In the News

Admitting members for the first time against the backdrop of the University’s four-year residential college system, the eating clubs reported strong results from BICKER AND CLUB SIGN-INS last month. “The club system remains very healthy,” said Llewellyn Ross ’58, chairman of the Graduate Interclub Council and of Colonial Club's graduate board. Ross said that 824 students had joined one of the 10 clubs as of Feb. 14, and the number was still rising. He said club membership was higher than the previous year. “In our view, the four-year colleges have not had an impact.” Tower Club officials described the club’s 217 bickerees as the largest group in Princeton history, according to The Daily Princetonian, with 104 accepted.

Janet Dickerson, vice president for campus life, said there is greater competition for club membership, noting that there are more sophomores as enrollment increases and fewer clubs with the closing of Campus Club. Another factor, she said, may be the University’s push to offer more choices to students, including a shared-meal plan for club members who also want to join a residential college.

While the combined graduate board of Dial, Elm, and Cannon had hoped that it might be admitting members this year who would take their meals in the former CANNON CLUB, that didn’t happen. Ralph Wright ’88, treasurer of the DEC graduate board, said renovation plans are awaiting approval by the state Department of Community Affairs.

SUSAN M. TAYLOR, director of the Princeton University Art Museum since 2000, has taken a leave of absence through June 30, when her resignation will take effect. Taylor said she plans to focus on “pressing family matters and ... consider other professional opportunities.” Taylor described her tenure as “full of accomplishment,” citing the creation of new curatorial departments, exhibitions, and education programs; planning for a new structure in the University’s proposed arts neighborhood, and the completion of negotiations with the Italian government over the return of contested works of art in the museum collection. Associate director Rebecca Sender is serving as acting director while a search committee, headed by professor emeritus John Wilmerding, is at work.

Thanks to a recent acquisition of more than 800 COINS FROM MEDIEVAL GREECE minted in the eastern Mediterranean in the 13th and 14th centuries following the fall of Constantinople, students and scholars can study a time period of medieval history and its economy that has not been well documented until now. The 800 coins, called the Sarmas Collection, will be part of the University’s Numismatic Collection in Firestone Library. The largest part of the Sarmas collection features coins of the rulers of mainland Greece in the late middle ages.

W. TAYLOR REVELEY III ’65, dean of the law school at the College of William and Mary, was appointed Feb. 12 as interim president of the college after the resignation of college president Gene Nichol. Nichol, whose brief tenure was marked by controversy, stepped down after learning that he would not be reappointed by the college’s Board of Visitors. Reveley had been a finalist for the position when Nichol was appointed in 2005