Shirley M. Tilghman
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| Shirley M. Tilghman | |
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| President of Princeton University | |
|---|---|
| Term | 2001 – present |
| Predecessor | Harold Tafler Shapiro |
| Born | September 17, 1946 Canada |
| Alumna of | Queen's University, Temple University |
Shirley M. Tilghman (born September 17, 1946) (photo) succeeded Harold Shapiro as President of Princeton University in 2001. Before her appointment, she held the Howard Prior Professorship of the Life Sciences in Princeton's molecular biology department. In 2005, she became a member of the board of directors at Google.
Born in Canada, Tilghman earned her bachelor's degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and her Ph.D. from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Under Tilghman's administration, the University released the plans for Whitman College, the sixth of Princeton's residential colleges, designed to hold some of the 500 new undergraduates who will be admitted when the Wythes Plan takes effect.
President Tilghman's hiring practices have been controversial, with some critics charging that she is gender-biased. Supporters claim that these charges are dubious, given that 60% of Tilghman's appointees have been men. Detractors point out that the majority of high-level position have been women: women she has hired to senior positions include Amy Gutmann (who was chosen as the President of the University of Pennsylvania in early 2004) as Provost, the second-most-powerful administrative position in the University, Anne-Marie Slaughter as Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Maria Klawe as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (now replaced), and Janet Lavin Rapleye as the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. Prominent men she has appointed include Charles Kalmbach as the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the highest non-academic administrative post, David Dobkin as Dean of the Faculty, and Gutmann's replacement, Woodrow Wilson School professor Christopher L. Eisgruber.
President Tilghman also came under fire by athletes for signing on to the Ivy League-wide Seven-week athletic moratorium, in which intercollegiate athletes were enjoined from practicing for seven weeks during the academic year in order to encourage them to participate in other activities. Supporters of the proposal pointed to studies by former Princeton president William Bowen, whose book The Game of Life described the widespread academic underperformance of college athletes. Detractors claimed that it represented an encroachment on students' freedom to use their time as they saw fit.
While she has generated controversy with what some alumni claim to be excessive political-correctness and an attack on Princeton's uniqueness, she has also found supporters for these actions, which include: abolishing early decision admissions, encouraging students not to participate in Princeton's eating clubs system, placing the formerly-independent Alumni Council under University control, removing the co-op Princeton's University Store's role as a provider of books, and engaging in a no-tolerance approach to alcohol on campus.
[edit] Awards and Recognition
- A number of Princeton graduating classes, from 1955 to 2005, have made President Tilghman an honorary member.
- Shirley Tilghman received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University in 2004 and New York University in May of 2005.
[edit] External links
- [1], A Tilghman timeline
- [2], The announcement of Tilghman's appointment as the 19th president of Princeton
- [3], Tilghman's lab group's home page
| Preceded by: Harold T. Shapiro |
President of Princeton University 2001 – present |
Incumbent |
