The College Today

An Interview with President McLaughlin

[At the Magazine's request, President David T. McLaughlin '54 sat down with us earlier this fall to talk about current and future developments at the College. D.M.G.]

Magazine: You are going to be speaking at at least 18 different alumni clubs over the next year. Why will you be addressing so many small ones? And secondly, what format do you feel is most beneficial in a meeting situation like that?

President: Clearly our communications with alumni have to be multifaceted: it has to come through the Alumni Magazine; the Bulletin; in the kind of personal encounters that alumni have with their college; and through the Alumni Council. There are a host of avenues available. Travelling around the country is not the most efficient way to communicate broadly with alumni, but it is absolutely essential if one wants to really get a sense of their concerns, a sense of their knowledge or lack of knowledge about the College, as well as the kind of contributions alumni are making within their own societies. And you can't do that unless you are face to face with alumni and in their backyard.

So I have tried to go to alumni clubs that are not necessarily on the beaten path, but are in areas where our alumni are starting to gravitate in their professional lives. These areas are not necessarily in the traditional homeland of our alumni, the Northeast corridor, so I felt that it was important to extend our horizon and our travelling. As we look to the College's future, I think it is important to be in places such as Texas, Southern California, the Southwest, the Southeast, where Dartmouth is not a household name, to try to meet with alumni and with educational leaders to inject some presence of the College outside the Northeast.

Insofar as the format is concerned, I think it is important particularly in areas not close to Hanover to try to do something about acquainting them with what's going on at the College today. We need to use audio-visuals more effectively because this is a visual campus, and we ought to somehow reinforce that not just with words, but with images. Probably the best format to use for me is to listen to their questions and their concerns, and to respond as best I can. Their views, observations, anxieties help make this process a genuine two way street, which is what it must be. Magazine: One of the -problems that Dartmouth, like all other colleges, is running intoinvolves financial aid. With tuition and othercosts going up every year, what is Dartmouth doing to ensure that the College willcontinue to have a diverse student body?

President The key word is diversity, and it really means quite different things to different people. You can have a student body that is diverse on ethnic bases, economically, internationally, any number of ways. It means different things to different people. The campus today does have a healthy diversity, certainly compared to when I was a student here. The presence of women has been a great benefit to the quality of our educational system at Dartmouth. Beyond that change from the 60s and the 50s, there are more blacks on campus, more Native Americans, surely as a result of the initiatives that John Kemeny took, and there are also more international students.

Perhaps more important is the College's healthy intellectual diversity. There are people who are oriented towards the arts, towards music, who are benefiting from the full scope of the liberal arts here. There are premeds, people who are more public service oriented, and they add an important dimension. There are people who are language oriented, or who are computer- oriented. All of them come to the campus bringing something they can teach others; and the adage of young minds teaching young minds is almost as important as young people learning from adults. We simply have to find a way to preserve that kind of intellectual diversity along with the social diversity so as not to give up the gains that we have made.

With about two-thirds of our students on financial aid, the availability of financial aid is probably one of the biggest challenges Dartmouth has. Five years ago the federal government generated 25 percent of our financial aid budget; today that figure is down to 8 percent. That difference has been made up by the College through its own budgetary process. In fact, Dartmouth today still admits its classes on what we call "need-blind"; that is, we do admit the classes on their academic and personal skills not on their economic situation and thus far we have been able to meet almost all of the needs of the students who have qualified for financial aid under the formulas that the Ivy League uses. But we have started to move, as have other Ivy League schools, towards capping the amount of financial aid we award. It is not unlimited. We are also starting to look at how to allocate financial aid based on merit. Every other Ivy League institution is starting that same process, so we are in a transitionary stage that is crucial in terms of financial aid.

Magazine: What role should alumni playin the formulation of College policy?

President: Too often, I think, we go to the alumni almost singularly for financial assistance. Yet it is absolutely essential that we do so, for without their support, Dartmouth would not be the institution that it is today. But beyond that, the alumni have a very vital role in being able to look back at their experiences at Dartmouth in terms of the lives they lead today, to help us understand how we can do a better job of preparing students. Part of the role of this college is to help young men and women so that they can find fulfillment throughout their lifetimes. To do that and to make sure that we are continually responding to the challenges and pressures society brings to our graduates, we need to have the advice and the counsel of our alumni and all they have seen and experienced themselves. We need to do that by listening to them, and also by bringing them back into the College in continuing education situations so that we can help them continue to grow. We need to involve our alumni in our governing system on our overseer boards, to involve them in the policy decision-making parts of the College, and obviously, to involve some of them directly as Trustees of this college because they are the ones who essentially make those fundamental decisions that will shape the nature of Dartmouth in the future. So, while the importance of alumni to Dartmouth is financial, it goes well beyond that.

Magazine: You recently celebrated yourthird anniversary here as President. Whatare your administration's greatest achievements to date?

President: I guess in one word, survival [laughter follows]. I think we have made some crucial initiatives. At the top of that list is an investment in the residential systems of the College and a re- definition of the residential systems that reflects the changes that have occurred in college education in general and at Dartmouth in particular. When I say residential systems, I'm not talking strictly about the dormitories, I'm talking about that array of extra-curricular experiences that goes beyond the classroom.

It has been an effort to restructure the College in a way that reinforces the academic purposes of Dartmouth by providing space and program funds for events in residential structures related to the purposes of Dartmouth. We're also trying to make the residential life system more attractive for faculty so they can reach outside of the class and work with students to help them develop as individuals in settings other than the classroom.

Another area that we're examining is the adoption of a new calender for the College. It would increase the course credit requirements for graduation from 33 to 35 and require students to be on campus all three terms of their senior year and the summer following the sophomore year. This new arrangement would significantly reduce the number of attendance pattern options within the system. But it would help reduce fragmentation of relationships, and also provide the faculty with the opportunity to look at two common experiences, the sophomore summer and senior year. It gives them the opportunity to evaluate course offerings so that they can see whether the major needs to be strengthened, whether there should be more emphasis on honor work, and determine if there should be greater synthesis between departments or divisions.

There are a number of other things that have gone on, many of them started by my predecessor, John G. Kemeny. The Rockefeller Center came to fruition in the last three years, but the planning was done long before that; the Hood Museum is moving along nicely and will be an exciting new asset. You can look at the bricks and mortar but that is probably the least effective way to measure an administration's genuine achievements. I think it is more the attitude, the the commitment of the institution to its goals, and whether people are working together supporting a common purpose. Any academic institution needs a healthy dialogue and a certain amount of contention on a campus, for it reflects the fact that people are not all agreeing, that they are challenging, pursuing truth in their own ways, and that is a very vital characteristic of a healthy institution.

Magazine: This summer you hosted aTrustee retreat at the Minary ConferenceCenter where you talked about things whichare going to happen one, five, ten years downthe road. What can we look for?

President: At the retreat, we attempted to stand back and look at the five or six priorities of the College, starting with the academic side. We discussed at some length the implications of the curricular change: How do we keep our faculty strong? How do we keep them well compensated, but also challenge them so that they can move their research ahead? We looked at the second priority hard residential life and what it means things that we have already discussed. A third area (that we also mentioned earlier today) was very important to us how to maintain the diversity we now have on this campus and how we could afford it within the financial aid constraints and capabilities of the College. The four area dealt more with the presence and the strength of our graduate and professional programs. With the Trustees' approval, we are moving forward with the expansion of the Thayer School of Engineering. As you know, we are now finishing the expansion of Tuck, and the Medical School is going through redefinition in the context of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. This is both healthy and necessary to keep these schools premier within their fields. We also spent some time looking at what to do to sustain the vitality of our graduate program. At the present, we have ten Ph.D. programs at the College, almost all in the sciences except psychology, which is in the social sciences. We will be looking at whether we will add programs in molecular biology and computer science.

Then we talked at length about the fifth priority, which is how to develop and reinforce the moral and spiritual values on this campus. Strengthening the Tucker Foundation will be a major component in that area. And lastly, we talked about the priority of our relationship with our communities, in the Upper Valley as well as the northeast quadrant of the country.

It is absolutely crucial that we address each of these priorities to sustain Dartmouth as a premier liberal arts institution in the country. Our recent effort on computers is one leadership initiative that Dartmouth has taken. It should be ranked probably among those major accomplishments of the first three years. One of Dartmouth's strengths is that throughout its history, each experience, each resource, has been a cumulative experience, with the College always growing stronger. The College is better today than it was when I was here. I hope that I leave it better than it was when I came.

Magazine: Let me take you away fromsome of those policy issues to a more personalnote. What are some of the most rewardingaspects of your job? What have you reallyenjoyed, about it?

President: I think probably the value of working within this kind of community, though I must say it took me sometime to appreciate this. The most satisfying, fulfilling experiences certainly relate to the undergraduates. They are the reason we are here.

Tomorrow I will begin matriculating the Class of 1988 into the College. They are just as bright, fresh, and challenging as you could possibly imagine. You watch them and see that wonderful growth that goes on over four years. It's remarkable to see! It goes up and down, but the line is steadily upward. And then the sense of fulfillment that anybody here must have when, four years from now, you pass out the diplomas in June. The transformation is remarkable. If you can influence them at all, then it seems to me that is the fulfillment, the satisfaction that one gets. It's very real.

Magazine: One of the students that youbecame fairly close to, I think, was ChristineBurnley '84. She was a remarkable youngstudent, wasn't she?

President: She was valedictorian of her class, and she also won the Class of 1936 Award, which is the counterpart of the Bartlett Cup. She came from Texas, and while at Dartmouth she developed a sense of identity and assurance. She went through here academically in a way you would like to see all students go through the College. She took honors in mathematics and she just was a wellrounded student who was involved with her sorority and other student activities, serving on a number of College committees. She stands out because she was actively involved in a number of areas but still retained her sense of humility. The basic quality that Chrissie represented is not absent from most of the students here, and that is what makes it such a great place.

Magazine: What have been some of themost discouraging moments in your beinghere?President: I don't know whether discouraging is the word, perhaps frustrating. There have been frustrations in trying to deal with the kind of government system the College represents. I'm sure that the system has probably had its share of frustrations with me as well, so it's not one-sided. I think the other frustration is that issues seem to be so contentious for many on campus racism, the Indian symbol, gay student rights, ROTC. They are of concern to important constituencies and you have to address them. But we sometimes do so in ways that do not relate to the purposes of Dartmouth. If we can keep such discussions within the context of the role of the College in the future, then I believe we can have a more satisfactory dialogue.

Magazine: As the fourteenth president inthe Wheelock progression, you come from adistinguished line of gifted leaders. Your immediate predecessors John Sloan Dickeyand John G. Kemeny came respectivelyfrom government and accidentia. You camefrom the corporate world. How did your ownbackground serve you in the transition toParkhurst Hall?

President: Well, I suspect that probably everybody comes with certain strengths, and the College's needs at any given time probably vary with the kind of environment that it's experiencing, and also in terms of the leadership it's had. I think my experience in management is helping Dartmouth address the economic pressures we face. I hope my background will also aid the process of allocating those resources to meet the College's priorities. You can't do this totally systematically as you might in a business because there is a lot of intuitiveness to the process. But if you can help the constituencies of the College come together, then it seems to me that that can be a positive contribution to moving the College forward. Out of the managerial experience I've had, I've dealt with a number of different kinds of people. Consensus-building is not foreign to somebody who comes out of the corporate world. I don't know if one discipline or one background is terribly crucial to providing leadership here. You would have to look over the background of my thirteen predecessors they all had different viewpoints, and the College survived and thrived under each of them. I hope I can make my contribution as well.

Magazine: As you suggested earlier,Dartmouth has changed a great deal sinceyour own distinguished undergraduate career. What stands out most among your remembrances of your own time here at Dartmouth?

President: For me, my undergraduate time was a terribly demanding time. I came to Dartmouth and was literally deposited on the corner of the Green, never having seen Dartmouth before. I was driven out here by somebody who was coming to the College; I almost had to hitchhike my way out. Coming to Dartmouth as a scholarship student, I approached my freshman year as probably the most peagreen freshman who ever existed in this college. So, the experiences I had were of a kind of amazement, Of enjoyment of what this institution offered, with a commitment to involvement. I was athletically inclined, but I was also in student government and a host of other things. The College at that time was much more isolated than it is today. There was a lack of diversion for orie's time then. This relative simplicity undoubtedly enabled us to concentrate more on a few things that we might do, and do well. Today, students have an incredible array of choice that simply wasn't there in the 50s. And that makes it tougher for stu- dents today to budget their time in a way that's efficient and satisfying from their standpoint. So perhaps we had it a little easier because we didn't have that choice to worry about. But the fundamental aspects of Dartmouth, its strengths and values, seem to me to be very consistent over the years.

Magazine: Were there people who wereyour teachers or people in the administrationthat you remember?

President: Well, I clearly remember "Pudge" Neidlinger '23, who was dean when I came, and Joe McDonald, who was dean when I left. I worked more closely with McDonald, so he was certainly a friend. The man who stood out for me was John Dickey. Probably the common experience that all of us from that era remember most was the Great Issues course. That was terrific. I will never forget listening to Thurgood Marshall arguing the merits of segregation and desegregation and what it meant in the country. It had a profound impact on one's thinking, which was only reinforced by the dialogue that followed all across the campus after those kinds of encounters. The whole place was galvanized around the issue. To me, that's the best of what the liberal arts is about.

Magazine: Would you like to see a GreatIssues type course back?

President: That's a difficult question because! think for many people that is almost symbolic of a broader experience from the past. Having a common academic experience at the College would be a very important thing to recapture. Over the years there has been more of an orientation in strength in the majors or strength in the departments, and it seems to me that that has occurred at a time when society and its institutions have tended somewhat more the other way. Issues today are becoming more complex, more encompassing of the whole host of disciplines that are brought to bear on problem solving. So, if the focus of Great Issues were a broadening experience that reinforced liberal arts and if it were integrated more fully at some point in a student's career, then I would be strongly in favor of it. But whether it took the precise form of Great Issues seems to be less important.

Magazine: In some respects, the A.B. is aprelude to graduate or professional work today. Philosophically, what do you think theCollege needs to do to respond more directlyto this fact than it has in the past?

President: At Dartmouth today, about 70 percent of our students go on to graduate school within four years of graduation. And they are going to some of the very best schools in the country. So, in no way do I think the liberal arts orientation of the College is disadvantaging students from future specialization quite the contrary.

It would be very unfortunate (and undesirable) if Dartmouth were looked at as a preparatory school for graduate education. Because we are a liberal arts institution, our students should be able to leave this College, go into a number of different vocations, and find continued growth, happiness, and fulfillment within their lifetimes without necessarily going on to graduate school. The more we look at Dartmouth as preparatory for graduate work, the more emphasis there is on grades as opposed to learning. The more concerns of that nature we have, the less well we are doing in offering the kind of liberal arts education that is essential to the future.

Magazine: One final question. The Class of1988 is coming to Dartmouth with thedorms hardwired to Kiewit ComputationCenter, and the freshmen are all going tohave the opportunity to buy their own computers. This is an exciting shift in the educational format here. How do you think it'sgoing to work out?

President: If people will look beyond the fact that a large percentage of our freshman class will be having computers and consider it as a learning device, an experience that will be important to them throughout their lives, then it will be a positive development. Initially, the faculty had to endorse this development by integrating the computer into the presentation of academic material. They had to step in and become part of that system in a very important way.

To me, how the computer is used is the most important part, not the fact that it is there. What Dartmouth has done is to make a statement on the importance of computing within the lifetime of this generation of students. We have done it very effectively; I could not commend more highly the people who were responsible for that program, for bringing it about. In fact, we are probably two to three years ahead of most institutions. It's also important for the College to be able to offer adults computer training in the summer. In effect, we are saying to our alumni that they should not stop learning, that this technology is important to this generation as well as to their own. That is the role of this College to further liberal arts education at all levels, not just at the undergraduate level. So I think there are many different aspects of this development that are important to Dartmouth, not just because it is technologically oriented, but because it is liberal arts-oriented.

"...the adage of young minds teaching young minds is almost as important as young people learning from adults."

"we simply have got to finda way to preserve that kindof healthy intellectual diversity along with the social diversity [that now exists atthe College] and not give upthe gains we have made."

"Any academic institution needs a healthy dialogue, a certain amount of contention on campus, for it reflects the factthat . . . people are challenging, pursuing truth in theirown ways, and that is a very vital characteristic of a healthyinstitution

"What Dartmouth has done is to make a statement on theimportance of computing within the lifetime of this generation of students. We have done it very effectively ... infact, we are probably two to three years ahead of most institutions."