From promoting the education of Native Americans to stressing the love of learning in everyday life, Dartmouth's mission statements and proto-mission statements offer telling windows into the College's changing face throughout its more than 200-year history.
Signed by King George III of England on December 13, 1769, the Dartmouth College Charter was the first document associated with the institution and, despite predating the modern concept of a mission statement, fulfilled the same goal-setting objectives.
The charter characterizes the premises behind the new institution as "the laudable and charitable design of spreading Christian knowledge among the savages of our American wilderness" and "civilizing and Christianizing children of pagans."
Though the charter corresponds with the myth of its author Eleazar Wheelock's dream of bringing liberal education, "civilization" and Scripture to Native Americans, Wheelock had given up on Christianizing Native Americans before he even penned the document, according to history professor Jere Daniell, who has written considerably on the history of the College.
"Funds were only available for him for education of Native Americans, so he pretended," Daniell said.
In fact, Wheelock never made much of an effort to conceal his non-interest in educating the Native American population. "If you go to the histories and to Wheelock's letters, the truth was there for anyone to see if he wished to see it," Daniell explained.
Native Americans may not have been the focus of the College, but religion was -- a pattern revealed in the documents related to Dartmouth's early years.
During a time when mission statements did not exist, the writings of Nathan Lord, College president during the 1850s and 1860s, emphasized that "whatever professed solution admits not the Divine account, lacks the primal and essential element of a sound and comprehensive philosophy."
Statistics for the late 18th and early 19th centuries reveal that roughly 40 percent of Dartmouth graduates pursued careers as Christian ministers. In addition, the College presidency was consistently held by Protestant ministers.
Soon, however, changes in the greater United States ushered in a more secular outlook. The transition from a theologically focused curriculum to a more secular one took place during, and as a result of, the growth of finance and manufacturing capitalism in the latter half of the 19th century.
Nonetheless, during that period of big business between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, according to Daniell, "other institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton had progressed more quickly" than Dartmouth in moving away from the theological missions of their founders.
"Dartmouth did not really break from that until the presidency of William Jewett Tucker, a minister who realized that the world was changing and enrollment was dropping. He determined that for the health of the institution, Dartmouth would have to adapt to a more entrepreneurial world," Daniell said.
These changes were reflected in Dartmouth's proto-mission statements. At that time, institutional statements of priorities were articulated at convocation ceremonies and the inauguration addresses by Dartmouth presidents.
President Tucker signaled what he considered the new, more secular mission of the College in his 1894 inauguration speech. Raising the question of "the relation of the College to the new subjects, chiefly in the natural and physical sciences," Tucker concluded that "the College needs new education in subject matter and method."
Tucker's vision precipitated a movement away from a primarily Biblical and classical curriculum of studies.
The forces of big business had a direct influence in instituting the transition, Daniell said, as official College business often took place in the railway cars owned by trustees who were also industry tycoons.
If the great changes of the College mission have generally mirrored American cultural history, the McLane Report of 1968 -- which stated a commitment to the aggressive recruitment of African-American students -- presented no exception to the rule.
Prompted by the sweeping influence of the civil rights movement and the protests of some African-American students, the report resulted in the quadrupling of the African-American population at Dartmouth, which had previously made up two to three percent of the student body.
The McLane Report led to the creation of the Equal Opportunity Committee, which Daniell chaired. One result was an aggressive commitment to recruiting Native American students.
It was during this time, Daniell said, that "people first began to truly question the commitment of the Charter to Native Americans."
A few years later, in 1972, President John Kemeny did what no Dartmouth president had ever done in the institution's 203 years: he opened his convocation address with the words, "men and women of Dartmouth."
Dartmouth's current mission statement is the product of a two-year long committee created by former president James Freedman to "articulate a vision for the College which will guide us for the next ten years." In 1990, the Planning and Steering Committee, comprised of students and administrators, issued the mission statement that is now inked onto every major College publication.
Then, somewhat similar to now, devising a mission statement proved to be a controversial process. Some students felt the document did not sufficiently emphasize diversity concerns.
Of particular dispute was the lack of any mention of need-blind admissions, which was included in earlier drafts released by the steering committee. In response to student criticism, Dean of the College Edward Shanahan told The Dartmouth the absence was because "need blind [admissions] is a strategy for accomplishing the mission itself."
