News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-3601
Date: January 13, 2000
Alumni Council to Assume Administrative Responsibility for Princeton Alumni Weekly
PRINCETON, January 13 -- A special Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW) review committee has recommended a structure for transferring administrative responsibility for the PAW from Princeton Alumni Publications, Inc. (PAP), a corporation formed in 1991 when the PAW left the auspices of the Princeton University Press, to the Alumni Council, and for ensuring its continuing editorial independence. The Alumni Council is a volunteer organization composed of the presidents of all alumni classes and regional associations along with other alumni leaders. It is overseen by a volunteer executive committee and is supported by a staff that reports both to the executive committee and to the University administration.
The special review committee included representatives of the PAP board, the Alumni Council, the University's board of trustees, and the University administration. It was chaired by Brent Henry '69, a University trustee and immediate past chair of the Alumni Council.
The committee also has recommended that the University more than double its financial contribution to the magazine to provide relief to the undergraduate alumni classes who currently cover just over half of the magazine's annual budget from class dues. Under the proposed arrangement, the University and the classes would contribute equal amounts after accounting for advertising, other subscriptions and other income. It is anticipated that both the University and the classes would cover approximately one-third of the total budget. The magazine is mailed to all undergraduate alumni, graduate alumni who pay dues to the Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni, and faculty, staff and members of the senior class.
Under the new structure, all members of the PAW staff will report to the editor of the PAW. The editor will report to the director of the Alumni Council for administrative matters and to a PAW Board for editorial direction, long-term planning and adoption of the magazine's annual budget. Principal responsibility for selecting and/or removing the editor, and for annual performance review and goal setting, will be exercised by a three-member committee composed of the director of the Alumni Council and the chair and vice chair of the PAW Board, who must be alumni with professional experience in the editorial side of journalism.
The 11-member PAW Board will include three alumni with professional experience in the editorial side of journalism, two alumni with professional experience in publishing, and one representative of graduate alumni with professional experience in journalism or publishing. Two of these six members will be elected each year for three-year terms by the Alumni Council following nomination by its Committee on Nominations, which in turn will seek the recommendations and/or endorsement of the PAW Board. The other five members will include a member of the faculty designated by the dean of the faculty for a three-year term following consultation with the PAW Board, the vice chair of the Alumni Council, the chair of the Alumni Council Committee on Class Affairs, the vice president for public affairs and the director of the Alumni Council.
The review committee recommended that the PAW Board should reflect the diversity of the entire alumni body with respect to age, type of degree, gender, ethnicity and other considerations. It also recommended that the Alumni Council should adopt a charter for the PAW that would reaffirm its editorial independence and describe its mission.
A predecessor to the PAW, The Alumni Princetonian, was founded in 1894 by the editors of the Daily Princetonian. In 1900 The Alumni Princetonian was succeeded by the Princeton Alumni Weekly. It was published by a group of alumni who, in seeking a reliable publisher for the magazine, founded the Princeton University Press. The PAW was an administrative unit of the Press from its founding in 1906 until 1991 when PAP was created. In 1916 the Press established a Board of Editorial Direction that included three members appointed by the alumni association and two members appointed by the Press.
PAP is legally constituted as a University support organization and all of its staff members already are University employees. PAP is managed by a 14-member volunteer board divided into two seven-member committees. The editorial committee includes two alumni appointed by the President of the University, two alumni elected by the Alumni Council, two alumni elected by the committee and one member of the faculty. The publication committee includes the vice chair of the Alumni Council, the chair of the Alumni Council Committee on Class Affairs, the vice president for public affairs, the director of the Alumni Council, and three alumni appointed by the President.
The PAW currently publishes 17 issues a year. The review committee has recommended a thorough review of the question of frequency as soon as possible, with an understanding that some reduction in frequency could be instituted beginning in academic year 2000-2001 to permit greater attention to the quality of each issue. The review will consider the results of a recent alumni survey regarding the PAW and will consider ways in which the printed issues of the magazine can be complemented and supplemented electronically.
As chair of the review committee, Henry said: "The PAW is the principal means of communication among alumni, and between alumni and the University. We care deeply about preserving its editorial independence, about providing a central role for alumni in overseeing its operations, about enhancing its quality, and about its effectiveness in conveying to its readers as complete, accurate and perceptive an understanding as possible of the University and the alumni. We believe we can best achieve these objectives by vesting responsibility for the magazine in the representative body for all alumni, the Alumni Council, and that the magazine will also benefit -- administratively and financially -- from its access to the administrative resources of the University. Finally, while we believe it is important that alumni continue to play an active role in funding the PAW, we also believe that current billing levels challenge or exceed the financial capacity of many classes. We are grateful to the University for its willingness to provide this additional financial support."