The third woman to sit on the Board of Trustees in the College's 232 years, Susan Dentzer '77 moved up in rank this year to become the first female Chair of the Board. She will help set Dartmouth's financial and long-term planning policy in her new position.
Dentzer was first elected to the Board in 1993. She also works as a health commentator on PBS' "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and lives with her husband and two sons in Maryland.
A magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth who has received two honorary degrees, one from Dartmouth and one from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, Dentzer is known outside Hanover for her frequent speech circuits and commentaries on television news programs.
At Dartmouth, she is often associated with researching the implementation phase of the Student Life Initiative, the controversial Trustee-generated plan to revamp Dartmouth's social and residential life that was announced two years ago.
In an interview soon after her appointment, Dentzer said she and the Board hope to see "the fruits of the Student Life Initiative continue to develop." Dentzer stressed that her leadership would be a smooth continuation of the Board's previous direction.
The Board of Trustees is comprised of 16 Trustees, all but one of whom are graduates of the College. The non-alumni Trustee is an ex-officio position held by New Hampshire's governor.
Nine of the Trusteeships are elected by the Alumni Council and the rest by the sitting Board. The Chair position is elected by a unanimous resolution of the current members.
Also at the Board's June 10 meeting which saw Dentzer's promotion, Pamela Joyner '79 was appointed to the Board, bringing the number of women on the Board to five out of a total of 15, including New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Joyner's appointment to the Board was "really an achievement," said Dentzer, "in terms of fundamental change in the makeup of the Board over the last 25 years."
"It should be said that the Board is reflective of not only the College but also society," she continued.
Dentzer urged patience with the continued implementation of the SLI, stressing its long-term schedule. "Keep in mind that when the Board adopted the SLI ... Some things were on a 5-year track, and some were on a 10-year track," she said.
Also, some parts of the SLI literature are not considered to be in "final draft" form, Dentzer said, but merely represent the wishes of the Board as a starting point to be reworked by outside committees.
"The reason that we launched the SLI process in the first place was [because] we did not think the social and extracurricular experience at Dartmouth was as good as it could be," Dentzer said. "We thought the academic experience at Dartmouth was superb, but the social and extracurricular [were not]."
Trustees are also pondering "what we need to do on the academic front in terms of facilities ... what we're going to build," said Dentzer, as they "Get on the table in front of us the full dimension of those needs and set priorities."
But for more day-to-day issues, such as the recent friction between the administration and fraternities, sororities and undergraduate societies surrounding a new house monitoring policy that ensures stricter oversight, Dentzer expressed total faith in College administrators to handle operations without Trustee involvement.
"For things like this ... that's not why the Board exists," she said. "We don't exist to second-guess the officers of the College."
Joyner replaces Barry L. MacLean '60 on the Board. MacLean had fulfilled his maximum of two five-year terms.
Regarding who decides the agenda of Board meetings, Dentzer said, "Our Board works very closely with the president." Dentzer's term ends 2003.
Dentzer replaced William H. King Jr. '63 as he completed his second five-year term.
