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Posted 11/10/01
At its November meeting, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees approved funding for a building that will house three of the College's interdisciplinary institutes. The new complex will bring together the John Dickey Center for International Understanding, the Leslie Humanities Center, and the Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics in a single building. Along with Kemeny Hall, the future home of the Mathematics Department, the building is part of a major expansion of academic facilities planned for the area north of Berry Library.
"Dartmouth's institutes and research centers offer unique teaching and learning opportunities that span the disciplines," said President James Wright. "Bringing the work of these three prominent centers together in one facility will foster even closer collaboration and spark new areas of inquiry."
"I think the new building is evidence of how committed the College is to the future of these centers," said Jonathan Crewe, Director of the Humanities Center. Besides offering office and conference space, the complex will feature a shared faculty-student lounge, a computer workroom, classrooms and an exhibition hall equipped with digital technology. The central location near the library and Kemeny Hall will bring the centers more into the mainstream of campus life, he added.
"Putting the centers together in a single building will produce a synergy we just can't get in our separate locations. We'll be able to work together on more shared projects and do more coordinated planning. We expect that the overlapping groups of faculty and students who are involved with the centers will promote more interaction, too," Crewe said.
Established in 1982 and named in honor of Dartmouth's 12th president, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding strives to coordinate, sustain and enrich the international dimension of liberal arts education at Dartmouth. The Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities provides support to the humanities through colloquia, seminars, symposia, and conferences, as well as activities for students, faculty and visitors relating to the humanities. The Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics is a consortium of Dartmouth faculty concerned with teaching and research in applied and professional ethics, both on the undergraduate level and in Dartmouth's professional schools.
In other action, the Dartmouth Board approved creation of a new graduate degree program in public health, to be offered through the Dartmouth Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences (CECS). Established in 1989, the CECS studies how the quality of health care is measured, organized and improved. The Center's graduate program in evaluative sciences, established in 1993, was one of the first of its kind and has since become a model for similar programs elsewhere. Dartmouth's new master's degree in public health is an outgrowth of that groundbreaking program and will involve faculty from throughout the college, including Dartmouth Medical School and the Tuck School of Business, as well as departments such as economics and environmental studies.
The Dartmouth trustees also approved a new agreement in which the College will provide mental health services to the State of Maine at the Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI). Six full-time psychiatric faculty members will serve the AMHI program, which will be modeled after an existing agreement between Dartmouth and the New Hampshire Hospital in Concord. Besides providing enhanced patient care, the program will offer additional teaching and research opportunities for medical students, residents and fellows.
The Board also heard updates on the plans for a new residence hall and dining and social facility, located north of Maynard St., scheduled to open in 2004. The residence hall, which will house approximately 500 students, is part of a major group of academic and residential buildings that will bridge the north and south portions of the historic Dartmouth campus. This project represents significant progress in the implementation of Dartmouth's Student Life Initiative (SLI), announced by President Wright and the Board of Trustees in 1999. The SLI aims to enhance the residential and social experience, strengthen community and provide the best possible learning environment for today's diverse students.
The architectural firm of Moore Ruble Yudell, working with Bruner/Cott & Associates, will design this important group of buildings, including the facility that will house Dartmouth's interdisciplinary institutes, Kemeny Hall, and the residence and dining halls.
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