In one of his commencement talks as President of Princeton University,
William G. Bowen called upon the assembled graduates to find ways, in
their lives, to blend "the powers of the mind and the promptings of the
heart."
This collection of his presidential writings--drawn from annual reports,
opening exercises addresses, commencement remarks, and other speeches
and essays--reflects a blend of analysis and advocacy that speaks both
to public policy issues affecting all of American higher education and
to the deeper meanings and values of Princeton.
The writings selected for inclusion here represent roughly half of the
total archive annotated in Appendix B. They range from brief extracts to
complete documents, and they are organized under such topics as the
university in society; purposes of education/liberal education; graduate
education, scholarship, and research; faculty; diversity, opportunity,
and financial aid; the economics of the private research university; and
a final chapter titled simply "Reflections."
Throughout his fifteen-year tenure, President Bowen remained a teacher
in the introductory economics course at Princeton, and his principal
identification was always as a member of the faculty. His writings, as
he saw them, were an extension of his teaching: an opportunity to
communicate important ideas in ways that would sharpen his own
understanding at the same time that they provoked others to think hard
about the questions being raised. As such, his writings were a source of
insight and illumination for many "students," of various descriptions,
who listened, and read, and learned from what he had to say.
Originally published in 1988.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from
the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions
preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting
them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the
Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich
scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by
Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
