more. ...

Last year, a study of 13,000 women showed that tamoxifen reduced their risk of developing breast cancer. But while all the women in the study were selected because they had a high risk of breast cancer, the study didn't show which women would benefit most from taking tamoxifen. For example, researchers don't know whether women who have inherited a damaged copy of BRCA-1 or BRCA-2, genes associated with increased risk of breast cancer, will benefit more from tamoxifen than other women. University of Washington researcher Mary Claire King says the completed study holds the answer to that question. ...

PALCA: From that information, they'll be able to determine whether tamoxifen reduced the rate of breast cancer for these women. Now women who agreed to participate in the study knew their samples might be used for future genetic research, but when the study of tamoxifen was started in the early 1990s, the breast cancer genes hadn't been fully characterized, so researchers couldn't very well ask the women whether they would agree to being tested for them. Finding all 13,000 women and asking their permission to test for BRCA-1 or BRCA-2 would have been prohibitively expensive and time-consuming, so King and her colleagues looked for alternatives. ...

Mr. PUGLIESE: There is no definitive guidance for institutional review boards to follow at this point. Many institutional review boards and people in the research community are looking to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, NBAC, to provide some definitive guidance.

PALCA: NBAC is trying to do that. It is presently writing a report on how stored tissue samples collected for another purpose can ethically be used in research. Princeton University president Harold Shapiro, who chairs NBAC, says most potential harm to subjects disappear when their data are used anonymously. But assuring anonymity is tricky, and even when data are completely anonymous, Shapiro says there are other ethical questions.

Mr. HAROLD SHAPIRO (Chairman, NBAC): There are people who might object to material which they have donated to be used for certain purposes. Let's say someone was doing research aimed at issues regarding contraception and so on. There are some people who might have fundamental moral objections to participating in that way in this research. And while they would certainly have no way of knowing, under this condition, that their material was used, and therefore in some ways a lot of the issue is moot, you can't completely wipe away that issue. ...


New Scientist
Copyright 1999 New Scientist IPC Magazines Ltd
February 13, 1999

HEADLINE: Ooops...sorry
BYLINE: Kathryn S. Brown (Kathryn S. Brown is a science writer based in Columbia, Missouri)

HIGHLIGHT: There's a part of your brain that goes crazy whenever you drop a clanger, says Kathryn S. Brown. It's obviously trying to tell you something

HOW do we ever survive a day ? We slip, we blunder, we goof, we dribble, we say the wrong things at completely inappropriate times - and given half a chance we'll try and do the whole lot together. One thing's certain: we'd have many more problems if it weren't for our fix-it-quick brains watching over us, alerting us to impending doom and jumping in to rescue us. Dozens of times a day, at the first sign of trouble, the mental equivalent of an alarm bell goes off inside our head, screaming out a warning that something isn't quite right. ...

Researchers are now tuning in to these mental alarms with the latest in brain imaging techniques, trying to get a handle on exactly where the signals come from and how they keep us on the straight and narrow. Ever since they were discovered, the alarms have been thought of as the cry of a dedicated blunder detector - the brain's attempt to flag our mistakes the instant they occur, telling us how we've messed up and perhaps warning us to slow down, listen up, or try again. ...

Coles and his colleagues think that the brain takes stock of any task at hand, noting the correct answer - for example, H, left button; S, right button. If you respond impulsively, before your brain has a chance to process the task properly, you're likely to err. And when that happens, Coles thinks the lightning-fast ACC compares the correct answer with your response, and if they don't match, it rockets off a neural SOS to frontal "planning" areas of the brain. ...

Not so clever

The chief proponents of this rival theory are Cameron Carter, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Cohen, a neuroscientist at Pittsburgh and now also at Princeton University in New Jersey. Last year, they published their evidence for an ACC attention alarm in the journal "Science"(vol 280, p 747). According to their line of thinking, the ACC is clueless about the correct response - all it knows is that several stimuli are clashing in a confusing way. As confusion often goes hand in hand with errors, they believe this could explain why Coles spots the mental alarms going off whenever we blunder.

Carter, Cohen and their colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging to peer into the brains of people making judgments about sequences of letters. First they showed a letter A or B, then 10 seconds later an X or Y. They asked people to push one button when they had seen the sequence AX. All other sequences required a different response. In most cases, A and X appeared one after the other, prompting people to expect that sequence. But when a different sequence appeared the ACC immediately fired up, even when a person responded correctly, and especially when the signal was partly correct - in other words AY or BX. It looked as though the researchers had found Coles's error signal without any error. ...


Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Copyright 1999 P.G. Publishing Co.
February 13, 1999, Saturday, SOONER EDITION

HEADLINE: ALEXANDER BLACK;

LAWYER WITH DOWNTOWN FIRM FOR 50 YEARS

BYLINE: MICHAEL NEWMAN POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER

There was never any question that Alexander Black would attend the annual Princeton-Harvard football game. The question, since he attended both universities, was which team he would root for.

"He used to joke that it didn't matter who won," said his daughter, Elizabeth Black Watson. "But really, we always sat on the Princeton side."

Mr. Black, who received his bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1936 and his law degree from Harvard three years later, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday. He was 84. ...


The San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune

February 13, 1999, Saturday

HEADLINE: Acquittal, apology and a plea to move on; Verdicts bring more relief than joy

SOURCE: COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

BYLINE: George E. Condon Jr.

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON -- Perhaps never has there been a more joyless "victory" in the annals of American political history. In the end, as in the beginning 13 months ago, there was bipartisan disgust in the capital, partisan division in Congress and a titillated but uninterested public. ...

"Both in terms of seeing how the political system performs under stress and also putting a microscope on some of its dynamics, this has been an illuminating as well as dispiriting experience," said Fred Greenstein of Princeton University.

"We have learned that the presidency is of sturdier fiber than it seemed to be," he said, noting that Clinton has been able to dominate the governing agenda despite his travails. ...


The San Diego Union-Tribune
Copyright 1999 The San Diego Union-Tribune
February 13, 1999, Saturday

GRAPHIC: APPLAUDING THE END à Ph.D. fellow Carson Kievman, 49, applauded while watching the Senate vote to acquit President Clinton yesterday at a student center at Princeton University. "Finally, it's over," he said. Although Kievman said he found Clinton's behavior "shameful," he felt his relationship with an intern should have remained a private matter. DANIEL HULSHIZER / Associated Press


The Chronicle of Higher Education
Copyright 1999 The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Former MLA Head Draws New Fire From Graduate Students

BYLINE: SCOTT HELLER, ROBIN WILSON, and DENISE K. MAGNER

Elaine Showalter would be the first to say that her just-completed term as president of the Modern Language Association was no party. Now, even her effort to help graduate students get job tips from a producer of the television drama Party of Five may have backfired.

At Ms. Showalter's invitation, John Romano, a former English professor at Columbia University and the executive producer of the show, spoke at the December M.L.A. conference about career opportunities in the entertainment industry for literature graduate students. At the end of his remarks, he invited anyone interested to talk to him further at an informal meeting in his hotel suite the next day.

About 30 people showed up, Mr. Romano says. A few brought scripts, but others picked his brain for job leads as story editors or in script development.

Graduate students, angry with Ms. Showalter's pushing them to consider alternative careers, had vowed to boycott the session. Later, in an e-mail exchange with one graduate student, Ms. Showalter called the boycott "sad and ironic," because Mr. Romano had already reported making one hire since the conference.

In fact, Mr. Romano had offered a job not to a graduate student, but to an actress -- the daughter of a senior English professor who just happened to be at the meeting. Neither Ms. Showalter, a professor of English at Princeton University, nor Mr. Romano will say who the person is, citing privacy.

"I didn't intend to mislead anybody," Ms. Showalter says of her e-mail message. "But inadvertently I may have put John in a bad position." ...


The Chronicle of Higher Education
Copyright 1999 The Chronicle of Higher Education
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Biologist Warns of Decline in Number of Physician Who Conduct Research

American medicine is witnessing "a progressive, dangerous decline" in the number of physician-scientists -- doctors who spend most of their time on research.

In an article in the January 15 issue of Science, Leon E. Rosenberg, a Princeton University biologist, looked at who was applying for research grants from the National Institutes of Health and found that fewer young doctors seemed to be interested in research.

The number of medical doctors applying for N.I.H. research grants for the first time fell 31 per cent from 1994 to 1997. "If this progression were to continue linearly, there would be no first-time M.D. applicants by 2003," Mr. Rosenberg wrote. ...


The Cincinnati Enquirer
1999 The Cincinnati Enquirer
February 12, 1999, Friday

HEADLINE: Obituaries

Edgar H. Lotspeich, a retired vice president of advertising at Procter & Gamble Co., died Feb. 9 at his residence in Fort Myers, Fla. The former Indian Hill resident was 82.

The Hughes High School graduate earned a degree in 1937 from Princeton University. ...


Computing Canada
Copyright 1999 Plesman Publications Ltd. (Canada)
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Instant replay disturbed Microsoft DoJ trial judge; Microsoft officials' videotaped testimony is questioned; Company Business and Marketing
BYLINE: Chandrasekaran, Rajiv

Voicing doubt about Microsoft Corp.'s credibility, the federal judge conducting the software giant's antitrust trial has called a key video presentation for Microsoft "not reliable" and said he found inconsistencies that the government has highlighted to be "very troubling."

To Microsoft's dismay, a Justice Department attorney last week rolled the tape frame-by-frame on a large projection screen for U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, pointing to numerous discrepancies in the presentation.

Microsoft had submitted it to bolster arguments that removing Internet technologies from the company's Windows 98 software creates serious glitches.

Although the demonstration appeared to viewers to have been performed on one computer, the government asserted that the company actually had filmed more than one machine and spliced the results together.

The computers also appeared to have other software running on them that could have affected the results of the test. ...

Microsoft originally ran the videotape to contradict government witness Edward Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor who had developed a program that he contended could remove key parts of Explorer from Windows 98 without damaging the operating system.


THE JOURNAL (Newcastle, UK)
Copyright 1999 Newcastle Chronicle & Journal Ltd
February 12, 1999, Friday

HEADLINE: Barclays pin hopes on Bank of America boss; Millions of pounds on offer to get bank back on course
BYLINE: By Brian Nicholls

BARCLAYS named a new boss yesterday - a former US intelligence man who is promised a multi-million fortune if he gets the troubled bank back on course.

City analysts welcomed the appointment, as did the bank employees' union. Barclays shares rose 5pc immediately.

Mike O'Neill, 51, president of principal investing and wealth management at Bank of America, will become Barclays group chief executive and director. He will fill the gap left by the shock November resignation of Martin Taylor, 47.

The Princeton University graduate, who became a US marine intelligence officer before switching to a financial career, will replace acting chief executive Sir Peter Middleton next month. ...


The Legal Intelligencer
Copyright 1999 American Lawyer Media
February 12, 1999 Friday

HEADLINE: Montgomery Mc CrackenLawyer Doubles as Editor
BYLINE: By Lauren Capotosto, Special to the Legal

When Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads ceased publication of its nonprofit newsletter in 1996, partner Don Kramer decided to take over the publication, independent of the firm, and has expanded distribution to nearly 1,000 subscribers nationally.

Kramer is chair of the firm's health, education and nonprofit law group and has been advising nonprofits for over 30 years. ...

Kramer said he has entered a virtually non-existent market, as very few newsletters specifically address the legal needs of nonprofit organizations.He began dabbling in publishing as an undergraduate at Princeton University, where he was chairman of The Daily Princetonian, and then as a law student at Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Record. Kramer has also worked on two nonprofit journals. ...


New Statesman (1996)
Copyright 1999 Statesman and Nation Publishing Company Ltd.
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Burning the Days; Review
BYLINE: Burrows, Stuart

James Salter Harvill Press, 384pp, [pounds]7.99

Is James Salter America's most important living writer? The question might sound absurd yet no less than Richard Ford and Susan Sontag think his work superior to that of the Nobel prizewinners Toni Morrison and Saul Bellow. Given that Salter has published only five novels and a prize-winning short story collection in 40 years of near-invisibility, it might be fairer to echo the New Yorker critic James Wolcott and call him America's most underrated underrated writer.

Salter's long-overdue autobiography, Burning the Days, a stylish and moving account of his various incarnations as a fighter pilot, rock climber, screenwriter and novelist, may help bring him the wider acclaim his fiction deserves. The book arrests your attention from its disarming opening: "The true chronicler of my life, a tall, soft-looking man with watery eyes, came up to me at the gathering and said, as if he had been waiting a long time to tell me, that he knew everything. I had never seen him before." ...

Stuart Burrows is a British critic based at Princeton University


The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
Copyright 1999 The News and Observer
February 12, 1999 Friday

HEADLINE: Collegiate Christianity
BYLINE: DAVID CHO, KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

At Ivy League and other elite universities across the nation, the face of Christianity has been rapidly changing from Caucasian to Asian.

As long-established student Christian clubs - some of them go back to the time of World War I - have shifted ethnically, they also have grown. In places perhaps known more as vanguards for deconstructionism and gay studies - such as Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago - Asian-dominated Christian fellowships in many cases attract hundreds of students.

Ironically, while Asian-American students are embracing traditional, Western forms of Christianity, many white students are seeking spiritual fulfillment in Eastern New Age religions; Buddhism; and Taoism, a Chinese mystical philosophy. ...

The change in atmosphere in these groups during the early 1990s paved the way for sophomore Peter Kim to join Manna, a Christian group at Princeton of about 80 students, most of whom are Asians. "It would have been different for me if there weren't so many Asians here," he said one night recently at Manna. "It was easier to come here because I could identify with the people." ...

GRAPHIC: (PHOTO) Princeton University students Jane Lee, Helan Kwak and Peter Yang are among Asian students discovering Christianity. Knight Ridder Newspapers


South China Morning Post
Copyright 1999 South China Morning Post Ltd.
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Profit slump delays $774m gift by tycoon
BYLINE: NIALL FRASER

Construction tycoon Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung has admitted a slump in profits has left him struggling to pay a US$100 million (HK$774 million) donation to one of America's leading universities.

His pledge, the biggest to a US university by a foreign national, was made to Princeton University in New Jersey in November 1995.

A graduate of the Ivy League institution, Sir Gordon had hoped to have paid the donation by the turn of the century in five instalments.

At the time the pledge was made, it led to quips that the famous institution should be re-named "Princeton Wuniversity".

But yesterday, in an interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal, Sir Gordon said he was feeling "pretty bad" and the newspaper claimed just one third of the pledge had been paid.

The report said that he was hoping to honour it by 2005.

Advice given to Princeton investment chiefs by Sir Gordon that they buy stocks in his company Hopewell Holdings has backfired to the tune of US$33 million due to the recession, the Journal reported. ...


The Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright 1999 The Straits Times Press Limited
February 12, 1999

HEADLINE: Crisis hits tycoon's $169m pledge to US university

HONGKONG -Prominent Hongkong businessman Gordon Wu, an alumnus of Princeton University, announced in late 1995 that he was giving the university US$100 million (S$169 million).

Since then, he has paid only a third of his giant pledge, but because of the Asian economic crisis, he is now not sure when he can give the rest, the Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) reported yesterday. ...

 Newspapers around the world carried the story of how the one-time engineering student with so-so grades had made a fortune as an Asian builder and was showing his gratitude with the biggest gift ever made by a foreign national to a university in the United States. ...

The Hongkong businessman told Princeton that he planned to fulfil the entire pledge in five to 10 years, but, hopefully, five, said the report.

So far, it has not turned out quite as planned. He has paid about a third of his pledge. ...

Still, the 63-year-old businessman said he remained fully committed to making good on his promise.

"I have not accomplished my purpose in life unless I fulfil that pledge," he said.


THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (London)
Copyright 1999 Telegraph Group Limited
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: City: Wu's $100m woe for Princeton

BYLINE: By Andrew Cave in New York

BODY: THE biggest gift made by a foreign national to an American university is turning out to be a mixed blessing for Ivy League member Princeton University.

Hong Kong businessman Sir Gordon Wu announced three years ago that he was giving $100m ( pounds 60m) to his alma mater to "reciprocate" for hospitality shown by Americans to foreign students such as himself.

However, having paid $33m of the money, Sir Gordon says he isn't sure when he can give the rest because his Hong Kong development company Hopewell Holdings has been hit by the Asian economic crisis. In the meantime, Princeton has incurred a paper loss of more than $33m from buying stock in the company on the advice of Sir Gordon.

Princeton's endowment fund is worth $5.6 billion and it says its Asian investments are for the long term. But the episode has proved embarrassing for one of America's most prestigious universities. ...


The Associated Press
State & Local Wire
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: Princeton's rally against Penn one for the record books
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA

Even Michael Jordan couldn't hold off the Princeton Tigers.

And so the day after Princeton pulled off the greatest comeback in school history, rallying from 27 points in the second half to defeat archrival Pennsylvania, the Quakers' Jordan found it tough just going to class.

"Just walking campus was kind of tough," Jordan said Wednesday. "Just to look everyone in the face."

There were frowns all around Penn's campus after the Quakers' stunning 50-49 loss to the Tigers on Tuesday. After being up 40-13 with 15:15 left in the second half, most in the crowd of 8,722 at the historic Palestra thought Penn would finally shake Princeton and claim sole possession of first place in the Ivy League.

Then came "The Comeback" - a 23-2 Princeton run fueled by a swarming pressure defense that culminated with Chris Young's game-winning hook shot for a one-point win. ...


The Associated Press
State & Local Wire
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: Report: State courts need to be overhauled
DATELINE: BALTIMORE

A panel of law experts says Maryland's judges should get job evaluations and the court system must be overhauled to restore public trust in the judiciary.

Unless court officials change the way they select, train, compensate, supervise and discipline judges, reforms will be mandated by state lawmakers, according to the report being prepared by a 16-member panel of judges, lawyers and academics.

The soon-to-be released report also says judges should get first-ever performance evaluations once every four years, The Daily Record reported Wednesday. ...

Public confidence in the judiciary is on the wane. A survey done by Princeton University last year showed 33 percent of Americans have lost faith in the system. The highly publicized release of felony suspects - accused of serious crimes such as murder - because they waited too long to go to trial in Baltimore may have also contributed to erosion of public trust. ...


The Houston Chronicle
Copyright 1999 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company

February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: New leader for Jordan: Abdullah follows in father's footsteps
BYLINE: JEANNIE KEVER

The death of King Hussein, who became ruler of a tiny desert kingdom when he was just 16 years old, has been front-page news for days.

Jordan is a small, impoverished nation with few natural resources, unlike the many oil-rich Arab countries that surround it. But it has played an important role in history since Hussein's grandfather became its first ruler in 1946.

Hussein became king after his grandfather was assassinated and his father, who was mentally ill, was able to serve only briefly.

During his years as king, Hussein survived at least 12 assassination attempts and seven plots to overthrow him. He died Sunday of a form of cancer called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was 63. ...

Queen Noor, born Lisa Halaby to a Christian Arab-American family, was King Hussein's fourth wife. They had four children; he had seven other children and an adopted daughter from his first three marriages.

Queen Noor, 47, graduated from Princeton University, where she trained as an architect, before marrying the king in 1978. ...


Morning Star (Wilmington, NC)
Copyright 1999 Wilmington Star-News, Inc.
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: Lasers get town's attention

BYLINE: MORGAN LEE, Staff Writer

They're all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

When a hand-held laser pointer caught Marc Kaplan's eye, he was temporarily blinded as if he had looked into a very bright camera flash bulb.

"It took an hour until I felt like my eye was working as it should have," said Mr. Kaplan, who owns Sunset Beach Fishing Pier, where laser-toting teen-agers frequent the pool hall. "I kept opening and closing my eyes and it was as if I had a haze in front of me."

At its Feb. 18 meeting, the Sunset Beach Planning Board will consider making rules restricting the use of lasers. Mr. Kaplan is the board chairman. ...

A Class 3A laser could cause injury to the eye if viewed directly for less than a quarter of a second, the amount of time that passes in the blink of an eye.

Class 3B and 4 lasers should be avoided, according to a study by the Environmental Health & Safety Department at Princeton University. Some green lasers are too powerful to be rated. ...


PR Newswire
Copyright 1999 PR Newswire Association, Inc.
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: DeVry Inc. Awarded 1999 Emerging Growth Company Award

DATELINE: CHICAGO, Feb. 11

The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG)-Chicago Chapter today announced it will present its 1999 Emerging Company Award to DeVry Inc. (NYSE: DV), an international higher education company based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. Dennis J. Keller, chairman and chief executive officer at DeVry, will accept the award at a noon luncheon presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at The Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower. ...

Keller is a graduate of Princeton University and The University of Chicago. Keller and his partner, Ronald L. Taylor, president and chief operating officer, co-founded Keller Graduate School of Management in 1973. In 1987, Keller Graduate School purchased DeVry Institutes from Bell & Howell. ...


PR Newswire
Copyright 1999 PR Newswire Association, Inc.
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: American Physical Society Launches 'Public Face of Physics' Program An Educational Program Aimed at the General Public

DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, Md., Feb. 11

They're part Sherlock Holmes and part Albert Einstein, with a little Indiana Jones thrown in. They work on college campuses, in government research labs, and for corporate America. They have a passion for their work and a single-minded intensity as they explore the mysteries of the universe. Standing on the shoulders of giants, these men and women are poised to answer the scientific challenges of the 21st century.

In honor of its Centennial year, the American Physical Society has announced the launch of a new program, the "Public Face of Physics," designed to help everyone better understand what it is that physicists do. The program involves 22 creative and dynamic physicists from across the United States who are excited about their careers and eager to tell the general public not only what they do, but also why they do it and what it means for our future. ...

 The Public Face of Physics program highlights the work of: Gordon D. Cates, Ph.D. Princeton University


TOPEKA CAPITAL JOURNAL
Copyright 1999 The Topeka Capital-Journal
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: Ernest S. Burch

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Ernest S. Burch, formerly of Harrisburg, died Feb. 2, 1999, in Palm Desert, Calif.

Mr. Burch was a prominent attorney Harrisburg until he retired. ...

He was born in Oil City, Pa., the son of Ernest Albert Burch and Lena Suhr Burch. He graduated from Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and attended Princeton University where he was business manager of the Daily Princetonian and president of the Charter Club. He graduated cum laude in 1937. He earned alaw degree at Yale University in 1940. ...


University Wire
Copyright 1999 Yale Daily News via U-Wire
February 11, 1999

HEADLINE: Ivies differ on limiting early admittance
BYLINE: By Jeff Herzog, Yale Daily News
SOURCE: Yale U.

DATELINE: New Haven, Conn.

At the Thatcher School in Ojai, Calif., Director of College Counseling Maria Morales-Kent said she sees a trend in how high school students apply to colleges.

"There are a number of students who are not ready to go early who are trying to go early because they're in panic that they'll lose their shot," Morales-Kent said. "They're afraid the slots will be fewer and as a result it will be harder to get in."

Pressure from a nationwide increase in applications to the top three Ivy League schools has illuminated how Yale, Princeton, and Harvard admissions officers disagree on the amount of students that a major university should accept early.

Harvard's non-binding early action admissions program contrasts with Princeton's and Yale's binding early decision admissions program in a year where all three universities saw an increase in both their regular and early applicant pools. ...

Princeton Dean of Admissions Fred Hargadon said he believes students accepted in early action programs like Harvard's continue to apply to other schools just to see where they can get in.

"The most rational part of what we do is early," Hargadon said. "Early decision has uncluttered the pipe line."

Hargadon said early decision programs are for attracting students who truly want to attend the university, not students who are playing the best odds.

"The hard part is when we get down to the last weeks of March and they put one in the admit pile and seven in the deny pile," Hargadon said. "There's a surplus of very bright kids everywhere."

He said while a student in the regular pool may choose to attend college elsewhere, the early decision applicants state their sincere willingness to attend Princeton.

Princeton accepted roughly 43 percent of their class early and their total applicant pool has increased by 14 percent since last year, Hargadon said. ...


University Wire
Copyright 1999 Daily Princetonian via U-Wire
February 11, 1999

SECTION: EDITORIAL
HEADLINE: Field of dreams?
BYLINE: Staff Editorial, Daily Princetonian
SOURCE: Princeton U.

DATELINE: Princeton, N.J.

When the University proposed its $45-million Princeton University Stadium project, it emphasized the facility's function as both an athletic and non-athletic venue. Architect Rafael Violy noted the stadium's "intimate" design, which would render it an ideal space for non-athletic community events.

But five months since its grand opening, the stadium has yet to host a non-athletic event.

We realize that any stadium is primarily an athletic facility and we respect that maintaining the integrity of the field is a serious concern. We also acknowledge that the new stadium has enabled the University to host some sporting events -- such as this spring's NCAA men's lacrosse quarterfinals -- that it previously could not.

However, we encourage the University to make good on its promise to utilize its new facility for a variety of civic functions. Spring Fling could be relocated from Poe Field to the stadium. The P-rade could conclude there. Movies could be shown on wide screens for the student body. The stadium could also host community or student concerts -- if Chris Rock tickets can sell out in eight hours, it is clear that the USG needs a venue larger than Dillon Gym for popular performing acts. ...


The Washington Times
Copyright 1999 News World Communications, Inc.
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: Drop in teen birthrates attributed to abstinence

BYLINE: Cheryl Wetzstein; THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A review of national data indicates that teen birthrates have been falling because teens are abstaining from sex, not because they're using more condoms, a group of doctors say in a study released yesterday.

This conclusion "refutes" efforts by federal agencies and advocacy groups to attribute the birthrate declines to contraceptive use, said the Consortium of State Physicians Resource Councils (PRC), which represents 2,000 health care professionals. ...

The PRC also criticized an anti-abstinence editorial published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The JAMA editorial accompanied a Princeton University study that found that young teens who were taught about contraception were less sexually active a year later than teens who had abstinence education.

Dr. Mohn said the Princeton study was flawed because it did not use a genuine abstinence program. And the editorial was similarly flawed, said Dr. Coburn. "I will tell you that within JAMA, there is a bias against abstinence," the congressman said. ...


The Washington Post
Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
February 11, 1999, Thursday

HEADLINE: A Year of Scandal With No Winners; Public Trust in Institutions Has Suffered, but Long-Term Damage Remains in Doubt

BYLINE: David S. Broder; Dan Balz, Washington Post Staff Writers

A year of investigation and impeachment has reinforced negative trends in politics and the news media, widened the gulf between Washington and the American people and left the leaders of the country's major institutions on trial, according to scholars, public opinion experts and political analysts.

As the Senate trial of President Clinton moves to its conclusion, the damage from the events of the past year is widespread. Clinton's personal reputation has plummeted as a result of his conduct, Congress has suffered from its displays of excessive partisanship, and the news media's reputation has been hurt by its accelerating appetite for scandal.

"The damage has been pervasive," said William Galston, a professor at the University of Maryland. "The real question is, how long-lasting?" ...

 The presidency, more than other governmental institutions, is idiosyncratic, as much a reflection of the person who occupies it at the moment and the events of the time as it is a measure of the inherent powers available to any chief executive. "We thought the presidency had gone into a total decline in the period from Watergate to Jimmy Carter's [defeat]," said Fred Greenstein of Princeton University. "Then with [Ronald] Reagan, it seemed robust again. Events often override these episodes." ...


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