Rutgers study: Most popular exotic pets also most likely to be released into wild by owners

The biggest-selling pet snakes and lizards are also the most likely to be released by their owners and to potentially become invasive species, according to a Rutgers study in the Journal of Applied Ecology. The study by Rutgers University–New Brunswick ecologists shows how the exotic pet trade has become the primary means by which reptiles and amphibians arrive in…

Dean of admission is leaving Princeton University after 15 years

Dean of admission is leaving Princeton University after 15 years

Janet Lavin Rapelye, Princeton University’s dean of admission since 2003, has been named the president of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education. “Janet Rapelye has served with distinction for 15 years as Princeton’s dean of admission,” Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said in a statement. “Choosing among the thousands of qualified applicants to Princeton is a…

Larry Livingston named interim president of Kaiwen’s new Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation (updated)

Larry Livingston named interim president of Kaiwen’s new Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation (updated)

Kaiwen Education has created a New Jersey non-profit called the Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation to operate Westminster Choir College once the sale of the school is final, and has appointed Larry Livingston as the interim president. Headquartered in Beijing, Kaiwen Education operates two K-12 schools, and company representatives say several more international school campuses…

Institute for Advanced Study professor awarded 2018 Fields Medal

Institute for Advanced Study professor awarded 2018 Fields Medal

The International Mathematical Union has awarded a 2018 Fields Medal to Akshay Venkatesh, a mathematician who was recently appointed to the permanent faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study. Venkatesh was a visiting professor at the Institute for the 2017–18 academic year. The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to scholars less than 40 years old to…

Judge upholds order for Trump Administration to restore DACA in Princeton and Microsoft case
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Judge upholds order for Trump Administration to restore DACA in Princeton and Microsoft case

A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Friday upheld his previous ruling that the government must restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and accept new applications. Princeton University, Microsoft, and Maria Perales Sanchez, a DACA recipient who graduated from Princeton University this June, are plaintiffs in the case. In April, Judge John D….

Rider University names Mark Schweiker, a former Republican governor of Pa., as ‘executive in residence’

Rider University names Mark Schweiker, a former Republican governor of Pa., as ‘executive in residence’

Former Republican Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker has been appointed “executive in residence” in the political science department at Rider University, where he will teach courses in homeland security, school officials announced today. Rider offers a master’s degree in homeland security. Schweiker served as lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, where he oversaw the commonwealth’s emergency response platform. He became…

Council approves redevelopment zone study for Princeton Theological Seminary properties
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Council approves redevelopment zone study for Princeton Theological Seminary properties

Local officials voted unanimously on Monday night to have the municipality’s planning board study whether Princeton Theological Seminary’s Tennent campus should be declared an area in need of redevelopment. The resolution approved by the Princeton Council covers properties owned by the seminary that are located on Stockton Street, Library Place, Edgehill Street, and Hibben Road. Mayor…

Opponents of Westminster Choir College sale vow to continue fight to save the Princeton school
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Opponents of Westminster Choir College sale vow to continue fight to save the Princeton school

Opponents of Rider University’s plan to sell Westminster Choir College in downtown Princeton to a for-profit Chinese corporation vowed Monday that they will continue to challenge the sale of the prestigious school in court. A union leader representing professors at Rider University and Westminster Choir College called the announcement by Rider officials last week that…

Researchers at Princeton and NOAA Lab awarded $40 million to fund new institute

Researchers at Princeton and NOAA Lab awarded $40 million to fund new institute

Researchers at Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s  Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory have been awarded up to $40 million over five years to fund a new cooperative institute that focuses on Earth system research. The Cooperative Institute for Modeling the Earth System’s mission is to understand and predict the Earth’s climate system across time…

Rider University signs agreement to sell Westminster Choir College to Chinese company

Rider University signs agreement to sell Westminster Choir College to Chinese company

Rider University officials announced today that the a sale agreement has been signed with a Chinese group to purchase Westminster Choir College, the Westminster Conservatory and Westminster Continuing Education for $40 million. Kaiwen Education will operate the choir college. A subsidiary of Kaiwen Education called the Beijing Wenhuaxuexin Education Investment Limited Company and a subsidiary of Beijing…

Retired Dinky train conductor named honorary member of the Princeton University Class of 2018
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Retired Dinky train conductor named honorary member of the Princeton University Class of 2018

Tom Sparich, the Dinky train conductor who was a friendly and familiar face to the thousands of passengers who rode the shuttle between Princeton Junction and Princeton for many years, was honored for his service to Princeton University students, area residents and visitors this week at the school’s annual Class Day ceremony. Sparich, who lives…

Perform small acts of kindness, Sen. Cory Booker tells Princeton University graduates

Perform small acts of kindness, Sen. Cory Booker tells Princeton University graduates

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker urged Princeton University graduates Monday to recognize that they are powerful. “I’ve learned in my life that power has nothing to do about the degrees you hold, or the title you have. Power is not measured by position,” Booker said. “I want you to understand that you’re powerful in a way…

Bhatia to Princeton University graduates: Live with integrity, verify information, fight the disease of ‘alternative facts’

Bhatia to Princeton University graduates: Live with integrity, verify information, fight the disease of ‘alternative facts’

In the current polarized political environment, the United States needs people of integrity who will challenge misinformation, lies, and ‘alternative facts,’ said Eduardo Bhatia on Sunday in a speech at Princeton University. Bhatia, a 1986 graduate of Princeton, the minority leader and former president of the Senate of Puerto Rico, addressed graduating seniors at the…

Institute for Advanced Study and American Battlefield Trust finalize deal that enlarges Princeton Battlefield Park
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Institute for Advanced Study and American Battlefield Trust finalize deal that enlarges Princeton Battlefield Park

The American Battlefield Trust has finalized the $4 million purchase of almost 15 acres of land from the Institute for Advanced Study, finally putting to rest a lengthy dispute that had divided the Princeton community. Land adjacent to the current Princeton Battlefield State Park will be preserved, and the Institute will also move forward with…

Princeton University opens new innovation center in Plainsboro
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Princeton University opens new innovation center in Plainsboro

Officials celebrated the opening of the Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs incubator on May 17. More than 100 representatives from Princeton University, the town of Plainsboro, local industries and the center’s first tenant companies attended the event at the Forrestal Center in Plainsboro. Princeton Innovation Center BioLabs offers co-working lab and office space for high-tech startup companies…

New director of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory chosen
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New director of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory chosen

Steven Cowley, a theoretical physicist at Oxford University, has been named the new director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Cowley will become the seventh director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is one of 10 national science laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Princeton University has managed the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory…

Princeton University offers admission to less than 1 percent of applicants to new transfer program

Princeton University offers admission to less than 1 percent of applicants to new transfer program

Princeton University has offered undergraduate admission to 13 transfer students for the fall 2018 as part of the school’s reinstated transfer program. The school received 1,429 applications for the transfer program, accepting less than one percent of applicants. School officials said the goal of the program is to enroll a small group of exceptionally well-prepared transfer…

Rally set for May 11 to support Princeton University graduate student imprisoned in Iran

Rally set for May 11 to support Princeton University graduate student imprisoned in Iran

Supporters of Xiyue Wang, the Princeton University graduate student who has been imprisoned in Iran for almost two years, will hold a rally at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 11, in front of the Frist Campus Center. The event is open to the public. Xiyue Wang’s wife, Hua Qu, will speak at the event, along…