Dartmouthwill sorely miss News Service Director Alex Huppe when he leaves for Harvard University today after more than a decade of being the College's public voice.
Huppe, the self-proclaimed "Dean of Spin," helped shape Dartmouth's image during one of its darkest hours. Spin or no spin, Huppe helped diffuse controversy and promoted the College's interest whenever he could since his arrival in 1985.
For most of its 226-year history, Dartmouth has had the reputation of being a homogeneous institution crawling with white, conservative, beer-pounding males whose social lives dominate their academic pursuits. This image was further darkened with incidents with The Dartmouth Review and the destruction of the shanties erected on the Green to protest College investments in South Africa.
But with Huppe's help and media savvy that image has begun to crumble, making way for a Dartmouth that is becoming more intellectual, diverse and progressive.
It is a tribute to Huppe that he leaves with Dartmouth having a good public reputation and he goes onto another Ivy suffering a recent spate of bad publicity.
But just one word of advice: don't wear sneakers to work and don't use a wicked Boston accent when talking about Harvard any more.
