The Elevator Talk

Alumni Council meetings provide council members with lots of information. Here is a brief summary (see below for details on each item):

• Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88 are the Alumni Council’s choices to fill the two alumni-nominated seats on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. There are likely to be petition candidates also nominated for each open seat in the election this spring. Cast your ballot between March 10 and April 7.
• The 100th anniversary of the Dartmouth Outing Club has been a huge success. Alumni attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail in a day, and 94 percent of the freshman class took freshmen trips.
• The Dickey Center for International Understanding is putting Dartmouth at the forefront of preparing leaders to understand global problems and develop the complex strategies for tackling them.
• Dartmouth is No. 1 in undergraduate teaching among “national universities” (U.S. News & World Report). Our rank on the “national universities” list is affected by “peer assessment,” which can be influenced by unattractive publicity and the changing opinions of academicians.
• The Visual Arts Center, paid for by a $50 million anonymous gift, “is making a statement about the centrality of the arts at Dartmouth,” says associate dean Kate Conley.
• The strategy to make up for the 19.6 percent drop, 23 percent overall, in the value of the endowment is to make the tough cuts this year and build for a quick revival.
• Alumni interviews of applicants are more important now than ever, not only in the selection process but also in building the Dartmouth brand. Please volunteer to do interviews in your area.
• The Dartmouth Alumni Award was presented to Matt Dwyer ’75 and the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award was presented to Belinda Chiu ’98.
  vAlums can send their thoughts to the trustees through the Alumni Liaison Committee. (Please put a subject in the header field.)
• Want to know more? Visit the Dartmouth YouTube channel.

Trustee Nominees Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88

Tom Daniels ’82, chair of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee, gave a rundown on the exhaustive, two-year process that his committee went through to finalize nominees for the two spots on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.

More than 400 alumni profiles were reviewed in the course of 14 meetings held by the 11-person Nominating Committee over the past year. The search criteria included: excellence in one’s chosen field, bringing a unique skill set that would be accretive to the existing board, previous board experience, a commitment to Dartmouth and higher education, and willingness to serve.

The committee contacted and interviewed their candidate finalists. For some, it was not the right time in their careers or family lives to devote the vast amount of time it takes to serve as a trustee. The entire process was carried out with an emphasis on discretion, making sure no rumors of potential nominees leaked out to embarrass the many fine candidates who were considered. (Tom’s presentation is posted on line).

With that, Tom introduced the committee’s nominees, Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88. For the first time ever, the trustee nominees attended the meeting.

Kondracke brings more than 40 years of experience as a national journalist, who prior to his current role as executive editor of Roll Call, worked for The New Republic and Newsweek and was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group and The Beltway Boys. He was a frequent guest on This Week with David Brinkley and Meet the Press. He has been on the editorial board of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and, while at Dartmouth, was president of The Dartmouth. He is also on the boards of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, The Parkinson’s Action Network, and Communities in Schools for the Nation’s Capital.

John Replogle, president and CEO of Burt’s Bees, a leading global personal care company, brings more than 20 years of experience in business, operations, finance, marketing and strategy. Previously, he was GM of Unilever’s Skin Care and Operating Executive Committee and president of Guinness Brewing in the United States and U.K. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group. He is considered a leader in sustainability and an expert in corporate social responsibility. He has been a class officer; was a member of Bones Gate, Student Assembly, and WDCR/WFRD; and rowed on the crew team. He is also on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, the Ravenscroft School, Terracycle, and Duke University Corporate Sustainability Initiative.

Kondracke said that this is a good time in his life to give back to the College. He says he will be an “independent trustee.” He hopes for an era of civil discussion of disagreements among alumni. “President Kim’s new administration is a great opportunity for a fresh start,” said Kondracke, who noted he supports Kim’s vision for Dartmouth. He envisions himself working on communications as a trustee: “We need to do a lot more to make the country aware of what a great institution this is.” He yearns for “unity rather than divisiveness, positive versus negative, negotiation rather than lawsuit filing.” (Kondracke has his own website with a link to a Facebook page from there.)

Replogle was a cradle and sibling member of the Dartmouth family, and sees Dartmouth as a family that values and respects different points of view. He hopes to bring his skills and abilities expertise to bear on three dimensions of Dartmouth: its finances, educational mission, and sense of place. He embraces the vision of opening our students’ eyes to global perspectives and issues, of embracing the special location that is an inherent part of Dartmouth, and to the task of bringing discipline and rigor to the College’s budget and finances. (Replogle has a website with a link to a Facebook page from there.

Because petition trustee candidates are anticipated, only one nomination was made per open seat, ensuring that head-to-head elections can be held (this was the strong preference of alumni, based on the 82 percent vote in favor of changes to the Association of Alumni constitution last year that simplified trustee elections). The election will take place between March 10 and April 7.

The official election website has bios for Mort and John posted and details about the election. It was emphasized by councilors again and again that the alumni should vote in this election.

The DOC at 100

The Alumni Council had a rousing evening at the DOC House, with talks by three DOC leaders, instruction in the Salty Dog Rag, and a practical application with help from a Bluegrass Band. There was significant controversy about how many decades students had been dancing the Salty Dog Rag. Ninety-four percent of the Class of 2013 took part in freshman trips.

On October 10, the 100th anniversary of the DOC, alums participated in “AT in a Day,” hiking pretty much the entire Appalachian Trail in segments. In many cases, it was an occasion for alums from different eras to meet as they did their parts of the trail.

At the Forefront of Educating Global Citizens

Ken Yalowitz, director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, talked to the council about how he and his colleagues carry out their mission of “educating global citizens who are well versed in key issues and have a commitment to do something about those issues.”

Yalowitz, a former ambassador and faculty member at Georgetown and American University, has been at the Dickey Center for seven years. He described the international challenges of:

• the global economic crisis
• terrorism (and two wars)
• global health
• climate change
• the environment.

The main tool the Dickey Center brings to bear on these challenges is the liberal arts education. So the Dickey folks do what they can to:

• support the international-oriented parts of the liberal arts curriculum,
  e.g., Dartmouth is offering Swahili and an International Studies minor
• teach students to think critically, rigorously, and rationally,
• help integrate new information and knowledge, and
• provide opportunities for learning outside of the classroom.

The Dickey Center provides international settings for non-credit learning, including internships at U.S. embassies (places to conduct research for honors theses). It supports 10 student groups on campus and research in areas such as war and peace, Arctic studies, and global health. “The demand is exceeding supply,” said Yalowitz, who pointed to several reasons for that demand, including President Kim and his international vision, the new administration in Washington, and an emphasis among young people on humanitarian issues and social justice issues.

Each year there are 40 Great Issues Fellows who are sent to faraway places. This year they had 170 applications from the freshman class. “We try to send students to places where they will be out of their comfort zone,” says Yalowitz, who gave the example of a group that had a two-hour boat ride across Lake Tanganyika to spend six weeks in a village in Tanzania with no electricity, no running water, and no automobiles. “They got used to it and did very well.”

Yalowitz noted that Dartmouth’s graduate schools are committed on the international side. Tuck has an international business program that emphasizes social consciousness.

Visit the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.

“We’re Number One!” David Spalding ’76 on College Rankings

Like the BCS, AP, and UPI college football rankings, magazine rankings of colleges and universities are created to spark controversy and sell magazines. Every now and then a magazine like U.S. News & World Report gets it exactly right, as it did this past year when it ranked Dartmouth first for Undergraduate Teaching at National Universities.

On other lists, Dartmouth has the challenge of being both fish and fowl, offering a rich undergraduate experience comparable to those (like Amherst and Williams) at the top of the “Liberal Arts Colleges” while having the resources that put us on the “National Universities” list.

On the National Universities list, said David Spalding ’76, vice president of Alumni Relations, our ranking can bump up or down a place or two as a result of “peer assessment.” This ranking can be affected by unattractive publicity, lawsuits, etc. Happily, it can also be affected by actual achievements by the students and faculty.

For example, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice is world renowned for its “outcomes research.” As President Kim likes to note, its studies on shared decision-making in doctor-patient relationships, are “at the forefront of the national debate on health care, cited regularly by both sides.”

Updates from the Acting Dean of the College and Dean Conley on the Visual Arts Center

Acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears spoke of embracing President Kim’s challenge to prepare students to be leaders who will take on the biggest problems that exist in the world today.

Spears described her practical challenge: to align her division of 500 employees to “challenge and support students to be ethical, engaged, and accountable citizens and leaders.”

Associate Dean Kate Conley described the Visual Arts Center, which is being built, despite the economic downturn, because of an anonymous $50 million gift, and should be finished in three years. “This visual arts center,” said Conley, “is making a statement about the centrality of the arts at Dartmouth.”

When it’s done, it will create a very beautiful “Arts Precinct” of the Hop, the Hood Museum, and the Visual Arts Center, with a courtyard onto Lebanon Street.

President Kim and David Spalding on the Budget

David Spalding ran through a budget-planning presentation with the Alumni Council, and President Kim followed up with comments the next day.

Because of the decline in the endowment, Dartmouth will reduce its workforce, examine staff and faculty salaries, slow or freeze the hiring of staff and faculty, and halt capital expansion (except for the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building, which was already under way, and the Visual Arts Center, which has been paid for by an anonymous gift for that purpose).

The main strategy approved by the board of trustees is to do the necessary restructuring now to enable a rapid recovery over the next five years. This strategy minimizes risk and reduces volatility. But it does mean that there will be cuts. They will be strategic, not across-the-board cuts.

In his discussion with the Alumni Council, President Kim said that “cuts will not be as severe among the faculty, because that is core to the Dartmouth experience.” He had heard some arguments that this was not fair to the staff, but Kim said, “This is not a social justice issue.” The College will be looking for administrative efficiencies and business practices as cost savers.

Link to President Kim’s budget presentation to the College:

Admissions Office Workshop: Alumni Interviews Make a Difference

The Alumni Council’s Enrollment and Admissions Committee organized an informative Admissions workshop for all councilors. Councilors heard from Dan Parish ’89 and Colleen Wearn ’06 of the Admissions Office and Jeff Solomon ’91, who is the district enrollment director, or DED (the alumni interview coordinator) in Las Vegas.

Dan ran through the numbers, which are basically that we end up turning away nine out of ten applicants. Dan made the point that there were 10,475 interviews last year (58 percent of the applicants). He said that this is “incredible corporate outreach,” and that each interview is a marketing opportunity, a chance to convey in a real and meaningful way what Dartmouth is all about, even to the vast majority of applicants who will not end up in Hanover.

Jeff Solomon said he looks for passion in the kids he interviews. “It can be about almost anything,” he says, “sports, projects, art, whatever.” And he likes to listen. “I learn as much from the kids from what they ask as what they answer.”

The Admissions people are very grateful for the efforts of the 7,100 alumni interviewers and the care and detail the alumni put into these interviews and the write-ups. Dan encouraged alumni to sign up to volunteer in their areas and to bear in mind what a powerful opportunity interviewers have to demonstrate the value of Dartmouth’s unique undergraduate experience to everyone who applies.

One question came from Annette Gordon-Reed ’81, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello, among other books, who teaches at NYU Law School and Rutgers and lives on the West Side of Manhattan. She mentioned that often the kids she interviews are way too polished. Annette asked Dan how best to get them off their talking points. Dan said more or less that it is the interviewer’s art to get the most genuine glimpse of the person possible, and that’s why the alumni interview can be so valuable to them.

In other areas of the country, applicants can be less prepared for interviews of this kind, especially ones in which alums break into tears recounting fond memories of freshman trips, walks across the Green on 20-below mornings and favorite professors from days gone by. (President Kim likes to say that “it takes only five minutes to make an alum cry.”)

The Dartmouth alumni interview can be a learning opportunity for the applicant, not only about the Dartmouth ethos and what it has to offer but also in how to conduct a meaningful interview and conversely how to do well in an interview.

In a remarkably revealing presentation, Colleen Wearn ran through three real, slightly disguised applicants to show us how the alumni interview truly helped the “readers” make decisions.

Among other things, the alumni interview can

1. Help confirm what the application seems to indicate.
2. Assuage certain fears or misgivings the readers may have.
3. Show that, despite good grades and test scores, an applicant may not have the thirst for learning that they are really looking for.

Anecdotes, details, and examples that interviewers give to back up their impressions of the kids are the most helpful to the folks in Admissions. They bring the kids to life and ring true to the readers.

Remember: Dartmouth no longer offers on-campus interviews, so alumni interviews are the only face-to-face impressions the Admissions Office gets.

You can easily volunteer for alumni interviewing
here. Click on the “Sign up for Interviewing” link on the right hand side of the page. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kathy Nichols in the Admissions Office at (603) 646-3368.

Lunch with Amanda Wheelock ’13

The discussion of alumni interviews inspired one council member to follow up on an interviewee, Amanda Wheelock ’13, over lunch.

Amanda went to Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga. (She is a second cousin eight times removed of Eleazar; her (8 greats) great-grandfather was the pious one’s second cousin.) She valued the information and perspective on Dartmouth that she got in her alumni interview.

She (amusingly) contrasted it with a couple of other alumni interviews, including one in which she got “about three words in edgewise” and was discouraged from her idealistic goals of going into the international service and helping the world. Since this is the very vision of President Kim (by way of John Sloan Dickey), she is especially sure that she is in the right place.

One thing that has been important to Amanda is the warmth and welcoming feeling given by everyone, starting with the DOC’s freshman trip welcoming crews in crazy outfits and multicolored hair and continuing through the Ultimate Frisbee team.

She will be doing LSA in Barcelona and FSP probably in Prague. She is looking forward to the “Great Issues” course, which will be revived in time for their sophomore summer. She is taking Geography 1 (which is so interesting that she may want to major in geography) and Health Care in American Society: History and Current Issues from Allen Koop (son of C. Everett). Her freshman seminar is on 20th century revolutions in the sociology department focusing on Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.

Back to the Classroom

The Alumni Council’s Academic Affairs Committee coordinated three faculty lectures for alumni councilors, providing them with their choice from the following three topics:

Dr. Joseph Rosen, professor of surgery at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and an adjunct professor of engineering and senior lecturer spoke on “Are We Prepared for this Pandemic?”

Lorie Loeb, research associate professor and director of the digital arts minor in computer science, gave a talk on “GreenLite Dartmouth: Unplug or the Polar Bear Gets It!” She described the ever-growing problem of energy “vampires,” the electronic machines that use a surprising amount of electricity while not in use.

Kevin Reinhart, associate professor of religion, Asian, and Middle Eastern studies, spoke on “Understanding Islamists,” and provided an overview of historic and contemporary Islam.

Trustee Sherri Oberg ’82, Tu ’86 : Impressions after a Year

Sherri Oberg ’82, Tu’86 became a trustee in September 2008. She noted that the board has fiduciary responsibility for the strategic direction of the College. She found the trustees to be dedicated and passionate about Dartmouth.

Among other committee assignments, she chairs the Health Sciences Committee, for which she has broad and varied experience. Diana Taylor ’77 is chairing the Audit Committee, and Steve Roth ’62, Tu’63 is chairing the Finance Committee. These are examples of specific expertise being applied to board of trustees’ responsibilities. Oberg was impressed by the expertise that Jeff Immelt ’78 brought to board policy making, not surprising from his years as CEO of GE. She did not mention Immelt’s experience blocking for her husband, Curt Oberg ’78, on the Big Green football team.

Dartmouth Alumni Technology and Social Networking

The Alumni Council’s Communications Committee participated in a presentation to councilors about Dartmouth alumni technology resources and social networking. Panelists included Mike Backman, director of Alumni Information Resources, and Sarah Jackson-Han ’88, vice-chair of the Communications Committee and, in her “real life” news director of Radio Free Asia. Sarah encouraged councilors to participate in the Alumni Council Facebook group and Mike navigated through some of the online resources available to alumni (see list of links at the end of this summary).

ROTC on Campus

David Spalding ’76 discussed the state of ROTC on campus. Dartmouth is one of four Ivies to allow ROTC students to train on campus.

Twelve students are currently enrolled in the ROTC program at Dartmouth. Of these participants, seven have signed on for an eight-year military commitment after graduation. Contracted students receive scholarships from the government for four years of tuition, a book stipend and an additional $300 to $500 per month.

An article in The D discussed the situation in detail.

Alumni Liaison Committee

The Alumni Council helps communicate alumni opinions to the board of trustees. The Alumni Liaison Committee (ALC) has formalized that function by establishing a process by which all alumni input is tallied and sent along to the trustees. All alumni councilors are asked to forward input from their constituents to the ALC with the general subject matter placed in the header field (e.g., academics, admissions, alumni governance, athletics, and so on).

Last year’s input was compiled in a report and delivered to the trustees, who say it is extremely valuable and helpful. “We really pay attention to the feedback we’re getting,” said Ed Haldeman ’70, chair of the board of trustees.

The Elevator Talk

Alumni Council meetings provide council members with lots of information. Here is a brief summary (see below for details on each item):

• Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88 are the Alumni Council’s choices to fill the two alumni-nominated seats on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. There are likely to be petition candidates also nominated for each open seat in the election this spring. Cast your ballot between March 10 and April 7.
• The 100th anniversary of the Dartmouth Outing Club has been a huge success. Alumni attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail in a day, and 94 percent of the freshman class took freshmen trips.
• The Dickey Center for International Understanding is putting Dartmouth at the forefront of preparing leaders to understand global problems and develop the complex strategies for tackling them.
• Dartmouth is No. 1 in undergraduate teaching among “national universities” (U.S. News & World Report). Our rank on the “national universities” list is affected by “peer assessment,” which can be influenced by unattractive publicity and the changing opinions of academicians.
• The Visual Arts Center, paid for by a $50 million anonymous gift, “is making a statement about the centrality of the arts at Dartmouth,” says associate dean Kate Conley.
• The strategy to make up for the 19.6 percent drop, 23 percent overall, in the value of the endowment is to make the tough cuts this year and build for a quick revival.
• Alumni interviews of applicants are more important now than ever, not only in the selection process but also in building the Dartmouth brand. Please volunteer to do interviews in your area.
• The Dartmouth Alumni Award was presented to Matt Dwyer ’75 and the Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award was presented to Belinda Chiu ’98.
  vAlums can send their thoughts to the trustees through the Alumni Liaison Committee. (Please put a subject in the header field.)
• Want to know more? Visit the Dartmouth YouTube channel.

Trustee Nominees Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88

Tom Daniels ’82, chair of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee, gave a rundown on the exhaustive, two-year process that his committee went through to finalize nominees for the two spots on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.

More than 400 alumni profiles were reviewed in the course of 14 meetings held by the 11-person Nominating Committee over the past year. The search criteria included: excellence in one’s chosen field, bringing a unique skill set that would be accretive to the existing board, previous board experience, a commitment to Dartmouth and higher education, and willingness to serve.

The committee contacted and interviewed their candidate finalists. For some, it was not the right time in their careers or family lives to devote the vast amount of time it takes to serve as a trustee. The entire process was carried out with an emphasis on discretion, making sure no rumors of potential nominees leaked out to embarrass the many fine candidates who were considered. (Tom’s presentation is posted on line).

With that, Tom introduced the committee’s nominees, Mort Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88. For the first time ever, the trustee nominees attended the meeting.

Kondracke brings more than 40 years of experience as a national journalist, who prior to his current role as executive editor of Roll Call, worked for The New Republic and Newsweek and was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group and The Beltway Boys. He was a frequent guest on This Week with David Brinkley and Meet the Press. He has been on the editorial board of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and, while at Dartmouth, was president of The Dartmouth. He is also on the boards of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, The Parkinson’s Action Network, and Communities in Schools for the Nation’s Capital.

John Replogle, president and CEO of Burt’s Bees, a leading global personal care company, brings more than 20 years of experience in business, operations, finance, marketing and strategy. Previously, he was GM of Unilever’s Skin Care and Operating Executive Committee and president of Guinness Brewing in the United States and U.K. He began his career at The Boston Consulting Group. He is considered a leader in sustainability and an expert in corporate social responsibility. He has been a class officer; was a member of Bones Gate, Student Assembly, and WDCR/WFRD; and rowed on the crew team. He is also on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, the Ravenscroft School, Terracycle, and Duke University Corporate Sustainability Initiative.

Kondracke said that this is a good time in his life to give back to the College. He says he will be an “independent trustee.” He hopes for an era of civil discussion of disagreements among alumni. “President Kim’s new administration is a great opportunity for a fresh start,” said Kondracke, who noted he supports Kim’s vision for Dartmouth. He envisions himself working on communications as a trustee: “We need to do a lot more to make the country aware of what a great institution this is.” He yearns for “unity rather than divisiveness, positive versus negative, negotiation rather than lawsuit filing.” (Kondracke has his own website with a link to a Facebook page from there.)

Replogle was a cradle and sibling member of the Dartmouth family, and sees Dartmouth as a family that values and respects different points of view. He hopes to bring his skills and abilities expertise to bear on three dimensions of Dartmouth: its finances, educational mission, and sense of place. He embraces the vision of opening our students’ eyes to global perspectives and issues, of embracing the special location that is an inherent part of Dartmouth, and to the task of bringing discipline and rigor to the College’s budget and finances. (Replogle has a website with a link to a Facebook page from there.

Because petition trustee candidates are anticipated, only one nomination was made per open seat, ensuring that head-to-head elections can be held (this was the strong preference of alumni, based on the 82 percent vote in favor of changes to the Association of Alumni constitution last year that simplified trustee elections). The election will take place between March 10 and April 7.

The official election website has bios for Mort and John posted and details about the election. It was emphasized by councilors again and again that the alumni should vote in this election.

The DOC at 100

The Alumni Council had a rousing evening at the DOC House, with talks by three DOC leaders, instruction in the Salty Dog Rag, and a practical application with help from a Bluegrass Band. There was significant controversy about how many decades students had been dancing the Salty Dog Rag. Ninety-four percent of the Class of 2013 took part in freshman trips.

On October 10, the 100th anniversary of the DOC, alums participated in “AT in a Day,” hiking pretty much the entire Appalachian Trail in segments. In many cases, it was an occasion for alums from different eras to meet as they did their parts of the trail.

At the Forefront of Educating Global Citizens

Ken Yalowitz, director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, talked to the council about how he and his colleagues carry out their mission of “educating global citizens who are well versed in key issues and have a commitment to do something about those issues.”

Yalowitz, a former ambassador and faculty member at Georgetown and American University, has been at the Dickey Center for seven years. He described the international challenges of:

• the global economic crisis
• terrorism (and two wars)
• global health
• climate change
• the environment.

The main tool the Dickey Center brings to bear on these challenges is the liberal arts education. So the Dickey folks do what they can to:

• support the international-oriented parts of the liberal arts curriculum,
  e.g., Dartmouth is offering Swahili and an International Studies minor
• teach students to think critically, rigorously, and rationally,
• help integrate new information and knowledge, and
• provide opportunities for learning outside of the classroom.

The Dickey Center provides international settings for non-credit learning, including internships at U.S. embassies (places to conduct research for honors theses). It supports 10 student groups on campus and research in areas such as war and peace, Arctic studies, and global health. “The demand is exceeding supply,” said Yalowitz, who pointed to several reasons for that demand, including President Kim and his international vision, the new administration in Washington, and an emphasis among young people on humanitarian issues and social justice issues.

Each year there are 40 Great Issues Fellows who are sent to faraway places. This year they had 170 applications from the freshman class. “We try to send students to places where they will be out of their comfort zone,” says Yalowitz, who gave the example of a group that had a two-hour boat ride across Lake Tanganyika to spend six weeks in a village in Tanzania with no electricity, no running water, and no automobiles. “They got used to it and did very well.”

Yalowitz noted that Dartmouth’s graduate schools are committed on the international side. Tuck has an international business program that emphasizes social consciousness.

Visit the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.

“We’re Number One!” David Spalding ’76 on College Rankings

Like the BCS, AP, and UPI college football rankings, magazine rankings of colleges and universities are created to spark controversy and sell magazines. Every now and then a magazine like U.S. News & World Report gets it exactly right, as it did this past year when it ranked Dartmouth first for Undergraduate Teaching at National Universities.

On other lists, Dartmouth has the challenge of being both fish and fowl, offering a rich undergraduate experience comparable to those (like Amherst and Williams) at the top of the “Liberal Arts Colleges” while having the resources that put us on the “National Universities” list.

On the National Universities list, said David Spalding ’76, vice president of Alumni Relations, our ranking can bump up or down a place or two as a result of “peer assessment.” This ranking can be affected by unattractive publicity, lawsuits, etc. Happily, it can also be affected by actual achievements by the students and faculty.

For example, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice is world renowned for its “outcomes research.” As President Kim likes to note, its studies on shared decision-making in doctor-patient relationships, are “at the forefront of the national debate on health care, cited regularly by both sides.”

Updates from the Acting Dean of the College and Dean Conley on the Visual Arts Center

Acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears spoke of embracing President Kim’s challenge to prepare students to be leaders who will take on the biggest problems that exist in the world today.

Spears described her practical challenge: to align her division of 500 employees to “challenge and support students to be ethical, engaged, and accountable citizens and leaders.”

Associate Dean Kate Conley described the Visual Arts Center, which is being built, despite the economic downturn, because of an anonymous $50 million gift, and should be finished in three years. “This visual arts center,” said Conley, “is making a statement about the centrality of the arts at Dartmouth.”

When it’s done, it will create a very beautiful “Arts Precinct” of the Hop, the Hood Museum, and the Visual Arts Center, with a courtyard onto Lebanon Street.

President Kim and David Spalding on the Budget

David Spalding ran through a budget-planning presentation with the Alumni Council, and President Kim followed up with comments the next day.

Because of the decline in the endowment, Dartmouth will reduce its workforce, examine staff and faculty salaries, slow or freeze the hiring of staff and faculty, and halt capital expansion (except for the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building, which was already under way, and the Visual Arts Center, which has been paid for by an anonymous gift for that purpose).

The main strategy approved by the board of trustees is to do the necessary restructuring now to enable a rapid recovery over the next five years. This strategy minimizes risk and reduces volatility. But it does mean that there will be cuts. They will be strategic, not across-the-board cuts.

In his discussion with the Alumni Council, President Kim said that “cuts will not be as severe among the faculty, because that is core to the Dartmouth experience.” He had heard some arguments that this was not fair to the staff, but Kim said, “This is not a social justice issue.” The College will be looking for administrative efficiencies and business practices as cost savers.

Link to President Kim’s budget presentation to the College:

Admissions Office Workshop: Alumni Interviews Make a Difference

The Alumni Council’s Enrollment and Admissions Committee organized an informative Admissions workshop for all councilors. Councilors heard from Dan Parish ’89 and Colleen Wearn ’06 of the Admissions Office and Jeff Solomon ’91, who is the district enrollment director, or DED (the alumni interview coordinator) in Las Vegas.

Dan ran through the numbers, which are basically that we end up turning away nine out of ten applicants. Dan made the point that there were 10,475 interviews last year (58 percent of the applicants). He said that this is “incredible corporate outreach,” and that each interview is a marketing opportunity, a chance to convey in a real and meaningful way what Dartmouth is all about, even to the vast majority of applicants who will not end up in Hanover.

Jeff Solomon said he looks for passion in the kids he interviews. “It can be about almost anything,” he says, “sports, projects, art, whatever.” And he likes to listen. “I learn as much from the kids from what they ask as what they answer.”

The Admissions people are very grateful for the efforts of the 7,100 alumni interviewers and the care and detail the alumni put into these interviews and the write-ups. Dan encouraged alumni to sign up to volunteer in their areas and to bear in mind what a powerful opportunity interviewers have to demonstrate the value of Dartmouth’s unique undergraduate experience to everyone who applies.

One question came from Annette Gordon-Reed ’81, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello, among other books, who teaches at NYU Law School and Rutgers and lives on the West Side of Manhattan. She mentioned that often the kids she interviews are way too polished. Annette asked Dan how best to get them off their talking points. Dan said more or less that it is the interviewer’s art to get the most genuine glimpse of the person possible, and that’s why the alumni interview can be so valuable to them.

In other areas of the country, applicants can be less prepared for interviews of this kind, especially ones in which alums break into tears recounting fond memories of freshman trips, walks across the Green on 20-below mornings and favorite professors from days gone by. (President Kim likes to say that “it takes only five minutes to make an alum cry.”)

The Dartmouth alumni interview can be a learning opportunity for the applicant, not only about the Dartmouth ethos and what it has to offer but also in how to conduct a meaningful interview and conversely how to do well in an interview.

In a remarkably revealing presentation, Colleen Wearn ran through three real, slightly disguised applicants to show us how the alumni interview truly helped the “readers” make decisions.

Among other things, the alumni interview can

1. Help confirm what the application seems to indicate.
2. Assuage certain fears or misgivings the readers may have.
3. Show that, despite good grades and test scores, an applicant may not have the thirst for learning that they are really looking for.

Anecdotes, details, and examples that interviewers give to back up their impressions of the kids are the most helpful to the folks in Admissions. They bring the kids to life and ring true to the readers.

Remember: Dartmouth no longer offers on-campus interviews, so alumni interviews are the only face-to-face impressions the Admissions Office gets.

You can easily volunteer for alumni interviewing
here. Click on the “Sign up for Interviewing” link on the right hand side of the page. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Kathy Nichols in the Admissions Office at (603) 646-3368.

Lunch with Amanda Wheelock ’13

The discussion of alumni interviews inspired one council member to follow up on an interviewee, Amanda Wheelock ’13, over lunch.

Amanda went to Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga. (She is a second cousin eight times removed of Eleazar; her (8 greats) great-grandfather was the pious one’s second cousin.) She valued the information and perspective on Dartmouth that she got in her alumni interview.

She (amusingly) contrasted it with a couple of other alumni interviews, including one in which she got “about three words in edgewise” and was discouraged from her idealistic goals of going into the international service and helping the world. Since this is the very vision of President Kim (by way of John Sloan Dickey), she is especially sure that she is in the right place.

One thing that has been important to Amanda is the warmth and welcoming feeling given by everyone, starting with the DOC’s freshman trip welcoming crews in crazy outfits and multicolored hair and continuing through the Ultimate Frisbee team.

She will be doing LSA in Barcelona and FSP probably in Prague. She is looking forward to the “Great Issues” course, which will be revived in time for their sophomore summer. She is taking Geography 1 (which is so interesting that she may want to major in geography) and Health Care in American Society: History and Current Issues from Allen Koop (son of C. Everett). Her freshman seminar is on 20th century revolutions in the sociology department focusing on Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.

Back to the Classroom

The Alumni Council’s Academic Affairs Committee coordinated three faculty lectures for alumni councilors, providing them with their choice from the following three topics:

Dr. Joseph Rosen, professor of surgery at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and an adjunct professor of engineering and senior lecturer spoke on “Are We Prepared for this Pandemic?”

Lorie Loeb, research associate professor and director of the digital arts minor in computer science, gave a talk on “GreenLite Dartmouth: Unplug or the Polar Bear Gets It!” She described the ever-growing problem of energy “vampires,” the electronic machines that use a surprising amount of electricity while not in use.

Kevin Reinhart, associate professor of religion, Asian, and Middle Eastern studies, spoke on “Understanding Islamists,” and provided an overview of historic and contemporary Islam.

Trustee Sherri Oberg ’82, Tu ’86 : Impressions after a Year

Sherri Oberg ’82, Tu’86 became a trustee in September 2008. She noted that the board has fiduciary responsibility for the strategic direction of the College. She found the trustees to be dedicated and passionate about Dartmouth.

Among other committee assignments, she chairs the Health Sciences Committee, for which she has broad and varied experience. Diana Taylor ’77 is chairing the Audit Committee, and Steve Roth ’62, Tu’63 is chairing the Finance Committee. These are examples of specific expertise being applied to board of trustees’ responsibilities. Oberg was impressed by the expertise that Jeff Immelt ’78 brought to board policy making, not surprising from his years as CEO of GE. She did not mention Immelt’s experience blocking for her husband, Curt Oberg ’78, on the Big Green football team.

Dartmouth Alumni Technology and Social Networking

The Alumni Council’s Communications Committee participated in a presentation to councilors about Dartmouth alumni technology resources and social networking. Panelists included Mike Backman, director of Alumni Information Resources, and Sarah Jackson-Han ’88, vice-chair of the Communications Committee and, in her “real life” news director of Radio Free Asia. Sarah encouraged councilors to participate in the Alumni Council Facebook group and Mike navigated through some of the online resources available to alumni (see list of links at the end of this summary).

ROTC on Campus

David Spalding ’76 discussed the state of ROTC on campus. Dartmouth is one of four Ivies to allow ROTC students to train on campus.

Twelve students are currently enrolled in the ROTC program at Dartmouth. Of these participants, seven have signed on for an eight-year military commitment after graduation. Contracted students receive scholarships from the government for four years of tuition, a book stipend and an additional $300 to $500 per month.

An article in The D discussed the situation in detail.

Alumni Liaison Committee

The Alumni Council helps communicate alumni opinions to the board of trustees. The Alumni Liaison Committee (ALC) has formalized that function by establishing a process by which all alumni input is tallied and sent along to the trustees. All alumni councilors are asked to forward input from their constituents to the ALC with the general subject matter placed in the header field (e.g., academics, admissions, alumni governance, athletics, and so on).

Last year’s input was compiled in a report and delivered to the trustees, who say it is extremely valuable and helpful. “We really pay attention to the feedback we’re getting,” said Ed Haldeman ’70, chair of the board of trustees.