Is Dartmouth a College or a University?"
For more than two centuries, that question has resonated through the Ivy League institution founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, leading college leaders, professors, alumni and students to reflect, debate and vehemently disagree. Even as Dartmouth has remained true to the "college" part of its name by emphasizing undergraduate instruction, its graduate programs in medicine, engineering, business and the arts and sciences have done increasingly important work.


In researching Healers, Inventors & Entrepreneurs, Jeffrey Good found that the "college or university?" question has become, in the words of current President Phil Hanlon, a "red herring." Rather than diminishing the quality of undergraduate education, Dartmouth's graduate programs have enhanced it by giving the college the ability to recruit and retain top teacher/scholars, to include undergraduates in sophisticated research and professional development, and to create a scholarly culture that is by any measure distinguished.


That history is populated by generations of healers, inventors and entrepreneurs, by distinguished scholars, bold presidents and innovative deans, and by benefactors without whose generosity the "small college" might have remained small - and of course by the most gifted of students. This Dartmouth story is anything but dull, in addition to inspiring narratives and sometimes bitter politics, there's also body snatching, midnight rendezvous and even a trip to the Folies Bergère in Paris. Little wonder that, in the famous words of Daniel Webster, "there are those who love it.