Like any celebration, the true success of the Graduate School Centennial will be gauged by the work of its participants — Princeton's current Master's and Ph.D. students — rather than its public fanfare. Alongside extensive research and teaching accomplishments during the Graduate School's 100th year, graduate students have demonstrated a new enthusiasm for participating in University life, ending their outcast status and joining Princeton's mainstream.
Through Graduate Student Government, performance organizations like the a cappella group "AFM," letters and columns in the 'Prince,' activism on social justice issues and participation in the presidential search, graduate students have taken a prominent position in campus life and leadership. As the next century of Princeton graduate education begins, graduate students and administrators should rededicate themselves to further incorporate the graduate community by strengthening ties between graduate residential centers — like the Graduate College — and the center of campus.
The Graduate College and Graduate School are so closely associated that they are often confused in conversation and formal speech. It is the Graduate College, neighbor to Forbes College, that houses students, while the Graduate School awards them their degrees. The traditional seclusion of Princeton's graduate students has been blamed in large part on the Graduate College's distance from main campus, a decision made by the first Graduate School Dean Andrew Fleming West despite intense opposition from then-University President Woodrow Wilson 1879. Reaching the policy school bearing Wilson's name now requires a 20-minute walk from the remote site West chose for graduate housing.
But although the Graduate College lies on the University's periphery, it plays a central role in graduate students' lives. More than two-thirds of all graduate students spend a year or more at the Graduate College. In the Graduate College I met most of the friends I have outside of my department. As I wrote last year when its existence seemed threatened, the Graduate College offers graduate students "the gateway through which we enter Princeton and within which we develop lasting friendships." Consequently, when President Shapiro remarked that this year's annual spring picnic at the Graduate College was the first he'd attended in 38 years, he spoke volumes for the need to stretch Nassau Hall's engagement beyond Forbes and across the golf course.
To bridge the main campus to the Graduate College and the graduate apartment complexes, current residents and their leaders on the House Committee should invite Shirley Tilghman to the Graduate College early and often. As a popular professor with her own advisees, President-elect Tilghman comes to One Nassau Hall with a different perspective on graduate students than President Shapiro, who earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1964. Through High Table dinners, House Committee meetings and informal social events, the Graduate College presents an ideal location for expanding Tilghman's connection to the graduate community. In addition to the Graduate College, the graduate apartments of Butler, Lawrence, and Hibben/Magee provide further avenues for interaction between the new president and graduate students.
To maintain the Graduate College's vitality during this outreach, graduate students should participate actively in the search and selection process for the Residence Life Coordinator who will replace current RLC Ulrich Struve GS '91. "Ulli," as he is known here, has filled the Graduate College's top residential position for the past three years but will depart this summer. But he will leave behind a number of legacies, including a weekly e-mail bulletin announcing Graduate College events to residents and the broader graduate community. His most ambitious accomplishment may have been the organization of a highly successful concert featuring graduate student composers and musicians.
...This summer, as the search for Ulli's successor begins, the administration should meaningfully incorporate graduate students into the process. Since the Graduate College has no Master or Assistant Master positions, student input must of necessity be a core concern — not an afterthought. Graduate participation at every stage — from candidate selections through interviewing and the final decision — will ensure that the next RLC, whether temporary or long-term, is capable of serving as both a program organizer as well as an advocate and counselor for graduate students. In a renewed effort to link the Graduate College to One Nassau Hall, the RLC can then act as the students' liaison, taking his or her lead from the residents who live and study in the Graduate College.
As Centennial celebrations conclude, the integration of graduate students continues. The Graduate College's distance does not necessitate another century of graduate solitude. By reaching out to the new president and actively choosing their RLC, Graduate College residents can defy Dean West's isolationism and bring graduate life into center-stage before the campus and its new administration. Jason Brownlee is a politics graduate student from Raleigh, NC. He can be reached at brownlee@princeton.edu.
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