Newlove Interview: Part 1

Editor’s Note: David Newlove is the Associate Vice President of Business and Hospitality for the college. He is currently on his second stint at the college. Our editor-in-chief, Devon Kurtz, and Dartmouth Review contributor, Scotch Cara sat down with David recently to have a conversation about Dartmouth operations, gentrification of Novack and his career path with the college.

I am David Newlove, and I am the Associate Vice President of Business and Hospitality for the College. 

TDR: What was your early education career like? Have you always lived in Upper Valley? Why did you come to Dartmouth?

DN: I grew up in Southern California, lived in Santa Monica, California, earlier, went to Penn State University, graduated with a bachelor science degree in hotel management, worked for Marriott Corporation. That’s where I met my wife. We have two kids, been married thirty years this November. I worked for Marriott for a few years. My wife worked longer. Then I worked for UCLA. When we had two kids—both were in daycare—we took a hard look at, you know. All of my wife’s salary was going to daycare, and we lived in Santa Monica, we owned a home. We had a home with some apartments at the back to help pay for the house. We have family close by (Dartmouth), so we traveled there. I applied to Dartmouth. I forgot about it. It took six months for them to get back to me. I came out and started as the Associate Director for Dining. 

TDR: What year? 

DN: 2001. And then I became the Director of Dining. We had a Director of Dining who was ill. There was a transition. He had severe diabetes and heart issues, and he couldn’t come to work too much. He, unfortunately, he passed away two years ago. I did the catering, the Associate Director, and eventually, I was the Director of Dining. When I first started here, the Dining Program didn’t report to the Dean of the College—I guess it would be Student Affairs now. It reported to the business part of the College. It went to the Dean of the College, and then, four, five years ago, maybe it’s longer than that, Dining left the Dean of the College division, Housing left the Dean of the College portion, and so did Safety and Security. We work for campus services. 

TDR: Around what year was this? 

DN: I want to say five years ago. 

TDR: What is your current role in the college? What does your day-to-day job look like? 

DN: I oversee most of the auxiliaries for the College. Skiway. Hinman mail, which is also delivery around campus. Dartmouth printing mail services. I work with a woman named Claire. We oversee the contract for Hanover Inn. Hanover Inn is outsourced to a company called Pyramid. We oversee that contract. Transportation and parking. It’s not just parking. Patrick, who is the Director of Parking, is on the Advance Transit Board, so we are the liaison for Advance Transit. When we needed a shuttle service to coordinate west-end construction, we worked with North Country Shuttle. We are the liaison for Zipcar. There are two other public transportations in the Upper Valley. There’s Stagecoach, and there is the Current. We work with Enterprise, a rental car. It’s not just a rental car. We stopped the day-to-day management of the Vanpool. The Enterprise is better equipped to do that. They manage that part. We do work closely with Advance Transit, because the College, the town, major businesses like DHMC, pay for portions of Advance Transit that aren’t considered necessarily public transportation. For example, the Town and the College share the cost of the downtown shuttle that goes to Dewey, to Thompson. That’s not necessarily a public transportation need, even though the public can use it. Advance Transit gets a lot of its funding from the state of Vermont. New Hampshire does not have the greatest funding. Advance Transit really has to be careful about differentiating what is true public transportation for citizens and what’s private. There’s also transportation from the College to DH, which is partially subsidized through the medical school or DH. We’re looking at expanding some shuttle services. We’ve talked to the town about spitting that cost. As parking becomes tighter, it’s forcing people to park outside, so they got to be able to get back in, so having an extra 15-minute shuttle would be helpful. 

TDR: Why are there spots for the Town reserved in Thompson? 

DN: That’s a good question. When I first got here, I was like, why do we have this? It ends up there was a swap. When you look at Webster Avenue, all of those spots are Green-permit spots. Before I came, there was a desire for the Town to have enclosed parking for employees. There was a swap that took place. 40 spots on Webster Avenue for 50 spots in Thompson. It is very interesting. We enforce Thompson. If somebody parks in the Town’s spots, we enforce it, but if somebody parks on Webster Avenue—let’s say they don’t have a Green permit or they have the wrong permit, the Town enforces it, because it is Town property. We plow Thompson, but the Town plows Webster Avenue. It’s interesting how that works. 

TDR: Have you considered renegotiating this? 

DN: We have talked to the town [of Hanover] recently, actually, within a month or so ago. They’ve talked about taking maybe they should take Webster back, and Thompson should just be all of ours. I think there’s a certain convenience for their employees. Everybody who parks in Webster is a college employee. At least give them fifty spots that are close to the High school, or to the business. It makes no difference to me, where it is. Let’s say they take away Webster Avenue, and we get Thompson back. Those employers who have those Green permits will probably just park on campus anyway. It’s not that big of a deal, as long as we don’t end up with a net loss.

TDR: When you acquired the Skiway, did any policies changed? Did anything about the overall structure or the way it’s run changed?

DN: I come from a business background. The Skiway was overseen by Outdoors Programs prior to me. Before that, they might have reported to the Business Office at some point. When I came in, it’s about strategy for how we service the customer. We did business analysis on should the Skiway just be open for athletics and PE, or should it be open to the public, just to see where the funds come in because we have to pay for what we do. The analysis was really both; we can’t do one without the other. One of our limiting factors was water. We have a 5.5-million-gallon pond for snowmaking. We can make snow that only covers 40% of what’s skiable. This winter is pretty dry, except for today. We would draw that pond down to make snow. Sometimes it would be a week before we could fill up and make more snow. The number of skiable days is going down, so we have to make snow. So last year we were really blessed, right? We had a super-duper wet fall. We also had snow. We were able to blow snow, and then the pond would refill really quickly, so we could blow more snow. So, what it really is about is strategizing about where we make snow first. We work with athletics. You’ve got holts which is across the road on the Skiway, which is extremely steep, and that’s where the ski team wants to ski, but most recreational skiers can’t ski there. Last year, because we had water, we were able to open up the intermediate areas, and we were able to open up holts. But in years past, we had to decide what we were going to do. It’s really about strategizing with the Skiway managers. It’s a pretty small group, but it’s that balance between athletics, PE, and the local community, and what we open first, working with our limited resource, which is unfortunately water. 

TDR: Does the athletic department help subsidize the Skiway? 

DN: Yeah, they do, because PE is a huge user of the Skiway, and ski team uses it too. When you help pay for it, local people use it too, so it’s just that balance and being able to make a business decision about what that right balance is. It really changes from year to year. Last year we were able to please everybody. This year, I don’t know. It’s the only business that you’re totally dependent upon God if you’re going to make it or not. Do you have cold weather? If it’s too cold, people will not come out. If you don’t have enough water, you can’t make snow. Man-made snow is better than natural snow. It holds up better. There are so many things you’re fighting against. It’s tough. It’s a tough business. I would never recommend anybody to get into the ski business. There’s a lot of consolidation happening right now. Our Director is retiring. We just started the process of hiring. I don’t know if you know what’s happening in the ski industry, but it’s consolidating. You have a lot of big buying Skiways all over the country. We are pretty lucky that we have a very good pool of candidates for the ski director position. One of our challenges also is labor. I will tell you that we are one of the only ski areas, at least on the east coast that our lift operators are unionized. We use union folks five months in a year, and then for the rest of the year, they work at the golf course. I do not oversee the golf course.