The College is working to implement a series of initiatives known as "X-Projects," which involve the creation of interdepartmental teams to evaluate administrative issues, including facilities management and College travel policies. The ultimate goal is to increase administrative efficiency and reduce costs, according to executive vice president for finance and administration Adam Keller.
"I think it could create some efficiencies on campus that will literally change budgets and what we use our dollars for," Keller said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "It creates a real culture on campus about change. We're willing to make changes in an organized, deliberate and aggressive way."
The X-Projects grew out of employee suggestions for cost-saving measures, Keller said. The President's Administrative Forum, a group of College managers and department administrators, identified 12 issues that the College could address using X-Projects and the resulting interdepartmental collaboration.
Four of the 12 issues have been selected for X-Projects currently in development, director of operations management Lisa Celone said.
The ongoing effort to replace BlitzMail is among those four, although the project was already underway before becoming an X-Project.
The College is also working to coordinate facilities management among several offices, including the Dartmouth Skiway, the Hanover Country Club and Morton Farm, in order to eliminate redundant work and improve communication using an X-Project, Celone said.
Dartmouth's travel services can also be made more efficient, she said, and will benefit from an X-Project review.
The College spends $15 to $16 million annually on travel, Keller said, most of which goes toward travel for fundraising, travel for athletic teams and admissions outreach to prospective students. Several departments and offices, including admissions, have begun to rely more heavily on virtual meetings and social media like Facebook as alternatives to travel, he added.
The X-Project on travel will alter College-wide travel operations and policies through a three-phase process, Celone said. As part of the recently completed first phase, the College replaced its primary travel provider with a less expensive company.
In the later phases, College administrators will reassess Dartmouth's travel spending policies -- whether it will issue reimbursements for specific expenses or limit the amount of expenses it will cover -- and how employees are reimbursed.
These changes may help save money and should also make the reimbursement system easier to use, Celone said.
The fourth project aims to shift more of the College's publishing and document distribution to digital formats, she said. By producing guidelines for when to use print versus digital documents, the College can use digital media more effectively and reduce overall print output.
Once users determine how to create digital records that can be archived effectively, Keller said, the project should reduce costs and improve communications, while making the College more sustainable.
Changing the College's academic calendar for Summer and Fall terms may be a future X-Project, Keller said.
The late start to the academic year makes it difficult for the College to hold some summer programs for non-Dartmouth students, while forcing students to return for exams after the Thanksgiving break.
Altering the term calendar might alleviate these issues and could also benefit College employees, he said. This project would have less of a focus on decreasing spending, but would still be cross-institutional.
Keller said he hopes to see more faculty and staff independently collaborating on proposals, now that a framework to guide such efforts has been created. Ideally, collaborative efforts will continue even after the economic situation improves, he said.
"If I said what I would like to see in 15 years, I'd like to see that there are always somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen projects which are going forward on campus," Keller said.
