Folt: Way Too Proud of the Faculty

Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt’s op-ed in the Daily Dartmouth, responding to a sweeping critique levied by Joseph Asch ’79, mounts a rather predictable defense of College academics. She makes broad generalizations about long-term administration goals, invokes brand-new policies nobody has heard of before, and seeks to placate disbelievers with the usual admini-speak about the excellence of the student body.

It is the last paragraph, though, that catches the eye: “As Dean of the Arts and Sciences, I am inordinately proud of the accomplishments of our faculty, both in and out of the classroom [emphasis added].” While the use of superlatives in an administrator’s article is almost expected, this particular word does seem to discredit the rest of the article.