Students called for greater transparency regarding acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears' decision not to be considered for permanent deanship in a letter e-mailed to campus on Tuesday morning. The letter, which also includes an online petition, was sent to campus with the signatures of 354 students.
A total of 613 students had signed the petition as of 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Physical copies of the letter were circulated among various Dartmouth students for signatures before it was electronically sent out to campus.
The letter's eight writers also appealed for increased member diversity of the selection committee that will hire the new dean.
The writers stated that the letter was an "appeal for greater transparency regarding the circumstances surrounding [Spears'] decision to opt out of the applicant pool for permanent deanship." They called Spears an "invaluable force" in the College administration and a "second-to-none" student advisor. The letter praised Spears' approximately three-year tenure at the College, citing her work as the director of the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and the initiatives she spearheaded while serving as acting dean.
The letter also questioned the composition of the 10-person search committee chosen to select candidates for the permanent dean position. The membership of the committee, which is chaired by Dean of the Faculty Michael Mastanduno and consists of administrators, faculty members and students, is "still less than satisfactory," the letter stated. The search committee does not accommodate non-Greek students, students from minority groups or students from "across the sexuality spectrum," according to the letter.
"We want to see people from all different communities," Amrita Sankar '12, a co-writer of the letter and member of Student Assembly Diversity Committee, said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "We personally feel that [including only] two students in itself is not doing justice to the role of dean of the College."
Panhellenic Council President Anna Sonstegard '11 and Student Body President Eric Tanner '11 serve as student representatives on the search committee. Sonstegard declined to comment, referring requests to comment to the Office of Public Affairs.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, the co-writers of the letter commended Spears for the voice she gave to various communities around campus, as well as her ability to make the required budget cuts with minimal disturbance to students.
"She made decisions that would least affect students," Katie Lindsay '11 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Even students who haven't had this personal interaction with Dean Spears, who can speak to her ability to really connect with students and mentor students, have been positively affected because of those decisions."
Lindsay is the chair of the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, co-writers Sankar, Lindsay, Anise Vance '11 and Sebastian DeLuca '14 called for the addition of five students to the search committee.
"We're not saying we as [co-writers] want to choose the next dean and we're not recommending who we think the dean should be," DeLuca said. "We just want to make sure the process is running well overall."
Vance said his motivation for creating the petition was three-fold.
"The first [factor] was that the general consensus from students who had been around [Spears] and from administrators who had been around [Spears] pre-December was that, in an ideal world, she would want to stay at Dartmouth and so her decision to opt out was a little bit strange," he said.
Vance said he was also concerned with the timing of Spears' announcement of her departure from her position as acting dean of the College. A typical national search for an upper-level position such as Spears' would have begun as early as August and the candidate selection would normally be announced in January, Vance said.
Vance said he found it "odd" that Spears had not secured employment prior to announcing that she would not seek the deanship. Spears' previous position as director of OPAL was eliminated as a budget-cutting measure, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Spears' replacement will be the fourth person to serve as dean or acting dean in the last five years. The co-writers of the letter voiced concern regarding the effect of the turnover on institutional memory and the implementation of new initiatives coming from the Dean of the College's Office.
Co-writers said they do not know why Spears is opting out of consideration for permanent deanship. Sankar, Lindsay, Vance and DeLuca said they would respect her decision if it is for personal reasons, but cited Tom Crady's abrupt departure from the position two years ago as a departure that lacked transparency.
"Crady gave personal reasons, but after he left said it was bureaucratic gridlock," Vance said.
The letter stated that the circumstances surrounding Spears' refusal to seek the permanent position were "hazy."
Justin Varilek '11, Aryana Jacobs '11, Angelo Carino '11 and Antonio Brown '11 were listed along with Sankar, Vance, Lindsay and DeLuca as the letter's primary signatories.
The co-writers said they were pleased with the rapid student response to the petition over 400 students had already signed the petition by 4 a.m. on Tuesday. Students interviewed, however, had mixed opinions of the letter, and several said that they either did not read the e-mail or did not know enough about the issues or Spears to sign the petition.
Marissa Wizig '14, who did not sign the petition, said she had not given Spear's announcement much thought, but found the letter's "pushy" tone troubling.
"I don't have a position on [Spears], but I thought [the letter] sounded very reactionary," she said.
Other students were more supportive of the letter's aims and content. Emma Smith '13 said that she thought the letter was "right on" point in asking for more representation in the committee, and that she agreed with its position on Spears.
"I liked that there was support actively voiced for [Spears]," she said. "I really like her she's really friendly when you talk to her."
