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The Dartmouth
June 18, 2026
The Dartmouth
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Eleven years see many changes under Freedman

By Jess Jacob | April 7, 1998

This August, College President-elect James Wright will take the helm of a Dartmouth completely transformed under James Freedman's 11-year presidency. Freedman's impact has included a shift from the College's "Animal House" image to a more intellectual one, a successful capital campaign that raised over $586 million, the construction of several new facilities and an increase in women and minority students. Freedman's many accomplishments since his inauguration on July 19, 1987 will certainly leave Wright in a comfortable situation. Back to basics Dartmouth's Board of Trustees selected Freedman as the 15th president of the College with hopes of improving the intellectual atmosphere of a school that ranked as the least academic of the Ivy League institutions. Norman McCulloch '50, who was chairman of the Board of Trustees and the presidential search committee, previously told The Dartmouth this was one of the committee's reasons for choosing Freedman. Freedman was then president of the University of Iowa and had an extensive list of academic degrees -- A.B., LL.B., A.M., L.H.D., LL.D. "The Board felt we needed to refocus on what we're in the business for," McCulloch said. In his inaugural address, Freedman set goals of increasing the College's emphasis on academics and diversity. One of Freedman's major tasks was the first comprehensive overhaul of the Dartmouth curriculum in more than 70 years -- the 1993 revision of Dartmouth degree requirements. Changes to academic programs and departments have included making women's studies a major and creating new programs in linguistics, cognitive science and Latin American and Caribbean studies. As a result of Freedman's efforts, Dartmouth was ranked number one in 1995 in U.S.

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Trustees meet in Boston

By Joseph C. Scott | April 3, 1998

The Board of Trustees will be holding its Spring term meeting in Boston this weekend to address the College's search for a new president. According to Trustee Chairman Stephen Bosworth '61, U.S.

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