Patron of the Arts

University Trustee Peter B. Lewis ’55 has a big smile as he is joined by President Tilghman at the Nov. 9 public launch of the Lewis Center for the Arts. The Creative and Performing Arts Center was renamed for Lewis to recognize his $101 million gift in support of the arts at Princeton. “If Princeton can be said to have a modern-day version of Lorenzo de’ Medici, it would surely be you,” Tilghman said at a celebration at Richardson Auditorium. The event showcased music, theater, and dance performances by students and alumni and included an excerpt from “Margaret Garner,” an opera with libretto by professor emerita Toni Morrison that grew out of a 2003 Princeton Atelier. “It is a real privilege to be able to do the things I’ve been able to do,” said Lewis, who is chairman of the board of the Progressive Corp. Describing the University as “the best institution I know,” he said that Princeton “makes it a pleasure to give.” The motto of the new Lewis Center: “In the service of the imagination.”

In the News

PAUL MULDOON, a Pulitzer-Prize winning poet and a professor of creative writing, has been named poetry editor of The New Yorker. Muldoon told The Daily Princetonian that his focus will continue to be on teaching and advising, adding that his students’ work will be taken “every bit as seriously” as a poem submitted to The New Yorker.

PRESIDENT TILGHMAN’s salary of $608,000 for the 2005–06 fiscal year was the fourth-highest among Ivy League presidents, behind Columbia, Yale, and Penn, according to figures released by The Chronicle of Higher Education last month. Adding in $44,060 in health and pension benefits, Tilghman’s total compensation of $652,060 — up 9.4 percent from the previous year — was sixth among Ivy presidents, ahead of Dartmouth president James Wright and then-Harvard president Lawrence Summers. Tilghman also received $67,900 in expense compensation — fringe benefits reported to the IRS, such as the fair-market value of housing supplied by the University.

The PRINCETON UNIVERSITY STORE has returned to Nassau Street for the first time since the 1930s, opening a location offering Princeton-themed apparel and gifts. The U-Store’s main location at 36 University Place will continue to offer dorm supplies, convenience foods, cosmetics, and other student needs. The U-Store is discontinuing its book business, with Labyrinth Books, an independent bookseller, opening a store adjacent to the U-Store’s new location. The University was a prime mover in the changes, which it said would provide the type of scholarly bookstore that the community needs.

JAMES A. BAKER ’52, former secretary of state and co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group; ANDREA JUNG ’79, chairman and CEO of Avon Products Inc.; and PRESIDENT TILGHMAN were among 18 people selected last month as “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report and Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.