After six years as dean of first year students, Peter Goldsmith has left his post to accept a position as dean of the college at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.
Goldsmith left Dartmouth last Thursday to take up his new duties as college dean, which encompass student and residential life, dining, counseling, the chaplaincy, the student union and safety and security. Goldsmith has spent the last month moving with his wife and two children, nine and 12, to Oberlin.
Goldsmith was nominated in fall, 1998 for the position which was vacated in fall, 1997. He was invited to formally apply for the position during the Winter term earlier this year and announced his acceptance of the Oberlin position and resignation from Dartmouth in April.
Among his goals at Oberlin is broadening the support offered to students. "One thing that we don't currently have at Oberlin which I am in part charged with creating is an equivalent to Dartmouth's class dean system. Support of students is only as students, academic advisement is strictly academic," said Goldsmith, who is receiving a joint appointment as dean and an anthropology professor. "My particular goal over the next couple of years is to bring all these things together."
"There's a lot that I am taking from Dartmouth to Oberlin because there is so much that Dartmouth does exquisitely well," he said.
While administrators at Oberlin praised the decision by the Oberlin search committee, many students were upset that Goldsmith was chosen over front-runner Bill Stackman, Oberlin's associate dean of student life, according to the Oberlin Review, Oberlin's student newspaper.
Goldsmith was chosen by Oberlin because of his commitment to diversity and his career-long dedication to integrating all aspects of College life for students, Oberlin President Nancy Dye previously told The Dartmouth.
Founded in 1833 and the first coeducational college in the United States, Oberlin was one of the first to admit African Americans. There are currently two divisions at Oberlin -- The College of Arts and Sciences (2,400 students) and the Conservatory of Music (500 students).
Goldsmith cited his "involvement with ethnic studies and attempts to rework distributives such that students have an understanding of race and ethnicity in the United States," as a key component of his work at Dartmouth.
A scholar of Anthropology, Goldsmith majored in English at Boston College, where he also received a master's degree before earning a Ph.D in anthropology at the University of Chicago. In addition to his position as first year dean, Goldsmith has also taught a freshman seminar in anthropology at Dartmouth. He recently published "Making People's Music: Moe Asch and Folkways Records," a biography of folk musician Moe Asch.
A national search for Goldsmith's replacement will be headed by Dean of the College James Larimore. While the search is underway, Gail Zimmerman will continue as acting dean of first year Students, following her appointment earlier this month.
Goldsmith had a few words of advice for his successor: "Dartmouth is an institution that works on the cultivation and nurturing of personal relationships, and that goes for students and faculty and administrators, and it's very important for the first year dean to get out of the office and get to know people and become known."
During Goldsmith's tenure, Dartmouth has seen a new president, a new dean of the College and a new dean of residential life, as well as new deans at the Thayer School of Engineering and the Dartmouth Medical School. Social changes included a remodeled Collis Center, a revised alcohol policy and the Social and Residential Life Initiative.
"I think probably my biggest accomplishment was contributing to the confidence that both faculty and students have in the First Year Office ... Getting both faculty and students to use the First Year Office proactively ... creating good links between the faculty and the First Year Office," said Goldsmith, who came in 1993 from Princeton University, where he was director of studies at Mathey College, one of five residential houses for freshmen and sophomores. Aside from his capacity as dean of first year students, he has held no other administrative position at Dartmouth.
"I think that individual students will remember me as I remember them, in particularly warm individual relationships," said Goldsmith, recalling the past six years here. "I am wistful about leaving Dartmouth and the Upper Valley because there are a great many people who I will miss. I will miss an institution that takes great care in the way that it does everything."
On the whole, Goldsmith's fresh perceptions of the difference between Dartmouth and Oberlin consist of two criteria: "First, location, location, location," he said, laughing. "Dartmouth and Oberlin are much more like one another than might be immediately apparent. Both have students who are fiercely independent and want the opportunity to regulate and conduct their own lives, and rightfully so. There is a more liberal history at Oberlin and a relatively conservative student history at Dartmouth ... But it's just different flavors of the same confection."
