Trustees call for larger student body
A special trustee committee has recommended that
Princeton increase the size of its undergraduate student
body by approximately 10 percent (from 4,600 to 5,100) to
"enhance the quality of the overall educational experience
at Princeton and make more effective use of the University's
extraordinary resources." The increase would be phased in
over four years, probably beginning three or four years from
now after additional dormitory and dining space has been
constructed.
The committee was appointed in the fall of 1997 to
consider a number of long-term strategic issues facing
Princeton over the coming decade, including issues related
to the size of the undergraduate student body, the
undergraduate financial aid program, the Graduate School,
the faculty, the administrative and support staffs, the
University's physical resources, the University's financial
resources, the use of new technologies and the library. The
chair of the committee is Paul Wythes, a charter trustee
from California and a member of the Class of 1955.
"Princeton is distinctive among research universities in
its commitments to undergraduate education and to a human
scale that encourages opportunities for personal
interaction," Wythes said. "Our recommendation is that the
University should reaffirm these commitments. At the same
time, we believe that Princeton can best meet these and
other important goals if it increases each undergraduate
class from its current size of roughly 1,150 to about
1,275.
"Princeton has no interest in becoming larger for the
sake of being larger," Wythes added. "But it does have an
interest in optimizing its contributions to higher
education, to the world of scholarship and to society in
ways that are consistent with its mission. We believe
Princeton should modestly increase the number of
undergraduates it educates because, in doing so, it can
enrich the overall experience of all its students and make
fuller use of its educational resources without altering the
fundamental nature of the Princeton undergraduate
experience."
President Harold Shapiro *64, a member of the committee,
said, "As part of its 250th anniversary, Princeton expanded
its informal motto 'in the nation's service' to also include
'the service of all nations.' Princeton fulfills its mission
through the teaching and scholarly activity of its faculty
and through the students it educates, who go on to make
leadership contributions in many fields--in this country and
around the world. The committee's proposal recognizes that
Princeton has the capacity to provide its distinctive
educational experience to a somewhat larger number of
students and therefore to make an even greater contribution
to the society it serves."
Committee's reasons
In making its recommendation, the committee notes the
following:
• Princeton attracts many more superbly qualified
applicants each year than the 12 percent it can admit. By
increasing its size, Princeton can expand the range of
talents, perspectives, and academic and nonacademic
interests in each class. Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon
told the committee that the applicant pool is so rich in
excellently qualified students that he could admit two
undergraduate classes of the current size and of essentially
the same exceptional abilities and promise.
• Princeton has made significant improvements in its
student aid programs for both American and international
students to help assure continued diversity in its applicant
pool. Increasing the size of its student body would permit
fuller representation of this diversity on campus. It may
also permit, for the first time in many years, the admission
of a small number of transfer students.
• Princeton's undergraduate enrollment has been
relatively constant for about 25 years, since the size of
each class grew from 800 to roughly 1,150 following
coeducation. Since then, the faculty has increased by one
percent a year on average. That rate of growth is projected
to continue as knowledge increases and new academic fields
emerge. This growth in the faculty expands the educational
opportunities available at Princeton and allows Princeton to
increase the size of the student body while maintaining its
historically low student-faculty ratio. All faculty at
Princeton continue to be engaged in teaching.
• The proposed increase in the number of
undergraduates is expected to be roughly proportional to the
increase in faculty size between now and the time by which
the committee's proposal is fully implemented. These
additional faculty allow Princeton to increase the size of
its student body while sustaining such core elements of the
Princeton undergraduate program as individual attention to
students, precepts of no more than 12 students, and the
advising of senior theses by tenured and tenure-track
faculty. They also allow for selective increases in faculty
positions in certain areas where pressure on teaching and
advising is greatest.
• Recent growth in the size of the faculty has been
accompanied by additions to the undergraduate curriculum in
fields ranging from molecular biology and finance to the
creative and performing arts. A 10 percent increase in the
number of undergraduates will provide additional support for
these and other emerging programs.
• To remain a leading world-class scholarly
institution, Princeton must continue to add faculty and
programs in selected areas. If it does so without increasing
the size of the entering class, the number of undergraduates
will become an increasingly smaller proportion of the
overall University. A modest increase will help assure that
undergraduate education remains at the center of the
institution. Even with an increase of 125 students per
undergraduate class, Princeton's class (1,275) would still
be smaller than those of its principal competitors (1,350 at
Yale and 1,650 at both Harvard and Stanford).
• During the past two decades Princeton has created
a system of five residential colleges for all freshmen and
sophomores that allows them to live, eat and socialize in
communities of about 500 students each. The committee
proposes the creation of one new residential college that
would accommodate the increased number of freshmen and
sophomores and also allow for some reduction in the number
of students in the existing colleges. This, in turn, will
allow some additional flexibility in using space within the
existing colleges--for example, to create more spaces for
instructional use and more common space.
• Except for new dormitory space to accommodate the
proposed addition of 500 undergraduates and the construction
of a sixth residential college, no other facilities need to
be added. Princeton has adequate classroom, library,
laboratory, athletic and recreational space to support the
additional students, and is about to complete construction
of a 180,000-square-foot campus center. Even after providing
for financial aid, the tuition revenues from 500 additional
students should offset the additional costs, even if outside
funding is not found for the additional dormitories and
residential college. While the committee did not propose
locations for these new facilities, it did review potential
locations and concluded that the campus "can accommodate
facilities of the size required without adversely altering
the unique character of the campus or its beauty."
• Because of the growth over time of its faculty,
its financial resources and its campus facilities, Princeton
is able to provide its unique education to a larger number
of students without altering the fundamental nature of the
Princeton experience. By educating a larger number of
students, Princeton can increase the vitality of student
life and make an even greater commitment to the service of
society.
Other recommendations
In addition to recommending an increase of 500 students
in the undergraduate student body, the committee makes
recommendations regarding the undergraduate financial aid
program (increase support for middle-income families); the
Graduate School (maintain current size, increase financial
aid and improve training of graduate students as teachers);
the faculty (controlled growth, with some redistribution of
positions in selected fields and from senior to junior
ranks); the administrative and support staffs ("achieve even
greater administrative efficiency"); the University's
physical resources (accelerate the dormitory renovation
schedule); its financial resources (strengthen corporate and
foundation fundraising and "continue the current trend of
lowering tuition increases, as long as inflation remains
under control and appropriate faculty compensation levels
are achievable"); the use of new technologies ("develop as
expeditiously as possible initiatives that can more fully
extend the use of new technology in the University's
teaching and research programs," including distance learning
programs that initially would focus on alumni but eventually
would reach broader audiences); and the library ("assure
that staff members are able to keep pace with rapid changes
in information technology").
The committee begins its report by reviewing the
recommendations of the 1993 Strategic Plan and other recent
trustee reviews of strategic issues; the growth in
Princeton's educational, scholarly and support programs and
in its physical and financial assets over recent years; and
the large number of actions Princeton has taken over the
past 10 to 12 years to improve the undergraduate curriculum.
It also incorporates an essay by President Shapiro on
external factors that may have an influence on Princeton and
on higher education in general in the decades immediately
ahead.
Two overarching principles
The committee ends its report by noting that its work
"has been guided by two overarching principles. The first is
our obligation to exercise responsible stewardship of the
exceptional resources that Princeton has accumulated over
many years and to assure that they will be sustained and
strengthened into the future. We are persuaded that the
budgetary and management policies and procedures currently
in place, augmented by those recommended in this report,
will allow us to meet this obligation, even in the
challenging and ever-changing environment of the first years
of the 21st century.
"Second, in asking whether there were initiatives
Princeton should undertake to make optimal use of its
remarkable resources and whether Princeton should extend its
educational and scholarly reach, our answers to both
questions were 'yes.' For reasons enumerated in our report,
we believe that Princeton should increase the size of its
undergraduate student body by approximately 125 students per
class; that it should enhance its financial aid programs for
both undergraduate and graduate students; that it should
take further steps to strengthen the faculty and the
administrative, support and other staffs; that it should
extend its educational and scholarly reach, both on campus
and off, through enhanced technologies; and that it should
take a number of other steps that, individually and
collectively, will enable Princeton to serve even better its
students and alumni, the nation and the world."
Action in April
The committee met 25 times, including four all-day, off
campus meetings, in developing its recommendations and
discussed them at length with the full board of trustees on
four occasions, including the November 1999 and January 2000
meetings. The committee formally presented its report to the
board at its January 29 meeting, with a request that the
board act on it at its April 15, 2000 meeting.
President Shapiro said, "The Wythes Committee has made a
number of important recommendations that will bring new
strength and vitality to Princeton, that will increase its
capacity to achieve its fundamental objectives and that will
prepare Princeton for the challenges of the new century. As
the committee points out, the modern history of higher
education vividly demonstrates that if an institution does
not evolve with changing times, it cannot retain either its
distinction or its social relevance.
"While retaining its historic emphasis on excellence in
undergraduate education, Princeton needs to continue to
expand into new intellectual fields, develop new courses of
study, remain accessible to a broad range of students from
all economic backgrounds, and reach out in new ways to
alumni and others through new technologies. This report
provides us with an excellent blueprint to achieve these
goals."
In addition to Wythes and Shapiro, the committee included
trustees Jon Barfield '74, Dennis Keller '63, Karen Magee
'83, Edward Matthews '53, Robert Murley '72, Robert Rawson
'66, John Scully '66, Sejal Shah '95 and John Sherrerd '52.
Provost Jeremiah Ostriker served as secretary to the
committee.
The complete text of the report will be available online
at www.princeton.edu/pr/reports/wythes/.
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