Beilock’s Inauguration: President Makes Bold Promises for Dartmouth

On June 12, 2023, Sian Leah Beilock—the outgoing president of Barnard College—took office as Dartmouth’s 19th president. Of course, an Ivy is nothing without its traditions, and so simply taking office is not enough. The accession of a new member to the Wheelock Succession demands a ceremony of its own. Not a simple dinner or gathering, mind you. No, befitting her new status as president, Beilock would receive an inauguration. And like any other inauguration, this ceremony would allow Beilock to formally establish herself as Dartmouth’s leader and lay out her plans for the future of the College. Out of both diligence and interest in all aspects of Dartmouth’s administration, The Review dutifully sent its most hardboiled correspondents to cover the event and bring to you, dear reader, our analysis of the induction of Dartmouth’s newest president.  

In the days leading up to the inauguration, which occurred Friday, September 22, the College pulled out all the stops to spread news of the ceremony far and wide. The administration circulated emails, placed signs, posters, and banners all around Hanover, and even scheduled a community lunch for the same day. (Normal dining locations, interestingly, were closed during the lunch.) Workers scurried like ants across the Green, setting up hundreds of chairs, constructing bleachers, and erecting a sizable covered stage on which Beilock and distinguished guests could sit. Clearly, Dartmouth wanted as many people as possible to witness the inauguration and to make it an appropriately grand occasion. Unfortunately, only a third of the seats ended up being filled. Perhaps scheduling the inauguration at 3pm on a Friday was not the best way to attract an undergraduate audience. 

After some somber music, the event began with an introduction from David Kotz, who himself only recently became Provost of the College. He welcomed various dignitaries from other bastions of academia, the former U.S. Ambassador to Peru (whom President Beilock may have met during her excursion to Lima this summer), and various members of the town government. Chris Sununu, Governor of New Hampshire and likely the only conservative who sits on the Board of Trustees, also received a welcome—if only, presumably, to avoid a repeat of Dartmouth College v. Woodward. Following Provost Kotz’s introductory remarks, College Chaplain Dr. Nancy Vogel offered an invocation. She explained that an invocation involved calling upon someone who, in her words, was “usually God.” For her part, she called upon various desirable abstract nouns, including strength, passion, wisdom, and “vulnerability.”

After the Chaplain’s remarks, Beth Regan, Vice Chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe’s Council of Elders, offered an invocation of her own. Regan first delivered her invocation in Mohegan, then repeated it in English. Then came Governor Sununu, bedecked in the vestments befitting his position as member ex officio of the Board of Trustees. Sununu delivered an off-the-cuff, clearly improvised speech. Reminiscent of a colloquial town-hall ramble, Sununu’s speech praised Beilock as having “literally written the book” about mental health and not choking under pressure. He emphasized the importance of the current moment in national politics and called on Dartmouth to play a pivotal role in higher education. While some of the Governor’s content was well received, the apparent lack of effort put into his speech’s composition detracted from any attempted message. While Sununu’s speech might have appealed to a standard campaign audience, it was less than ideal for a speech before the ivory tower. While we at The Review have nothing but admiration for the Governor—and for good improvisation—we strongly feel he should have considered instructing one of his army of interns to cobble together something more prepared and substantive. That would have shown more respect to the College and the occasion. 

After the Governor, The Dartmouth College Glee Club gave a well-executed rendition of Dartmouth Undying. Next came Jessica Chiriboga, the President of Dartmouth’s student government. She encouraged Beilock to take action on her promises and expressed hope that the first female president of the College could enact change. Chiriboga called on Beilock to honor her promises and emphasized the role of student government in implementing them. Then, Iara M. Backes, MD-PhD student and Graduate Student Body Representative, discussed her experience as a woman in higher education and emphasized Dartmouth’s singular importance in fostering gender equity in higher education. Clearly, “equity” is a primary goal of the Beilock administration—or so Backes said it should be. Following her, a co-chair of the Inauguration Advisory Committee explained the committee’s vision. Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at the Tuck School of Business, opined on the need to preserve the “secret sauce” of the Dartmouth community. In his words, Dartmouth is made unique by the memories we create, and we must preserve that core identity while also innovating. Representing the Academy, a psychologist from the University of Michigan, Shinobu Kitayama, spoke of Beilock’s notable scientific (rather than administrative) achievements. Apparently representing internet personalities, Allie Miller ’10, a self-proclaimed “AI visionary,” regaled the audience with talk of the future and of the promise that new technology holds. She called on students in the audience to meld tradition with modernity, holding up Beilock as the quintessential “sustainable leader.” 

To further punctuate the speeches, Dartmouth’s Gospel Choir then performed You’re Awesome. A somewhat more on-the-nose song than the first, the piece quite unsubtly sought to further idolize the incomeping president. Then Christina Hull Paxson, the President of Brown University, apparently a “peer institution,” spoke, noting that six of the eight Ivies now have female leaders.

Beginning the final stretch, Elizabeth Lempres, Chair of Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees, formally installed Beilock as the College’s president. Then, Sarah Harris, a Vice Chairwoman of the Mogehan tribe, spoke in great detail about a Wampum belt which she bequeathed to the new president. Harris spoke eloquently of Samson Occom, the Mohegan who was critical to Dartmotuh’s initial funding. Eleazar Wheelock had led Occom to believe that the school would educate Native Americans, and Occom departed once he realized its purpose had shifted. Harris, however, then spoke of Dartmouth’s recent efforts to make amends for this original failure. A matrilineal tribe, the Mohegans gifted the belt as a recognition of the first female president of Dartmouth. This was a touching moment and cemented the friendship between Dartmouth and the Mohegan Tribe.

 Finally, Phillip J. Hanlon, Dartmouth’s most recent President Emeritus, presented the Wentworth Bowl to Beilock—the final ceremonial act of the transfer of office. The Bowl was given by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth to Dartmouth’s founder Eleazar Wheelock. Since 1909, it has been a part of the Wheelock succession ceremonies and our very own crown jewel. With the transfer of the Bowl from Hanlon to Beilock, with former President Kim flanking the pair, Beilock’s accesion was complete.

Of course, all of the preceding speeches, of varying quality, were merely the prelude to Beilock’s address. She opened by speaking of how momentous an achievement this was. She also took a brief pause from her own speech to “take a point-five.” For our readers less versed in contemporary slang, a “point-five” is a picture that one takes of oneself with the camera zoomed out to zero-point-five-times zoom (a wide-angle lens). That the audience members sitting directly in front of the podium quickly crowded into the camera’s field of view made it abundantly clear that Beilock does indeed already have a fan club. 

As she moved into the core of her speech, she outlined her main goals. She called for a renewed focus on health and particularly mental health. Beilock’s bread and butter is mental health—presumably, her expertise on this topic appealed to the trustees post-COVID—and it was no surprise that she promised a comprehensive wellness plan. 

Moving on, she promised to expand Dartmouth’s housing infrastructure, pledging 1,000 new beds within ten years and that undergraduate housing would be situated the closest to campus. Readers should note that “closest” is a relative term; the density of construction in Hanover almost certainly means that the closest new dorms will be built on the golf course by Occom Pond. 

She also spoke of “brave spaces” in which students will be able to express themselves freely in order to create a constructive dialogue across campus. It is an interesting idea, certainly, but one that may prove difficult to implement. Moreover, focusing speech in specific areas, if indeed that is her proposal, may have the opposite effect from what is intended. Beilock also argued against the idea that free speech is antithetical to diversity and inclusion, instead saying that they are codependent. Somewhat concerningly, she talked about “responsible speech,” which she said simply means speaking based on facts. Of course, the contemporary state of discourse is such that few “facts” are universally agreed upon, and demanding that people base their opinions on certain “facts” could, in the wrong hands, emerge as another form of speech control. Such concerns notwithstanding, Beilock’s stated emphasis on a culture of free expression is very encouraging and has the possibility to greatly enhance campus discourse. 

Briefly, Beilock then promised to redouble career advising efforts and encourage mentor-mentee relationships among Dartmouth graduates. She said that she wanted to foster lifelong connections between them and the College. Using the Jeopardy method of phrasing statements as a question, she asked “what if” Dartmouth helped its alumni through mentoring and career services all throughout their professional lives. While she did not explicitly mention it, a renewed commitment to alumni will likely be balanced by a renewed commitment to asking alumni for money.

But then Beilock segued to a passionate promise to make Dartmouth “truly carbon neutral” through green energy and efficiency initiatives rather than carbon offsets. Translation: Instead of paying someone to plant a tree, Dartmouth will now be paying someone to install a solar panel. 

Continuing Hanlon’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward initiative,” Beilock also announced plans to boost innovation at Dartmouth. Having earlier touted the role that the College played in developing the mRNA technology for the coronavirus vaccine, she announced plans to use royalties from that discovery to invest further in research facilities and partnerships. 

In all, Beilock’s address was by far the most substantive, and the best executed, of all the speeches delivered at the inauguration ceremony. Despite the needless “point-five” and a number mispronunciations brought on by nervousness, she came across as very sincere and genuine. Her address also promised a bold new future for Dartmouth. Whether or not this future will come to pass remains to be seen, but one should be optimistic at present.

If one ever makes the questionable decision to take a class in the Government Department, he or she will quickly become acquainted with the concept of legitimacy. To put it simply, a government’s legitimacy is its justification to rule. If we consider Dartmouth a nation for a moment, one can come to understand the point of all the chairs, banners, stages, and dignified guests. While Dartmouth’s government is, in this model, more of an oligarchy than a democracy (given that the Board of Trustees has far more real power than the student assembly), Beilock will need the support—or at the very least the respect of the student body—to reshape campus culture in favor of mental health and open expression. 

Further, Beilock will need to garner funding from her “actual constituents,” Dartmouth’s donors, to make possible her housing projects and environmental initiatives. She will also need to enact successful collaboration with other institutions both within the academy and in the professional world. 

The results of the inauguration were mixed as a matter of practicality. Most of the speeches were bland and tended to blend into a sort of chimera of adulation and praise. Beilock’s speech was well-delivered and bold, as aforementioned, but it is easy to make impressive promises and much harder to keep them. The Beilock Administration seems to have gotten off to a quite good start, but it has not yet faced the difficult realities of governing. Many presidents in Dartmouth’s past have been well liked personally at the start of their tenure, only to earn the emnity of students and alumni after making a first wave of decisions.

President Beilock will have to balance her grand plans against fiscal realities, and she will have to overcome the nearly guaranteed intransigence of the Board of Trustees. Moreover, from the perspective of students and alumni, Beilock’s positive moves so far must be balanced against concerning changes, like the appointment of old acolytes from Barnard—and worse, from the De Blasio administration—to important administrative positions. Ultimately, perhaps Beilock’s most difficult task of all though will be overcoming apathy in the student body, made obvious by the two-thirds of seats left vacant at her inauguration.  We at The Review extend our congratulations to the new president and wish her well.