Letters to the Editor

Committee recognizes both student and faculty input

Regarding 'Choosing a new calendar' (Friday, March 2, 2007):

Let me try to respond to some of the questions raised in the editorial about the academic calendar.

What happened to Calendar C? The faculty and student members of the Committee on the Course of Study were impressed by your advocacy of Calendar C in the fall, with exams before Christmas. But as we explained in the materials we circulated last week, Calendar C was roundly opposed by members of the faculty.

Why aren't we paying attention to student opinion? The faculty and student members of the Committee have carefully studied the survey data and the hundreds of pages of narrative responses that we gathered from students last spring. There is no clear theme or direction in those responses. If students shared a strong preference for a particular calendar, you can be sure that we would have told you and the faculty about it.

Why aren't our calendar proposals bolder and more imaginative? The Committee has considered a number of alternative calendars that you and others would surely label bold, imaginative, possibly even inspired. It isn't hard to think up other calendars. What's challenging is to identify calendars that promise to bring significant improvements to undergraduate education and, at the same time, have a chance of commanding a majority vote in the faculty. In 1990, when the Committee on the Course of Study last worked seriously on the calendar, a majority of the faculty would have supported a calendar different from the one we had, but there was no majority for any single alternative calendar. That's what makes this work hard — forging a consensus for change.

Why aren't we organizing student forums? It's very clear that we want to know what students think about Calendars D and E, and we believe that circulating the calendar materials by email and inviting direct responses to the Committee is an efficient way to learn that right now. We'll see what happens next.

A final word. We've reminded ourselves periodically in Committee that no student currently enrolled would be affected by a new academic calendar. That realization has been helpful to all of us in taking a longer view about a calendar that might someday benefit students who haven't even begun applying to Princeton, or even thinking about Princeton. Nancy Weiss Malkiel Dean of the College

Institute is committed to the preservation of the Battlefield

Regarding 'Preserving Battlefield heritage' (Monday, Feb. 26, 2007):

The Institute for Advanced Study has contributed greatly to the preservation of the Princeton Battlefield State Park and the property that surrounds it. In 1997, it relinquished the development rights to 75 percent of its property, permanently conserving 589 acres of Institute Woods and farmlands contiguous to the Princeton Battlefield. The Institute today funds the maintenance of the Institute Woods and farmlands, set aside now for Institute scholars and members of the public alike. In the early 1970s, the Institute made available to the State of New Jersey 32 acres of land between its central campus and the Battlefield Park, land that increased the size of the Princeton Battlefield State Park by 60 percent.

The Institute continues to be a committed member of the Princeton community on environmental and preservation issues. Our faculty housing is designed with a low profile ensuring minimal visual impact, a buffer zone of 200 feet between the housing units and the Battlefield will be retained and a dense hedgerow of trees and vegetation will separate the housing from the Battlefield.

The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental scholarship — the original, often speculative thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. We are equally committed to sustaining the Institute Woods and farmlands for generations to come and to preserving the integrity of the Battlefield, which the Institute, in fact, helped create and continues to honor. Dr. Peter Goddard Director, Institute for Advanced Study