In an interview with The Dartmouth, Harper cited a great recruiting year in 2008, maturation of current Dartmouth student-athletes and key upgrades to athletic facilites as contributing factors that have strongly benefited the Big Green athletic program.
"Some outstanding individuals are heading our way, and you have a whole group of players who got a lot of experience [this year]," she said.
Harper credited the recent facilities upgrades with helping Dartmouth face recruitment challenges. Harper believes that traditionally, many have questioned Dartmouth's dedication and commitment to developing a top-tier varsity athletic program.
"I think that has been truly and loudly answered in the past five or six years," she said. "I think we went from probably seven or eight in the Ivies with facilities to one of the top Ivies."
Dartmouth has recently completed renovating several playing surfaces and building the new Floren Varsity Field House.
Harper also talked about the recruitment challenges facing Dartmouth, which must compete with the other Ivy League schools over the same pool of athletes.
She said that Dartmouth finds itself in a unique position because coaches often have to look further than the areas surrounding Hanover to find recruiting targets.
"We win a lot of battles because I think we have the best coaches and teachers, and we have the best undergraduate education," Harper said. "But we have to give coaches the flexibility to go many different places to look for that extraordinary student that can be successful in the classroom and the athletic fields."
It is common in NCAA athletics to see teams' successes vary based on the success of recruitment, but some Dartmouth teams have languished for decades. Men's basketball had its last winning season in 1994-95, but Harper said she foresees a comeback.
"I think we're getting ready to go over the top of the hill in basketball," she said.
However, Harper pointed to the particular difficulties faced by the swimming and track and field programs, and did not seem as optimistic about their future prospects.
"Swimming is a big numbers sport, and we've always had difficulty with big numbers sports in depth," she said. "The numbers issue is a big thing for swimming. Sometimes we do real well in cross-country, but track and field when you look at what you have to do, and where you have to place people and where they have to win, we're a little more challenged with big numbers sports because we don't have the big numbers to give people."
But with the feeling that many of Dartmouth's programs are poised to do well, Harper said she hopes to see better fan attendance and school spirit at sporting events.
"Our one major goal next year, besides winning more, is to work with our students to increase attendance," Harper said. "My theory with that is our students are very busy, they have a lot of different interests, but if we can communicate to them, 'You will make a difference,' they will come. I look at Leede Arena and think that could be a junior Cameron [Indoor Stadium at Duke University] because of the home court advantage we would have if we could fill that with screaming students. It's already proved a fairly successful phenomenon with Thompson Arena."
Harper also said that she thought having a mascot was important as something to rally the crowd. She said she was surprised that a moose mascot did not make an appearance at sporting events this year, and that she hoped to see a student-led initiative to come to a clear consensus on Dartmouth's mascot controversy.
"It needs to be unified," she said. "The alums are always going to have their strong feelings on it, and it's very important that it's explained to them and you get as much buy-in as possible, but this is your Dartmouth, and I think the student body will carry the day here."
Harper also thinks Dartmouth's athletes have been undergoing a "phenomenal" shift in attitude.
"I am so anxious to get started for '08-'09," she said. "I almost feel like we have the pole here, the pole position, to really make some great moves."
