Dean of First-Year Students Gail Zimmerman is among six employees to be laid off from the First-Year and Upperclass Dean's Offices as part of a new restructuring plan, according to College officials. The layoffs, most of which will become effective on April 10, are part of the College's efforts to reduce its budget by $47 million for the next fiscal year, Dean of the College Tom Crady said.
"My position as dean of first-year students has been eliminated," Zimmerman told The Dartmouth on Thursday, "And there've been other layoffs in this office as well."
About 40 percent of the First-Year Office staff has been laid off, Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman declined to comment on why her office saw such a high proportion of its staff laid off.
Zimmerman also declined to disclose the other positions in the First-Year Office that have been discontinued, saying that individuals who had been laid off had the right to make their own decisions about whether to make the news public.
Other members of the First-Year Office contacted by The Dartmouth declined to comment.
The Office of the Dean of the College, which oversees the First-Year Office, eliminated the positions because of broad funding cuts, Crady said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
"It is very difficult to trim budgets by $3.4 million without examining all areas and affecting current staffing," Crady said in the e-mail. "Our goal throughout has been to minimize the effect on the student experience, and to do our best to ensure students continue to have full access to the services the class deans provide."
A smaller budget for next year has forced the Office of the Dean of the College to "retool and redesign" how it delivers services to students and operates programs, Crady said. The layoffs are one part of this reassessment process.
The First-Year Office has grown since its founding in the 1920s to manage new responsibilities, Zimmerman said, but added that it has remained the same size since she arrived 10 years ago.
Zimmerman said she did not know if the First-Year Office will remain a separate entity, or whether it will be integrated into the Upperclass Deans Office.
Currently, the Upperclass Deans Office includes one dean of upperclass students and three assistant deans.
In comparison, the First-Year Office currently consists of five deans, including Zimmerman.
Zimmerman said she does not have any plans to return to the College in the future.
Although Zimmerman said she is exploring several employment opportunities, she said she does not know where she will work after leaving the College.
The First-Year Office is among several College departments that are restructuring and reducing their budgets in light of the economic downturn.
Other changes at the College, as previously reported by The Dartmouth, include the elimination of 30 to 35 course offerings and a partial restructuring of Dartmouth Dining Services.
