What the Academics Say

The Provost Leonard M. Rieser '44: "A center for the social sciences at Dartmouth was an idea whose time had surely come. Our good fortune in attracting support from the Rockefeller family and from associates of Nelson Rockefeller will make it a reality. The result of this confluence will permit the College to offer undergraduates a very special opportunity not previously available here or elsewhere."

Government Gene M. Lyons, chairman of the department, was particularly happy about the prospects of the new center: "We have 200-250 majors and 19-20 faculty members. The opportunity for having new kinds of teaching facilities is very important to us. We have a number of large-enrollment courses, and the new classrooms will help us teach them in a new and exciting way. Along with that, the facilities for interaction with students and colleagues are important. People are almost stumbling over each other after classes now. The center will encourage important kinds of conversation outside the classroom.

"Our department is active in research, and the opportunity for emerging research funds that will be attracted by the center assures us of some help in funding that part of our work. The funding will also enhance the opportunity to bring colleagues from other institutions to a particularly attractive place for research conferences. Efforts toward making interdisciplinary attacks on problems through the policy approach also will be enhanced by the center. We're looking at some new kinds of problems. There's the ripe field of 'political economy' an old term that has been out of fashion until recently. Work in these areas will be greatly assisted by the presence of the Economics Department.

"It is important for the campus to have a center relating the political life of the country and the world to the theoretical orientation of the classroom. We want to involve students in making this connection. We ought to be getting ideas from the classroom and out into the air, into the atmosphere of this place."

Economics Meredith O. Clement, the department chairman, acknowledged that his department will be making the move from the third floor of Reed Hall with mixed emotions: "We are happy here. We like this building and we get along well with the historians downstairs. Those of us who are trained in economics think you need a substantial amount of, training before you understand how to tackle problems. You need a technical background to get involved in policy research, rather than just jumping in. We have a firm impression of how one should go about policy research, and it's antithetical to the impression of some of the other people in the institution.

"We aren't too excited about modern hardware for classrooms the way we teach doesn't require much in the way of technology but we are conscious of the need of the institution for classroom size. The size of the classrooms that will be provided will fill in gaps for the institution as a whole. Also, there will be, in effect, an endowment that will yield research funds that will be a very important contribution. At a liberal arts institution there is little money to support research. At Dartmouth we insist upon professional competence in publication, so it's nice to have that kind of backing."

Sociology Elise M. Boulding, who chairs the department, said that although "nobody really knows" what kind of effect the Rockefeller Center will have on the teaching and research in sociology, it will "provide the possibility for expanding our policy-relevant research interests." In particular, she said, she is "looking forward to developing an interdisciplinary peace and world-order program." Needed offices, meeting rooms, and library space will be provided, she noted, along with "modest research funding," all of which will "make it easier to accomplish things we'd like to do but we'll have to resist the pressure to take on more than we can handle."

Policy Studies Frank Smallwood '51, a government professor and chairman of the Policy Studies Program, explained that he sees the Rockefeller Center as meeting three basic academic needs: "First, it will provide a focus for public events through the space provided by 'the forum' — a place for lectures, public programs, and student events and activities. Second, it will strengthen the various departments and disciplines that will be included. You don't have good interdisciplinary work unless you have good disciplines to start with. This is not just a mishmash where everybody's thrown together. Third, because we'll be able to draw on each other's strengths, it will provide an opportunity for rigorous interdisciplinary work where it is appropriate."

The "Broad Sense" Gregory Prince, associate dean of the faculty and associate provost, pointed out that the establishment of the Rockefeller Center will satisfy Dartmouth's longstanding interest in providing for the social sciences the same kind of support that the arts received through the Hopkins Center and that the physical sciences received with Fairchild: "There has been an interest in making public policy, in a broad sense, a focus for the division. When we thought there might be a possibility of doing something with the Rockefeller family to reflect Nelson Rockefeller's own interest in that area, the next step was to define our goals. The primary goal was to bring economics and government together. They are the two most important departments in terms of numbers of majors and faculty and also seemed to have the strongest potential relationship. At the same time, we wanted to involve policy studies. Bringing these and the other departments together presented an opportunity and challenge to strengthen our commitment to undergraduate teaching as well as research. We've done this throughout the institution, but it constantly has to be worked out.

"People have asked if this is a memorial to Nelson Rockefeller or an educational project. The answer is that it is both. The rhetoric is real. The attempt to do what the center is supposed to do to relate the activities of the various disciplines as they bear on policy issues is an important enterprise. Society needs it, and it is an important venture for an educational institution. It is important not to let each discipline just sit by itself.

"The balance between memorial and project is important. A lasting memorial has to have its own energy and life. It serves as a memorial by what it generates. It can't be just a physical facility. It needs individuals who are committed to activities. That energy will create a sense of a living memorial. This is what the Rockefeller family thinks is important, and we think it addresses an important part of the curriculum. The way we maintain our strength here is by doing something that exceeds what each component could do by itself."