When Physics Professor William Doyle arrived at Dartmouth in 1955, there were no street lights in Hanover. The "Miracle Mile" shopping strip in West Lebanon was just an open field and decades away from a seven-theater cinemaplex.
Mathematics Professor Donald Krieder said The Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts "was just a hole in the ground" when he came to the College in 1960. When the center finally opened in 1962, "it brought a dramatic change ... opening the campus to the arts," he said.
For Doyle, Krieder and a few other professors who first came to Dartmouth in the late 1950s and early 1960s, life in Hanover has changed dramatically during their tenure at the College. All have lived through some of the College's most turbulent moments in its 226-year history, including the Vietnam War and the move to coeducation in 1972.
All the professors said even seemingly minor changes in life at the College, such as the construction of the Hopkins Center, have had a positive impact on the school.
Chemistry Professor Thomas Spencer, who arrived on campus in 1960, said he thought the most positive improvements came as part of the College's intellectual growth. He praised "the early 60s, when the graduate programs sprang up" and the tenure of College President John Sloan Dickey, when "the College moved toward more research."
But Biology Professor Thomas Roos, who also came to the College in 1960, said the true high points have been when "students responded to difficulties," particularly by holding major protests.
Economics Professor Jack Menge said since he arrived at the College in 1956, it has shifted "from a very collegial environment to a more professional one," as it has attracted a top-notch faculty.
Coeducation and diversity
As one might expect, the professors had varied opinions on one of the most controversial topics in the College's history -- the 1972 move to coeducation, which was led by then-College President John Kemeny.
Some described the move to coeducation and the College's subsequent attempts to increase the diversity of its students and faculty as positive modifications that were long overdue.
"When I first came, the school was essentially lily white, vanilla, Protestant, WASP," Roos said, noting the diversity of the College's current population.
Menge said the push for diversity has been a challenge for the College because it has compelled students, faculty and administrators to consider views different from their own.
Coeducation and diversity served to "shake students out of preconceived notions," Krieder said, crediting Kemeny for its success. Kemeny's implementation of coeducation "never split the College," as similar moves did at other schools.
Spencer said Kemeny is "one of my heroes."
But Menge and Roos said the move to coeducation was accomplished without the help of Kemeny's administration. "Coeducation was achieved not because of, but in spite of, the administration," Menge said.
"Like with the Native American program and recruiting blacks, coeducation was done despite the administration," Roos said.
Changing with the times
Besides hot-button issues such as coeducation, the senior professors at the College have seen a wide range of changes, both positive and negative.
Menge and Roos said the growth of the College's administration was a negative change.
"The administration has not kept pace with the faculty in terms of moving from a collegial atmosphere to a more professional one," Roos said.
The administration "just can't be in touch with intellectual activity" because their role is "in management and not imagination," he said.
Other professors expressed discontent with the evolution of the College's Greek system. Menge said the administration should take "another look" at, if not totally overhaul, the Greek system.
The professors obviously do not all agree on what changes have been for the better and which ones for the worse at Dartmouth over the past 30 years. For example, while Spencer said the student body has become increasingly interactive with professors, Roos and Doyle disagreed.
"I have not seen an improvement in overall academic standard," Roos said.
Doyle said there "used to be more students out late at the lab discussing problems," but now "the place seems deserted at night."
Many professors also noted that the College is not as safe as it used to be.
How to get to Hanover
There is no one typical reason why any of the professors came to Dartmouth to teach.
Roos, who said he came to the College simply because "there was a job," was hired as a temporary replacement.
Economics Professor William Baldwin, who has been at the College since 1956, said the "old-boy" network would have offered him few options had he opted not to teach at Dartmouth.
"I was essentially told, 'you'll get an offer and you'll go there,' " he said.
But other professors said they came to the College for more academic reasons.
"It was the teaching that brought me here," explained Spencer simply. Krieder and Menge said they were attracted to the College by its emerging graduate programs and research opportunities.
Doyle, who has been at Dartmouth the longest of all active faculty, said there were "a million reasons" that motivated him to come to the College, but he ultimately came to the College because "I felt I would like it and that I could make a difference."
Most of the professors cited similar factors as motivations for remaining at the College for such a long time. Roos said he "enjoyed the students" who he has come in contact with over the years.
Dartmouth's balance between teaching and research "occupies a unique niche," Menge said.
