A search committee to appoint the new Outdoor Programs Office director has been formed following the sudden resignation of former OPO director Andy Harvard in mid-July. The committee, which met for the first time on Sept. 26, has spent the past week gathering input from students, administrators and alumni on the main attributes they are looking for in the new director.
"We're going to put all the information together about what the ideal Outdoor Programs director would look like, and then start looking at applications," Jon Kull '88, head of the committee and a chemistry professor at the College, said in an interview with The Dartmouth on Sept. 29.
The nine-member search committee is comprised of Dartmouth students, faculty and staff that have worked closely with OPO. Three leaders of the Dartmouth Outing Club -- Andrew Palmer '10, Margi Dashevsky '10 and Phil Wagner '09 -- will represent the student body and the DOC on the committee. Other committee members are assistant dean for development Tracy Walsh '91, environmental studies professor Ross Virginia, senior associate Athletic Director for Compliance & Administration Drew Galbraith, Lisa Celone, director of Operations Management, and Cami Thompson, director of Dartmouth's ski programs and head of the women's cross country ski team.
There has been a high turnover of OPO directors recently -- three in the past eight years -- and many DOC members and alumni have said they believe that Harvard's resignation was not voluntary. As a result, much of the committee's outreach is focused on how to find a lasting director who will work well with both the DOC and the College administration.
"In the past, it's been difficult for all the parties to agree on what qualities they would like the director to have," Wagner said.
Alumni and members of the OPO have said they hope that the next director's tenure would be longer than those of past directors, Kull said. In order to ensure this, alumni said, the committee must fully detail the complexities of the job.
"It's a challenging position," Kull said, adding that the OPO director interacts with a wide variety of departments at the College. The OPO oversees student organizations such as the DOC and ski teams, as well as the College Grants and Moosilauke Lodge.
Over the summer, members of the DOC met to draft a proposal of their vision for the next OPO director, and sent it to College President James Wright, Dean of the College Tom Crady and acting Dean of Student Life Joe Cassidy. DOC student leaders held a meeting with College administrators in August to discuss how they can be involved in the process.
On Sept. 28, 30 members of the DOC met to discuss qualities and the type of experience they are looking for in the new director, with much of the dialogue focusing on candidates' ability to best represent the students while working well with the administration.
"We need somebody who is responsible, but we also want someone who is willing to take a chance on new ideas," a DOC member present at the meeting said.
Additional conversation focused on whether or not the new director should have a strong interest in the outdoors. Wagner said interim OPO director Earl Jette has described the position as a "desk job," adding that candidates should be aware that the role entails a significant amount of administrative work.
"If you bring [the idea for] a crazy trip to someone who has never done [anything like] that, then they wouldn't understand," said a DOC member who was concerned about what would happen if the new director lacked experience with the outdoors, said.
Students also stressed that the new director must understand that the DOC is mainly student-run, and also comprehend the DOC's relationship with the rest of the College.
Kull said he believes that, overall, alumni, students and OPO staff share similar ideas about the qualifications for the next director.
"People are pretty much in agreement, though they do look at it from different perspectives," he said.
The committee will establish their criteria before looking at any applications, and Kull is trying to get feedback from OPO programs that he has not yet heard from. The committee hopes to narrow the list of candidates to between eight and 12 by November in hopes of presenting the College administration with a final list of candidates as soon as possible, according to Kull.
