Princeton University Athletics
NEWS
September 19, 2001 | General
Awarded to that member of the Princeton family who, through heartfelt support of the University's student-athletes and coaches, best embodies a belief in the lifelong lessons taught by competition and athletics as a complement to the overall educational mission. Awarded in the spirit of Marvin Bressler, professor of sociology, 1963-94.
In President Harold T. Shapiro's tenure, Princeton has won more than 4,800 contests and 23 national titles. The Tigers have been at the head of the class in the "unofficial" Ivy League all-sports standings each year, winning an amazing 136 championships.
Princeton also has been recognized twice by the ECAC with its institutional award for academic and athletic excellence. Princeton remains the only non-scholarship school to crack the Sears Directors' Cup Top 25 (1998, 2001), and it has been the highest ranked non-scholarship school in seven of the eight years that the Sears Cup has been in existence.
Additionally, the University has seen substantial athletic facility growth during Shapiro's rein, including DeNunzio Pool, the Class of 1952 Stadium, internationally sized squash courts, Caldwell Field House renovation, athletic training facilities, Stephens Fitness Center, Weaver Track & Field Stadium, Princeton Stadium and the Shea Rowing Center.
The Department of Athletics has grown as well, adding five varsity sports: women's golf, men's and women's water polo, men's volleyball and women's lightweight crew.
Most importantly, Shapiro has become a national voice on athletic issues, specifically as a distinguished member of the NCAA management council. He has been an ardent advocate of gender equity, sportsmanship, the concept of amateurism and the student-athlete ideal.
President of Princeton since 1988 and one of the most respected leaders in American higher education for more than two decades, Shapiro completed his presidency at the end of the 2001 academic year.
"Thanks to his vision, his sensitivity to the concerns of everyone in the Princeton family, and his unlimited energy, Harold Shapiro has provided extraordinary leadership for Princeton over these past twelve years-strengthening its faculty and its student body, enhancing its programs of teaching and research, revitalizing its campus and dramatically increasing its endowment," said Robert H. Rawson Jr., chair of the board of trustees' executive committee.
A native of Canada, Shapiro received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1964. He returned as Princeton's 18th president in 1988 after serving for eight years as the president of the University of Michigan. He also holds an appointment at Princeton as professor of economics and public affairs. He plans to return to full-time teaching and research.
Under Shapiro's leadership, Princeton celebrated its 250th anniversary, expanded its motto (at his initiative) from "Princeton in the Nation's Service" to "Princeton in the Nation's Service and in the Service of All Nations," and completed this past summer the most successful fund-raising campaign in the University's history, raising a total of $1.14 billion, with contributions from 78% of all undergraduate alumni.
Among many other accomplishments, Shapiro has:
* proposed and implemented several undergraduate teaching initiatives, including the creation of a special fund to support innovation, a program to bring exceptional teachers to Princeton as visiting faculty, awards for excellent teaching that are presented each year at Commencement and a Center for Teaching and Learning
* presided over a period of steady growth in the size and distinction of the faculty, and the development of such new academic programs as an Institute in Integrative Genomics, an interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Religion, the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, the Center for Human Values, several new master's programs and new initiatives in alumni education, including a recently announced alliance with Oxford, Stanford and Yale to expand the on-line educational opportunities they offer to their students and alumni.
* overseen successful efforts to increase both the overall quality and the diversity of Princeton's undergraduate and graduate student bodies, including substantial improvements in Princeton's undergraduate student aid programs to meet more effectively the needs of both lower- and middle-income families, during his presidency, the percentage of international students in the undergraduate student body has almost doubled (to 10%) and there have been significant increases in graduate fellowships.
* initiated the most substantial program of building renovation (especially dormitory renovation) in Princeton's history, while also overseeing the construction of such important new buildings as the Frist Campus Center, Scully dormitory, new academic space for the social sciences, for physics, for engineering education, for genomics and for the Center for Human Values, the Berlind Theatre addition to McCarter Theatre, as well the previously mentioned athletic facilities. Planning will proceed this year for a sixth residential college and other additional dormitory space to accommodate the 10% increase in the size of the undergraduate student body that the trustees approved last spring. * overseen a quadrupling of the University's endowment from approximately $2 billion in 1988 to over $8 billion currently, a steady reduction in the annual rate of tuition increases (to 3.3% last year) and an improvement in the University's administrative procedures through an ongoing program of administrative review.
As a national leader, Shapiro is the only president to have been listed by Change magazine among the most influential university presidents in both the 1980s and the 1990s. He has served two U.S. presidents: George Bush as a member and vice chair (1992-93) of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and Bill Clinton as chair, since 1996, of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC). He also has served on many other federal and state panels. Last spring the Council of Scientific Society Presidents awarded Shapiro its 2000 Leadership Citation.
Within the higher education community, Shapiro has chaired the boards of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) and has served on the boards of the American Council on Education (ACE) and other organizations. He also chairs the board of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, co-chairs New Jersey's Edison Partnership and serves on a number of other boards, including those of the Educational Testing Service, the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), where he serves on the executive committee.
Shapiro has received 14 honorary degrees, including an honorary degree (along with his twin brother, Bernard, principal and vice chancellor of McGill University in Montreal) from the University of Edinburgh, the alma mater of two of Princeton's most distinguished presidents, John Witherspoon and James McCosh. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, Shapiro is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
As president of Princeton, Shapiro presided over meetings of the Board of Trustees, the faculty, and the student-faculty-staff-alumni Council of the Princeton University Community. He also chaired the Faculty Advisory Committee on Appointments and Advancements that reviews every proposed faculty appointment and promotion. He has authored a "President's Page" in each issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly, has continued to publish articles in the academic literature, has held regular office hours for any interested students, and has taught courses in the history of American higher education and in bioethics.