Gathered in Spaulding Auditorium yesterday afternoon, special collections librarian Jay Satterfield and College executive vice president Richard Mills addressed a crowd of approximately 70 faculty and students. The lecture was part of the fourth town hall meeting in an ongoing series of open conversations launched by Mills last October.
Mills largely focused on keeping the College at an educational parity with peer institutions before opening up the floor to audience members for a question and answer period.
Mills began his talk by evoking the “Red Queen” hypothesis, a theory that states that species must keep evolving to survive in competition with other ever-changing species, as a metaphor for upcoming changes at the College.
In particular, Mills referenced the fact that the annual pay raise for some non-union workers at the College will be lower than in previous years. He also said that the changes that will be implemented as a result of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” policy initiative are part of an “evolutionary arms race.”
In order to keep up with competing institutions, he said, the College must spearhead new programs and initiatives, such as the residential house system, which will start next year.
He also said that the College hopes to increase support for research opportunities. He added that the College is in an era of transition, as tuition is at an all-time high. He also stressed the need for the institution to evolve in order to maintain its elite status.
“We need to keep moving and keep being great,” Mills said.
Religious and spiritual life director Rev. Nancy Vogele, questioned the value of Mills’ comparison between evolutionary theory and institutional change, and suggested that this approach may not yield positive outcomes.“It doesn’t seem very happy,” she said of Mills’ approach. “It seems competitive. We’ll be annihilated unless we annihilate.”
Mills said that this perceived negativity probably stemmed from his specific language, saying that the College has always been an exemplary institution and that though higher education may no longer be at its height, the College should still derive satisfaction from evolving and improving. Barbara Sterling, a library assistant at Baker-Berry Library who attended the town hall meeting, said that she enjoyed hearing what Mills said about various initiatives at the College and that she had wanted to hear an administrative perspective. Sterling said she found Mills’ message on evolution to be effective.
In a follow-up interview, Mills said that the goal of the town hall series is to create a new trust between students and administrators, as he felt students at the College are generally hesitant to communicate with administrators.“There’s a lot of reticence for the administration in the students here,” he said.
Mills said that he believes there is a culture of separation between administrators and students, which he feels contributes to low audience participation at town hall meetings. He added that he hopes to change this culture.
The nature of a small town such as Hanover contributes to this separation, he said, as it is harder for students to be open with administrators because of the possibility that they may run into them in town.
Mills said that when he participated in similar meetings at Harvard University, the audience was more active, adding that he hopes future discussions at the College will eventually recreate a similar environment.
“At Harvard, they really hammered me with questions. I was sort of surprised when that wasn’t the case at Dartmouth,” Mills said. “It’s been a little slow here.”
Mills emphasized his personal goals as an administrator at the College, saying that he hopes that he can keep an honest and transparent relationship with students so that town meetings might become more popular and productive.
Mills also said that he, along with fellow administrators, will continue to hold open discussions to clarify and describe policy initiatives to the broader community.
“[College President] Phil [Hanlon] and I, and the rest of the administration, want to explain our initiatives. It’s never our intention to keep people in the dark,” he said.
Max Gibson contributed reporting to this story.
