The admission of an 11 percent larger undergraduate class, the introduction of a four-year residential college system and the opening of Whitman College -- all originally planned for the fall of 2006 -- will be deferred one year, to the fall of 2007, President Shirley M. Tilghman has announced.
"These are all very important steps for Princeton," Tilghman said. "We want to be sure that they will be done as well as we can do them and that they will all take place at the same time."
"Whitman College is going to be a spectacular addition to our campus, but its design and construction are going to take longer than we originally estimated," she said. "While we probably could have some of Whitman ready for occupancy in the fall of 2006, we don't want to open the college in a piecemeal fashion, nor do we want to open it before it can be fully integrated into the new four-year college system. An additional year will allow us to complete the full construction of Whitman, and it will also give us further time to complete our planning for the expansion of the undergraduate student body and the four-year college system."
The construction of Whitman College will enable an 11 percent increase in the undergraduate student body from about 4,600 to 5,100 that was approved by the trustees four years ago. It also will allow the University to modify its residential college system so that three of the six colleges (Whitman, Mathey and Butler) will house students from all four classes, increasing opportunities for interaction across all the classes and allowing juniors and seniors to take fuller advantage of the colleges' academic, social and cultural offerings. Under the plan, each of the other three colleges (Forbes, Rockefeller and Wilson) will be paired with a four-year college, and all the colleges will include graduate students in residence.
Whitman College is being designed in a collegiate gothic style by Demetri Porphyrios, a Princeton graduate alumnus who is one of the world's leading traditional-style architects. It will provide dormitory, dining, social, cultural, educational and recreational space for 500 undergraduates and 10 graduate students and will provide office and teaching space for the Princeton Writing Program.
Contact: Ruth Stevens (609) 258-3601