AROUND THE GREEN

New Dean of the Faculty CarolFolt says her priorities are "to listen to and advocate for" a faculty that is looking ahead after the contentious resignation of former dean Michael S. Gazzaniga '61. Among her goals is "to realize aspirations for academic programs that ensure a rich, vibrant learning experience for students and a stimulating environment for achieving the highest level of scholarship on the part of both faculty and students." The faculty wants Dartmouth "to be the best liberal arts institution in the country," she says. Well known as a research scientist, Folt describes as "seamless" the marriage of teaching and research at the College. "We can't be a center for excellence without the active, creative thinkers who serve as mentors for students to become the same," she says.

Returning alums thronged the campus inJune, visiting old haunts, compiling impressive attendance figures, posting significant donations and establishing both dollar and participation percentage records. Three record gifts to the Dartmouth College Fund were recorded by reunion classes: $259,063 from the class of 1934; $3.28 million from the class of 1964; and $503,522 from the class of 1989. The 50th reunion class failed to equal the $12.5 million mark established last year by the class of 1953, but the 1954 graduates' gift of almost $7.8 million represented a record 97 percent class participation rate. Notable turnouts were also achieved: 361 members of the class of 1999 came back to campus while a total of 348 returned from the class of 1979.

Kresge Fitness Center will double in sizewhen it moves upstairs to Alumni Gymnasium. Students celebrating the muchneeded expansion are also lamenting it won't be completed until mid-2005 at best. In the meantime, additional exercise equipment has been purchased for use elsewhere in the gym.

First-year graduate students will takepart in ethics training as part of a program developed in collaboration with the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth. Facilitators were trained last year to lead small discussion groups.