While some students cite the College's social scene as an issue that should be addressed by the next College president, most said the next administration should focus on strengthening academic programs and the endowment, while also recruiting and retaining faculty, according to the results of a Student Assembly survey. The College began its search for the next president in April following the announcement that former College President Jim Yong Kim would leave the College on June 30 to head the World Bank.
The Assembly forwarded the data to Presidential Search Committee Chair Bill Helman '80 and Vice Chair Diana Taylor '77 in late August, according to summer Student Body President Andrew Longhi '14.
The survey, received by all undergraduate students, garnered 511 responses from members of the Class of 2013, Class of 2014 and Class of 2015, Longhi said.
Its distribution will enable the committee to determine which issues the student body considers most important for the next president to address and what "backgrounds and qualifications" would prove most valuable in a president, summer Student Assembly programming and services chair Eric Yang '14 said.
The survey consisted of seven questions two of which were optional, free-response prompts about administrative policies and qualities of leadership. Respondents used a scale, ranging from "1," most important, to "5," least important, in order to answer the remaining questions.
The survey's rate of response may have been affected by the high number of off-campus students that may have been unable to check their school email accounts during the Summer term, Yang said.
Of the 511 respondents, 88 percent named a commitment to the College's undergraduate focus as the most important quality for the next president, while 86 percent said that the president should demonstrate a willingness to work with the student body.
Many also selected commitment to diversity and inclusion at the student and administrative levels, experience managing a budget and a past connection to Dartmouth as top qualities that the search committee should stress, according to the survey.
The results show that students want the new president to establish trust between the student body and the administration, Longhi said.
"Respondents brought up the lack of consistency in decision-making and transparency in dealings with students, especially in regard to understanding policy," he said.
Many students suggested in the free-response section that the committee should seriously consider female candidates for the position, according to Longhi.
"Many problems pervading this campus from sexual assault to binge drinking to hazing would benefit from a different experience that a female president could bring to the table," Longhi said. "It would also be a fantastic turning point in Dartmouth's history."
Building awareness of and preventing sexual assault, more effectively allocating resources to academic departments, improving faculty advising options and refining on-campus dining services were among the campus issues designated most significant by survey respondents. Assessing the College's drinking and social event policies ranked last in importance among the issues.
Additionally, some respondents suggested that the administration struggles to deal with issues of harassment and abuse in the College's Greek system, Longhi said. Challenging the system's "insularity" can increase campus dialogue and collaboration, he said.
The search committee's presidential position profile, released in the last week of July, reflects similar attributes to the results of the survey and specifically calls for an individual who will recruit top faculty and maintain the College's commitment to undergraduate education. In a change from previous presidential profiles, the document also references the importance of addressing incidents of hazing and sexual assault.
"These issues are real and they are important," Helman said. "Obviously any new president will do their homework and will understand what's going on with Dartmouth."
Helman and Chairman of the Board of Trustees and committee member Steve Mandel '78 also hosted forums for students and faculty on May 17 to solicit input about the selection process, and Helman attended an Assembly meeting on May 8 to discuss the committee's purpose and timeline.
The new College president will assume office on July 1, 2013. Helman said he expects to announce the committee's selection by the end of the 2012 calendar year.
Helman and other members of the search committee could not be reached for comment by press time. Student Body President Suril Kantaria '13, a member of the committee, declined to comment.
