From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, September 15, 1997
Class of 2001 begins
college odyssey
Discovery: The 2001 Odyssey" was the theme of 1997-98 Opening Exercises, held September 7 in the University Chapel.
A colorful throng filled the chapel--faculty in medieval academic regalia, students in shorts and baseball caps, and parents in appropriately parental attire. Every pew was filled, the balcony was crowded, and some of the audience sat on the floor.
Following the presentation of academic prizes to six undergraduates by Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel (photo by DeniseApplewhite), President Shapiro addressed the gathering.
Academic awards.
During Opening Exercises, six undergraduates
received prizes in recognition of outstanding academic work.
Jacob Rasmussen (r) and Andrew
Neitzke (third from r), both math
majors, were co-winners of the Class of 1939 Princeton Scholar Award,
given to the member or members of the senior class who, at the end of
the junior year, have achieved the highest standing in all prior
college work at Princeton. Molecular biology major
Allison Bartlett and civil engineering and operations research major
Stephen Woolbert (third from l) were co-winners of the George B. Wood
Legacy Junior Prize, and Ryan
Hayward (l), a chemical engineering
major, won the Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize. Andrew Houck (second from
l), who plans to major in either electrical engineering or physics,
was named winner of the Freshman First Honor Prize. Houck's high
school, Manalapan High, will receive $250 for the purchase of books
in his name.
In a special tribute to the incoming Class of 2001, Shapiro alluded to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, with its music from "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. This music, Shapiro said, "begin[s] with a very quiet set of measures and build[s] to a great booming crescendo." The stirring music, played by University Organist Joan Lippincott, then reverberated through the Chapel, evoking smiles of recognition from the audience.
"For many of us," said Shapiro, "the rising crescendo of these musical moments symbolizes the excitement of new events and the unfolding of won-derful discoveries" that characterize the beginning of an academic year.
"What I hope for all the students who are entering Princeton today," he said, "is that your time here also will be characterized by the exhilarating excitement of discovery: the discovery of new ideas, the discovery of new friends, the discovery of new books, the discovery of old books whose ideas still resonate, the discovery of new skills of all kinds, and the exploration and discovery of what it means to take others' interests into account and, therefore, to act in an ethical fashion."
He acknowledged that "not all discoveries are exhilarating. For example, we all discover . . . limitations . . . disappointments." But even these, said Shapiro, "can help . . . elevate our sense of what it means to be human and how our human potential can be expanded."
He concluded by welcoming all "to this exciting and demanding joint journey of discovery. . . . You will help us change, you will grow, and you will discover that the artist, the philospher and the scientist among you are all pursuing this same task--namely, to understand and to reveal the world as it really is and as it may become, and to construct more meaningful lives for all of us."
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