Departing Dean of the Tucker Foundation James Breeden attacked the moral values of the College's administration and blamed his departure on ethical differences between the College and the Tucker Foundation at a reception in his honor yesterday.
About 40 people attended the reception in the Hanover Inn's Hayward Lounge.
Breeden, an Episcopal minister and a longtime civil rights activist, announced his retirement as Dean of the Tucker Foundation at the end of March, effective at the end of August.
In his address, he sharply criticized the administration for resisting the inclusion of spiritual values in the Dartmouth education.
He said his responsibilities lay "not with the institution, but with what presides over it."
Breeden said the dean of the Tucker Foundation is "the only administrative office where you can go against the Trustees without handing in your resignation first -- you hand it in later."
He also said to have not spoken to College President James Freedman in nearly a year, and reported an angry conversation with Provost Lee Bollinger at about the same time he said he last spoke to Freedman.
"I tried to talk to people about ... the fraternities and what exclusivity means, about administration confidentiality ... I'd like to think that's what the Dean of the Tucker Foundation is supposed to do," Breeden said.
Breeden concluded his speech by comparing the administrators of Dartmouth to the violent youths of his hometown of Roxbury, Mass.
"The kids have guns in Roxbury, the administrators at Dartmouth have equally dangerous tools," he said.
In an interview with The Dartmouth shortly after the reception, Breeden attacked the College's position on divestment from companies that did business in South Africa in the mid-1980s.
He accused the administration of "barely touching... and rarely consulting" Tucker Foundation resources during the divestment discussions. The Board of Trustees decided in 1989 to divest from companies that invested in South Africa, and decided in 1993 to allow the College to reinvest in companies that do business in South Africa.
Breeden also sharply criticized the Trustees' 1994 decision to allow the Reserve Officer Training Corps to remain on campus, despite acknowledging that the program violates the College's equal opportunity principle by discriminating against homosexuals.
The Trustees' statement was "not an educating document," Breeden said.
The reception began with a series of farewell speeches by acting Dean of the Tucker Foundation Jan Tarjan, Rabbi Daniel Siegel, English Professors William Cook and Ivy Schweitzer and former Associate Dean of Freshmen Anthony Tillman.
Breeden began a four-month leave of absence immediately after announcing his retirement in March, working with New York City schools and agencies in order to reduce youth violence through peer counseling and other services.
He said his post-Dartmouth plans include returning to his former Episcopalian parish in Dorchester, Mass., and lecturing at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he hopes to study the use of telecommunications in education.
Breeden also said he plans to reflect "on what I learned during my time at Dartmouth ... that there is no necessary correlation between education and ethics."
In his speech Breeden said, "My time at Dartmouth hasn't ended yet." But he said the nature of his future involvement with the College "has yet to be seen."
