PrincetonUniversity
 

Report of the Four-Year College Program Planning Committee
August 20, 2002

V. Conclusion

Recent decades have seen important changes that, by any measure, have enhanced the experience of Princeton's students. The Frist Campus Center provides the most compelling recent example. In 1979, the Report of the Committee on Undergraduate Residential Life laid the foundation for a transformation in undergraduate residential life when it recommended the establishment of the five freshman-sophomore residential colleges that have served Princeton exceptionally well for the last two decades. With the decision to expand the undergraduate student body and the commitment to the introduction of four-year colleges, the University has the opportunity to chart the course for a further transformation, which we are confident will serve Princeton equally well in the decades to come. Growth and change are hallmarks of great institutions. We believe that the new college plan elaborated here will marry the best of Princeton's traditional strengths with new structures and opportunities that will make the University even stronger. Mindful of the injunction of the Wythes Committee to make the expansion of the undergraduate student body the occasion for strengthening undergraduate education, we have made recommendations that are designed explicitly both to delineate the program for the new four-year colleges and, more broadly, to improve the lives of all undergraduates.

We believe that our proposals will insure the success of the new college plan at the same time that they accomplish larger purposes. As the student body grows, these proposals should assist the University in preserving and strengthening the personalized care, attention, and guidance that have been highly prized by generations of Princetonians. As students and parents expect more service and support from the University, these proposals will offer means of providing it. As national trends make the structuring and oversight of residential life more challenging than ever, the new college system we have outlined here will assure that Princeton is up to the task.

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