The Board of Trustees met on campus from Sept. 9 to Sept. 11 for its termly meeting and retreat, during which it welcomed five new members. Gregg Engles '79, Marye Anne Fox PhD'74 and James Coulter '82 were elected in June as charter trustees, while Bill Burgess '81 and Gail Boudreaux '82 were elected to the Board in April as alumni trustees.
"The September board meeting serves as a retreat where new members are welcomed and broader institutional topics are discussed," Justin Anderson, director of media relations for The College, said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Discussion largely focused on new and developing teaching techniques in higher education, Anderson said. Trustees discussed how interactive technologies including Livescribe and Pencasts can be used in the classroom setting. Topics also included the importance of interdisciplinary education and how to continue creating opportunities for cross-disciplinary interaction, according to Anderson.
Trustees met with faculty members from a wide variety of academic departments to discuss the changing nature of teaching at the College, according to Anderson. Faculty members led presentations that concentrated on "the important intersection of space, vision and how learning takes place," Anderson said.
The Hopkins Center for the Arts and the theater department collaborated to deliver a presentation titled "The Stage as a Multidisciplinary Laboratory: Learning from the Viscera Experiment" while the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice jointly presented "Master of Health Care Delivery Science: A Hybrid Teaching Model," Anderson said.
Social sciences professors, writing and rhetoric faculty members, and representatives from the psychology and brain science department and the chemistry department similarly presented to the trustees, Anderson said.
Board members also met with trip leaders from the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips program, according to Anderson.
Trustees toured the new Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center and Class of 1953 Commons, both of which are set to open this fall.
The Life Sciences Center is equipped with new technology and spaces that will facilitate "interdisciplinary and collaborative learning," Anderson said.
The Class of 1953 Commons is the College's newest dining facility and can seat over 1,000 people. College President Jim Yong Kim dedicated '53 Commons in a ceremony on Sept. 8, an event attended by the trustees as well as more than 150 alumni and family members of the Class of 1953.
The Class of 1953 Commons will also serve as a "meeting and programming venue" during the evenings, Anderson said. The last significant expansion of social space on campus occurred in 1992 with the renovation of Collis, he said.
Board members participated in the College's Sept. 11 memorial service to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. More than 50 members of the Dartmouth and Upper Valley communities gathered at the ceremony, which was held on the steps of Dartmouth Hall.
All five new trustees joined the Board following Commencement on June 12, Anderson said.
Engles is the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Dean Foods Company. Fox serves as chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, where she is also a chemistry professor. Coulter is a founding partner of the private investment firm TPG Capital.
Boudreaux serves as chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Benefits Businesses and is on the board of the Genzyme Corporation and the Field Museum of Chicago. Burgess is managing general partner at the venture capital firm ABS Ventures, advises emerging growth technology companies and chairs the New England Aquarium board.
