Dartblog

A guy couldn’t ask for a better foil than Hanover resident, Martha Beattie ‘76, who, to her credit, has done every alumni activity imaginable. She has been President of the Alumni Council, a member of the Presidential Search Committee that chose Dr. Kim, Chair of the Alumni Liaison Committee, and a tireless booster of the adminstration and of the College.

Martha was mentioned in the D the other day as follows:

Beattie does not believe that Asch is a stronger trustee candidate because he lives in Hanover, she said.

“I don’t think living in Hanover makes you any closer to the College,” Beattie said. “I think that being close to the College means reading all of the news that comes out of the College, participating in club activities, hearing the faculty that come to speak, staying abreast with all of the Dartmouth news.”

Martha is dead right on the first point. Hundreds of alumni live in the Hanover area (we have an active alumni club) and many of our members sing the praises of the College all the livelong day. But they can’t for the life of them understand the controversies of the last decade, or even the present financial situation, beyond citing the drop in the endowment.

Why not? Because they are as wrong as Beattie is on her second point. You cannot comprehend the state of the College by being a passive listener. A devoted reader of press releases won’t see how Dartmouth’s current crisis came about. Nor will alumni club events and general interest lectures get you beyond Dartmouth’s public relations surface.

To find out how successful — or unsuccessful — the College currently is at fulfilling its mission, you have to earn the trust of students and faculty members. Only once people begin to talk freely will you hear stories of everyday Dartmouth life that re-shape your understanding of the institution.

I earned that trust, though it was not my goal at the time, by taking classes. Over the past two decades or so, I’ve audited about 30 undergraduate courses and discussion groups in Art History, English, History, Government, Religion, Economics and Women’s Studies (okay, okay, so I am padding this a little; the Women’s Studies course was cross-listed with the History department).

I try to do the reading, attend almost every class, and I am an active questioner and participant in discussions. Each term, my wife and I open our home for at least one fine meal with a half-dozen students and our professor, and we have many family dinners with a student friend or two.

Students initially find my presence a little strange — it seems that I am the only local resident to audit classes, save for a few elderly ladies who attend Art History lectures — but they are curious and ask why I am there, which always seems to start a friendship. Legacy students tell me that their parents often talk about returning to Hanover to attend classes, too. And faculty seem to be won over by my interest in their subject.

The end result is honest conversations, born of shared experience and respect, about how Dartmouth could be doing better, a lot better, in too many areas to speak of (though loyal readers of Dartblog have a deeper sense of this than most) — and an attitude about the challenges facing the College that differs greatly from the loyalist views of Martha Beattie.

Note: Though they do spend a lot of time blitzing in class, Dartmouth students are wonderfully smart. I enjoy raising my hand to answer a professor’s question — only to have the kid behind me called on - and listening to a shaggy 19-year-old give an answer that is a ways better than the one that I had in mind.

Addendum: It turns out that there are alums other than me who enjoy learning with our talented undergrads, as an attentive reader let me know.

Hi Joe,

I just read your post on experiencing Dartmouth, and you mentioned you seem to be the only Hanover resident to audit Dartmouth classes. I would have thought so, too, but I am in a sociology class this term with Chuck Sherman ‘66, so it looks like you are not alone. Just thought I’d mention this. Good luck with your campaign!

Best,
John Lee ‘11