Dartmouth is set to begin searches for leaders of the two centers that will carry on the work of the Tucker Foundation.
The College will begin advertising next week for a director of the Dartmouth Center for Service. A search for the head of the William Jewett Tucker Center, whose title will be dean and chaplain, will begin soon. Both positions will report to the vice provost for student affairs.
Photo by Eli Burakian ’00
College trustees a year ago approved refocusing the work of the Tucker Foundation by creating two centers from the existing one. Earlier this month, Dartmouth received final approval to adjust the endowment portfolio of the two centers to allow the transition.
“The work of these two centers is very important in the lives of our students,” says Provost Carolyn Dever. “I’m delighted that we’re ready to look for leaders who will provide new direction and inspiration to these organizations and serve as mentors to the Dartmouth community.”
The aim of the William Jewett Tucker Center will be to inspire and support students, faculty, and staff to cultivate a sense of meaning and purpose through spiritual, ethical, and moral exploration and engagement. Consistent with its founding principles and history, the Tucker name will remain with the new center for religious and spiritual life. The Tucker Center will support campus ministries and encourage multifaith conversations and opportunities, supporting more than two dozen campus ministers who work with about 25 percent of enrolled students in a variety of faith communities.
The Dartmouth Center for Service will help prepare students to lead lives of purpose through engagement in service to others in the nonprofit sector. The center will involve students through direct service to those in need, through social entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and social activism, among other aims. The organization will continue to make volunteer opportunities available to the College community while also creating opportunities for students who want to lead in the nonprofit sector.
The center’s first projects will include offering immersion trips that enable students to meet and work with nonprofit leaders; identifying alumni who are interested in mentoring students who want to be engaged in social impact and social innovation work; and building on this year’s first “Breaking the Mold: Careers for the Common Good” symposium. The center will work closely with other Dartmouth centers, including the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, the Center for Professional Development, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences, and the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.
In addition, both centers will give students a chance to apply what they have learned to real-world experiences.
Working groups for each center were convened in the fall of 2014 by Martin Wybourne, the Francis and Mildred Sears Professor of Physics and senior vice provost for research, who as interim provost led the work to consider creating two separate centers.
“We are extremely grateful to the members of the working groups for the considerable time they devoted to this work. They brought a wealth of experience, insight, and historical knowledge to the effort. We couldn’t have done it without them,” says Wybourne.
Working on what has become the Center for Service were Jim Bildner ’75, a former member of the Tucker Board of Visitors; Stefanie Cantor, a Visitors member and the parent of two Dartmouth graduates and a current student; Leslie Dahl ’85, a Visitors member and parent of a current student; N. Bruce Duthu ’80, the Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies and chair of the Native American Studies Program; Theresa Ellis ’97, the interim dean of Tucker; Alec Ring ’15, student director of Growing Change, a Tucker program promoting healthy food systems; Andrew Samwick, the Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving ’72a, P ’10 Professor of Economics and director of the Rockefeller Center; Lauren Scopaz ’00, a member of the advisory board of Dartmouth Partners in Community Service, a Tucker program.
The Tucker working group members were Ann Beams ’77, a member of the Tucker Board of Visitors; Associate Professor Robert Baum; Marc Belton ’81; Robert Bordone ’94, also a Visitors member; Tanya Budler ’15, a student director at Tucker; Geoffrey Edelson ’80, Thayer ’81, a Visitors member and a member of the Friends of Dartmouth Hillel, a group for those identifying as Jewish or interested in Judaism; Prasad Jayanti, the James Frank Family Professor of Computer Science and adviser to Shanti, a Dartmouth group for those identifying as Hindu or interested in Hinduism; Sandy Kelsey ’82, Med ’88, a Visitors member; and Nancy Vogele ’85, director of religious and spiritual life at Tucker.
