Publication: A Princeton Companion
Faculty. A persistent influence in the evolution of Princeton University has been the concept of a single, integrated faculty. As other universities have expanded, their faculties have usually divided into semiautonomous schools, held together more by financial controls and physical services than by common policies and objectives.
At Princeton, a single faculty, with the President presiding, oversees a wide range of educational functions including admissions, curriculum, instruction, research, discipline, examinations, standing, and extracurricular life. Through its standing committees, it advises the President on faculty appointments and advancements and on general university policy. It also provides a channel of communication and appeal to the Board of Trustees.
The integrated structure of the Princeton faculty as a policymaking body has survived because of the University's deep-set urge to limit size in order to sustain the quality of both its faculty and its students, to emphasize the fundamental branches of learning, to encourage their mutual reinforcement, and to preserve a common, man-centered approach to education in the liberal tradition. With but gradual expansion of the fields of study, and the close coordination of new fields to old, the need for atomization into sharply differentiated schools has been avoided.
Much of the work of the ``Faculty of Princeton University'' is done by elected standing committees. These include: (a) policy committees, such as those on the Course of Study, the Graduate School, Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid, as well as the University Research Board; (b) advisory committees, such as those on Appointments and Advancements, Policy, and Conference; and (c) administrative committees, such as on Athletic Eligibility, Examinations and Standing, Library, Public Lectures, and the Schedule. Policy and administrative committees report to the faculty at its regular monthly meetings. The educational policies of the University have long been the product of thorough study and lively debate by a faculty which through these orderly procedures assumes an unusual degree of concern and responsibility. The president and deans exercise their influence upon these policies far more through their leadership in the faculty and its committees than through any assumption of ex officio authority.
The operating unit which implements the educational policies of the University is the department whose functions include the administration of instruction, the planning of curriculum, oversight of research activities and facilities, and the recruitment and development of effective teacher-scholars. The chairman of a department is appointed by the president, after consultation, from among its senior members. His term is limited, and rotation in office is normal. As with the faculty, the responsibility for departmental activities is shared by its members through the assignment of functions to committees or representatives, whose work is closely coordinated by oversight and decision by the department as a whole.
The integration of the operating and planning functions of the teaching department with the policy and review functions of the University Faculty may be illustrated by two long-established procedures among many. In revising or expanding its curriculum, the department must recommend any change to the University-wide Committee on the Course of Study at the undergraduate level or to the Committee on the Graduate School in the case of graduate programs. If the change is approved by the appropriate committee, it is recommended to the University faculty for action. With Princeton's long tradition of a tightly controlled curriculum, the process of planning and review is thorough at all stages of the procedure.
The second procedure concerns the area of faculty appointments and advancements. The present quality, effectiveness, and morale of the Princeton faculty is owing in large measure to the responsible participation of its senior members. To be appointed or promoted to or within the professorial ranks, a candidate must be judged by all the senior members of a department. If the candidate is approved by the department, a full and formal recommendation is sent to the dean of the faculty, who lays it before the Advisory Committee on Appointments and Advancements for careful study.
This committee, traditionally called the ``Committee of Three,'' now includes four voting members elected annually by the faculty from among the chairmen of departments, one from each of the four major divisions of the University. The committee, with the president, the provost, the dean of the faculty, the dean of the Graduate School, and the dean of the College ``in attendance,'' advises the president on all proposals for the appointment or ad~vancement in salary or rank of faculty personnel beyond first appointment as an assistant professor. In addition to reviewing the extensive materials forwarded by departments, it may seek outside evaluations of candidates or ask chairmen to appear before it. After full discussion by all present, it is the vote of the four elected members of the committee which the president takes under advisement in exercising his sole responsibility of recommending action by the Board of Trustees.
Another consolidating influence upon the Princeton faculty, which exercises as great a degree of responsibility as in any American university, is the concept of continuing tenure, Attained only after the thorough-going review outlined above, whether through step-by-step advancement to the rank of associate professor, reappointment at that rank, or first appointment as a full professor, the award of tenure encourages the member to feel that he is a ``managing partner'' in an ongoing institution. His responsibilities are clear and rewarding at both the University and the departmental level. He comes to have a long-run stake in the overall quality of the institution and in the strength and progress of his own discipline within it. If there were no other argument for academic tenure in higher education, at Princeton it could be strongly defended as a force for enhancing faculty responsibility and morale, as well as for thoroughness and concern in the selection of those to whom it is awarded.
In American higher education generally, the usual justification of academic tenure is either, at the philosophical level, the assurance of academic freedom, or at the practical, personal level, the assurance of security against loss of job. In an older institution, with a tight-knit faculty, the major protection against arbitrary dismissal because of unpopular opinions is the tradition of the institution, supported by well-established procedures for faculty, presidential, and trustee review. At the same time, a strong feeling of mutual responsibility reduces the likelihood of the abuse of freedom. At the practical, personal level, it is unlikely at a strong, older institution that arbitrary terminations of senior personnel will become necessary for reasons of institutional finance. At Princeton, the policy of awarding continuing tenure has been far more a means of assuring a strong and responsible faculty than a needed safeguard of a long-cherished tradition of academic freedom.
J. Douglas Brown
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).