Dartmouth Parity

In many ways, our beliefs today are informed by the answer to the question, ‘What made Dartmouth so great?’ Like all alumni, we take enormous pride today at Dartmouth having been at the highest level of American colleges. Even today, by many standards – especially by the number of outstanding applicants – Dartmouth is still nonpareil.

Looking back to the second half of the 19th century, however, no one would have predicted this. The College was very small, and getting deeper and deeper into trouble. Many of the other private colleges that date from this era – e.g., Bowdoin (1794); Union (1795); Hamilton (1812); Colgate (1819); Trinity (1823) – were equal or superior to Dartmouth. These are all very fine schools, but the simple fact is that today Dartmouth has surpassed them all – Dartmouth is on another level.

So how do we explain this reach for greatness by Dartmouth? We believe that there have been two basic reasons, and they both date from the same moment in history. One is outstanding leadership; the other is an unusual, intense level of alumni support and participation in the life and future of the College.

The Association of Alumni was formed in 1854 because many alumni were concerned by the direction of the College. These disagreements intensified, as efforts over the next few decades to induce the Board of Trustees to reform were not successful. Finally, when the College reached a crisis, the now famous Agreement of 1891 was concluded. Dartmouth alumni pledged to provide financial and other support, and the Trustees agreed to seat 50% of the Board with elected alumni trustees; 50% with appointed charter trustees, plus the President who could break ties.

This was the turning point in Dartmouth’s history. Shortly after this Agreement the first of Dartmouth’s great leaders – William Jewett Tucker – became President (1893). When Tucker took over, Dartmouth had 26 faculty, 300 students, was deep in debt, and had a small physical plant. When Tucker retired in 1909, there were 81 faculty, 1,100 students, and over 20 new buildings. Tucker’s biographer said that he “refounded Dartmouth.” There is no question but that the outpouring of alumni support following the 1891 Agreement and the active participation on the Board by the alumni trustees nominated by the Association were decisive.

Tucker was followed by two other outstanding Dartmouth presidents: Ernest Martin Hopkins and John Sloan Dickey. Both considered alumni indispensable in making Dartmouth a great college. President Hopkins said it best, in 1930:

And the fact is that a college cannot be of maximum influence except with the support of its alumni, and consequently that a college must have the support of its alumni if it is to be truly great. (Emphasis added)

Presidents Tucker, Hopkins and Dickey believed and lived this principle throughout their terms of leadership. Never once did any of them question the alumni right to nominate 50% of the Board of Trustees. They welcomed this alumni involvement, encouraged it, and instituted various methods of alumni participation, many of which persist in the life of the College. When President Dickey stepped down in 1970, Dartmouth had surged ahead of those fine other New England colleges; since then continued good leadership and intense alumni support have widened the gap.

Dartmouth’s alumni support is legendary. Following the 1891 Agreement, the Association raised funds to relieve the severe financial problems. Since then, alumni giving has been enormous – $39.1 million in fiscal 2007. Dartmouth has usually led all colleges in America in percentage of alumni who make contributions. Approximately 7,400 applicants were interviewed by alumni in the most recent year; the total number of alumni volunteer hours is estimated at 230,000.

So we believe the answer to ‘What made Dartmouth great?’ goes back to 1891, to the unique Agreement with alumni and the succession of superb leadership in its wake. Now the current Board of Trustees, with a blithe disregard for history, intends to destroy the centerpiece of the historic accord that brought Dartmouth its legendary level of alumni support. We believe that as the years go by, a diminished, marginalized alumni body would not be able to maintain the same level of support, and as that declines, so too would Dartmouth decline — again. We will not let that happen on our watch, so we ask for your vote for all the petition candidates so that we may continue the effort of the Association of Alumni to stop the Trustees’ Board-packing plan.