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[ Applause ]
>> Carol Folt: Good afternoon.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you so much for joining us for this very special welcome celebration.
We're here of course, to welcome Phil Hanlon back to Dartmouth as our President-Elect
and to welcome his wife, Gayle Gentes and their family.
And of course, we're also here to welcome all of you back after our first extended winter break.
I hope you came back feeling refreshed and excited about all that the new year will bring.
Of course, this new year includes this wonderful celebration today.
It also includes in the spring a celebration of 40 years of co-education and rounding out a year
when we've also been celebrating four decades of our Native American program
and our 40th anniversary of the Black Alumni Association of Dartmouth.
You know, these historic milestones are reminders of the enormous changes
that were taking place in Dartmouth of the '70s, and these were changes
that have helped create the rich, dynamic community that we are today.
And of course, Phil experienced some of these changes firsthand
when he was a student here on campus.
Coeducation was so significant for Dartmouth at the time that the president,
then President John Kemeny, later said that he felt
that if Dartmouth had not made the decision it did,
it would have become a second-rate educational institution.
We're again in the midst of a time of great change and great promise in the world
of higher education, Once again, we're facing significant choices that can have an influence
on our future for decades to come.
And I have to say I feel immense satisfaction and excitement
that Phil Hamlin will be the president that will help lead us into this exciting future,
a future that for our campus has enormous potential.
Since his election as president at the end of November, I've had the pleasure of working
with Phil and visiting and talking with him a number of times, and I know that you, like I,
are going to be very excited as you get to know him and you learn about his ideas and the sense
of promise that he is feeling about Dartmouth's future.
And I think we're all going to benefit from his experience in higher education and his capacity
for problem-solving, and of course his innovative spirit.
I'm looking forward to working with Phil as we bring together the strategic planning process
that have involved so many of you in our community as we prepare ourselves
to face Dartmouth's 250th year in the year 2019.
Our campus has set its sights on the future, and I think we are in wonderful capable hands
to work together to make that future as exciting as we all hope it will be.
So now I'd like to take the time to introduce Steve Mandell, the Chairman of our Board
of Trustees, who will do a more formal introduction of Phil Hanlon.
Steve Mandell, as you all know, he is deeply, deeply devoted alumnus of Dartmouth,
as well as being an incredibly talented business leader.
He has been providing visionary leadership to this institution and an extraordinary sense
of purpose and belief in our future.
He served on the Board of Trustees for more than five years.
He's worked now with three presidents,
and we all have valued his counsel and his guidance for many years.
He has a depth of knowledge and a passion for this place that is really unmatched,
and he's been a very generous sounding board and a guide for me in this interim year.
I've been so grateful for the relationship I've been able to develop with him,
and I know that he is going to have a wonderful relationship with Phil in the coming years.
So please join me now in welcoming Steve Mandell
to formally introduce President-Elect Phil Hanlon.
>> Steve Mandell: Thanks, Carol.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am delighted to welcome you all
to celebrate this exciting moment in the Wheelock succession of Dartmouth presidents
and congratulate Phil Hanlon on his election as our next president.
Before I introduce Phil, I'd like to take a moment to thank you, Carol,
for your service to Dartmouth during this important transitional year.
I speak for all the trustees, and I'm sure I echo the thoughts of the broader community
in nothing how Dartmouth has continued to excel under your leadership.
We greatly appreciate your dedication to this institution
and its continued record of intellectual distinction.
>> I also want to express my gratitude to Bill Helman and Diana Taylor,
the Chair and Vice Chair of our Presidential Search Committee, and our entire committee
of trustees, faculty, alumni, and a student.
They and their fellow members of the committee took on an immense responsibility
and work tirelessly to shepherd the process to a very successful conclusion.
One of the great aspects of a presidential search, and we hope we don't do it that often,
is it's an occasion for trustees and faculty to work together as true colleagues.
It's really probably the only opportunity where that takes place.
And that was a true pleasure and a rewarding experience, and I think I speak
for all involved, trustees, faculty, alumni, and student involved in that process.
Of course, a great many members of the Dartmouth community engaged in the search process
by offering their visions for Dartmouth and the qualities required of its leader.
So my thanks go also to the community, whose contribution was instrumental to the outcome.
When we began our presidential search last spring, we spent many weeks listening
to your feedback about what we should seek in Dartmouth's next president.
From this input, we developed a presidential profile, which distilled everything we heard
into a specific set of experiences and abilities we sought in the next leader of Dartmouth.
As you can imagine, it was a long list, encompassing everything from leadership
and commitment to Dartmouth's mission, to academic ambition and the heart of a teacher.
We wrote that these qualities represented the ideal,
but assumed that no single candidate will have all the ideal qualifications.
And then we met Phil, a man who possesses all of the skills needed to lead us into the future
and reinforce Dartmouth's position at the forefront of higher education.
With a remarkable record of scholarship and research combined with leadership expertise
and a profound commitment to teaching,
he is truly everything we were looking for in a new president.
As a Dartmouth alumnus from the "almost" great class of 1977,
Phil believes a liberal arts education is the firmest foundation for forming citizen leaders
with the creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, cultural awareness,
and flexibility to make a difference in today's world.
Equally important, his 27 years at the University of Michigan,
one of the top research universities in the world, give Phil a strong appreciation
for the critical role of outstanding scholarship and research and the vitality
of an educational institution, for faculty, for undergraduate and graduate students,
and for the benefit of society at large.
As a world-class mathematician, Phil's an outstanding scholar in his own right.
He's earned numerous academic honors and awards, including a Sloan Fellowship
and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he's held visiting positions at some
of the most prestigious academic institutions in Europe
and in the U.S. He's also a seasoned academic administrative leader,
who served in a succession of senior roles in Michigan for more than a decade,
including his current role as Provost
and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs since 2010.
And in its tradition of John Kemeny, Dartmouth's 13th President,
Phil is a passionate scholar teacher who continues to teach undergraduates at Michigan.
In fact, he was teaching calculus at 8:00 a.m. on the morning after we announced his election,
and then came right over to hand over to me with Carol, our Deans, and other campus leaders.
All of these important qualities and experiences are matched by Phil's personal integrity,
his strength of purpose, and his deep love of Dartmouth.
Anyone who hears his story of coming to Dartmouth and how it changed his life,
will understand the depth of his affection for this special place.
I could not be more pleased to welcome Phil back to his alma mater
and to welcome his wife, Gail Gentes.
I'll leave Phil to tell you how he met Gail, but she, too, has had a distinguished career
and is now the Director of Research and Faculty Support at the Raw School
of Business at the University of Michigan.
Together, Phil and Gail have raised three children, now adults.
They share a love the arts, a love of the outdoors, and an enthusiasm for a variety
of college sports, and they'll be rooting for our basketball
and hockey teams this afternoon and this evening.
Phil will only be the 18th president to lead Dartmouth since our founding in 1769.
I look forward to seeing him help shape the place that played such a formative role
in his life, and with the support of the Dartmouth community,
lead us towards our 250th anniversary and even greater academic excellence.
It's now my great privilege to introduce Dartmouth's 18th president
in the Wheelock succession, Philip J. Hanlon, welcome home.
>> Philip Hanlon: Wow!
Well, thank you, Steve and Carol, for that gracious introduction.
I think that overwhelmed and humbled are the right words to describe how Gail and I have felt
at the warm welcome and support we've received at every step of this process,
and the turnout today is no exception.
It feels great to be coming home to Dartmouth, and to lead Dartmouth at this time
in its history is really special, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the college
and at a time of historic change in higher education.
But more about that in a moment.
First, I want to thank some people.
Most importantly, I want to thank my family, my three wonderful children, Michael,
Maureen and Patrick, and especially my wife, Gail.
Gail has been a source of extraordinary support for many years,
and I know that she shares my excitement about our move to Hanover.
What you may not know is the pivotal role that Dartmouth played in getting Gail and I together.
In fact, we were introduced together by Gail's brother, Bill, and Bill I knew here at Dartmouth
as a classmate in the amazing class of 1977.
I'm delighted that Gail and Bill and Gail's two sisters, Suzanne and Cindy,
were able to be with me here today.
And do you all want to stand and wave?
>> I also want to thank the Board of Trustees for placing their confidence in me.
As you might suspect, when Provosts get together,
we spend most of our time swapping stories about our Boards, and based on those stories
and my interactions with the Dartmouth trustees, I can tell you something
that you probably already knew: Dartmouth has a terrific Board of Trustees.
To a person, they are smart, they are experienced,
and they are totally dedicated to the college.
And so I so look forward to working with them in the years to come.
I also want to recognize the members of the Search Committee,
which was so ably led by Bill Helman and Diana Taylor.
The Search Committee ran a terrific search, a great search.
Their love for this place is infectious.
I don't know how anyone, any candidate could have met with the Search Committee
and not come away dying to be the President of Dartmouth College.
And like Steve, I hope we don't run too many searches.
>> And lastly, I want to acknowledge the presidents who have come before me.
I stand on the shoulders of incredible leaders who have made Dartmouth the great place
that it is, leaders like Jim Wright, a wise and steady hand, who I know will offer me
as experienced counsel, just as he enriches the academic life at Dartmouth
as the Wheelock Professor of History.
>> And Jim Kim, who inspired so much creative energy and got this campus,
motivated this campus to think bigger, I plan to continue his efforts as well.
>> This is a moment of great opportunity for Dartmouth, but we of course must be thoughtful
in setting priorities for the investments of our time, energy and resources, and thankfully,
that thought is already undergoing its development with the strategic planning process
that has been lead by Carol Folt.
And Carol also, of course, deserves our praise and thanks, as Steve just mentioned,
for continuing expert service as interim President.
So please join me in thanking Carol
>> All right.
It's been almost 40 years since I first set foot on this campus.
John Kemeny was in the third year of his presidency.
I came to Dartmouth having spent my first 18 years in a small mining town
in the northern Adirondack Mountains.
I arrived at Dartmouth with a weak understanding of the world
and little confidence in my academic abilities.
And Dartmouth is where I grew up.
Not surprisingly, my first year at Dartmouth,
particularly my first term, was a sobering reality check.
But at Dartmouth, I found faculty and fellow students, who both nurtured and challenged me.
I worked with faculty members who inspired me.
Most notably for me, the mathematics faculty.
They were so excited by the scholarly work.
I can still remember how their faces would light up when they talked
about the latest problem they were working on or the approach they were going to take,
and I came to a realization, which was there was nothing I'd rather do
than devote my life to higher education.
To work on the campus of a great college
or university would be the coolest thing in the world.
And so here I am, back again, and despite the passing of 40 years,
I find that there are actually some distinct parallels between the situation
that Dartmouth found itself in all those years ago
and today's situation, and I want to highlight three.
First, Dartmouth remains a preeminent place of learning for talented students,
faculty and staff come together to educate the next generation.
In the great liberal arts tradition, we prepare our undergraduates to be active,
engaged citizens, but that's true of any liberal arts college.
At Dartmouth, we expect more.
We expect our graduates to be leaders, who will not only engage in civil discourse and debate,
but actually shape that debate and point the way forward.
John Kemeny made the same observation in his inaugural address when he said, and I quote:
"Dartmouth should train leaders who will enlarge human knowledge, leaders who will work
in high office, leaders who will guide great corporations to new services to society,
leaders who will work to wipe out poverty and disease, and I hope,
leaders who will lead their people out of the ghettos," end quote.
Our alumni today far exceed that expectation, filling all the leadership roles
that John Kemeny just described, and many, many others.
Whether it's through our top-ranked undergraduate program,
or our outstanding graduate and professional programs, preparing our students
to be leaders is in my mind, the most important work we do at Dartmouth.
And I'm eager to be part of that work.
So, like John Kemeny, I plan to teach undergraduate math classes during my time
as president -- that is, if the math department will have me.
>> Second parallel, Dartmouth remains a place of great discovery, where faculty
and students demonstrate the power of the mind to address the world's most vexing issues,
to advance our understanding of the human condition,
and to create works that enrich the human spirit.
The issues facing our world, things like meeting the energy needs of our planet,
harnessing the power of the arts to shape social norms, designing the delivering effect
of healthcare, are complex, multifaceted problems,
requiring many types of expertise to address.
Our nation looks to its great institutions of higher education as uniquely positioned
to bring together the broad range of knowledge and deep thinking required
to make progress on these really vexing issues.
And as we engage the great issues of the world on our campus,
it's imperative that we involve our students in this research work,
so that they understand firsthand the power of critical analysis and creative thinking,
and most importantly carry that understanding out into the world with them.
Lastly, like 40 years ago, education finds itself in a period of dramatic change.
In the early 1970s, campuses were roiled by unrest caused by an unpopular war.
They were grappling with the opportunities and imperatives of diversity, including coeducation,
and they were facing financial challenges imposed by an ailing economy.
The Dartmouth campus, led by John Kemeny, responded boldly to these dynamic forces,
with the historic suspension of classes in the spring of 1970, the advent of coeducation
on our campus, and enrollment growth enabled by the DE plant.
Higher education is again at a moment of churn and upheaval and transformation.
The forces driving us today are different than those of 40 years ago.
Today information technologies offer unprecedented opportunities
to rethink our historic modes of education and discovery.
Our graduates are entering a workplace that is itself undergoing profound changes,
a work environment that is characterized by increasing levels of volatility, complexity,
workforce diversity and global reach, a work environment that's driven, to a greater
and greater extent by individual empowerment rather than strength of large organizations.
These changes to the workplace compel us to rethink the ways
in which we prepare our graduates to lead.
And yes, again, higher education is faced with financial challenges imposed by a weak economy,
but this time, challenges not only to the cost of operating our campuses,
but also significant challenges of access and affordability for our students.
Success will go to those colleges and universities
that make the right choices at this important moment.
I'm excited to have the opportunity to join with such a talented and committed community
of students, faculty, alumni, and staff in moving Dartmouth forward.
I've been anxious to meet all of you and listen to your thoughts and ideas as we work together
over the next several years to make Dartmouth the best that it can possibly be.
I look forward to greeting all of you personally at Alumni Hall as soon as we finish here.
Thank you all for coming.
>> Carol Folt: Thank you, Phil, for that very wonderful and inspiring speech.
I'm so excited to welcome you again back home, and Gail, we're looking forward so much
to having you be part of our community.
Really excited about that.
And it's now my pleasure to introduce a group of very special and talented individuals
who are going to celebrate Phil's election in song.
This is a fine example of the vitality of the arts at Dartmouth,
as we celebrate this our Year of the Arts.
So please join me in welcoming the Dartmouth College Glee Club.
>> Softly now the early twilight Thro' the trees stealing down,
and the evening hush is falling o'er the college and the town.
Come and gather on the campus, make the gray old maples ring with the songs
of alma mater, with the songs we love to sing.
For the dear old college home boys, for the happy, happy days.
For our glorious alma mater.
Shake the campus with her praise.
Brothers, Sisters, while the shadows deepen, while we sat here heart to heart,
let us promise one another, in the silence ere we part.
We remain our life successful, we will keep our hands from shame,
for the sake of dear old Dartmouth, and the honor of the name.
For the dear old college home boys, for the happy, happy days.
For our glorious alma mater.
Shake the campus with her praise.
>> Dear old Dartmouth, give a rouse, for the College on a hill,
for the lone Pine above her, and the loyal ones who love her.
Give a rouse, give a rouse with a will!
For the sons of old Dartmouth, for the daughters of Dartmouth.
THo' 'round the girdled Earth they roam, Her spell on them remains.
They have the still North in their hearts, the hill winds in their veins.
And the granite of New Hampshire.
In their muscles and their brains, And the granite of New Hampshire
in their muscles and their brains.
Dear Dartmouth set a watch, Lest the old traditions fail.
Stand as sister stands by brother.
Dare a deed for the old mother.
Greets the world from the hills with a hail!
For the sons of old Dartmouth, For the daughters of Dartmouth.
Around the world they keep for her Their old undying faith.
They have the still North in their souls, The hill winds in their breath,
And the granite of New Hampshire Is made part of them 'til death.
And the granite of New Hampshire Is made part of them 'til death.
[ Applause ]
>> Carol Folt: Thank you, Steve, thank you, Phil, thank you very much
to our Glee Club songsters, and thank you to everyone for being here this afternoon
to celebrate Phil's election as Dartmouth's 18th President.
So now I'd like to invite you all to greet Phil and to greet Gail at a Welcome reception
in Alumni Hall, which will being at 3:45, so we look forward to seeing you all there.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]