Notebook: September 11, 1996
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Princeton and its neighbor, the former Trenton State College, are fighting over a name-the College of New Jersey. The state college has adopted it; Princeton, which a hundred years ago stopped using the College of New Jersey, wants to reclaim it. Patents are pending. Princeton has filed a lawsuit. And local papers have published a volley of letters to the editor.
The squabble started when the board of trustees of what was then Trenton State College voted on June 27 to change its name, for the sixth time since it was founded in 1855. The state attorney general's office had told the college that the name change would be legal.
The College of New Jersey's associate vice-president for college relations, Jesse Rosenblum, said the new name better reflects the school's character, mission, and statewide appeal. The college, which ranks nationally as one of the "best buys" for the tuition dollar, moved from Trenton to its present location in Ewing Township in the mid-1930s. The college's president, Harold Eickhoff, has said that the name change is critical if the school wants to continue attracting top students.
Immediately after the trustees' vote, the college unveiled its new logo featuring one of the school's buildings, Green Hall, and the words "The College of New Jersey, Founded in 1855."
Princeton doesn't want to go back to using as its name the College of New Jersey, said Vice-President for Public Affairs Robert K. Durkee '69, but it doesn't want another institution claiming it because of the name's long association-150 years-with Princeton. To protect the university's ownership of its original name, Princeton filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in June; shortly thereafter the newly renamed College of New Jersey filed one. It will likely take a year or more for the patent office to decide who really owns the name. The college has to prove that Princeton has legally abandoned the name. The university must prove it still uses it. Durkee pointed out that it appears on Nassau Hall plaques, on the university's original charter, and in much of its historical literature. Both institutions have also filed for trademark protection at the state level.
But the two schools will probably not have to wait for a patent decision. The dispute will likely be resolved this fall through the New Jersey courts. On July 11 Princeton filed a complaint in Mercer County Superior Court accusing
the College of New Jersey of engaging in unfair competition when it changed its name.
The university's attorney, Charles W. Heuisler, asked the court to issue an injunction forbidding the college from using its newly adopted name, claiming the name change constitutes an "unfair trade practice." The College of New Jersey, Heuisler argued, is unfairly associating itself with the history and reputation of Princeton, and the new name may falsely indicate an association between the two schools. A trial date will probably be set in October or November, said Durkee.
Lawyers for the College of New Jersey hope that a state law enacted in 1929 will help their case against Princeton. The law requires private educational institutions to get permission from the state to adopt a name using "New Jersey," "state of New Jersey," or "state."
In a letter to the editor of The Princeton Packet, Durkee has accused the state college of trying to "wrap itself" in Princeton's history. People-including applicants to the schools-may incorrectly link the two institutions, said Durkee.
In a letter to Town Topics, a Princeton weekly, four alumni on the college faculty criticized the university's "aggressive responses to Trenton State's name change," charging that its "pugnacious statements to the press and its threats of lawsuits-are heavy-handed and undignified." The writers (James R. Brazell '56, Deborah E. Compte *80, John C. Landreau *95, and Michael D. Robertson *85) also dismissed the university's claim that Trenton State's adoption of the College of New Jersey would cause confusion.
The college has also drawn fire from students, teachers, alumni, and state legislators. Some have accused the college of trying to distance itself from the state capital and have threatened to stop contributing. Others are upset that they weren't consulted before the trustees' vote. The alumni association complained in a formal letter to Eickhoff and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
NEW STADIUM DESIGN UNVEILED
This fall will likely be the last season that Princeton football players grace Palmer Stadium. Plans for the new football stadium and track complex, pictured here in a model designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, have been presented to the Princeton regional planning board for concept review. Construction, estimated to cost $45 million, will probably begin next spring and be completed by the 1998 football season, said Richard R. Spies *72, vice-president for finance and administration. The new stadium will include a horseshoe-shaped building around the perimeter of the football field, an open-air concourse, and seating for 27,500. The adjacent track will be located on Frelinghuysen Field.
PHYSICIST CREATES ALTERNATIVE FUEL OUT OF GARBAGE
A professional race-car driver sped around a track in Stephen F. Paul's car for 10 hours this summer. The 42-year-old research physicist gave actress Farrah Fawcett and singer Marie Osmond a chance to test drive an identical model in Century City, California. Both vehicles are powered by a new, clean-burning fuel that Paul has developed from industrial, agricultural, municipal, and consumer waste.
"It could potentially supply a quarter of the gas we use, although practically speaking, it will probably top out at about 10 percent," says Paul. When not discovering a more environmentally friendly way to operate vehicles, Paul conducts experimental physics on the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he has worked since 1981.
About 8 million barrels of fuel are burned daily for transportation purposes in the United States, says Paul. Enough raw material is available to produce 1 million barrels a day of what has become known as "Princeton fuel," he adds.
Osmond is a shareholder of L.L. Knickerbocker Co., which owns 40 percent of Pure Energy Corp., the licensee that will begin making and distributing the fuel this fall. Fawcett is a member of Knickerbocker's board of directors. The firm is best known for teddy bears and celebrity novelties sold on home-shopping channels.
With a patent pending, the liquid fuel's exact composition is a secret, although, like gasoline, it is hydrocarbon based. "Except that it's crystal clear, it looks like gasoline," Paul says. Two-thirds of it, he adds, comes from recyclable materials "that we are now either incinerating, landfilling, or venting into the atmosphere. People pay to get rid of the stuff that we use." Paul claims his fuel produces about 75 percent less air pollution than gasoline and gets nearly as many miles per gallon, while generating 24 to 76 percent fewer hydrocarbons-depending on how aggressively you drive-and up to 52 percent less carbon monoxide than gasoline. Made from a dozen chemicals by the hundreds of gallons, the price of Princeton fuel is comparable to gas, according to Paul.
In July, race-car driver Jack Mount of Hightstown, New Jersey, performed high-speed trials with Paul's car, comparing five different fuels. "The driver didn't know which fuel he was using," says Paul. The fuels were indistinguishable.
Paul first became interested in gasoline alternatives when the university asked him to serve on a committee charged with complying with federal antipollution guidelines by developing trip-reduction strategies for employees.
The Princeton fuel will work in 1996 Ford Taurus sedans and in General Motors's 1997 S-series compact-pickup trucks. They are the only cars to date that come equipped with flexible-fuel engines, an option available at no cost to the buyer. "The cars can run on gas, this type of fuel, or any mixture of the two in the same tank," says Paul. He's put 10,000 miles on his Princeton-fueled Taurus, which, he says, drives well and has had no mechanical trouble.
Paul believes the Princeton fuel has a financial edge over other alternative fuels because it is expensive to rebuild cars' emission-control systems to accommodate compressed natural gas or propane, which are equally ecologically friendly. Electric cars, which cost about $35,000, need new batteries that run about $10,000 each every three to four years, he says.
Paul's target market for now is government and private fleets-government cars, mail trucks, police cars, delivery vans, taxis, rental cars. To reduce pollution and American dependence on foreign oil, the federal Clean Air Act of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 have mandated alternative fuel for 25 percent of federal vehicles and 10 percent of state vehicles purchased this year. By 1999 these numbers rise to 75 percent of federal vehicles, 50 percent of state vehicles, and 20 percent of municipal and private-fleet vehicles.
Officials in Delaware and Maryland have been the most receptive of five states Paul has approached. They think Princeton fuel could be the answer to their problems, he says. Representatives from the Getty and Mobil oil companies also have expressed an interest.
Paul knows of only one service station in New Jersey that retails alternative fuel: a Shell station outside the Holland Tunnel that sells compressed natural gas. Around the country, such stations are few. It takes 200 regular customers a week to support a station. If at least that many people in a neighborhood-Princeton or elsewhere-buy flexible-fuel engine cars, Pure Energy Corp. will install a station there, says Paul. Eventually, perhaps in several years, Paul envisions a time when consumers commonly purchase cars with flexible-fuel engines and find alternative fuels as readily available at service stations as unleaded fuel is today.
This story was adapted from one written by Laurie Lynn Strasser for The Princeton Packet.
ALUMNI ELECT THREE TRUSTEES
Last spring alumni elected three new members to the Board of Trustees: Karen Magee '83, Harold H. Saunders '52, and George T. Whitesides '96. Each will serve for four years.
For the past 11 years, Magee has risen through the ranks of Time Inc. and is currently the general manager of Time. The other positions she has held include general manager of the advertising, sales, and marketing division; director of finance; and business manager of People. Magee majored in civil engineering and earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School in 1989. She is now serving her second term as chairwoman of paw's Publications Committee.
Saunders has worked for five U.S. presidents, analyzing human conflicts and designing ways to move relationships from violence to peace. Currently director of international affairs at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, he has worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the State Department. He has also been a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute of Public Policy Research and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Saunders majored in English and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale in 1956.
Whitesides, a young-alumni trustee, majored in the Woodrow Wilson School, was copresident of his senior class, and served two years as the undergraduate representative to the Council of the Princeton University Community. He was a member of the Princeton Footnotes for four years and its president in 1994. Whitesides was active in several volunteer programs, including the Looking into the Future Together program in Trenton. Currently he is a Fulbright scholar in Tunisia, studying law and architecture.
ARCHITECTS CHOSEN FOR CAMPUS CENTER
The trustees and President Shapiro decided in June to hire the firm of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates to design the new campus center. Robert Venturi '47 *50 and his wife, Denise Scott Brown, started work this summer on preliminary designs for the facility, which will incorporate a renovated and expanded Palmer Hall.
They were chosen because the trustees felt they would be "sensitive to the history and traditions of architecture on campus," said Vice-President and Secretary Thomas H. Wright '62, Jr., who is coordinating the project. Venturi and Scott Brown renovated Rockefeller and Mathey colleges and designed Wu Hall and Fisher-Bendheim Halls. Venturi and Scott Brown have worked on several projects similar to the campus center, said Wright. They renovated Harvard's Memorial Hall, which includes a student center, dining hall, and auditorium.
The university has raised roughly one quarter of the approximately $45 million needed to build the campus center, said Wright. Depending on how quickly funds are raised, construction may begin in about a year and a half, he said. The campus center will include a lounge, eating facilities, café, pub, a teaching and learning center, classrooms, space for student organizations, and services such as fax machines and post-office boxes.
ANNUAL GIVING TOPS $25 MILLION
Surpassing both its goals for money raised and participation, Annual Giving in 1996 brought in an all-time high of $25,229,298, with 58.8 percent of undergraduate alumni contributing. Some 38,700 alumni, parents, friends, and 2,500 volunteers took part in the year-long effort. This year is the fourth in which Annual Giving has topped $20 million. Last year it raised $21,170,663, with 56.1 percent of undergraduate alumni participating in the drive.
Seven classes set major-reunions records. The Class of 1946 led the way by topping the 50th-reunion record with $2,501,098. The classes of 1936, 1941, and 1976 each raised more than $1 million. The Class of 1926 raised $102,699 for its 70th reunion. The 10th-reunion Class of 1986 brought in $406,763, and the fifth-reunion Class of 1991 raised $184,771.
The Class of 1971 raised more than $2 million for its 25th reunion, and four other classes raised more than $1 million: 1951, 1956, 1961, and 1966.
The parents fund set a new record with $1,620,000. Graduate alumni raised $449,000, their highest total ever, while 55 of 140 regional Annual Giving committees achieved more than 60 percent participation.
IN MEMORIAM
Victor Lange, a professor of modern languages, emeritus, died of heart failure on June 29 at the Medical Center at Princeton. A resident of Princeton, he was 87. He taught at Princeton for 20 years, until his retirement in 1977, and founded the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature in 1959. He also taught at the University of Toronto and Cornell. He wrote extensively on 18th-century German literature and literary criticism. Born in Leipzig, Germany, he earned a Ph.D. in 1934 at the University of Leipzig.
Martin Summerfield, a professor of aeronautical engineering, emeritus, died on July 18 at his home at Meadow Lakes in Hightstown, New Jersey. He was 79. Summerfield's leadership in the field of jet propulsion spanned six decades. During World War II, he guided the development of a rocket engine for the first rocketassisted airplane in the United States. He came to Princeton in 1949 as general editor of the university's publications program in highspeed aerodynamics and jet propulsion and retired in 1978. He earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1941.
Thomas S. Kuhn, a professor of history of science at Princeton for 15 years, died on June 17 of cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 73. A central figure in contemporary thought on how the scientific process evolves, he authored the landmark 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, which argued that scientific change isn't strictly a rational process. Kuhn earned his doctorate in physics at Harvard. He taught at Princeton from 1964 to 1979, when he left to join the faculty of MIT. He also taught at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.