Lawrence Rosen, chair of Princeton's anthropology department, was recently at a meeting with the university's other department chairs, when the president asked how many had taught a freshman seminar.
"30 of 42 hands went up enthusiastically," he says.
Along with the majority of department heads, some of Princeton's most famous faculty members have taught in the freshman seminar program, including Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, recent Harvard presidential candidate Amy Guttman '71 and the controversial ethicist and philosopher Peter Singer.
Nearly two-thirds of Princeton's freshman seminars this year are being taught by ladder faculty--tenured and assistant professors.
In contrast, just over one third of Harvard's freshman seminars are being taught this year by ladder faculty.
While over half of Harvard's freshman seminars are taught by lecturers (non tenured, non tenure track faculty) this year, Princeton has kept that number down to under a quarter of its offerings.
And though Princeton's freshman seminar program program is young, in just over a decade it has blossomed from 10 offerings to 66 this year. Harvard's version of the freshman seminar program began in 1959, but only offered 36 seminars this year.
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