An Interview With Dartmouth’s President-Elect, Sian Beilock

Editors of The Dartmouth Review Zoe Dominguez, Olivia Becker, and William Beeson (TDR) interviewed Dartmouth’s President-Elect, Sian Beilock (SB), over Zoom on December 15, 2022. President-Elect Beilock will be assuming office upon the start of the Summer 2023 term.

TDR: How have your experiences as a student, researcher, professor, and administrator influenced your leadership style and what you’re bringing to Dartmouth?

SB: I think this is a great question because I’ve experienced a lot of different institutions. I did my undergrad at a large public institution but with a pretty small major in cognitive science. I did my graduate work at Michigan State, a really big institution, and I spent a lot of time at the University of Chicago and now at Barnard.

As a faculty member, researcher, and administrator, one factor that I see carrying all the way through is student-professor interaction. As an undergrad, I went into cognitive science because of an amazing professor I met, and, as a graduate student, my advisor was really also my mentor and we did amazing research together. In my own capacities as a professor and administrator, I’ve found that some of the best ideas which faculty and administration have been able to implement have come from teaching undergraduates who think in different ways about fields in which we are entrenched. I think there’s a line that runs through this, demonstrating the importance of the scholar-student relationship.

That is one of the reasons I’m really excited about Dartmouth, because I think Dartmouth does that better than almost any institution I know. Students really get to interact and be part of the work that faculty are doing.

TDR: What drew you to Dartmouth specifically, and is there anything about the search process or hiring process that you would like to share?

SB: I really do think Dartmouth is the best of all worlds, where you have a real commitment to education across the arts and sciences. But you’re doing that with faculty who are leading in their fields, and doing top research and top publishing. Dartmouth is a model of what higher education ought to be.

Dartmouth is special because a lot of the problems and challenges in this world are going to be solved at intersections. If you think about climate change or inequality, one field alone is not going to solve these issues. I think pursuing intersections is really an ingredient for tackling some of the world’s greatest problems. I’m excited that, at Dartmouth, I will be in a place in which people are interested in solving these issues.

TDR: As someone who has been in the college environment for a long time, what trends are you witnessing today, in particular, among young people and college students that are affecting them in their academic careers and in life beyond college?

SB: A significant problem we’re facing is student wellbeing. We know that young people are anxious now more than ever, and there’s a real need for institutions to ensure that we’re supporting students and helping students develop the tools to go out and effect change.

You can’t have academic excellence if you don’t have wellbeing as a precursor—it’s not something that sits on the side. For many years, as institutions, we put mental wellbeing to the side. I want to bring mental health to the fore—to make it something that is a necessary component of doing well. You can’t do well unless you feel okay or you have the tools to go get help and support. One thing that’s great is that young people are talking about mental health more, which demands that institutions follow suit. 

Another issue I think about a lot is that, coming out of the pandemic, many of our lives were lived online. Interactions can be misinterpreted, and we often talk to people who think like we do. I worry about our ability to talk across differences and make mistakes. This ability to move out from behind the screen and have real conversations—which put us on edge or in which we or others make a mistake or say something wrong—is something on which places of higher education have to focus.

TDR: Almost every American university has struggled to handle issues relating to mental health, and these issues are more prevalent today than ever before. How do you plan to bring creative and innovative solutions to this matter to Dartmouth? 

SB: The first thing we have to do is realize that it’s not one person that is going to bring this change. It’s the whole system that we really need to think about. We need to reframe this not as something that sits alongside the academic experience but as a matter that is part and parcel of the academic experience.

This means not only supporting students but also supporting faculty and staff. I think faculty want to support their students in these endeavors, but they sometimes don’t have the tools to do so. It’s about taking a university-wide approach to mental health and making sure that students, faculty, and staff are all part of the conversation and then part of the solution. I think we miss the point if it’s just student mental health. We’re all part of the Dartmouth community, and we need to make sure that the institution is supporting faculty and staff, while also giving them the tools to support students.

The mission for mental health does not just sit next to students’ academic lives. Mental health is  key to one’s success, not just now, but throughout one’s life. There will be struggles not just in college but in other places, and that is part and parcel of being successful in whatever you do. It changes the narrative, and it changes the kinds of systems we put in place and support to help our students. 

TDR: Do you have any particular policies that are at top of mind?

SB: I can’t really comment on particular policies, but I think everything, for example, from putting in place access to 24/7 mental health support is great. I’d also like to make sure that all of our faculty are trained and supported to give students information about resources. We need to think specifically about how we imbue faculty and staff with the tools that they need to support students as well. Young people today are feeling increasingly disconnected from their professors, each other, and themselves in the pandemic and post-pandemic era. 

TDR: How do you plan to bring people together and bridge some of these gaps that have emerged?

SB: I think it goes back to my comment about getting out from behind the screen. It’s so easy to not pick up the phone, to not go to office hours. One of the really special things about Dartmouth is that we’re all in the same location together when we’re on campus. How do you create more opportunities for those sorts of informal connections, for connections outside the classroom, between faculty, staff, and students? What are we doing as an institution to foster those? There are already so many great programs in place, but we must be intentional about that because we, as a population, have gotten in the habit of doing everything with a phone or computer.

This is particularly important as students go on into the workforce, where they will be making lots of decisions about whether they work remotely or hybrid. I worry that when we don’t have some in-person work, we lose all those informal opportunities to network and to learn. 

So much learning happens outside the classroom, and so much learning in work settings happens outside those specific meetings. How do we underscore the importance of that—those moments that are not programmed?

TDR: We know that student life and social events within undergraduate communities are closely related to popular wellbeing. More than 60% of eligible Dartmouth students are members of Greek letter organizations, and it’s indisputable—regardless of one’s opinion—that these organizations play an important role in student life at Dartmouth. It’s also a major draw for alumni involvement and connections with current students. What role do you think Greek Life should or should not play in our Dartmouth community specifically? 

SB: I’m learning a lot about the role Greek Life specifically plays at Dartmouth. What I have learned so far is the importance of its place in terms of community for students. I want to focus on how we build upon that community, and how we think about all different forms of community and connection for students, over and above just Greek Life.

I’m excited to learn more about where students connect with each other, what else they would like to have in terms of opportunities to connect, and how Greek Life is part of a system of athletics, outdoor opportunities, and other avenues for students to engage in meaningful relationships outside the classroom. 

TDR: First Amendment rights, particularly issues of free speech, have become increasingly important on college campuses. As we’re sure you’ve encountered at the many institutions of which you have been a part, this is not Dartmouth specific. How have you navigated issues dealing with controversial speakers, professors, and campus activism in the past, and what are your thoughts on how to handle issues that divide students being discussed on campus? Where do we draw the line, if at all?

SB: I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this from my time at Chicago to my time at Barnard. I’m excited to engage with these issues at Dartmouth. I try to frame how we think about what happens in the classroom not as creating just a safe space, but as creating a brave space. 

That’s an important term because I see learning as often being uncomfortable. It’s okay to make mistakes, and I worry sometimes when we limit our thinking to just this idea of a safe space, we can’t be uncomfortable and make mistakes. Part of discomfort is listening to views that are different from your own. A big part of a brave space is making people feel like they belong and can voice opposing opinions.

In cognitive science, there’s a concept known as desirable difficulties. Essentially, you have to be in a difficult situation to actually get better at what you practice. Otherwise, you’ll stay in the same spot. There’s a lot of research which shows that, when you have different people with different lived experiences around the table who feel comfortable pushing their own views, you get better outcomes. Businesses make more money, scientists create more knowledge, and ideas become better. 

This is the basis for thinking about how we create those sorts of experiences on a college or university campus. Part of the college experience is having faculty and students invite speakers who, for example, I don’t agree with. Other students don’t have to agree with them. I encourage people to go and listen to the things they don’t agree with. I think that’s always helpful, but you don’t have to, you can not go to an event. I think a campus environment is a place to allow for those different ideas to bloom. I firmly believe that your ideas get better when you are challenged by people who don’t think like you.

TDR: Earlier this month, The Call to Lead campaign announced the STEM-X initiative, which focuses on advancing research and postgraduate opportunities for underrepresented students in STEM. Your own work at Barnard focuses on bolstering the college’s math, science, and technology departments to match its prowess in the humanities. What about the STEM-X initiative excites you, and how do you envision fostering STEM programs alongside the humanities at Dartmouth?

SB: I loved hearing about this announcement. One of the things I’m really excited about is that it provides more opportunities for students to do research and interact with faculty. That’s a special thing about Dartmouth, this ability for students to interact in that way.

I do want to step back and say, it’s not the liberal arts and sciences—sciences are part of the liberal arts. I consider this part of what a liberal arts education is. We’re giving students an education across the arts and sciences. I love thinking about programs that will help diversify the STEM workforce and academia.

I also am excited to allow students to do research with faculty—with mentors. I’m excited about the idea of similar programs across the humanities, social sciences, and the arts. I see this as part of what Dartmouth is. Dartmouth is about providing students with the opportunity to have a great education across the arts and sciences. What I think this teaches you is how to think, not what to think. That’s an important distinction: how to think. You get that in so many ways from the classroom, but you also get that in doing research and all your experiments going wrong, or writing with a faculty member in the humanities who maybe pushes back on your idea, so that you have to think about it in a different way. That’s how you learn how to think.

TDR: We’ve prepared some rapid fire questions for you as we wrap things up… Favorite book you’ve read this year?

SB: I just read Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of the Maladies. I was late to that, I know. Everyone else has already read it, or a lot of people have, but it was great. 

TDR: A TV show that you’re binging right now?

SB:  I am watching Sex Lives of College Girls, season two.

TDR: A favorite public, intellectual, or historical figure?

SB: This is a hard one. I’m going to say Raj Chetty, who is a researcher at Stanford. He does really interesting work on inequality in schools, and some of the work he’s done in tracking socioeconomic inequality—like how it starts even before you get to kindergarten and then stays stable in the US—is really important to how we think about education in the US especially.

TDR: What will you miss the most about living in New York City? 

SB: I was going to say soup dumplings because we order them at least once a week in my family. But we found a place for soup dumplings up at Dartmouth. We Googled it, so I’ll let you know if they’re as good. 

TDR: Any unique hobbies or interests?

SB: I’m really fascinated with pop culture. So you will catch me reading Us Weekly or People. At some point I decided I was not apologizing for that.

TDR: What’s the most meaningful class you took as an undergraduate? 

SB: This is cool because it wasn’t one of my cognitive science classes. It was a class I took my last quarter of senior year, History of California. It blew my mind how basically the entire California transportation industry was shaped by car makers.

TDR: Who was the professor that had the greatest impact on you in your academic career?

SB: This was a cognitive scientist. Her name is Marta Kutas, and she was a cognitive psychologist at UC San Diego. She taught the hardest, most terrifying class in cognitive psychology. It opened up my mind to this idea that you could have a career studying how people think, and that I could learn something about myself. Now I do a lot of “me-search,” trying to understand how I do things. 

TDR: We saved the best for last. Do you think your dog, Rosie, is going to enjoy Hanover? 

SB: I think she’s going to be very, very happy. There’s plenty of space to explore. She’ll have a yard. She has a really cute puff jacket for the winter, so she’s ready.