Following the release of Dartmouth's presidential search committee's leadership statement, a number of college and university administrators have emerged as potential candidates for the College's next president. The statement, published Tuesday, calls for a strategic leader with a demonstrated commitment to academia and an understanding of Dartmouth's traditions.
The committee's statement outlines the criteria it will use when selecting candidates -- qualifications include past success in recruiting and retaining faculty and the ability to strategically allocate College resources in order to strengthen its academic reputation. The committee emphasized graduate education and states that the next president "should conduct a careful strategic review of graduate education and should substantially strengthen its position."
The leadership statement is partially based on input from Dartmouth students, alumni, faculty and staff, solicited by the committee at community meetings and on its web site. According to this feedback, Dartmouth's constituents would like the next president to have a background in academia, as well as a previous connection to the College.
Former Dartmouth Dean of the Faculty Jamshed Bharucha meets many of the statement's qualifications, specifically for his experience integrating undergraduate and professional schools as provost and senior vice president at Tufts University. Bharucha has worked at Tufts since 2002 and acts as the chief academic officer for all of the university's programs. He began the school's University Seminar, an interdisciplinary course for undergraduate and graduate students that examines global issues. Bharucha has also increased undergraduate collaborative research with graduate professors and hospitals affiliated with the university.
The leadership statement also calls on the next president to capitalize on the "large opportunities for cross-collaboration across schools and with the Arts and Sciences faculty" at Dartmouth.
Bharucha spearheaded Tufts' Graduate Competitiveness Initiative and Provost's Fellows program in an effort to improve the graduate schools' ability to attract competitive students.
At Dartmouth, Bharucha was a professor in the psychological and brain sciences department, but also taught in the cognitive neuroscience, linguistics and cognitive science and electroacoustic music programs. He served as deputy provost and was dean of the faculty from 2001-2002.
Bharucha did not return phone calls from The Dartmouth by press time.
Former Dean of the College Jim Larimore, now Dean of Students at Swarthmore College, would not comment on specific candidates but said Dartmouth needs a president with an extensive academic background.
"I believe that Dartmouth needs a president with a strong record of scholarly achievement, which would help establish a sense of legitimacy with the faculty, who need to have confidence in the president as both a colleague and a leader," Larimore said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "I think that is most likely with a president who has served as a faculty member."
Larimore added that he would be surprised if he was considered by the search committee.
Other past Dartmouth faculty members and alumni may surface as candidates in the presidential search. The leadership statement specifies that candidates should have "a powerful affinity for and commitment to the mission and values of Dartmouth College."
Gregory Call '81 is currently dean of the faculty at Amherst College, where he is in charge of hiring faculty. The leadership statement emphasizes that the next president will make major decisions about the composition and size of the faculty.
Marye Anne Fox Adv '74 has administrative experience at large research universities, serving as the first female chief executive at North Carolina State University and vice president for research at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently the chancellor at the University of California, San Diego. Her career has been marked by controversy, however, surrounding excessive pay raises to her administration members.
Other higher education administrators with experience in expanding faculty and building graduate programs will also likely be considered for the position.
Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton, who was mentioned in Harvard University's 2006 presidential search, has had extensive experience leading undergraduate and professional schools. He previously served as provost at Massachussetts Institute of Technology.
Cutberto Garza, academic vice provost and dean of faculty at Boston College, is the former vice provost of Cornell University, where he encouraged collaboration between the university's numerous undergraduate programs and professional schools, implementing a university-wide faculty of computational and informational sciences.
Dartmouth Trustee Al Mulley '70, chair of the presidential search committee, would not comment on potential candidates, adding that the committee will try to be as transparent as possible while respecting the confidentiality of possible candidates.
"The issue is that the people that we want to attract into consideration are generally in very good positions now," Mulley said. "For them to be publicly in a search can influence the choices they have in their current positions."
