A recently released three-year crime report compiled by the College's Department of Safety and Security details a dramatic increase in burglaries that occurred in College residence halls last year. The alarming rise in theft came as news to most students, however -- a result of minimal communication between Safety and Security and the student body. The College is required by federal law to release such a report every October, but it ought to go further and make weekly reports available to the Dartmouth community so that students might be aware of growing problems that could affect their personal well-being. Safety and Security needs to be held publicly accountable for whatever disciplinary actions officers take against students, and all this information should be available to those who seek it. In past years, Safety and Security has posted regular BlitzMail bulletins that served just this purpose, but for some reason these bulletins are no longer to be found. We believe that Safety and Security must take a more proactive role in communicating possible threats -- as well its own actions -- to students directly. A yearly report -- the bare minimum -- is not enough.
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Along with the entire Dartmouth community, we at The Dartmouth view Thursday's announcement of an 18.6 gain in the College endowment as great news. The poor economy, exacerbated by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, caused the endowment to contract in 2002 and post only anemic growth last year. Now that Dartmouth's financial position is strong again, we should plan to ensure that future economic downturns will not threaten its scholastic mission. The College must exercise caution and prevent the school from falling into financial peril once again.
Two years ago, College administrators threw up their hands and blamed the swim team debacle, the plan to cut library funding and the elimination of the human biology program on poor financial straits. What they failed to explain was how exactly they found the money to create a brand-new deanship, and yet could not find enough to support a varsity sport or protect Sanborn Library. We joined a chorus of students and alumni in strongly protesting such a wanton expansion of administrative bureaucracy in a time of fiscal crisis.
Alumni support, student uproar and the tireless efforts of campus leaders prevented many of these cutbacks from actually taking place. We believe that Dartmouth's administrators and trustees learned from this experience that they could not ride roughshod over the interests of the student body, and we have been encouraged by the more cooperative tone they have adopted since.
As a next step, Dartmouth officials ought to make realistic plans to ensure that we can avert funding battles in the future. Provided the decision-makers do not overburden our balance sheet with more unnecessary deans, the present endowment and a moderate rate of growth should be sufficient to support the College far into the future.
