Presidential Update

Ready for another residential college? How about two? President Eisgruber ’83 raised that possibility during his annual talk with alumni during Reunions. 

Noting that the trustees have authorized fundraising to expand the student body by 500, Eisgruber said, “We need another residential college.” Showing a map of what the University has described as a “promising location” for a new residential college south of Poe and Pardee fields, he continued: “I’d like to build two residential colleges there.”

Construction of a second new residential college, he said, would allow the University to take existing dorms offline for needed modernizing and refurbishing. “We have no capacity to renovate any dormitory on this campus now,” he said. 

Eisgruber answered questions on the endowment and plans for development south of Lake Carnegie, and addressed these topics: 

Free speech: “It is a really good thing that Ted Cruz [’92] is stealing my audience right now and speaking on this campus,” Eisgruber said, referring to a Reunions appearance by the Texas senator that was taking place at the same time. “One of the most important things we have to do as a university is provide a forum for free speech and academic freedom, and we will fail if we don’t have multiple contending views representing the division of opinion in America right now.” Eisgruber recalled a campus talk, in April, by former Sen. Rick Santorum: “[Students] disagreed with him, it was back and forth, it was respectful, and we’ve got to be doing that going forward.”

National political events: Eisgruber said Princeton had taken a strong stand against President Donald Trump’s proposed travel bans, citing amicus briefs and “a very strong letter” he and University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann wrote about “the importance of immigration to the country and to our institutions.” He said about 30 percent of faculty members are foreign citizens, and 40 percent of graduate students and 12 percent of undergraduates are from other countries. “We remain dedicated to promoting the free flow of scholars and ideas,” he said.

Service: “Any student who’s lucky enough to be able to come to a place with these kinds of opportunities needs to be thinking about how you give back to the world after you graduate,” Eisgruber said.