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February 7, 2001: Notebook Faculty file: Vouchers or not? Faculty approves new writing requirement: Dean of the college strengthens program A new old look: University hires firm to revamp campus landscapeFaculty file: Vouchers or not? One of the hot topics
in education these days is the use of school vouchers, programs
in which government gives specific students money to pay for tuition
at a private school or in some cases at a different public school.
The working premise behind vouchers is that the children who use
them will get a better education, and the schools that lose students,
and therefore funding, will shape up in response.
“There are four
basic questions we are trying to answer,” Rouse said. “Which
families choose to use the voucher system and why; what is the effect
on the education of students who use vouchers and what is the effect
on students who do not; and how do schools respond to the voucher
program.” The study will run about six years. A previous study of Rouse’s
involved Milwaukee’s voucher program. She says there was no
clear-cut outcome, except that small classes seemed to have some
benefit. Another area of interest for Rouse is music. One of her
studies found that when orchestras held blind auditions, where screens
shield the identity of the musicians, more women were hired than
when screens were not used. Rouse’s many papers can be found
at www.irs.princeton.edu:80/bios/rouse/working_papers.html Rouse earned her Ph.D.
at Harvard and came to Princeton in 1992; she earned tenure in 1998.
She teaches Advanced Quantitative Analysis, a graduate-level course
in statistics. By L.O. Faculty
approves new writing requirement Last December, after
a two-year period of evaluation, a faculty committee voted unanimously
to overhaul the teaching of writing at Princeton. Writing will now
be taught in required freshman seminars of no more than 12 students
beginning in fall 2001. The addition of this seminar raises the
number of credits that students must fulfill to earn an A.B. degree
from 30 to 31. Previously, the writing
requirement at Princeton was usually fulfilled in the freshman year
by taking a course with a “w” attached to it. The “w”
indicated that significant writing took place in the course. However, in evaluating
the effectiveness of these “w” courses, Dean of the College
Nancy Malkiel and the faculty committee decided that this method
was inadequately preparing students. “Clear writing goes
hand in hand with – indeed, enables – critical thinking.
The writing requirement is not a box to check off or a hurdle to
be transcended; rather, it should play a central role in the intellectual
growth and maturation of Princeton undergraduates,” said Malkiel
in a four-page memo to the faculty. The memo also said, “Although
Princeton students are obliged to do a great deal of writing –
course papers, junior papers, design projects, the senior thesis
– they too often begin work in their fields of concentration
unprepared for the level of writing that is required of them.” In addition, Malkiel
suggests that departments will establish second-level writing courses
that students could take after finishing the freshman requirement.
These courses would “provide rigorous training in the conventions
of exposition, argument, and analysis in the respective disciplines.” The new emphasis on writing will involve writing, revision, peer reviews, and one-on-one discussions between students and instructors. A new, more rigorous set of standards will be set for the seminars, including the frequency of writing assignments, variety of genres, opportunities for revision, progression of short papers to longer, more complex papers, and the minimum number of pages of required writing. Adding this degree requirement
will force the university to hire writing professionals, including
a program director and numerous writing instructors. The director
of the program will be someone “deeply versed in the pedagogy
of writing and who has a distinguished record of publications, teaching,
and administrative experience,” said Malkiel. At press time
the university was still searching for a director of the program.
Once that person is found, additional instructors will be hired.
It is possible that some of the writing instructors will be members
of the current faculty, postdocs, post-enrolled graduate students,
or administrators who have appropriate academic credentials. In evaluating the program,
the committee took comments from a number of areas, including faculty
who have taught “w” courses, department chairs, residential
college masters, undergraduate academic deans, directors of studies,
and students. An external committee comprising writing experts from
other universities also reviewed Princeton’s program. The new program will
be reviewed internally after three years and by an external committee
after five. By L.O. The new year came to
Princeton as a blizzard dropped a foot of snow on the area. An anonymous
snow Tiger took time to tramp out the new date in the courtyard
below Blair. Most of the snow had melted by the middle of January.
A slight snowfall dusted campus on the 18th, but sophomores were
quiet, choosing not to risk In an effort to create
industry-related partnerships to develop scientific findings that
have potential commercial applications, the university held a workshop
on January 5 to introduce members of the private investment community
to the latest advances in the field of photonics, nano-technology,
and biotechnology.
Andrew Emilio Mallozzi
’02 was arrested by Princeton Borough Police on January 10,
two days into reading period, for driving while intoxicated and
possession of alcohol in a motor vehicle by a minor. Mallozzi was
stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. In his possession
were a bottle of whiskey and 24 beers. The university last December
gave $300,000 to the public library of Princeton for a new building
that is scheduled to begin construction later this year. The university’s
donation represents 1.7 percent of the projected $17.5 million budget.
More than 2,350 Princeton students, faculty, and staff members have
public library cards, borrowing more than 40,000 items during a
year, said library officials.
Jansen began his teaching
career at the University of Washington in 1950 and moved to Princeton
in 1959 as professor in the departments of history and Oriental
studies. He was one of a small group of specialists in the study
of Japan who deepened the American understanding of Japanese history
and helped introduce Japan into college and university curricula. At Princeton, Jansen
was a member of the history department, director of the Program
in East Asian Studies (1962-68), and the first chair of the Department
of East Asian Studies (1969-72). He retired in 1992. Among his many accomplishments
and achievements, Jansen was recognized for his contributions to
Japanese studies and Japanese-American relations by the Japan Foundation,
the city of Osaka, the Japan Society of New York, and the Emperor
of Japan, who conferred on him the Order of the Sacred Treasure
in 1985. Melvin B. Gottlieb,
former professor of astrophysics and director of the Plasma Physics
Laboratory from 1961-80, died December 1 in Haverford, Pennsylvania.
He was 83. Gottlieb devoted considerable
time to working toward better understanding and cooperation with
other nations in the development of fusion power. He was a member
of several commissions on fusion power and was active in many organizations
whose purposes included finding alternative sources of energy. After
he retired in 1980, he was a consultant until 1992. A
new old look: In the midst of Princeton’s
multimillion-dollar construction campaign to change the face of
the university, an architecture firm has been hired to give campus
landscaping a retro twist. Quennell Rothschild & Partners, a
New York-based landscape architecture firm, is coordinating a series
of exterior renovation projects that will take place during the
next several years. The firm is designing and renovating building
exteriors and landscaping several areas of campus, using photos
and information from the University Archives as guides. According to Peter Rothschild,
one of the architects working on the project, the renovations include
Hamilton Courtyard, the grounds surrounding Whig, Clio and Murray
Dodge, the landscaping near Alexander Hall, and Cannon Green. Walkways
will be repaved, overgrown trees and other plants removed, and new
vegetation planted, keeping historical consistency in mind. James Consolloy, grounds
manager for the grounds and buildings maintenance department, said
he approved of the plans to create new landscaping based on older
designs. “She did a lot with
Gothic campus landscaping designs,” Consolloy said, adding
that Farrand sought to provide “a view from every window.”
Consolloy said Farrand’s designs were aesthetically pleasing,
but as trees and other plant life on campus grew, some buildings
and other areas became obscured. “The original landscaping
designs were very strong. It’s something we wanted to go back
to.” By Rich Tucker ’01
This story was adapted with permission from the Daily Princetonian. |
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Associate
professor of economics Cecilia Rouse studies voucher programs and
hopes to be able to shed light on the issue at some point in this
decade.
Seventeen
professors, from molecular biology, chemistry, chemical engineering,
physics, electrical engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering,
talked about their work to more than 250 people who attended the
workshop, which was organized by the Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic
Materials (POEM). The attendees included venture capitalists and
entrepreneurs interested in collaborations.
Marius
Berthus Jansen ’44, professor, emeritus, of history and
East Asian studies, died of severe internal bleeding as a result
of a ruptured aorta on December 10 at his home in Princeton. He
was 78. Born in the Netherlands in 1922, Jansen grew up in Massachusetts
and, after earning his degree in 1943, spent three years in the
military counter-intelligence corps. He earned his doctorate at
Harvard in 1950. 