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April 18, 2001: Notebook Princeton names new head of CIT: Betty Leydon leaves Duke to replace Fuchs Can't finish in five years? Graduate students ask for continued benefits Make room for scholars:University provides more housing for grads Students pack Frist to watch NCAA game W. Jason Morgan *64 has
never taken a geology course. Yet his insights have revolutionized
the way fellow geoscientists view Planet Earth. In 1967, Morgan
proposed that the surface of the earth is formed of rigid plates
whose motion is governed by rules now called plate tectonics —
a concept central to understanding continental drift, oceanic and
continental crusts, mountain formation, volcanoes, and earthquakes.
This, and other research
into the evolution and dynamics of the earth’s mantle —
the 1,800-mile-thick layer between earth’s crust and its core
— have won Morgan numerous honors, most recently the prestigious
Japan Prize in 1990 and Vetlesen Prize in 2000. The route to his current
position as Knox Taylor professor of geography and professor of
geophysics in the Department of Geosciences was “atypical,”
admits Morgan, who earned his Ph.D. in physics. A dissertation concerning
“the rotation of the earth” drew him to geophysics, as
he began to approach geoscientific phenomena “by examining
the physics behind them.” His continuing effort to understand
the mantle has led him recently from geophysics to geochemistry,
partly because “the chemistry has the record of time and place
to test mechanical models.” Such ongoing research
interests, says Morgan, ensure that “you never go stale as
a teacher” — as if one could be blasé describing
his courses Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Other Hazards and Active
Geological Processes. Also important to teaching, Morgan believes,
is experience as a faculty adviser (his was in Wilson College),
which “should be required for every faculty member.” The lack of geology courses
in his background hasn’t bothered Morgan. “Over the years,”
he says simply, “I’ve picked up a lot.” By Caroline Moseley Princeton
names new head of CIT Betty Leydon, the top-ranking
information technology administrator at Duke University, will become
Princeton’s vice president for information technology in June.
She replaces Ira Fuchs, who is now the vice president for research
and information technology at the Andrew Mellon Foundation. At Princeton, Leydon
will focus on planning for the computing, networking, and telecommunications
needs of academic and administrative offices. In a statement, Leydon
said, “I am looking forward to working with the faculty, the
staff, and everyone in the Princeton community to find the best
strategic direction for information technology. One of the biggest
challenges is making sure that the technology does not become an
end in itself. Having done graduate work and teaching, it helps
me to see what the end user of technology needs.” Leydon earned her bachelor’s
degree at Bucknell in 1967 and master’s degree in English language
and linguistics at the University of New Hampshire in 1981. Before
joining Duke in 1994, she worked as a computer programmer, a systems
engineer, a software developer, and as an administrator for computing
and information services at the University of New Hampshire. War
and child soldiers
Jeffrey Herbst ’83,
chair of Princeton’s politics department, recently completed
a paper titled “International Laws of War and the African Child:
Norms, Compliance and Sovereignty.” He sat with PAW to discuss
his research and the tragedy of child soldiers. How did you become involved
in researching child soldiers? I have long been interested
in what are called the laws of war. This is paradoxical in some
ways because war seems to be the most unregulated thing, but in
fact there are lots of laws of war — how you should treat enemy
prisoners, how you should treat noncombatants. The basic problem is
an increasing number of international conventions, treaties, meetings,
and protocols on all types of issues, but lagging enforcement of
those norms. The question is: Should the laws or norms get so far
ahead of enforcement that people become cynical about things going
on at the international level and, therefore, regulation should
essentially slow down? Or is this just the nature of leadership,
that people get ahead of where reality is and then try to pull reality
in the direction they are trying to go? In Africa the number
of civil wars has been significant, and one of the phenomena we’ve
seen in the 1980s and 1990s is the appearance of the child soldier,
generally defined as combatants under 15. The child soldier is one
of those aspects of war the international community is trying to
regulate, first with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in
1990, which was the most widely adopted human rights instrument
in world history, and now with a new international protocol dealing
specifically with child soldiers. Enforcement of laws is
certainly lagging well behind. It’s very hard to see that these
international conventions and protocols, which the African countries
are usually very quick to sign, have any effect on the ground. Here
are all these conventions and laws being passed in New York and
Geneva while the problem on the ground is, if anything, getting
worse. In fact, these rules
represent some of the real paradoxes of international law today.
African countries want their opponents’ practices to be regulated
by international law. They want the law to say, for instance, these
guerrillas we’re fighting can’t use child soldiers. But
they don’t want guerrilla movements to have any kind of international
legal personality. They don’t want them recognized in any way
by the outside world because the governments’ official position
is invariably that this is not a political opposition, these are
criminals, thugs, etc. Are there statistics
on death and injury rates among children? There are, and they’re
all over the place. One statistic I think stands out is that the
percentage of civilians among total casualties is going up and up.
If you look at a classic war like World War I, the overwhelming
number of deaths were among combatants — soldiers killing soldiers.
Now it’s estimated in these African wars that 50 to 60, maybe
70 percent of deaths are among civilians. The “civilianization”
— for lack of another word — of casualties is one of the
most striking trends of modern warfare. It means that women and
children especially, who make up the majority of noncombatants,
are at ever greater risk. What can the U.S. do
to address the problem? It’s a larger problem
of how you bring peace to these countries. You can’t address
the child-soldiers issue independent of these larger questions.
That’s one of the reasons why conventions and legal protocols
have been of such limited use. The fundamental problem is not that
people happen to be using child soldiers, the fundamental problem
is that these countries have been at war so long that all their
basic institutions and legal practices are grinding down. By Fran Hulette Fran Hulette is an occasional contributor to PAW. A longer interview with Herbst is on our Web site at www.princeton.edu/~paw.
Victor Preller ’53
*65, professor, emeritus, of religion, died of pneumonia January
19 at the Medical Center at Princeton. He was 69. Preller served as master
of the Graduate College from 1985 to 1990, and was noted for fostering
a high level of intellectual discourse and a sense of community
there. Many graduate alumni remember him as someone who fought tirelessly
to protect their interests. He retired in 1995. In the academic world,
Preller is best known for his book Divine Science and the Science
of God, a controversial interpretation of Thomas Aquinas. In seminars
Preller attacked the scholastic assumption that the central concept
in Aquinas’s ethics is that of natural law. In other courses
Preller developed a novel account of religious language and its
interpretation. In addition to his Princeton
degrees, he earned degrees at Oxford and the General Theological
Seminary in New York. He began teaching at Princeton in 1960.
Wallace D. Hayes, an
emeritus professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who made
fundamental contributions to the understanding of flight and supersonic
aircraft design, died March 2 in Hightstown, New Jersey, after a
long struggle with Parkin-son’s disease. He was 82. In a series of publications
beginning with his 1947 Ph.D. thesis at the California Institute
of Technology he developed a theory of supersonic flow called the
“supersonic area rule” which strongly influenced the design
of high-speed aircraft. His work also provided the first understanding
of the behavior of delta wing aircraft flying just above the speed
of sound. He followed his work
in supersonic flow with groundbreaking studies in hypersonic flow.
He developed the “Hayes similitude principle,” which enabled
designers to take the results of one series of tests or calculations
and apply them to the design of an entire family of similar configurations
where neither tests nor detailed calculations are available. Hayes was educated in
California and began work in the aircraft industry in 1939. From
1952 to 1954 he was with the Office of Naval Research in London.
In 1954, he came to Princeton, where he taught until 1989. A memorial service is
planned for April 22 at the University Chapel. Graduate School News: Adding graduate alumni to the Trustees Board to consider increasing graduate representation Increasing graduate alumni
representation to the university’s Board of Trustees appears
to be an idea whose time has come, but how many and how to choose
these new members has not been decided. The Graduate U-Council
proposed adding two recent graduate alumni to the board at the February
meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC).
The proposal suggests direct election by current graduate students
and recent alumni, and staggering replacements every two years,
a plan similar to the policy for young undergraduate alumni. Currently the board is
required to have only one graduate school alumnus among its 40 members,
but two are serving, President Harold T. Shapiro *64 (one of two
ex-officio members) and Barry Munitz *68. Four undergraduate alumni
have seats, elected to the board for four-year terms each spring
by juniors, seniors, and members of the two most recent graduating
classes. The Graduate U-Council proposes that the new graduate alumni
seats be filled by students who have graduated within the last five
years. “The Graduate School
scene has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, so we feel
strongly that someone who has graduated recently and is more connected
to the institution will help the board,” says Karthick Ramakrishnan
GS, who coauthored the proposal with Graduate School Government
Chair Lauren Hale and David Linsenmeier GS. “This is not an
issue of representing graduate student interests, however,”
Ramakrishnan added. “It’s about caring for the institution
as a whole. Our belief is that the institution will get stronger
if these voices are added.” While increasing graduate
alumni representation for the trustees has support, questions about
selection and eligibility are still being debated. “There are
a number of people, including those in the Graduate School, who
feel we should get the strongest possible person for the trustees,
whether they are young or old,” says university Vice President
and Secretary Thomas Wright ’62. Adds Provost Jeremiah Ostriker,
“I’m very enthusiastic about increasing the representation
of graduate alumni on the board. But the best process for choosing
members is up to the board. They know the mode of selecting people
best suited to join them, whether elected or appointed.” According to Wright,
the trustees will most likely consider adding graduate alumni representation
at their meeting this month. By Maria LoBiondo
Can’t
finish in five years? How the Graduate School
deals with the limbo students face when their student status ends
but their dissertations aren’t completed is a major focus of
the recent Graduate Student Life Initiative report. Post-enrollment status,
contends the report written by the Graduate Student Government and
Graduate U-Council, hampers a majority of Ph.D. candidates at Princeton,
adding financial burdens mainly stemming from the loss of student
status. These include undergraduate student loans coming due; loss
of subsidized student housing for many, but if university housing
is available, being charged an additional 19 percent for this rent;
not being automatically included in Princeton’s Student Health
Plan; and loss of community privileges such as student identification
cards, sports and gym facility access, and library carrels. Addition-ally,
international students may have visa difficulties. “We are not asking
that the university extend the stipend privilege, but rather that
they do what other universities do — allow people actively
pursuing their Ph.D. to retain their student status even if it extends
beyond the length of the program, since most students don’t
finish during this time,” said Lauren Hale, chair of the Graduate
Student Government. According to Graduate
School Associate Dean David Redman, Princeton makes clear the length
of enrollment, usually five years, from the student’s first
contract. After that period, students are considered “enrollment
terminated, degree candidacy continued.” However, the graduate
student report suggests that friction between students and the administration
has been brewing for some time. In its concluding statement on post-enrollment
status, the report states its primary goals are “openness and
freedom of information, and willingness to admit a severe problem
exists. Many deny the size Graduate School Dean
John Wilson is preparing an official response to the report, particularly
the section on post-enrollment status, for a future meeting of the
Council of the Princeton University Community. By Maria LoBiondo Make
room for scholars With the improved financial
aid offered to graduate students beginning this fall, the life of
graduate students appears to be improving. However, one source of
difficulty has been housing. The university does not guarantee housing
for all graduate students — no university does — but Princeton
does provide 75 percent of graduate students with a place to live.
This year some 100 students had to make outside living arrangements,
which put them up against a tight housing market in Princeton, where
the average rent is $1,000 monthly for one-bedroom apartments. University administrators,
in order to ease the problem for next year’s anticipated class
of 2,010 students, have approved several short-term measures. This fall, Lockhart Hall,
an undergraduate dormitory slated for renovation, will be removed
from the renewal list and given over to graduate students. Additionally,
Wyman House at the Graduate College, three vacant university-owned
houses, and vacant faculty/staff housing will be pressed into service;
selected rooms in the Graduate College will be converted to doubles,
and, if needed, the university will rent apartments in the community
to sublet to graduate students. In all, the university anticipates
providing 1,507 students with housing, about 75 percent. “If the number of
graduate students increases, which may well happen given that Princeton
has made financial aid more enticing, then housing will be more
of a problem,” said Lauren Hale, chair of the Graduate Student
Government. “While it’s nice to see the university recognizes
this, it’s not clear what the solution is.” Said Associate
Provost Joann Mitchell, who chaired the ad-hoc committee, “We’ve
worked as hard as we can to pursue actively those options that will
make sure students covered under current university policy will
be housed.” She added that next year’s student numbers
are estimated guesses until mid-April’s housing application
deadline. A long-term graduate housing committee is pursuing further
options. By Maria LoBiondo
IPPEX, a Web site created
by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, was recently featured
in an episode of NASA Connect, a television show devoted to science
education, and is becoming a favorite destination among students
and educators. Originally launched in
1997, IPPEX (the Internet Plasma Physics Education eXperience) was
created by a collaboration of Princeton physicists, computer scientists,
and science education experts as an interactive way of introducing
the general public to the challenges of physics, as well as to the
workings of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. IPPEX offers browsers
four interactive physics modules — one each on matter, electricity
and magnetism, energy, and fusion — as well as a virtual fusion
reactor in which users can operate their own fusion experiments.
There is also a data analysis page, where users can manipulate data
from the real fusion test reactor at PPPL. “We make data from
our research projects available at more or less the same time as
our own physicists are seeing it,” said Project Manager Andrew
Post-Zwicker. Because IPPEX is so advanced,
even professional physicists have been known to use the Web site.
“I know a few Ph.D.s who like to play with the interactive
simulators, though there are some 16-year-olds out there who’ve
gotten better scores,” said Post-Zwicker. Over the years, traffic
to IPPEX has increased, and along with the increase in popularity
has come an increase in recognition. “We’ve won, to use
the scientifically accurate term, a kazillion awards,” said
Post-Zwicker. By Andrew Shtulman ’01 To visit IPPEX and all its interactive components, log onto http://ippex.pppl.gov/ippex/ Students pack Frist to watch NCAA game On Friday, March 16,
more than 1,200 students, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered in
front of big-screen televisions and video projection screens at
Frist Campus Center to cheer on the men’s basketball team as
the Tigers competed against the University of North Carolina in
the first round of the NCAA tournament in New Orleans. While most people sat
downstairs in the cavernous multipurpose room, others clustered
around the first-floor television set, in the theater, or in the
classrooms. Each of the viewing areas was decorated with orange
and black balloons, and members of the Frist staff provided students
with free pizza and subs throughout the evening. In total, 80 pizzas
and 10 six-foot subs were consumed, along with plenty of orange
drink. For most students, Frist
was more than just an appealing place to watch the game; it was
the only place. The university had made special arrangements to
air CBS Philadelphia, since CBS New York, the station carried by
the dorm cable package, was not going to show Princeton vs. UNC.
This lack of alternative venues led to the enormous turnout. And
even though Princeton trailed UNC the entire game, the crowd never
dissipated. Rather, they continued to cheer to the bitter end: Princeton
48, UNC 70. By Andrew Shtulman ’01
Williams elsewhere noted
that the “graduate stipends are so directly an increase in
the bidding for talent that they’ll certainly be matched by
the other good graduate programs — or those programs will get
less talented students.” And Princeton is not
wrong for doing so, said Ronald Ehrenberg, a professor at Cornell
University. Unlike undergraduate aid, which is generally need-based,
graduate aid has nothing to do with need, he said. “Princeton
wants to attract the best possible students and to the extent that
some people choose where to study based about aid offers, more aid
makes Princeton a more desirable place for students to attend.”
John Wilson, dean of
Princeton’s Graduate School, agreed that Princeton has “upped
the ante” with the new policy. He added that at a recent conference
held at Princeton, where graduate school administrators met to talk
about critical issues facing doctoral programs, he and Sandra Mawhinney,
associate dean of the Graduate School, heard from several counterparts
at other universities that they were going to have to respond in
some way to Princeton’s new policy if they wanted to continue
to attract the top students. Wilson also pointed out
that the escalation began several years ago after Stanford took
a “bold lead” by offering greater support to attract graduate
students.
An article in the April
issue of the Atlantic Monthly describes the Princeton students of
today, likening them in attitude to people who lived in the Edwardian
age a hundred years ago. David Brooks, the writer of the article,
which was more analytical than critical, referred to Princeton students
as the “organization kids.” The Woodrow Wilson Award,
bestowed on an alumnus who exemplifies “Princeton in the nation’s
service,” was awarded to J. Stapleton Roy ’56, a career
diplomat. The Moses Taylor Pyne
Prize, the university’s highest general award for undergraduates,
went to Adam Friedman ’01, right, a molecular biology major. The Porter Ogden Jacobus
Fellowship went to Kristine Haugen *00 (below, left) and Yueh-Lin
Loo *98 (below, right) for highest scholarly excellence in the Graduate
School. The S. Barksdale Penick,
Jr. ’25 Award, given to outstanding Alumni Schools Committees,
went to the Princeton Club of Hampton Roads, the PC of Chattanooga,
the Princeton Alumni Association of Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee,
the PAA of Memphis, and the PAA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The Alumni Council Award
for Community Service went to the Princeton Club of San Diego. The Harold H. Helm ’20
Award, a prize that recognizes exemplary and sustained service to
Annual Giving, was awarded to F. Tremaine “Josh” Billings,
Jr. ’33 of Nashville. The Jerry Horton Award,
presented to an outstanding regional Annual Giving committee, was
given to the regional committee from Philadelphia, chaired by Robert
A. Lukens ’62 and John P. Lavelle, Jr. ’85. |
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Garrison
Keillor, best known for his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion,
will be this year’s Baccalaureate speaker on June 3 at the
University Chapel. Keillor, who was born in Anoka, Minnesota, started
the radio program as a musical variety show, and in 1980 it went
national. He also writes a column for the online magazine Salon
and has published numerous essays, articles, and books. The Baccalaureate
service is limited to students and members of the university community.