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A proposal to establish College-wide professorships -- part of President James Wright's strategic plan draft released last month -- could make Dartmouth the home to a greater number of distinguished scholars, if implemented.
The purpose of the new professorships, according to Wright's report, would be to recruit and retain "faculty of the highest distinction." Such professors, instead of serving a single department, would serve the entire College, and as a result could take on broader, interdisciplinary assignments.
Many other schools already have university-wide professorship positions, and discussions of adding the post to Dartmouth have taken place for years among faculty and administrators, according to Lewis Duncan, dean of the Thayer School of Engineering.
The addition of such professorships would help "ensure that Dartmouth remain an institution at the forefront of ... teaching and research in the United States," according to Provost Barry Scherr.
According to Duncan, College-wide professorships would foster greater study of interdisciplinary issues and raise the level of intellectual debate on campus.
Provost Barry Scherr explained that those granted a College-wide professorship would be "people who have achieved recognition -- very high recognition -- within a particular area [yet] would be known in spheres extending beyond the area of their teaching and writing."
With College-wide professorships, nondepartmental structures such as the Rockefeller and Dickey Centers would grow in prominence, and a greater number of cross-listed courses could be offered, Duncan said.
Duncan also said that the establishment of a College professorship position would not compromise Dartmouth's focus on undergraduates.
"As thought leaders, these scholars would not be particularly worried about being surrounded by graduate students ... They are past that point in their career in that way, and would almost want to go back to undergraduates," he said.
Duncan speculated that donations solicited from benefactors of the College would endow the professorships.
