When the Computer Science 4 scandal exploded in February, many students blamed professor Rex Dwyer for not living up to his title, while Dwyer blamed the department, saying it did not give him, a visiting professor, enough support.
However, according to department chairs and Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger, the obstacles that Dwyer claims to have faced as a visiting professor are not at all characteristic.
Berger said most departments use visiting professors on a regular basis to fill various roles.
"They either substitute for faculty on leave, or they may be brought to campus to introduce a new area," he explained.
He also noted that in some departments, the professors classified as "visiting" stay on for many years.
"This is a unique situation in almost every way," Berger said of the Dwyer's case. "This is the first time I've ever heard bitter complaints about how the faculty is treated."
All of the department chairs contacted by The Dartmouth said they have had no serious problems with visiting professors, saying the Dwyer situation seems like a real aberration.
According to German department Chair Susanne Zantop, there is one visiting professor to her department per year through a special program. The professors are typically "prominent" writers or film makers who teach an upper level seminar.
"They are free to develop their own courses," she said.
She said the courses taught by visiting professors are designed around their personal interests and are "a major attraction in [the] department."
Biology Chair Mark McPeek said his department has visiting professors from time to time, typically to replace professors who are gone on sabbatical.
"We give the replacement people freedom to design the course how they see fit, but most people will take what the [permanent] professor has been doing and stick to that fairly closely," he said, noting that the course material in biology classes is fairly standard.
When asked if his department has had problems with visiting professors similar to those faced by Dwyer and the Computer Science department, he said he did not know of any similar cases.
"Most people realize that it's going to be difficult to just step in and start teaching a course," he said.
According to government department Chair Dick Winters, visiting government professors are hired "to fill the vacancies that are created by our regular faculty, and they're expected to perform as our regular faculty."
He said visiting professors to the department are generally hired for two or three terms, and they are typically young PhDs. When they finish their times at Dartmouth, they usually get jobs at other colleges and universities.
"What's interesting about our experience with visitors are that these are young and very serious scholars and they are quite substantially committed to their classroom teaching," Winters said.
He noted that some visiting professors come back to teach courses more than once because they have established "wonderful records with students."
History Chair Michael Ermarth explained that his department has a regular set of visiting faculty whose courses appear in the College's Organizations, Regulations and Courses publication.
"In a sense, in terms of student standpoint, many students do not know they are not regular members of the faculty," Ermarth said. "They tend to give their courses year after year."
But he said the visiting history faculty have track records with the College and with students, and there have been no problems with them.
Chemistry chair Joseph Belbruno said he has been at Dartmouth for 18 years, and has never heard of a problem like the recent one in CS4.
He explained that in his department, "If an organic chemist goes on sabbatical, we'll need the teaching covered."
He said if relationships between the visiting professor and the students became an issue, the visitor would not be asked back.
English Chair Bill Cook said his department has one or two visitors per year, who he said are usually not as popular as the regular faculty. He attributed that to students wanting to take classes from professors of which they have heard.
Cook, however, emphasized that he has never had to cope with the chaos that currently surrounds CS 4.
According to visiting economics professor Andreas Bentz, he has had no trouble integrating into Dartmouth life and his role as a teacher here.
"I'm loving it here," he said. "Everyone's been really friendly."
Unlike Dwyer's alleged experience with his department neglecting to give him an office, a computer or a set of teaching assistants, Bentz said he was introduced soon after his arrival to other faculty members, and provided with medicine and healthcare benefits.
"I don't think there's a difference controlling a class whether you're a visiting faculty or a permanent faculty, at least in my experience," he said. "I haven't found that students react differently to my teaching because I'm a visitor."
Berger said the College will probably be "more sensitized" when hiring visiting professors in the future in response to the Dwyer debacle.
He compared the incident to a speeding ticket, saying now the College will be "much more aware of the odometer."
But he said it is sometimes hard to predict how a professor will fit into the Dartmouth environment. In the case of Dwyer, Berger noted that he got "very good recommendations" from his own department chair in North Carolina.
"There was absolutely no reason to expect there was going to be anything like this," he said.
