The current trustee election raises the old debates: undergraduate versus graduate education, college versus university, teaching versus research. Dartmouth is a unique institution because these yin and yang differences are meaningless here. The encircling whole of a single academic community is more visible than any one-sided facet.
The challenge for the future is preserving that uniqueness. It is helpful to consider the extremes of what Dartmouth is not. She is not a truly small liberal arts college along the lines of Amherst, Wellesley, or Williams. Nor is she (yet) a truly large research university a la Harvard, Duke, or Stanford. There is virtually no cry for Dartmouth to retreat to the former, dropping out of the Ivy athletic League and eliminating her professional schools and graduate programs. As we move farther from the Freedman presidency and trustees of that era are replaced, there is also less likely to be an explicit agenda to move Dartmouth towards the latter.
But there is something more subtle going on, and more troubling. All of the pressures are on Dartmouth to grow towards the large university model. These are especially obvious to those who reside here adjacent to the campus. Administrators, who find a "more is better" orientation natural, preside over constant physical growth. Faculty, having passion for their personal research, are hard pressed to say no when offered more time and grant dollars to pursue it. Students, in their increasing diversity, demand more and more programs. Trustees, in a desire to be supportive, accommodate demands from all these constituencies and are pressured themselves in the chase after money. Alumni receive great psychic reward from the national, and increasingly international, prestige of their alma mater.
Dartmouth the ship may be caught rudderless in a current sweeping it to the wrong destination, the mega-versity. The new mission statement is a good attempt to chart a course, but trustees working so hard to keep full steam in the boilers are not necessarily in position to see the drift, and are taking us wide of the mark. Administrators at the helm may not have the courage to steer against the tide, especially when it means sometimes saying "no." And as the McKinsey report noted, accountability could be greatly improved.
In this confused sea, we alumni need to consider our trustee choices carefully -- not only their words, but also examining where they come from and who their supporters are, in order to assess how well they will manage the rudder. Having watched the drift continue, at least this one alumnus would like to see a new, firmer and more courageous hand.
