October 26–28, 2017

After introductions, Chair Cuong Do ’88 Tu’89 opened the meeting with a discussion of a possible symposium on the future of work. Rog Woolsey, director of the Center for Professional Development (CPD), explained how the future of work was a topic of discussion at an Ivy Plus meeting and how he and his colleagues have been aware of the changing culture at many work environments as well as changes in training and actual job roles. 

Lynne Gaudet ’81, interim director of Dartmouth for Life, mentioned that the future of work is going to be a theme for some of Alumni Relations’ Dartmouth for Life programming this year. They are thinking of piloting a mini-symposium in Boston in the January timeframe (perhaps including a faculty member from the Tuck’s Center for Digital Strategies).

The committee brainstormed ideas for another symposium that would focus on the same topic, but could be held on the Dartmouth campus. The on-campus symposium would also include some faculty presenters and would have attendance open to students. All were enthusiastic about moving forward.    Discussion on this topic concluded with a discussion of timing (a spring date was favored) and which working group would organize it (the student engagement working group will take the lead).

The Professional Development Committee is organized into 3 working groups. Cuong gave a short explanation of the focus for each of the groups before councilors broke out in discussion groups by working groups. The three working groups are: student engagement; effort to diversify, create and fund student internships; and benchmarking – researching best practices at other schools.

For the second half of the meeting, the Student Affairs Committee joined the Professional Development Committee. This half of the meeting started with a presentation by Jean Romeo, Advancement’s director of market research, on the results of a Moosilauke Forum survey on student internships. This was followed by a short presentation by Roger Woolsey about work the Center for Professional Development is doing, especially in getting students involved early in career advising.

The meeting concluded with an open discussion about student internships led by Cuong and Molly Van Metre ’81, chair of the Student Affairs committee. Molly summed up the discussion as a glimmer of ideas. She encouraged committee members to email her and Cuong with their questions and ideas.