As Dartmouth's Women in Business Organization is currently working to encourage current undergraduate women to enter the field, one of the current trustee candidates, Sherri Oberg '82 Tu'86, embodies those goals.
Oberg, a finalist for the 2006 Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2006, lists the main issues of her campaign, and of the Board's priorities in general, as maintaining a distinguished but teaching-oriented faculty, attracting and admitting "well-rounded" students and preserving the "special community" of Dartmouth.
"I think you can be great at both teaching and research, and I think that's where Dartmouth's niche is," she said. "I think we need to find great scholars who also love to teach. Those who don't love to teach probably shouldn't be at Dartmouth. I've noticed at Tuck that research makes people better teachers a lot of the time. People are not mono-dimensional."
She was quick to point out, however, that she does not think the College is not currently putting too much emphasis on research or that the balance between research and teaching is an urgent issue.
"I think right now we have an equilibrium," she said. "My campaign is all about preserving and continuing what Dartmouth has. No matter how great something is if you don't continue to innovate your competitors will."
She added that the research-teaching debate is skewed and has been blown out of proportion as she indicated that alumni relations are the biggest problem with the College today, in her opinion.
"I think there is one big problem, and that is alumni relations right now," she said. "There are a lot of alumni dissatisfied with Dartmouth and the way it is going. The alumni are a huge part of Dartmouth and they make it different from other Ivies. Every job I've ever gotten has been from a Dartmouth or Tuck alumnus."
Oberg added that she is concerned about the apparent polarization within the alumni body -- especially in light of the near perfect divide of votes on last fall's failed proposed constitution. She also pointed to the election of three petition trustees in recent years as proof that consensus within the alumni body is waning.
"The successful election of petition alumni candidates is evidence that we do not have consensus with the alumni body regarding Dartmouth's strategy and direction," she wrote on her campaign web site as she asserted that the impending resignation of College President James Wright is an important issue facing the Board.
"Without consensus on the mission and strategy and with continued public disagreements among the Trustees and alumni on issues as fundamental as faculty scholarship," she continued, "who would sign up for this job [of president of the college]?"
Oberg thinks that any divide within alumni, though, is due more to a wealth of misinformation than to any real split in views.
"What happens is that the alumni only know what they hear word of mouth and you don't always get accurate information that way," she said. "I think there's a lot of rhetoric going around right and somewhere out there people have gotten the idea that we are trying to be another Harvard. We're not."
Oberg's mention of paranoia that the College is imitating Harvard alluded to statements made by petition candidate Smith, whom she discussed warily.
"With Smith I would ask him what the basis of his accusations are," she said. "What is he basing them on? How often does he come back to campus? How many students does he know? Get all the facts is what I say to alumni. If he feels that free speech and research are issues he should give some evidence to alumni to support it."
Oberg expanded her comments to include petition candidates as she said that in her experience, officially nominated candidates make the best board members.
"I've sat on many boards, and I've seen how boards get put together," she said. "It's rigorous. Once somebody's on a board it's very difficult to get them off and one bad apple can spoil the bunch. My concern about petition candidates is that they don't have a rigorous process to get on the ballot. You can get 500 signatures and there you go."
Oberg is the CEO and cofounder of Acusphere, a Watertown, Mass.-based biotechnology company in the process of developing a heart disease drug. She has raised over $300 million in financing, including an IPO, at Acusphere. The New England technology journal Mass High Tech named her one of its 2005 All Stars in the biotech sector. She has also served on a number of advisory boards, including the board of directors of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and the Girl Scouts, PTC., and has lectured at the Tuck School of Business. She serves on the board of overseers of the Amos Tuck School and was on the Tuck Center for Private Equity's advisory board.
At Dartmouth, Oberg was a member of Phoenix Senior Society, Fire and Skoal Senior Society and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
The four alumni candidates for the seat on the Board of Trustees vacated by resigning Trustee Nancy Jeton '76 are Oberg, Richard "Sandy" Alderson '69 John S. Wolf '70 and Stephen Smith '88.
The Alumni Council Nominating and Trustee Search Committee, which is comprised of 12 alumni, picked Oberg, Alderson and Wolf from more than 300 alumni nominated by their peers.
Voting among alumni on the next trustee will take place from Apr. 1 through May 15.
