Rev. Dr. Stuart C. Lord
An education, perhaps the world's most powerful tool, without moral and spiritual guidance would be simply worthless. Author Caroline Bird once said that "a liberal-arts education is supposed to provide you with a value system, a standard, a set of ideas, not a job." It is just that, a value system, which Dartmouth seeks to impart upon its students.
In June of 1951, with this in mind, the trustees of Dartmouth College established the Tucker foundation to address, in the context of a liberal education, the pressing moral issues of the time. The ideals behind the formation of Tucker exist at the core of the college; at its beginning, today, and in its future. Charles Dey, a former Dean of the Tucker Foundation, said "Dartmouth should not be a cocoon for four years. If we are to justify our existence, the undergraduate must be confronted with the realities of human misery, hopelessness, and the unfinished business of our society." It has been just that, the unfinished business of our society that the Tucker foundation has been charged with completing. By involving undergraduates in a variety of local, national, and international service projects the Tucker Foundation seeks to create socially responsible and active students.
Service in and of itself has value. However, volunteerism isn't the ends; it is the means toward the creation of a strong moral core. Building homes with Habitat for Humanity, participating in an open forum discussion concerning a pressing issue, or volunteering for a program such as Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth all are independently worthwhile. Nonetheless, they become essential when placed within the context of a liberal education.
A Dartmouth education prepares students to assume leadership positions in an increasingly complex world. In order to accomplish this properly we must provide a moral and ethical base from which students will lead. Principled discourse coupled with first hand service experience is essential in the creation of a well-rounded student. A person, no matter how well educated, without a spiritual and moral compass, is forever lost. Likewise, an education without ethics fails to prepare students to assume their roles as leaders, citizens, and human beings.
Since its inception in 1951 the Tucker Foundation has undergone dramatic shifts in method and focus; however, the desire to incorporate moral and spiritual growth as a central aspect of the educational process has been ever constant. Spiritual life has been at the center of the Dartmouth College experience since its founding in 1769. In the early years of the Foundation the Dartmouth Christian Union and Tucker were inextricably intertwined. However, since then the Foundation has come to encompass a diverse array of religious and spiritual backgrounds. Today 29 different religious organizations exist under our auspices.
On a national level the Tucker foundation has historically been at the forefront of service and social justice. For example, programs such as A Better Chance, founded in 1964 by Dey, sought to provide educational opportunities to underprivileged minority youth. This widely successful program gained a great deal of notoriety and national attention. Today its ancestor, the Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth program (SEAD) brings students from under-resourced urban and rural high schools throughout the country to Dartmouth and provides academic, social, cultural, and self-exploratory opportunities that are too often not readily available in the students' home schools. These programs serve merely as examples of the many important and rewarding projects that students have participated in through Tucker over the past fifty three years.
The spirit of Eleazar Wheelock, the spirit of service; what has been called the "heart and soul of Dartmouth," can still be found at Dartmouth. Today it resides in South Fairbanks Hall at the Tucker Foundation.
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