John D. Rockefeller 3rd College was created in September 1982 and was one of five residential colleges established in the 1980s, following the recommendation of the Committee on Undergraduate Residential Life. The college provides approximately five hundred students – freshmen and sophomores – with their own dining and social facilities, dormitories, study areas, computer clusters, classrooms, and offices for academic counseling. The setting is small enough to create a sense of community, but large enough to encompass a diverse student population and a wide variety of interests. As of Fall 2007, Rockefeller College is one of six residential colleges at Princeton, one of three that continue to house only freshmen and sophomores. It is paired with a sister college, Mathey College, that houses students from all four years, and together they provide a wide range of programming for both upperclassmen and underclassmen.

The buildings of Rockefeller College include some of Princeton’s most beautiful landmarks. The dormitories are Holder Hall (completed in 1910), Witherspoon Hall (completed in 1877), a portion of Blair Hall (completed in 1897), and a portion of Campbell Hall (completed in 1909). The central dining and social facilities of Rockefeller College are located in the group of buildings formerly known as Commons. This complex, designed by Day and Klauder and erected in 1916, has been called “the best example of the Collegiate Gothic style in the country.” The entire structure was completely renovated in 2007 and remodeled to connect up the dining halls of Rockefeller and Mathey Colleges through a common servery, as well as to accommodate the new programs being established at the colleges.

The basic intent of a residential college system is that undergraduates will live in scholarly communities in close contact with their teachers, especially through the use of shared dining facilities. At Princeton, for twenty five years, the distinctive characteristic of this system had been its focus on social and academic activities for freshmen and sophomores. Starting in Fall 2007, a new residential college system is taking shape that creates more opportunities than ever for interaction between freshmen and sophomores and juniors and seniors, as well as between undergraduate and graduate students. By linking all juniors and seniors to their residential colleges, by providing meals at the colleges for all students, by adding resources for student planning, and by creating new spaces and programs, the residential colleges aim to give all undergraduates the fullest possible access to educational and social opportunities at Princeton.

In order to guide the social and academic activities at the residential colleges, each college is supervised by a senior faculty member, the Master, assisted by a full time staff consisting of a Dean, a Director of Studies, a Director of Student Life, a College Administrator, and a College Secretary. There is also part-time Office Specialist who makes appointments for students and schedules programming spaces.

The Dean and Director of Studies coordinate the Faculty Advisor program and serve as counselor-advisors to all

students resident in the college, as well as upperclassman affiliated with the college. In addition, the Director of Studies coordinates the academic programming in the college throughout the year. The Director of Student Life supervises and works with the sixteen Residential College Advisors (juniors and seniors resident in the college), each of whom is assigned to a group of first-year students and sophomores. The DSL is also responsible for counseling students with personal issues and coordinating their access to health services. The College Administrator oversees the budget of the college as well as the management of all college facilities.

Faculty Fellows, roughly 80 faculty members associated with the college, are encouraged to participate in all aspects of college life. There is also a group of Resident Graduate Students who live in the college and participate in programming activities, as well as Graduate Fellows who interact with undergraduates in informal settings. Finally, the college has a Resident Faculty Fellow who lives and eats in college and is an active member of the community.

The range of activities organized by the college includes academic advising and academic affairs (including the program of freshman college seminars), intramural athletics, and a wide variety of social and cultural events. Rockefeller College contains a film theater, an art gallery, numerous rehearsal spaces and music practice rooms, kitchens, computer clusters, and a College library.

Each year the college sponsors talks by faculty members, lectures by outside speakers, concerts, dances, plays, and many other events, including trips to take advantage of nearby attractions in New York and Philadelphia.

It is particularly important to note that the many of these activities are selected, planned, and organized by the College Council, a self-governing body made up of the student residents of the college. In this sense, Rockefeller College is very much a participatory community.

About John D. Rockefeller 3rd

John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Class of ’29, was one of America’s leading philanthropists. Among his many fields of interest were the advancement of scientific understanding of overpopulation, the improvement of cultural relations between Asia and America, and a broader exposure for the performing arts in American life.

In 1952, Mr. Rockefeller began his lifelong search for solutions to population growth by founding the Population Council. In 1956, he established The Asia Society, which helped broaden America’s understanding of Asia’s heritage and contemporary developments. He was also a founder of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and served as its first president, beginning in 1956, and then as chairman from 1961 until 1970. For more than thirty years, Mr. Rockefeller was a trustee of Princeton, and he was a trustee emeritus at the time of his death in 1978. He set up the Rockefeller Public Service Awards in 1952, administered as a national trust by Princeton University, to recognize individual public service at the local, state, and national levels, often in areas that were neglected or controversial.

In dedicating the College on October 16, 1983, President William G. Bowen noted that “Rockefeller College will serve as a fitting tribute to a man who cared all of his life about the restoration of historical buildings, the landscaping of open spaces, and most importantly of all, the lives of young people and the enrichment of the human spirit.”