When College President James Wright spoke at the April 1998 meeting held to announce his selection as the College's 16th president, he stressed his commitment to Dartmouth's financial aid program, a pledge he has continued to work to fulfill throughout his tenure. In addition to financial aid reform, Wright's presidency has been marked by controversial social initiatives and alumni lawsuits, as well as improvements to residential life and construction efforts.
Wright has held a position at the College for almost 40 years, serving as a history professor, dean of the faculty, provost before he became president in 1998.
Wright's efforts to revamp financial aid at the College came to fruition in January 2008 with the College's announcement that students from families earning less then $75,000 per year would be able to attend Dartmouth tuition-free. The plan, which Wright called "the strongest in the nation" at the time, also replaced all student loans with scholarships and provided need-blind admission to international students.
As president, Wright has overseen a number of changes to the College's infrastructure, including the construction of Fahey and McLane residence halls and the McLaughlin residential cluster, as well as the renovation of Alumni Gymnasium. Additionally, Wright managed the replacement of Gerry and Bradley Halls -- or the "shower towers" -- with Kemeny Hall and the Haldeman Center.
The Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building, the Class of 1953 Commons and the Visual Arts Center entered planning phases during Wright's presidency. The Class of 1953 Commons and the Visual Arts Center are currently being reviewed to determine their feasibility in light of the College's announced budget cuts, as of January.
The number of undergraduate applications to the College increased during Wright's presidency, growing from 10,165 for the Class of 2004 to 17,768 for the Class of 2013.
Wright also helped to launch the College's capital campaign, the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, which solicits donations to further academic enterprise, residential and campus life and financial aid. The campaign, which aims to raise $1.3 billion, had secured $1.157 billion as of January 2009.
The early years of Wright's presidency were marked by a strong critical reaction to the Student Life Initiative, a plan announced in 1999. The SLI, which banned the formation of new, single-sex Greek organizations at the College, sparked protest among students and alumni who saw the initiative as an attack on the Greek system.
Following the SLI's announcement, approximately 1,000 students marched in protest to Wright's lawn, and Greek organizations canceled their planned Winter Carnival activities for that year. The College repealed the moratorium on the formation of new, single-sex Greek organization in 2005, but components of the SLI, including stricter keg policies and a ban on permanent taps in Greek organizations' physical plants, remain today.
The SLI was never intended to abolish the Greek system, Wright told The Dartmouth in an interview last year, but rather to make Dartmouth's social life more inclusive. The backlash was the result of miscommunication about the SLI's intent, Wright said in the interview.
Wright had been working to reform social life even before assuming the presidency. In 1987, then a history professor, Wright drafted what came to be known as the "Wright Report," which argued that social life on campus should be less influenced by alcohol and Greek life.
Throughout his tenure, Wright has sought to strike a balance between the undergraduate focus of the College and its role as a research institution. Early in his tenure, Wright came under fire for comments made in his inaugural address about the nature of that balance.
"Dartmouth is a research university in all but name," Wright said in his address. "Research in the academy is not a pastime that competes with teaching, but a critical activity that informs the best teaching."
Alumni controversy has marked Wright's later years. In 2006, alumni groups proposed changes that would have combined the Association of Alumni and the Dartmouth Alumni Council to form one Alumni Association.
The changes, which alumni voted down, also sought to require petition candidates to the College's Board of Trustees to announce their candidacies before Council-nominated candidates -- who traditionally have been much more supportive of College policies -- made their announcements.
A 2007 lawsuit filed by the Association sought to ban the proposed addition of eight additional trustee-appointed positions to the Board. The lawsuit was ultimately withdrawn after candidates critical of the legal action won election to all of the Association's leadership positions, but several alumni filed a second lawsuit in 2008. That suit is still ongoing.
Some of Wright's recent work has focused on helping veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pursue higher education, at Dartmouth and at other colleges. Wright spearheaded a program in which college counselors help wounded soldiers at veterans' hospitals. His work earned him the New Englander of the Year Award from the New England Council in 2007.
After retiring this June, Wright has said he will continue to work with veterans and to study history. Wright and his wife, Susan DeBovoise Wright, will not stray too far from the College.
"We'll be in the neighborhood," Susan Wright told The Dartmouth in January.
