The Shape We're In

A forward look at the McLaughlin presidency.

A he main reason David T. McLaughlin gives for resigning is that he has done his work: the College is fit for its next era. Admittedly, acrimony on and off campus likely shortened his tenure (McLaughlin himself denies this). And the wise executive makes career changes while he is still youthful. (At press time, he was still considering his options—nonprofit foundations or the corporate world.)

But the operant word is fitness. A three-letter man who still rows ten miles a day, McLaughlin has a passion for fitness that extends to his alma mater. His goal from the start was to get the College in condition for the future.

His predecessor, John G. Kemeny, had launched the College into the coed era and brought major changes to academic programs which were supported by Trustees Chairman David McLaughlin himself. But a bearish national economy had weakened the College's finances, and some of the most laudable innovations—the Dartmouth Plan, year-round operation, a student body that more closely reflected the real world—wobbled the sense of community that had been one of Dartmouth's greatest strengths.

When McLaughlin assumed the presidency in 1981, he was already thinking about the shape in which he

would bequeath the College. "I pledge to leave to my successor a better Dartmouth than the one I am pledged to protect," he said in his inaugural address. And he set to work shoring up the institution. The bright spots of his tenure (he refuses to take sole credit for them) include:

• An endowment of well over half a billion dollars, more than double the 1981 amount.

• A record-breaking fundraising year to cap off his presidency.

• Refurbished dormitories with new spaces for studying and socializing.

• A building boom resulting in the award-winning Hood Museum, a dorm complex on Wheelock Street, and the Berry Sports Center.

• A revitalized physical plant. (Characteristically, McLaughlin lists a boiler dedication as one of the highlights of his presidency.)

• Increases in faculty salaries, which were once embarrassingly uncompetitive, of more than 50 percent over the past six years.

• The best overall athletic win-loss record in a quarter century.

• Fundraising drives and construction plans for all three graduate schools.

• Integration (or, at least, an attempt at integration) of residential and intellectual life.

"In normal times/' says a news analysis in the New York Times, "such a list would be seen as the badge of an enormously successful president and an invitation for continued tenure. But these are not normal times."

The times may be somewhat more settled since last fall, when the Times story was published. Even the most rabid members of the faculty—who had treated McLaughlin harshly before he took office seem more willing to give President Freedman a chance. And the time is clearly ripe for an academic administrator, one at home in the arcane world of infinite committees, sophisticated fundraising, serious scholarship and silly squabbles that is the modern university.

David McLaughlin clearly deserves some credit for the ripeness of the time. What follows are a few of his thoughts, gleaned from an interview conducted early in the summer, on the shape of the college that has been handed over to President Freedman.

College Acrimony

I think this campus has had fewer difficulties since those tumultuous days in the winter than almost any campus that I know. The College has dealt with its controversies more intelligently, more civilly than many other campuses have....

There was a learning process that went beyond the issues of that time. It made these men and women better able to contend with controversy in the future, and I think we are seeing some of that now."

Fraternities

If one were to go back and look at the record under Tucker, under Hopkins, under Nichols, under Dickey, almost in every administration there is peppered throughout the history of Dartmouth problems with the fraternities in one form or another.

Those problems changed rather suddenly with coeducation and year-round operation. The fraternities no longer became just a social spot on one or two big weekends a year. They eventually became somewhat of a troublesome interdiction in the educational program of the College.

It was pretty clear to almost anyone who cared about the system and the values of this College that the fraternities had to restore themselves physically and then find a new way to define their purpose in the redefined Dartmouth or they should go out of existence. Everything we have done up to now is to find and help them find a level of health that will enable them to survive in the future."

Dartmouth Is Still Dartmouth

Dartmouth, uniquely among most of our sister institutions, probably spends more resources and more time and effort trying to educate the whole person—not just the mind but the heart, the conscience, the judgement of individuals. Look at the tremendous richness of the program which Dartmouth offers, from language programs abroad to experience in the Dartmouth Outing Club to the tremendous number of athletic activities, intramural and intercollegiate, at the extracurricular commitment to the arts. There is such a full plate for students here. It is a statement that the education of an individual outside of that classroom is every bit as important as it is inside the classroom."

The Future

Dartmouth 20 years from now will probably look physically very much the same as it does today. The move of the medical center, which will redirect over half the traffic in Hanover, should restore the ambiance that has been lost in parking problems and traffic.

There will be, undoubtedly, a north campus to this college, occupying the space which is now the medical center. The north campus will probably be technology oriented.

I think that alumni coming back to this college may see and feel perhaps less difference 20 years from now than those who graduated 20 years ago see in today's Dartmouth. That will be good for the institution, and will probably give more longevity to my successors than perhaps I had."

The Next Emphasis

It is now time to take the strengths of this College a faculty that is very good, and a curriculum that is generally strong, and really look at the needs that Dartmouth has intellectually and academically in a period of challenge ahead. I think that my successor will be able, with his background and ability to work through the collegiate process, to deal with those issues better than I could."