Hanover Review Inc. P.O. Box 343 Hanover NH, 03755
Volu m e 3 6 , Is su e 8
Mond ay, O c tob er 1 0 , 2 0 1 6
J’Accuse
Morton Hall lays in ruins, much like Dartmouth College after three years of President Hanlon’s administration.
Robert Sayegh
Hanlon’s Tenure Reviewed Carol Swain Speaks Out Max J. Frankel Contributor
Dartmouth has a problem. A careful look at the evidence will reveal what is already plain to many of the faculty: President Philip Hanlon’s leadership deficit is the cause of our present misfortune. His failure of leadership falls into the following categories: 1. President Hanlon lacks a persuasive and unique vision for what Dartmouth should be while simultaneously maintaining a public research university mindset. The combination of these two problems leads to the thoughtless importation of inappropriate models from other institutions and resentment among faculty and students. 2. President Hanlon’s style of leadership is passive in the extreme. There is a justified feeling that the College is currently adrift as a consequence of his tendency towards reactive rather than proactive leadership. This problem manifests itself in
the form of an extreme focus on public relations, among others. 3. President Hanlon has not taken the time to genuinely understand the concerns of the faculty and the student body. When he has solicited input, he has generally disregarded it. There is a fundamental disconnect between himself and the College he is supposed to be running. 4. President Hanlon has chosen people to staff the upper ranks of his administration who share his disagreeable leadership qualities. The Lack of Vision
Dartmouth’s competitive advantage lies in the fundamental character of the College. The focus on undergraduate education is what distinguishes us from other institutions of higher education. There is a reason why Dartmouth is known as Dartmouth College and not as Dartmouth University. The reason students come here to study and the reason professors come here to teach is precisely our focus on undergraduate education. This
focus is our competitive niche; it is obvious to anyone but the current administration that our college does not have a competitive edge over the rest of the Ivy League in graduate-driven research. Dartmouth’s character is fundamentally suited to undergraduate education, and not to graduate-level research. This does not preclude research, but the fundamental raison d’être of Dartmouth is undergraduate education. On the College’s website, President Hanlon lays out his academic “vision.” It reads: “Emphasize Experiential Learning, Lead in the Use of Learning Technologies, Expand the Impact of the Faculty through Clusters, Increase the Flow of Young Scholars, and Add Mechanisms to Increase Risk-Taking and Productivity.” The last three categories are all aimed at graduate students or at faculty research. Clusters are intended to improve research, “young scholars” refers to postdocs, and the wordy “Add Mechanisms to Increase Risk-Taking and Pro-
ductivity” denotes seed funding for interdisciplinary research. While the first two are undergraduate-focused, the actual detail in those categories is either inane or vacuous. Under “Experiential Learning” Hanlon includes a Thayer expansion and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. The former is an expansion of a graduate school, and progress is ill-defined in terms of tangible results. The latter is an abject failure, which has not been integrated into the rest of undergraduate education in addition to spawning no new businesses. Under “Learning Technologies” President Hanlon boasts of such great leaps forward as the implementation of Canvas (an online learning system), and the hiring of a “Director of Digital Learning Initiatives.” Most universities have adopted Canvas by now, and the “Director of Digital Learning Initiatives” seems to have accomplished little except giving interviews.
> FEATURES page 6
Brian Chen Rushil Shukla Executive Editor Associate Editor
Editor’s Note: Carol Swain is a nationally renowned conservative political scientist, former television host, and professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University. Before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1999, she was an associate professor of politics and public policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She is the author and editor of several award-winning books, and her scholarly work has been cited by two Supreme Court Justices. Her academic interests include immigration reform, religious liberty, campaigns and elections, and racial politics. Her views on race and the Black Lives Matter Movement and Islam have attracted national attention in
the media. Recently, The Dartmouth Review had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Swain about her life as an academic and conservative political activist. Here is what she had to say. The Dartmouth Review (TDR): You a have a very unique life story. Could you tell us a bit about how you became not only an accomplished academic but also a conservative activist? Carol Swain (CS): Well, it was a gradual process. I’ve always seen the world differently from the people around me—I was born differently. I’ve just been questioning things for more of my life, but the turn to conservatism started after I had a Christian conversion experience in the late 1990s.
> Features page 8
J’accuse: A letter to M. Philip J. Hanlon
David Duke Exposed
Dartmouth Football
The Review enumerates the crimes of President Hanlon’s administration and calls for student and faculty votes of no confidence.
The Review looks at a past interview with America’s favorite racist.
The Review examines the ups and downs of this season to date.
> EDITORIAL page 3
> features page 12
> features page 14