This August, College President-elect James Wright will take the helm of a Dartmouth completely transformed under James Freedman's 11-year presidency.
Freedman's impact has included a shift from the College's "Animal House" image to a more intellectual one, a successful capital campaign that raised over $586 million, the construction of
several new facilities and an increase in women and minority students.
Freedman's many accomplishments since his inauguration on July 19, 1987 will certainly leave Wright in a comfortable situation.
when he takes the helm of the College.
Back to basics
Dartmouth's Board of Trustees selected Freedman as the 15th president of the College with hopes of improving the intellectual atmosphere of a school that ranked as the least academic of the Ivy League institutions.
Norman McCulloch '50, who was chairman of the Board of Trustees and the presidential search committee, previously told The Dartmouth this was one of the committee's reasons for choosing Freedman.
Freedman was then president of the University of Iowa and had an extensive list of academic degrees A.B., LL.B., A.M., L.H.D., LL.D.
"The Board felt we needed to refocus on what we're in the business for," McCulloch said.
In his inaugural address, Freedman set goals of increasing the College's emphasis on academics and diversity -- now one of its trademarks.
One of Freedman's major tasks was the first comprehensive overhaul of the Dartmouth curriculum in more than 70 years -- the 1993 revision of Dartmouth degree requirements.
Changes to academic programs and departments have included making women's studies a major and creating new programs in linguistics, cognitive science and Latin American and Caribbean studies.
As a result of Freedman's efforts, Dartmouth was ranked number one in 1995 in the U.S. News and World Report's Guide to Colleges in the category of excellence in teaching -- one of the most prized distinctions.
During Freedman's presidency, Dartmouth not only improved its academic image, but developed its reputation as a school on the "cutting edge" of technology. In 1991, the College became the first Ivy League school -- and one of the first colleges and universities in the country -- to require students to own a computer.
From dollars to diversity
Image isn't everything. Freedman also worked to improve the College's financial health, the physical plants of the campus and the diversity of the student population.
In 1987, he inherited an endowment of $520 million, and he has doubled that figure to more than $1.1 billion at the end of Fiscal Year 1996.
The Will to Excel Capital Campaign, which ended up raising over $586 million for the College, was a triumph for Freedman.
During the past 11 years, a number of much-needed new academic and student facilities have also been built, including the Burke Laboratory, Sudikoff Laboratory, Byrne Hall, the Roth Center for Jewish Life and the Collis Student Center. Berry Library and the new Moore psychology building are under construction. Renovations to transform Webster Hall into a home for the Rauner Special Collections Library are also under way.
Freedman has also dedicated himself to increasing the diversity of the incoming classes.
The admissions statistics show he has met his goal.
Freedman's first freshman class was 38 percent women and 18 percent minorities, while the Class of 2001 is 49 percent women and 25.6 percent minorities. The Class of 1999 was the first class in Dartmouth's history to have more women than men matriculate.
In the past few years, the College has repeatedly been recognized for its superior compliance with Title IX and has been highly praised for its warm welcome of women athletes.
Freedman also strove for intellectual diversity.
In his inaugural address, Freedman spoke the famous words which are often associated with his goals for the College: "We must make Dartmouth a more hospitable environment for students who march to a different drummer, for those creative loners and daring dreamers."
Confronting challenges
Of the many times Freedman has addressed the College in his 11 years, perhaps the most unforgettable remarks are those he made against The Dartmouth Review and those on his battle with cancer.
In 1988, angered by the actions of four members of The Review, who had allegedly harassed a music professor, Freedman called a special meeting of the faculty, at which he decried the newspaper's "personal attacks upon members of the community."
Freedman spoke out again when the "Review Credo" in the Oct. 1, 1990 edition the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur had two clauses from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," which the editors blamed on sabotage.
"For 10 years, The Dartmouth Review has consistently attacked blacks because they're blacks, women because they're women, homosexuals because they're homosexuals and Jews because they're Jews," Freedman said at the time.
But English Professor Emeritus and The Review contributor Jeffrey Hart told The Dartmouth that Freedman's remarks were "all lies."
"I'd like to see what else his career has amounted to," Hart said.
At the Commencement ceremonies in 1994, Freedman discussed his battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a treatable form of cancer. Freedman underwent six months of chemotherapy to treat the disease and had surgery to remove a testicular tumor. He continued to recuperate during his six-month sabbatical, which the Trustees had granted him before he knew he had cancer.
Restoring faith
When Wright assumes the presidency in four months, he will probably not be met with the same skepticism from the faculty and students as Freedman saw in 1987.
Freedman took over the presidency from David McLaughlin '54, a businessman and CEO without a doctoral degree, who was heavily criticized by the faculty for his lack of intellectual leadership.
In January 1985, an ad hoc committee formed by the faculty to examine the governance of the College released a report sharply criticizing McLaughlin's leadership style. A poll in The Dartmouth in April of that year found that more than three-quarters of the faculty criticized McLaughlin for a lack of intellectual leadership and mediocre defense of liberal arts.
When McLaughlin resigned, most of the faculty approved, but Freedman's resignation this past September was met with regret from much of the College's teachers. Most faculty members said they were pleased with the direction in which Freedman helped the College move.
This is not to say that Freedman has not been criticized by the faculty. In particular, he has been criticized for some of his senior appointments, including the choice of Lee Bollinger, who left soon after his appointment to assume the presidency of the University of Michigan.
Some members of the faculty were also upset by Freedman's appointment of Wright as College provost last year without a formal search process.
Students met Freedman with distrust in 1987 because they said the McLaughlin presidency had taught them that the administration does not consider their concerns nor does it act decisively.
Few students criticize Freedman for lack of action. When he announced his resignation last September, many praised his accomplishments, but others criticized his apparent introversion and inaccessibility.
Following a one-year sabbatical after Freedman steps down this summer, he intends to do some more reading and writing and join the Dartmouth faculty to teach.
