The impending departure of two more vital administrators enlarges the leadership vacuum currently plaguing the College.
College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton and Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco add to a growing number of administrators who will soon be replaced under the leadership of a new president.
Oddly enough, the administration is turning over more rapidly than the student body. Current Dartmouth students will graduate from a college completely different from the one where they matriculated, and incoming freshmen will arrive at a newly restructured Dartmouth.
This rapid changeover highlights the seats of power at Dartmouth -- the President of the College and the Board of Trustees. Considering Freedman's current lame-duck status and the students' lack of dialogue with the distant Trustees, there is no channel for student input.
It is obvious that this erosion of the administration will affect Dartmouth both internally and externally.
As the resignation epidemic continues to spread, the incoming president's responsibility for the College's future is increasing, while projects involving student life are put on indefinite hold.
Prospective students may view Dartmouth as a college in danger of administrative collapse at which no one wants to work.
The leadership void eating away at the administration's core also demonstrates student futility in influencing both short-term and long-term changes in the College.
The College's Trustees should recognize the contrast between the relatively stable composition of the student body and this administrative turnover.
In order to decide which Dartmouth will enter the twenty-first century, students must take advantage of next year's unseasoned administration.
Now, at this vital intersection in the College's history, students may be able to sidestep the bureaucratic red-tape that usually slows student input. The student body, in cooperation with the Trustees and the administration, needs to take the initiative in determining the Dartmouth of the next millennium.
