As the Class of 2008 prepares to embark on their long journey as alumni, talk around campus has turned to the future of our College. With just 14 short months left in President Wright's tenure, a decision will soon be made about his successor. The next president of Dartmouth College will take office at an important time; he or she must deal with battling alumni, issues of professor retention and the omnipresent gender issues that pervaded our campus long before we were born and will continue long after our time in Hanover is complete. This is the time for a bold shift in direction, a shift to someone who understands Dartmouth's past but will not let that past hold us back from becoming a better institution.
If we want Dartmouth to remain one of the finest undergraduate institutions in the United States, our next president must strive to be a leader, not a follower. While the changes in financial aid policy were welcomed, the decision followed those of other Ivy League institutions rather than attempting to blaze a new trail. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees Ed Haldeman '70 said on Monday, referring to a question on social life and gender relations, "This notion of respecting Dartmouth's history, tradition -- no change versus evolution and getting better -- is one of those tough issues, one of those tough trade-offs." We can neither forget our past, nor let it hold us back. We should heed the advice of former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who, while campaigning in 1832, declared: "I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad."
One area where change must happen is the Greek system. The Greek system is not going anywhere, but it can be improved and the next president needs to be committed to recognizing the existence of Greek life and minimizing the negatives that come alongside its existence. Gender relations should not be -- and are not -- just the concern of female students alone. If our campus is unfriendly and hostile to any group, it is an injustice we all must battle together.
This could, and perhaps should, be the time for Dartmouth's first female president. Just as the '08s entered Dartmouth with a female student body president, we are leaving with a landslide election in favor of two strong female candidates. Baker Library is full of portraits of white men in disproportionate numbers to their percentage of the student body. Given our gender issues, perhaps it is time for the important (more than) symbolic gesture showing that we recognize the contributions of our female students and appreciate that we live in a multi-faceted, multicultural and co-educational 21st century. Gender cannot be the ultimate litmus test, but at minimum, a good-faith effort should be made to heed the advice of the four Ivy League universities already led by members of the fairer sex.
In the last few years we have also seen a flood of notable exits from Hanover by distinguished members of the Dartmouth faculty. Faculty retention, particularly minority retention, is a serious problem, and it is one we must continue to address. The Upper Valley is not the easiest place in which to convince professors to settle down for the long haul, but the College needs to do a better job of recruiting new faculty and keeping the faculty we have. One friend of mine said that Dartmouth's recent issues have made it "an embarrassing school to attend right now," but I cannot agree with this sentiment. The recent alumni infighting appears to have had little lasting impact outside of the Dartmouth community, and alumni still seem to have kept a bond to the institution that conferred them their degrees.
With over a year to find and install a new president, there need not be any hurry on the part of the search committee. Promisingly, Haldeman wants to make the search process more transparent, perhaps learning from the lack of transparency behind the creation of the restructuring plan for the Board of Trustees. Although the sensitive nature of the process limits too much public knowledge, some transparency will ensure that the search committee will not simply round up the usual suspects.
I cannot imagine that whomever is chosen as the next member of the Wheelock Succession will please everyone. That is a virtual impossibility given the differences among students and among alumni. However, the new president must be someone committed to the notion of progress -- leaving this place a better one than he or she found it. What is a better way to underscore the spirit of progress than to choose a woman as president and finally complete co-education?
