The "Ubiquitous" Wendy Becker

Few alums have so actively contributed to the College's governance in such a short time as has Wendy Becker. She is a member of the Alumni Council. She is on a first-name basis with the top Dartmouth administrators. After helping recruit James O. Freedman as Dartmouth's president, Trustees Chairman Sandy McCulloch '50 introduced her to a faculty meeting as "the übiquitous Wendy Becker."

The thing is, she did most of her best alumni work when she was not yet an alum. Becker graduated just a month ago.

McCulloch didn't exaggerate (much). Like a politician from an earlier era, the energetic student assembly president seems to attend every occasion where a score or more are gathered in Dartmouth's name. Go to an open forum on residential life, she is there. Eleazar Wheelock's birthday party? She is at the grave site. At an alumni council session, she works the crowd, convention style. Open The Dartmouth, and Becker is often quoted and photographed. Finally, after a hectic day, go to Bentley's restaurant; there she is enjoying an after-hours drink.

"Wait a minute," you say to her. "I thought this was supposed to be your scholarly term," referring to a proclamation by Becker that her senior spring was to be devoted to books. "It is," she replies. "It is scholarly during the day and fun at night. That is the way it should be."

It wasn't like that during winter term, when Becker had the dual pressure of corporate recruiting for herself and presidential recruiting for Dartmouth. During the month of February those responsibilities kept her off-campus 19 out of 28 days. Ironically, the search seems to have helped her grade point average. Becker says that thanks to all the time spent sitting in hotel rooms and waiting in airports, she managed to wrangle her second-best term at Dartmouth.

Looking back at the presidential search, Becker says, "I think I had the most difficult role because I was the only person representing my constituency. I was a student in a dorm environment where people didn't understand the need for secrecy. I'd have to go away for two or three days and I wasn't supposed to tell anyone where I was going."

At this writing, Becker knows President Freedman about as well as anyone on campus does. "I really like him," she says. She giggles because her mental image of Freedman sounds silly. "He's a college president. It sounds odd, but when you talk to him you know you are talking to a college president." What impressed Becker most about Freedman was his respect for the intrinsic roles that the administration, students, faculty and alumni play in the life of the school.

Becker's observation is no doubt tempered by her own love of the political process. She jokingly declares herself a future candidate for the Presidency (the U. S. Presidency, not Dartmouth's), but her quest for a seat in Congress is not a laughing matter. When she says, "I want to be a senator," her copious eyebrows cinch for emphasis.

Becker, who describes herself as independent and conservative, recently was named by Glamour Magazine as one of the nation's top ten college women. As part of her prize, she earned the opportunity to spend the day with a New Yorker of her choice. She chose former New York City Council President Carol Bellamy. Becker selected Bellamy with a political future in mind. "I think she's had an interesting rise through government," says Becker. "I think she is a little more liberal, a little more of a confirmed feminist than I am, but she really succeeded in a traditionally structured system."

The candidate won't hit the campaign trail right away, though. After graduation she will work for Proctor and Gamble. Her job as brand assistant for bar soap and household cleaning products seems an unlikely place to begin a career in government. Becker has her reasons (mounting a campaign to clean up government is not among them). She says she chose the Cincinnati-based firm over other offers because it has an environment where she can mature, build a different set of connections, hone her communications skills, work in a large structure, and learn about big business.

Like a good alumna, Becker looks back at her four years in Hanover and laughs at how naive she was before coming here. "It was pure accident that I arrived at Dartmouth. I thought it was in Massachusetts when I applied," she says. Her application process was equally haphazard. She missed the early-decision deadline for every college except Dartmouth. When admissions took her, she accepted sight unseen.

Her love affair with Dartmouth was not love at first sight, however. "This is it?" she recalls thinking as she rode down Main Street for the first time. Her freshman year wasn't great; she had three friends and watched three hours of soap operas daily. The next year things turned around.

"I really tried to maximize my gains and minimize my weaknesses," says Becker. "I'm not an academic. I don't have a thirst for academic knowledge or the 18K megabyte brain needed to hold it all. I work to make my community and myself better. I try to maximize my leadership potential and learn how to deal with different groups."

Becker exudes a sense of pride over her accomplishments as Student Assembly president. She says she is leaving her successor with a stronger organization, a larger financial base and a renewed sense of purpose. By virtue of her office, Becker became embroiled in several campus-wide issues. "Because this has been a year of women's issues, I think it has been difficult because people have different expectations of me as a woman," she explains. She was often criticized by more radical campus feminists for not taking a stronger stance on issues such as the alma mater. She took some heat when she appointed Charles Moore III '87, "a third-generation male," as co-chair of the student committee that studied the issue.

On the other hand, Becker's positions on women's issues did not warm the hearts of Dartmouth's conservatives. "I don't believe we've made a full commitment to a lot of things, even though we say we have coeducation," she asserts. For starters, she points to the continued 60/40 male/female ratio. She thinks positive change is in the works, though. Becker believes the creation of a women's resource center and the planned restructuring of residential life will give Dartmouth a better image to potential female students.

She criticizes the College for its lack of feminist progress. "Some of the best dorms on campus are all-male," she says. "Women don't get a chance to live in them. Men have a preference of playing time and ice time. And the school song. Yes, I understand how it can be interpreted as 'men' being inclusive of women, but women are forced to think that way and men aren't."

Becker gets visibly irritated by the lack of acceptance of women by certain elements of the alumni body. She recalls more than one alumni function at which someone asked, "What right do you have to be here?"

"I feel that as a future alumna, I have the responsibility to relay my experiences about the College to older alumni," she retorts. "There is a big difference between Dartmouth of today and Dartmouth in 1950." At a recent telethon, one disgruntled alumnus told her that he wouldn't pledge until the College went back to being all-male. Becker isn't thin-skinned (she says she has a politician's ego), but that sort of comment really hurts. "I don't think that members of the College should have to continually prove themselves. I think you can respect the history of the College and still appreciate what is going on now."

The message from the president of the Class of 1987 to the alumni body is quite simple. "Talk to undergraduates. Students love this school as much as you do, and feel the same bonds."

Lee Michaelides is a staff writer for this magazine.