Dartblog

Why is it that a guy like AD Harry Sheehy can show up in Hanover and in little more than a year understand exactly what ails the College — while Provost Carol Folt and President Kim (watch his actions, not his words) still dream of turning Dartmouth into an Ivy-also-ran research university? The current issue of the Alumni Magazine has a great profile of Sheehy and the work that he is doing to turn around the Athletics Department. It ends with this sharp quote:

“There was probably a time when Dartmouth didn’t feel comfortable in its own skin, when it was trying to be something it wasn’t,” Sheehy says. “When you look back at when it was successful, it’s because it had a good handle on and was very self-possessed about what it was and what it wasn’t. I always say, ‘Dartmouth is not a good Harvard in the woods.’ The alums know that. And I think we’re getting back to the place where those of us working here know that, too.”

While Dartmouth is still successful today in many areas, it is not the school that it was even a decade ago. Once Sheehy finishes the turnaround in athletics — as the article illustrates, things had gotten pretty bad — maybe he can help out in other areas of the College. What a pleasure it is to see clear thinking clearly expressed.

Give ‘em hell, Harry!