With yesterday's announcement of two more high-level administrative resignations, the leadership vacuum that was once an opportunity for Dartmouth's next president has become his or her first crisis.
When the College's Board of Trustees announces President James Freedman's successor, that person will inherit a Parkhurst Hall with four major offices vacant -- the vice president and the dean of the College offices on the first floor, the provost office upstairs and the dean of residential life office in the basement.
Beyond the walls of Parkhurst, the Thayer School of Engineering is still without a permanent dean following Elsa Garmire's resignation last summer.
Administrative turnover often precedes and follows new presidencies at institutions of higher learning -- in the first few years after Freedman's inauguration, he appointed a new dean of the College, a new provost, a new vice president/treasurer and a new dean of the faculty.
But what makes the current situation different is that the openings are all concurrent with the presidential void.
And because of the timing of the resignations, it will be difficult to fill positions with candidates from other universities who are, for the most part, already committed to another year at their current schools.
The next president will most likely take over a school with a number of acting administrators whose temporary reassignments leave holes in other parts of the College's work force.
During the search periods for long-term replacements, the acting administrators can either get a number of projects under way, which would dictate in large part what the new administrators will have on their agendas, or they can delay major decisions until the positions are permanently filled, which would prolong the freeze on new projects which has marked the current lame-duck period.
Turco's impending absence is not the only vacancy in the Office of Residential Life -- Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty left last year to become director of student housing and residential programs at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
While Assistant Dean of Residential Life Mary Liscinsky has been filling in for Beatty, a permanent replacement has not yet been found.
The College is also looking for permanent area directors to replace Chris Foley, who also left last year, and Chris Chambers, who is filling in for Liscinsky.
Once all the smoke has cleared, however, the next president will have a chance to install a larger than usual number of administrators at once.
This large-scale overhaul could merely be a sign of the changing face of higher education. Until he steps down, Freedman will be the longest-serving president in the Ivy League.
Most at the College point to the success he has had in intellectualizing Dartmouth since 1987, but the windows for effecting change could be getting smaller as the length of terms Ivy League presidents serve grow shorter.
While Freedman had selected his own top administrators within a few years of his inauguration, his successor could conceivably pick and install new administrators in under a year. Then, if he or she has a major goal or agenda for the presidency, a team would be in place to achieve it.
The search for a new Thayer School Dean is well under way, but other searches are not progressing as quickly. The search committee for a new provost was just named last term, and dean of residential life and vice president searches are not yet in motion.
But results of the search for Dartmouth's next president are expected this month -- and then that person can begin debating how to fill the four major offices in Parkhurst that will soon be empty.
