The Academic Affairs Committee meeting began with a message of welcome from the committee chair, Omar Rashid ’00, followed by committee attendance. The following members were in attendance: Chair Omar Rashid ’00; Vice Chair Chitra Narasimhan ’92; AR Liaison Patrick Bedard GR’19; Faculty Liaison Susan Ackerman ’80; and Tanner Bielefeld Pruitt ’22, Chip Conner ’85 TU’87, Chip Debelius ’79, Mary Green ’88 TU’95, P’21, Jan Landon ’11, Alyssa Loyless ’17, Taylor McDonald ’12, Henry Nachman ’51 TU’55 P’82 P’86, John Nicholson ’82P’19, Bruce Pacht ’67, Barry Smith ’59 MED’60, Tom Stonecipher ’68, Nancy Vespoli ’77 P’13, and Kirk Andrus ’72.
The meeting opened with discussion on selecting a new committee name and updating the committee mission statement to reflect the Alumni Council committee reorganization recommendations. Vice Chair Narasimhan ’92 provided a review of progress made on a pre-meeting committee call in early October and laid out three main goals for the new committee mission statement: 1) a stated commitment to alumni education as opposed to student curriculum input, 2) the synthesis of disparate educational resources for alumni, and 3) the communication of educational opportunities to alumni constituents. Faculty Liaison Ackerman confirmed that student curriculum governance is by well-established faculty process with minimum opportunity for alumni oversight. Stonecipher ’68 and Conner ‘85 raised the issue that faculty should at least have a resource for assessing the educational content needs of alumni. Liaison Bedard GR’19 indicated that the Lifelong Learning department of Alumni Relations is charged with aligning alumni education content with alumni interests, and that the LL team is extremely eager for input and advice from the AAC. The LL department also engages in direct surveys of alumni and has access to Moosilauke Forum data resources. Conner ’85 suggested that the committee be named “Committee on Lifelong Learning” or the “Committee on Experiential Learning.”
The Alumni Relations LL team proceeded to give a presentation on virtual programing efforts undertaken in the prior year, including Dartmouth on Virtual Location, DOL Kids, The Ballot podcast, the social justice resource hub, and virtual homecoming/reunion/travel events. Director Robin Albing Tu’81, associate director Danielle Sparks, assistant director / AAC Liaison Patrick Bedard GR’19, and coordinator Ashley Sigl presented. A post presentation survey indicated that Dartmouth on Virtual Location was the most widely attended content type by AAC members (40% attended), followed by The Ballot podcast (25% listened), and the Back to Class Electoral College event (25% attended). DOL Kids was also very positively received.
Discussion on Lifelong Learning programing and communications ensued. Multiple members expressed a desire for a dedicated LL section to be added to the weekly “Speaking of Dartmouth” email. Committee members felt that email was a more effective communication method than social media unless the social media sharing was undertaken organically by alumni and classes as opposed to Alumni Relations. Stonecipher ’68 recommended a Dartmouth Alumni Magazine writeup on Lifelong Learning opportunities with website addresses (this could be an opportunity to use QR codes). Stonecipher also recommended dedicated print marketing for virtual events. Vice Chair Narasimhan ’92 recommended a Lifelong Learning website redesigning to put all virtual programs in one place with a more visually compelling and intuitive design. Chair Rashid ’00 and Pacht ’67 recommended designing a roadmap of Lifelong Learning resources for distribution to alumni (a “user guide”). Andrus ’72 and Nicholson ’82 recommended including all virtual events in a Dartmouth alumni newsletter on a regular basis (weekly) and communicating all virtual events to class leaders who can in turn communicate events to classes. The LL team conveyed an interest in working with alumni leaders to better promote events and discussed past success in cross promoting events with club leaders.
Committee members also discussed new content types: Green ’88 asked for more information on auditing Dartmouth courses virtually and Debelius ’79 asked about alumni-taught courses. Liaison Bedard GR’19 discussed new MALS course auditing and special enrollment opportunities recently communicated by the Guarini School.
The committee resolved to form sub-committees to tackle next steps, including one sub-committee focused on the committee name and mission statement and one sub committee focused on alumni education communication and user resources. The meeting was then adjourned.
Nadine Parris ’06 was named vice chair of the committee. David Dietze ’78 will serve as chair.
The Alumni Service Committee met virtually on Thursday, October, 22, 2020. Chair Nadine Parris ’06 kicked off the meeting with welcomes and introductions. She then turned attention to the survey the committee sent out to the leadership of classes, clubs, groups, and mini-reunion chairs. The results from that survey show that some groups are engaging in small in-person or virtual service, and some groups want to know more about how to activate during this time. Some creative forms of service being done during the Covid pandemic are letter writing, virtual tutoring, and outdoor cleanups in small groups. The group decided that a service exchange where alumni could request a kind of service for their area and be matched with a group willing to perform that service could be one area where the committee could help make connections. Another idea was to research large non-profits that could use the help of Dartmouth volunteers, for groups that are too small or have trouble planning their own events. The committee could assist with highlighting non-profits and directing Dartmouth volunteers to those organizations. The committee will also keep in mind the Council’s three priorities of racial justice and equality, alumni professional development, and raising awareness for financial aid, in their work. The future of the Day of Service is still uncertain due to the pandemic, but through the committees research on a service exchange, and a non-profit list, the committee may be able to offer virtual service to those groups that would like to participate.
Colleen Haskell ’94, Chair, opened the meeting by welcoming new members and asking all committee members to introduce themselves and include a story about their admissions experience at Dartmouth. The responses were varied, lovely and informative and helped set the stage for the admissions and enrollment discussion at hand.
Lee Coffin ‘89a, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, updated the committee on the final statistics from the 2020-2021 admissions cycle, which was unlike any other in his decades-long career. Dean Coffin had filled the class in the spring and due to the impact of COVID-19, 172 students requested a gap year. Dartmouth’s percentage was among the lowest of the Ivies as compared to some of the more urban schools. A large portion of the postpones consisted of overseas and west coast admits.
Dean Coffin shared that there are two different opinions on what will happen for the upcoming admissions cycle with the Class of 2025. Either the pool could contract because prospective students have not had a chance to visit schools or the pool could explode if the seemingly unknown (and test-optional policy) causes some to over-apply. As of right now, applications are coming in on track with past years, if not higher. Interestingly, Admissions has engaged with more families virtually than they could have in person in Hanover and there are upsides of the virtual environment that will carry into this work after the pandemic ends.
The meeting concluded with a discussion around the three goals of Alumni Council and how the Enrollment and Admissions Committee can help with career mentorship, financial aid, and racial justice.
Vice chair John Harpole opened the meeting and welcomed new members Nathan Bruschi, Chelsea Mehr, Antonia Nedder, Gil Rosenthal, and Lynne Soutter, as well as the returning committee members. Vice President for Alumni Relations Cheryl Bascomb also thanked the councilors for their participation. The committee briefly recapped the criteria for the honorary degree, which is a lifetime achievement award. President Hanlon views it as aspirational. A call for nominations is sent out to Dartmouth staff and faculty in early fall, for the degree to be presented at the following June’s Commencement ceremony.
The Alumni Council’s Honorary Degrees Committee considers names to submit for the following year (for example, the names submitted this year will be considered for the 2022 Commencement). Key characteristics to be considered by the committee for nomination include national recognition in a specific field or area of expertise; long term support to Dartmouth through leadership, volunteerism and philanthropy; and demonstrated volunteer and philanthropic contributions to other organizations. The nominations of the Alumni Council Honorary Degrees Committee proceed independently of the College Council nominations and are reviewed directly with the President and the Board of Trustees.
Conference calls will be scheduled this winter/spring, during which committee members will present their research for discussion. Committee members will vote on their top candidates for final discussion at our meeting on Friday, May 13, 2021 during Alumni Council. All proceedings are confidential.
The Alumni and Student Engagement Committee has a new name – the New Alumni Engagement Committee – reflecting its new charge to look at supporting and engaging the newest members of the alumni community. The committee continues its evolution of the last two years and brings itself into alignment with the recommendations of last year’s Alumni Council task force to work with the newest graduates. The committee met via Zoom on Thursday, October 22, for its fall meeting where we welcomed a panel of three Class of 2020 graduates to talk about their exposure to the alumni community and what they’re most interested in before breaking into three working groups (set by survey feedback and input from the committee following its first meeting on September 30th). Those groups will focus on organizing a Council initiative to send a handwritten note to each ’20 alumnus/a and new ’24 students; designing a new virtual city guide and templated tool for alumni organizations to better welcome recent graduates; and lastly, designing a survey and focus group framework to gather feedback from the ’20 class, recognizing they’re the perfect sample and are also facing especially difficult circumstances, and the alumni of the classes of ’17, ’18, and ’19 to understand broader recent grad concerns and compare to the ‘20s and opportunities for support from regional alumni organizations. We plan to follow up with working group calls in the next month and finalizing the project plans and next steps this winter.