|
Report from the 202nd Alumni Council Meeting
May 19–21, 2011
This report was written by Debbie Atuk Tu’04 and
Sarah Jackson-Han ’88 and edited for the DCMW by Jay D. Miller ‘82.
Report
This was the 202nd meeting of the Dartmouth Alumni
Council. In 1913, Ernest Martin Hopkins formed the council to guide and support
Dartmouth Alumni Relations. The mission of the Alumni Council now is to sustain
a fully informed, representative, and engaged exchange of information and
sentiment between the alumni and the College, and to enhance and inspire alumni
involvement that furthers the mission of the College.
This report is meant to complement the wealth of
information—about this council meeting and alumni affairs in
general—available on the Office of Alumni Relations Website at
www.alumni.dartmouth.edu
Overview
Alumni Council meetings provide a plethora of
information on a broad range of topics. This is a bullet point summary. See
below for expanded information.
- President Jim Yong Kim ’82a addressed the
councilors on Friday focusing on three topics: innovation at the College,
student health, and student life.
- Martha Beattie ’76 attended the session in
her new role as vice president for Alumni Relations.
- Tom Daniels ’82 gave an update from the
Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee, which he chairs.
- Alumni Council election results were
announced. Danielle Dyer ’81 Tu’89 will become president of the Alumni
Council and Marty Lempres ’84 will be the president-elect. Regina Glocker
’88 and Jennifer Avellino ’89 will join the Nominating and Alumni
Trustee Search Committee. Alan Barstow ’75 was elected to the Alumni
Liaison Committee.
- Mark Davis ’81 Tu '84 was appointed to the
Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee and John Walters ’62 was
appointed to the Alumni Liaison Committee.
- Dean of Faculty, Arts & Sciences,
Michael Mastanduno reflected on his first year, gave a preview of the
upcoming curriculum review, and answered questions from the floor.
- Carrie Pelzel ’54a, senior vice president
for Advancement, presented on “Reimagining Reunions at Dartmouth.”
- Campus tours provided alumni with the
opportunity to visit new athletic facilities, the transformation of Thayer
Dining Hall into the new Class of 1953 Commons, as well as the Rauner
Library Special Collections, the Hood Museum, and the fabled underground
steam tunnels.
- Alumni were invited to formally visit with
students to discuss a topic of their interest. Topics included the Dartmouth
Entrepreneurial Network (DEN), off-campus programs, high-risk drinking,
diversity, and the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC).
- Dartmouth College Trustees Peggy Tanner
’79 and Bill Helman ’80 made a presentation from the Board of Trustees
that focused on College finances and student life.
- We “met” the Class of 2015 when Maria
Laskaris ’84, dean of admissions and financial aid, gave us an update on
admissions, noting a 19-percent increase in applications from the previous
year.
- Councilors had an opportunity to return to
the classroom on Friday morning to attend an undergraduate class.
- A delightful panel of students involved with
community service shared what their experiences have been, how they got
involved, and what it has meant to them.
Alumni Council President Tom Peisch ’70
opened the 202nd Alumni Council and noted that 90 percent of our 125 alumni
councilors were present. He introduced the newest councilor, Gordon Campbell
’70, the former premier of British Columbia. Senior Vice President for
Advancement Carrie Pelzel introduced new Vice President for Alumni Relations
Martha Beattie, former president of the Alumni Council and magna cum laude graduate
of Dartmouth’s first four-year class to matriculate women. Beattie has had a
30-year career as a math teacher, crew coach, and volunteer leader and board
member for a range of charities and schools. “We can get even better—we will
need all of you and all your ideas to do this,” she said. The vice president
for Alumni Relations is charged with strengthening connections with
Dartmouth’s 71,000 alumni and engaging them in the life of the College.
Tom Daniels '82, Chair, Nominating and Alumni
Trustee Search Committee
Councilors received an update on the Nominating
and Alumni Trustee Search Committee from Tom Daniels. Tom reviewed the alumni
trustee nomination process the committee undertook to select the candidates for
the most recent election for the two alumni-nominated trustee vacancies,
including its working agenda and timeline. Tom also listed the incoming
councilors who will join the Alumni Council on July 1, 2011, to represent
classes, regions, affiliated groups, professional schools/programs, and other
constituencies.
As of this April, Dartmouth alumni nominated two
new alumni trustees to the board and elected a new Association of Alumni
Executive Committee. Approximately 15.5 percent of the Dartmouth alumni body
participated in the election. New trustees are Gail Koziara Boudreaux ’82 and
Bill Burgess ’81, who joined the board on June 12, 2011, following
Commencement ceremonies. More about Nominating Committee procedures is available
at http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/leadership/association/nominationandballoti.
Conversation with President Kim
Next on the agenda, President Kim made a
presentation based on feedback that was solicited from the Alumni Council in
advance of the meeting. In his address, he discussed three topics: innovation at
the College, student health, and student life.
“We want to be the place where entrepreneurial
scholars come because we’re going to be friendlier than any other
institution” in supporting their ideas and bringing them to fruition, he said.
Both tradition and innovation are essential.
“Every year we want Dartmouth to be responsible
for a fundamental innovation in higher education,” he said, such as the Center
for Health Care Delivery Science and a broad effort to address high-risk
drinking. President Kim cited new Dartmouth research showing that exercise in
adolescents doubles the amount of time during which they remember data.
Involvement in athletics therefore reinforces learning.
President Kim also discussed new initiatives aimed
at supporting first-year students through mentoring, and other programs that
demonstrate Dartmouth’s understanding of what students need to succeed. On
student health, he identified five critical areas: high-risk drinking, sexual
assault, depression, tobacco use, and eating disorders. The College must focus
on creating opportunities for healthy social interactions and keep those
initiatives that work.
Dartmouth’s aspirations are:
- Global leadership in teaching;
- Cutting-edge interdisciplinary research;
- Enhanced leadership in higher education;
- Tackle sustainability;
- An alumni network unlike any other; and
- To be the institution of choice for the best
faculty, students, and staff.
Reflections on the Arts and Sciences with Dean
of Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael Mastanduno
According to Dean Mastanduno, the quality of the
Dartmouth student body is simply too good to listen passively. It is his opinion
that Dartmouth students want to be part of the process—they want to be active
learners and researchers in their own right. It is Dartmouth’s responsibility,
then, to create the environment to foster those aspirations.
Mastanduno is finishing his first year as dean of
faculty. His first year was clearly affected by the severe budget cuts and
constraints that the College has had to implement. Mastanduno appreciates
President Kim’s approach—that of facing the problem head on, trying to solve
it as quickly as possible, while trying to maintain the core values of the
institution, and then moving on to other things. Mastanduno says Provost Carol
Folt’s launch of a strategic planning initiative is the signal to move ahead.
Dean Mastanduno commented, “We have gone from
350 to 415 faculty during the course of a decade. This has allowed us to do so
much more both on the teaching side and on the research side.” Dartmouth
teaches between 1,500 and 2,000 courses, in 40 departments and programs, and
student demand for social science courses is high. Mastanduno said he planned to
gather faculty soon to review the curriculum and arts and sciences programs. The
graduate schools have also adapted some graduate courses for undergraduates,
such as a class on strategic decision-making in a liberal arts context.
Reimagining Reunions with Carrie Pelzel, Senior
Vice President for Advancement
At the 201st alumni council session in December,
Carrie Pelzel presented an overview of the new Advancement division to the
council. Throughout this, the 202nd session, the alumni were informed, directly
or indirectly, of the progress on some of these initiatives, such as building
the team and reimagining the reunion experience.
Build the team: Three key searches are
being brought to a close (vice presidents for Alumni Relations, Development, and
Communications). Martha Beattie has been hired as the vice president for Alumni
Relations. Two announcements followed the session completion for vice president
for Development and vice president for Communications. Roderic (Roddy)
Olvera Young has been appointed vice president for Communications. Tom
Herbert was named vice president for Development.
Reimagining Reunions: Carrie
Pelzel noted that between 2,200 and 2,400 alumni—or about 23 percent
of reunion-class alumni—attend reunions every year. Although other Ivy
League universities tabulate results slightly differently, their reunion
yields range from 14 percent to 35 percent. Staff found that the classes
with the lowest reunion turnout have had consistently low turnout at
every reunion. In general, alumni return in larger numbers for their
fifth reunions but drop off as their professional and personal
obligations expand; turnout rises again several decades later. Pelzel
offered the following ideas to consider for reunions:
- Saturday all-day programming;
- Saturday evening spectacular event;
- Creative fun;
- Venues for affiliations other than
classes;
- Life-changing lectures or
experiences; and
- Address by the president.
|
At subsequent focus groups, we
brainstormed about potential reunion programming ideas and considered
whether clustering reunion classes should continue, whether the College
might subsidize more of reunions to reduce cost, and how to schedule
reunion activities around shared interests. One group recommended
scheduling activities geared toward life stages, such as seminars on
returning to the workforce after a hiatus to care for children or
parents, or on how to reinvent ourselves post-retirement.
Remarks by Trustee Jeff Immelt ’78
General Electric CEO and Dartmouth Trustee
Jeff Immelt was the keynote speaker on Saturday night. Deborah Klenotic
covered Mr. Immelt’s remarks to the alumni in her article for the
alumni website, “ ‘Truly the Big Green’: Alumni Council Explores
Dartmouth’s Reach in 202nd Session,” at www.alumni.dartmouth.edu/News.aspx?id=441.
Update from the Board of Trustees:
Peggy Tanner '79 and Bill Helman '80
Dartmouth Trustees Peggy Tanner and Bill
Helman made the presentation from the Board of Trustees with their
comments focused on the College finances and student affairs. Topics
covered included the following:
- Helman reflected on the strategic
approach that Dartmouth took to closing the budget gap.
- Regarding board membership, Helman
said, “We’re trying to get the best managers to make the
decisions for us and be broadly diversified to get the best
long-term returns.”
- Tanner discussed Provost Carol
Folt’s strategic planning initiative and commented on the work of
the board's Student Affairs Committee.
Meet the Class of 2015: An Admissions
Update by Maria Laskaris, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
Dean Laskaris said that the number of
applicants has more than doubled since 2005—from 10,000 to about
22,000. Some 2229 applicants were admitted this year, which is about 9.7
percent of the applicant pool. The Admissions Office is focusing its
messaging on Dartmouth’s affordability and accessibility, and it
considers applicants based on their substantive commitments, in addition
to academic excellence.
Historically, the yield for accepted
students is about 50 percent “and there’s an awful lot we do to make
sure applicants take a hard look at Dartmouth,” she said.
“Admissions uses phone calls, alumni clubs, Facebook, email…to
convince them to come; this year they tried more videos, online chats,
and now Spanish- and Chinese-language chats.”
Laskaris then showed a video, www.tampabay.com/components/video/hard-work-focus-brings-ivy-league-payoff/944330841001,
about a unique student who was just accepted. “We are steadfastly
committed to a need-blind admissions process…there are only a handful
of institutions that are committed to this,” she said.
Community Service Student Panel
Councilors enjoyed a student panel called
“’Round the Girdled Earth,” in which the following panelists spoke
about their community service involvement:
Wills Begor ’12 volunteers as a
member of the Dartmouth Ski Patrol, is an active member of Sigma Alpha
Epsilon, and is a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar in the
economics department. About 18 months ago, Wills co-founded a nonprofit,
Project RightChoice, that promotes leadership development through the
framework of social action. In its first year of operation, Project
RightChoice raised $104,000 for the Fisher House Foundation and its work
on behalf of our nation’s wounded veterans and their families. To date
in 2011, Project RightChoice has raised more than $20,000 for Water.org
in order to provide clean water and sanitation facilities to communities
in Haiti and Ethiopia.
Emily Broas ’11 is currently the
student director of education programs at the Tucker Foundation, where
she advises school outreach projects that address literacy, college
awareness, in-school mentoring, and English language tutoring. She has
also volunteered with the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program as an
academic coach and has chaired the STAR Mentoring program for teenagers
dealing with chronic health issues and disabilities.
Ahra Cho ’11 has worked closely
with the Tucker Foundation, leading an alternative spring break trip to
New Orleans, working as a Dartmouth Partners in Community Service intern
at the Children’s Advocacy Center, and volunteering as a Tucker Fellow
in rural Ghana. Currently, she is the chair of Students Fighting Hunger
and works at the Tucker Foundation as the student director of the
Alternative Spring Break Program.
Mayuka Kowaguchi ’11 has been
involved in service at Dartmouth through ASPIRE as a trained mentor to
children on the autism spectrum and as philanthropy chair for her
sorority. Most recently, she coordinated the Dartmouth for Japan
initiative, the student effort to raise money and awareness for the
Tohoku earthquake in Japan.
Ahmad Nazeri ’11 is an
undergraduate advisor, a member of Beta Alpha Omega, and has served as
the chair of America Reads and as the president of Al-Nur, the Muslim
Student Association. He currently serves as the student director of
Tucker Foundation. Additionally, he has participated in various
activities at Tucker, including leading an alternative spring break trip
to San Francisco this past spring. Following the spring break trip, he
completed an off-term, Tucker-funded internship at the Refugee and
Immigration Services in Richmond, where he helped refugee students with
homework and developing reading skills. Next year, he will be teaching
high school social studies in Baltimore through Teach for America and he
hopes to pursue a career in education.
Committee Reports
Committees meet at least once during the
Alumni Council session. Each committee then presents a verbal report to
the council at the end of the session and submits a written report soon
after the session disperses.
Committees include: Academic Affairs,
Alumni Awards, Athletics, Communications, Enrollment and Admissions,
Honorary Degrees, Student Affairs,Young Alumni, and Young Alumni
Distinguished Service Award. Additionally, there is an Executive
Committee, a Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee, and a
committee that liaises with the trustees: the Alumni Liaison Committee (ALC).
Committees often work throughout the year, not just during Alumni
Council sessions. The ALC and the Executive Committee have monthly
meetings.
The ALC’s 2010–11 annual report to the
Dartmouth Board of Trustees is in the process of being drafted and will
be presented later this year. A link to last year’s report is
available online at http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/council/resourcesforalumni.
The chairs of all committees presented
verbal summaries of their respective committee meetings. Full reports on
the meetings will be posted on the Alumni Council website at http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/council/committeenews.
Open Microphone
Deborah Atuk, Native American Alumni
Association of Dartmouth representative, suggested that a committee at
the Alumni Council level be formed in order to address minority faculty
recruiting and retention. Chief of Staff David Spalding ’76 responded
to the suggestion from the floor and Danielle Dyer, president-elect,
said the issue would be discussed by the executive committee.
Relevant Links
The ALC’s 2009–10 annual report to the
Dartmouth Board of Trustees:
http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/council/resourcesforalumni.
Nominating Committee Report:
http://alumni.dartmouth.edu/council/CommitteeNews/NominatingandAlumniTrusteeSearch.
For more information on trustee
initiatives, read “Visible and Accessible,” an interview with board
chair Steve Mandel ’78, on priorities for the board;
http://now.dartmouth.edu/2010/11/visible-and-accessible.
|
|