Seniors get 'last chance' to hear famous professors

Seniors who missed out on classes with some of Princeton's most prominent professors have a final chance to learn from academic heavyweights like James McPherson and John Fleming GS '63 before they graduate.

The opportunity comes as a newly reinstated program — called the "Last Chance Lectures" — allows seniors to register for talks by popular professors during their final, thesis-free days at Princeton.

Fleming, a recently-retired English professor and this year's Baccalaureate speaker, began the series on Monday with a lecture about St. Augustine, while Nobel Prizewinning psychology professor Daniel Kahneman will close the series Wednesday afternoon with "Intuition: Marvels and Flaws."

Cindy Chou '07, who organized the program under the direction of the senior class officers, said the series comes at an appropriate time for the Class of 2007. "As seniors being done with our theses," she said, "we have a lot of time to think about what we want out of Princeton, what we wish we had done at Princeton."

Near Eastern Studies professor Michael Barry — whose lecture on Afghanistan was based in part on a course he's teaching this spring — said he was "deeply touched, a little flattered and a little humbled" to be asked to speak to graduating seniors.

"I hope this lecture was as open to comments and questions as the course proper," he said. "It's been gratifying, not for my pride, but for providing key information on one of the most important strategic places on earth."

Seniors who attended Barry's lecture lauded his knowledge of Afghanistan's political climate and history. "It was really fascinating that in one hour he summarized all of Afghani history and explained what brought us to the current state there," said Neel Gehani '07, who is also a Daily Princetonian columnist.

Other lectures in the series include "Natural Law, God and Human Rights," by politics professor Robbie George and English professor Jeff Nunokawa's "The Things We Care For: Notes on Art, Literature, Music, Philosophy, History, Movies, Mothers, Life and the Nixon Administration."

This year's "Last Chance" series resurrects a broader program offered in 2001, which also included student-taught courses on post-graduation practicalities like searching for housing or buying a car. Unlike the Class of 2001 lecture series, though, this year's program focused on "getting the professors to speak," Class of 2007 president Jim Williamson said.

"People just kept expressing interest in what professors they wanted to hear," he added.

Seniors who attended the lectures said they appreciated not only the renown of the professors who spoke, but also their ability to illuminate the academic subjects on which they are authorities.

"The way I've been using [the lectures] is to see professors in the field," Zoe Bedell '07 said.

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To kick-start the program, senior class officers started coordinating the lectures last summer, approaching Chou in November to gather input on which professors the senior class wanted to hear, she said. The lectures were arranged separately from Senior Week, which included a Pub Night this Monday, a performance by the band Sensemaya on Tuesday afternoon, a bowling trip on Wednesday and several other events for seniors to enjoy at the end of the year.

Officers from the Classes of 2001 and 2007, who collaborated to reintroduce the event this year, said they hoped the program would help seniors conduct a final survey of the University's vast academic offerings.

Justin Browne '01, who was his senior class's president, said he is "really excited that this year's senior class has resurrected" the series. "I really hoped it would become an institutional thing," he said.

"Your typical Princeton student is curious," Browne added. "While there [are] one or two interests they want to focus on for their studies, they really have a broad interest. There are topics they really want to hear."