The last time the University dramatically increased enrollment was when it accepted women more than 20 years ago.
With the trustees' approval of the Wythes report Saturday, the University again faces the challenge of implementing a substantial change in the size of the student body — a task about which students and faculty members have expressed concerns.
Some professors worry about the potential effect of the enrollment increase on departmental resources and want assurance that the additional students will bring diversity and enhanced intellectual abilities, history department chair Philip Nord said in an interview.
"The faculty feels very strongly about this, and I know they are seconded by Nassau Hall. There are other constituencies involved and other interests that shape the admissions process," he said.
Slavic languages and literatures department chair Charles Townsend — whose department has fewer than 10 concentrators — agreed that the increase would be beneficial as long as the additional students are accepted based on their academic instead of extracurricular strengths.
"I feel strongly in favor of it as long as the additional 500 students are strictly academic students and not taken in on the basis of anything else," Townsend said. "Then I think it will help us [because] Russian is demanding."
"I think extracurriculars are OK, but you come to college to study," he added.
Stephen Forrest, chair of the electrical engineering department, said his department was generally supportive of the enrollment increase but emphasized the need for the University to meet the resulting increased demand for resources.
"More people are looking at electrical engineering as a career these days, which is all very good and a lot of these will come to electrical engineering and press our limited resources," he said.
President Shapiro, a member of the Wythes committee, said he is confident that the needs of a larger student body will be met, adding that he believes the increase will enhance the education offered by the University while making it "a livelier and more exciting place."
"There's a pool of wonderful students out there who would like to come to Princeton," he said. "There will be more diversity and even more intellectual vitality."
Like their professors, some students are wary of a larger student body. Elizabeth Greenberg '02 said she is concerned that the faculty will not grow quickly enough to match the influx of students. "It's hard enough when you have a class that's supposed to be a precept and you have 20 people in it," she said. Greenberg also said she was frustrated with campus expansion and indicated the student increase will only exacerbate the situation.
"This is just going to lead to more construction," she said. "There is construction going on for the new humanities building, McCarter Theater, Robertson. The computer science building is all roped off. Now it's Frist, and soon it will be Chancellor Green."
USG president PJ Kim '01 said he believes the trustees considered student opinion when they amended the original proposal. "I think if you look at the amendment they passed especially with regards to student life, those came directly out of discussions with students, especially the USG," he said.
Kim noted that the implementation of the trustees' decision is now a more important concern than whether one is "for or against the plan."
"We want to make sure students are involved in the steering of that growth," he added.
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