Depending how you see Princeton, the office of admission is either St. Peter or Cerberus: a gatekeeper through which all Princetonians must pass. While the admission office may have no influence on how students behave once they get to campus, and while Princeton is more than the sum of its undergraduate students, the admission office's selections undeniably influence the character of the university.

It's not surprising, therefore, that when a committee called the Faculty Study Group on Undergraduate Admissions began to meet last spring to review the admissions process, its discussions quickly turned to some of the biggest issues facing Princeton. The fact that the 12-person group included President Shapiro (who chaired the committee), three former or current deans, and two college masters, makes the committee's report, released on October 6, particularly compelling.

Of the committee's four recommendations, the one that has received the most attention on campus is its suggestion that Princeton increase the size of the entering class by as many as 125-150 students -- which over four years would result in an increase of more than 10 percent in the undergraduate student body. The report lists two major reasons for adding students. First, "Applications to Princeton have risen dramatically over the last three decades, resulting in a marked increase in selectivity." For the Class of 1972 there were 5,511 applicants, of whom 25.3 percent were admitted; for the Class of 2001 there were 13,400 applicants, of whom 12.9 percent were admitted. At the same time, academic 1's and 2's (the academically most qualified applicants) are "the most rapidly growing part" of the applicant pool. "Put simply," the report concludes, "Princeton is turning away too much exceptional talent."

The second reason the committee gave for adding students has to do with Princeton's tightly constrained admissions process. Committee member John Gager, a professor of religion and the master of Forbes College, said, "Under the current system, with slots allocated for recruited athletes, legacies, and other special categories, there's not a lot of room for maneuvering." The committee, however, wanted to find a way to "increase the proportion of academically excellent students at Princeton and to further diversify the student body."

Yet without increasing the size of the entering class, the only way to increase the proportion of academic 1's and 2's would be to shrink the number of students in these special categories -- an option several committee members said they didn't even consider. "I'm speculating on my own," Shapiro said, "but I think the committee realized that the university has many objectives that it is pursuing. They felt it wasn't their place to assess those objectives: intercollegiate athletics, alumni, minorities. Those decisions are made at the level of the trustees."

Shapiro is careful to note that any expansion of the student body would have to be approved by the trustees -- and there will certainly be a long period of public discussion first. "This is not yet the time to discuss this issue in dead earnest," he says. Still, Shapiro himself has no philosophical objection to adding more students, as long as it doesn't change the intrinsic nature of the university. "If you feel there is something particularly valuable to a Princeton education," Shapiro said, "then there is a social cost to educating fewer people. We don't want to minimize the number of students who have access to a Princeton education."

LONG-TERM PROBLEMS

At the heart of the committee's recommendation is its conviction that some of Princeton's long-term problems could be partially addressed through admissions. "We were interested in seeing how much through the admissions process we could change the character of undergraduate student life," Gager said. To that end, the report suggests that "more weight should be given in assembling a class to the potential contributions of intellectually engaged students pursuing such extracurricular activities as playing a musical instrument, acting, writing poetry, painting, and playing chess."

"A lot of students," Gager said, "think that Princeton has less of an intellectual atmosphere than it should have. In particular, many senior students seem to feel isolated -- that their broad intellectual interests haven't found a certain level of support overall or that they haven't found intellectual companionship." The report suggests that "giving more weight" during the admission process "to other forms of special accomplishment outside the classroom [read: other than varsity athletics] might result in a better overall balance."

The report also acknowledges that some characteristics inherent to Princeton make it difficult for the admission office to attract the candidates it most desires. The report notes that "some of the realities of campus life make Princeton less attractive than it should be to many outstanding students." In particular, the report cites the "limited range of dining and social opportunities, the alcohol-centered nature of social life, and the less than fully comfortable climate for minority students" as hindering Princeton's recruitment efforts.

The easiest case to document is Princeton's struggle to consistently attract minorities. "The observed reality is that our yield among minorities is lower than among other groups," Shapiro said. "It is a problem. The question is -- is there an explanation?" While the report avoids the specifics of why Princeton may appear less welcoming to minority students, it lauds the recent expansion of the financial aid program and suggests that the university "redouble" its efforts in recruiting. Most interestingly, the committee raises the possibility that perhaps Princeton could "establish a special relationship with one or more community colleges, such that a small number of their best graduates could be considered for transfer admission to Princeton."

STUDENT RESPONSE

The initial student response to the report focused on the proposal to add more students. At the first U-Council meeting following the report's release, the undergraduate members came with a list of 36 logistical concerns regarding the potential expansion. Undergraduates also noted that an integral part of Princeton's character comes from its size. "Just adding 500 students is the easy way out of the challenges facing the admission office," says David Ascher '99, president of the Undergraduate Student Government. "We think the proportion of certain types of students should change, but that the size of the student body should stay the same."

Ascher is careful to note that the USG does agree with several parts of the committee's report. "We like the emphasis on diversity," he says. "Prince-ton needs to be better at attracting and retaining minority students." Still, Ascher disagrees vehemently with many of the committee's observations about the campus climate. "The report seems very anti-athletics," he says, "and that stance reflects an underestimation of what athletics adds to the Princeton community. Furthermore, I think it's unfair to say that Princeton ranks low on an intellectualism scale. You can't look at the student body here and not be amazed."

Ultimately, the committee's report is really only a series of suggestions -- some of which ultimately may be adopted, and some of which might soon be forgotten. Rarely, however, do 12 respected professors and administrators get together to think about ways Princeton could be improved -- and for that reason alone the report is valuable. As Shapiro said, "You can never tell where a committee is going to go."

-- Wes Tooke '98

Excerpts from the admissions report

Following are excerpts from the report of the Faculty Study Group on Undergraduate Admissions. The full report can be accessed on the Web: www.princeton.edu/pr/facts/adm-report.html.

"While the percentage of legacies in the entering class has gone down over the past decade, the relative admissions advantage for legacy applicants has actually increased. For the past five years, legacy applicants have been offered admission at more than three times the rate at which non-legacy applicants have been offered admission. This is a higher ratio than in previous years and is more likely than not attributable to a higher degree of self-selection among potential legacy applicants themselves."

"While there was no quarrel about the students who were admitted, there was a strong desire for more of them. That there were more students the group wished could have been admitted was a persistent refrain in the discussion."

"The Study Group expressed the strong sense that more weight should be given in assembling a class to the potential contributions of intellectually engaged students pursuing ... extracurricular activities such as playing a musical instrument, acting, writing poetry, painting, and playing chess....[I]ncreasing the representation in the student body of students with such commitments would likely enrich the quality of intellectual life on the campus; moreover, with a significant proportion of the class already recruited to participate in varsity athletics, giving more weight to other forms of special accomplishment outside the classroom might result in a better overall balance....[T]he Study Group considered but rejected the possibility of creating new 'tagged' categories as a means of accomplishing its desired goals for the composition of the undergraduate student body. The objectives stated in the report can and should be accomplished without further balkanizing an already tightly constrained admissions process."

The "pressing justification for increasing the size of the entering class is the opportunity it offers to increase the proportion of academically excellent students at Princeton and to further diversity the student body....In recommending an increase in class size, the Study Group takes as given that there are no plans to increase the size of the intercollegiate athletic program; this recommendation therefore assumes no growth in the number of recruited athletes."

"Princeton's success in attracting top students depends importantly on their perceptions of Princeton, some of which are rooted in fact and some of which are only loosely and anecdotally related to reality. Images of Princeton abound: a university with an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching;...a university with an outsized commitment to and success in varsity athletics; a university whose social environment bears the enduring stamp of Fitzgeraldian legend."

"It's too easy to fall into the trap of assuming that admissions holds the sole key to the nature and effectiveness of undergraduate education and campus life at Princeton.... While the University will continue to improve its admissions process, it is up to the entire University community to rededicate itself to realizing the full potential of the academic talent Princeton enrolls. That can happen in so many ways: ...rethinking of departmental curricula for freshmen and sophomores... more effective faculty mentoring of undergraduates from the outset of their enrollment... continued efforts by the faculty to address underperformance on the part of certain groups of students... continued dedication by the coaching staff to the reinforcement of the importance of academic achievement."

Library displays works of Aubrey Beardsley

Despite dying at the age of 25, Aubrey Beardsley is one of the most enduring artists of fin-de-siècle England. Beardsley drew upon such diverse influences as Japanese woodblock painters, Greek amphorae, and French rococo artists in crafting the brilliant and controversial work that made him the leading symbol of English decadent art in the 1890s.

The print above is a result of Beardsley's collaboration with another avant-garde artist of the late 19th century: Oscar Wilde. Composed in 1893, the print depicts the climactic scene from Wilde's play Salome, when the title character kisses the severed head of John the Baptist. A copy of the print first appeared in an article by Joseph Pennell for The Studio, and according to Kenneth Clark it "aroused more horror and indignation than any graphic work hitherto produced in England."