Princeton, New Jersey -- There was a point in Albert J. Raboteau’s youth when, inspired by the Trappist writer Thomas Merton, he considered becoming a Catholic monk.
He chose academe instead, finding himself drawn to a more activist life, and this summer he was named dean of Princeton University’s Graduate School. But even in this prestigious post he shows humility and a sense that personal convictions drive him more than ambition.
Speaking in a quiet, even voice, choosing his words carefully, he describes his university as “this place of people,” and characterizes the dean’s job as an opportunity to serve those who “are brought together in this institution for important purposes.”
“Merton realized there really is a bond between people and that even in solitude -- even in delving as deeply as one can into one’s own self -- one comes to understand that sense of commonality,” Mr. Raboteau says of the thinker he still considers a personal hero.
Mr. Raboteau believes education can cultivate that sense of commonality -- in opportunities to communicate ideas, read books that have influenced thinkers for centuries, and help students appreciate people different from themselves.
In July, Mr. Raboteau became Princeton’s 11th graduate dean, replacing Theodore Ziolkowski, who held the position for 13 years. Mr. Raboteau has been at Princeton for 10 years as a professor and chairman of the religion department. Before Princeton, he taught and held administrative posts at the University of California at Berkeley.
Mr. Raboteau’s scholarship is respected -- his book Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South, won awards for its rich research into religious life in slave communities. But it is his personal strength of character that his colleagues say is most extraordinary. They praise his wisdom, kindness, resoluteness, and concern for others.
“He has a grace about him that is able to bring out the best in persons,” says Cornel West, director of Princeton’s Afro-American Studies program and a professor of religion. “He’s a very, very unusual human being.”
Says Vice-Provost Ruth Simmons: “When you talk with him and work with him, you get a sense that the discussion is about what is on the table and not about him. He is able to put his own interests aside for the common interest.”
Mr. Raboteau’s interest in the human side of academe resounds in his plans for the graduate school. He wants to improve the quality of life for graduate students, put more emphasis on training them to teach, and recruit more women and members of minority groups to the school.
His interest in their personal needs is welcomed by graduate students, some of whom say Mr. Ziolkowski’s concern for their academic success at times made him seem unresponsive on student-life issues.
Princeton’s graduate students list several quality-of-life issues: Undergraduates outnumber them by more than 2 to 1, graduate-student housing is off the main campus, and they have no central place to gather.
Mr. Raboteau says he wants to make sure campus services consider graduate students’ needs. He also may open his home for students and faculty members to meet with distinguished campus visitors.
He wants to stress teaching skills because he considers communication a key to good scholarship. Mr. Raboteau recognizes that research can be isolating, particularly as scholarship becomes esoteric, so he wants to draw graduate students into the university community.
His desire to increase minority enrollment is bolstered by statistics -- only 11 per cent of Princeton’s candidates for graduate degrees are black, Hispanic, or Asian.
“Nationally, we are losing out on a tremendous resource here,” he says. “I think it’s also important to establish issues of equity. And I think it’s also important in terms of the real-world responsibility of a university in a country like ours.”
Mr. Raboteau already has a history of working with racial issues at Princeton. This year he headed a committee formed to investigate charges that campus security workers stopped black youths more often than whites. Following the verdict in the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles, he also is participating in discussions about whether racial harassment should be separated from Princeton’s overall policy dealing with harassment and given a more detailed definition and formalized channels of complaint.
Mr. Raboteau traces his concern for people and their interconnections to his mother’s strength of character, to his interest in religion and English literature, and to his roots in a Southern town that was small enough for neighbors to watch out for each other.
The town also harbored racism and offered few opportunities for black people like him. His father was killed by a white man before Mr. Raboteau was born, and the killer was not prosecuted. His mother left shortly afterward and remarried, and the family moved to Michigan and, later, California.
His parents’ valuing of education and his mother’s devout Catholicism helped set his direction in life.
He was only 13 when he first read Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain and was struck by the Trappist monk’s uncompromising values. He later came to admire Merton’s “amazing acuity” in analyzing social situations.
Mr. Raboteau hopes his new job will allow him time to continue working on a book and documentary, both about African-American religions. He says he also cherishes personal time for thinking and enjoying his wife and four children.
But he looks forward to many opportunities in the new job.
“I hope to think of this as service and not about the gratification or ambition of Al Raboteau,” he says. “If I can help this place of people try to do things better, be happier, and meet our ideals a little more regularly, I will have succeeded.”