Dartblog

Every once in a while when reading material for class, I stumble upon a brilliant kernel of wisdom. This morning, while reading about the organizational model of decision making, I read this: “University decision making frequently does not resolve problems…Active decision makers and problems track one another through a series of choices without appreciable progress in solving problems”. While I hate to be overly negative, this statement struck me as true. After all, I arrived on this campus over three years ago now, when candidates were just beginning to raise awarness over severe problems like class shut-outs and faculty loss. I would like to believe that an engaged administration would have been appalled to learn that this problem was as pervasive as it is. I would like to believe that such an administration would immediately task themselves with expanding those popular departments whose students have suffered most as a result of class shut-outs. Yet I have seen little to no progress. Each term the waiting list for each government class can be as high as thirty or forty students. Interested and motivated freshmen must bide their time filling distributive requirements rather than immediately delving into material that interests them. Surely this has deleterious effects on their ability to later take time for thesis and research projects as they rush to finish the major they were not able to begin till sophomore year. It also adversely affects the class room experience. I do not want to simply complain, however. Instead I have a few suggestions for those trustees interested in improving the academic experience of all Dartmouth students.

First, I would suggest that all language classes be capped at 15 students. I feel that foreign language classes larger than this pose numerous burdens on students. Discussions often become dominated by those bilingual or over-prepared students in the room who feel more comfortable speaking the language while many others find it difficult to speak up. The Rassias method has always relied upon student participation in activities like drill and in discussions to improve the student’s conversational abilities. Classes of larger than 15 students, in my experience, simply do not prove as helpful or educational.

Second, I would suggest that we make a decision regarding the government and economics departments. Is the number of classes to be expanded by the hiring of brilliant new faculty or are the departments to be transformed into the university model of large lecture halls and smaller groups run by teaching assistants? If one hopes to continue the Dartmouth tradition of a focus on teaching and close interaction with professors, I would suggest the former. This choice does, however, necessitate action by the board to hire new faculty. It should simply not be acceptable to the Dartmouth community that one must wait a year to take the classes that interest them. This is not “training for real life” as one trustee suggested to me. Rather it is a failure to provide the resources needed by intellectually curious students arriving in Hanover each year.

Third, I would seek to expand the public policy minor. This program is of high interest to a variety of disciplines as it has links to government, economics, health care, the law, and the environment. It is a program that I can see benefiting students across all fields, but that is currently too small and its courses are offered too infrequently. The main introductory course, for example, is offered but once a year. The rest of the course offerings are cobbled together from a variety of departments. Why not invest more money to bring experts in the public policy field to Dartmouth who can offer greater insights into specialized fields? These special course offerings could be unique every term, but would add a great deal to this important program sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center.

Fourth, find a new president who knows the value of a large, diverse, impressive, and invested faculty in attracting students to Dartmouth. While new buildings are great if one is predominantly focused on one’s legacy, the legacy left on each Dartmouth student who leaves Hanover marveling at the high quality of their educational opportunities is far greater. Resources like new state of the art classrooms and audio-visual equipment are important, but serve nothing without the faculty to teach within them. Dartmouth should not be known for its landscape. Rather it should be known for the top-notch education that we all receive during our four years. I think any entering president of Dartmouth would be remiss if he did not make hiring of faculty for understaffed departments his first priority.