This year's Commencement exercises will mark the end of current College President James Wright's time at the helm of Dartmouth. After 40 years at the College, Wright will step down from his post July 1. Harvard professor Jim Yong Kim a former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS division will then become the 17th member of the Wheelock Succession of Dartmouth presidents.
kim's transition team
Kim's transition process has focused on giving Dartmouth's incoming president the knowledge he needs to truly understand the College, Provost Barry Scherr, chair of the transition team, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Since the March announcement of Kim's selection, Scherr said he has worked to provide Kim with resources to help him learn more about the College.
Each administrative department prepared a summary of important information about its area as well as other materials it felt were necessary for the College president be familiar with, Scherr said.
"My first trip to meet [Kim] in Boston, I was carrying more than ten pounds of materials for Kim to read," he said.
Since the selection, different Dartmouth administrators have travelled to Boston in order to meet with Kim on a weekly basis, Scherr said.
"I have no assumptions about how Dartmouth College works, and with great humility, I'm going to figure out how it works and then see if we can come together around some really inspiring goals," Kim said during a May 27 appearance at the College.
Scherr and Dean of the College Thomas Crady agreed that Kim's background as an anthropologist will enhance his ability to understand Dartmouth and its culture.
Kim will not keep his formal positions at Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital, but intends to continue some of that work informally, Scherr said.
When Kim arrives on campus he will spend the initial period of his presidency further familiarizing himself with the College, Steven Kadish, senior vice president and strategic adviser to Kim, said. Kadish will start at his post June 15, two weeks before Kim takes over.
Because Kim will spend the initial portion of his presidency talking to administrators, faculty and students, he will not necessarily be implementing major initiatives right away, Scherr said.
"I don't expect [Kim] to make a lot of major decisions until he has been here for a while and has gotten to know the place a little better," Scherr said.
Kim has also reached out to several alumni of the College in order to gain more knowledge about the traditions and governance of the College.
"He called both [myself and Association of Alumni President John Mathias '69] separately on his way up to be announced president," Alumni Council President John Daukas '84 said. "He is working to understand what makes Dartmouth such a great place and to preserve that."
Once at Dartmouth, Kim will add two positions in his administration, most likely to be filled by recent Dartmouth graduates, who will serve as "postgraduate interns" and assist Kim on special projects, Scherr said.
One of the initial challenges that Kim will have to face as president is the maintenance of the College's budget in the current economy, Scherr said.
"I think he will have to pay a lot of attention to the budget right from the very start." Scherr said. "I think he will try to put together an agenda, but it may have to be a little more imaginative. I suspect there will be a number of initiatives he will put forward despite the budget climate."
wright's future plans
Wright will stay on the College faculty when he steps down as president July 1.
"I think of myself as a faculty member and as a historian," Wright said, in an interview with The Dartmouth. "I've never stopped thinking that because I have enjoyed that and that's who I am."
For the first year after he steps down from his current post, Wright will be on leave from the College, but will have an office in downtown Hanover. Wright intends to use the space to organize his archives and work on the oral history project that Dartmouth presidents traditionally complete after their time in office.
Wright said he is unsure of his plans following the completion of the project, though he does not intend to return as a full-time teacher because he does not believe that he would be able to meet his own expectations for the quality of Dartmouth faculty members.
"I have been out of my field for 20 years," Wright said. "Students here deserve better than someone reading from yellow lecture notes from the 1980s."
Wright said he might participate in some classes and lectures. He will also expand his efforts to increase the educational opportunities offered to veterans, Wright said.
"I get tremendous satisfaction from everything that I can do to enable veterans with their education," Wright said.
James Wright and his wife, Susan DeBevoise Wright, will move to their home in Sunapee, N.H.
Susan Wright said the next chapter in her life is "yet to be written," although she "can't imagine not working with Dartmouth students." During her thirty years at the College, Susan Wright has served as a dean, assistant director of Career Services and executive director of the Montgomery Endowment.
James Wright said that he and his wife will also spend time with their seven grandchildren after he steps down as College president.
WRIGHT'S LEGACY
Wright's 11-year tenure as president has been marked by construction initiatives, faculty expansion, financial aid expansions and alumni controversy.
During his presidency, Wright oversaw the construction of nine new residence halls, Berry Library, Kemeny Hall, the Haldeman Center and new athletic facilities as well as the renovation of residences including the Ripley-Woodward-Smith residential cluster, Hitchcock Hall and New Hampshire Hall.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Wright called the physical improvements to campus an integral part of his presidency, but also pointed to his efforts to enhance the College's academic environment as a highlight of his tenure.
"I am proud of the buildings and facilities we have constructed over the past 11 years," Wright said. "But really this is about the students and faculty. I am delighted we were able to expand the faculty, have smaller classes and more faculty available to students."
As president, Wright worked to increase the number of tenure-track faculty members, lowering the student-faculty ratio from 10 to 1 in 1998 to 8 to 1 by the end of his presidency.
"There is no doubt that the faculty has grown stronger in the last 10 years," Dean of Faculty Carol Folt said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth, citing an increase in international and interdisciplinary teaching and research throughout Wright's presidency.
The College's financial aid program saw expansion under the Wright administration. In January 2008, the College announced that it would expand the amount of aid offered and would provide free tuition to students from families earning less than $75,000 a year. The College also implemented a need-blind admission policy for international students.
Wright also strove to increase the College's endowment as president. In 2004, he officially launched the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience, an initiative to raise $1.3 billion by the end of 2009.
In his first year as president, Wright launched the Student Life Initiative, which soon became the focus of campus controversy. The initiative sought to make Dartmouth's social scene more coeducational and to decrease excessive drinking by restructuring several aspects of campus life, including the Greek system. The SLI was eventually revised by administrators to include more student feedback and input following student protests that occurred during the 1999 Winter Carnival.
In the later years of Wright's presidency, disputes between alumni and the College took center stage. The Association of Alumni announced that it intended to sue the College over the administration's decision to add eight new seats to the Board of Trustees. The new members would be selected by the Board itself, which some alumni saw as a breach to an 1891 agreement to maintain parity between Board-selected and alumni-elected trustees. The lawsuit was withdrawn in June 2008, after the alumni elected a new Association executive board that was opposed to the legal action, although some alumni independent of the Association brought another similar suit against the College this year.
More recently, Wright has gained national recognition for his work on a new GI Bill, signed into law June 30, 2008, which will increase college scholarships and counseling for veterans.
"I always say I am a historian and I know that I don't get to define my own legacy," Wright said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Throughout his presidency, Wright has sought to maintain involvement in student life at the College, a tendency that likely originates from his background as a professor and dean, President's Intern Sam Kennedy '09 said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"[Wright] likes to get out of the ivory tower a little bit," Kennedy said.
Wright's openness allowed the student body to identify with him as a man beyond his post, Kennedy added.
Dan Nelson, who served as senior assistant to the president for the final year of Wright's presidency, agreed that Wright's focus on the student educational experience enabled him to succeed as College president.
THE SEARCH REQUIREMENTS
In March 2009, just over a year after Wright disclosed that he would step down, the College announced that Kim, a Harvard professor and global health leader, would be inaugurated as Dartmouth's 17th president on July 1, 2009. Kim's selection as president followed calls from the presidential search committee for a president with a commitment to graduate education, knowledge of medical schools and budgetary experience.
A leadership statement released by the presidential search committee in October 2008 called for a leader with "a personal commitment to teaching, an affinity for students and a pleasure in their company."
Kim has previously taught undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, social medicine and global health, and has also performed extensive research on treating drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. He is the co-founder of Partners in Health the international health-care organization profiled in The New York Times bestselling book "Mountains Beyond Mountains.
"In some ways [Kim and I] couldn't be more different in terms of where we come from," Wright said of the pair's disparate career paths, though he added that he and Kim have similar childhood backgrounds.
"We grew up about 100 miles apart in the Mississippi River Valley where we learned our values and how we approach the world," Wright said.
The statement also asked for a new president who had "experience with and a knowledge of academic medical centers," as well as an appreciation for their complex structures.
As chair of Harvard Medical School's department of global health and social medicine, Kim has had more graduate school experience than many previous College presidents. Kim has said he believes this factor may have distinguished him from other candidates in the search, but has emphasized that he will serve as president of the entire institution, not only of Dartmouth Medical School.
"I'm not confused about my job," he said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth. "My job is to focus on undergraduate education."
In a previous interview, Kim also said he was eager to work with graduate and undergraduate faculty members alike.
"Dartmouth faculty do things that other institutions don't think are possible," Kim said, "Which is to reward and incentivize both teaching and research at the highest level."
The leadership statement also called for a president with the ability to maintain strong administrative teams who could "implement ambitious plans with fiscal responsibility." Kim will lead the College at a time of major budgetary constraints.
Kim's budgetary experience includes managing an operating budget of $120 million for WHO's department of HIV/AIDS, and, during his time as executive director of Partners In Health, attracting support from major corporate sponsors including Eli Lilly, the Gates Foundation and the Soros Foundation.
"This is the first time, for me, that I will be able to raise funds among a group that is a natural constituency," Kim said of his upcoming work fundraising for the College.
Carolyn Pelzel, vice president of development, said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth that she is optimistic that donors who have supported Kim's work in the past will now be interested in giving to the College.
Kim graduated from Brown University in 1982 with a major in human biology. He earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1991 and earned his doctorate in anthropology in 1993 from Harvard. Unlike many recent Dartmouth presidents Kim had no strong connection to the College prior to his selection.
While the leadership statement called for someone with a "powerful affinity" for the College, Trustee Al Mulley '70, who chaired the search committee, said this did not necessarily require a previous affiliation to Dartmouth, in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
At the beginning of the search process, Folt created her own criteria for what she felt would be important qualities for the new president, which included an understanding of the mission of Dartmouth, a commitment to academic excellence and an understanding of what is necessary to maintain a strong faculty.
"President-elect Jim Yong Kim certainly fits the bill in every way," Folt said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
In addition to his professorship, Kim also works at several hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School, serving as chief of the division of global health equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital and director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights.
Kim received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2003, and was listed as one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine in 2006 for his work on global epidemics.
Staff writer Hank Nelson contributed to the reporting of this article.
