Shortly after the College announced it would conduct a nationwide search for a permanent dean of the College earlier this week, acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears said she would not apply for the position ("Spears to leave deanship in June," Jan. 7). Her decision leaves the College with two options: promote an administrator from within our community, or hire a candidate who is new to Dartmouth. Because the challenges facing the new dean stem from the College's unique campus culture, it is critical that every effort be made to hire from within.
Recent campus dialogue has centered around the issues of sexual assault and alcohol abuse at the College. Although these problems persist at schools across the country, Dartmouth's geographic isolation, small student body and emphasis on gendered social spaces have an effect on student life that is replicated at few, if any, other colleges. Candidates from other schools with one-size-fits-all solutions will make little progress to resolve issues that we have been grappling with for years.
We cannot afford to lose momentum by hiring a dean who will need additional time to become familiar with ongoing policy changes, such as recent updates to the Social Events and Management Procedures ("Admins. discuss SEMP revisions," Jan. 5). Outside candidates are at an obvious disadvantage to internal candidates in their ability to understand these issues in the context of Dartmouth social life. Administrators and faculty members who have been at Dartmouth for years better comprehend the challenges that our overwhelmingly Greek social scene creates. They would also be familiar with successes and failures of approaches taken in the past.
Let's try our best not to subject ourselves to repeating the same processes that have so far failed to produce tangible change: studies, discussion panels, fruitless meetings between student leaders and administrators. Literature and research can be outsourced institutional memory cannot be recruited. Every effort must be made to appoint a permanent dean of the College who will not arrive on campus as a stranger.
Unfortunately, it is highly possible that a qualified candidate will not be found among the ranks of Dartmouth's faculty and administrators even outside of our community, someone capable of excelling in such a complex and demanding role is rare. Of course, this fact will not deter the search committee members from conducting a thorough investigation, but it is our hope that it will inspire them to look more creatively at the talent we have at home.
