Christopher Eisgruber advocates liberal arts education during installation
By Jean Wang
Twelve years ago, when former Princeton president Shirley Tilghman was inaugurated, the United States was nation in crisis, reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks that had occurred only a few weeks earlier.
Addressing an audience of student, faculty and alumni, Tilghman spoke of the role of the university in such times, declaring that it had a duty to train leaders and citizens who could serve the country during these crises.
It was, according to Tilghman, an obligation that the university owed to a society that had invested generously in it, from the federal and state investments in research and subsidies for higher education to the donations by charities to the investments by individuals who saw universities “as the incubators of future health and prosperity.”
Yet, as a reflection of the recent economic hardships, when new Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber took stage at his installation on Sept. 23, the tone could hardly have been more different.
Noting the government’s cuts on funding for higher education, Eisgruber criticized the “parade of reporters, politicians and pundits asking whether a college education is worth it — even though the economic evidence for the value of a college education is utterly overwhelming.”
Drawing heavily upon his background in law, Eisgruber made many parallels between his two passions, constitutionalism and a liberal arts education. Both, he argued, were long-term enterprises whose value could not be quantified in the short term.
Adding a personal touch, Eisgruber, who studied physics at Princeton, cited two teachers — Pat Canan and Professor Jeffrey Tulis — who had made a special impact on him, and with whom he had kept in touch for over 30 years. Both were present at his inauguration.
Students, faculty, and alumni readily agreed with Eisgruber’s assessment on the long-term value of a liberal arts education.
“I though it was spot on,” said Sherry Wert. “I could certainly relate to its value over the long term.” Wert, a member of the class of 1983, was a Classics major.
“He spoke so rightly of the fact that education is expensive, but the value return is much greater,” Professor Emeritus James Peebles said.
Eisgruber was not the only speaker to endorse the value of a liberal arts education. His address followed an equally critical speech by Hunter Rawlings, president of the Association of American Universities.
Rawlings called out President Barack Obama’s proposal to rate colleges based on metrics such as tuition, graduation rates, student loan debt and post-graduation earnings, citing its inability to measure many vital but unquantifiable qualities such as intellectual stimulation and moral insight.
“To accede wholeheartedly to all these demands is to convert our universities fully into that most American of objects, a commodity,” Rawlings said.
Rawlings further reminded the audience of the importance of pleasure in education.
“We are so busy being utilitarians today that we derogate pleasure as an end in itself,” Rawlings said. “And yet intellectual and aesthetic pleasure is an essential goal of higher education, one we omit at great cost and peril.”
The reminder proved relevant to many students and alumni in the audience.
“Learning as a pleasure is very well taken,” said Richard Jacobson ’78, who traveled from New Orleans to attend the installation. “For me, Princeton offered just that.”
Yet, beyond the cautionary note by Eisgruber and Rawlings, the installation was a site of much celebration.
Alumni came from all around the country to support the inauguration of the 20th president. The Class of 1983, of which Eisgruber was a member, organized a special effort to come out to his installation.
“We all wore our jackets and tried to sit together so he could see us and feel our support,” Wert said.
Also present at the installation were former Princeton presidents William Bowen, Harold Shapiro and Tilghman. Tilghman was seen smiling throughout the installation.
Known for “success and only success,” Eisgruber received much praise from students, faculty and alumni as they praised him for his passion, intellect and integrity.
“I’m looking forward to see what he has in mind for the university,” Wert said. “It sounds like he has a lot of great initiatives in mind.”
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