Members of the freshman class got a look at President James Wright's office in Parkhurst Hall immediately after they matriculated Monday. But the significant changes he made to the spacious room were probably lost on most of those who had not seen the office when President James Freedman occupied it.
The new office has a lighter, more open atmosphere and seems twice as big as it used to be. Although Freedman's unique collection of mugs is gone, Wright's autographed baseballs and a Frederic Remington sculpture on loan from the Hood Museum add to the welcoming feel of the office. We sat down for an interview with Wright on Monday. The first half of the interview follows:
The Dartmouth: I guess first of all we want to start with your thoughts on the [Inauguration] ceremony itself and what it means to you and the school.
Wright: Oh I think it's a wonderful moment personally and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll have family there and friends, old friends and colleagues of the last 29 years. And I can't think of anything more wonderful than to have this ceremony in front of friends -- this opportunity to take on such a delightful assignment.
I also think that it's an important institutional moment and that's why we've held this off. We wanted to have it when all the students and faculty were back rather than have it this summer when I assumed the presidency because I do think that it's a moment of institutional ceremony.
It's only happened, I don't know how many times in Dartmouth's history -- I'm the 16th president, but it certainly has not occurred 16 times. I doubt that there was much of a ceremony for Eleazar Wheelock, and there may not have been much of a ceremony for the first couple of presidents, as a matter of fact. So it doesn't happen very often and I think it's a chance for many former Trustees will [to] be back, many graduates and others, not to honor me, but because it's an important institutional moment, when we all sort of reflect on what Dartmouth is and what we aspire for Dartmouth to be.
I'm counting on it not raining and we're going to have it outside on Baker lawn which is just the most wonderful spot on campus for an event like this.
How much of the ceremony is predetermined and how much of it do you get to decide on?
Parts of the handing over of the paraphernalia of the office, some of the symbolic things are predetermined. But I think by and large we have some flexibility. I think by merging it with convocation as we did, it becomes a different sort of event.
We asked a student to speak, which would have been customary at Convocation, but would not have normally happened at Inauguration. Although, even if it had not been convocation, I probably would have asked a student to speak. We're blending two institutional ceremonies for this purpose.
We have some flexibility in setting up the program. We've looked at what the last three or four presidents have done and we've been guided by that, but we're not bound by it.
Do you know what you plan to speak about? Is it going to be similar to what you spoke when --
I think that you'll hear some of the same themes from me that you've heard over the last several months and will hear in the future.
I think that I'm going to continue to speak out about the importance of diversity and our ability to recruit a diverse student body, faculty and administration. Along with this is our commitment to maintain need-blind admissions and offer a financial aid package that's competitive.
You're going to hear me talk about the importance of the student experience here. Just recruiting students is not sufficient. I think providing and affording students the sort of opportunity they expect to have when they come here is very important.
I was very much impressed by the Visions project that students worked on this spring. We worked this summer, trying to implement a number of proposals -- 'proposals' would be too strong a word -- a number of the ideas that were consistently referred to in the Visions letters having to do with trying to expand more opportunities for students.
We're doing that this fall. We expect to do more of it in the future to make the range of opportunities here as rich as it should be at a school like this.
And we're going to try to make the intellectual experience even richer. I think it's a fine and strong intellectual experience right now, but I want to provide even more opportunities for students to do research with faculty, to work with faculty.
I'm committed to trying to empower the research work of faculty here and to make certain our commitment to effective undergraduate teaching continues in the future. So I'm going to continue talking about these things.
Could you elaborate a little on what you were working on this summer?
I got a group together actually before I was president and asked them to sit down and think what we could do to provide more opportunities for students in Collis and elsewhere.
We're going to expand the hours of Collis -- I think it's going to be open until 3 o'clock seven nights a week now. We're going to have a coffee house that's in there every night. We're going to have sort of a late-night food service downstairs that will be available every night till 2:30, I believe it is.
We're going to expand some of the opportunities available in the Common Ground and the Atrium, coming in to make that a more welcoming place.
We're working with the Programming Board over there to provide more activities in Collis. We're expanding some of the opportunities in the Billiard Room where students, I guess, are coming.
We're going to try to have a small movie theater over there later this fall, where students in groups can show movies into the night. I'm not going to come over for a movie that concludes at 2:30 in the morning, but if you want to go there, we want to make sure that you have a place to do that.
We're trying to expand the hours that the gym is open. We're just going to try to do a number of things that provide more opportunities for students at night.
I heard what students were saying about that, I want to do something about that. But that's just the beginning, I think that what we want to have here is a range of opportunities for students and we'll do that.
The key is to work with you. I think what I and other people in the administration can do is facilitate the process. We can encourage you, we can support you, but finally it's you and other students that have to be suggesting to us the sorts of things that you'd like to see available on this campus.
Surely we can't do everything you suggest to us, but we do want to respond to those things that clearly would be a need on the part of the student body. This is your community and I think we want to make certain that it provides a wider range of options for you.
What are some of your goals for the term? I know that people talk about the first hundred days of the presidency.
Well academic institutions don't do these 100-day blocks. They move very slowly and that's appropriate.
I do think over the next few months I want to have an opportunity to think some more about residential life. And it's clear that we need to expand some residential life options.
We need some more beds on campus, but I think we need more than bedrooms. We need to really think about the way this fits into the social fabric of the community. And I'm going to be starting that process.
I don't look for that to be completed over the next 100 days, but I expect to spend a fair amount of time talking to students and people in the Dean of the College area and others and giving some thought to what we might be doing there.
I want to try to develop along with the Board of Trustees a sort of position on the financial aid package that we provide to continue to be competitive in our financial aid.
We're at a disadvantage relative to some of the schools because it's [financial aid] not as heavily endowed as theirs. But Dartmouth's made a commitment to this and we're not going to step back from it.
We have to make certain that we're able to recruit the sort of students that we want to have at this school. I want to work with faculty and try to think about the ways we support and sustain faculty research and begin to think about ways to encourage more interdisciplinary programs.
And the obligation that we take on here in extending our research is also to make sure that our teaching commitment is strengthened. This is a place that certainly whose strength comes out of undergraduate programs. And we want to make certain that they don't suffer in fact they're enhanced.
Teaching students here is just a wonderful opportunity and I think that the faculty fully enjoy it. They're not here to avoid students and to avoid teaching. We have to look for even more ways for them to interact.
I'm also going to be spending the first 100 days planning my own course I'm going to teach this winter. I've decided that I've been out of the classroom too long and I want to get back.
It's one thing to talk about these things being important and it's quite another to go in yourself. I've taught here a lot of years. I enjoy very much teaching at Dartmouth and being in the classroom with Dartmouth students. And I'm looking forward to that experience again.
What class are you planning on teaching in the winter?
I'm going to teach 20th Century American Political History. I'm going to teach it with Professor Edsforth. He and I are going to co-teach the course.
You mentioned working with the Dean of the College area and things like that. What's your plan in terms of the vacancies in the Dean of the College and Residential Life?
We agreed last spring that we'd move the search for the dean of the college ahead aggressively and we've done that. It's premature to say how aggressive that is because I think it's at a critical time in the search process.
Now I haven't talked to the search committee, I know that they've been spending a lot of time on this and they're pleased with the quality of the candidates that have come forward. So I hope to move ahead on that soon.
But I think that the important thing is that we have good leadership in place. Dan Nelson is, I think, an exceptional person. He's an experienced person to be Acting Dean. I think Mary Liscinsky has stepped up exceedingly well -- she's done a fine job as head of Residential Life so I don't think we've lost anything.
Having people in acting positions may slow down a bit our ability perhaps to really plan and think longer term. But in terms of doing those things that we want to get in place this fall this year next year, we've not lost any ground.
Looking into the long term future in terms of the next century and some of the projects under way, do you have any plans along those lines?
You mean in terms of the building projects?
Yes.
Well I think that we need to continue the projects that we've begun.
The Berry Library project is moving along as you would see if you looked to the north of Baker.
The Rauner Special Collections Library I think is coming along very well and we expect to be in there, in fact, in a few months. The psychology building is coming along well, by early next summer I hope that we are more or less settled into the new psychology building.
I think that we need to plan, as I said, some sort of additional residential life facilities -- more beds and more opportunities on the campus. I'd like to get some of our off-campus students back on campus.
Those that are living in the local area I'd like to get them on campus, but I want to make certain that as we approach this we're not just thinking about them as beds, but that we are thinking about what a residential college should be like, what it is we should be providing at a place like this.
We announced earlier in the summer that we're going to do the John Kemeny Math Building, and we are just beginning to talk about that and planning for it.
We can't really begin for a while, but we're certainly looking forward to that and we will be planning over the next several months I think with growing intensity for that. I think that I continue to think about our need to do something about the life sciences.
I think that the space that is available for life sciences is just not adequate for our aspirations there. We need to do something, we will, it is a complicated thing, an expensive thing.
The whole arts complex needs some reinforcement, needs some help. I think that the Hopkins Center has served us well for 35 years now and it is time to give it some additional space there and to try to improve some of the spaces there.
And we need to make certain that the social space available for students is adequate. A lot of you have made it clear that you don't think that it is.
I think that the loss of Webster took on a great importance there, and I think we need to think about what it is that we're going to do there, and I think that again fits into the whole longer-term strategy for how we put together the sort of residential experience that you come here to have, and certainly that includes more and better space.
Now there aren't a lot of blank checks to pay for all of theses things. Because they're expensive things, these are expensive projects.
But I'm fully committed to work with people, to try to do the planning and fully committed to try to raise the money to provide funding for these so that we can have the sort of campus that we all want to have.
Do you hope to be here through the completion of the library project?
Oh, sure. It's only a few years away. I'll be here through all these things we talked about, maybe start the next round.
We just moved into One Tuck Drive and I don't intend to pack up and move again for a long time.
I saw there was some construction going on over there this summer. Did you change a lot of things?
We didn't change a lot. We had to make some parts of it outside and inside handicap accessible. That was a major project.
And you know, sort of the normal paint and plaster after occupants move out of a house after 11 years. I think that President and Mrs. Freedman took very wonderful care of the house -- it was in good shape. But physically there were enough things that needed to be done that we've done some painting and patching here and there and made it handicap accessible -- made the restroom handicap accessible, made the garden area handicap accessible. It was a larger project than I thought it would be. Most things are.
But you're settled in now?
We're settled in, more or less, yeah. It's very nice. I like being close by. I enjoy walking back and forth from home to the office. I like being on the campus. The neighborhood has been very quiet.
So far.
That could be because of the time of the year.
What's your biggest concern? You've settled into the house, your office is all done now. Now you're really looking forward at a tough job.
I think the biggest concern is -- You always have to start with the people at a place like this. I think our ability to recruit the sort of students we've been recruiting, our ability to continue to be attractive to the very best faculty in the country, to have here the sort of staff and administration that a school like Dartmouth requires. I think that's always the hardest thing.
And these things never end. Unlike finishing a building where you can say, "Well, that's done now for 25 or 30 years or whatever, we're not going to have to worry about a library again." Recruiting faculty and students and staff never ends. It's just every year we're back into that again. And we compete with a lot of schools for the very best in both of these regards, and I think that's something I am very conscious of.
And I want to look at ways that make certain that we can continue to compete even raise our aspirations, if possible. We're doing well, but I want to see if we can't do better. So that has to do with compensation for faculty and staff, it has to do with financial aid packages for students, it has to do with providing here for prospective students the diverse range of social options many students expect when they come to a school like Dartmouth, it has to do with providing the sort of intellectual experience that I think all of you expect and even demand when you come here.
We're attracting, at Dartmouth, some of the very best high school graduates in the country. They're your classmates, the members of the Class of 2002 and you don't come here simply by accident -- you come because you're attracted by the range of opportunities Dartmouth has, but it's a competitive world, it's a competitive business, and I want to make certain that we don't lose any of this edge.
So I think I worry about that. Many times it comes down to money. I start off focusing on people because it really is people that makes a place like this the sort of community that it is, that makes it the sort of intellectual environment that it is. But it takes money to support and sustain and encourage and detect and attract the people that we want here.
So I'll be doing a lot of time with that, trying to raise money working with people on our budget looking at places where we can reallocate some existing resources and that'll be a matter that will trouble me.
But I'm not sitting here a worried man. I'm sitting here somebody who's very excited about the challenges and opportunities that we have.
You focused in your first speech when they announced your presidency a lot about Dartmouth and its research potential. Were you surprised at some of the mixed feelings at this?
I'm not surprised about that because I think a lot of people set up research and teaching as being mutually exclusive categories.
And then they insisted: "My goodness, if we're going to have one that means that we don't have the other." But we've had both, we have both and we're going to continue to have both.
And we're going to continue to improve on both of these so I'll look forward to continuing that dialogue. But I certainly don't think of research and teaching as being things that one comes at the cost of another.
I think if you look at the sort of teachers that undergraduate students here regularly identify as their best teachers, their favorite teachers, these are often those that excel most in their scholarly work and their scholarly activity.
So I think that the excitement of Dartmouth is that we have here a research faculty that is committed to undergraduate teaching. That's the special nature of this place that I want to protect and preserve and enhance and enrich.
I think that people who suggest that I was predicting last spring that we're going to shift away from undergraduate teaching has not had much opportunity to observe me over the last 29 years and what I've stood for at Dartmouth.
I don't think that anyone need worry about Dartmouth becoming a place less committed to its students and to the importance of teaching programs. But I'm absolutely convinced that we can do that with a strong research faculty because we're doing it now and we're going to do better.
This is probably a little bit premature or early to ask, this being your first month of presidency. When I think back to President Kemeny, I think about him leaving a mark and making this a coeducated college. When I think of President Freedman, I always think of him making this a more intellectual and academic environment. When everything's all said and done, what is the one thing that you'd like to be remembered for?
I think I'd like to take the richness that President Kemeny introduced to the student body and the faculty here. I'd like to take the sort of financial strength that David McLaughlin introduced and developed and built upon during his presidency.
I'd like to take the commitment to intellectual growth that Jim Freedman had when he was here and I'd like to mix them together and enhance them and have people say of me when I leave that Dartmouth is recognized as a residential college that has one of the strongest academic and intellectual programs in the country.
It's a place where important work is done, where cutting-edge work is done, and Dartmouth is proud to be such an institution. We're not self-conscious, we're not apologetic about who we are and what we are.
We're very proud about the sort of place that we are. I'm proud of Dartmouth, I'm proud of the school that I'm serving as president, and I fully expect to be even more proud of it when I leave here.
