Much has been accomplished; much more

James Wei
I see improving the SEAS research reputation as our greatest opportunity for development. SEAS needs to catch up with the current leaders (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech). The first three have engineering programs that are much larger than SEAS, but Caltech is slightly smaller.

We have to choose niches we can compete in despite our size—niches in which we can leverage Princeton’s strengths in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

We have to increase the momentum of the last decade by recruiting top faculty and graduate students, by building new research programs, and by increasing alliances with other divisions of Princeton and with industry.

These goals require raising the resources for new buildings and space, professorships, and fellowships. We need to continue to press on to the next level of excellence.

Hisashi Kobayashi
I think the strategic planning process is an excellent idea and the timing is good. The U.S. and world economies seem ready to rebound, and we should be able to get favorable support from the Trustees and potential donors.

SEAS has made significant strides in the past 15 years, in terms of faculty recruitment, facilities expansion and enhancement, and new curricular developments.

One opportunity I see is the development of a program in complex systems. We have strong, visible programs in materials science and related areas, but we may want to form a Center of reliable and secure complex systems, which can encompass various research and education issues pertaining to information security and homeland security.

The engineering school is more important to Princeton now than ever in view of the nation’s need to train researchers and engineers with state-of-the-art knowledge and skills, and to have students of humanities and social sciences exposed to a science and technology education.

I believe that what we have today at SEAS will provide a strong base for Dean Klawe to make a giant leap toward placing Princeton’s engineering school in the forefront of major research universities in the country.

Robert Jahn
The SEAS clearly needs a cogent strategic plan, however explicit or implicit it may be, to guide its orderly and productive evolution over the next decade. To be maximally effective, that plan must build upon our heritage of special academic strengths, most notably the quality of faculty, students, and staff who have been and will be attracted here; the exceptional array of basic research enterprises that we pursue; and the integration of our engineering programs of instruction and research within a powerful and comprehensive arts and sciences university culture.

The plan also must accurately foresee the overarching technological and sociological priorities of the future, and identify those academic niches wherein we are best equipped to play.

Successful implementation of the plan will depend on the degree of ownership and commitment felt by the faculty, research, and administrative support people who must provide the requisite skills; on the level of enthusiasm for the plan displayed by the central administration; and on the extent of financial resources that can be acquired from appropriate dedicated donors.

These same principles guided the strategic planning that characterized our School’s administration during my tenure as dean some 15 to 30 years ago, and I believe that the advances in enrollment, academic quality, and scholarly reputation achieved during that period prepared the ground for its subsequent and future growth.

But much has changed since then, in the School, the University, and the world, and new specific goals and tactics will now be required. We look forward eagerly to their formulation in the forthcoming strategic plan.