State of the College address

Good afternoon, everyone. 

Thank you all for joining me for our annual meeting of the general faculty, and my second State of the College address – I do really appreciate everyone taking the time, at a moment when I know so much is going on at the start of the year. 

I thought a lot about what I wanted to say to this group today. And where I landed is a little different than your typical State of the College. Because to me this moment isn't about a laundry list of priorities or accomplishments — even though I do believe, thanks to everyone in this room, there is so much from this past year to be proud of. 

What this moment calls for instead is a State of the Community.

I want to speak to you about where we've been and where we're headed. The highs, the lows, everything in between.

Last year was hard in many ways. We can all be honest about that. 

We can talk about the foundation we've built together this past year — and in the same breath, talk about the specific areas where we need to go further as an institution.

My hope is that we leave here, all of us, energized. Not just for Dartmouth's future, but for your own future as part of Dartmouth.

This is my second year here. 

I've spent 16 months as president and the better part of a year before that getting to know the people in this room, our faculty, our staff, our students and our alumni. I still have a lot to learn, as I'll be the first one to tell you. What I do know is this: Dartmouth feels like home. It feels like home when I drop my daughter off at middle school, when I run through Pine park, and when I stand before you today. I hope and intend to be here for a long time.

Since the day of my appointment I started to hear about the power of the Dartmouth community. That word … community … people kept emphasizing its unique quality at Dartmouth and its importance. Community. Community is what draws people to Dartmouth, keeps them coming back, and for some provides a home for a lifetime.

But something else became clear in those conversations, too: It is becoming more difficult to live in this community.  It can be challenging to find a place to live, to find child care, or to raise your hand and provide a different point of view than some of your colleagues — or those in administration — have.

Everything we've done this past year … has been about tending to that community. It hasn't always been perfect; we haven't always gotten the outcome we wanted. But that is always the goal: To make it easier to live here, work here, and succeed here. Across the areas of focus I laid out at my inauguration (which were built based on input from all of you) — Mental Health, Dialogue, Sustainability, Innovation and Impact, Lifelong Dartmouth — I see community as the common thread.

On Mental Health and Well-Being … I couldn't be more grateful to so many in this room, who spoke with me honestly about the struggles of the last few years, back to before COVID, but accentuated during and after the pandemic; the far too many members of our community who are gone but not forgotten. It became clear to me this was a crisis that needed urgent attention. Cultures do not change overnight, but we've been making strides and, inspired by the memory of those who are no longer with us, I stand here confident we are positioned to better support ourselves and our community.

We are surrounded, not just by people committed to taking on this issue, but experts with the knowledge and networks to lead. People like:

• Geisel's Lisa McBride — who had the idea for our historic Surgeons General convening, and everyone in this room who rallied to turn it into a reality.
• All of our faculty who collaborated with Chief Health and Wellness Officer Estevan Garcia to eliminate the cost for students to take advantage of our natural surroundings with free outdoor activities. 
• Staff, faculty, and students involved in Peak Bag, which I got to attend last weekend: A great example of an entire community stepping up to improve mental health awareness.

This community has inspired us to go further, on issues like when students need to take time away from Dartmouth. We revised our policies, beginning this calendar year, to allow students time away for healing, ensuring the process is identical for physical or mental health reasons. And, we've made sure any student covered under the Dartmouth Student Group Health Plan will have access to need-based financial assistance for their coverage for up to a year, after their current policy ends. 

And of course: I think of the launch last fall of Dartmouth's Commitment To Care, driven by Matt Duncan and Dave Kotz, the most comprehensive plan in the nation to address student mental health and wellness; the 441 faculty and staff who were trained last year to recognize and respond to students experiencing mental health distress, from early symptoms to crisis; and the nearly 60% of counselors now at our Counseling Center who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color — allowing us to provide culturally sensitive care to all. We provide same-day crisis availability and 80% of patients now receive an appointment in five days or less. At UWill, our teletherapy services for undergraduate and graduate student mental health, we are serving 1,700 registered students across nearly 7,000 appointments, and have just recently extended sessions from 30 minutes to 50 minutes based on student feedback.

A few days ago … a first year PhD student came up to me at Peak Bag and was really honest: She told me she'd been worried about coming to Dartmouth and whether she'd fit in at a school that was known for its focus on undergraduate education. But then she said she felt so included in so many ways — through her house community, through the opportunities she had to participate in the DOC and mental health programming, and through Guarini's new programs focused on helping graduate students map out their career path — whether that's inside or outside the academy.

This is what I want everyone at Dartmouth to feel. And it's why we look at mental health holistically. Housing, child care, how we pay and support our faculty and staff — recognizing all of these matter to our well-being.

On child care … I know that entrusting your child to someone else is one of the most important — and stressful — decisions a parent makes. That is why we pushed so hard to get this new stipend done: up to $4,000 for every benefits-eligible employee's family — along with investing in the entire ecosystem, by providing the funds to help train more child care providers. There is more to do, and I know there are concerns about D4C and its future. But, I believe we all have the same goal — to increase the quantity and quality of child care, especially of infant and toddler care, in the Upper Valley. We have to do something: D4C has 86 spots, and we have close to twice as many on the waitlist. We are committed to working with experts in our faculty and listening to the community here to inform decisions that we will make.

And on housing: This is about recognizing our responsibility and the strategic priority this is for Dartmouth. We cannot stay the institution we are, the community we are, without more housing, period. We cannot just accept the market pricing out our students, our faculty, our staff. It's about us stepping up and saying: We will shoulder some of the responsibility to get the best faculty, staff and students here by adding 1,000 beds over the next decade (for undergrads, yes, but also graduate students, faculty and staff). We are also pushing to protect this community, our community, by doubling our investment in the Upper Valley Loan Fund, which provides low-income loans to the local workforce.

And we will push to keep our undergraduate students a walkable distance to the Green. With a $500 million comprehensive housing plan, we've launched what will be a historic housing campaign for Dartmouth — $165 million in private gifts over the next three years (with the first $30M gift already committed, the largest single gift for housing in Dartmouth's history) — to help facilitate that plan, and build our first new undergraduate residences in more than two decades. This plan will also expand housing for graduate and professional students by releasing housing close to campus that was intended for graduate students, but used in recent years by undergrads. You will hear more about this - including initial plans for new faculty and staff housing - from Josh Keniston later today.

All of those elements — housing, child care, support for our employees, mental health and well-being — are foundational to building community. Scott Frew, our CFO, along with Sarah Lester, our Chief Human Resources Officer, are also rolling out a new plan to help ensure that our benefits costs stay at reasonable levels, and that our faculty and staff salaries keep up with inflation. Looking at the past five years … it's clear to see we have some catching up to do with the Consumer Price Index and cost of living adjustments. We are committed to taking steps for next calendar year's open-enrollment (which starts shortly) and this academic year's payroll to make adjustments. This is so important for the community. 

And we need that sense of community … to do what universities are for — which is to have dialogue and debate that will push our thinking forward, our students forward as leaders and our discoveries forward. That kind of discourse is not always easy, as we saw last academic year. 

I've reflected a lot on the events of the spring. 

In particular: The hurt and anger I know many in this room felt, along with others in our community. I know my decisions caused a lot of that anger and hurt. I own that and I don't for a second take it lightly. One of my fundamental responsibilities as the leader of this community is to assess my decisions, in their wake, and learn from them so that I'm leading from a position of knowledge and growth. 

It's not always easy or straightforward. But what I know today is: I never want us to feel that way again as a community. And as a leader … it's up to me to learn from that moment and learn from you; to hear and understand everyone in this room; and to continue the hard work of bringing our community back together.

I will always work to do what I believe is in the best interest of Dartmouth and the safety of the community.  Not everyone agrees on the best way to accomplish those goals, I know. For those who have vehemently disagreed with some of the decisions I have made, I understand I still have to build your trust. I look forward to working on our relationships. I know that will take time. But let me just say a few things that I hope we can agree on.

A strong community means no one feels unwelcome on our campus, or that certain academic or shared spaces are for people who hold only one view. Meaning that we must create an environment where all community members feel like their voices matter, encouraging active participation from groups who haven't traditionally had a voice.

A strong community means we embrace productive and civil debates and discussions. Meaning we try to understand or engage with differing perspectives and demonstrate mutual respect, not necessarily coming to consensus.

A strong community means defending free speech and expression. Meaning that we must continue to be content neutral in our policies at large, supportive of knowledge production and the review processes within your distinct discourses, and encouraging a culture of accountability and respect for human dignity.      

As we've had those tough conversations over the past year, I could not be more proud of the work this faculty has done to facilitate meaningful dialogue.

So much has deservedly been said about our Jewish and Middle Eastern studies faculty, who led by example and modeled how to have difficult conversations. But our faculty — in every classroom — have been doing this for years. I was proud of how our house professors led extraordinary teach-ins last year following the protests, and worked to bring different voices and views together to be shared. These conversations were brave, sometimes uncomfortable — even for me. That's OK, because that sort of dialogue is how our thinking is sharpened and knowledge is created.  

I believe we're taking those lessons into this year. 

We stand here today with a clear North Star: To find the broadest swath of promising students, excelling in their environment … bring them here to teach them how to think, not what to think … and empower them to be the next generation of leaders of our society. Each of you is helping us follow that North Star in so many ways.

I think about this year's inaugural House Professors Faculty Fellows, who will work closely with our house leadership teams and only deepen the connections I spoke about moments ago. More than ever, our house communities are helping us find our common humanity. 

And I'm deeply proud of the Dartmouth Dialogues programming we're offering through the November election and beyond — including the election series that will challenge our students across the ideological spectrum with an impressive slate of speakers from former Vice President Mike Pence to Anita Hill. And I'm excited to see how Professor Sean Westwood's polarization lab helps us to better understand political behavior and the results of upcoming elections. 

A few nights ago, I was at the candlelight vigil the Arab Student Association put on in remembrance of those who have died in Lebanon — and just a few days before that, at Chabad and Hillel's Rosh Hashanah event, where they blew the Shofar on the Green. Two very different events … and yet what I saw was the same focus on community, shared values, and respect for all — regardless of someone's background or ideological viewpoints. That is what will continue to push us forward.

Another crucial part of building community is building a Lifelong Dartmouth. One of our biggest goals should be to make a great range of careers visible to our students — including areas like research, teaching, the arts, and the public sector — and then make their exploration possible. To that end we are revamping undergraduate career development, bringing our center of operations back to campus as a daily part of the student experience. I'm thrilled to say our center at McNutt Hall is now open, for students to start exploring different career paths on day one of their Dartmouth experience. And we are doing things we have never done before, like integrating A.I. to help students start exploring what careers are out there, tailored to their interest. 

Re-engaging our alumni is a critical piece of this puzzle. We know how much departments do, for example, to help our students prepare for a career, and the relationships that form while they're on campus. Now, we'll be better connected in sharing data on the career paths of your alumni, so that you can interact with them in important ways.

But as we talk about engaging alumni I want to make an important point here, too: As much as we care what our alumni think, and will continue to listen on so many critical issues affecting our community … It is the faculty and staff and leadership in this room and on our campus that shape our direction. For example: As other Ivies and schools got rid of diversity statements as part of their hiring process, in some cases driven by external forces, we made the decision to continue to use them in our job application materials. We ask prospective faculty to speak to the power of diversity in the broadest sense — because we know it is the right decision for our community, and is crucial to ensuring diversity of thought and experience on our campus. The data are clear: having a diverse community, leads to better outcomes. 

Just a few weeks ago … we welcomed the most socioeconomically diverse class in Dartmouth's history, the Class of 2028. A class with an all-time high percentage of Pell Grant recipients. With 15% from rural backgrounds, a new emphasis for us. A class with sustained racial and ethnic diversity, at a moment our peers struggle to do so. 

What we're doing is working in so many ways. 

And that, full-stop, is what guides my decision making: Whether a decision makes the most sense for our community and the people on it — based on your inputs and the evidence we have available.

That is why I see graduate education and research as foundational to our mission, too. Dartmouth plays an important role in the creation of new knowledge across all the disciplines, and for many fields that effort involves training the next generation of scholars. These graduate programs are also significant drivers of our R1 status — and at a broader level, they make our community whole. Supporting these programs and research initiatives goes hand-in-hand with excellence in undergraduate education; it strengthens our ability to deliver the best undergrad experience in the nation. 

This direct connection is why we committed more funding to UGAR, Undergraduate Advising and Research. When I arrived, I'd heard from A&S faculty that funds had not always been sufficient to support things like travel to a research site or a conference — especially after tenure, when start-up funds run out. So we provided a new grant for all tenure-line faculty, at the rank of associate and full professor of $2,000 each per year, which is directly supporting faculty research and professional development — and I'm equally committed to finding ways to support departments and graduate programs.

One big way is by ensuring departments are staffed appropriately to do the work they need to do. As an example: Last year, Dean Smith and I were able to add 17.5 new staff lines to A&S departments to ensure that faculty could focus on their expertise and current staff are less burdened. These new staff will play a critical role in support of the Arts & Sciences mission. And we'll hear shortly from Nina Pavcnik and Dave Kotz about the Future of A&S Project, which establishes a new school of Arts & Sciences that will provide, for the first time, a holistic structure in support of the A&S educational and scholarly mission. Arts and Sciences leadership will have new authority to set A&S priorities, responsibility, and increased budgetary agency to pursue A&S aspirations and lead the Arts & Sciences to new heights. This not only involves delivering the best undergraduate education, but the best graduate education and research here too.

There are two more areas I'd like to touch on, briefly.

First: Sustainability. Which is, more than anything, about empowering the incredible faculty in this room to do what they do best. A few years ago we ranked in the bottom quartile of our Ivy+ peers in our carbon reduction goals. Our new goals put us now in the top few in terms of reduction of scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions. We've rolled out the Dartmouth Climate Collaborative — and announced $500 million over the next five years to accelerate campus decarbonization, and turn our campus into a living lab for students to research, innovate, and collaborate. 

We have experts like Laura Ogden leading the Climate Futures Initiative, a year-long effort to identify Dartmouth's strengths and opportunities for climate scholarship and education. And the quality of research we are doing across the board on climate and sustainability is astounding. Our faculty are teaching and doing research in this area in every department on campus, from the sciences to the humanities. 

I want to give you four quick examples here — because I think it speaks to the breadth of what are faculty and staff are accomplishing: 

1. First: Forest & Farm ecosystems. Dartmouth faculty are engaged in NSF- and other agency-funded research that examines how climate change is impacting rural landscapes and associated economies and livelihoods. Beyond this foundational science, we're leading the exploration of how forests and farms can be used to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
2. Second: On health, wellness, and equity. Our medical school faculty and others are leading research to understand the role of climate change in patterns of illness and disease, health equity and access, including with some of our most vulnerable populations — and that work is directly connected to the work of our faculty developing vaccines and other interventions that address emergent diseases associated with the climate change, like Lyme disease and increasing asthma rates among children.
3. Third: The Changing Arctic. A few weeks ago in New York, Barbara Will and our team at the Dickey Center co-hosted an event at Climate Week uniting Indigenous communities, heads of industry, NGO stakeholders, and political leaders in this space. We have one of the oldest and most respected Arctic Institutes in the country, led by Melody Brown Burkins, and particular strength in cold-weather environmental and Arctic science policy. We have also made significant contributions to ice core and glacier research — helping us understand rates of climate change, and patterns of environmental pollutants, in regions of the world that are considered the bellwether of global climate change.
4. Fourth and finally: Energy Transitions. Our country's economy and future are directly tied to energy. It represents 7% of our GDP, and is undergoing a massive transformation, as the amount of renewable energy capacity around the world rose by 50% last year alone. Dartmouth is uniquely prepared to lead. Our faculty are collaborating through the Irving Institute, as well as our engineering and business schools, to develop technologies and financial instruments to accelerate an expedient and just transition away from fossil fuels. This research commitment also mirrors our own institutional commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in our campus operations.

Across all of these examples and all our climate work … most important is that we're bringing our community together to get it done. Just last week I met with the Department of Earth Sciences, who told me they could not wait to be right alongside us at Chase Field when we make Dartmouth history and drill our first borehole.

Which leads us right into the final area: Innovation and Impact. This, too, is about empowering the incredible minds and leaders we have in this room. We are working towards fewer silos. Faculty are working across departments and schools to do amazing things — whether that's Thomas Thesen and his team's A.I. Patient Actor … or Lisa Marsch, and the first-ever FDA-approved digital therapeutic for opioid addiction … or Jed Dobson, an English professor, who is working across Geisel, Tuck, Thayer — everywhere — so that we're on the front lines of A.I.'s impact on academia and the liberal arts.

As another example, I am moved by the power and impact of Ritual of Breath created by professors Enrico Riley and Vievee Francis, and produced by The Hop. This summer, Lincoln Center featured the opera, which is a response to the murder of Eric Garner, as part of its series devoted to civic participation. I am proud that Dartmouth took on this subject in such a creative, powerful way – and proud that we could support the development of the project. With the renovation and expansion of the Hop, I look forward to more impactful works created right here in Hanover.

I look at ASCL — Asian Societies, Cultures and Languages — which has evolved from an interdisciplinary program into a department that is innovating and helping our students connect with the world; and that is leading the charge to expand our Language Study Abroad programs to places like Korea and to think about new relationships between Asian Studies and Tuck. 

…And we know, like everything else, there is still so much more we can do together.

That is, above all, the message I hope you all take away today.

If we go back to that word, community … a strong community is when we support each other; when all of us know we matter and have a role to play; when we are committed to graduate and undergraduate education, always, and the success of our faculty in every school. We have made amazing progress:

… At A&S, where we've launched the Dialogue Project; launched the Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities; and can celebrate three Guggenheim Fellows among our faculty, as well as three faculty members inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

… At Tuck, where we've launched our hybrid Master of Health Administration program in partnership with Geisel, and our Team of 100 campaign just hit $108.5 million in commitments to support endowed scholarships.

… At Geisel, where in addition to that partnership we've won massive grants, like $28 million for Clinical and Translational Science and $16 million for Alzheimer's and continue to be a leader in Cancer research and care — and expanded our Innovation Accelerator Program into digital health and health care delivery.

… At Guarini, where in conjunction with the Department of Music, we've launched a brand-new MFA program: the Master of Fine Arts in Sonic Practice, a fully funded program for composers, artists, and scholars to change the way we think about sound.

… At Thayer, where we have an all-time high in research investments; more than $30 million invested in our Cancer Moonshot Award; and launched the EDGE Consortium to put more women front and center in engineering and the semiconductor space at this critical moment of federal investment — because we know we all benefit when we can bring more talent to the table.

All of those accomplishments … they are deeply rooted in your ideas and hard work over many years. And they are possible because we've moved together to work on our challenges, hopes, and dreams for Dartmouth.

My number one goal is to keep cultivating community. To make it easier for you, our students, and staff to live and work here — so that we all succeed. I want to continue to hear from you as we do so: thoughts, suggestions, feedback, criticism … it is all welcome. It will all make us better. 

Thank you all for your partnership and teamwork. It's a privilege to get to work with you and represent this community. And I cannot wait to see what we can do together this year and in the many years that come. Thank you.