I never imagined that I'd ever have a reason to challenge any comments in Daily Dartmouth articles that complimented my work ("Larimore resigns, plans to leave for Swarthmore," May 4; "A look back at Larimore's tenure: A rocky SLI beginning, a solid finish," May 4), but good manners and a sense of personal integrity compel me to do so. I have loved my time at Dartmouth and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such an amazing community of students, faculty, staff and alumni who are so dedicated to this special place. And since one of the things I've tried to do here is to say thank you to the people who deserve credit for the things that they do, whether their work is out in public view or done quietly behind the scenes, I want to clarify some of the things that were kindly, even generously, attributed to me in the articles that appeared in Thursday's issue of The Dartmouth, but that reflect work done by people other than me.
To give credit where it is due, it has been College President James Wright's leadership, combined with the hard work of Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenburg and his colleagues, that led to the increased diversity of the student body over the past seven years. What my staff and I have done is simply to work with students to try to make the experience here one that embraces individual differences within a welcoming and inclusive spirit of community. Students deserve a great deal of credit for improvements in the campus climate, which I believe have contributed to the College's ability to enroll a talented and diverse student body, and my colleagues and I have tried to guide and contribute to that work where appropriate. Together with students we continue to look for ways to help people address ongoing concerns, resolve disagreements when it is possible to do so and encourage civil dialogue about important issues. But our colleagues in Admissions and Financial Aid have done the work of ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds are able to enroll here to begin with.
Likewise, students, alumni advisors and others should get the credit for the hard work they have done to improve relations between the College and its Greek organizations. I've tried to role model a sense of openness and a willingness to work with people, and I've appreciated all that students, alumni and my colleagues have done, but I cannot take credit for the hard work that they have done. They did it; I simply helped where I could. And to be quite explicit about one related matter, Jim Wright has been, and continues to be, fully supportive of these efforts. Some might not want to admit that, even to themselves, but from where I sit, I know it to be true.
I also want to clarify that Dartmouth's fundraising efforts have been, and continue to be, quite successful and that we are on a good pace with the Capital Campaign thanks to the continued generous support of alumni, parents and other friends of the College. To be certain, there is plenty of physical evidence of the success of the campaign to date, and students have been living with the sounds of construction equipment for many months now. But as I mentioned in my interview, Dartmouth competes against schools with much larger endowments and our students expect quality facilities, generous financial aid and small class sizes and easy access to faculty. Those are all good things and are clearly reflected in the College's priorities. What I tried to convey in the interview was my view that we need to communicate even more effectively to ensure that even more alumni will be involved in supporting the College in the future. This is a place with high expectations that I think will never be complacent, so the goal is to keep getting better, especially with respect to communication.
One final comment: I have received wonderfully affirming comments about my decision to put my family first, and I really do value the positive reinforcement that I've received. But let's not lose sight of the fact that other people, especially women, make this type of choice every day. I wonder whether they get the same type of affirmation? Not often or not often enough, I think.
I know that my family and I will miss the Dartmouth community and the many friends we have made here. Thank you all for the friendship and kindness you have shown to us, and please keep doing good things for Dartmouth.
