In Princeton's service . . .
Shortly after Harold T. Shapiro announced his plans to step down from the presidency at Princeton, he was asked how he would like his years here to be remembered.
"My view is a little different than, perhaps, you might expect," he said. "I'm hoping what people will remember is what students and faculty did in the last decade here at Princeton. That's really what's important. I've always viewed my job as president as really trying to do what I can to provide for faculty and students what they need (in order) to do what they most want to do. I hope that's what people will remember."
Providing for faculty and students has taken many different forms during the Shapiro presidency. Under his leadership, Princeton celebrated its 250th anniversary, expanded its motto at his initiative from "Princeton in the Nation's Service" to "Princeton in the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations," and completed this past summer the most successful fund-raising campaign in the University's history, raising a total of $1.14 billion with contributions from 78 percent of undergraduate alumni.
Among many other accomplishments, Shapiro has
• proposed and implemented several undergraduate teaching initiatives, including the creation of a special fund to support innovation, a program to bring exceptional teachers to Princeton as visiting faculty, awards for excellent teaching that are presented each year at Commencement and a Center for Teaching and Learning; he has also overseen a significant expansion of Princeton's freshman seminar program and of opportunities for students to study abroad.
• presided over a period of steady growth in the size and distinction of the faculty, and the development of such new academic programs as an Institute in Integrative Genomics, an interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Religion, the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts (anchored by the Cotsen Fellows in the Humanities), the Center for Human Values, new master's programs in finance, engineering and public policy, and new initiatives in alumni education, including a recently announced alliance with Oxford, Stanford and Yale to expand the online educational opportunities they offer to their students and alumni.
• overseen successful efforts to increase both the overall quality and the diversity of Princeton's undergraduate and graduate student bodies, including substantial improvements in Princeton's undergraduate student aid programs to meet more effectively the needs of both lower and middle income families -- actions that have encouraged similar improvements at a number of other universities; during his presidency, the percentage of international students in the undergraduate student body has almost doubled (to 10 percent) and there also have been significant increases in graduate fellowship support.
• initiated the most substantial program of building renovation (especially dormitory renovation) in Princeton's history, while also overseeing the construction of such important new buildings as the Frist Campus Center; Scully dormitory; new academic space for the social sciences in Fisher, Bendheim and Wallace Halls, for physics teaching in McDonnell Hall, for engineering education in the Friend Center, for genomics in Icahn laboratory and for the Center for Human Values in Marx Hall; new athletic space at Princeton Stadium, the Weaver track, the Shea Rowing Center and 1952 field; and the Berlind Theatre addition to McCarter Theatre. Planning will proceed this year for a sixth residential college and other additional dormitory space to accommodate the 10 percent increase in the size of the undergraduate student body that the trustees approved last spring, an increase that will not take effect until the new college is completed.
• overseen a quadrupling of the University's endowment from approximately $2 billion in 1988 to over $8 billion currently, a steady reduction in the annual rate of tuition increases (to 3.3 percent last year) and an improve-ment in the University's administrative procedures through an ongoing program of review.
"When I arrived here, I was awestruck by Princeton's achievements. But I leave here awestruck and energized by what Princeton is yet to do."
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October 2, 2000 Contents • Shapiro
to step down at the top of his game • President Clinton address to keynote academic conference • Invitation
touches Berry • Orientation
packs in activities • Calendar
of events
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