Princeton Area Alumni Association

Social Activities

This committee strives to organize and host events that appeal to a wide range of Princeton alumni. (More)

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First Friday Lunch - April 3rd, 2015 - Greg Owen '15, Founder, Princeton Institute for Chocolate Studies

Join us for First Fridays, a monthly recurring event for undergraduate and graduate Princeton alumni, graduate students, and parents.  On the first Friday of each month, area alumni and their guests will meet to enjoy a prix fixe luncheon at the Nassau Club in downtown Princeton.  As a special bonus for PA3, a Princeton University PhD candidate will present his/her work to the group in this informal setting.  Topics vary monthly and are always interesting!  Have a look at our impressive roster of previous luncheons.

On Friday, April 3rd, we will be joined by Greg Owen '15, Computer Science major and Founder of the Princeton Institute for Chocolate Studies.  The Institute for Chocolate Studies was founded in fall 2012 to provide high-quality, student-produced chocolate to the Princeton community, inspired by the month Greg spent making chocolate for his high school senior project.  The ICS works out of the University Bakd Shop, located underneath the Rocky-Mathey dining halls.  Come hear Greg talk about his student-run bean-to-bar chocolate factory.

As always, there is sure to be a lively discussion!  Please join us.




Specially priced at $25/person (or $30 if you choose not to pay PA3's annual dues), lunch includes three courses, a complementary beverage (wine, beer, soft drink) and coffee/tea. Pre-registration is preferred.

>> Looking forward to seeing you...in your orange and black! <<

Date: Friday, April 3rd, 2015
Time: 12 noon - 2 pm
Location: Nassau Club, 6 Mercer St, Princeton, NJ
Nassau Club membership is not necessary to attend this event.
Dress is business casual.

Lunch Reservation
Related Events

First Friday Lunch - April 3rd, 2015 ( Friday, April 3, 2015 - 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM )

Greg Owen '15, Founder of the Princeton Institute for Chocolate Studies, will discuss his venture.

Cost: $25 for dues-paying members; $30 others
Organized by: PA3

Posted by lydia about 9 years ago.

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Private Tour of "Versailles on Paper" at Firestone Library

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 beginning at 6:15pm


"Versailles on Paper: A Graphic Panorama of the Palace and Gardens of Louis XIV"


Julie L. Mellby of the Graphic Arts Collection of Firestone Library will lead us on a special tour of the show presently on display in the Main Gallery of Firestone Library.  

Deux Amours de bronze qui se jouent avec un cygne

This exhibition, which coincides with the tercentenary of the death of Louis XIV (1638-1715), brings together the finest holdings of Firestone and Marquand Libraries documenting the development of Versailles during the reign of the “Sun King.”

Join PA3 for this special visit to see a unique part of history.
Julie has many stories to tell us!

Wine/soft drinks and snacks will be served.

6:15pm - Arrive at Main Gallery of Firestone Library
6:30pm - Tour begins
7:30pm - Event ends

Registration preferred by email to activities@princetonaaa.org 
Participation is free - Payment of PA3 Dues is encouraged.

"This exhibition documents the contemporary representation of Versailles through a multifaceted array of prints, books, maps, medals, and manuscripts. It highlights in particular those elements that today survive only on paper: ephemeral festivals; short-lived creatures (courtiers, animals, flowers); fragile groves and fountains too costly to maintain; and once celebrated masterpieces of art and architecture that were irrevocably destroyed or altered. The “paper Versailles” is quite different from the one that millions of tourists visit every year and affords many unusual and surprising glimpses into a largely lost world."


3-plan Diane-thomassin Escalier_simonneau
Related Events

Private Tour of "Versailles on Paper" ( Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - 6:15 PM to 7:30 PM )

Private tour of "Versailles on Paper" led by Curator Julie Mellby of the Graphic Arts Collection at Firestone Library

Location: Firestone Library
Cost: No charge.
Organized by: PA3 & Graphic Arts Collection at Firestone Library

Posted by lydia about 9 years ago.

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RECAP First Friday Lunch - January 2015

Jane Manner, Fourth Year Graduate Student in the History Department discusses federal bailouts and the Great Fire of NYC in 1835

           Jane Manners, now in her fourth year of graduate study at Princeton History Department, made a presentation on January 9, 2015, at the Nassau Club in Princeton on her dissertation research. She already has a B.A. and a J.D. from Harvard. Early in her legal study, she developed an interest in legal history.

          Financial bailouts by the federal government are generally seen as a phenomenon that only appeared in the 1980s, but a much earlier instance can be found in the congressional reaction to a devastating fire that occurred in Manhattan on December 16-17, 1835, that leveled approximately seven hundred buildings on twenty-three blocks. The damage amounted to $20,000,000 at a time when the total value of real property in Manhattan was estimated at $400,000,000.

          Merchants affected, including two former secretaries of the treasury, asked congress for assistance. Among other forms of relief, they requested the remission of import duties on the goods that had been destroyed and for additional time for paying future import duties.

          At the time, merchants posted bonds for duties, and most federal revenues were from customs duties. Initially, congress ignored appeals for the remission of duties, although it agreed to the extension of the period for payment to four years. Then, in the summer of 1838, congress enacted a remission of duties for the goods that had been destroyed.

          This bailout was highly paradoxical, owing to the general aversion of the ruling Jacksonians to providing governmental assistance to business or, indeed, involving government with business at all.

          Although not stated precisely in those words, the argument that made the difference was that the New York City merchants were "too big to fail," because of the impact that such an event would have had on the national economy. Thus, the "common good" of the national economy was at stake. Congress received numerous petitions from business people in all parts of the United States. The term "relief" was commonly used to describe the nature of the remission, not "charity," which would have been unpersuasive in view of the prevailing ideology in the early 19th century.

          Opponents of the remission of duties turned the argument on its head by arguing against what they viewed as favoritism to one part of the country.

Critics of the proposal also noted that not a single Manhattan business had failed as a result of its fire losses.

          President Andrew Jackson signed the remission legislation, but beyond that not much is known about his view of the matter. Exploring this topic is an aspect of Ms. Manners dissertation research.

          During the extensive discussion that followed her presentation, she was asked about foreign involvement in the affair, because. European investment was vital to the economic development of the United States during the 19th century. Ms. Manners replied that owing to the failure of all the insurance companies in New York City, merchants had to seek insurance outside the city, including foreign insurers. She noted, too, that New York City effectively loaned $6,000,000 to its insurance companies.

          One member of the audience suggested that this is the story of a skillful campaign to win unmerited advantages.

          Another question related to a possible connection of the controversy over "relief" to Manhattan merchants to the Panic of 1837. Ms. Manners stated that the 1835 fire and its associated problems were mentioned frequently in bankruptcy filings under the Bankruptcy Act of 1841.


Posted by lydia about 9 years ago.

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First Friday Lunch - March 6th, 2015 - Mazell Tetruashvily, Graduate student in Molecular Biology

Join us for First Fridays, a monthly recurring event for undergraduate and graduate Princeton alumni, graduate students, and parents.  On the first Friday of each month, area alumni and their guests will meet to enjoy a prix fixe luncheon at the Nassau Club in downtown Princeton.  As a special bonus for PA3, a Princeton University PhD candidate will present his/her work to the group in this informal setting.  Topics vary monthly and are always interesting!  Have a look at our impressive roster of previous luncheons.

On Friday, March 6th, we will be joined by Mazell Tetruashvily, a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biology.  Mazell is interested in how specific immune proteins contribute to synapse elimination at the developing vertebrate neuromuscular junction.  In many vertebrate circuits, synapses are initially generated in excess, and mature, 1:1 motor neuron to muscle fiber connectivity is sculpted through synapse elimination.  Despite the critical importance of synapse elimination in circuit maturation, the molecular mediators of synapse elimination remain elusive.

As always, there is sure to be a lively discussion!  Please join us.


Specially priced at $25/person (or $30 if you choose not to pay PA3's annual dues), lunch includes three courses, a complementary beverage (wine, beer, soft drink) and coffee/tea. Pre-registration is preferred.

>> Looking forward to seeing you...in your orange and black! <<

Date: Friday, March 6th, 2015
Time: 12 noon - 2 pm
Location: Nassau Club, 6 Mercer St, Princeton, NJ
Nassau Club membership is not necessary to attend this event.
Dress is business casual.

Lunch Reservation
Nassauclub Nmj_young Nmj_old
Related Events

First Friday Lunch ( Friday, March 6, 2015 - 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM )

Mazell Tetruashvily, Graduate Student in Molecular Biology, will discuss the neuromuscular junction

Location: Nassau Club, Princeton
Cost: $25 for dues payers; $30 everyone else

Posted by lydia about 9 years ago.

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PA3 Book Club Meeting

I invite you all to join me in discussing "Would You Kill the Fat Man" on March 17th at 7:30pm in East Pyne Room 111. While the author is not an alumnus and the book is not about Princeton, it was published this year by the Princeton University Press, which you can read more about here

From the website:
Throughout its history...the Press has maintained a close relationship with the University: its five-member Editorial Board, which makes controlling decisions about which books will bear the Press's imprint, is appointed from the faculty by the President of the University and nine of the fifteen members on the Press's Board of Trustees must have a Princeton University connection....Although the areas of publication have shifted and expanded over the years, the Press has hewn to its charter to make available books "for the promotion of education and scholarship," frequently publishing books whose scholarly importance exceeds their financial reward.

  • Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong by David Edmonds (Princeton University Press, 2015)

A runaway train is racing toward five men who are tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. You are standing on a footbridge looking down on the unfolding disaster. However, a fat man, a stranger, is standing next to you: if you push him off the bridge, he will topple onto the line and, although he will die, his chunky body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man?

The question may seem bizarre. But it's one variation of a puzzle that has baffled moral philosophers for almost half a century and that more recently has come to preoccupy neuroscientists, psychologists, and other thinkers as well. In this book, David Edmonds, coauthor of the best-selling Wittgenstein's Poker, tells the riveting story of why and how philosophers have struggled with this ethical dilemma, sometimes called the trolley problem. In the process, he provides an entertaining and informative tour through the history of moral philosophy. Most people feel it's wrong to kill the fat man. But why? After all, in taking one life you could save five. As Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex--and important--than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong.

I look forward to seeing you all in March! I promise to announce the location once it has been confirmed.  Please email me at bookclub.admin@princetonaaa.org with your interest. 

Best,
Linsay '08

Editor's Note:
Best-selling author and Princeton alumnus Ian Caldwell ’98 will be joining an upcoming PA3 Book Club later this season to discuss his newly-released and highly acclaimed new work “The Fifth Gospel”.  Ian will also be joining us for a Book Reading and Signing event this spring.  Watch your PA3 emails for more details. 


Related Events

PA3 Book Club Meeting ( Tuesday, March 17, 2015 - 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM )
Location: East Pyne Seminar Room 111

Posted by Princeton AAA about 9 years ago.

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