Dentzer Elected Chairman of Trustees

By Stefan M. Beck | Monday, October 1, 2001

Since June 10, Susan Dentzer has served Dartmouth College as Chairman of the College's Board of Trustees. Dentzer, a magna cum laude graduate of the Class of '77, was elected by the Board to succeed William H. King, Jr., who served one five year term as Chairman and two as a Trustee.

Dentzer has served as an Alumni Trustee since 1993, and as one of two heads of the Committee on the Student Life Initiative since early 1999. Her involvement in Dartmouth affairs has been extensive. She chaired the Alumni Magazine editorial board from 1987 to 1989, and held a position on the Alumni Council from 1988 to 1991. From 1989 to 1990, she worked on the Committee on Board Organization, and from 1989-93, served on the Public Affairs Advisory Committee. She is also a Trustee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Outside the Dartmouth sphere, Dentzer has been active as a journalist and commentator on health care, economics, and business. She is an on-air correspondent for PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. There she also leads a special group that covers Social Security reform and health policy. The group, which was initiated in 1998, won the American Psychiatric Association's 2000 Robinson Electronic Media Award.

Dentzer worked at the US News and World Report from 1987-97, where she was chief economics correspondent and columnist. She was a senior writer at Newsweek, specializing in business news. She has also made television appearances as a panelist, commentator, and analyst on such programs as ABC's Nightline, CNN's Late Edition and Inside Politics, NBC's The McLaughlin Group, and PBS's Washington Week In Review.

Among her other achievements are a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University (for the 1986-87 academic year), an honorary Master of Arts degree from Dartmouth, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. She was awarded the Dartmouth College Presidential Medal for Achievement in 1991.

On the Dartmouth campus, Dentzer is perhaps best known for her role as one of the Student Life Initiative's architects and most vocal advocates. When the Committee on the SLI was established in April 1999, she and Peter M. Fahey '68 were appointed co-chairs.

Dentzer remarked, 'Peter and I are privileged to lead such a distinguished committee in this important work. It is critical for the future of Dartmouth that we create a social and residential system that is the equal of our superb academic environment.'

Recently, commenting on her appointment as Chair of the Board of Trustees, Dentzer said, 'It's a time of great opportunity for Dartmouth. I look forward enormously to working with President Wright, my colleagues on the board and the rest of the Dartmouth community as we take advantage of these opportunities and also confront the challenges that await us.'

Presumably, many of these challenges are related to the work of the SLI. It is apparent that Dentzer intends to continue this work as Chair of the Board of Trustees, despite the outcry that many of her words and actions have generated.

For instance, in reference to her involvement with the SLI, she remarked, 'We strongly believe in choices, but we want those to be very structured kinds of choices' — a comment that elicited the disgust and disbelief of many students and alumni.

Josh Marks '96, in a September 23, 1999 op-ed in The Dartmouth, replied to Dentzer's telling comment: 'It really means limited choice, and in truth, choice should have no limits. It is only bound by consequence. Obviously the trustees do not believe in consequences. They believe in limiting choice to avoid consequences.'

It is a sentiment and a serious concern shared by many. Dentzer may well be a credible authority on good decision-making, but most Dartmouth students prefer to trust their own judgment or learn from their mistakes. Many are suspicious of what sounds like Dentzer's desire to prescribe students' behavior.

As the SLI has taken shape, some have focused their attention on the secrecy that shrouds many of its activities and aims. In an August 1999 column ('Keeping Secrets') in The Dartmouth, the editorial board questioned the need for confidentiality in the SLI's proceedings.

The article explained, 'Trustees and committee co-Chairs Peter Fahey '68 and Susan Dentzer '77 said the vow of silence is in effect because publicity prevents people with unpopular ideas or stances from making suggestions.'

In one criticism of the Greek system, Dentzer claimed that due to Wednesday night fraternity meetings, 'you can't get people to get up on Thursday morning to go to class for the reason they're ostensibly here in the first place.' This is one of the concerns, apparently, which has led Dentzer to conclude that student choice must be more 'structured' than it has been thus far. Students should have free choice, Dentzer seems to argue, as long as they can't choose to behave irresponsibly and accept the consequences.

According to Dentzer, not only do fraternities create problems; they also distract students from a new world of other possibilities. At a September 21, 1999 'town hall' meeting at the College, she asked students to 'close [their] eyes and imagine clusters with big common houses attached to them, where 300 people can get together and have a sushi night for the entire cluster.'

It seems unlikely that the many students who currently participate in or reap the benefits of the Greek system will give it up for the promise of a 'sushi night,' but with Dentzer at the reins, the decision might one day not be theirs to make, anyway.

Dentzer was a member of Dartmouth's second co-ed class, and much of her anti-Greek sentiment may be traced back to her experiences as an (at times) unwelcome female. Once, at a fraternity party, a member of the hockey team poured two beers on her head, saying, 'This is for being a f—ing quahog. This is for being a f—ing woman at Dartmouth.'

Of course, that a woman at Dartmouth will receive such treatment has become more unlikely over the years, but Dentzer still seems to see fraternities as the root of all evil at the College.

According to Dentzer, the student who poured beer all over her and insulted her has since reformed himself. He 'cleaned up his act and wouldn't be caught dead saying something like that today. So, there's hope for all of us,' she said.

Dentzer Elected Chairman of Trustees

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