On the eve of the recent Board of Trustees' meeting, budget cut debates split the Dartmouth campus into a variety of angry factions and ad hoc coalitions, with the majority of the uproar focused on the prospect of layoffs. Concerned community members most notably members of the Service Employees International Union Local 560, faculty who wrote an open letter to College President Jim Yong Kim and the group Students Stand with Staff gathered on the Green to voice their demand that the administration "put people first" ("Layoff fears spark candlelight vigil," Feb. 5). When budget cuts were announced days later, it appeared that the Board had listened to the groups' concerns and limited layoffs to a reasonably small segment of the College. Yet Students Stand with Staff and other groups continue to challenge the changes that were much less extensive than what the community originally expected.
Kim presented a plan that yields $5 million in savings by cutting approximately 80 staff positions in two rounds of layoffs between now and April only 20 more employees than in the first round of cuts one year ago ("College budget plan results in 60 layoffs," Feb. 10, 2009). Considering the massive deficit that the College faces and the academic priorities Kim has outlined, the Board could have justified cutting much more than $5 million in layoffs. Doubling the layoffs would have been more in line with Harvard's 275 employee firings and Students Stand with Staff's predictions ("Kim's new plan will maintain academics," Feb. 9). Yet Kim and the Board did not merely cut more jobs and instead focused on administrative restructuring, asset sales and program reductions. Additionally, the first round of layoffs has not simply been concentrated among the lowest-paid staffers, but has included mid- and upper-level administrators in several departments ("Spears initiates structural changes," Feb. 12).
Unfortunately, opposition groups continue to argue against layoffs and propose impractical solutions for the future. Students Stand with Staff co-founder Eric Schildge '10 still unproductively contends that the College has not made the case that "layoffs were truly necessary" ("Budget splits student response," Feb. 10). He and other group members have also proposed that the College empower an organization composed of students, faculty and staff to oversee and recommend investment priorities for the endowment. Since the College's endowment has seen overall success, a drastic and impulsive change in the endowment's management helps no one, and the committee would not likely have a comparable financial background to that of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees, which consists of many professionals in the investment field.
With equitable cuts already announced, it is time for sympathetic faculty and students to focus attention on the work there is to be done to assist fired workers. After avoiding excessive layoffs, Kim, acting Provost and Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt, and Senior Vice President Steven Kadish donated a combined $50,000 to a "hardship fund" that will ease the pain of the newly-unemployed. As the faculty letter suggested, "those with the highest salaries should be asked to take the most significant cuts," thus the onus falls on senior faculty, coaches and administrators. If the Dartmouth community still wants to "Stand with Staff," they should do so not by railing against the administration, but by putting their money where their mouth is.
