It’s unclear how much potential “revolutionary” technologies have to change the way we learn for the better.
At a time when many sophomores are considering applying to be RCAs, it’s interesting to examine the role of an RCA itself.
As students, male and female alike, we should ensure that women considering prominent leadership roles receive our support and our unbiased consideration.
“If you had gone to Harvard or Brown, you could all have had As,” he said.
I’ve heard it said among undergraduates that there are three components to Princeton life: sleeping socializing and studying. You can have any two of three. Take your pick.
Last week, The Daily Princetonian ran an article about the declining numbers of women in eating club leadership. Josh Oppenheimer wrote that since 2001, fewer and fewer women have been elected eating club officers, and especially small numbers have ascended to the position of president. In the past decade, four clubs have never had a female president.
Take a look at a syllabus from a bygone class. There’ll probably be a lot on there: the lectures and precepts, the required readings, the response papers, problem sets, Blackboard posts, the term papers and projects, the take-home midterm, the final exam, enrichment and recommended readings. Now ask yourself: how much of that work did you do, and how much did you do thoroughly?
Take a moment to consider your precepts and seminars. If you had to, could you name each of your classmates correctly? This task would be nearly impossible for me; precepts played the name game on the first day and have since avoided this touchy subject. What is the result of this? Perhaps students are less eager to participate because of these unfamiliar surroundings.
Knowing which books are in someone’s library gives a glimpse into his or her soul, and poring over the marginalia in these books — and, of course, in library copies, where scribbles of past users regularly inspire amusement, wonder and disgust — can sometimes get deep into that soul.
Some weeks later, my undergraduate adviser told me I had pissed off faculty members at one of my prospective grad schools with my blog postings. Apparently some faculty at that school had found my blog, presumably while Googling me, and subsequently followed my updates with sufficient zeal to catch the perceived slight.
With so many universities cutting back, there are many excellent academics searching for limited, open faculty positions at top universities. The institutions that capitalize on this market will assure themselves a better future.
The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago this week. It concretely divided East and West, and now it figuratively divides our generation from our parents’. Yet one suspects that many college-age American students remained unaware of the anniversary.
As members of the University community continue to adjust to the “new normal” after a severe economic downturn, it is more important than ever that we have debates over what is critical to Princeton and what is tangential. The recent staff layoffs raised this question.
We should look to institutions like Haverford and Wellesley for models of an honor system that reflects community values.
Columnists Charlie Metzger, Peter Zakin and Monica Greco discuss female eating club officers, the cost of college and minority members of the University administration.
Humanism can be as fundamental an aspect of one’s worldview as any religious belief.
