Erdrich to the Podium

Amid the usual student rumblings about not being consulted, the College named acclaimed author Louise Erdrich ’76 as speaker for the June 14 Commencement. A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa tribe in North Dakota and author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Plague of Doves, Erdrich becomes the first female Dartmouth graduate to serve as primary speaker at the ceremony. (Other grads who have spoken in recent years include Henry Paulson ’68, Jeff Immelt ’78 and Fred Rogers ’50.) “I think it’s always timely to have somebody who knows how to tell a story that helps us to reflect more on the human condition,” says President Jim Wright, “and I think she tells those stories quite well.” Erdrich’s daughter Aza, a member of Dartmouth’s class of 2011, will be in attendance. “I’ve heard my mother speak many times,” she says, “and I always feel uplifted by her words.”

Louise Erdrich ’76

DID YOU KNOW?

1,229 Number of Dartmouth’s tenured and tenure-track faculty. Thirty-four percent are women and 10.7 percent are minorities.

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