Dartblog

About 60 people are at Alumni Hall listening to Board of Trustee Chairman Ed Haldeman ‘70 and Trustee Al Mulley ‘70 discuss the early goings of the presidential search committee.

Newly elected Student Assembly President Molly Bode began the discussion asking, “How many students are you planning on having on the search committee?” An answer to this question was not provided at this time.

Mulley “can’t respond to details” about choosing a president who will promote sustainability. No concrete information was also given in response to choosing a unifying president, including a petition trustee on the search committee, or selecting a president who will expand social spaces on campus.

I asked a question about ensuring that the next president does not return to the speech codes that Dartmouth had until recently and promotes an environment of diversity of views and expression. Trustee Mulley especially seemed to welcome the comment and although there was no acknowledgment that these codes were in operation until recently, he was fairly clear that the next president should not support limitations on speech. Other questions asked about streamlining the bureaucracy at Dartmouth and creative approaches to administration, to which definitive answers were not given. Mulley did say that the search committee would not be looking for a candidate of a specific gender or race or occupation.

Mulley answered a question about graduate programs at Dartmouth by saying that there is “a false dichotomy between teaching and research.”

Questions also covered gender relations (i.e. lack of alternatives to the Greek system), a possible return to the Dartmouth mission of undergraduate, liberal arts education, and advantages and disadvantages of recruiting from in and outside Dartmouth, specifically a candidate perhaps not having experience outside the Dartmouth bubble.

Another question essentially asked the trustees, why a top-level executive or politico would want to come to Dartmouth. Haldeman mentioned Dartmouth’s “great history and tradition,” “great faculty,” “the passion and commitment of alumni,” being “within the top 10 of all educational institutions in the US,” and specifically Haldeman mentioned the interaction with Dartmouth students, although he had earlier made statements unfavorable to polling students (or alumni) on possible presidential choices.

The two trustees mentioned the finite resources of any college and were asked about the balance between Dartmouth’s history of commitment to undergraduate education and a recent trend towards a greater graduate focus.

JENN ADDS: When I attended the trustee luncheon not so long ago, Mulley indicated that one student was included on the fourteen person search committee that selected President Wright. Though students expressed dismay at the thought, both Mulley and Carson said that one was more than other schools have and that we must be careful not to inflate the committee to ineffectual levels. Judging by this opinion, one would expect them to oppose the Trustees’ board packing plan, yet I have heard no statements of the kind from either. A curious inconsistency.

JAKE ADDS: I was the one who asked about the advantages and disadvantages of recruiting from within versus from outside of Dartmouth. A straightforward question about the advantages and disadvantages of each. Trustee Mulley first gave a wishy-washy answer with phrases like “broad range of characteristics” and “deep understanding of our community,” or something like that. For clarification, (one needed it), I asked whether Mr. Mulley saw anything even slightly negative—anything at all—about picking someone who has been at Dartmouth for the past 20 years and who has never worked anywhere else. To which Mr. Mulley replied, essentially, no.

Well, in that case, why not scrap the whole committee sham and crown Carol Folt this evening?

Carol Folt is Dartmouth’s current Dean of the Faculty, whom James Wright is not-so-subtly grooming to take over as the College’s next Big Cheese. Dartblog will be investigating Dean Folt’s record and leadership capacity in depth in the coming weeks.

Another point of note was the presence of Thomas Crady, Dartmouth’s new Dean of the College, at the meeting. Now it is possible I missed something, because I arrived late. (Which is a good thing, actually, because office hours with a professor proved vastly more useful and in any case there is only so much question-dodging and non-commenting one can bear at a supposedly open forum.) But unless I missed something big, Dean Crady’s presence was completely unexplained.

My guess is that he was there as a damage control precaution—to protect the trustees from any undesirable or difficult questions. It is a good tactical move for these trustees, important people taking unpopular and possibly illegal actions, to have someone at all public appearances to diffuse unsightly tension and prevent them from having to get their own hands dirty answering pointed questions. Often the College’s Vice President for Alumni Affairs, David Spalding, fills this role. I wonder where he was.