Rockefeller Center: the ideal of reflection and action

HONORING the late Nelson A. Rockefeller '3O, the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences will provide a home and support for cooperative efforts in the field of public policy. Incorporating existing Silsby Hall and scheduled for completion in the spring of 1983, the new academic facility will bring together the disciplines of government, economics, and policy studies in particular, as well as sociology and psychology.

The $8.5-million project includes approximately $5 million for construction and endowment plus about $3.5 million for funding endowed professorships, research, and the center's programming. Members of the Rockefeller family have pledged $3.75 million toward the center while the balance is to be raised by the College with the help of a national committee consisting of over 300 friends and associates of Nelson Rockefeller.

"The center honoring Governor Rockefeller at Dartmouth will dramatize his ability to synthesize knowledge and develop policies needed to solve complex problems in our times," President Kemeny said recently. "We are excited by the tremendous potential inherent in the opportunity to have major departments of the social sciences working together to promote interdisciplinary activity and policy studies."

Starting with Government Professor Donald McNemar, who heads the building-planning group for the center, a number of individuals were asked to comment on what the project will mean for their own disciplines and on what kind of effect the center will have on the academic life of the College. As of this spring, plans for the Rockefeller Center's organization and operation were still being developed, and reactions to its policy-studies focus and to the reshuffling of departmental territory ranged from enthusiasm to reluctance to change the status quo. The physical facilities the building will provide the needed classrooms, offices, and especially the central forum for public meetings are unanimously welcomed, as is the funding for research and educational projects. Most of the faculty members interviewed said they were excited by the opportunity to increase the strengths of their own departments and also by the chance to work more closely with colleagues in other disciplines.

The architect, Lo-Yi Chan '54, of the New York firm of Prentice & Chan, Ohlhausen, also commented on the aesthetic challenges of melding contemporary aspirations of the College with certain classic forms.

DAN NELSON

EVERY teacher has at some point looked out over a class and wondered if the future contributions of one of the students there would prove to be among the most satisfying rewards of the teacher's professional life. I, like many of my colleagues, teach because I love political science, am curious about the questions raised, and anxious to share the results of my study with colleagues and students. Still, I am also encouraged by the impact my students will have in the future.

As a professor of government at Dartmouth, I have viewed Daniel Webster and Nelson A. Rockefeller as two individuals in the Dartmouth tradition who fully realized the ideal of reflection and action in the public arena. More than once in my decade of teaching, I caught myself looking over the faces of students embarking on the study of international law and wondering if the next Daniel Webster or Nelson Rockefeller was present that day.

The ideal of educating future leaders in the liberal arts, with a depth of understanding in diverse fields and a commitment to action, has long been part of the Dartmouth tradition. For the past year I have worked, as associate dean of faculty for the social sciences, with my colleagues on the planning and development of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, which will significantly reinforce that tradition.

The social sciences have been an area of strong interest in recent years, with 45 per cent of the students who graduated last year majoring in this division. A quarter of the graduates majored in the fields of government, economics, and policy studies. These individuals go on to careers in areas as varied as journalism, business, teaching, urban affairs, and government service. Dartmouth's new undergraduate major in policy studies combines policy courses with relevant courses in other disciplines to provide a focus on analysis of policy issues, the ethical questions involved, and the means of implementation.

The creation of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences at Dartmouth provides an opportunity to strengthen the traditional departments, to support new multidisciplinary programs and activities, and to encourage collaboration among scholars. The center will support research and teaching to enable students to use their mastery of disciplines to synthesize knowledge for solving contemporary problems.

When Nelson Rockefeller appeared at Congressional hearings regarding his nomination to become vice president in 1974, he summarized his own interest in policy issues:

"In addition to wanting to live up to a service ethic, it happens that I also simply am a man who delights in tackling tough human problems. That's just the way I am made.

"Nothing delights me so much as facing up to a complex public issue, with all its confusion, turmoil, and intensity, and trying to pull together the human resources to deal with it.

"I like the challenge and excitement of trying to develop concepts within which new and complex issues can be interrelated and reconciled, and solutions can be found."

Following that model, the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth will encourage liberal-arts students to focus their talents and knowledge on issues confronting our society today.

The planning for this project began in earnest when it was announced in June of 1980 that members of the Rockefeller family had pledged a major portion of the funds required to make the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth a reality. This project includes endowed chairs, program funds, and new building facilities.

I chaired the faculty group that undertook the planning of the program and facility. The members of this committee, drawn widely from relevant departments and programs, began our discussion with divergent views on educational strategies. Some members advocated integration of disciplines while others favored more limited cooperation; some wanted the latest audiovisual technology in the classroom while others confessed that colored chalk was about as innovative a tool as they could imagine themselves using; and certain colleagues proposed early field work experience for students while others argued field work should be only a culminating experience after a number of classroom courses.

We still hold our differences on these issues, but the experience of working with architect Lo-Yi Chan '54 in developing the program space has led to increased respect for the varying approaches that are being incorporated into the program of the center. The stark reality of planning the facility forced us to come to grips with our educational philosophies, our visions for social science education, and our conceptions of Dartmouth's purposes. We are emerging from this process with an increased clarity of purpose about education and research in the social sciences, a healthy respect for the stubbornness of our colleagues about issues they believe in strongly, and a genuine excitement about the potential of the Rockefeller Center.

The center will provide a central focus for activities and interaction in the social sciences, much as the Hopkins Center has done for the performing arts and the Fairchild Center has done for the natural sciences.

The center will strengthen teaching, facilitate cooperation across disciplinary lines, and encourage research on topics related to policy issues in the public and private sectors.

While the primary thrust of the project is programs and activities, the center will involve the construction of a physical facility. The existing Silsby Hall and a new building, Rockefeller Hall, will be integrated to create the Rockefeller Center. As contemporary political problems have increasingly involved economic issues, Dartmouth students have shuttled across the Green taking government courses in Silsby and economics courses in Reed Hall. The center will permit the location of the Economics Department on the third floor of Rockefeller Hall near the Departments of Government and Sociology and the Policy Studies Program.

Secondly, the physical facilities include classrooms comparable to those of the professional schools at the Murdough Center. These rooms, which will be equipped for display of slides and computer material, will accommodate 50 to 125 students in a horseshoe seating arrangement designed to facilitate classroom exchanges. Despite new technologies, the primary mode of Dartmouth's education remains the exchange between dedicated teachers and interested students, so we wanted rooms designed to encourage this even in large classes.

The architectural heart of the Rockefeller Center will be the forum, visible from all levels and all parts of the facility. Although it will be used for lectures, films, panel discussions, and other public events, this space is designed to serve a series of functions: public space in the Greek forum tradition, circulation to offices and classrooms in the building, in- tegration of Silsby and Rockefeller halls into a common center, and informal space for students and faculty to have a cup of coffee or read a current newspaper. Professors find too few informal spaces in our academic buildings where a discussion or argument begun in class can naturally continue after the changing of classes; the forum will provide such space for con- tinuing debate among teachers and students.

Dartmouth faculty members have been especially gratified to see the support that has been generated for this new center. Not only have members of the Rockefeller family generously contributed toward this program, but a committee of some 300 national leaders, with former President Gerald R. Ford and Lady Bird Johnson as honorary chairmen, has also provided important support. Active leadership of this committee has been carried out by chairman George L. Hinman and Robert R. Douglass '53, both close political associates and friends of the late Nelson Rockefeller.

In our planning for the building and the programs, we have also benefited from the advice and counsel of an advisory committee chaired by Jonathan Moore '54, currently director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School at Harvard, and including Rodman Rockefeller '54, Nelson's eldest son. There is no greater testimony to Nelson Rockefeller's impact on the nation or the importance of his approach to issues than the distinguished list of those who have formed the National Committee to support this project at Dartmouth.

The Rockefeller Center provides a new opportunity to maintain and strengthen the Dartmouth tradition of encouraging policy leadership. Nelson Rockefeller, the graduate whose interests ranged from the arts to energy policy and whose positions included vice president of the United States, governor of New York, and adviser to seven American presidents, has inspired this new center at Dartmouth. The Rockefeller Center will help insure that Dartmouth students of today will have the breadth of vision, the knowledge, and the dedication to action necessary for leadership in the 21st century.