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BY PAT SUMMERS
NEWJESEYNEWSROOM.COM
If your new year's resolutions included "Learn something new," here's a possibility: Audit a course, or two, at Princeton University through its community auditing program (CAP). You may not gain an Ivy League veneer in one semester, but you'll encounter plenty of them on campus – and you'll definitely learn.
"Audit" means that for a surprisingly small fee – considering the campus ambiance and wisdom all around you – you can sit in on a lecture course and just soak up knowledge. As an auditor, you may not participate in class discussions – but then, the prof won't call on you, either.
Some 740 area adults registered to audit during fall semester '09, and although students take their exams this month, classes ended before the winter holidays. Spring term is usually lower in auditor enrollment, notes Karen Woodbridge, the university's director of community relations. A hundred fewer auditors turned up for spring '09. Most auditors are "repeat customers," she adds.
Since 1998 when Woodbridge's office took over community auditing, it has grown from an informal operation to a fee-charging program. It cost $50 to sit in on one course in spring term 2000; that amount is now $125. And auditors have the option of registering online or in person. (For this spring, that process starts Jan. 13.)For area adults, defined by Woodbridge as anyone reasonably able to get to class, CAP registration begins with Princetonians: residents of Princeton Borough or Township and those affiliated with the university. All others register starting the second day.
Before all this begins, professors have specified how many auditors may sit in on their lectures. Then CAP staffers hew to that line as registration proceeds. The number of auditors cannot exceed 10% of the registered undergrads in any lecture class.
Who audits? Those "repeat customers" Woodbridge mentions include a real mix of people. Most would not be mistaken for undergrads because they don't wear flip-flops in the coldest weather and many have gray hair besides. There's the retired engineer seeking humanities enrichment; an area artist who elects science courses; a Ph.D. who worked with animals and now takes history and art courses.
Some auditors take courses in their own fields, to keep up or even check out the competition: a college prof from a nearby institution joined the registration line recently, along with a college administrator of nearly 50 years.
Two women who worked together in the pharma field take a mix of courses together. And a one-time mountaineer who enjoys reading esoteric things sat in on a course about the brain.
Except for a few "entitled types" who break the rules by sitting up front and speaking in class, most auditors behave themselves. In fact, they sometimes seem much more engaged in classes than the undergrads, many of whom focus on their laptops instead of class notes.
If they wish, auditors can join other students paying a fortune for textbooks. Labyrinth Books, on Princeton's Nassau Street across from the university, sells both new and used textbooks, and it's possible to find relatively unmarked used books. Auditing benefits also include entry to the university's electronic "Blackboard" for students, where they can check out assignments and announcements from their profs.
But auditors must watch their backs. In frightening numbers, undergrads ride bikes around campus; they do it swiftly and without benefit of bells, horns or verbal alerts. If there's a walking lane, per se, pedestrians learn to stay there, swerving only after a look around.
As spring semester gets underway, Princeton University's auditors will lose one tremendous asset as Susan Weinkopff – a CAP fixture since 2001 and a university employee since 1984 – retires.
In her role as Community Auditing program coordinator, she's a readily familiar face and an invariably helpful person during registrations, available as well for questions and problems any other times. She interfaces with faculty for auditor permissions and works with the registrar's office to maintain the required balance of auditors to undergrads.
Weinkopff also arranges for the faculty who will teach a four-part lecture series for auditors and the prof who gives the end-of-term auditors' lecture. (One recent example: Pulitzer prize winning poet Paul Muldoon. Biblical scholar Elaine Pagels is on tap for this spring.)
The first thing the Bucks County resident plans to do with her husband after finishing at Princeton on January 29? A vacation – one that can accurately be described as "well earned."
But before she goes, her office could consider bending the rules a bit. Although CAP participation doesn't earn academic credits or degrees, Weinkopff's popularity and stellar service deserve an honorary title summing up how countless auditors perceive her: Ms. CAP.
For more information about Princeton University's Community Auditing Program, phone 609-258-0202 or click here. Registration for spring semester begins Wednesday, Jan. 13 and classes start Feb. 1.
A freelance writer and Princeton University auditor, Pat Summers also blogs at AnimalBeat.blogspot.com.
