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On the Campus: March 19, 1997
Graduate students creep in from the fringe of campus life BY JEREMY CAPLAN '97 Princeton's emphasis on undergraduate study is well documented. While other big-name schools are famous for outstanding medical or professional schools, Princeton has focused on preparing students with a liberal-arts education. Although that probably will be true when the quincentennial celebration rolls around in 2246, it should not obscure the role graduate students have played in a university where undergrads steal most of the spotlight. Graduate students seem to hibernate in the far corners of campus, such as the serene Graduate College, which stands beyond the distant Springfield golf course. Mixing with undergraduates doesn't seem to suit the fancy of most graduate students. "A lot of grad students have their own cliques," says senior Alexandra Nyberg. "They tend to hang around with others in their department." Undergrads occasionally wander out to the D-Bar, a popular grad-student hangout in the basement of the Grad College. One grad preceptor used to invite Nyberg and her class for drinks at the D-Bar after their weekly late-night lab. For the most part, Nyberg and her classmates enjoyed the opportunity to have a more relaxed relationship with a preceptor. "Grads and undergrads don't interact much outside of precepts unless they accidentally bump into each other in the stacks of Firestone Library," says Robert Weiner, cochair of the Graduate Student Union (GSU). "And most grads think of Tower as a record store, not an eating club." The GSU has been stepping up its efforts to integrate graduate students into the larger university community. "This year we're devoting nearly 45 percent of our budget to cosponsoring grad social activities organized by other campus organizations," he says. Butler College has started a new program with the same aim, which pairs each resident adviser's (RA) group of a dozen or so freshmen with a graduate adviser. "The advisers come to our study breaks and hang out. They create a social liaison, which is great. . . . Last night some of my advisees went to a grad party," says Butler RA Shoshana Lopatin '97. Even as the GSU and the residential colleges take a more active role leading grad students into the campus social scene, some grads have taken matters into their own hands. Adam Davis, a doctoral candidate in history, arrived at Princeton last year and immediately joined the orchestra and an undergraduate chamber-music ensemble. He also began eating regularly at the Center for Jewish Life. "What I particularly like about the CJL and the orchestra is that I'm able to interact with undergrads as an equal. There's no unequal power relationship as there might be if I were precepting." Since the graduate school tripled in size at the end of the 1960s, grad life has gradually seeped into the undergraduate domain. Grad students have been known to frequent eating-club parties, and undergrad-grad romance is not unheard of. "It's nice having older, more mature, worldly graduates around," says junior Eugene Gurarie. To Gurarie and others, the international diversity of the graduate school adds spice to the campus community. About a third of Princeton's graduate students come from outside the U.S. Trying to manage the interests of this wide-ranging graduate student body, the GSU is modeling itself on the Undergraduate Student Government (USG). "The more the USG and GSU cooperate, the better off both groups will be," says USG President Jeff Siegel '98. Even with a new connection to the USG, the GSU is constrained in acting on its agenda. According to an undergraduate U-Council member, "It's deemed inappropriate for grad representatives to talk to high-level administrators on their own." Despite other limitations, like a $5 limit on fees collected from grad students that restricts its budget, the GSU is thriving. Attendance at assembly meetings has more than tripled this year, and the GSU now has a new office on University Place. This year, the GSU is working primarily on quality-of-life improvements, including health-care and housing issues. Andrew Fleming West 1874, the founding dean of the Graduate College, probably never envisioned a graduate school in which nearly 1,800 men and women would pursue degrees in almost 40 subjects. He would marvel at the size and scope of graduate studies, but he might not be surprised that campus life still centers around undergraduates. At Princeton, grad students may never enjoy the limelight as they do at some other universities. But the horizon looks bright. With a rejuvenated GSU striving to improve its constituents' contact with undergraduates, the dynamic on campus may change, adding more of the wisdom and diversity of graduate students to the character of the university community. Jeremy Caplan hails from Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
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