Volume LXXIII, Number 42
Fall Home & Design Pages 27-34 Historical Society of Princeton House Tour . . . 5 African American Heritage Mural Planned for Mary Moss Playground . . . . . 11 McCarter and PPL Partner on Storytelling Series . . 12 The World Seen Through Katherine Mansfield’s Eyes . . . . . 19 PU Concerts Opens Season with Chamber Music Society . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Passage Theatre Presents Dauphin Island . . . . . 21 PHS Girls’ Tennis Falls in Sectional Semis . . . . . .39 PDS Girls’ Soccer Primed for MCT Run . . . . . . . . . .40
PU Soccer Goalie Natalie Grossi Sets Ivy Shutout Mark . . . . . . . . 36 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .16, 17 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 26 Classified Ads . . . . . . 45 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Music/Theater . . . . . . 24 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 44 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 4 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 45 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
PU Endowment Earns 6.2 Percent Return For 2019 Fiscal Year Princeton University announced last Friday that its endowment earned 6.2 percent for the 2019 fiscal year ending June 30, a drop from last year’s 14.2 percent and a drop from the top spot to fifth among Ivy League earners. Brown University’s endowment was the Ivies’ top earner at 12.4 percent, with Dartmouth second at 7.5 percent, University of Pennsylvania third, and Harvard fourth, both at about 6.5 percent, according to Barron’s magazine. All the Ivy League schools posted lower returns in 2019 than in 2018. The Princeton University endowment value now stands at $26.1B, an increase of about $200M from the previous year. With its annual return over the past decade at 11.6 percent, Princeton is among the top percentile of 500 institutions listed by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service. The Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), which manages the endowment, will certify the results at its October 17 directors meeting. PRINCO President Andrew Golden has in the past emphasized PRINCO’s focus on long-term results and the relative unimportance of a single year’s earnings. In his annual Report on Investments in the 2017-18 Report of the Treasurer, Golden noted, “A single year is so short that luck is almost always the single largest driver of relative results. We strive to keep all eyes on the long term. A single year’s performance … does not give much information about past efforts or the likelihood of future success.” The University declined to comment on possible reasons for this year’s drop in performance and any anticipated adjustments or changes in strategy. The Princeton endowment has a target asset allocation of 27 percent private equity, 25 percent independent return (hedge funds), 18 percent real assets, 10 percent international emerging markets equity, 9 percent U.S. equity, 6 percent international developed equity, and 5 percent fixed income and cash, according to PRINCO’s website. “Princeton is unusual, even among similar universities, with an endowment that covers more than half of our operating costs each year,” said Provost Deborah Prentice. “That endowment is Continued on Page 9
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Ellsberg, Wallis Headline Nov. Peace Event Daniel Ellsberg, a renowned whistleblower since he released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times almost 50 years ago; and Jim Wallis, Sojourners magazine founder and editor, will be the headline speakers at a November 10 Princeton peace event, including a Multifaith Service at the Princeton University Chapel in the morning and an afternoon Conference for Peace at the Nassau Presbyterian Church on Nassau Street. The 40th Anniversary Conference and Multifaith Service, sponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) and cosponsored by 37 area religious and civic groups, will also feature Ray Acheson, the U.S. representative of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Shiho Burke, who lived in Hiroshima until she was 13 and whose parents were present during the Hiroshima atomic bombing; Jenny Town, a research analyst at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., and the managing editor and producer of 38 North, a web journal focusing on North Korea; and Frank von Hippel, Princeton University professor emeritus, MacArthur Prize recipient, and former assistant director of the White House Science Advisor’s Office.
Wallis, whose magazine has a combined print and electronic readership of over five million, is a New York Times best-selling author of 13 books, including, most recently, Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. He will preach at the morning Multifaith Service, with faith leaders from a range of world religions co-leading the liturgy. “A lot of people don’t think about an evangelical minister advocating progressive positions on peace and justice issues,” said CFPA Executive Director the Rev. Robert Moore, “but that’s exactly where Wallis lands. Wallis has tried to connect people to what he considers, and
I consider, the core message of Jesus, and that has a lot to do with peacemaking and nonviolence.” Moore, who has known Wallis since the 1970s when Wallis was founding Sojourners and Moore was serving in a church in Washington, D.C., noted that Wallis would be talking about the role of Christ’s teaching and his call “in terms of the peacemaking challenges we face today.” Emphasizing the timeliness and relevance of the November 10 program, Moore pointed out the important role that whistleblowers like Ellsberg can Continued on Page 8
Permit Parking is the Topic Of Community Open Forum
Among the controversial issues of the recent revamp of Princeton’s parking system was permit parking. An especially relevant topic for residents of the tree streets, Jugtown, and employees in the central business district, it is the focus of an open forum being held tonight (October 16) at 7 p.m. at Witherspoon Hall, by the task force that has been working to develop a comprehensive permit parking plan for neighborhoods within walking
distance of the downtown. Made up of residents and business owners, the task force has been meeting since early this past summer. The group is planning to present recommendations to Princeton Council early next year. Councilwoman Leticia Fraga, who leads the group, is hoping that residents, business owners, and their employees will attend the forum to ask questions and Continued on Page 10
TAKING THE CHALLENGE: Visitors make their way through Howell Farm’s 23rd annual Corn Maze in Hopewell Township on Sunday afternoon. The four-acre maze celebrates nursery rhymes this year, with a three-way board game to solve with puzzle pieces found in the maze. It is open on weekends through October. Participants share their favorite fall activities in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Erica M. Cardenas)