Acting College President James Wright, whose six months in office is winding down, reflected on his time as president and said he has found the job to be a "challenging opportunity."
Wright compared his guidance of the College over the last five months to that of a ship's captain, simply trying to stay the course with as few nudges as possible.
Wright, who has been filling in for College President James Freedman since January, said a central goal of his leadership has been to ensure that "everyone could say at the end of June that the institution operated during the president's sabbatical as though he were still here."
Freedman will return to the College on July 1. Freedman has spent the last few months reading and writing his book on liberal arts education in Cambridge, Mass.
While things have been fairly quiet during Freedman's sabbatical, Wright has had the opportunity to make a number of important decisions.
"Acting presidents have a responsibility basically to keep things on course ... and I think that we've done that," he said. "Obviously any number of things come up that you need to exercise your own judgment upon," he said.
Perhaps the most important decision Wright made was moving Commencement from the lawn in front of Baker Library to Memorial Field in anticipation of the large crowds expected to come to see President Bill Clinton speak.
Wright said he has "never had any second thoughts" about the decision.
And although Wright said he considered making a statement against the visit by Playboy Magazine photographers earlier this term, he said he declined to do so because it may have been interpreted as a "criticism of the students who chose to interview."
"If anyone is interested in understanding the women of Dartmouth and what they do I would suggest that they go to the laboratories, libraries and classrooms ... the lacrosse field and the basketball courts and the Hopkins Center and then they'll appreciate the rich range of contributions of women to this College," he said.
Wright said he has enjoyed the opportunity to work with a broad range of people and to have greater contact with students and with the College's graduate schools than he does in his regular position as dean of the faculty.
But things have not always been easy for Wright since he began his new job. Wright said he and his wife, Susan Wright, have had to deal with her breast cancer over the past few months, making it much "harder to enjoy things."
Wright said his wife has been "incredibly supportive" of him during the last few months, but he said he is disappointed they have not been able to do as much together as they would have liked.
He also said he has not been able to take on some of the things that he would have liked to.
"It's hard to assess my term in the presidency without acknowledging this has obviously impacted what I've done, what I've been doing and my general outlook over the last several months," he said.
As Wright stared out of the President's Office window across the Green yesterday to his other office in Wentworth Hall, he reflected on returning to his post as dean of the faculty.
Wright said he has "no sense of being demoted" because he enjoys the interaction withthe faculty.
He said when he visits the office and hears his temporary replacement, Chemistry Professor Karen Wetterhahn, is doing great, he often jokes that "maybe we should leave her there."
Of Wetterhahn,Wright said, "I think she's done an exceptional job. Karen is a remarkably able scientist, teacher and administrator. I have nothing but admiration for the job she's done."
He does not have any aspirations to one day work as College president on a permanent basis, Wright said, but he does expect to return to his true love, teaching history, when his term as dean of the faculty ends in 1997.
