Dear colleagues,

The start of the fall term is one of my favorite times on campus. I love hearing the enthusiasm from you about projects accomplished, reenergizing breaks during the summer, the energy of new student orientation, and exciting plans ahead. We’ve welcomed the Class of 2030 and transfer students with first year trips and orientation, classes were officially underway yesterday, and I saw many of you out on the Green for the Lunch and Launch community picnic.

I also was in touch with you yesterday with the sad news of the passing of our colleague Jody Trout, an associate professor in the math department. I want to again extend my care and sympathy to those who knew Jody, including his colleagues in the math department and collaborators across campus. We will be sharing a fuller tribute of Jody’s life later this week, and I encourage you to make use of the Faculty/Employee Assistance Program for confidential counseling, as well as the Tucker Center for pastoral counseling.

As we turn our attention to the months ahead, I’m thinking about the ways that we can continue to come together, learn from one another and contribute to our forward momentum as a school. We will continue to focus on our four core priorities: incentivizing and intensifying scholarship and creative endeavors, enhancing student learning and experience by leveraging the Dartmouth D-Plan, drawing on the school’s organizational and budgetary model to better serve our mission, and our abiding commitment to aid and access.

These priorities draw directly from our aspiration to offer the best undergraduate education within a world-class university, and form the basis of our strategic plan as a school and the way that our school supports the mission of Dartmouth. In her welcome message yesterday, President Beilock shared her continued focus on the next decade of excellence at Dartmouth. We in the School of Arts and Sciences are uniquely positioned to inform and carry forward that work, which we have already begun.

In the coming months, there will be chances to engage and provide input to planning around the first year experience for new students and transfer students; to engage with questions and considerations of where and how we can deepen our commitment to scholarship, guided by the work we’ve already done together establishing the core research pillars for Dartmouth; and the ways that we can and should increase support for current faculty and staff.

I view the work of strategically planning for the next decade of Dartmouth as part of the collaborative and intentional work we do each day. We are most successful when we are working across disciplines, departments and divisions, and could not do the work of the School without each of you.

Thank you for making Dartmouth a tight knit community to learn, grow, discover, and create. I’m looking forward to sharing more, hearing from all of you, and celebrating your successes.

Best,

Nina Pavcnik
Dean, Arts and Sciences