The recent appointment of President-elect Philip Hanlon '77 has prompted discussion across campus about the College's efforts to promote diversity in the administration's highest levels.
While many students and faculty said that Hanlon's experience as an educator and his status as a Dartmouth alumnus make him a strong choice to lead the College, others said that choosing a woman or a member of a minority group could have helped Dartmouth move forward and explore different perspectives.
Former College President Jim Yong Kim was the only exception to a pattern of white male presidents leading Dartmouth, and he was also the first Asian-American president of an Ivy League institution.
Some students expressed concern that Hanlon's background will not lead to progress on social issues that are important to students, and others said they were disappointed that the search committee did not select a woman to lead the College.
"Having another president who is a white male alumnus and a member of a fraternity won't bring the kind of social change that the student body is looking for," Gillian O'Connell '15 said.
While some organizations such as the Office of Pluralism and Leadership may engender change on their own, Hanlon will likely maintain the status quo in the Greek system and other social areas of campus, she said.
Jennifer Davidson '15 said that the recent presidential search could have been an opportunity for the College to make a bold selection.
"This could have been a really good time for Dartmouth to break their typical mold and break outside where they've historically gone, because the president is really the face of the College," Davidson said.
Rachel Funk '15 also said that selecting a president who was female or a member of a minority group would have been an effective way to move Dartmouth forward and lend a "fresh perspective."
"I'm not saying that every problem would be solved if we had a president of a different race or a different sex," she said. "But everyone keeps making these claims that they want to move forward and have this whole idea of diversity, and that's fine but then they have to back that up."
Fermin Liu Ku '15, a Men's Project Fellow at the Center for Women and Gender, said that students might relate better to a president who is not white and male.
"A woman president or a non-white president could definitely steer the College in a different direction," he said. "Especially people from minority groups, they feel that change can happen and that they can relate to that person, so there's really more momentum."
Other students and faculty members said that while a female or non-white president could have been a positive change, Hanlon's selection reflected a process that took into consideration diverse candidates of which Hanlon happened to be the best.
"The easy answer is it's a male-dominated institution and it tends to reproduce itself," English professor Ivy Schweitzer said. "On the other hand, I really want to talk about Dartmouth in the 21st century. I think many people here are enlightened and don't want to reproduce the power dynamic and are open to the best candidate. My sense is that people were open to it, but it just didn't happen."
Schweitzer said that having a president who positively addresses the issues that impact women and minorities is more important than having one who is a member of these groups.
"From a feminist point of view, I don't think a woman is necessarily better than a man, it's who's better on the feminist issues," she said. "With Hanlon, the issue is how attentive and how open will Hanlon be to the issues that really affect women on this campus."
Women and gender studies program chair Annabel Martin also said that the experiences and views of a candidate are more important than his or her gender or ethnicity.
"The categories matter only to a certain extent," she said. "It's that person's preparation, life experiences and sensitivity to these issues that matter more than the boxes you can check in terms of a diversity list."
Women's Forum founder Erin Klein '13 said that when Dartmouth selects a female president, the selection will be based on that woman's credentials and not on her gender.
Students and faculty said that diversity in all high levels of the College's administration is extremely valuable in helping Dartmouth progress and effectively reflect the makeup of the College as a whole.
"I think diversity should be a given," Schweitzer said. "It should be the foundation of our academic community that we're inclusive, that we reflect the diversity of the nation and the world to some extent."
Rather than focus simply on diversity, it is more valuable to focus on the impact that a future administrator would have on the College, Liu Ku said.
"I think [diversity] is really important, but I think it's also important to look past simple factors such as gender or ethnicity or sexual orientation," he said. "I think it's important for administrators to accurately represent students on campus. That's what I would look for in administrators in general."
Schweitzer said that while the College is committed to hiring diverse administrators, meeting that goal is difficult in part because of the location of the College and the fact that many non-white potential employees cannot find a sense of community in the Hanover area.
"I think the commitment is there as an ideal, as an aspiration," she said. "Retention is more problematic because people want to enter into communities and the communities outside of Dartmouth aren't as diverse as they are in cities."
Martin said that while Dartmouth has increased diversity at the College, the progress faces obstacles.
"I think our society is becoming a better society in that it's becoming more diverse, but change is slow," Martin said. "We can't avoid the fact that higher education and most high-ranking positions of authority and power have a male, white, upper-class aura to them. That's just unavoidable. There's still a glass ceiling."
Over the past two years, the Dartmouth community became embroiled in successive debates on administrative diversity following the resignations of former acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears, former acting director of the Center for Women and Gender Samantha Ivery and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Students Colleen Larimore '85 in the winter of 2011.
