<p>Swarthmore announced Dean Gross' replacement today in a press release:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.swarthmore.edu/x4208.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.swarthmore.edu/x4208.xml</a></p>
<p>The new Dean is Jim Larimore. He has been Dean of the College at Dartmouth since 1999. Before that, he was at Stanford for 14 years in various roles including assistant to the Provost, Assistant Dean, Acting Dean of Students, etc.</p>
<p>Will he have completed his PhD at Stanford by August? How will it work? He needs to be on campus, I guess to be Dean of Students ....just wondering as a parent.</p>
<p>Somehow he has managed to start the PhD while working at Darthmouth, so I'm sure it will work out. I saw him speak a bit at Swat, and He was one of my two favorites of the ones that came (the Lafayette dean being the other).</p>
<p>Thanks. Glad you like him. My son is a huge fan of Dean Gross, so I can't help feel a little sad....</p>
<p>Agreed. :(</p>
<p>It had to happen eventually, however, and I think the committee made a fairly good choice.</p>
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I think the committee made a fairly good choice.
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<p>Based purely on his resume, I don't know how Swarthmore got him. Generally, academic administrators move from schools the size of Swarthmore to places such as Dartmouth and Stanford. For example, Swat's most infamous Admisssions Dean moved to Princeton, where his discriminatory practices set a tone for two decades. A much more favorably-remembered admissions dean, Robin Mamlet, moved to Stanford (and was replaced at Swat by Jim Bock).</p>
<p>Larimore must really love something about Swarthmore, because it's a lateral move from a bigger school. My guess is that Swarthmore is tickled that he threw his hat in the ring.</p>
<p>When he came to Swat, he mentioned that he has two young children, and that he partially liked Swarthmore because the town (area?) supposedly has good schools (though from my classroom observation, I strongly disagree).</p>
<p>Arador,</p>
<p>I only could judge second hand from the comments in the Daily Gazette and Phoenix, but the guy from Lafayette seemed like a good candidate to me, too.</p>
<p>I'm glad to hear that you thought Larimore was a good candidate. His twenty some years of experience at Stanford and Dartmouth should let him bring a fresh perspective to Swarthmore, which should be a positive thing. </p>
<p>I doubt it will take him long to get in synch with Swat's distinctive culture. You students won't let him stray too far afield. To me, the participation of the students in the selection process, and the general confidence that the administration will make a good choice, is what Swat's governance is all about.</p>
<p>Indeed. And it went incredibly smoothly compared to the student government fiasco. The unconstitutional fiasco.</p>
<p>Any idea where Dean Gross will be going? Is he retiring?</p>
<p>Yes, he is retiring.</p>
<p>ID I think your remark that the Dean of Admissions at Pton who came from Swat was unfairly flamed by your post that his "discriminatory practices set a tone for two decades." In fact, Karabel's book The Chosen (BTW a great read) documents the discriminatory practices at H, Y and P during the last 100 years and most of the egregious sins occurred before Hargadon's administration at P. In fact, P at 9.6% freshmen class being African American (for example) is the highest in the Ivys and a goal for Swat to shoot for. Moreover, under Hargadon's watch P dropped all loans as part of their financial aid package and that single act probably was the greatest outreach for economic diversity in recent history in American higher education. Yes, he was criticized (a requirement of his personal sign off on each applicant and a scandal involving sneak peaks on Y's admission list on the Internet are the ones most commonly cited) but discrimination is not a fair or accurate criticism of his reign.</p>
<p>Discrimination is certainly a fair characterization of Hargadon's years at Swarthmore -- most evident from examining his role in "The Crisis" of 1969, richly detailed in "Swarthmore College: An Informal History" and in the 1969 Life Magazine article:</p>
<p>and in the fascinating Bulletin article by Clinton Etheridge who led the black students takeover of Hargadon's admissions office.</p>
<p>Swarthmore's admissions mindset changed radically with his departure in the wake of "The Crisis". His public release of the high school academic stats of the black students at Swarthmore, given the small numbers making identification of individuals' stats easy, was the trigger for "The Crisis -- along with the fact that the number of African American students in the freshman class fell by 50% in 1968.</p>
<p>Hargadon presents a convenient rationalization for the decline of Jewish enrollment and the low acceptance rates for Asian Americans during his years at the Princeton. However, he conveniently forgets that Princeton went years without accepting a single student from Stuyvesant High in NYC -- one of the country's top public magnet schools that, alas, had disproportionately high Jewish and ethnic enrollment.</p>
<p>I agree that Princeton has undergone a major transformation, for the better, in its admissions policies. Along with Amherst, I would say these two schools have probably changed the most in the last 15 years. It's hard to say whether the changes at Princeton occured because of Hargadon's policies or in spite of them. For example, his dilution of the Academic 1 rating had the effect of minimizing the application strength of Asian American and Jewish applicants. Likewise, he was known for focusing recruiting efforts on affluent suburban high schools.</p>
<p>As for Princeton's 9.6% black freshman class, I would point out that Swarthmore's high point has been 12% black enrollment in the freshman class (fall 1998), that 14% of the acceptances this year were mailed to Af-Am students, and that 52% of Swarthmore's acceptances this year went to non-white or international students.</p>
<p>I can't speak to Hargadon's years at Swat but I think his defense to Karabel above is pretty valid. The President of P during much of Hargadon's admin was Jewish and I don't think any irregularities occurred given that its outreach programs consistently documented increased minorities over his 15 year tenure. Inevitably a HS or individual will cry discrimination especially when you only admit 10% (6% regular round) but looking at the forest not a tree shows substantial progress. Again, under Hargadon loans were abolished as part of the economic diversity outreach. Simply put, follow the money is the best way to get to the truth about any institutions values!
Finally, the 2010 class at P is 54% either non-white or international.</p>
<p>I mistated a fact. </p>
<p>Swarthmore's accepted class for 2010 is 52% non-white US citizens. I have not seen a hard stat on international acceptances, but it is typically another 5% to 7% on top of that.</p>
<p>I'll let the Princeton folk debate Hargadon's record there. It is very clear that his departure from Swarthmore following "The Crisis" of 1969 coincided with a sea change in minority admissions and recruitment at the school that produced rapid gains over the following 10 years and played a signficant role in shaping the nature of Swarthmore today, in terms of the student body, the faculty, the support structures, and the campus climate.</p>
<p>Arador:</p>
<p>My Swattie came up for air during paper writing today and called. She said that, although none of the four Dean candidates measured up to Dean Gross' lofty standard, Jim Larimore was her favorite. She said that he was laid back and seemed like a straight shooter in discussions with students.</p>
<p>She also got the strong impression that he would be very happy to trade Dartmouth's campus culture for Swarthmore's. She got that impression from his responses to questions about alcohol issues.</p>
<p>She fessed up that, while the pizza was a bonus, she enjoyed the process of interacting with the four potential new deans and having a voice in the process. I've got to think it is very beneficial to Larimore to have had the opportunity to interact with a cross-section of students, too. That will surely shape his thinking as arrives on campus.</p>
<p>ID: I have the full stats.</p>
<p>Of those admitted, 8% were Americans Abroad or International students. So...that means ~72 international students were admitted.</p>
<p>That means a full 60% of the admitted class is non-white or international.</p>