In Short: Princeton’s Cecilia Rouse to Lead Biden’s Economic Advisors

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Photo: Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications

President-elect Joe Biden nominated CECILIA ROUSE, the dean of the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs, to chair the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) in the new administration. 

“The U.S. needs to be positioned for the economy of the future so that everyone is able to partake in the growth we hope to have,” Rouse wrote in a Nov. 30 letter to SPIA alumni. “I am humbled to help lead this charge.”

Rouse, a labor economist and faculty member since 1992, served on the CEA during President Barack Obama’s first term and worked at the National Economic Council during President Bill Clinton’s administration. Biden also chose two alumni doctors, Eric Goosby ’74 and Celine Gounder ’97, to serve on his COVID-19 transition advisory board. 

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt ’76 and his wife, Wendy, have endowed a new PROFESSORSHIP OF INDIGENOUS STUDIES, the University announced Dec. 3. President Eisgruber ’83 said the $5 million gift “will strengthen a crucial field of teaching and scholarship.” Princeton’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative currently lists 23 affiliated faculty and staff. Native American students and alumni have been advocating in recent years for an expansion of Indigenous studies at Princeton. 

The Ivy League canceled its WINTER ATHLETICS SEASON because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spring sports are also on hold through at least the end of February. “While these decisions come with great disappointment and frustration, our commitment to the safety and lasting health of our student-athletes and wider communities must remain our highest priority,” the Ivy presidents wrote in a joint statement. 

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Photo: Robert Matthews/Office of Communications

IN MEMORIAM THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI, a former Graduate School dean and scholar of German and European literature, died Dec. 5 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at age 88. Devin Fore, professor of German and department chair, described Ziolkowski as “a prolific scholar, an outstanding teacher, and a pillar of Princeton life in general.” Ziolkowski, a faculty member for 37 years, led the Graduate School from 1979 to 1992, the longest term for a dean since Andrew Fleming West 1874. He also wrote 35 books, 20 of which were published after he transferred to emeritus status in 2001.