In Short

Published Jan. 30, 2023

Alexandra Day ’02

Photo: Kevin Birch

Alexandra Day ’02, Princeton’s deputy vice president for alumni engagement since 2019, will leave the University to become associate director for strategic initiatives, programming, and partnerships at the Institute for Advanced Study, according to a January announcement from the institute. Day’s new role is scheduled to begin Feb. 15.

An Undergraduate Student Government (USG) referendum to expand gender-neutral restrooms passed in December, with 58% of the 2,493 undergraduate voters supporting the measure; 27% voted no and 15% abstained. The referendum asked whether students should call on the provost to “investigate and provide recommendations on how the University may convert the majority of residential campus restrooms to be gender-neutral.”

University spokesman Michael Hotchkiss told PAW that Princeton “is committed to pursuing inclusive restroom strategies and implementation within the design and implementation of capital projects,” including the recently opened Yeh College and New College West. New Jersey’s Plumbing Code “does not fully support inclusive restroom strategies,” Hotchkiss said. “However, the University has sought and received dozens of variances from the state to allow for the development of single-user inclusive restrooms and continues to be an active advocate for flexibility within the Plumbing Code to allow for the development of shared inclusive facilities.”

The Novogratz Bridge Year Program, which sends small groups of Princeton first-year students on nine-month community service projects abroad, will expand to six countries in the next academic year, the University announced in December. New sites in Cambodia and Costa Rica will join current projects in Bolivia, India, Indonesia, and Senegal. The program, launched in 2009, restarted in the fall semester after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Core costs are covered by the University, and all incoming undergraduates can apply. The program expects to enroll 42 students in 2023-24.

Tom Dunne, Princeton’s deputy dean of undergraduate students, will leave the University to become dean of students at Harvard College. His new appointment begins June 1. Dunne’s current role includes advising student organizations and overseeing the senior class’s Commencement activities.

Princeton’s Office of Undergraduate Admission extended its test optional policy for three years, through the fall of 2025, according to an announcement on the admission website. The policy, enacted in 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, allows students to apply for first-year or transfer admission without submitting SAT or ACT scores.

Published in the February 2023 Issue

In Short 2002

1 Response

Lynn Hogben ’77

1 Year Ago

Restroom Fairness and Practicality

Concerning the note in the February issue on dorm restrooms (On the Campus), it makes sense that a large majority of students voted in favor of making the restrooms gender neutral. Not only is it fairer to trans and nonbinary students, but given Princeton’s old dorms with their separate entrances, gender-neutral restrooms are better for everyone so long as the restrooms provide adequate privacy, such as doors on stalls and showers, rather than the flimsy curtains that the dorm restrooms used to have.

In those dorms, there is usually only one restroom for a floor or entryway and it’s more convenient if all students on the hall can use that restroom. In my freshman year, I and the three other women on the third floor in the third entryway of Foulke decided that we didn’t want to have to go downstairs to wash up or use the bathroom, so we de facto integrated the men’s bathroom on our floor and used it for all purposes other than showers.