Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addresses the Class of 2029 during Opening Exercises

What this episode is about

Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber warmly welcomes the Class of 2029, emphasizing the university's dual commitment to undergraduate and graduate education as integral to its mission. He underscores the importance of research participation for students, aiming to equip them with the critical skills to differentiate between fact and fiction in an increasingly complex information landscape.

Key takeaways

• Princeton's identity hinges on blending undergraduate education with robust graduate research—like a hybrid car, it’s efficient and forward-thinking.
• In academia, popularity is the enemy of truth; your research passion should outweigh powerful opinions, like a true underdog story.
• Respectful disagreement isn’t just tolerated; it's celebrated. After all, even Nobel laureates hope their theories may eventually be disproven.
• Access to brilliant minds means you can challenge ideas; don’t just attend classes—launch a debate, it’s the ultimate intellectual workout.
• Seeking critiques is the Scholar's path to improvement; think of it as intellectual crossfit—painful but essential for growth.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Christopher L. Eisgruber (Host) · 10 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Class of 2025, Michael Gordon, College of New Jersey
2. 6:00 – 9:00: Jim Peebles, Nobel Prize
3. 9:00 – 10:06: Class of 2025

Notable quotes from "Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addresses the Class of 2029 during Opening Exercises"

• In fact, Princeton had no graduate school and only a modest research profile for the first 150 years or so of its existence during which time it was called the College of New Jersey.

  about College of New Jersey · at 0:54

• Much depends on the judgments and practices of what Dean Gordon refers to in his book as the scientific community.

  about Michael Gordon · at 2:32

• Princeton physics professor Jim Peebles exemplified this spirit in comments that he made after receiving the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics, which honored him for his theories…

  about Jim Peebles · at 6:49

• To Princeton's great class of 2029, to our incoming transfer students, to our new graduate students, and to everyone who joins or returns to our community as we begin a new academic year,.

  about Class of 2025 · at 9:43

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jim Peebles — Person · Referenced expert (Princeton faculty; Nobel laureate) · 1 mention · first at 6:49
  Used as an exemplar of scholarly humility and the value of respectful disagreement, via his remarks after winning the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
• Michael Gordon — Person · Referenced expert (Princeton dean/author) · 1 mention · first at 2:12
  Cited as the author of the incoming students' summer reading, used to frame how hard it is to distinguish science from pseudoscience via the role of the scientific community.

Companies & orgs

• College of New Jersey — Company · Historical reference · 1 mention · first at 0:54
  The original name of Princeton University before it expanded its graduate and research programs.

Places & events

• Nobel Prize — Event · Referenced achievement · 1 mention · first at 6:55
  Mentioned in the context of Princeton professor Jim Peebles receiving the award for his contributions to cosmology.
  Princeton physics professor Jim Peebles exemplified this spirit in comments that he made after receiving the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics, which honored him for his theories…
• Class of 2025 — Event · Target audience · 2 mentions · first at 0:19
  The incoming undergraduate students being welcomed to Princeton University.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 - Please let me begin by saying once again, what a pleasure it is to welcome you to Princeton. Today, is one of my favorite days of the calendar. It's our New Year's Day, a moment when Princeton starts fresh. Though most of you attending this afternoon are incoming undergraduate students, the ceremony also welcomes graduate students, colleagues on the faculty, and staff, and everybody who returns to campus to begin another academic year. Indeed, while undergraduate education is essential to Princeton's mission, Princeton is more than an undergraduate college.

0:44 Graduate education and research are equally important to this university's mission. This combination is by no means inevitable. In fact, Princeton had no graduate school and only a modest research profile for the first 150 years or so of its existence during which time it was called the College of New Jersey. At the modern Princeton however, we regard teaching and research as inseparable from one another. That is partly because we know that world class researchers will be able to provide accurate state-of-the-art accounts of the subjects they teach.

1:30 We also insist that our undergraduates be participants in the research enterprise. The senior thesis requirement is the most obvious example of that commitment, but we aim to infuse the research ethic through your academic experience more broadly. We want you to participate in the research activity and scholarly ethos of the university, because doing so will equip you with the skills, knowledge, and character required to distinguish fact from fiction, knowledge from opinion, and science from pseudoscience. Yeah, Dean Michael Gordon in the book that you read this summer and that we will discuss tonight shows how hard it is to draw these distinctions.

2:24 There is no simple test or rule that can distinguish a scientific argument from a non-scientific one. Much depends on the judgments and practices of what Dean Gordon refers to in his book as the scientific community. If we widen our gaze to encompass not just the sciences, but the full range of subjects taught at Princeton, we might talk about the scholarly community. We today welcome you not only as students, but as the newest members of our community of scholars. I accordingly want to note some of the commitments that define academic life, not only here, but across America's research universities.

3:14 One commitment is to respect standards of academic excellence when evaluating scholarship. Universities divide knowledge into branches or disciplines such as philosophy, physics, art and archeology, neuroscience, sociology, and computer science. Each discipline has its own set of methods, models, concepts, and assumptions by which to test arguments and claims. When Princeton decides whether to hire or promote professors, we evaluate their scholarship by reference to the standards of their disciplines, not by whether their work is popular with the public, government officials, or powerful interest groups.

4:03 We expect faculty members and students to be loyal to the truth not to the preferences of any party, official agenda, or ideological platform. Universities must be independent sources of data, theory, and argument. Faculty members and students should have the incentive, the responsibility, and the freedom to pursue scholarly excellence even when the arguments they generate might anger or displease powerful people. That independence gives universities a unique and essential role within a free and democratic republic.

4:47 It also guarantees that they will be controversial. You'll find that the scholarly disciplines represented on this campus pursue truth from varying angles and perspectives. If, for example, you ask an apparently simple question such as, what is color and why does it matter, to an art historian, a physicist, and a philosopher, you will likely get very different answers from each. And by the way, when I propose asking professors a question, I mean the suggestion literally. One of the great privileges of being a student here is the access you have to faculty members who are not only world leaders in their academic discipline, but also dedicated teachers.

5:44 Go to their office hours, invite them to lunch, or to your athletic competitions, or artistic performances. Find out what they know and who they are beyond the classroom. I strongly recommend going to office hours early in the semester. You don't have to ask about the course. You can ask them about color or for that matter you can ask them whether they agree with what I've said in this speech. They have no obligation to agree with it. I find they often disagree with what I say. They have no obligation to agree with it and neither do you.

6:23 That brings me to another of the commitments that define scholarly communities. We treat respectful disagreement as desirable and beneficial. When people ask hard but fair questions about our ideas, we should regard their inquiry as a compliment. It means they're taking our thoughts seriously enough to care whether they are correct. Princeton physics professor Jim Peebles exemplified this spirit in comments that he made after receiving the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics, which honored him for his theories about the origin, structure, and evolution of the physical universe.

7:08 Professor Peebles said at his press conference and in interviews that he hoped that the cosmological theory to which he contributed would eventually be proven wrong. That he said is how science works. New generations of scientists replace older theories with better ones. To live up to the ideals of a scholarly community we all need to recognize that some of our opinions will turn out to be wrong. We should want to find our errors. To do so we need to seek out criticism and test our views against the most cogent objections.

7:55 Let me mention one other principle that is fundamental to this and other scholarly communities. That's a commitment to honesty. At Princeton, the undergraduate honor code is, one, especially visible manifestation of this important commitment. I trust that I don't need to explain why honesty is better than dishonesty, or why it's wrong to steal other people's ideas, or claim credit for words that are not our own even words generated by a machine. You've known that since childhood. I will add however, that honesty bears a special connection to scholarship and education.

8:37 A dedication to truth requires among other things truthfulness about the sources for our ideas and claims. We must own up to our ideas, including our mistakes, if we wish to learn from our errors and benefit from criticism of our thinking. There's value and honor in being wrong. Being wrong is an indispensable part of improvement, learning, and discovery. There is however, neither value nor honor in cheating not in scholarship and not in any other domain of human activity. Scholarly standards, respectful disagreement, personal integrity, these qualities among others help to define the community that you now join.

9:30 I am so glad that you will be part of that community. I look forward to getting to know you in the years ahead as you explore this university and find your own place within it. To Princeton's great class of 2029, to our incoming transfer students, to our new graduate students, and to everyone who joins or returns to our community as we begin a new academic year, I say, welcome to Princeton. (audience applauding)

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addresses the Class of 2029 during Opening Exercises"?

Christopher L. Eisgruber (Host).

What is "Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addresses the Class of 2029 during Opening Exercises" about?

Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber warmly welcomes the Class of 2029, emphasizing the university's dual commitment to undergraduate and graduate education as integral to its mission. He underscores the importance of research participation for students, aiming to equip them with the critical skills to differentiate between fact and fiction in an increasingly complex information landscape.

What is mentioned in this Princeton University episode?

5 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Jim Peebles, Nobel Prize, Class of 2025, Michael Gordon, College of New Jersey. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber addresses the Class of 2029 during Opening Exercises"?

The episode runs 10 min; the transcript is about 1,216 words in 13 timestamped sections.

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