The Weekly Blog: 5/2/07

International flair

Victoria Laws ’08 and Oscar Castro ’09 of the student dance troupe Ballet Folklorico de Princeton perform April 28 during the annual Communiversity celebration, which brings together the University and the town for a variety of festivities.

Photo by Frank Wojciechowski

Back on track

After posting several solid performances at last weekend’s Penn Relays, including a gold-medal finish by the team of Liz Bergold ’08, Christy Johnson ’10, Catha Mullen ’07, and Liz Costello ’10 in the college division 4-by-800-meter relay, the Princeton women’s and men’s track and field teams will return to competition at home this weekend as they host the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, March 5 and 6 at the Weaver Track and Field Stadium. Tigers to watch include Mullen, who finished second in the 3,000-meter run a year ago, and Alex Pessala ’09, the defending Heps champion in the men’s hammer throw.

Princetonians in the news

Virginia Postrel ’82, author of The Substance of Style, spoke about the city of Los Angeles' plans to replace some if its iconic palm trees with oaks or sycamores in an April 27 radio segment on American Public Media’s Marketplace. The palms, she said, are a symbol of Los Angeles, in the same way that the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge are symbols of New York City. … President Tilghman spoke about encouraging students to pursue science and engineering in an interview on CNN’s In the Money April 28. While Tilghman said there are several reasons for declining interest in the sciences, she highlighted one compelling reason for rejuvenating that interest: “[T]he motivation has got to be that you want to spend your life discovering things and creating new things. In fact, creating economic prosperity. If you looked at the last half of the 20th century, it’s been estimated that 70 percent of the economic prosperity that was created in the United States was created by scientists and engineers, their innovation, their creativity.” … Computer science professor Ed Felten spoke to senators about botnets – “coordinated computer intrusions, where the attacker installs a long-lived software agent or ‘bot’ on many end-user computers” – at an April 25 briefing in Washington. Felten wrote about the briefing on his blog. … Three alumni received notable professional awards in April. Former Lockheed Martin chairman and CEO Norman Augustine ’57 *59 earned the Bower Award for Business Leadership from the Philadelphia-based Franklin Institute. John Thompson III ’88, the men’s basketball coach at Georgetown, was named coach of the year by the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. And Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 received the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law at the University of Virginia.

One month ’til Reunions

As alumni look forward to Reunions 2007 (May 31-June 3), the Weekly Blog looks back at Reunions 2006, as captured by the lens of student filmmaker Thomas Bender ’06. This short shows scenes from the Old Guard luncheon, a time-honored tradition that includes the presentation of the Class of 1923 Cane to the oldest returning alumnus. Last year, centenarian Malcolm Warnock ’25 received the honor.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48ye98kZPFw&w=425&h=349]
For more videos of Reunions 2006, visit PAW Online.