Alumni Council

Alumni Council

CLASS NOTES

The Dartmouth Alumni Council—the 120-plus member group of volunteers representing all Dartmouth alumni—has certainly had a busy year, despite the global pandemic preventing us from holding our usual in-person meetings in the fall and spring. Fortunately, through virtual meetings and other creative approaches to engagement, your dedicated alumni councilors have shown themselves more than up to the task of continuing our mission to facilitate interaction and communication between alumni and the College.

Our work started early in the academic year with our first Volunteer Engagement Week, combining the fall Alumni Council meeting with the annual VOX gathering of class, club, and group leaders. Thanks to the all-virtual format, this convening brought together hundreds of alumni volunteers from around the globe for several days of meetings and interactive sessions, including some social events for alumni to connect informally. Among the information we received from campus leaders were details on the campus Covid response, an update onthe exciting new West End project, and ideas for developing virtual programming during the pandemic.

One highlight of the week was a session on expanding engagement within our networks to allow for broader participation, particularly from alumni who may not have felt as welcome in the past. Coming out of that effort, the leaders of the Alumni Council, communities executive council, and Class Officers Association executive board planned three additional sessions for this spring, which allow alumni volunteers to dive deeper into how we can use communications, programming, and recruitment to foster more inclusive alumni communities. This work will continue into the next academic year, and any alumni who want to learn more or get involved are welcome!

Clubs & Groups-Deaths

During the rest of our fall council meeting, we learned more about the president’s commission on financial aid, discussed the creation ofthe new chief diversity officer role, and had a frank question-and-answer session with several members of the board of trustees. Lastly, the council fulfilled one of its most important roles by nominating Joyce Sackey ’85, DMS’89, M.D., to the board.

Going into the winter, councilors continued work in their committees and by sharing sentiments received from constituents with the council’s Alumni Liaison Committee (ALC), which synthesizes and presents all feedback received to the administration and board of trustees. Noting a greater-than-usual volume of feedback received this winter, the ALC—led this year by fo rmer council president C. Alec Casey ’88—conducted additional outreach to councilors and other volunteer leaders to take the pulse of alumni reactions to recent news coming out of campus. Based on the information received, the council then convened a rare special session in April to hear from campus leaders on these hot topics, including updates on the transition back to in-person learning in the fall, proposed changes to off-campus programs, and the latest on activities within the athletics department.

As we head into the end of the academic year, the council is once again planning a virtual spring meeting in May, during which we will learn more about ongoing campus efforts to address diversity and equity and elect the next cohort of councilors and council leaders. During the meeting I will also be handing off the gavel to the next president of the Alumni Council, Laurie Lewis Shapiro ’95, who will officially assume the role in July. Until then, I continue to invite all alumni to reach out with their questions, opinions, and suggestions for the council by emailing me at alumni.council. president@dartmouth.edu.

—Rachel Bogardus Drew ’98, president, Hinman 6068, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755; alumni.council.president@dartmouth.edu