Just hours after College President James Freedman announced his intention to resign after Commencement last Thursday evening, rumors about potential successors started flying.
The Board of Trustees will compile a list of hundreds of candidates in coming weeks, and a few names are almost guaranteed to be on that list, according to administrators at Dartmouth and elsewhere.
Dartmouth Provost Jim Wright, Duke University Provost John Stroebehn, University of Pennsylvania Provost Stanley Chodorow, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich '68, Union College President Roger Hull '64 and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala all likely will be considered.
All these people work in academia, some of them have a Dartmouth connection and others are perennial favorites in presidential searches nationwide.
Although the Board will not formulate search criteria until their meeting Wednesday in New York City, faculty and administrators speculate that they will seek a man or woman who shares Freedman's devotion to liberal education.
"Everyone agrees this was an extremely successful presidency," Dean of Faculty Edward Berger said. "I would assume the Board would want to capture much of the essence of President Freedman in the next president."
College presidents come from a variety of backgrounds -- some are former politicians, renowned scholars or business executives -- but the majority step up from administrative positions at a college of similar status, according to John W. Chandler, a former Williams College president and the director of Academic Search Consultation Service, a consulting firm which helps universities find administrative candidates.
The Board is likely to consider candidates from public as well as private universities -- four of the current Ivy League presidents were previously presidents of schools in the Big Ten athletic conference, and Freedman himself was president of the University of Iowa.
Five of the current Ivy League presidents were the head of another school when appointed.
The Trustees are likely to consider many women and minorities this year, even though the first 15 presidents of Dartmouth have been white men. And, according to Chandler, women and minorities would be very interested in Dartmouth.
"Dartmouth would be an exceptionally attractive opportunity to women and minorities given the commitment of Dartmouth to the education of women and to affirmative action," he said.
Princeton University Associate Provost Georgia Nugent -- whose name often appears in presidential searches -- said the appointment of a female president at a university tends to create a media stir.
"There was a lot of 'the first woman to do this, the first woman to do that' when Judith Rodin became president of Penn," Nugent said. "But ultimately the fact that she was female didn't affect the school that much internally."
Rodin is the first and only female president in the Ivy League.
Stanford University provost Condoleezza Rice also will likely be nominated in the Dartmouth search.
The first potential successor to come to mind when Freedman announced his resignation was Dartmouth's provost. Wright is likely to be a favorite since he is no stranger to Freedman's duties. When Freedman was on sabbatical in 1995, Wright was acting College president for six months.
Wright is very popular among the Dartmouth faculty -- prior to Freedman's resignation, about 60 percent of professors signed a petition endorsing Wright for a full four-year term as provost, despite Wright's announcement he would not serve a full term, amid controversy over the way he was appointed.
Wright, who has been a member of the faculty since 1969, served two consecutive four-year terms as Dean of the Faculty. For a short time earlier this year, he held the posts of Dean of the Faculty and Acting Provost simultaneously.
Chodorow, the Pennsylvania provost, is also among those rumored to be a possible candidate. A source within the Penn administration said Chodorow has received several letters encouraging him to pursue the Dartmouth presidency.
Chodorow was one of the final four candidates for the presidency at the University of Michigan -- a position now filled by former Dartmouth Provost Lee Bollinger. Before serving as Penn's provost, Chodorow worked for 26 years as a professor and administrator at the University of California at San Diego.
Historically, Dartmouth Trustees have sought presidents with a previous tie to the College. Freedman was the first president with no prior affiliation -- either as an alumnus or professor -- since 1822. Some say Reich, the former Labor Secretary, and Hull, the president of Union College, are strong alumni candidates.
Strobehn, the Duke provost, was the provost of Dartmouth before Bollinger.
Hull is the only Dartmouth alumnus serving as chief executive of a university.
Reich, a Dartmouth alumnus, comes from a university background. Before serving on President Clinton's cabinet, he was on the faculty at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Shalala, who spoke at Dartmouth's convocation in 1994, is a veteran of academia. She served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and she became the youngest woman to lead a major U.S. college when she was appointed president of Hunter College in New York City in 1980.
