A Dartmouth teaching center established this summer will soon take physical form in Baker-Berry Library, College officials recently announced.
Construction on the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning begins early this October at a date yet to be determined. Baker-Berry's southeast wing, a mirror image of the 1902 room, is now being gutted to prepare for renovations.
New offices will include a reception and casual work area, three offices and a conference room equipped with smart classroom and video-conferencing technology.
The center, which has a $225,000 annual operating budget, has temporary offices in Room 227 in Baker-Berry Library. It also operates through the Internet at www.dartmouth.edu/~dcal.
Director Thomas Luxon described the center an important innovation for the College.
"It seems like a small thing, but it's very important and it's never been done before," he said."There should be one place where faculty can find all the resources they need."
At one of the center's inaugural programs, held in the 1902 Room in Baker-Berry the day before Fall term classes began, groups over dinner introduced 25 new professors to on-campus teaching support programs.
Over dessert and coffee, professors were able to target representatives from programs relevant to their course work. The offices and centers represented included the Writing Program, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Hood Museum of Art and the Dartmouth Ethics Institute.
Luxon said the College is replete with resources for professors, but that many don't know how to take advantage of them.
"At the beginning of the year, faculty get all this stuff in the mail, and you know what most of them do? They throw it away," Luxon said. "The centers really appreciated this dinner, because before it had been their responsibility to catch the faculty's attention, and now it was done for them."
The center also incorporates a wide array of programs. This is the fourth fall that theater professor Jim Rice has offered his faculty voice group class, which aims to help professors increase their power, vocal projection, relaxation and confidence speaking in front of groups.
"Individuals experience the same fears and blocks as actors do," Rice said. "People come who have a stage fright kind of fear, some people just get tired and lose their voices. Some feel that students aren't receiving the message they're trying to send."
Rice said he welcomes being officially recognized by the College, and that he hopes being part of the center will encourage more professors to attend.
Other center programs will focus on areas such as ethics, classroom cultures and diversity and the integration of visual presentation into classroom discussion.
The physical plant in Baker-Berry, when completed, will include a state-of-the-art videoconferencing room, where faculty will be able to hold video-conferences with their classes or meet with professors based elsewhere in the country or the world.
The center was established in July with donations from Gordon Russell '55 and Stephen Cheheyl '67 totaling $4.5 million.