On Thursday night, the committee searching for the next dean of the faculty held the last of three private meetings used to solicit professor input. The group will submit a slate of three candidates to College President James Wright by the end of the term.
Current interim Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt, who would be eligible for the job, will complete her two-year appointment at the end of June.
Over 20 professors attended meetings open to faculty but closed to reporters on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
In the next couple of weeks, the search committee of six professors -- two each from the humanities, sciences and social sciences divisions of the faculty -- will begin interviewing candidates to fill the job.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, committee member and classics professor Jeremy Rutter said the appointment is "enormously important" and that he has been impressed with faculty participation and the number of nominations that were submitted.
"This one's getting pretty close to home because this is the person who represents you for all the things you care about -- your workload, your salary," Rutter said.
Since it was assembled at the end of the Fall term, the committee has met with Wright and several professors who requested meetings. The group has also met individually with about two dozen current and former administrators to ask for their perspectives on the job, according to committee member and chemistry professor Russell Hughes.
"We've mostly been in listening mode," Hughes said in an interview. "We're probably winding down on that now."
Neither committee member would comment on the general concerns faculty members have brought to the group.
"I can't reveal to you what are the most frequent things I hear because what I hear is confidential information," Rutter said.
The names of the current candidates and the final three submitted to Wright will also be confidential, although Hughes said candidates under consideration are free to identify themselves, Hughes said.
"Some people who might be candidates for such a position might simply wish their candidacy be confidential until some final decision is made," Hughes said.
According to Hughes, the search process has been moving fairly quickly since the beginning of the term because the nomination process for faculty was simple and no candidates from outside the College are being considered. "Such a person [from outside the College] in this position would be in a very difficult situation because they would not know any of the faculty from which they would be choosing associate deans," Hughes said.
Folt was appointed by Wright in June 2004 after then-Dean of the Faculty Michael Gazzaniga resigned following a controversial no-confidence vote by the faculty's Committee of Chairs. Both Gazzaniga and the previous dean of the faculty, current Tufts Provost Jamshed Bharucha, held their posts for less than two years.
Rutter said the 2004 no-confidence vote and Gazzaniga's subsequent resignation reflected an unhealthy "jousting between divisions."
"[The divisions are] just hugely different and it's important for them to understand each other and understand that they're working hard and they're working hard for Dartmouth," Rutter said. "The best person to do that kind of education is the dean of the faculty."
Spanish and comparative literature professor Silvia Spitta was one of a handful of professors who attended the Thursday night meeting.
"I thought it was very productive that they have this open forum," Spitta said. "I came in and said basically that I love what Carol Folt has done."
Spitta said committee members asked the professors who came to the meeting about the kinds of questions they would pose to potential deans, the role the dean of the faculty should play and the problems past deans have run into.
"I think it's a very difficult position," Spitta said. "It's a position that needs more support."
Music professor Jon Appleton, who has been an outspoken critic of Folt, attended Tuesday morning's faculty forum. A 38-year Dartmouth professor, Appleton announced last term that he will finish his career at Stanford because of differences with Folt and the College's administration.
"It has to be someone who stands up to the president and represents a faculty point of view instead of being a puppet," Appleton said of the next dean.
The search committee was chosen from two initial pools of 12 nominees selected by the faculty's Committee on Organization and Policy and Committee Advisory to the President. The COP then submitted a final list of 12 names to College President James Wright, who whittled the group down to the six who were subsequently approved by the COP, Rutter said.
"If you get lost in the numbers you can imagine what a lot of the faculty has problems with," Rutter said.
