Hanover
Dartmouth President Phil Hanlon gave the news in a community-wide email on Monday, saying Dever, who took the role in 2014, planned to return to teaching and research on Nov. 22.
“In her time as provost, Carolyn has had a major impact on Dartmouth, elevating the academic profile of the institution as she led an effort to improve campus diversity and inclusivity — particularly on behalf of the faculty; championing academic initiatives; and recruiting deans and other key leaders,” Hanlon said in the email.
Dever was not available for an interview this week, a college spokesman said.
“I take pride in focusing Dartmouth on the hard work of advancing diversity and inclusion on campus,” she said in the announcement. “This is a lifelong commitment for me and I will continue this vital work at Dartmouth and beyond.”
A scholar of gender studies and 19th-century British literature, Dever joined Dartmouth’s administration in July 2014 after serving as dean of the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University.
She took over as Dartmouth provost for Martin Wybourne, a physics professor who had been interim provost since July 2012, when former Provost Carol Folt stepped up to interim president to replace Jim Yong Kim, who left to become head of the World Bank.
For a few influential Dartmouth administrators, a provost job has served as a stepping stone for academic leadership. Folt later became chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Hanlon, a 1977 Dartmouth graduate, returned to lead his school after holding the provost job at the University of Michigan.
Dever was a tenured faculty member at New York University before moving to Vanderbilt in 1999.
As Dartmouth’s second-ranking administrator, she oversaw its academic programs and budget planning.
Nonprofit tax filings indicate that Dever earned about $640,000 in the 2014 calendar year, the same year she joined Dartmouth.
College officials on Monday touted her leadership of the new undergraduate residential house system, in the Society of Fellows program, in minority faculty recruitment, in stabilizing the Geisel School of Medicine during its financial troubles, and in efforts to reduce sexual assault.
Thomas Luxon, a veteran professor of English, credited Dever for making such key hires as Lee Coffin, director of admissions; and Susanne Mehrer, whom Dartmouth lured from Cambridge University to serve as dean of libraries.
“She made some of the best appointments I’ve seen in a long time,” he said of Dever after hearing the announcement Monday. “Any provost builds a reputation by making good appointments.”
Speaking more generally of the college’s academic future, Luxon said he hoped that administrators would move away from what he called a “metrics-focused” approach that sought to boost Dartmouth’s place in outside rankings. In the 1990s, Dartmouth ranked seventh on the U.S. News list and first in undergraduate teaching, and since then has slipped to eleventh and second, respectively.
Instead, Luxon said, Dartmouth’s leaders should take account of what the school already does well — and then, he said, “we invest heavily in those things.”
“I know it sounds simple, but let the ratings take care of themselves,” he said. “We earned all those great ratings when we weren’t focusing on them.”
Recent polling by student newspaper The Dartmouth indicates that undergraduates believe the school’s strength lies in its undergraduate, liberal-arts focus.
Of 677 students surveyed this fall, 58 percent said they considered Dartmouth to be more a “liberal arts college” than a “research university,” and an additional 40 percent said it was both.
Luxon aligned more with the latter group, saying he rejected the idea that moves by Dartmouth to strengthen its research detracted from undergraduate teaching.
“We should have both,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a zero-sum game.”
Dever already holds an appointment in the Department of English but soon will return to full-time teaching and research, Monday’s announcement said. She is scheduled to teach a course called “Reading Jane Austen” this winter.
Her husband, Paul Young, is an associate professor of film and media studies who chairs his department at Dartmouth.
The search process for the next provost will begin soon, and an interim provost will be appointed in the next few weeks, Hanlon’s announcement said.
“The provost is a key position at Dartmouth charged with raising the institution’s academic profile,” spokeman Justin Anderson said in an email Monday. “An attractive candidate will need sterling academic credentials, vision, experience and leadership skills to guide and enhance Dartmouth’s academic enterprise.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.