Class of 1983

Greetings from your guest columnist this issue, Robin Henning Rocchi.

Bruce Danziger began his term as Alumni Council president in July. He shares the following information with the class: “Needless to say, the issues facing Dartmouth and other colleges and universities are myriad and that was already the case before the hostility toward elite institutions coming from Washington, D.C. The primary role of the Alumni Council is to synthesize alumni opinion on these and other subjects and present it to senior leadership and make sure our constituents have a good understanding of what is going on at Dartmouth and why. Additionally, as a council we need to do whatever we can to urge the College to communicate candidly and frequently with alumni so we all can expand that understanding of what is informing the College’s actions in dealing with these many challenges. Our class is very well represented on the Alumni Council this year! Joe Dempsey was elected to the nominating and alumni trustee search committee in May. Class rep Mike Hjerpe has set a new (very high) standard for how to communicate with constituents. And Laura Stein is one of only six at-large representatives. Please feel free to reach out to any of us with suggestions, concerns, or questions relating to the College or the council.”

Dr. Lorien Pratt led a fascinating talk to demystify artificial intelligence (AI) for classmates at a well-attended ’83 discussion on Zoom in June. She is one of the pioneers in the AI field, having invented two subfields of AI: transfer learning and decision intelligence. Lorien is the cofounder and chief scientist at Quantellia, is the author of three books on the topic, and has been recognized by the Women Innovators and Inventors Project. Did you know that the term “artificial intelligence” was coined at a conference at Dartmouth in 1956? A recording of Lorien’s talk can be found on our class website.

N.Y.C. host extraordinaire David Ellis transported guests back to the 1970s with a fabulous bash at his new West Village, New York, apartment in May. A dozen classmates plus spouses ditched the present to relive their teenage years while enjoying cocktails and dinner, battling it out in Twister, and testing their knowledge in a 1970s trivia showdown. The atmosphere was set with incense, lava lamps, and a nostalgic playlist. They capped off the evening with a late-night dance floor takeover at a local disco. What a memorable retro celebration!

—Shanta Sullivan, 1541 North Sierra Bonita Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; shantaesullivan@gmail.com; Wendy Nelson Kauffman, 101 Four Mile Road, West Hartford, CT 06107; wnelsonkauffman@gmail.com