Administrators visit Asia, seek to improve University profile

President Tilghman and three top University officials spent fall recess on a 10-day, four-city tour of cities in China, Korea and Japan designed to raise the University's profile in Asia.

Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye, Dean of the Graduate School William Russel and Miguel Centeno, director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) accompanied Tilghman.

The tour, which included stops in Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong and Seoul, also reached out to University alumni living in those cities.

"We are at somewhat of a disadvantage relative to peer institutions like Stanford and Harvard because we don't have the very large professional schools," Tilghman said. "The consequence of that is that our alumni body in any part of the world is just smaller than those universities'."

Tilghman spent a significant portion of her visit speaking on television and radio programs and giving newspaper interviews.

The University wants to attract the top academic talent from East Asia, she said.

"It's important for us to find other ways to ensure that when really talented students are thinking about studying in the United States, Princeton is one of the universities on their list," Tilghman said.

Despite the high level of press attention, she acknowledged that it may be difficult to make the University as well known in Asia as it is in the United States.

Wooing Students

During the trip, Tilghman also visited high schools and universities to discuss student exchanges and research collaboration with school officials and students. In addition to accompanying Tilghman on several of these visits, Rapelye traveled to many high schools on her own to talk to prospective students.

Both Tilghman and Rapelye said they found that school officials and students knew of Princeton but did not view it in the same light as other universities. Schools such as Harvard and Yale, in addition to having professional schools, have been making regular visits to Asia for the past two decades.

"Our absence [in Asia] has been noted. When we don't visit schools, they think that we're not interested," Rapelye said. "There have been some really good students who have been choosing some of our competitors simply because we haven't been there to say, 'Gee, maybe you ought to think about Princeton.'"

Reconnecting with alumni was another key reason for the Asia trip. Tilghman said 50 to 100 alumni attended each of the town hall-style meetings held during the trip.

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"Alumni are very interested in what is going on on campus — what are the new initiatives, what are the students interested in these days," Tilghman said. Centeno, Russel and Rapelye also spoke at some of the alumni meetings.

Centeno, founder and director of PIIRS, spoke with alumni about he institute, while Russel spoke about interdisciplinary initiatives such as the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), the genomics institute and the Graduate School.

In addition, Tilghman met with potential donors to the University. Many of the alumni who met with Tilghman or Russel had already made significant contributions to the University so "there was a bit of stewardship involved as well," Russel said.

Why Asia?

The continent is an important and strategic place for the University for the future, Tilghman said. Both she and Centeno emphasized the astonishing rate of development in Asia as a reason for increasing the University's prominence in the area.

"It is [an] extremely important [place] for us to be able to understand and for our students to understand," Tilghman explained.

Rapelye said it is important for the University to reach out and make global allies. "Our future depends on our ability to live together, to work together and study together [with people from all over the world]," she said.