Dickey Center Turns 25
John
Sloan Dickey, Dartmouth's 12th president (1945-1970) imagined a Dartmouth
keenly aware of the world outside Hanover and an ideal Dartmouth student who
viewed himself as a citizen of the world. "The world's troubles are your
troubles...and there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings
cannot fix," he told students in his 1946 convocation address. In that
spirit, the College, in 1982, established the John Sloan Dickey
Center for International Understanding to "coordinate, sustain, and
enrich the international dimension of liberal arts education at
Dartmouth." Now, 25 years after its inception, the Dickey Center boasts a
tradition of public programming, support of faculty and students, and a record
of public service in the international sphere.
The Dickey Center is celebrating its 25th anniversary from its new space in the
Haldeman Center. Center staff, from left: Dianne Casey, administrative
assistant; Robert Clough, program coodinator; Lisa Wallace, business and
finance manager; Christianne Hardy Wohlforth, associate director; Kenneth
Yalowitz, director; Anne Udry, administrator of arctic studies; and Victoria
Hicks, assistant to director. Not pictured are Ross Virginia, director of
arctic studies, and Lisa Adams, coordinator of the Global Health
Initiative.
(Photo by Joseph Mehling '69)
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The Dickey Center, recently relocated from its headquarters in Baker Library
to the new Haldeman
Center, is home to a raft of programs and ongoing initiatives, including
public lectures, interdisciplinary service programs, conferences and research,
and internship funding and support. Kenneth Yalowitz, director of the Dickey
Center and former U.S. ambassador to Belarus and Georgia, says, "We serve
three main audiences: students, faculty, and the community, and I think our
programs have done a great deal to educate and inform and cause individuals to
be active and involved in the great issues outside Hanover and the United
States."
Beyond the Center's support of public education initiatives and scholarly
research, the organization plays an active role in student life. Students are
given "the opportunity to meet with the speakers brought by the Center and
explore big issues in depth. Each year, we send more than 50 students abroad to
internships and research. Invariably, these experiences are life-changing. What
they learn influences them profoundly," says Yalowitz. "Students tell
us all the time that they want to make a difference and our activities and
programs give them an opportunity to make that difference."
Current and upcoming programming by the Center includes work with the
Center's Arctic Institutes,
which this year marks International Polar Year with a variety of programming,
including the Arctic Science Summit Week in March. Yalowitz also touts the
Dartmouth Global
Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary, multifaceted effort to improve
global health in collaboration with the professional schools. Nearing
completion is an International Studies Certificate, available as a major
modification, which would provide an overview of globalization and the
challenges it presents.
He also cites the new Dickey Center Visiting Fellows program, which brings
scholars, postdoctoral researchers, and professionals in the field to campus
for two or three terms to work with students and faculty and which is currently
hosting its first fellow, Marianne Stenbaek, professor of cultural studies at
McGill University. Stenbaek, who is working with the Dickey Institute of Arctic
Studies during her appointment, specializes in native communications in the
circumpolar regions. Jonathon Moore '54, former U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, and currently an associate at the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government, will be a Dickey Visiting Fellow throughout the
Winter and Spring terms of 2007. Moore specializes in specializes in
post-conflict reconstruction and nation building.
Yalowitz, who was appointed director in 2003, says he inherited "a very
well-functioning, well-organized and well-developed center. I have had the
opportunity to build on the work of my predecessors to develop new initiatives,
expand our programs and be the beneficiary of our beautiful new building. We
are always open to new ideas and constantly evaluating our activities and
priorities. If new areas of interest develop, we're always prepared to adjust
and move in new directions."
The Center's anniversary is being celebrated with a series of public events,
beginning with the Feb.1 keynote lecture by Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime
minister of Norway and director-general of the World Health Organization. Brundtland was
both the youngest person and the first woman to serve as Norwegian Prime
Minister. "Her career has been dedicated to better global health and she
is a wonderful representative of what the Dickey Center does and is trying to
do in the future," says Yalowitz.
For a complete schedule of anniversary-related events, visit the Dickey
Center calendar.
By GENEVIEVE HAAS
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