Auditing Princeton courses: "It's a privilege"
By Ann Waldron
Walk into almost any Princeton lecture hall and you'll
see them: quiet, attentive, often gray-haired, seated in the
back rows. They're passionate about learning, and they're
getting a Princeton education for a pittance. They're
auditors.
Ruth and Ellis Winikoff, who moved from Minneapolis to a
nearby retirement community, have been auditing at Princeton
for years: courses in art, history, religion, literature,
political science. "It's privilege," they say. "Everything
we've taken has been fabulous."
Princeton has always allowed auditors to sit in on
lecture courses, and for decades undergraduates have been
used to adults from the community sitting in on classes. But
recently, as the area has become more of a magnet for
retirees, the number of auditors has increased
exponentially. Faculty and administrators began to complain
as would-be auditors called constantly to find out where and
when classes met. And in some popular courses, there were so
many auditors that enrolled students couldn't find
seats.
So last fall the University launched the Community
Auditing Program, with Pam Hersh, director of the Office
of Community and State Affairs, in charge. Now all auditors
must register with the program, pay a fee of $50 per course
and receive a registration card. (The fee is waived if a
would-be auditor cannot afford it.)
Register in person
Registration gives the administration a way to check
abuses and protect the interests of matriculating
undergraduates. Last fall there were 470 auditors
registered; this spring there are 360. (Hersh believes that
the difference is due to the fact that "many retirees go to
Florida in the winter.")
For fall semester 2000-01, auditors can register in
person between 10 am and 2:00 pm on April 25 through 27 at
the Student Center. Mail-in registration will be possible up
until September 1, using forms available from a box outside
220 Nassau Hall. Auditors can choose from a list of selected
lecture courses, approved by the professors and department
managers; they may not attend labs, seminars or
precepts.
None of the current auditors seems upset by the fees or
the registration process. Some had realized themselves that
the situation was getting out of hand and feared that unless
it was regulated, the University might cut auditing out
altogether.
"It's a win-win situation now," said Marietta Taylor,
head of the Community Auditing Council that Hersh organized
to get community input. "The auditors like it. The
professors like it. The University likes it."
Taylor, who is married to Dean of the Faculty Joseph
Taylor, has audited courses ever since she retired from her
own job at the University.
Faculty attitudes vary
Although auditors pop up in a wide variety of courses,
art history is their favorite field, with music, literature,
and history close behind.
Faculty attitudes toward auditors vary. Sara Curran,
assistant professor of sociology, is glad to have auditors
in her course on Sex, Sexuality and Gender.
Auditors, she says "offer a perspective on life that most
students haven't even imagined. In the first half of the
course, we talk about youth and adolescence, and the
undergraduates know about that. In the second half, when we
talk about marriage, the family and work, they don't know
about that. But the auditors do. They're very respectful and
wait for the students to talk first, but when I keep
pushing, they say things that are quite helpful."
Not all professors are as upbeat. "Some auditors are
cranks," says one. Even other auditors recognize occasional
problems. "Auditors should be careful to sit in the back of
the room," said one. "Some of the elderly people like to sit
up front, but they should let the students get first
crack."
Some auditors are frustrated by their limited role, but
most are happy with the program. Robert Varrin '56 is one of
them. An engineering graduate who says he should have
majored in history, Varrin sat in on Imperial Russian
history last semester; this semester he's auditing courses
on the High Middle Ages and the American Civil War.
"I don't mind not going to precepts," he says. Taking a
course at Princeton "is still the greatest thing on
earth."
A longer version of this article is in the Princeton
Alumni Weekly of April 5.
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