Trustee election update
Michael Ellis and Scott Glabe of the Dartmouth review provide an excellent analysis of the election of Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki to Dartmouth's board of trustees. Ellis and Glabe describe the election as "perhaps the most significant event in the institution’s recent history." They offer a cautionary note, however:
As heartening as Robinson and Zywicki’s victory may be, nothing has been accomplished yet. Indeed, the most pressing issue at the College has barely been addressed: improving the quality of education and restoring some semblance of a core curriculum. It is practically impossible for a student to receive an education in the Western tradition these days.
Nonetheless, their conclusion is appropriately optimistic:
Though significant obstacles lay ahead, Robinson and Zywicki’s campaigns and subsequent victory have awakened student and alumni alike to the challenges Dartmouth faces. Campus newspapers and weblogs have been alive with talk of free speech, class sizes, and administrative deception for weeks on end. Just last Tuesday, FIRE improved its rating of free speech at Dartmouth after the administration spent months backpedaling—a move for which the Trustee election is directly responsible.Over a half century ago, William F. Buckley Jr.’s God and Man at Yale asked whether the education provided at that university corresponded with the wishes of its alumni, to whom its administrators ultimately report. The answer at Dartmouth today, as it was at Yale then, is a resounding “no.” However, with Robinson and Zywicki’s upset win, the answer at one Ivy League institution could soon be “yes.”
The Review also provides links to media reaction to the election. And it plans to have its interviews with Robinson and Zwicki online Monday.
SCOTT adds: The title of the excellent Dartmouth review editorial is "The Lone Pine Revolution." Beautiful!
