<p>The ‘official Dartmouth’ that many alums oppose is basically the current administration and their lapdogs. Basically, the accusation is that the Dartmouth administration has sold out Dartmouth and its traditions trying to make a second-rate Harvard. Dartmouth is, by far, the best liberal arts university in the country, laden with rich tradition, yet many in the administration can’t seem to appreciate this.</p>
<p>As far as reducing the quality of the experience, one needs to look to things like the SLI, which added layers of unnecessary bureaucracy onto the student experience, a broad distrust of many Dartmouth traditions (see: rushing the field, the Princeton hockey game, etc.). They have also become increasingly draconian regarding discipline and disciplinary procedures (see: COS, alcohol policy, etc.).</p>
<p>For reducing the quality of education, one needs to look at their faculty hiring. They’ve been willing to let some high-quality faculty leave (see: Prof. Press, though thankfully they overcame that stubbornness; Prof. Stam) because they haven’t matched offers of other universities. Their hiring also seems to be much more oriented toward research rather than teaching. Even fifteen years ago, there was always a place for an outstanding teacher at Dartmouth whose research was perhaps a bit subpar. I’m not sure if you could say that today.</p>