In Short

After two years as dean of the School of Architecture, ALEJANDRO ZAERA-POLO has stepped down “to devote greater attention to his research and other professional activities,” the University said in a statement. Former dean Stanley T. Allen *88 will serve as acting dean and will chair the search committee. The University said that Zaera-Polo, a practicing architect, remains on the faculty.

Six rapes were reported in the University’s ANNUAL CRIME REPORT for 2013, including five on campus and one in a non-campus building. The University said one case, reported by the victim to Public Safety, was referred to the county prosecutor’s office; in the other cases, the victims did not wish to pursue the incidents criminally. The report also cites four incidents of domestic violence and one of stalking.

The University said that an additional 17 reports of sex offenses had been received by confidential counselors, noting that such cases cannot be investigated by either campus police or University officials unless the victim gives permission to disclose details. Reports to confidential counselors are not required by federal law to be included in campus crime statistics. In prior years, the University counted information shared with confidential counselors in its crime totals, listing 20 forcible sex offenses for 2012 and 2011. 

The latest crime report also listed 41 burglaries and four cases of motor-vehicle theft.

RAMONA ROMERO, general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 2011, will become the University’s general counsel Dec. 1. Romero was president of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 2008 and 2009, testifying on behalf of Sonia Sotomayor ’76 during her nomination as a Supreme Court justice.

Actress MERYL STREEP came to Princeton Sept. 19 for an unusual event — a marriage of music and literature around the theme of death. The one-time performance at Richardson Auditorium interspersed Streep reading excerpts from Philip Roth’s 2006 novel Everyman with the Takács String Quartet performing Franz Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” and works by Arvo Pärt. Roth was among the audience of 900.

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In Memoriam WILLIAM H. SURBER JR. *48, who twice served as electrical engineering department chair and was best known for his work on automatic control systems and computers, died Aug. 27 in East Windsor, N.J. He was 94. Surber was a physics instructor at Princeton from 1941 to 1943, when he joined the Navy. He later returned to Princeton, earning a master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1948 and joining the faculty that year. Surber was the first recipient of the electrical engineering department’s Walter Curtis Johnson Prize for Teaching Excellence. He retired in 1987.