June 6, 2001 Notebook

Princeton's 19th president:
Scholar, scientist, and single mom

How green is Princeton?

Examining the role of the arts
Princeton's new center also looks at issues of technology

Humanist magazine debuts

Debating slavery reparations

In Brief

Princeton's 19th president:
Scholar, scientist, and single mom

Shirley M. Caldwell Tilghman succeeds Harold T. Shapiro *64

Pictured:Shirley Tilghman with President Shapiro on May 5.

President-elect Shirley Tilghman says it's time for a woman president.

At first glance, it might appear that the presidential search committee has made an unconventional choice for Princeton's 19th president in selecting Professor in the Life Sciences Shirley M. Caldwell Tilghman, a single mother with no Princeton degree and little experience administering an institution of Princeton's magnitude. But look just a little deeper, and you'll find a true Princetonian who cares deeply about the institution and for the last 15 years has left an indelible mark on the place as a teacher, mentor, and colleague.

The trustees elected Tilghman, a pioneering scholar and a leader in the field of molecular biology and genetics, on Saturday, May 5. She will take over on June 15.

While the presidential search committee conducted its final deliberations about her candidacy, Tilghman read a senior thesis in an anteroom. Tilghman herself had been a member of that search committee until about six weeks before her election. When she had to leave one of the meetings early to teach, the committee discussed her candidacy more openly and later asked her to enter the race, said Robert H. Rawson, Jr. '66, who led the search.

The committee considered some 200 candidates from all over the country. "Sometimes you look far and wide, and sometimes the best solution is here at home," said Rawson.

"It's time for a woman president," said Tilghman at the press conference following her election. Being the top leader and a woman will help change the "public perception of Princeton." When she moves to her office at One Nassau Hall, she will become the second woman to lead an Ivy League institution.

As soon as she could tear herself away from the flashing cameras and reporters following the announcement, Tilghman e-mailed two students, Diane Nuttall '02 and Sarah Tyler '02, to let them know that even though she would be their president next year, she would also continue to advise them on their senior theses. "We [students] are clearly one of her high priorities," said Nuttall, who will write her thesis on genomic imprinting - the way some genes function differently depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or father - Tilghman's interest. "She always makes us feel important."

One of the architects of the national effort to map the entire human genome, Tilghman joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 and in 1998 became the founding director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, whose interdisciplinary mission is to identify the functions of human genes and then discover how different genes act together in an integrated fashion. Her own academic work has focused on mammalian genetics, in particular the role that genes play in the development of the mammalian embryo. During postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health, she made a number of groundbreaking discoveries while participating in cloning the first mammalian gene.

Two years after arriving at Princeton, she joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an investigator and began serving as an adjunct professor in the department of biochemistry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Tilghman has been highly sought after to serve on national commissions and panels on embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning, and she is also known for her national leadership on behalf of women in science and for encouraging the early careers of young scientists.

The 1996 recipient of Princeton's President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Tilghman has taught scientists and nonscientists alike. From 1993-2000, she chaired Princeton's Council on Science and Technology, which encourages the teaching of science and technology to students outside the sciences. She led an alumni studies program, taught an alumni college, and in May lectured on the human genome project for the Class of 1943.

Tilghman says she's "exhilarated" to take on the "best job in higher education." The first weekend in May was "the most memorable weekend of my life." (She can proclaim that, she says, because neither of her children was born on a weekend.)

Now that the initial fanfare is over, she's getting down to the hard work. "I'm trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible." And she's looking forward to "diversifying" her interests. A necessary part of being a scholar, she explains, is becoming "someone who tries to burrow very deeply into one set of questions. . . . This job is going to give me the chance . . . to expand my horizons in ways I have always yearned for," says Tilghman, who had a difficult time deciding between a major in English or chemistry when she was a college student.

Like Harold Shapiro, who announced last fall his intention to retire from the presidency, Tilghman is Canadian. Born in Toronto, she graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1968, with a degree in chemistry, and after two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa, she earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University.

It's too soon to say what she will focus on as president, she says, but she will continue to teach and eventually would like to convene a faculty group to reexamine the tenure process, a system she says is particularly difficult for women because the trial period leading up to it coincides with childbearing years, forcing many women to choose between a career and a family. Tilghman and her ex-husband split up when her daughter was two and her son was six months old.

Although she didn't attend Princeton, she has two numbers after her name: her daughter, Rebecca, is a member of the Class of 2002, and as of May 9 she herself is an honorary member of the Class of 1946. "Do I know what it's like at 3 a.m. on Prospect Street? No. Thank the Lord." But after 15 years on campus, serving on a number of committees and mentoring many students, Tilghman says she understands in a "visceral way the character of the place" and what makes the Princeton experience unique. "I feel I have this institution in my blood." A large part of her education came from watching President Shapiro time and again make decisions "based on what was right," she says. What Shapiro has done is at "the heart and soul of why this is a great institution - because we are trying to do what is right."

All across campus, faculty members and students seemed thrilled about their new leader. "I am nearly delirious with joy," says John Fleming *63, a professor of English. "She's a real mensch, so to speak . . . a great scholar, a fine teacher, a person of lucid integrity, and she has no administrative experience to warp her mind."

Mark Johnston *84, chair of the philosophy department and a member of the search committee, says, "My fellow search committee members and I took special care not to be swayed by her having been on the committee. In effect, we held her to a higher standard. . . . I'm absolutely convinced that she thinks of the humanities as 'the soul of the university.' " Besides, he adds, "she has . . . a genetic connection to the humanities" - her daughter is majoring in art history.

Tilghman and her son, Alex, who finished high school a year ago, will move from their three-bedroom Princeton township home into Lowrie House. It's a practical move, says Tilghman, who has no guest room and no office in her present home, and so works at the kitchen table. When her mother comes to visit from Canada, Tilghman sleeps on the couch. By K.F.G.

Look for a profile of President Tilghman in PAW's September 12 issue.

How green is Princeton?

As an educational setting, a center for research, a sports facility, a workplace to hundreds, and a home to thousands, Princeton University has an impact on the environment. To determine how significant, a group of undergraduates in the Environmental Studies Program, working with the Princeton Environmental Institute, recently conducted an environmental audit.

Compiled and prepared by Elizabeth Bernier '02 and Brooke Kelsey Jack '03, the 2000 Environmental Audit is the second audit of its kind; the first was conducted in 1995. Using the 1995 audit as a baseline, the group investigated 10 areas of environmental concern, including energy use, new buildings, water use, groundskeeping, transportation, solid waste and recycling, and toxic and radioactive waste - looking for positive and negative trends.

The students found that the university has improved since 1995: The construction of a cogeneration plant has helped to meet electricity and heating needs in a more efficient manner; technological improvements in existing recycling programs, as well as the introduction of a food-waste recycling program, has increased the university's recycling rate by 13 percent; and the expansion and diversification of the Environmental Studies Program has increased the number of academic opportunities available to students. The report does make 44 recommendations for improvement, including the installation of student-controlled heating, a reduction in the usage of pesticides, and the establishment of a uniform set of environmentally sound purchasing criteria.

By Andrew Shtulman '01

To view the 2000 Environmental Audit in its entirety, an online version can be found at http://www.Princeton.edu/~pei.

Examining the role of the arts
Princeton's new center also looks at issues of technology

Princeton was the first place in the nation to organize a Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Similar groups have since appeared in Washington and at Ohio State and are getting started at the University of Chicago and the University of California in Los Angeles.

Princeton’s center was started by Stanley N. Katz, lecturer with the rank of professor in public and international affairs and Paul DiMaggio, professor of sociology. Katz directs the four-year-old center.

Katz, who in his undergraduate days was coxswain for Harvard's lightweight crew, has earned a law degree as well as a Ph.D. in American history and has been engaged in heavyweight policy studies for a long time. After several years as Princeton's Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor of the History of American Law and Liberty, he went to the American Council of Learned Societies as president in 1986. "It was just as the culture wars were beginning," he said.

During his 11 years at ACLS, he fought fiercely for the humanities ("I was Public Enemy Number One for Lynne Cheney [then director of the National Endowment for the Humanities]," he said wryly) and guided publication of the 24-volume American National Biography, which comprises 17,000 life stories, superseding the Dictionary of American Biography. During that time, however, he also continued to teach one course a semester at Princeton and kept his office. Now he's back full time. Last semester he taught a seminar on gun control; this semester he's teaching one on Cuba; and he's developing "a big course" on civil society in the U.S.

The Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, seeks to recruit and train Ph.D. students to analyze art and cultural policy, sponsor research on the role of the arts in community development, and work with faculty to develop courses involving arts and cultural policy.

As examples, Katz mentions possible studies on how the New Jersey Performing Arts Center has affected development in the city of Newark and a project consulting with McCarter Theater on how demographic analysis could be used to increase attendance.

In a big project funded by Pew, the center will work with Firestone's Social Science Reference Center to create a national data archive for policy and the arts. A vast range of research data, which has been difficult to access, will be available on the Internet to policymakers, researchers, journalists, and the public.

Katz himself is interested in the impact of technology on the arts and humanities. He signed an amicus brief in Tasini v. New York Times supporting freelance writers who want to retain electronic rights to their work. (Some historians, loathe to lose access to electronic sources, argue that news organizations would not be able to post their contents on the Internet.) "Public policy is being formed right now," Katz says.

By Ann Waldron

Ann Waldron is a frequent contributor to PAW.

Humanist magazine debuts

One year into the endeavor, the students have produced four issues and involved students from more than a dozen colleges, from the University of Tennessee to the University of Victoria, who do everything from submitting stories to laying out the pages. The magazine raises money through advertising and donors, and applies for grants from a variety of organizations.

Common Sense, which is distributed free to students at Princeton and dozens of other campuses, has featured articles ranging from "Nonbelievers: Out of the Closet," by a cardiothoracic surgeon, and an interview with Princeton professor of bioethics Peter Singer to a discussion of whether it is ethical for humanists to have children and an essay on the legalization of prostitution. (Humanism describes a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity, worth, and capacity for self-realization through reason.)

Lloyd says Common Sense and its offshoots are "filling a need."

By K.F.G.

To find out more go to www.cs-journal.org.

Debating slavery reparations

David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, and Dorothy Benton Lewis, cochair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, debated on April 25 whether the African-American community is entitled to receive monetary reparations for slavery. The debate not only filled McCosh 50 with onlookers but was also the source of much controversy, as the Black Student Union and the College Democrats rallied to protest Horowitz's appearance.

Hosted by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, the debate was spurred by an advertisement Horowitz placed in the Daily Princetonian entitled "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea . . . and Racist Too." Though Horowitz tried to place his ad in 52 college newspapers, 39 refused. The Prince ran the ad on April 4 alongside a staff editorial questioning Horowitz's motives. Horowitz, angered by the editorial, published an article on the Web site salon.com entitled "Why I Won't Pay The Daily Princetonian."

In coming to Princeton, Horowitz planned to discuss both the issue of reparations and the issue of "civil discourse." During the first half of his opening argument, Horowitz berated the university, calling the Prince staff "character assassins" and the students as a whole "little left-wing fascists." Moving to the issue of reparations, Horowitz argued that monetary assistance would only set the African-American community against other ethnic communities suffering from similar injustices, not to mention that reparations advocates "are suing the wrong government" (i.e., suing the Union, and not the Confederate government).

Lewis argued that reparations were needed to "finish the job of the abolitionists." "We're not asking for a handout," she said. "We're asking for our stolen loot to be returned." In response to questions from the audience on the difficulties of determining who would be eligible for payment - especially in case of multiracial individuals - Lewis said such logistical concerns would be "a problem we'd enjoy."

The two debaters agreed on the importance of designating taxpayer dollars to the construction of a museum of African-American history and to the funding of educational scholarships for minorities.

By Andrew Shtulman '01

For an online video of the debate go to http:// www. princeton.edu/ WebMedia/special/.

In Brief

Last April, English professor Elaine Showalter and 23 undergraduates - most of whom were enrolled in her seminar Conspiracy Theory - traveled to New York to participate in the taping of a two-hour question-and-answer session with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The session will be televised this fall as part of an HBO documentary, "ML in Black and White."

Lewinsky sat at the edge of a stage, said Showalter, and fielded questions from the audience that included students from other New York area schools. "There was no moderator," Showalter added. "Ms. Lewinsky called on people and answered every question, no holds barred."

Participants had to sign confidentiality agreements barring public discussion of the show's content. "It was a cross between a Barbara Walters special, a Jerry Springer script, and a sleepover." said Anne Griffin '01, "A semi-lit room, a determination to tell all, and one semi-diva at the center of attention."

Three Princetonians were recently recognized for their literary efforts. At the Hemingway Foundation/ PEN Award ceremony in Boston in April, Akhil Sharma '92 won the top award for a first book of fiction for his novel An Obedient Father (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Mohsin Hamid '93 was a runner-up with his novel Moth Smoke (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Tom Paine '75 was a runner-up for his short-story collection Scar Vegas and Other Stories (Harcourt Brace). An interview with Akhil Sharma appears on our Web site (www.princeton. edu /~paw).

Sally McAlpin w'20 h'20 p'50 p*57, former secretary for the Class of 1920, died May 6. She was 99. In the class's final note, which appeared in the September 10, 1997 PAW, she wrote: "Seven years ago I hesitantly took on the class notes for '20 and became your honorary secretary, which turned out to be great fun. Princeton had always been special to me, from prom days on, and I enjoy writing, so it seemed like a perfect combination. Writing this column has been a special corner in my life. Now, at age 95, I find it is time to move on. How do I feel about this? Well, a little sad. I am bound to miss the very special relationship with all of you. It has been a privilege working with you, and I want to thank you for all your kind words and encouragement over the years and helping to bail me out with little tidbits when I had a deadline to meet. It meant a lot to me. I will continue to be a part of Princeton, but in a smaller, quieter way." McAlpin is survived by at least 18 Princeton relatives.