Hearing Out the Profs

Today’s Daily Dartmouth features an editorial which, like so many of the editorials we’ve seen lately, is differentiating petition trustees from non-petition trustees—but the issue at stake here is shockingly not 1891 or parity-related. This time, Joseph Asch ’79 is criticizing non-petition trustees for not reaching out to Dartmouth professors who, according to Asch, “ more than any other campus group, have a broad perspective on Dartmouth, one that comes from interactions throughout the institution and long experience with previous presidents and deans. If all of our trustees could tap into this information, they might come to an understanding of why so many alumni are concerned about the direction of the College.”

Asch’s ultimate criticism is that “unlike the petition trustees, who are active in learning about the College, non-petition trustees seem to base their understanding of Dartmouth on the presentations that the Wright administration prepares for their quarterly meetings.” This is a problem that has an easy solution, according to Asch.

Asch suggests that the non-petition trustees should do some of their own field-work, personally meet professors, and ultimately rely less on the power-points and presentations put together by Parkhurst. For more on his proposed solution, read on here.