Mathey College Class of 2008 Letter

Dear Class of 2008,

Greetings from Mathey College, your home away from home for the next two years. I am Antoine Kahn, Master of the College, and Professor of Electrical Engineering. I am very happy to welcome you to Mathey. I look forward to getting to know you during the coming year and would like to take this opportunity to tell you a few things about the College.

You will be a member of the 23rd group of students to come to the College since its founding in 1983. The Mathey College student body is a diverse group of about 500 people, approximately half of whom are in their first year. Each of you will bring something special to the College, and the entire College staff is eager to help you get the most out your Princeton experience. Many of the activities at Mathey are run by the Mathey College Council, a student group elected by the students at the College. Elections are held in December, and I encourage those of you who are interested to consider volunteering your time and leadership to the Council.

While I divide my time between the Department of Electrical Engineering and Mathey College, there is a full time professional staff in place in the College Office, which is located in Hamilton Hall. Let me introduce them to you. Dr. Steven Lestition is the Mathey College Dean. He will help you with academic advice and will be joined by Dr. Kathleen Crown, our new Director of Studies. In the unlikely event that it becomes necessary, the Dean and the Director of Studies also oversee disciplinary actions in the academic and social areas. You will receive (or you may read online) their letter of welcome to the class of 2008.

The College Administrator is Ms. Pat Byrne. She works with the College Council and is a major source of information about planning activities. She will help you when things need to be fixed. And, she controls the purse strings! You will find her a source of sound counsel on a wide range of issues. Probably the first person to greet you when you visit the office will be the Office Specialist, Ms. Gail Eshleman. Gail will help you arrange appointments with people, sign you up for trips, and generally make you feel welcome. Professor James Gould of the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is our Senior Fellow, and he can often be found eating in the dining hall or participating in one of our Faculty Fellow Luncheons held every Tuesday in the College. Get to know him and discover his wide range of interests.

Our Assistant Masters are Kathryn Lachman, graduate student in French and Italian and Laura Stark, graduate student in Sociology. They work with the Core Group (Resident Advisers and Minority Affairs Advisers) and are also available to assist you individually in getting the most out of the social and academic environment of the College and the University as a whole. We have twelve Resident Advisers (RAs), each of whom will have the responsibility of advising a group of about twenty members of your class, and five Minority Affairs Advisers (MAAs) who will work with your RA and the community to help us understand and respect our ethnic and cultural diversity. Of the more than eighty Faculty Fellows at the College, twenty will be Academic Advisers and will help you choose your courses and discuss your academic plans.

Something interesting happens in Mathey almost every evening of the week. A variety of "tables" take place during the dinner period in either the Dining Hall or the Private Dining Room and these are open to all members of the College. This past year, we offered language tables in French, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, and Japanese. Tables are also sponsored by the Dean of the College Office, the International Center and the Third World Center. Each week, we have a dinner with an invited speaker (usually a Princeton University faculty member) and an informal luncheon. The luncheons also feature Princeton faculty members telling us about their work. We invite and encourage you to attend these special weekly events.

I and the entire staff stand ready to assist you with your academic and personal growth. Feel free to speak to any of us by coming to the Mathey office. I look forward to meeting you personally in September and during the Fall semester (in a series of "Zee" dinners at the master's house). If there is anything we can do for you in the meantime, please call us at (609) 258-5717.

Sincerely,

Antoine Kahn
Master, Mathey College
Professor of Electrical Engineering

The Dean and Director of Studies have also written a letter of welcome to the Class of 2008