Dartmouth's government and economics departments will each lose a popular member of its faculty at the end of the year. While faculty departures occur every year, this year's farewells are a particular blow to the College's teaching corps, as two well-liked young professors will leave Dartmouth for other universities.
Professor Amitabh Chandra of the economics department will teach at Harvard University, and government professor Daryl Press will join the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.
The departures of these professors, both known as engaging lecturers who effectively communicate course material, represent blows to their respective departments. A review of Press' Government 5 class on Student Assembly's website is titled "Daryl Press is Amazing," while Chandra's rave reviews include one titled "Amitabh is fantastic!"
"I think it's a real shame we're losing Chandra," Albert Satija '06 said.
But economics department chair Jonathan Skinner pointed out that departures are common.
"The department will be the worse for his leaving, but for any good department, good people leave and good people arrive," Skinner said.
Government department chair Anne Sa'adah was unavailable for comment.
Many students, upon hearing of the professors' imminent departures, assumed that other schools had wooed them away with contracts with which Dartmouth could not compete.
However, both professors insisted that money did not play a significant role in either one of their decisions to leave. Press and Chandra will assume positions similar to the ones they held at the College.
"I have no complaints about the salary or level of faculty support at Dartmouth," Press said. "The issue that forced me to leave was simply my inability to solve the dual-career problem in Hanover."
Press's wife is an international relations expert, and the government department's short-term hiring priorities did not allow for the hiring of another international relations professor, he said.
"It's not every day you get a job offer from Harvard," Chandra said. "The College, if anything, responded [to Harvard's offer] with unbelievable generosity."
While both professors have found situations that cater better to their current needs, neither one had a bad word to say about the College, where the two have spent the last five years. They praised Dartmouth's institutional support of young professors and their research.
"I love it here at Dartmouth. I love teaching undergraduates, and I planned to be here for 25 years," Press said.
Chandra was similarly complimentary, claiming that Dartmouth deserved a great deal of credit for the successes that led to his offer from Harvard and stressing the importance of the College's support of his research in his development as a professor. Chandra's research on health economics was assisted by many Dartmouth Medical School doctors with whom he plans to continue working even while teaching in Cambridge.
The departure of these two young professors, while unfortunate, does not seem to be an example of a larger problem. In addition to an attractive academic community, the social atmosphere in Hanover is not as bleak as it might seem for a newly minted PhD. The presence of the medical and business schools expands the social horizons for young professors far enough to provide an engaging social environment, Press said.
"I love it here. I hope I can come back here. I'd be happy to be here for the rest of my life," Chandra said.
