Nancy Jeton: Trustee-elect

By A. J. Monaco | Wednesday, April 16, 1997

Editor's Note: Mrs. Nancy Jeton '76 recently won election to serve as a Trustee of Dartmouth College. A city planner by trade, Mrs. Jeton has worked in Nigeria and Salem, Massachusetts. She currently resides in Andover, Massachusetts.

The Dartmouth Review: What was it like being a woman in the first co-ed class at Dartmouth?

Nancy Jeton: It was definitely different coming from an all-girls high school . The women who came to Dartmouth to be women were the ones who found the going most difficult. There were undergraduates in the other three classes who came to Dartmouth expecting it to be an all-male institution. Suddenly it changed in their midst. I think that the majority of the people thought that it was a healthy change, but there were some who resented the fact that women were there. There were some difficult situations, but by and large the women who came to Dartmouth to be Dartmouth students — who were more egalitarian than feminist — probably had an easier time of it. There certainly was room for feminism on campus — Dartmouth needed a bit of it . But it had to be done in a certain way.

Review: The Student Assembly has criticized the Board of Trustees for a perceived lack of interest in 'student life issues.' Do you think the trustees should pay more attention to student life?

Jeton: It's my impression that they are very aware of student life issues. Perhaps that's not very apparent to the students. Students don't see a lot of opportunities to speak with trustees. But I noticed that at their most recent meeting in Hanover that they made an effort to invite students to come and speak to them.

The trustees have shown that they are very interested in student life because the community aspect of Dartmouth is part of what makes it very special. It is a residential school and the quality of student life is an important part of that. It has always been one of my interests. I am a city planner - I care about people, communities, neighborhoods. That's what makes me tick.

Review: What is your view on northward campus expansion?

Jeton: I believe that we should remain a small, liberal arts school. The college is very fortunate to have control of that northern acreage because it gives us lots of options. It's a green space buffer, and it provides protection from residential or commercial expansion into the college's north side. We have a lot of choices to make about how we use that land. That's a luxury in this day and age — for a college the size of Dartmouth to have that kind of now empty land available to it. I don't think any of us have a crystal ball to say what our lifestyle and technological needs will be forty, fifty, a hundred years from now. Consider how much they've changed just in the last few decades. It's great to have control over that land and be able to make some intelligent decisions. I don't believe that Dartmouth has any need to go on a building binge.

We've seen some very tasteful reuse of existing buildings on campus. Collis Center is probably the best example. I think the College has done very well to hire the architectural and campus planning consultants; they're two of the best in the nation. If I were on the Board I'd look forward to deciding how that buffer zone could be best used for the college.

Review: What role do you think fraternities should play at Dartmouth?

Jeton: I definitely think that there is a place for fraternities on campus. I believe in a diverse array of social options and physcial facilities for students. I do believe that the Greek system must agree to be a responsible member of the Dartmouth community. They must abide by a set of standards and, in that respect, they would be a welcome addition to the options available to students on campus. The Dartmouth Plan and year-round operation, which I support, do have some negative effects on a sense of community, a sense of belonging. Having organizations like fraternities and sororities are an asset on campus if they conduct themselves in a responsible manner.

Review: Do you believe that the fraternities should be co-ed?

Jeton: I don't think that any fraternity or sorority should be forced to go co-ed. I think that each of those organizations needs to make its own decision. I was a member of a co-ed fraternity when I was an undergraduate, which I enjoyed very much. We were not the norm in the Greek system. I think there's a place for both single-sex and co-ed organizations on campus.

Review: Do you think that students, or at least seniors, should have the right to vote in the election of Trustees?

Jeton: There are many members of the Dartmouth community whose lives are affected by trustees' decisions. Only one of those sectors has the opportunity to vote, and in doing so they represent the other sectors. 49,000 alumni have an opportunity to vote. Parents, who are highly afftected by trustee's decisions, don't have an opportunity to vote. Students don't have an opportunity to vote. Non-alumni staff members whose salary and benefits are decided by the trustees don't have an opportunity to vote. So it's not students alone who are vote-less in this process.

I think it's reasonable that alumni are the ones who do that voting because they are a bit more at arm's length. They see more of the big picture as they consider the role of the trustee. We are electing people who will serve the College for one to two terms, which is to say five to ten years, and the issues facing the College over that time will change dramatically. I think students tend to be very issue-oriented — they're on campus now, they see what's hot now. The questions you're asking me today are oriented towards what's happening this term or this year at Dartmouth. For example, when I was a senior at Dartmouth in 1975-1976, the hot issue was the ratio [of men and women admitted to Dartmouth]. When the trustees had voted to go co-ed, they stipulated that by 1976 they would have a ratio of four men to one woman and that was being revisited in 1976. It was huge; a really hot issue on campus that year. It was resolved by the end of the year when the vote was taken for equal access and admission. So if students pushed for that one candidate who really just cared about that one issue, well then what about years three, four, and five of their candidacy?

Review: How do you think the role of the President of the College has evolved recently?

Jeton: My perception is that each of the past three presidents had to face a different environment for running the College. I do feel that when I was a student in the seventies, and President Kemeny was the president, the College had to come to grips with a lot of regulatory issues like Title IX, Affirmative Action, and the whole decision on whether or not to go co-ed and how that transition was going to be made. President Kemeny had to deal with lots of regulatory and structural changes to how the college calendar was working and how hiring was going to get done.

When President McLaughlin came on board we began to see the belt-tightening time. There were major changes in how the administration was structured. He was a person from the corporate world, not from the world of academics. Some people criticized him for his superstructure of administrators. He wasn't particularly close to the faculty or sympathetic to academic standards.

Then we switched to President Freedman who was obviously an academic and who was given the mandate by the Board of Trustees of being a national spokesperson for liberal arts education. I think it was time to address the needs of the faculty, the needs of curriculum review, the image of Dartmouth as a place of intellectuals where we concentrated on education. There was a perception in many circles that Dartmouth was more of a party school. I think that President Freedman has worked hard to improve the image that it's good to be smart, that Dartmouth has fantastic resources, and we seek excellent minds to come in and partake of those.

Review: So would you say that President Freedman has been a successful president?

Jeton: Yes, I would.

Review: Do you believe Dartmouth should have a core curriculum?

Jeton: I do believe that some type of core curriculum is a good idea. Dartmouth needs to be constantly reevaluating what kind of education is appropriate as we seek to educate leaders for this country.

We need to consider what basics every well-educated person should know, whether it's the classics or philosophy or critical thinking. It's a constant reevaluation of what we're offering in a curricular way on campus and it's important. I do think there are basic standards that need to be constantly evaluated.

Nancy Jeton: Trustee-elect

Article Tools

Related Articles