Princeton University. Office of the Provost

The provost of Princeton University is the general deputy to the president charged with overseeing, coordinating, and planning academic programs and producing the yearly budget with the assistance of the treasurer's office and the guidance of the Priorities Committee. The provost is also responsible for primary oversight of the library, the plasma physics lab, affirmative action programs, and (at one time) computing.

With the rapid expansion of the faculty and student body in the late 1960s and the rising administrative burdens caused by campus unrest, physical expansion, budget difficulties, and fund-raising challenges, President Robert F. Goheen '40 and the University administration decided to create the position of provost to begin in 1966. The provost would serve in the University administration as second-in-command to the president and take on some of the duties of the president, the dean of the faculty, and the treasurer.

Goheen had longtime dean of the faculty J. Douglas Brown GS '28, who could only serve one year before retirement, and economics professor William G. Bowen GS '58, in mind as the first two occupants of the position. Brown served as the first provost for the 1966-1967 year, and Bowen was appointed at Brown's retirement. Bowen had already distinguished himself as a professor in the economics department, winning the confidence and enthusiasm of his students and his colleagues in the faculty. In 1962, he completed a study of Princeton's complex relationship with the federal government, highlighting his skill at representing complex problems clearly to other members of the University community. As provost, Bowen was widely credited with promoting coeducation and restoring financial order. He established the character and direction of the office in a response to a 1968 memorandum from President Goheen asking for his view of the functions of the provost. Bowen wrote, "As I now see our situation, the Provost should have four principal functions," which he listed as follows:

1. To serve as the general deputy of the president -- i.e., to assume on an ad hoc basis any responsibilities which the president chooses to delegate to him.

2. To act for the President in matters relating to the general supervision of the University in the absence or disability of the President.

3. To be responsible under the President for the allocation of University funds and for the coordination of activities and programs.

4. To be responsible, under the President, for academic planning.

At Goheen's retirement in 1972, Bowen became president and appointed Sheldon Hackney, a professor of history, the third provost. The provost acquired the key role of chair of the Priorities Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) in 1974. Hackney also experienced student unrest and challenging budget problems during his tenure. His skillful handling of student activists and his common-sense, cooperative approach to administrative oversight led Tulane University to offer him its presidency in 1975. He became president of the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1993.

Albert Rees, a former professor of economics at Princeton who directed U.S. President Gerald Ford's Council on Wage and Price Stability in 1974 and 1975, followed Hackney. Rees used his extensive experience in finance and his prior service on the Priorities Committee to tighten the University's budget while making the Priorities Committee more transparent. He left the University in 1977 (later becoming president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) and was replaced by Dean of the College Neil Rudenstine '56.

Rudenstine was recruited from his position as a professor of English at Harvard to become dean of students at Princeton after he received national press for confronting student protesters at Harvard. His administrative talent was quickly recognized and he was appointed dean of the college when Bowen became president. In his decade as provost, 1977 to 1988, he was praised as thoughtful, deliberate, and consultative. Correspondence and memoranda indicate that he was well-liked and trusted by faculty and perceived as a close complement to President Bowen. He mastered the budgetary process early on (sociology professor Marvin Bressler once called him a "closet economist") and oversaw the creation of the "table of needs" for the Capital Campaign in the early 1980s. After the campaign, Rudenstine was most responsible for guiding the allocation of new funds, the creation of new academic programs and projects, and the planning of numerous buildings and renovations. The provost's intimate knowledge of allocation procedures and largely administrative facilities such as the library gradually caused the provost to become more involved with administrative services and computing, especially as these relate to academic departments and research facilities.

Rudenstine also closely monitored the work of the Committee on Undergraduate Residential Life (CURL), which established the college residential system for Princeton undergraduates in 1981. Rudenstine served with Bowen until their mutual retirement from Princeton in early 1988. He joined Bowen as vice president of the Mellon Foundation until he was selected to be the 26th president of Harvard University in 1991.

Philosopher and longtime Princeton professor and administrator Paul Benacerraf '52 served as provost from 1988 to 1991 under President Harold T. Shapiro GS '64. Serving an administration more hands-off than its predecessor, Benacerraf provided an informal administration liaison to the faculty. In 1991, he returned to teaching philosophy.

Hugo Sonnenschein, a former professor of economics and member of the Priorities Committee at Princeton and then a dean at the University of Pennsylvania, returned to Princeton to become the University's seventh provost in 1991. At his selection, President Shapiro said that "he will shortly become one of the most distinguished, influential people in higher education." He was appointed president of the University of Chicago two years later. Sonnenschein was replaced in 1993 by another economist on the faculty, Stephen Goldfeld, who died of cancer just weeks after stepping down in 1995.

Jeremiah Ostriker, a longtime professor of astrophysics and respected member of the faculty, was chosen as the University's ninth provost in 1995 and served until August 31, 2001, three months into the tenure of Shirley Tilghman, Princeton's first female president.

Amy Gutmann, a professor of political philosophy and a former dean of the faculty, became the University's first female provost on September 1, 2001. Gutmann stepped down to become president of the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and was replaced by Woodrow Wilson School professor and constitutional scholar Christopher Eisgruber '83.

Eisgruber served as Provost until he became the university's 20th President in 2013.

David Lee, a professor of economics and public affairs, served as Provost from 2013-2017. Lee also served as director of the Industrial Relations Section, an academic unit that promotes research and training in labor economics, from 2009 to 2013.

Deborah Prentice became Provost in 2017. Prentice, Princeton's Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, was named dean of the faculty in 2014 after serving for 12 years as the chair of the Department of Psychology. Prentice is the third person to serve as provost after serving previously as dean of the faculty.

While the Office of the Provost Records contain limited material from Eisgruber's tenure, the complete files of Christopher Eisgruber, David Lee and Deborah Prentice have not yet been transferred to the University Archives.

(For more information on the early development of the position of provost, see box 154, folder 5, Benacerraf, Sonnenschein, and Goldfeld--Administration--Provost.)

Princeton University Provosts

J. Douglas Brown, 1966-1967

William G. Bowen, 1967-1972

F. Sheldon Hackney, 1972-1975

Albert Rees, 1975-1977

Neil L. Rudenstine, 1977-1988

Paul Benacerraf, 1988-1991

Hugo F. Sonnenschein, 1991-1993

Stephen Goldfeld, 1993-1995

Jeremiah P. Ostriker, 1995-2001

Amy Gutmann, 2001-2004

Christopher Eisgruber, 2004-2013

David Lee, 2013-2017

Deborah Prentice, 2017-