Shapiro GS '64, Tilghman to teach freshman seminars this academic year

Two former University presidents — Harold Shapiro GS ’64 and Shirley Tilghman — as well as former Harvard University president Neil Rudenstine ’56 are all teaching freshman seminars this academic year.

Shapiro, who served as president of the University from 1988 to 2001, is teaching FRS 159: Science, Technology, and Public Policy. He explained that his freshman seminar focuses on topics such as cloning, energy, climate or assistive reproductive technology and exploring the implications for public policy these technologies might have.

“Every week, we take another point in the scientific frontier with some new science or technology that’s being developed, and then we ask ourselves, ‘What implications does this new discovery have to public policy, if any?’” Shapiro said.

Rudenstine, who returned to Princeton after serving as president of Harvard from 1991 to 2001, is teaching FRS 111: 20th Century Poetry.

“The idea is really to try to select a handful of poets — in this case it would be W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden and Wallace Stevens — and to spend a reasonable amount of time on each one, trying to learn not just about the poetry itself, but about the historical background, the politics of the period and any other important factors,” Rudenstine said. “We have to read the poems very carefully so we can get a real grasp of each one individually as a work of art.”

Rudenstine said he has taught this seminar at the University before, though he has not taught it in the past two years. Shapiro also said he has also been teaching freshman seminars for a long time, and has taught this particular topic twice before.

Tilghman’s spring seminar, entitled “FRS 144: How the Tabby Cat Got Her Stripes or The Silence of the Genes” relates to her scientific work and interests over the last 20 years. Tilghman first started teaching her seminar in 2010, taking a break in 2012 to teach a policy course in the Wilson School.

FRS 159 is the only class Shapiro will be teaching this semester. Tilghman will be teaching a public policy class this year in addition to her freshman seminar. She said she returned to freshman seminars because they are her favorite way of teaching.

“The size of the class really allows you to get to know all of the students well. You just really are able to form personal relationships with your students, which you can’t do if you’re teaching a larger class,” Tilghman said.

Tilghman also said she enjoys watching freshmen go through the transition phase between high school and college, abandoning a mode of learning that rewards rote memorization.

“In the best circumstances here at Princeton, to do well, you have to really abandon that mode of learning and become interested in taking an active role in your own education,” Tilghman said. “It’s so much fun to watch freshmen do that.”

Like Tilghman, Rudenstine said he finds that teaching freshmen is especially rewarding.

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“[Freshmen] are usually choosing the seminar because they want to be in it and therefore they’re enthusiastic and interested and willing to participate very vigorously, and I like that attitude on their part,” Rudenstine said.

Rudenstine said he also tries to engage his students during freshman seminars, explaining that he likes to run his classes as a conversation in which he and the students can probe the material together rather than a lecture where he tells them what he knows.

Rudenstine, as a former senior administrator of the University, said he likes being able to come back to Princeton and continue to teach.

“It’s the only class I can do all year. I have a lot of other things that I’m engaged with, but I can carve out enough time to do one course in the autumn, and so this is what I choose,” Rudenstine said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the freshman seminar offered by former University President Shirley Tilghman will be offered in the fall. It will be offered in the spring. In addition, an earlier version of this article contained aninaccuratecourse number for Tilghman's class. Finally, an earlier version of this article implied that former University President Harold Shapiro GS '64 is an undergraduate alumnus. He is a graduate school alumnus. The 'Prince' regrets the errors.