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In this interview, Bowen talks about his family's background; his undergraduate experience at Denison; his graduate experience at Princeton; his mentors at Princeton, including William Baumol and Jacob Viner; his choice to join the faculty at Princeton; his relationship with Robert Goheen; the impact of receiving a Ford Fellowship in 1966; becoming provost; working with Neil Rudenstine; his scholarly work as preparation for his leadership roles; his and President Goheen's time working together; what he was not able to accomplish as provost; the decision to appoint the Patterson Committee; the alumni reaction to the decision for co-education, including George Schultz and Harold Helm; the planning and implementation of co-education; the role of the women students, including Laurie Watson, in gaining support for co-education; his enjoyment of teaching and the bonds he could make with students.

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In this interview, Bowen discusses the decision to decrease the number of men in each class following the implementation of co-education; pressures for and against diversifying the student body and affirmative action; working with Carl Fields; the recent appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court; exceptional students he recalls teaching; decisions about and changes made to the curriculum, particularly on the topic of precepts; the tension in balancing sustaining already excellent departments and growing new ones; the process and budgeting of growing the molecular biology department, and working with Laurance Rockefeller to do so; the role of athletics and the creation of the academic index, or Bowen Formula; his relationship with Pete Carril; his enjoyment and inspirations in writing the annual reports; the greater impact of his annual reports; and his process in writing his numerous addresses.

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In this interview, Bowen speaks about how fundraising fit with his other responsibilities; relations between the university and the town of Princeton; important colleagues during him time as President, yet to be discussed, including Stanley Kelley, Ricardo Mestres, Fred Fox, Aaron Lemonick, Marcia Snowden, and Robert Durkee; the overall periodization and themes of his 15-year tenure; the thought process behind his decision to step down; his passion for equity and fairness; what makes Princeton, 'Princeton'; the influence and legacy of past presidents; his relationships with his successors, Harold Shapiro and Shirley Tilghman; and what he hopes his legacy as Princeton's 17th president will be.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses his mother and father's backgrounds, including his father's work; the differences between his twin brother and him growing up; his athletic interests before college; attending McGill University and meeting his future wife, Vivian, who would prompt his academic focus; his choice of major and working in his family's restaurant, Ruby Foo's; his summer job working with computers; his decision to grow to graduate school and how he ended up at Princeton; life as a married graduate student with children; his doctoral work and his professors, including Richard Quandt, William Baumol, and Oscar Morgenstern, as well as his growing confidence in his ability to pursue academic work; his wife's traditional role balanced with her studies and career in social work; his time on the faculty at the University of Michigan and his growing administrative roles, including provost; the attraction and challenges of being provost; being named Michigan's president; and his affinity for country music, including meeting Willie Nelson.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses growing up as the child of Jewish immigrants; his middle-class community in Hampstead, Montreal; the segregation present in Montreal; having to go to another school outside of Hampstead, because his neighborhood school would not accept Jewish students; finding Princeton's high-class conservatism new and off-putting at first; living in Ann Arbor; his changing positions at the University of Michigan; raising his four children while getting increasingly involved at the University of Michigan; his wife, Vivian, going back to school to get her Master's in social work and being one of the few University president wives to have her own profession; the oil shocks and the dismal state of the Michigan economy, and their impact on the University of Michigan; making controversial funding and resource-allocation decisions; serving as provost; taking down the old hospital on the University of Michigan; confronting obstinacy in the faculty upon imposing quality control; the Michigan state bureaucracy affecting higher education; the difference in decision-making and resource allocation at Princeton versus Michigan; being one of the few Princeton presidents that came from outside of the university; the lack of diversity in the University of Michigan faculty; and the challenge of retaining African-American students.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses leaving Michigan for Princeton; the presidential search process and his wife's reservations; one of his daughters' not being admitted to Princeton; his good relationship with William Bowen; the Center for Jewish Life; being an "outsider" President and evaluating Princeton; renewing the emphasis on undergraduate teaching; his four provosts: Paul Benacerraf, Hugo F. Sonnenschein, Stephen Goldfeld, and Jeremiah P. Ostriker; his citizenship status and naturalization as a US citizen; Princeton's increasing financial resources and the decision to move to a no-loan financial aid policy as it related to its social responsibilities; the construction of the Frist student center and his view on its connection to the eating clubs; his relationship with the Committee of Three; and his relationship with his twin brother who also worked in higher education.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses his wife coming up with part of Princeton's informal motto and the recent change of Princeton's informal motto; the debate over changing the Woodrow Wilson School name and related protests in 2015 and discussing these with President Eisgruber; his perspective on Woodrow Wilson's attitudes towards race and women; Wilson's legacy at Princeton; the importance of the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Study; his relationship with President Bill Bowen; the quality of Princeton's different departments; improving the quality of Princeton's departments through investment in resources; the protests and sit-ins that occurred during his time as President; his relationship with the Board of Trustees; tension in response to the marrying of a gay couple in Princeton's Chapel amongst the Trustees; controversy over the possibility of eliminating Princeton's wrestling team; the balance of athletics and academics at Princeton and in general at universities; his relationship with basketball coach Pete Carril; and the construction of Palmer Stadium. He mentions Provost Paul Benacerraf, Dean of Faculty Aaron Lemonick, General Counsel Thomas Wright, and Director of Athletics Gary Walters.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses his relationship with the Board over time, including his relationship with Jim Henderson and Bob Rawson; the appointment of Professor Singer and moderating the disagreements between the faculty committee and Board of Trustees; alumni relationships; navigating long held tension about the discussion for co-education; the process of building relationships with the faculty; expanding the undergraduate and the graduate financial aid programs; initiating renovation programs for the undergraduate dormitories; teaching undergraduates; funding new undergraduate education teaching initiatives, including the Shapiro Prize and the McGraw Center; working with Fred Hargadon in admissions; the decision to expand the undergraduate student body; the 250th anniversary campaign, involving working with development and visits to alumni; building relationships and meeting with major donors, specifically Lloyd Cotsen, Gordon Wu, Gerry Andlinger and Peter Lewis; Lewis's decision to fund a library and his choice for Frank Gehry as the architect; and inviting Bill Clinton for the commencement address in 1996 and stories from his visit to Princeton.

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In this interview, Shapiro discusses investing in law, finance, and medicine through the Program in Law and Public Affairs, the Bendheim Center for Finance, and the Institute for Integrative Genomics; increasing the representation of women in Princeton administration; the issue of alcohol use by students, including the ban on kegs and the nude Olympics; his interactions with the eating clubs; renovating dormitories and the student center; working with University architect Jon Hlafter; the $10 million renovation of the Princeton Chapel; the inefficacy of the presidency as a bully pulpit; what he considers his greatest accomplishments, including the financial aid programs and the greater representation of women; what he wished he could have accomplished; his inaugural speech and working with Laurence Rockefeller on an endowment for the Center for Human Values; his decision to step down; the impact of his presidency on his family; what he did after he retired; comparing and contrasting his time at University of Michigan and Princeton, including interacting with local and state governments, and his involvement at the medical center at Michigan; becoming the head of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission; his various roles on advisory boards including to review certain aspects of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; and his relationship with his wife Vivian and her role in his career path.

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