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Cliché Watch: Folt Sets New Standard
She’s said it all before, but why not say it all again? But this time with an ever increasing number of bureaucratic clichés and a salting of awkward sentences, like this one: “All of you—faculty, students, staff, and alumni—have expressed your transformative thinking very powerfully in our strategic planning.” Sheesh. Why not just send out an .mp3 file of a guy running his nails across a chalkboard?
MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT CAROL FOLT
To the Dartmouth community:
As I begin my new role as Dartmouth’s interim president, I would like to share my goals for the coming year and thank the many people who are already working hard to make it a success.
If you reflect for a moment on the year ahead, I think you will agree that we are poised for an exciting time at Dartmouth. Our 17th president, Jim Yong Kim, now in a global leadership role as president of the World Bank, launched an institution-wide strategic planning process in spring of 2010 that challenged us to think big, both in terms of personal achievement and impact in the wider world.
All of you—faculty, students, staff, and alumni—have expressed your transformative thinking very powerfully in our strategic planning. We have reached a consensus that we must extend ourselves, challenge assumptions and, above all, act to ensure that Dartmouth continues to innovate and excel in today’s global environment. The planning groups are now ready to take your visionary ideas and bring them to fruition with recommended actions, financial models, and an implementation timeline. This will be one of our top priorities for the year as we continue building the dynamism and focus that will attract the very best candidates to be Dartmouth’s next president.
Another priority of our leadership team is strengthening connections across our community to broaden the base for new ideas and actions. We will spend time with Dartmouth students and alumni from all schools to learn more about their ideas and insights for enhancing the Dartmouth experience, both inside and outside the classroom. We will seek ideas and initiatives to promote wellness and reduce high-risk drinking, sexual assault, and hazing. And we will continue to work closely with faculty and staff to support ongoing activities as well as longer-term aspirations. With the Board of Trustees’ endorsement in June, we also are moving forward with the planning and construction of the North Campus Academic Center and the Williamson Translational Research Building, which will enhance interdisciplinary collaboration and enable faculty growth.
We also have much to celebrate in the year ahead. The Year of the Arts will showcase our vibrant arts programs. We will commemorate 40 years of co-education in the Arts and Sciences, 40 years of our Native American Studies Program (NAS), and 40 years of the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association (BADA). These milestones remind us that Dartmouth is richer and stronger for embracing diversity, and of the rewards we can expect for extending that embrace. And we will celebrate the excellence of our faculty, whose scholarship and high-impact research continues to grow, together with their enduring commitment to teaching and mentoring.
I thank my colleagues who are taking on new tasks to conclude our strategic planning process and to ensure a smooth transitional year. The entire campus owes a debt of gratitude to our alumni, parents, and friends whose generous support and participation in so many ways are vital to making Dartmouth special every year, as well as to our Board of Trustees for their commitment to Dartmouth’s future. I am honored by their confidence, and look forward to working with all of you to make this a productive and rewarding year for our community.
Sincerely,
Carol L. Folt
President
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