January 24, 2001: President's Page

New Student Publications

One of our goals as a University is to encourage student activities that promote learning and personal growth outside the classroom. Every year some 200 student groups sign up with the Office of Undergraduate Students as official student organizations--and some of them focus directly on promoting the exchange of ideas. Several of the most vibrant of these organizations are new student publications. I would like to describe three fairly recent publications, each of which, in its own way, has brought a distinctive new dimension to campus life.

One such publication grew out of an existing student organization, CommonSense. Jeff Wolf ‘02, a philosophy major, started the organization last year, taking the name from Thomas Paine’s well known pamphlet. His intention was to bring together students who wanted to explore a variety of topics--political, philosophical, religious, and scientific--from a humanist perspective. The students’ desire to communicate their views more widely through a newsletter marks a progression often seen in the life of an organization; how broadly they decided to reach out marks a significant departure from other student groups. The students made their journal, CommonSense, an intercollegiate enterprise. A glance at the online masthead proves their success: Vincent Lloyd ’03 is editor, but a founding editor is a Cornell University senior; the copy editor is from Colorado State University; the business manager is from the University of Victoria; contributors include graduate students from here and elsewhere. Jeff found the challenge of starting a multi-campus-based publication appealing, especially since the “payoff” included a chance to bring to Princeton fresh, diverse perspectives, and a chance to continue discussion of intriguing academic issues outside the classroom. [The journal can be found on the Web at www.princeton.edu/~comsense/journal.html.]

The Daily Princetonian has been in business for almost 125 years, but this fall it started publishing a new weekly magazine in addition to the daily newspaper. The Prince Magazine demonstrates a commitment by the newspaper’s current staff, under editor-in-chief Richard Just ’01, to step back from daily news events to explore important University issues in a more extended format. This commitment is also reflected in the newspaper which recently ran a ten-part series on race at Princeton. The magazine provides an additional forum for longer thought pieces that analyze campus trends. For example, a recent edition featured an article on women on campus and why relatively low numbers of women students run for established political office (for instance, the Undergraduate Student Government) while a relatively high number join and take charge of organizations that allow for leadership in smaller groups that depend more on frequent person-to-person contact (for example, the Student Volunteers Council or Resident Advisors). [The Web version of the magazine can be found at www.princemag.com.]

Another publication begun in the past two years strives to bring together students from across the boundaries that separate particular academic disciplines. The journal, innovation (with a lower-case “i”), was the brainchild of Yorell Mañón-Matos ’00, a molecular biology major, now in medical school at Dartmouth. As he describes the genesis of his idea, Yorell recognized the enormous talent in science and engineering on campus and wanted to expose more students to research taking place at the frontiers of knowledge. The magazine involves students from engineering and the natural sciences as well as from economics, art and archaeology, and the history of science. Each issue revolves around a central theme, such as conservation technology. Innovation extends to the management style that the students have adopted for the magazine. They encourage members to try out their skills in a variety of areas; they emphasize teamwork over top-down leadership; they pair up students from different disciplines to cover a story.

For example, Craig Cornelius ‘01, a history of science major with a self-declared passion for space exploration, collaborated with Jared Jensen ’03 from mechanical and aerospace engineering to write an article on micropropulsion.

With free time a precious commodity and with a large number and variety of extracurricular activities to choose from, attracting student interest in a new magazine is a challenge. The current editor, Carl Riccadonna ’01, and publisher, Derek Djeu ’01, of innovation readily admit that a charismatic leader is a help. Derek describes how Yorell pursued students whom he thought “should” have an interest in the journal and convinced them to participate. Yorell claims he sought out risk-takers. His colleagues admit that the venture stretches their abilities, but they value the effort because it is a challenge and because it is a student-driven enterprise. Yorell gives Princeton credit for creating an environment that nourishes student organizations--and innovations. Students have access to significant resources: University departments donate funds to offset production costs; the Office of Undergraduate Students offers administrative support; faculty provide advice and guidance. Above and beyond these resources is the community of talented Princeton students on which to draw for contributors and readers.

When any of these students describe what motivates them to put in the time and effort to start a publication, what becomes immediately apparent is their desire to communicate to other students their own passionate interest in a topic. As they create and manage these activities, the students become educators, and our community is the richer for their efforts.