We e-mailed President Wright to answer this question, and we also turned to some of his recent speeches to alumni to answer this.
In his e-mail, the President wrote,
"Our biggest challenge is always to maintain the very special character of Dartmouth. As I have said before, we have the soul of a College and the breadth of a small university. We need to preserve the special nature that has distinguished Dartmouth as a leading institution of higher education for so many years.
"Last week, we sent letters out to an exceptional group of prospective members of the Class of 2011. We will be spending the next month trying to persuade these students to come to Dartmouth in competition with some very strong schools. We are in an incredibly dynamic competitive environment in which we annually compete for the most promising and accomplished students in the country. This means providing competitive financial aid packages and it means emphasizing the qualities of Dartmouth: small classes, exceptional faculty who are committed teachers, and a special environment that enables students to excel, to develop lifelong friendships, and to enjoy the process of learning.
“We also compete annually to hire the best young faculty--and increasingly to keep them. Other institutions recognize the special qualities of Dartmouth faculty and they are aggressive in trying to hire them away from us."
Earlier this year, in remarks to the Dartmouth Club of Oregon, he told alumni:
"That is not to say that we do not have our challenges. Surely we do. Dartmouth is one of the preeminent institutions of higher education in the world. But there are many other good institutions out there - some of them are working hard and have enormous resources to displace us. Students and parents have a lot of choices of fine institutions. So we cannot afford to be cavalier about our legacy or our responsibility to protect that legacy."
In a speech to the Alumni Council in the fall, he talked about he current divisions within the alumni body,
"This College has always had sharp edges, and those of us who care for Dartmouth have always had sharp elbows. We debate and dispute energetically. This has been an essential quality of Dartmouth and of the loyalty the school engenders. But we have seldom been at war with ourselves nor have we ever embraced a culture that assumes this state of affairs will be the norm. As we go forward now, I worry about institutionalizing a state of conflict."
Read the full text of President Wright's Alumni Council remarks.
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