Unlikely Mentors

If you hadn't noticed, there have been a lot of older folks hanging around Frist the past couple of days. No, there's not an AARP convention. It's sign-up time for the Community Auditing Program for spring courses.

The program is, to me, the best example of the University and the town directly sharing with each other the invaluable resources that each has to offer. What harm is having a few extra people sitting in the back of a lecture hall, especially when they have something productive to add to our Princeton experience? ART 214: Contemporary Art Since 1950, for instance, has a dozen or more community auditors, almost all of whom are more than 60 years old. Their aghast, often audible reactions when Professor Hal Foster shows and discusses some of the more vulgar, graphically sexual art of the era — the controversial photography of Robert Mapplethorpe, for instance — does more than provide a few giggles for me and my classmates. It is also a good reminder that not everyone shares the liberal view — prevalent in most academic circles — that under the First Amendment, anything goes in art.

But community auditors do more than just enjoy lectures by world famous professors every week. These men and women often have something very valuable to contribute to us: perspective. My friend, Melanie — an art history major — is used to having auditors in her departmental classes, but said this semester, she was particularly impressed by some of the auditors in SOC 250: The Western Way of War.

Because many of the auditors were alive at the time of World War II and the Korean War — or even served in active duty — they provide an invaluable viewpoint not offered either in professor Miguel Centeno's lectures or in precept discussions. "They add a different perspective to a class made up of 18- to 20-year-olds," Melanie said. Some of the auditors have gone as far as to send e-mails about Webpages that they know about, or have themselves created, which may be useful to undergraduates enrolled in the course.

While most are a welcome addition — as Melanie said, "Their enthusiasm for learning is contagious" — sometimes problems arise when lecture halls get cramped, handouts disappear or professors are monopolized before and after lectures with questions from over-eager auditors. The University, in formalizing the auditing program last year, has done a good job of remedying those problems while allowing community auditing to continue.

But very soon, we will have 500 new students on campus. What will become of our community auditors? We should be very careful to ensure that in our eagerness to open our doors to more young people, we do not close our doors, our ears or our minds to the contributions we can gain from those already in the community around us. As long as auditors can fit into lecture halls without taking spaces needed by enrolled students, there is no reason why they shouldn't be allowed in.

The Guidelines for Community Auditing, given to each auditor, comes with a list of about a dozen rules for auditors. So long as those principles are followed — and in my experience, they have been — there is no reason why the University and its auditors shouldn't be able to maintain the happily symbiotic relationship that currently exists, even given the upcoming increase in student body size.

The nature of this University is that we tend to walk around with our heads in the clouds, ignoring what is going on around us. Not only can community auditors share much knowledge with us, they can often help to lighten our moods, if we take the time to get to know them. A charming lady in one of my lectures this year made my day simply by complimenting me for wearing my curly hair long, rather than cutting it short. Thank you very much, ma'am, and thank you, Princeton, for continuing to support community auditing of University courses. Dan Wachtell is a philosophy major from Rye, N.Y. He can be reached at wachtell@princeton.edu.