Beginning next year, Peter Singer, controversial bioethicist and tenured professor at the Center for Human Values, will spend only one semester a year at the University, electing to return to his native Australia each spring to spend time with family and friends.
Singer said there was a "definite possibility" that he would have left the University had special arrangements not been made.
"I still feel very much attached to Australia, and so does my wife," Singer said. "I like being here but there's a cost to it and that cost is separation from close family and friends. This arrangement is an attempt to balance the things that are important in my life."
Changing roles
While the new arrangement will not affect Singer's research, it will have a significant impact on the way he interacts with the University community, particularly its undergraduates. He will no longer be able to advise senior theses, and his teaching time will be cut in half.
Specifically, he thinks he will only be able to offer his popular practical ethics course every other year. More than 190 students are currently enrolled in the course. In other years, he will probably teach a graduate or freshman seminar, he said.
Advising junior papers will also become more difficult; however, he will continue to advise the longer term dissertations of Ph.D. candidates.
Singer, who is the DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, said he requested the halftime arrangement through the director of the Center for Human Values last year.
He is currently in negotiations with universities in Melbourne, Australia, for a research position when he is away each spring. He does not intend to teach courses there, however.
Controversy
Singer's appointment to the faculty in 1999 polarized the University community. Some students saw his arrival as an encouraging sign that the school would support academic liberty. Others took offense, both to Singer's views and his presence at Princeton.
Longtime donor and then trustee Steve Forbes '70 was so aggravated by the appointment that he pledged not to donate any additional money to the University as long as Singer held a position on the faculty.
The University has not publicly or officially announced its decision to allow Singer to work part time.
However, Singer said his request had been approved by the trustees at their meeting two weeks ago.
He said he was informed of their decision by someone present at that meeting.
Administrative silence
Senior University officials declined to comment on the matter.
Steven Macedo, director of the Center for Human Values and professor of politics, said he had no direct knowledge of any new arrangement regarding Singer.
Provost Amy Gutmann also declined to comment, referring the issue to Dean of the Faculty, David Dobkin, who said it is the policy of his office not to speak on individual personnel decisions.
Singer said he is currently advising "around five students" and has previously guided candidates from the philosophy and politics departments as well as the Wilson School.
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