In choosing its next provost, a search that has spanned nearly eight months, the College must decide whether to hire from within its ranks, as it has done historically, or from outside the College — a choice between institutional knowledge and a fresh perspective, experts say.
Interim provost Martin Wybourne has filled the position since July 2012, when former provost Carol Folt began her role as interim College President. He continued in his role when College President Phil Hanlon took office and Folt left to become chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
At Dartmouth, the provost is responsible for the institution’s academic integrity as well as its strategic planning initiatives. Additional duties include managing the budget, leading government relations and overseeing both academic research and College support services.
Though a college provost’s responsibilities vary by institution, the provost typically serves as a chief academic officer and makes key decisions alongside the president. The provost focuses on internal academic affairs, while the president is responsible for relationships with outside organizations, other universities and the government.
Dennis Barden, senior vice president and director of the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer’s higher education practice, said Dartmouth’s past provost selections show a tendency to hire internal candidates.
“Dartmouth has no particular history, or no history within memory, of hiring external candidates as provost,” said Barden, who works with university boards, administrators and search committees in his role at Witt/Kieffer.
Of the College’s 10 provosts since 1967, eight were previously Dartmouth administrators or professors, including former College President James Wright and Folt.
David Evans, a regular blogger on academic hiring for the Chronicle of Higher Education, said that an institution’s desire for change is a key factor in determining whether it would prefer an internal or external candidate.
An external hire can bring change to campus without any prior allegiance or bias, Evans said.
The disadvantage of selecting an external candidate is that the search committee has access to only what papers and interviews reveal about candidates, Evans said. Internal candidates already understand campus culture, which may help them in the selection process.
Evans emphasized, however, that neither type of candidate has a definite advantage over the other.
Evans said an internally selected provost would be a better pairing for Hanlon, who took office July 1. Though Hanlon graduated from Dartmouth in 1977, he became president after spending 27 years at the University of Michigan, where he ultimately served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“Turning over entirely has a risk of loss of institutional knowledge, but it also depends on what [the Board of Trustees] has said to the president,” Evans said. “If the Board has told the president that they want a big change, it will tip the president towards the candidates from outside.”
Hanlon’s experience as provost at the University of Michigan and the fact that he is an alumnus of the College puts him in an interesting position, said Jean Dowdall, who specializes in senior executive higher education searches at Witt/Kieffer.
“He might feel as though he knows Dartmouth well enough that he can hire an outside provost,” Dowdall said. “Or he might say, ‘Listen, I have been at a very different institution, I’ve been at a world-class university but it’s public and I have been away from Dartmouth for a while so I need an inside person who can guide me through complexities of how this place works.’”
Hanlon has told search committee members that he would not necessarily prefer a Dartmouth faculty member over an external candidate, search advisory committee chair Bruce Duthu said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
Yet the distinction between internal and external candidates is not all-encompassing, according to Barden.
“There are certainly plenty of examples of internal candidates who have made some real changes,” he said. “And there are plenty of examples of external candidates who didn’t change anything.”
In searches for college administrators, candidates are judged on a variety of criteria, including past accomplishments, financial sophistication and personal qualities such as trustworthiness, Dowdall said. Whether he or she has prior experience at the institution is just one factor of many.
Internally selected provosts have historically served for a longer time in the role than those who came from outside the College. Whereas internal candidates served for an average of five years, Lee Bollinger and Susan Prager, the two of Dartmouth’s past 10 provosts that did not have a background at the College, each served for fewer than two years.
Duthu has led the search advisory committee in collaboration with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. The committee seeks a provost who will strengthen the undergraduate student experience, invest in faculty recruitment, retention and development, create an inclusive climate of diverse students, faculty members and administrators, promote collaboration between undergraduate and graduate schools and expand research and graduate education.
The new provost will join Hanlon near the beginning of his administration. The selection of four of the College’s past 10 provosts coincided with the inauguration of new presidents. The pairings include Agnar Pytte and David McLaughlin in 1981 and 1982, John Strohbhen and James Freedman in 1987, Constance Brinckerhoff and Wright in 1998 and Folt and Jim Yong Kim in 2009.
This article has been updated to reflect the following correction:Correction appended: January 7, 2014
The original version of this article did not fully identify former provost and Interim President Carol Folt. The story has been revised to correct the error.
