New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will speak to the Dartmouth community in the inaugural Dartmouth Presidential Lecture on July 16 in Moore Theater at 11:15 a.m., according to an e-mail sent by College President Jim Yong Kim Friday afternoon. Since the lecture which was initiated by Kim in an effort to reinstate the "Great Issues" course conflicts with the 11 class period, professors interviewed by The Dartmouth said that they will ultimately decide whether to move classes to x-hours to enable student attendance or resume courses during normal time slots.
Follow The Dartmouth July 16 for live coverage of the event.
The lecture series aims to "to provide the entire sophomore class with a shared experience that sparks campus-wide conversation and debate about important issues of the day," Kim wrote to students in the e-mail, and "can be viewed as a first step towards adapting aspects of the legendary Great Issues' concept instituted by [former College] President John Sloan Dickey."
Kim announced on June 25 that he would reinstate a program similar to the Great Issues lecture series instituted by former College President John Sloane Dickey, The Dartmouth previously reported. The series was formerly a mandatory course for seniors.
Due to time constraints in Bloomberg's schedule, series planners could not assign the lecture to a time that did not interfere with classes, Provost Carol Folt said in an e-mail to the faculty on Friday.
Bloomberg, who was elected mayor in 2001, is currently serving his third term in office.
"The Mayor's schedule dictated the timing and unfortunately it conflicts with some scheduled classes," Folt wrote in the e-mail. "In his letter to students, [College President Jim Yong Kim] emphasized that class attendance is their first priority. Students may ask you to reschedule classes to x' periods, but, that is of course your decision."
The planning committee originally tried to set up the lecture at 4:00 p.m. on a Monday so that it wouldn't conflict with classes, Bruce Sacerdote '90, economics professor and one of the series' planners, said.
"As [the planning committee] went through all the details with [Bloomberg], it has become apparent just how incredibly busy he is," he said. "They felt, I think correctly, that it was better to have [Bloomberg] than to not have him at all."
Although the New York Daily News along with other media outlets have speculated that Bloomberg's decision to speak at the College may be a sign of aspirations to run in the 2012 presidential race, Sacerdote says he does not believe that the lecture has anything to do with political ambitions. Administrators at the College initially proposed that Bloomberg address the Dartmouth community as a presidential lecturer, according to Sacerdote.
Linguistics professor Timothy Pulju and government professor Diederik Vandewalle said they plan to reschedule their classes during the 11 time slot to x-hours because students expressed a desire to attend the lecture.
"I got a number of e-mails from students and they asked if it would be possible to schedule class in the x-hour so they could attend Mayor Bloomberg's lecture," Vandewalle said. "I think it's a very good opportunity because it's the initiation of the [lecture] series. I think one of the strengths of Dartmouth is that we can accommodate this type of thing because of the x-hours, so I decided to do it."
The decision of whether or not to reschedule a class was up to the professors' discretion and the faculty were given no indication from the administration one way or the other, Vandewalle said.
Chemistry professor Catherine Welder and computer science professor Afra Zomorodian told The Dartmouth that they do not plan to reschedule their Friday classes and do not plan to make extra accommodations for students who want to attend the lecture.
"I am holding class on Friday and regret that my students will have to choose between this one-time lecture and my course," Welder wrote in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "Life is full of choices and this will be one my students must answer for themselves."
Zomorodian said that he had planned to address the conflict during Monday's lecture if any of his students brought it up, but nobody in the class mentioned it. The class has a homework assignment due on Monday so cancelling Friday's lecture would "totally mess up the schedule," Zomordian said.
Physics professor Robyn Millan said she is still debating whether to cancel her class on Friday, adding that she may poll her students to see how many plan to attend the lecture before making her decision.
"The difficulty is that Summer term is so short that it is very difficult to figure out how to make up the time," Millan said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "I certainly understand that the schedule of such a prominent figure is extremely constrained and I am sure the College gave us as much advanced notice as possible. It is just unfortunate, though, that we couldn't plan the syllabus ahead of time to just cancel that class."
The administration advised faculty to accommodate students who want to attend the lecture "when possible," Sacerdote said.
"It seems like the sensible thing to do you have [Bloomberg] come at whatever time you can get him," he said.
Sacerdote said he hasn't received any feedback or complaints from faculty members regarding the timing of the lecture.
Many students interviewed by The Dartmouth expressed frustration that some professors have chosen not to accommodate students who want to attend the lecture.
"It seems like [the planning committee] would've taken into consideration the large number of people in advanced science classes who are also interested in the Great Issues talks," Sarah Kler '12 said. "I think that science professors already count on their x-hours to fit in the material required for the term. So moving class does not seem like a viable option to them."
Pati de Lucio '12 said she thinks the professors' decision of whether or not to cancel lecture should "depend on the course."
"If it's an 11 where the professor could easily move Friday's class to the x-hour or make up for missed material in the following classes, then I think it makes sense to cancel class to accommodate those who want to attend the lecture," de Lucio said. "However, if the course is fast paced, pressed for time and uses every x-hour, then I could understand why the professor would choose not to cancel class."
It is also up to the faculty's discretion whether to release their 10 time slot classes early, so that students are able to arrive in time for student-only priority seating beginning at 10:45 a.m.. General seating opens to the public at 11:00 a.m..
Several students told The Dartmouth that they plan to leave classes during the 10 time slot early to get priority seating.
"I'm planning on leaving class a bit early to make sure I get a decent seat," de Lucio said. "I think that if they are reasonably able to do so, professors of 10s should end class a few minutes early or allow students who want to attend the lecture to leave early if they wish."
Board of Trustees member and Bloomberg's longtime girlfriend, Diana Taylor '77, played an important role in his decision to speak at the College, Sacerdote said.
In the lecture, Bloomberg will draw from his personal experiences in public service and business, according to a College press release. Kim who will deliver the second lecture of the series on July 29 will discuss the "habits of the mind" that help students succeed in his lecture later this summer, the release stated.
Staff reporter Robert Szypko contributed to the reporting of this article.
