Friday, March 11, 2005
Volume 25, Issue 9

A Portrait of College Bureaucracy

What exactly do certain employees actually do? What exactly do whole offices actually do? How many people are employed simply to move papers from one side of a desk to another? Are meetings being held solely to plan the next meeting? I'm not sure. A committee should probably be formed to discuss it.

Hanover Plain Dispatch: North Campus

This winter, the College broke ground for its North Campus expansion. New dormitories will line Maynard Street, a new dining hall is set for construction, and new academic buildings will go up as well. Two new dorms are already underway on Tuck Mall. The engineering school will gain a new wing, and the gym will be overhauled and vastly expanded. The South Block of Main Street is set for demolition and modernization.

Kimball on Venturi and Post-Modernism

Roger Kimball: The important thing to understand about Venturi is that he has instantiated post-modernism perhaps more adroitly, more cunningly than almost any other architect.

North Campus Expansion: A Guide to the New Construction

A survey of the construction projects on the northern half of Dartmouth's campus.

Other Projects Underway or on the Docket

The $20.7 million MacLean Engineering Sciences Center is being built across what was a parking lot next to Cummings Hall. Named in honor of Barry MacLean '60, the facility will feature a 2,700 square foot atrium, technologically advanced classrooms and lecture halls, laboratories, study spaces, and faculty offices. Facilities planners say the new building is oriented towards undergraduates who study engineering and computer science. Koetter, Kim and Associates of Boston designed the facility.

Alumni Seek Constitution Change (Again)

A group charged with drafting a new constitution for the Association of Alumni released an interim report in mid-February outlining a series of dramatic reforms to College governance similar to those the alumni voted against in 2003.

The Connections of 'Strong Dartmouth'

As much as the Alumni for a Strong Dartmouth might whine about returning responsible leadership to the Board of Trustees, the real cause of their opposition is fear—fear that the alumni will keep up the precedent set by Rodgers of nominating and electing the Trustees without the involvement of the Alumni Council or Association.

Charles Vest on the Research University

The last twenty years have seen an intense proliferation of new questions, tensions, controversies, and ambiguities—an explosion pervading nearly every aspects of higher education, from undergraduate admissions to research funding.

President Wright's Road to Damascus

On February 7th, 2005, I initiated the following exchange with President James Wright and Dean of the College James Larimore under the auspices of the 'Dartmouth Town Hall Meeting," organized by the Student Assembly. It concerns the recent Review investigation into the inner workings of the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.

Jeffrey Horrell Named College Librarian

In February, Jeffrey L. Horrell was named Dean of Libraries and Librarian of the College. He is the eighteenth College Librarian, a position dating back to Bezalell Woodward, who was appointed in 1773.

Feeding Maya Angelou's Soul

For the reader who is actually serious about cooking soul food, useful instruction is sparse and hard to find. Angelou's inaccessible anecdotes are a poor cover for simplistic recipes, and her literary merit is marred with misdirection. Ultimately, Maya Angelou serves up little as a chef-poet, other than disappointment and the occasional laugh.

The Last Word

There are people for whom philosophy is a means of misleading others, for they misuse its great name, its attractions, and its integrity to give colour and gloss to their own errors.
—St. Augustine

Barrett's Mixology

As a staunch xenophobe, I refuse, on principle, to travel to Europe. My reasons are varied, but anecdotal reports from acquaintances collectively paint a grim picture.

Jeffrey Hart: Letter to the Editor

So much for Victor Davis Hanson's claim that the Iraq war was "ratified through democratic auspices."