Jim Wright with Susan DeBevoise Wright in background. (photo by Joseph
Mehling '69, Dartmouth College Photographer.)
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Appointed in 1998, James Wright is the 16th President of Dartmouth College.
As president, his priorities have included advancing the academic strength of
the institution and expanding the faculty, enhancing the out-of-the-classroom
experience, and an ambitious facilities agenda that includes academic,
residential life, and athletic projects. Building on Dartmouth’s historic
commitment to diversity, he has broadened access to talented students from all
backgrounds, most recently spearheading a major financial aid initiative that
eliminates tuition and loans for students of modest means, and expands
need-blind admissions to international students. He has also served on the NCAA
Division I Board of Directors and the NCAA Task Force on Reform.
In 2005, Wright began a series of visits to U.S. military medical facilities
in Washington, D.C., where he met Marines and other U.S. military personnel who
had been wounded in the course of service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He
encouraged them to continue their education, and he subsequently led the
creation and funding of an educational counseling program for wounded U.S.
veterans, Severely Injured Military Veterans: Fulfilling their Dreams, that is
now being offered through the American Council on Education (ACE). In May 2007,
The New York Times presented a feature on this work, and "ABC World
News with Charles Gibson" featured Wright as its Person of the Week. The New
England Council recognized him as the New Englander of the Year, and he will be
honored in April 2008 by the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which will
confer upon him its Semper Fidelis Award in recognition of his efforts to
ensure educational opportunities for wounded veterans.
Wright has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty since 1969. He received a
bachelor’s degree from Wisconsin State University-Platteville and a masters and
doctoral degree in history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. An
American historian, his teaching and research focused on American political
history and the history of the American West. He is the author or editor of
five books: The Galena Lead District: Federal Policy and Practices,
1824-1847 (1966); The West of the American People (1970); The
Politics of Populism: Dissent in Colorado (1974); The Great Plains
Experience: Readings in the History of a Region (1978); and The
Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire (1987). He
received a Social Science Research Council Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and
a Charles Warren Fellowship at Harvard.
James Wright served as Dean of the Faculty from 1989-97 and as Acting
President of the College during the first six months of 1995, while President
James O. Freedman was on sabbatical. He served as Provost from 1997-98 and was
elected to the Dartmouth presidency in April, 1998. He took office on August 1,
1998.
President Wright has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and he is a member of the Organization of American Historians, and
the Western History Association. He serves on the board of trustees of the
Sherman Fairchild Foundation.
President Wright is married to Susan DeBevoise Wright, who has served in
various roles in student life at Dartmouth since 1978. He has a daughter, two
sons, and seven grandchildren.
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