Volume LXXI, Number 29
Women to Run Marathon in Every State. . . . . . . . 5 New PHS Courses Focus on Racial Literacy, Harmony. . . . . . . . . . . 7 Vote for Town Topics Readers’ Choice Awards. . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Councilman Tim Quinn Injured on Anchor House Ride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Still Austen’s Children — 200 Years Later. . . . . 11 Stony Brook Millstone Fairy Festival. . . . . . . 16 Princeton Summer Theater Spins a Spider’s Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Concert Features Emerging Composers. . 21 Morey to Take Helm of PU Women’s Hockey . . . . 24 PHS Alum Walker Rowing in U23 World Championships . . . . . 27
Maria Carmen Cortes Bugena, who devoted her life to the care and nurture of others, dies at 97. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Classified Ads. . . . . . . . 32 Mailbox. . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Music/Theater . . . . . . . 20 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . 30 Police Blotter. . . . . . . . . 7 Real Estate . . . . . . . . . 31 Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Topics of the Town . . . . . 5 Town Talk. . . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
Save Westminster Coalition Files Amendment to Suit Amid New Information Rider University’s announcement last week that a new dance studio will open on its campus in Lawrenceville does not sit well with those working to keep the University from closing Westminster Choir College (WCC) in Princeton, which Rider owns and wants to sell. Members of The Coalition to Save Westminster Choir College in Princeton have used words like “infuriating” and “insulting” on social media, one likening the opening of a $700,000 studio at Rider while the future of Westminster remains uncertain to “a punch in the face.” Last week, the group added an amendment to a complaint against Rider that was filed last month in federal court. The lawsuit claims that based on the 1991 agreement that merged Rider and Westminster, Rider has no legal right to sell the music school. The amendment states that Rider’s claims of a Westminster deficit are false; rather that last year, Westminster ran at a surplus of $2,850,000. “As such facts demonstrate,” the amendment states, “Rider’s claimed $10 million annual deficit is not caused by Westminster that, in contrast to Rider University, operated in 2016 at a surplus.” “How can you say you are in such dire financial difficulties that your only hope is to relocate WCC and sell the campus for profit, and then suddenly find almost three quarters of a million dollars lying around to build a new dance studio?,” wrote Constance Fee, who heads the Coalition, in an email this week. “With this news, along with newly discovered financial information which has motivated an amendment to our original complaint which was filed on June 20, it continues to be difficult to know what to believe.” The new studio is to be used for Rider’s School of Fine and Performing Arts, a division of the Westminster College of the Arts. According to a press release, it was built to accommodate a growing dance and musical theater program. “We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the creation of the College of the Arts this year, so this studio could not come at a better time,” said Marshall Onofrio, dean of the arts school. “Over the past 10 years, Rider has been very responsive in creating new facilities for our students.” Kristine A. Brown, assistant vice president of Rider University Marketing Continued on Page 4
Art Sale Oil Paintings By Cvetko Ivanov
Saturday and Sunday- July 22-23, 2017 9:00AM- 5:00PM 15 Vandeventer Ave Princeton, New Jersey 08542
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Iran Sentences PU Grad Student to Prison An Iranian court announced Sunday that it has sentenced Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University graduate student in the history department, to 10 years in prison for spying. A Chinese-born U.S. citizen, Mr. Wang, 37, was arrested last summer in Iran while conducting research on the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty for his PhD dissertation. “Xiyue Wang is a fantastic scholar,” said Stephen Kotkin, Princeton history and international affairs professor and Mr. Wang’s advisor. “He chose as his PhD thesis topic an incredibly difficult, ambitious project, which required field work at multiple sites in a complex region.” Stating that Mr. Wang is innocent of all charges in his work, which is involved with 100-year-old documents, Mr. Kotkin continued, “He is a man of boundless intellectual curiosity, the kind of person who reads and reads and reads, then asks you for more suggestions. He is also uncom-
monly sincere, with impeccable manner, a person who is a joy to be around.” In a statement issued Sunday, Princeton University reported that since Mr. Wang’s arrest last summer it “has worked with Mr. Wang’s family, the U.S. government, private counsel, and others to facilitate his release.” The statement continued, “We were
very distressed by the charges brought against him in connection with his scholarly activities, and by his subsequent conviction and sentence. His family and the University are distressed at his continued imprisonment and are hopeful that he will be released after his case is heard by the appellate authorities in Tehran. In the Continued on Page 10
Police and Rec Department Will Host Community Night Out on August 1 Don’t miss the biggest pool party of the summer! For souvenir giveaways, ice cream, Zumba dancing, and free hot dogs and water bottles provided by McCaffrey’s Food Markets; displays of emergency tools and equipment by the Princeton Police Department (PPD), Fire Department, and First Aid Squad; and a host of other activities; the Community Park Pool
at 380 Witherspoon Street is the place to be on Tuesday, August 1 from 5 to 8 p.m. for Princeton Community Night Out. “It’s great for the community to come together and interact in a variety of casual ways,” said Princeton Council member Jo Butler. “It’s been a great evening for as many years as I can remember. There’s always a tremendous turnout.” Continued on Page 14
STRIKING A MAGICAL POSE: A fairy fashion show was just one of the fun activities at Saturday’s Fairy Festival at the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Reserve in Pennington. Children, who were encouraged to dress in fairy and gnome costumes, also created magical crafts, danced around a maypole, walked along the fairy trail, and played in the stream with water sprites. Participants share their favorite fairy stories and characters in this week’s Town Talk, and more photos are featured on page 16. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)