The search committee for the College's next president discussed input previously gathered from the Dartmouth community at its first meeting, which was held at Dartmouth on July 22 and 23. The 14 members of the committee, which includes six trustees, six faculty members, an alumna and a student, were announced on June 18.
The committee will use the input to craft a "leadership statement," which will outline the desired qualities of College President James Wright's successor. The statement will be distributed to potential candidates and to members of the Dartmouth community. The committee hopes to publicize the final version of the statement by the end of August, according to trustee Al Mulley '70, chair of the search committee.
The committee examined several "strawman" versions of the statement to begin a dialogue, according to Mulley.
Other members of the search committee declined to comment about the meeting because they had designated Mulley as their spokesman.
The executive search firm Isaacson Miller, which the Board hired in May to help support the search, helped to write some of the draft statements, Mulley said. The committee also studied similar statements used in previous Dartmouth presidential searches and in those of other institutions, he said.
"We came to the conclusion at the end of the meeting that we had a lot of work to do," Mulley said. "It's just a challenge to describe Dartmouth's unique character and Dartmouth's somewhat unique role in higher education."
The committee also discussed potential candidates, including those suggested by members of the Dartmouth community through the presidential search web site and those whose current positions make them likely possibilities, Mulley said.
"The key is to be open-minded," he said. "The key is to do what we can to expand and make as strong as possible the pool of prospective candidates that we'll be considering further along."
Committee members also discussed the roles of the search committee and individual committee members in the search process, Mulley said.
"We expect every member of the committee to be actively engaged," Mulley said, adding that each member of the committee will reach out to his or her primary constituency.
Prior to the meeting, committee members read several articles and book chapters about topics including transitions in higher education leadership, the form and function of colleges and universities and Dartmouth's history and place in higher education. The committee will post the readings that committee members find most helpful on the search web site, Mulley said, to make the search process as transparent as possible.
Much of the meeting was spent allowing members of the committee to get to know each other, Mulley said, as many members had not previously met.
All members of the committee participated in the meeting, Mulley said, although one had to do so via telephone because of a last minute conflict.
The committee will next meet in August, with additional meetings tentatively scheduled for November.
After the publication of the leadership statement and before the November meeting, Mulley said, committee members will hold open meetings on campus, similar to those held to solicit input for the leadership statement. The statement will not be revised as a result of the feedback, Mulley said. Similar meetings will also be held in at least five cities to gather input from alumni.
