Jim Yong Kim offered his preliminary views on several of the College's prominent campus issues in an interview with The Dartmouth prior to the announcement of his selection as Dartmouth's 17th president.
Budget and Fundraising
Kim said he has followed the College's financial situation closely since November 2008, and generally agrees with how the recent budget cuts have been made. Although his knowledge about Dartmouth's financial situation is limited given the confidentiality surrounding that process, Kim said he was optimistic about how the College will weather the nation's current economic crisis.
"I think there's a way for us to take advantage of this climate where everyone is just thinking about cutbacks and low-downs and scaling back on what they are going to do," he said.
Kim, who has spent 25 years fundraising for non-governmental organizations, said the "incredible involvement of alumni" at the College should make fundraising for Dartmouth an easier task than raising money for those organizations, which often lack a "natural constituency."
Research and Faculty
Kim said he was eager to work with Dartmouth's entire faculty, including faculty members at the College, Dartmouth Medical School, the Tuck School of Business and the Thayer School of Engineering, and aims to support faculty in the classroom, as well as in research.
"There is no question that having a faculty who are active researchers is a critical part of undergraduate education," Kim said, adding later, "Dartmouth faculty do things that other institutions don't think are possible, which is to reward and incentivize both teaching and research at the highest level. It is difficult to find people who are really committed and good at doing both, and Dartmouth has done it better than any other institution I know of, so I think research is really important."
Kim also stressed the role research plays in enhancing students' education.
"I don't want to argue with my faculty about content and curriculum -- they're the experts," he said. "My job is trying to find ways of supporting them in delivering the content and curriculum in the most innovative way."
Dartmouth Medical School
Kim said he is at ease in a medical school setting, and will feel comfortable "stepping in and helping in whatever way" at Dartmouth Medical School. Kim said he also wants to ensure that basic science learning "grows and flourishes" at DMS.
Kim emphasized that, despite his strong personal ties to medicine, he will serve as president of the entire institution -- not only of Dartmouth's medical school.
Kim said he will participate in the search for a new DMS dean and looks forward "to recruiting someone fantastic, whether from inside Dartmouth or from outside" to fill the position vacated by former Dean Stephen Spielberg, who abruptly vacated the post in January 2008.
The search to fill that position will not begin until the completion of a review of DMS by The Bard Group, a private consulting company. The review, which began in summer 2008, is expected to be completed during this academic year, College Provost Barry Scherr previously told The Dartmouth. William Green, former chair of microbiology and immunology at Dartmouth Medical School, has served as interim dean since Spielberg's departure, and will return to his previous post after a new dean is named.
During his time at Harvard University, Kim has participated in inter-disciplinary work with Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management and MIT's systems engineering division. Kim said he is excited to work with all three of Dartmouth's graduate schools to help them "to reach their highest aspirations."
Alumni Lawsuit
Kim said he is not familiar enough with the details of the alumni lawsuit to form an opinion on the legal matter.
"When it comes to a point when the most loyal alumni in the world are suing the college that they love so dearly, it's an unfortunate situation," he said.
As president, Kim said he will work to "get at the root of this conflict," although he said he does not yet know the causes.
Kim said it was likely "painful for the alumni to file a lawsuit against the school they love so much."
"We need to do all we can to understand at a very deep level what caused them to do this, and then my job is to try to prevent it from happening again," he said.
Greek Life
Although Kim was never a member of a fraternity during his undergraduate years at Brown University, he said he has "no particular bias against them or for them" and will approach the College's Greek system with an "open mind."
"Of course I want [Greek organizations] to be safe," Kim said. "Of course I want them to be institutions that actually enhance peoples' experience and don't detract from them."
Kim said he believes that Dartmouth's fraternities and sororities are "enduring institutions" that have shown an ability to withstand controversy and transform themselves throughout the College's history.
Kim said the people he knows who were involved in Greek life at their undergraduate institutions have described their involvement as "the highlight of their college experience" and said that it taught them social and management skills, teamwork and the value of service to others.
"There must be something of value that they are providing to the undergraduates, and I want to find out what that is," he added.
Gender Issues
Kim said he does not know enough about perceived gender inequality at the College to form an opinion about gender relations at Dartmouth. Although the College has achieved gender parity in terms of the number of enrolled students, Kim said he has read that some students describe the College as a "male-dominated place," citing, for example, the recent Senior Executive Committee elections, which saw the election of two women and 10 men.
"Certainly making women feel that being at Dartmouth is the greatest choice they've ever made, and to not feel that harassment and gender bias is part of their lives, that is going to be a high priority to me," he said.
Diversity
Given his Korean-American heritage, Kim said he recognizes the benefits of and need for a commitment to diversity at the College. Kim said he wants students of every gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation to feel that Dartmouth is a "great place to go to school."
"The number of foreign and students of color has gone up [at the College], but I'm concerned that the percentage of African Americans hasn't gone up, and I want to know why," Kim said.
Athletics
Himself an athlete and a sports fan, Kim said the high level of athletic participation among Dartmouth students is "fantastic," pointing to the College's 80-percent campus participation in varsity, club and intramural sports.
In high school, Kim played quarterback for his school's football team. The team lost every game during Kim's senior year, "putting the finishing touches" on the program's 56-game losing streak, he said.
Pointing to the Dartmouth football team's winless season in 2008, Kim said he looks forward to "doing everything I can in helping the Dartmouth College men's football team win the Ivies again," noting that Dartmouth athletics had once seen "great days."
Kim emphasized, however, that a successful athletics program goes well beyond football.
"I played volleyball in college," he said. "I look forward to playing with the women's volleyball team."
Athletic teams are critical to the undergraduate learning experience, Kim said, despite the financial challenges they sometimes pose.
Admissions
Kim said that he hopes students both domestically and internationally view Dartmouth as an ideal place to go to college, citing research that found that students perform better academically in natural settings than they do in urban areas.
"I plan to go out and make a very vigorous argument that, based on science, Dartmouth has all the elements that you would ideally want in the best possible undergraduate environment," he said.
