Alumni Council

Alumni Council

This year the Dartmouth Alumni Council, which consists of more than 120 dedicated volunteers who represent all Dartmouth alumni, has worked collaboratively to further its mission to share information and sentiment between alumni and Dartmouth while encouraging alumni involvement and engagement. Members of the Alumni Council have an inside look at the successes, challenges, and innovations occurring at Dartmouth.

In late October the Alumni Council met on campus, where we enjoyed the beauty of fall in Hanover and the excitement, connections, and productivity of convening together in person. We had a full agenda that began with opening remarks relating to the work of the alumni relations team, the rollout of Dartmouth Connect, the alumni liaison committee’s continued efforts to synthesize and summarize alumni sentiment received through a variety of channels, and updates from the advancement division. Our committees met in Dartmouth Hall to discuss their work—the first opportunity for many new councilors to experience the recently renovated space.

Highlights from the second day of our fall meeting included hearing President Sian Leah Beilock address the council and take numerous questions from the audience of councilors. We also learned from an insightful session titled “Navigating a Race-Neutral Admissions Landscape,” gleaned a better understanding of undergraduate research opportunities, and celebrated the presentation of the Professor John Rassias Faculty Award to professor Matthew Delmont. The celebration continued later in the day when wejoined together and recognized recipients of the Alumni Award and Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award at the alumni awards celebration dinner. We concluded the fall meeting with a robust conversation about alumni engagement followed by an open forum with trustee Sue Finegan ’85.

In response to councilors’ expressed desire to remain engaged and connected with each other between Alumni Council meetings, we began holding informal, monthly virtual meetings in January. These meetings have enabled councilors to build on the relationships cultivated and ideas and experiences shared in Hanover at our October meeting. Councilors in the Boston area met in person and joined the meeting together from a conference room, which afforded them the opportunity to further cultivate some of the friendships fostered in the fall. In addition to these gatherings, each of the Alumni Council committees has continued its work between meetings.

The Alumni Council will meet virtually in early May, and we look forward to covering several topics of interest to alumni councilors and their constituents. Scheduled presentations include an update on sustainability efforts, a conversation about artificial intelligence (AI), a report on house communities, a discussion about Dartmouth athletics from the student-athlete perspective, and an open forum with trustees.

Serving on the Alumni Council has been a privilege and honor I will cherish long after my term as president ends. During our spring meeting I will hand off the gavel to our next Alumni Council president, Cheryl Shepard ’90, who will officially begin her term in July. In the meantime, please continue contacting me with your questions, thoughts, and feedback for the council.

—Alexandra Garrison Barnett ’07, president, 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH, 03755; alumni. council.president@dartmouth.edu