What are the top three academic programs at Dartmouth? I had trouble answering the same question when a senior administrator posed it. "Kabir, have you seen the list?" he asked. "List? What List?" I said. "We don't publish a list because we don't want to isolate other departments." I don't see anything wrong with this position -- Dartmouth is known for being an egalitarian place. Instead of having an academic program ranked in the top three in the country, we prefer to have all our programs ranked in the top 50. This being the case, Dartmouth could still do an ounce more in celebrating its excellence. It could do more in rewarding and affirming those things that make this place so special. That's our ultimate story: excellence.
One senior humanities professor tells me of the time when he eavesdropped on a boy and a girl in the audience waiting for a show to begin at Spaulding. The girl leaned over and whispered something to the boy and vice versa. The professor thought they were talking about the show, or maybe something filthy. As it turns out, the girl shyly whispered, "I got a citation last term." The boys responded in a bashful tone, "so did I." Whispering about citations? It's emblematic of Dartmouth. We have excellent parts rooted deep in the Hanover soil, but rarely do we dig them up and learn about these excellent elements -- and hardly ever do we celebrate them. Why isn't the list of Dartmouth citation winners published every year? Or a Dean's list? Do we even have a Dean's list?
"What good is it to publish a list? It will make people feel bad," some say. It might, but it will also affirm the positive. We will celebrate those excellent students -- and celebrating excellence is as hearty as a friendly handshake. It wasn't until President Freedman that Phi Beta Kappas were invited to the President's house to celebrateeven Freedman's cat got to rub up against the legs of those celebrated students. We were reinforcing the positive. And in today's world, where the seething language of disparity dominates, why not celebrate what's good?
It's not just about celebrating academic achievement. We must celebrate all excellent facets. The Hopkins Center rarely sells out Spaulding Auditorium. In fact, tickets are regularly thrown out. Why not reward those star UGAs, the Dartmouth professor who discovers a new finding, the football player who kicks the winning field goal, the student who goes to the Organic Farm every day to work with complimentary tickets? How about rewarding Tony from Food Court? He has to work behind a grill that's hotter than a sweatband in a fireman's helmet everyday. The Hop gives free tickets to East Wheelock, but what's so excellent about EW?
This is where the Blabberforce comes in. The Hop could contact The Force and mention who will be given tickets and why the individual is excellent -- the Blabberforce will then start to blabber. The force will tell the story of the celebrated individual. We will celebrate Dartmouth's excellence.
Why's it such a big deal that we know about people's excellence? One pound of information equals an ounce of education. One pound of education is an ounce of understanding and wisdom. We will learn more from each other. The more we know about why Dartmouth is excellent -- why our people are excellent--we will better understand our College. We will become better story tellers. Instead of our reputation being confusing and opaque, our identity will be as crisp as a new dollar bill: "Dartmouth is the best kept secret in undergraduate education because they celebrate excellence."
Excellence is found all over even in Parkhurst. Former Dartmouth President John Kemeny was Albert Einstein's protege. Kemeny, who passed away in 1992, said of Einstein, "People would ask -- did you know enough physics to help Einstein? My standard line was: Einstein did not need help in physics. But contrary to popular belief, Einstein did need help in mathematics." A Dartmouth president was the Time Person of the Century's adviser. Now that's excellent. But why do few know about Kemeny? Why do few students know that President Wright is a member of the elite American Academy of Arts and Sciences? We all know that Dr. Seuss and Daniel Webster attended Dartmouth. Why isn't there a cover story about Dartmouth's CEOs in the Alumni Magazine? Or a web-page dedicated to new faculty discoveries? Why are we not telling Dartmouth's story in terms of excellence?
The next step is to blitz co-founders of the to celebrate Dartmouth's excellence. Send us stories of excellence -- whether they are of you, your friend, an organization of which you're aware. As Lord Chesterfield said, "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." The Blabberforce would add "and we'd like to know about it."
