To the Editor,
Professor Craig Wilder's April 13 op-ed on the Trustee Candidacy of T.J. Rodgers ("The Passion of the CEO: T. J. Rodgers' Crusade") was an eloquent, well thought-out defense of the principles of diversity in modern higher education, one which certainly tugged all the appropriate heartstrings of this left-leaning, diversity activist '04. However, lost in Professor Wilder's Manichean construction of Rodgers as the second coming of Phyllis Schafly was that Rodgers' opinion on the College's diversity initiatives (which I'm certain even Professor Wilder would admit have serious systemic flaws) is only one of a laundry list of problems Rodgers has with the direction in which the College is heading, many of which are right on the money and deserve to be heard.
Rodgers suggests that Dartmouth has strayed from its original mission of academic excellence and liberal arts education in an attempt to promote an unfocused vision of what a 21st century Ivy League university should be. He correctly points out that non-educational bureaucracy has thrived while educational programs, such as libraries and athletics, have suffered massive cuts. He rightly castigates the current administration for disastrous fiscal planning and setting ridiculous spending priorities with the school's shrinking endowment. He reviles, as even many liberals such as myself do, at the disastrous uber-PC tone that pervades discussion of just about anything on this campus.
In short, Rodgers realizes that there are very real problems with the direction this institution is headed in. He's gaining support because alumni are coming to realize that there is a problem with this school that they love so much and donate so generously to and that adding just another "yes-man," who is doctrinally identical to the current board and administration, probably isn't going to do much to fix it.
Rogers and I probably agree on very little politically, whereas I venture to say that Professor Wilder and I agree on much. I hope Rodgers' ideas on diversity in admissions and hiring fall on deaf ears. However, diversity of opinion is something Rodgers might bring to the Board of Trustees.
