Shirley M. Tilghman
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 has occasionally been criticized for her hiring practices. Before her appointment as President, she had publicly lamented the dearth of women in high-level higher education positions; after her appointment, she appointed several to high-level positions at Princeton.
Amy Gutmann (who was chosen as the President of the
University of Pennsylvania in early 2004) became the Provost, the second-most-powerful administrative position in the University,
Anne-Marie Slaughter became Dean of the
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,
Maria Klawe became Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Janet Lavin Rapleye became the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions. Critics claim that Tilghman has demonstrated favoritism towards women in her hiring practices. Defenders of Tilghman's hiring point out that she also appointed Charles Kalmbach as the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the highest non-academic administrative post, and
David Dobkin as Dean of the Faculty, both of whom are men (as is 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.
* 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.
* [
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
