Make "public goods" public

Like its peer institutions, Princeton sponsors an abundance of public lectures and academic talks. From undergraduates to Nobel laureates, the breadth and quality of work publicly presented on campus each day is astounding. But in this information age, far too few benefit from these extraordinary offerings. Princeton should follow the example of its compatriots to the north and make what Princeton has to offer more widely available.

As President Tilghman has said, Princeton and universities in general do not exist solely to provide academic experiences to a few privileged students. Universities are also the producers of “public goods” in the form of papers, books, reports, classes and lectures. While some of these are highly technical and of benefit mostly to experts and other students, other goods have direct value to the general public.

Many universities have recognized that the development of the internet allows them to extend to a broader audience access to these unique “public goods,” sometimes to wonderful effect. MIT professor Walter Lewin’s introductory physics lectures, taped and posted on the internet, have taught thousands and reached well into the developing world. Yale offers several of its most popular introductory courses online, such as ones on the Bible and on economics, for free and in their entirety. Almost 40 major universities — including Yale, Duke, MIT and the University of California, Berkeley — provide hundreds of courses and lectures on iTunesU free of charge. Most recently, Harvard faculty members voted to release most of their technical papers — usually reserved for expensive subscription journals — online for free.

By comparison, Princeton’s offerings are not as robust or easy to access. Some major lectures are posted online, nestled deep within OIT’s website, and iTunes carries a poorly organized podcast list of the major public lectures given during the past few years. Unfortunately, the University does not participate in iTunesU, and few of our eminent faculty make their papers available except in costly scholarly journals.

The University should do more to make these “public goods” accessible. Participation in iTunesU by offering full courses or major lectures would be a good way to organize and disseminate Princeton content. Prominent lectures as well as student work should be highlighted on the new website. In addition, the faculty should discuss adopting a policy similar to Harvard’s of posting their papers online without charge. Allowing prospective students and their families to see the quality of Princeton’s offering will serve as an excellent recruiting tool. But more importantly, such steps would not only make real President Tilghman’s promise of the University becoming a provider of “public goods,” but also help the University fulfill its unofficial motto of serving the nation and the world.