Saturday - Day 3 - Plenary and Close

Good morning!

Today is football day in Hanover, but first we finish our 207th Council Session with the third Plenary Session.

First up - Bob Lasher '88, our new SVP for Advancement, addressed the Council to discuss Darmouth's efforts at Communication and outreach to Alumni, with particular focus on President Hanlon's schedule to meet with Alumni clubs.

We also heard from Justin Anderson, the AVP for Media Relations. He spoke about specific efforts to reach out to the major media to promote more postive stories about Dartmouth. Acknowleding the pain from some of the recent negative articles, he gave a summary of the many positive stories that have been in other major media.

Board of Directors Report
Steve Mandel and Sherri Oberg talked about Board priorities, and their efforts to work with President Hanlon on many of the initiatives discussed earlier, including their efforts to address affordability. One topic of interest was risk management, incuding internal audits, program audits, and even background checks for Dartmouth employees.

Center for Professional DevelopmentRoger Woolsey, new director of the Center, gave a terrific, energetic presentation on new philosophy, strategies and programming for supporting students in their decisions for professional choices. Bottom line is that there is a total overhaul of the career/professional development function at the College. One tip... joined the various Dartmouth networks on LinkedIn to help engage with the various opportunities to participate in the professional networks.

Committee Reports
A status report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Data presented show significant challenges to attract and retain faculty and staff in minority/diversity categories, showing declines in % in recent years. Dartmouth is in the lower third among Ivy League schools.

Caroline Kerr '05 gave a presentation on best practices among Colleges and Universities, and also in business. Key factors: leadership; focus on the "pipeline" to develop and train people (not just at the job search level); integrate with core mission/strategy for overall success of enterprise; funding & resources for retention strategies; continuing evaluation and feedback on efforts. Report will be posted on-line on Monday, Oct 28 on the alumni.dartmouth.edu/leadership/council page.

Session wrapping up with Committee reports, and open forum Q&A. The Alumni Liaison Committee noted that their annual report is on the Alumni Council web page with a summary of all the communications received and sent via the Alumni Council.

Any comments or questions... please email me at dvanwie@maine.rr.com

I will pass along any comments and questions to the College, and will do my best to respond promptly.

Off to the 79 MINI-REUNION tailgate and football game... let's hope the rain holds off!

Cheers - DVW

Friday October 25 - Day 2

Well, what a busy Friday at the Alumni Council! I had hoped to post a few times during the day, but, alas, the schedule was full, and the topics were interesting, so I found no gaps to sit down and summarize. And that is a good thing.

Here is a quick summary, with more detail to follow.

Academic Affairs Committee
The morning began with committee meetings, so I was in Haldeman Center (across from KKK)for a presentation by Drew Galbraith, Senior Associate AD, who spoke about the Dartmouth Peak Performance program (DP2), specifically focusing on the Academic support leg of the stool. Our discussion explored how we might replicate some of the success of DP2 academic strategies to the general population of students. One example is the "Resident Experts" where upperclass students majoring in different subjects hold open office hours two nights per week to offer advice and academic support to athletes who may need help with a class in that major subject.

Second, we heard a presentation by Associate Dean Lynn Higgins about the ongoing curriculum review process. A few topics being discussed:
- Expanding hands on, experiential learning opportunities
- Looking a majors and minors, and how many double majors are being pursued
- Distributive requirements - how can we make the choice of distributives more "reflective and intentional"
- Schedule - How can the schedule optimize opportunities for class/course design, and time management (e.g. the campus is bigger so time to get to class is an issue)
- Enhancing international opportunities
- Integrating technology
Dean Higgins said that a draft report on the review will be made available to the Committee for review and comment when it is available.

President Phil Hanlon '77
President Hanlon recognized the Council for its 100 years of service to the College, and reinforced his desire to rely on the Council for advice to him and the Trustees on key issues. He highlighted a few of his priorities and values. Notably he discussed higher education's role in imparting: facts, knowledge and wisdom, recognizing that facts and knowledge are becoming free commodities thanks to the Internet, so higher ed must focus on imparting wisdomas its value added function. Confidence to take risksis an important part of wisdom. He also talked about his initiative to establish a Society of Fellows to bring more young post doc scholars to campus to inject energy and ideas into the campus.

President Hanlon also spoke about challenges of budgeting to reduce the costs of higher education to keep the cost/affordability to students within the general inflation rate. And he discussed his focus on Student Life initiatives.

Alumni Relations Office Activities
Following President Hanlon, we heard a presentation Jean Romeo about recent market research on Dartmouth's alumni population, including segmentation by age and gender, so gain data-driven, actionable insights into the passions, motivation and interests of different alumni.

Dean's Office Panel
Dean Charlotte Johnson spoke about several program areas, including changes to Student Advising, improvement to facilities for student life, First Year Orientation programs, and improvements to the Career Center. She and her staff also discussed Living Learning Communities, and the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative (DBI) to address high risk behaviors.

Career Center Changes
There is a new director of career counseling, now called the Center for Professional Development. There is general acknowledgement that the career center has been strong in placing students in certain industries (e.g. financial services) but has been very weak in supporting students interested in other career paths (e.g. teaching, social services). The new director is planning a program that includes 4 year engagement with students to help them understand their own values/strengths/interests, and how their choice of classes, activities and off campus programs can help them prepare for their career choice, and ultimately their job search.

Finally, we heard from the new CFO, Rick Mills, and Chief Investment Officer, Pam Peedin '89, who discussed the endowment and the college budget/balance sheet. They presented numbers on the costs of undergraduate education and how it is funded.

The dinner and evening program included Alumni Awards and Young Alumni Awards. An impressive showcase of Alumni stars.

Late October in Hanover - Can you remember the building?

Alumni Council - Thursday Oct 24

Dear Classmates-

Alumni Council update for Day 1.

I attended the Alumni Council Orientation session, which was helpful and a good opportunity to meet some other first year councilors. The emphasis was on communication with our constituent class, so I am again urging classmates to pass along their thoughts, questions and comments. If I can't answer your query, I will pass it along to someone at Dartmouth who can help me formulate a response. I know I owe a few of you responses, and will get back to you as soon as I can.

Following orientation, we enjoyed a reception at Hood Museum. Aside from the ambiance of the art gallery, it was nice to chat with some fellow councilors. I met two women from the class of 1987, one of whom played rugby, and was aware of my past experience as coach of the women's rugby team. Fun to make these types of acquaintances.

Then, we headed to dinner at Collis Center, with a presentation on the history of the Alumni Council. This is the 100th anniversary of the Council, so President Mark Davis '81 walked us through 100 years of Dartmouth history and influence from the Council, including notable eras such as WWII ROTC programs, the Orr Committee that recommended admission of women, and the Kilmarx Committee recommending the discontinuance of the Indian Symbol, to name a few.

Finally, we heard a mind-blowing panel of students who discussed their experiential learning opportunities in a variety of academic programs that pushed them out into the Upper Valley community. The students were impressive in their presentations (far above many of my business colleagues who have 20-30 more years of experience. We heard from:

Gavin Huang '14 who discussed his role in a film documentary on a Lyme resident who works with black bears;
Miriam Kilimo '14. an anthropology/journalism major who wrote about local Jehovah's Witnesses;
Alison Polton-Simon '14 who has worked on engineering policy issues;
Ayaan Roble '14 who worked on a forest ecology project involving Dartmouth's elm trees;
Brandon DeBot '14 from the Policy Research program who presented policy analysis results to the NH legislature.

This was an impressive group of students who demonstrate the power of the Dartmouth Experience and the value of Dartmouth's focus on undergraduate learning. A very enjoyable evening. More on the regular agenda tomorrow.

Hello fellow members of the Great Class of 1979:

You may vaguely recall that you elected me to be your Class of ‘79 Representative to the Dartmouth Alumni Council.  Thank you for that honor!  I am very much looking forward to my first official meeting October 24-26 in Hanover.  If you will be in town that weekend, please let me know.

You may also recall that I attended the meeting last spring as an unofficial substitute for my predecessor, David Dowd.  Please join me in thanking David for his service to our class. (Clap! Clap! Clap!)   So I was fortunate to get a little head start on my new role.

I am pleased to report that I now have two committee assignments: 

·         Academic Affairs Committee, chaired by Vincent Pellegrini '77 '79GMS, and

·         Honorary Degrees Committee, chaired by Michael Gonnerman '65

The Committee on Academic Affairs serves as a principal interface between the faculty and the Alumni Council of Dartmouth College such that: a strong, ongoing relationship is established, alumni are kept informed about the curriculum and other elements of the Dartmouth academic experience, a platform is created for alumni to communicate with the faculty, and ways are explored for the faculty to benefit from the background and experiences of alumni and for the alumni to access faculty scholarship and other academic resources of the College.

The job of the Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee is to submit three to five names of alumni/ae worthy of consideration for an honorary degree from Dartmouth College to the College's Committee on Honorary Degrees, which makes the final decision. To be nominated, an individual must have attained intellectual distinction at national and international levels, reached professional achievement of the highest order, or made contributions of genuine significance in areas of public service or Dartmouth College involvement. The Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee is tasked with identifying and researching living undergraduate school alumni of this caliber and nominating the best among them.  If you know an alumnus/a you believe meets the high standards required for an honorary degree, please send that person's name and any information you'd like to share about him or her to me, or to Diana Lawrence '11MALS, secretary, Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee, 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH  03755.  All nominations are confidential.

Committee work is where an Alumni Councilor has an opportunity to have a significant and original impact on what the Council provides to the Administration and to the Alumni body.  On Academic Affairs Committee, I am particularly interested in exploring the College’s strategies for on-line learning and off campus credit experiences.   And I am interested in hearing your suggestions for candidates for Honorary Degrees from among the Dartmouth alumni body.

The biggest part of my job is communication… listening to my constituency-- you the members of the Class of 79, and bringing your thoughts forward to the Council. 

Also, my job is to report back to you what I learn and do at Council meetings.  I will try to find creative ways to use email, Facebook, and my own Alumni Council blog to post information in ways that are helpful and hopefully interesting. 

The agenda for the Fall Council Meeting (207^th Council Session) includes an address by President Philip J. Hanlon '77, a session with Vice President for Alumni Relations Martha Beattie '76, various Committee meetings, and the participation of students and numerous other officials of the College.

So please… email me any questions or comments you may have about the College that you would like me to relay to the Council and to the Alumni Relations office.   If I don’t know the answer to your question, I have plenty of resources to help me find out.  If I am late in getting back to you, please send me a gentle and humorous reminder.

Again, I am thrilled to have this new adventure as your Alumni Council representative.  I enjoy working with our terrific group of Class Officers.

I look forward to hearing from you, and getting to know more of my classmates.

With very best regards,

David Van Wie