Among her other goals for the year are reducing class sizes, promoting an interdisciplinary spirit, and keeping Dartmouth on the cutting edge of emerging academic fields.
Despite recently hiring more faculty, Folt said that her administrative work largely focuses on this issue every year. Folt, who taught at Dartmouth for many years before becoming a dean, said this helps keep the College in step with top higher education institutions around the country.
She said that a major goal is to ensure that Dartmouth attracts professors who are experts in their respective fields. The integrity of the institution is directly related to the caliber of the faculty hired, Folt said.
"I look even beyond the single year," Folt said. "I really want Dartmouth to be the best learning environment in the nation. I want it to be a place that faculty choose to come to so they can teach great students and achieve their national and international reputations in their disciplines."
Folt noted that this issue is an ongoing challenge, as the College must compete with increasingly high faculty salaries at other top institutions. In addition to hiring campaigns at other universities, real estate plays a significant role, Folt said.
Hanover is typically a very expensive place to live and it is important that faculty are compensated adequately and feel sufficient motivation to make the move to the area, she said.
According to Folt, another important goal for this year is decreasing class sizes. While adding 10 percent to the faculty throughout the past five years has aided in the process, she said that she would still like to see continued progress.
"Our ultimate goal is to see this percentage get even higher, and to see our ratio of students to faculty get even lower," Folt said.
Another top priority of Folt's this year is to promote cross-disciplinary study, which she said is important to Dartmouth's curriculum as a whole. Although she stressed that faculty should focus on their areas of expertise, she added that they should also have the freedom to think outside of their fields.
"Interdisciplinary [study] is a huge forefront in education and research," Folt said.
"People really want to be able to work outside of their immediate department or discipline, but they also want to maintain the integrity of their discipline. That is a big challenge," she added.
The faculty is also very interested in furthering international and global studies, she said. Folt noted a disproportionate number of foreign study programs in certain areas when compared to others.
Folt added that it is a constant challenge for the College to stay on the cusp of emerging fields.
"I don't think Dartmouth has any big holes in its curriculum, but the knowledge world is expanding so rapidly, so new fields do emerge," Folt said.
The digital humanities is one such field, she said, and the College is currently searching for a senior professor in this field to add to the faculty. Success in this area depends on faculty and administrative response to both the ever-evolving world of knowledge and student interest, according to Folt.
"I think there are even regions in the world that become more or less popular for student interest," she said. "Some of it means you're adjusting to meet student interest or global concerns or sometimes you're doing it to create a whole new area of study."
