Gutmann also said she hopes to be as accessible as an administrator as she was as a professor—she will continue to hold office hours, to “break bread” with students, and will teach one or two classes if her schedule permits.

When Gutmann officially takes office on September 1, 2001, she and Tilghman will become only the second female president-provost team to ever lead an ivy league institution. Brown University’s President Ruth J. Simmons and Provost Kathryn T. Spoehr became the first when Simmons began her tenure as president last month.

“I can say that many students, including me, are glad to see an increased diversity among the university’s administration,” said Joseph S. Kochan, president of Princeton’s Undergraduate Student Government.

Indeed, many hail the selection of a female president and a female provost to lead Princeton as an important step in the history of a university that has not always had the strongest reputation for inclusiveness.

One of the universities social clubs was only forced to admit women after facing the threat of a discrimination lawsuit.

For Gutmann, increasing diversity within all aspects of the university is one of the most important tasks currently facing Princeton.

“Princeton is extremely well placed to show that excellence can increase enormously when we make higher education more innovative—open to new and creative academic initiatives—and also more accessible than ever to the widest range of students, faculty members, and employees—regardless of their income and wealth, religion, ethnicity, skin color, or any feature other than their ability to contribute to higher education,” she said.

And Gutmann herself may be the perfect candidate to help Princeton’s new president lead the university on this new mission.