Marina Rustow, the Khedouri A. Zilkha Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East and Professor of History at Princeton University, has been awarded a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship. Rustow is among 24 scientists, artists, scholars and activists who each will receive $625,000 no-strings-attached grants over a five-year period from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.

A monumental new glass, steel and bronze sculpture by leading contemporary artists Doug and Mike Starn has been placed on the lawn of the Princeton University Art Museum. The newly commissioned work, weighing nearly eight tons, is constructed of six 18-foot-tall vividly colored glass panels and two cast bronze forms resembling tree limbs. Titled “(Any) Body Oddly Propped,” it was designed by the Starns specifically for the site and continues the artists’ long fascination with energy systems found in nature.

Princeton University continues to broaden its online teaching and learning efforts and has become a charter member of the edX Consortium. As a result, millions of learners will have the opportunity to take free classes offered by Princeton faculty on the edX online platform.

A recent survey of Princeton University students found a sizeable majority knows where to go on campus for help following an incident of nonconsensual sexual contact, and nearly half of the students surveyed think they can do something about sexual violence on campus.

A compliance review of Princeton University’s undergraduate admission process by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education has been concluded with a determination that the University did not discriminate against Asian applicants on the basis of race or national origin.

Lake Carnegie, which bounds the south end of campus, is one of Princeton’s most open and natural spaces, a resource to the University and the local community as well as a home to wildlife.

Carl Schorske, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University and an authority on the intellectual and cultural history of 19th- and 20th- century Europe, died Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015, in Hightstown, New Jersey. He was 100 years old.

Princeton University has launched a comprehensive initiative called UMatter aimed at empowering students, faculty and staff to promote a healthier and safer community. UMatter unites health, well-being and safety efforts across campus, allowing the University community to easily find resources and learn skills to better care for themselves and others.

Starting next year, students entering Princeton University will participate in a unified orientation program that will encompass Community Action and Outdoor Action events as well as a new program for first-year athletes in fall sports. The new model for orientation will have all freshmen arriving on campus on a single weekend for a more unified experience in transitioning from high school graduates to Princeton students. 

Princeton organizes numerous orientation events that help freshmen become familiar with one another, the University and the community they’ll live in for the next four years. From Sept. 2 until the first day of classes on Sept. 16, incoming students move in to campus, rough it with Outdoor Action, work on social issues in off-campus locations with Community Action, meet with faculty including President Christopher L. Eisgruber, and enjoy parties, cookouts and games on campus. Orientations also are held for new faculty, graduate students, and graduate and undergraduate students from overseas.

Princeton University has been recognized in national and international rankings for its academic excellence, best value and least student debt. The University was ranked No. 1 overall in the Best National Universities category in the “U.S. News 2016 America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report. The publication also ranked the University first for best value and lowest student debt at graduation. Princeton also ranked No. 1 in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance list for “Best College Values.”

During August, seven Princeton students and alumni experienced what it’s like to be a part of one of the largest international theater festivals in the world — by serving as interns for the musical improvisation troupe Baby Wants Candy (BWC) at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber welcomed the incoming Class of 2019 at Opening Exercises on Sept. 13, noting that while many students already may have met through social media, they will really get to know each other in person. 

Princeton University celebrated the accomplishments of its students with the awarding of four undergraduate prizes at Opening Exercises on Sunday, Sept. 13.

Before they arrive on campus, Princeton freshmen are asked to complete their first assignment — reading the Princeton Pre-read, a book chosen each year by Princeton’s president as an introduction to the University’s intellectual life. The 1,300-plus members of the Class of 2019 have just finished “Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do” by social psychologist Claude Steele, a meditation on identity that President Christopher L. Eisgruber calls “some of the most important social science work done in the last quarter-century.” 

Learn more about Princeton Pre-read

In Princeton’s typography studio, students are using their hands and raw materials such as ink, metal and wood to learn an old-fashioned art that is trending again: letterpress printing.

Princeton faculty member and author Jhumpa Lahiri, whose novels and short stories explore the immigrant experience, family, love, language and cultural identity, has been named a recipient of the 2014 National Humanities Medal. The announcement was made on Sept. 3 by the White House. The medal will conferred by President Barack Obama at a ceremony at the White House at 3 p.m. on Sept. 10, which will be webcast live.

This summer’s cohort of interns was part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program. Launched in 2004, the SULI program is sponsored and managed by the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, which partners with DOE laboratories across the country to encourage undergraduate students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Visitors to Princeton University’s Prospect Gardens may be familiar with the cheerful orange marigolds, pops of pink petunias and bunches of begonias blooming around the lush grounds. What they may not know is that most flowers planted there and in other campus gardens get their start just down the road in the University’s greenhouses.

Researchers have found an automated way to identify and eliminate those stray soda cans, roaming cars and photobombing strangers that can send favorite photos to the recycle bin.  Called distractors, they are elements that take away from the central focus of the photo.