External review committees recently completed evaluations of the chemistry, French and Italian, German, government and Spanish and Portuguese departments.
The results of the reviews, which are part of an on-going, four-year-old evaluation process to evaluate College departments, may be made public when all departments have been reviewed, former Dean of the Faculty Karen Wetterhahn said.
Associate Dean of the Faculty in the Social Sciences George Wolford said the College has finished reviewing all the science and social science departments. Most of the programs and humanities departments are also finished. Wolford said the College last systematically reviewed all its departments in the 1970s.
"The review is very useful because it makes the departments take stock of where they are. In terms of the future, it is a chance for the department to validate their ideas by an external review committee," Wetterhahn said.
The committees that review the departments are comprised of outside scholars suggested by the individual departments and two faculty members from related fields.
"In the first stage of the review the department does an internal review. They divide up and make a notebook, containing a thorough in-house analysis of where they are," Wolford said.
The reviewers receive the notebook before coming to campus for two-and-a-half days of meetings with all the pertinent officials and some students, Wolford said.
After their meetings the committee puts all the information into a report and submits it to the College, Wolford said. The department is charged with writing a reply to the report.
Finally, the reviewers, college president, provost, related deans and all the members of the department meet to discuss the contents of both the report and the reply, he said.
"The reports have by and large yielded excellent suggestions, and the departments have made an effort to work on the recommendations," Wolford said.
Assistant Dean of Faculty in the Humanities Mary Jean Green said occasionally the reviewers do not realize some of Dartmouth's constraints.
Green offered the example of a Princeton reviewer who suggested instituting a two-year honor program, which could never happen at Dartmouth because of the Dartmouth-Plan.
But "in general the recommendations are very much in line with what the departments are thinking," Green said.
Assistant Dean of the Faculty Sandra Gregg, who is in charge of the review process, said "I thought [the review] would be over a couple of years ago, but it should be done by the end of the 1996-1997 academic year."
Chemistry department Chair John Winn, said his department's report was received warmly by faculty members.
"The review committee made its strongest recommendation in the area of graduate research -- related to that is the need for more research opportunities," Winn said.