As a starting point, many advisers recommend that advisees read award-winning theses relevant to their topic. Unfortunately, the amount of effort required to access prior theses is often a disincentive for students to actually do so. Currently, students must visit Mudd Manuscript Library during its relatively limited hours of operation and create an account with the library. Students are then asked to store all of their belongings in a locker, except for essential research materials, while a library attendant searches for the requested thesis. This is an unnecessarily complicated process that is ripe for improvement.
Beginning this year, students should be asked to submit a PDF version of their senior thesis along with the printed copies required by their department. These files could be uploaded to a searchable database on the Mudd Library website that would be accessible to all currently enrolled students. By ensuring that senior theses are easily available to students who seek access to them, the University would be encouraging students to model their independent work on that of exceptional prior students. Mudd Library, in conjunction with the Office of Information Technology, is already considering the creation of a digital repository for doctoral dissertations. Mudd should consider incorporating senior theses into this effort.
While digitizing theses beginning this year would require little effort on the part of the University, retroactively digitizing theses from prior years may be a more labor-intensive process. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile long-term effort. Rather than begin to upload past theses chronologically, prize-winning theses should be given priority for digitization and uploading to the online database. Recent alumni could also be encouraged to resubmit their theses in PDF format.
Currently, students and researchers can request that a prior senior thesis be digitized, but those seeking the thesis must pay for the digitization process. By ensuring that all future theses are digitized and that past prize-winning theses are made available online, the University can enable students to quickly and easily gain access to a valuable research tool.
Read More
Princeton, don’t budge on Title IX
Charlie YaleTrump’s changes to Title IX signal more dire attacks on education are to come in the future. Princeton has a responsibility to do everything it can to prevent them.
Trump’s changes to Title IX signal more dire attacks on education are to come in the future. Princeton has a responsibility to do everything it can to prevent them.
In case you haven’t noticed, the target is already on our back
Isaac BarsoumIf I could say anything to the University about this, here is what it would be: when there is a target on your back, you do not stand still and wait for the arrow to strike. You put on a bulletproof vest, hunker down into a foxhole, and fire back.
If I could say anything to the University about this, here is what it would be: when there is a target on your back, you do not stand still and wait for the arrow to strike. You put on a bulletproof vest, hunker down into a foxhole, and fire back.
Bring back Princeton’s pharmacy
Callisto LimThe current prescription solutions available to us as Princeton students do not fully meet our needs. As students, our energy should be dedicated to our academic pursuits, not trying to figure out where you can pick up medicine or filling out paperwork to get it. Princeton is in a position to not only support their students’ physical health at a baseline level, but demonstrate care and respect for their identities and needs as a matter of principle.
