Two years after Dartmouth's only speech professor resigned in protest of what he deemed administrative neglect, the College's speech program may be resuscitated. Dartmouth has formed a search committee to find a new professor of speech and will begin reviewing applications for the position this month.
The new speech professor will teach speech and rhetoric classes, while also working to integrate oral communication into the first-year writing program.
"We're trying to think how to better integrate written expression with spoken expression. The idea is that this person would be someone who could help us add oral presentations to our first-year seminar," said Lindsay Whaley, associate dean of international and interdisciplinary programs and chair of the search committee. Tom Cormen, chair of the writing program, declined to comment because the search is still ongoing.
Previously, the speech program was an office of one, consisting of Jim Kuypers, a speech professor who resigned in Spring 2005 after 10 years of serving as Dartmouth's only speech professor.
According to Whaley, "Kuypers mentioned while he was here that it was a difficult situation to be isolated from any other faculty."
By adding a speech component to the writing program and integrating the two departments, the speech professor will be able to collaborate with his or her colleagues in the writing program, Whaley said, adding that he hopes this change will lead to more "innovative thinking and opportunities for professional development" for both programs.
In an effort to offer a greater diversity of speech courses, a second faculty member may also be added to the speech program within the next three to five years, Whaley added.
The speech department was downgraded in 1979 by a Board of Trustees directive that made it an office of speech. The directive required the College to keep speech instruction at the departmental level, a dictate that Kuypers believed was not being followed by administrators. Kuypers felt that Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt and Associate Dean of Humanities Lenore Grenoble, currently on leave for the year, were antagonistic toward him when he met to discuss the speech program, allegedly telling him that he could either make do with his current situation or quit.
Grenoble declined to comment when asked if her views about the value of the speech program had changed. She did mention, however, that she felt that there had been "misinformation" surrounding Kuypers' resignation.
Whaley said he believed that a commonly held misconception about Kuypers' resignation is that it "was connected with an effort to eliminate speech, or that Dartmouth had somehow not maintained its commitment to the importance of speech." He said he hopes to combat the idea that Dartmouth does not support a speech program.
Despite the fact that the College has been without a speech program for almost two years, Whaley insisted that Dartmouth's commitment to teaching speech has remained constant.
"We are as committed to speech as we have always been," he said. "Our commitment at Dartmouth has always been to give students explicit training in oral communication."
Folt echoed Whaley's sentiments, saying that she was pleased with search for a new speech professor and believes that "this will allow us to reinstate important curricular offerings."
If a professor is hired within the estimated timeline, speech classes may be offered as soon as the fall of 2007.
