While recent faculty hiring expanded and internationalized a number of departments and programs, it did little to lessen the strain on many popular social science departments and several smaller programs.
Dartmouth hired 27 new professors, according to a compilation of figures from individual department chairs.
But Martin Dimitrov is the only of the 27 new professors who is teaching in the chronically overenrolled government department.
"If we don't hire new faculty then we will either have to take caps off overenrolled courses and give multiple choice tests instead of essays, or we would require fewer seminars or narrow the breadth of our courses," government department chair Anne Sa'adah said.
"Of course we have only so much office space, so it's not always easy to hire more," Sa'adah added.
The psychology and sociology departments also hired only one additional faculty member each.
Outside of the large social science departments, chairs of the film and television studies department and the office of speech said they would like to see more faculty members in their programs as well.
The film department has recently expanded from being an academic program, similar to Asian and Middle-Eastern studies. This transition has left the new department with bigger plans but limited means, film and television studies chair Mark Williams said.
"We are just about the smallest department on campus so we barely have the faculty to cover the fundamental film and television courses, not to mention less regular offerings like courses on foreign television," Williams said.
Williams expressed hope that the film department could hire more faculty in upcoming years as part of the College's new capital campaign, which was launched during the fall. The "Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience" features an increased investment in hiring more undergraduate faculty, with a goal of $736 million for faculty, facilities and equipment.
Some department chairs, however, were pleased with this year's faculty hiring. The Asian and Middle-Eastern studies program received a notable boost with the hiring of six AMES-affiliated professors. One of these, Suk-Young Kim, is the first professor to be hired directly by the program. Kim is a joint hire for AMES and the theater department.
Kim's broad interests embody the diverse nature of the AMES program. A South Korea native, Kim received her graduate degree in Russian literature and is currently working on a degree in Asian theater and film from Northwestern University.
"This was my dream job, and I was ready to kill anyone for it," Kim said. "AMES is quite multidisciplinary so I feel like I can really explore what I am interested in."
AMES chair Steve Ericson took the sudden growth of the AMES program as a very positive sign for its future.
"I was somewhat surprised to realize how many professors are affiliated with us, but it's been a real bumper crop this year," Ericson said. "This is going to help our program, which is fairly new, move forward and establish more of an identity."
Other new professors have also brought unique perspectives to the College. Ana Merino, a Spanish professor who hails from Spain, hopes to teach courses on Spanish and Hispanic culture, literature and comic books when she returns to Dartmouth for Summer term.
"Dartmouth is so proud of Dr. Seuss, so they should really acknowledge and study the next 50 years of underground, alternative and mainstream cartoons around the world," Merino said.
Merino, who is currently on the Spanish department's language study abroad program in Mexico, is an avid reader of current comic strips in The Dartmouth, as well, but thought it would be interesting if the characters in the strips could develop more and move away from stereotypes.
