Raising the standard for English proficiency among graduate students is a good first step in raising the overall quality of teaching and learning — but there are many important steps that must follow. With that in mind, the University should be commended for its recent decision to institute an English proficiency test for all non-native speaking and foreign-educated Assistants in Instruction. This new, forward-looking policy will benefit graduate students and undergraduates alike and represents another progressive step toward improving the quality of education and teaching at Princeton.
The University's desire to establish a minimum standard of English proficiency among preceptors is coupled with a commitment to assist those students who do not enter the graduate school at that level of fluency. Both of these objectives are to be applauded.
However, there is more to good teaching than good grammar, and we hope that the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning will serve as more than just the Graduate School's language watchdog, as it says it plans to do.
Nevertheless, the McGraw center's new training initiatives — follow-up seminars, in-class observations and videotaped evaluations — sound promising. If these efforts prove to be successful in the new English Language Program, they might also be beneficial for all graduate students who assist in undergraduate courses.
Though the graduate school was founded more than 150 years after its undergraduate big brother, graduate students are playing an increasingly important role at the University. We look forward to the graduate school's centennial celebration next year and its continued development in the areas of scholarship, research and of course, teaching.
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Make intro macroeconomics the prerequisite for SPIA, not intro microeconomics
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“The current curriculum fails to equip our future policy leaders with the economic knowledge most relevant for their roles. For SPIA majors, Princeton’s introductory macroeconomics course is arguably more useful than its introductory micro, and this should be reflected in the curriculum.”
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“When we don’t question disengaged language like this at Princeton, we excuse anti-abortion advocates from being present in the facts. We excuse them from talking about Amber Nicole Thurman, Josseli Barnica, Nevaeh Crain, Candi Miller, and countless other women who have lost their lives as a direct result of abortion bans and restrictions.”
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Asa SantosCommunity extends outside the classroom: Non-teaching employees play a huge part in establishing community and spaces of belonging at the institution.
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