A Letter to Dartmouth Alumni--Especially Readers of Dartblog
This excellent letter from Trustees T. J. Rodgers '70 and Peter Robinson '79 deserves careful attention. Click HERE to read it.
posted by John Mathias at
11/07/2010 09:41:00 PM
15 Comments:
that Alpha said that Judge Nathaniel Niles said
Dartm alum blog is certainly well hidden these days, whereas Dartblog is easy to access and very interesting. Lets make dartm alum blog more so.
By
Susan, at 11/08/2010 6:14 PM
While off the topic of this thread, Al raises a legitimate point that this forum for interaction among alumni could be made more accessible.
Two suggestions:
1. Allow any legit alum to initiate a thread.
2. Use the current notification system that forwards comments to EC members to be used to inform those who wish to receive updates on new posts. Al may find DartBlog more "accessible" because it does feed email notifications of new postings. (This said, I expect many people will want to somehow limit or filter such notices if/when their numbers go up.)
The Rodgers/Robinson letter was interesting for a number of reasons. No comments out there?
By
Tim Dreisbach '71, at 11/08/2010 8:49 PM
that Alpha said that Judge Nathaniel Niles said...
Among various reasons that we get no comments on dartm alum blog concerning the Rodgers/Robinson letter is how inaccessible dart alum blog is. If I do a search, I get listed under this blog: big green alert, dartlog, oto dartblog, dartm otr, dart traditions, dartlog (different article), 67 blog, dart resources for alum (assoc of alum blog).
If I hit the latter,then I get alum relations (online tools-9 entries, news and events-7 entries, undergraduate-3rd entry is assoc of alum blog).
Maybe if I went to aoa blog in the first place, but how many alum would know to do this, assuming that works. alum blog is reaching very few, perhaps on purpose.
By
Susan, at 11/09/2010 10:34 PM
For John Mathias: How many unique hits does this blog get every month?
By
Joseph, at 11/10/2010 4:28 AM
that Alpha said that Judge Nathaniel Niles said...
Dartm aoa blog is a little better on access. There, at least, you go directly to dart resources for alum. Then there are still the same 19 items, and finally the blog. How many alum doing their first browsing will bother. As Joseph asks Mathias, how many unique hits??
By
Susan, at 11/10/2010 6:13 AM
the Judge said...
It is interesting that Dartm aoa blog entry gets you directly to the issue. But how many alum would know this trick?
By
Susan, at 11/10/2010 6:24 AM
What is so newsworthy about trustees supporting the president? Is there something else going on here?
By
DartBored, at 11/10/2010 10:14 AM
that Judge Niles said...
I may be beating a dead horse, but access is important. If I go to dartm assoc of alum, I don't get to aoa blog until p. 2, item 5. Then I get an old thread and I have to hit home to get here.
If I go to dartm aoa, then on the first page, 2nd item, I find the blog and have to hit home to get to the present.
Enough of this excess about access. Again as Tim suggested, any comments about Rodgers/Robinson?
By
Susan, at 11/11/2010 11:42 AM
that Alpha said that Judge Nathaniel said...
The statement from Rodgers/Robinson is the sort that can be presented from a number of different viewpoints (Joe Asch, John Mathias). But as DartBored said, "What is so newsworthy about trustees supporting the president?"
The problem is that President Kim (and many others) can talk the good talk, but the activities on the ground may be quite different. There are only 24 hours in a day, and so time is rationed as time is spent here and time is spent there. Furthermore, there is the rationing of funds (especially at this time). So where is the reality in terms of time and funds on the ground?
One could argue with regard to time that no one person could micromanage everything, and so we delegate authority and decision making. But to whom are we delegating this authority? And again, if the top only has so much time, whom do they listen to in rationing the funds?
Besides rationing time and funds, there is the overall philosophy of how to approach education. Those who favor the multiversity would argue perhaps that this is the best approach to the excellent university, and within the university this is the best approach to the excellent liberal arts college. We can be all things to all people.
On the other hand, some would argue that liberal arts prepare a person for coping under any circumstance with any body of information (learning how to learn with any body of data). We should not be led wherever the money leads us, but control the direction regardless of the money.
We have heard all these arguments before. The real test is the rationing of time and funds on the ground.
By
Susan, at 11/11/2010 4:56 PM
"The problem is that President Kim (and many others) can talk the good talk, but the activities on the ground may be quite different."
Aren't Rodgers and Robinson saying otherwise? What's going on? Are they just taking credit for everything that has been fixed? We haven't heard anything at Dartblog either. Is there some news here? Or did they just tell Robinson his kids won't get in if he doesn't shape up. That approach has worked on others.
By
DartBored, at 11/11/2010 8:23 PM
This blog is located at http://dartmouthaoa.blogspot.com/
This is a link to the same address. You can right-click this link and select "Bookmark this link" to create a permanent link to the AoA blog in your browser. (The same link also found at the top of this page -- the blue words "Dartmouth Association of Alumni.")
Or you can click the link and, once at the page, pull down your browser's "Bookmarks" menu and select "Bookmark this page" or a similar menu item.
If you prefer to search for it every time, the term "dartmouthaoa" should do it.
By
Scott, at 11/12/2010 5:33 PM
This is a very timely, commendable, and welcome letter. Many thanks to Trustees Rodgers and Robinson for it.
By
John Mathias, at 11/13/2010 8:38 AM
John,
Well said. In fact, I think that you said it when you posted the letter in the first place.
BTW: How many unique hits does this blog get every month?
By
Joseph, at 11/13/2010 11:40 AM
Alpha says that Judge Nathaniel Niles says...
The letter from Rodgers/Robinson to Dartm alum, especially readers of Dartblog, was praised both by John Mathias and also by Joseph Asch (to John, "Well said ---.") And of course, it is a fine letter.
However, the earlier points made by Judge Niles still are very important. No matter how good the words sound and how fine the intentions, if the top administrator is busy with a variety of preoccupations, and of course has only limited time and limited physical resources including funds, and since no one is omnipotent or omniscient, then some things will be overlooked, consciously or unconsciously. If this top administrator delegates authority, what sort of people are these who are delegated to? They are also under the same constraints.
But again, the most competent administrator who has very competent subordinates is still limited with time and resources. Who does he listen to? Who ends up being listened to at length and receiving a useful amount of these resources?
And since this top administrator is not omniscient and omnipotent, nor is any group of individuals, still the organization needs to operate. One could argue for parity on the board of trustees, with elected alum serving as half the board, and one could argue for the importance of petition candidates in contest with the formally nominated candidates ( Rodgers and Robinson were petition candidates), but all of this would at best only give us an approximation of the truth.
Democracy and elections are our best approach to partial, approximate truth. What is the reality on the ground apart from the excellent words? Part of the reality depends on how time and resources get rationed out, since we can not deal with all things through all time with all resources. Time and substance are rationed. We are not omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. What is the reality on the ground with regard to time and resources? It is this reality on the ground that counts.
Again, John was asked "how many hits? ", this time by Joseph. Are we just spinning our wheels here??
By
Susan, at 11/15/2010 9:23 AM
that Alpha said that Judge Nathaniel Niles said
I really don't know how this works,but if Dart Blog is now listed also under Dartm Assoc of Alum Blog, and Dart Blog is the only interesting aspect of the alum blog and is constantly updated with ongoing interesting material, who gets the credit for hits, dart blog or alum blog? I am sure it does not matter to dart blog with its multitude of independent hits and all that traffic, but it certainly would inflate the picture for alum blog if through this entry people accessed dart blog. The alum blog has not gotten any recorded conversation in quite some time.
By
Susan, at 1/19/2011 4:52 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home