Following his April 9 open letter criticizing the College's recent budgetary decisions, anthropology professor Hoyt Alverson has written a second letter on the topic, which he released on Wednesday. Alverson's second letter was a reply to an April 15 statement from Provost Barry Scherr and vice president for finance and administration Adam Keller addressing Alverson's original criticism.
Alverson criticized the College in his first letter for spending on projects that he believes are peripheral to Dartmouth's academic mission. The letter highlighted changes in Dartmouth's operating budget from the 2004 to the 2008 fiscal years and identified "overgrowth" in administrative services and institutional services.
In their response, titled "Re: Financial Analysis," Keller and Scherr criticized Alverson for overemphasizing growth in spending on facilities. Alverson cited the same data multiple times under different headings, used incorrect figures in his "scholarship/fellowships" discussion and did not take into account reclassifications of financial information as a result of a new accounting system, according to Keller and Scherr.
"Their point about citing cost figures multiple times is just false," Alverson said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "What I was doing was citing different budget lines intersecting with different administrative units to try to figure out which budget categories are contributing the most to the overall growth."
Alverson admitted he mistakenly used incorrect figures in his "scholarship/fellowship" section, but said he thought he was comparing similar information.
He argued, however, that this mistake further proves his point -- he said he does not believe one should have to be a "detective" to decipher the data.
"This should be plain public information," he said. "Well presented, simply presented, so everyone can see it and make up their own minds and chime in if they have some ideas."
In their letter, Keller and Scherr also responded to Alverson's analysis of the College's growth in expenses between the 2004 and 2008 fiscal years.
"[Alverson] also appears to conclude that this growth, associated with a $1.3 billion campaign, was not warranted, and with that we disagree," the letter states. "Expenses have grown -- because the College has made specific and deliberate investments in the quality of Dartmouth."
In his Wednesday letter, Alverson emphasized that more financial information should be shared so that more of the Dartmouth community can be involved in the budgetary process.
"If people don't have lots of facts, they don't know how to ask good questions," Alverson said.
As in his first letter, Alverson said he hopes the College will begin rethinking investment and budgetary philosophies in light of recent market activity.
"I do hope that Dartmouth has both the peripheral vision to contemplate and openly debate the wisdom of this kind of learning and thinking anew as a collective and community-wide exercise even as it remains 'clearly focused on the future,'" he said in his letter, quoting from Scherr and Keller's statement.
Alverson added that he wants exchange between the administration and other members of the community to occur on a regular basis.
"I don't think you run a place like this on a basis of surprises," he said.
Alverson said he penned both letters because of the economic recession and the appointment of President-elect Jim Yong Kim.
"I'm doing this with the view not to change the minds of people who have been here 10 or 20 years, but with the view to send a signal, a message to the new administration," he said. "I don't think Keller and Scherr would take the time to write a memo like that if they weren't a little hot and bothered."
Alverson also explained that he engaged in the budgetary analysis because he believed no one else had, and because he is retiring in two years.
"I have the luxury of being able to do this with impunity," he said. "No one is going to fire me. I can't be punished for this, and I think there are better qualified arenas and better qualified people then me, but where are they?"
All three letters were scheduled to be discussed at the faculty Committee on Priorities meeting on April 27, but were not because of "other business that had been scheduled much earlier," according to an e-mail from committee chair and anthropology professor Deborah Nichols.
Nichols did not respond to requests for further comment by press time.
Scherr and Keller could not be reached for comment by press time.
