Six months after College President James Wright responded to a diversity committee's recommendation to change Dartmouth's mission statement, the President's Office plans to premiere a new College statement within the next few weeks.
The new mission statement will seek to eliminate what the Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity said was a "laissez-faire" attitude in Dartmouth's commitment to diversity.
While the Committee did not craft specific new language for the mission statement, it did make several recommendations for changes, most focusing on increasing interaction between students of different backgrounds.
The current mission statement -- with its emphasis on fostering a "love of learning" -- says little in the way of diversity. Its minimal attention to diversity focuses on attracting faculty, students and staff of a variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
A revised mission statement, according to senior officials, will include making the actual campus experience more pluralistic. The idea comes from the CIDE, a committee formerly called the World Cultures Initiative that came out of the Student Life Initiative recommendations.
Within the committee, a frequent topic of discussion "was that the mere presence of a diverse community didn't ensure that we would teach what each of us brings to teach, or learn what each of us might have to learn by being a member of a diverse inclusive community," Dean of the College James Larimore, committee co-chair, said.
Since the June release of the CIDE report, Larimore met with the Board of Trustees in August and November and updated them on the Committee's recommendations, the progress of the revision and future plans.
"The President plans to bring something for review by his executive committee for a group of administrators and academic leaders on the campus, and also to take that back to the Board [of Trustees] later this year," Larimore said.
Staffers in the President's Office, which is currently administering the review process, declined to release drafts of the new statement.
Those involved in revamping the mission statement foresaw a quick turnover.
"We hope that by the middle of February we will be able to share a draft with the wider Dartmouth community and invite reaction then," Senior Assistant to the President Sheila Culbert, who is highly involved in the revision process, said.
"The changes should be forthcoming shortly, and we on the Board look forward to receiving information about those proposed changes in the language, and going from there," Susan Dentzer '77, the Board's chair, said.
Once Wright devises a final mission statement, he will likely present it for review to his executive committee and a group of administrators and academic leaders on the campus, according to Larimore. Afterwards, he will submit it to the Board for approval.
Instead of voting on the revision, the Board will approve the new statement only after reaching consensus.
Students will have a window in which they can offer feedback on the revamped mission statement. In addition, the CIDE, which recommended revising the document, included students in its membership and met with a wide swath of the campus population.
According to the CIDE, the College's mission statement should emphasize cultivating "interaction and friendship between people from different backgrounds, including between women and men."
In a July 16 letter to the Dartmouth Community, Wright said, "I am pleased to accept their report and recommendations."
Wright immediately implemented several of the recommendations, including creating a Council on Diversity, and appointing Ozzie Harris '81 to serve as Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity.
