Friday's Verbum Ultimum addressed some campus groups' responses to the recent budget cuts. What do you think the role of students, faculty and other community members should be at this time?
College President Jim Yong Kim, acting Provost and Dean of the College Carol Folt and Senior Vice President Steven Kadish displayed compassionate leadership by donating a percentage of their salaries to create the Hardship Fund. This is a novel gesture and shows the extent to which they have gone to minimize layoffs. Anybody still railing against them is naive of fiscal responsibility. Now, the honorable thing to do is to suggest creative ways of cutting waste without impacting quality and output, not student involvement in endowment investments.Nana Amoah '11
All members of the Dartmouth community have a right to express their opinion regarding the budget cuts, regardless of whether other people think these opinions are reasonable or not. That said, it would still be wiser to aim for more realistic goals like increasing the transparency of the research that goes into the budget cuts, rather than vying to have unqualified students participate in endowment decisions.Natalie Colaneri '12
Students Stand with Staff and other groups with similar missions must accept the fact that Kim has made his decision regarding layoffs. For these groups, now is not the time to propose more illogical solutions that counter the one Kim has already chosen to implement. Rather, now is the time for them to prove that they actually care for these fired men and women, instead of some lofty philosophy.Jasper Hicks '12
Interested stakeholders should continue doing what they've been doing. The more attention and energy that is focused on this issue, the more likely we are to come to a better result.Raza Rasheed '12Students, faculty and other community members should focus on contributing new ideas. We need to set aside complaints about process and focus on substance. The administration's process is fixed, but they seem to be taking input from all over campus. Let's hold up our end of the bargain by having something to say.Leonard Lewis '10
Given the present budget situation, there really isn't much we can do other than voice our discontent with the cuts we don't like. Even if we have another fundraising miracle and match the $200,000 raised for Haiti, that amount of money can only pay the salaries of a tiny fraction of the people being laid off. Although further protests might not get the trustees to change their decision, the gesture will at least show that we're not sheep and are not passively accepting whatever is handed to us.Ethan Wang '13
The best approach? Student groups upset about layoffs should rally alumni to donate more money to Dartmouth. Everyone wins.Zachary Gottlieb '10
The administration and the Board of Trustees have done an exceptional job mitigating job losses at the College. Frankly, the students who continue to bemoan layoffs are as misguided as Johnny Weir's costume designer. They simply do not understand the economic crisis facing the College.Josh Kornberg '13
In the wake of the alcohol scandal, Dartmouth students should be looking for a way to improve our relations with the community. Creating a fund for laid off employees was the perfect way to improve our image amongst Hanover-area residents and prove that we are compassionate and considerate neighbors. Kim and the Board of Trustees have managed to craft a budget that saves many more jobs than was expected; it is time that we students stepped up and did our part.Brendan Woods '13
