Linda Fowler, the new director of the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, seems to fit right into the Dartmouth community: her husband went to Dartmouth, her son goes to Dartmouth and she loves the outdoors.
Fowler, who was in Hanover visiting the College on Wednesday and Thursday, said in an interview with The Dartmouth that she has specific plans she hopes to implement at the College, but said she will wait until July to outline a more detailed proposal.
"One of the things I need to do first is to figure out what needs the students and faculty have in terms of teaching and research that the [Rockefeller] Center could be addressing," she said.
Fowler said she will meet with the Rockefeller Student Council and members of the faculty of the social sciences to hear their ideas when she officially takes over on July 1. She currently is a political science professor at Syracuse University, specializing in American public policy and the U.S. Congress.
Fowler will be a fully-tenured professor in the College's government department, and will teach classes in the fall and winter.
Jim Brennan '96, the student intern for the Rockefeller Center, described Fowler as "very affable and down to earth." He said he thinks she will be great in her interactions with students.
Fowler, who taught both graduate and undergraduate courses at Syracuse, said of Dartmouth, "in my view there are a lot of exciting things happening in terms of undergraduate training."
She said she is "looking forward to being part of the good things happening here," but she also said she hopes the class sizes at Dartmouth will be smaller than those she has taught at Syracuse.
Although she learned the names of all 200 of her students in her American government class at Syracuse, she said smaller classes will be more manageable.
"I will be assigning more reading and more papers than I would have at Syracuse," she said.
Fowler has rented a house from the College and will be living on Webster Terrace. She currently lives in Rochester, N.Y., which is 85 miles from Syracuse.
"For the first time, I'm going to be teaching and living in the same place, and that's going to give me the opportunity to be involved in the intellectual life of the College and [it will be] easier for me to interact with the students," she said.
Fowler said she is a "pretty outdoorsy person" and likes to hike, canoe and kayak. She said she is looking forward to living near the Connecticut River and storing her equipment at the Ledyard Canoe Club.
Fowler is also no stranger to Dartmouth. She said her husband is a member of the Class of 1965 and she began dating him while he was a freshman. Her son, Chris Fowler, is a sophomore at the College.
At Syracuse, Fowler said she was the director of undergraduate instruction in her department and was involved in developing new interdisciplinary courses in the social sciences.
She said with the College's implementation of a new curriculum last year, "I see a role for the Rockefeller Center in helping to underwrite the creation of interdisciplinary courses."
Fowler said she wants to identify talented faculty members in the social sciences "who might be interested in contributing to the development of those courses."
Fowler visited the College this week to discuss several issues with faculty members, she said. "If I waited until this summer, I might not be able to find them," she said.
Several faculty members have recently designed a public policy minor for students in the social sciences, which has not yet been approved by the Committee on Instruction, she said.
According to Fowler, procedural measures "have to be worked out before we can go forward," and she said she hoped to take care of them yesterday.
In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Fowler will also be teaching several courses at the College. She said she will be teaching a senior seminar in the fall titled "Politics and Markets."
The course will examine current questions being debated in Congress, such as the appropriate scope for government activity and what means are appropriate for public policy goals, she said.
Rockefeller Center Acting Director Roxanne Waldner said she is "very enthusiastic" about Fowler's arrival. Waldner has been acting director since Geography Professor George Demko stepped down from the position last year.
Fowler has taught at Syracuse since 1975. She graduated magna cum laude from Smith College in 1967 and received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1977.
Fowler said she was one of the first specialists in American politics invited to the former Soviet Union in 1987, before perestroika, to meet with scholars to talk about citizenship and citizen action.
Fowler has written two books: "Political Ambition: who Decides to run for Congress," published in 1989, and "Candidates, Congress, and the American Democracy," published in 1993.
