Residential college (Princeton University)
At Princeton University, Residential colleges are the residential-dining complexes that house freshmen, sophomores, and a handful of junior and senior resident advisers. Each college consists of a set of dormitories, a dining hall, a variety of other amenities (study spaces, libraries, performance spaces, darkrooms, and the like), and a collection of administrators and associated faculty.
Princeton presently has five residential colleges. Rockefeller and Mathey colleges are located in the northwest corner of the campus; their Collegiate Gothic architecture often graces University brochures. Wilson and Butler Colleges, located south of the center of the campus, are more recent additions, built specifically to become residential colleges. Forbes College, located slightly southwest of the southwest corner of the campus, is a former hotel, purchased by the university and expanded to form a residential college. Ground for a sixth college, named Whitman College after its principal sponsor, Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay, was broken in late 2003.
A variant on the present college system was originally proposed by University President Woodrow Wilson in the early twentieth century. Wilson's model was much closer to Yale's present system, which features four-year colleges. Lacking the support of the Trustees, the plan languished until 1968, when Wilson College was established, capping a series of alternatives to the
