President Hanlon

College President Phil Hanlon laid out his vision for the future of Dartmouth academics at the general faculty meeting Monday. He stressed the importance of experiential learning and introduced proposals to keep tuition rates flat with inflation, create a freestanding graduate school and hire faculty in clusters...

...The creation of a graduate school addresses what Hanlon referred to as “fill the middle.” The College should increase its number of postdoctoral students to inject new energy into research and create a more exciting academic climate for its faculty.

One plan to increase these numbers would be significantly expanding the Thayer School of Engineering.

Thayer is already using many of the ideas Hanlon proposed the College focus on, including experiential learning and expanding Dartmouth’s research impact. With only 51 permanent faculty members, the Thayer faculty is currently well below critical mass, Hanlon said.

“I am very excited about it,” Thayer dean Joe Helble said. “Expanding faculty in any way is exciting.”