College President Jim Yong Kim will take Dartmouth's helm in the wake of some of the most drastic College budget cuts in recent history and in the face of an ongoing global economic crisis. His tenure will also follow a period of intense controversy within the College's alumni body a period that has seen two lawsuits brought against the College by alumni in the past two years.
The College's endowment plunged by $700 million 18 percent of the total endowment in the last two fiscal quarters of 2008. In response to the drop, the College announced in February that it would cut $35 million from the budget for the 2010 fiscal year. As part of this budget-reconciliation plan, the College laid off 60 staff members and also implemented a hiring freeze.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Kim said that tackling the College's budget problems and handling any further financial woes will be one of his main priorities as president.
"My greatest worry is that the financial situation in the world will get worse and our financial situation will get worse," he said. "It may force us to think about work reductions again."
In May, the College announced plans to sell $400 million in bonds in order to pay for campus construction projects and to fund a cash reserve.
Fundraising for the Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience the College's capital campaign, launched in 2004 was also slowed by the economic downturn. The campaign, which aimed to raise $1.3 billion by June 2009, has now reached nearly 95 percent of its goal. The College recently received a donation of $50 million the largest donation in College history to the Campaign from an anonymous donor to fund the construction of the Visual Arts Center.
College Provost Barry Scherr said that Kim will need to be instantly engaged with the budget and financial issues upon his start as president, but added that he does not believe Kim will allow the College's financial woes to distract him from taking actions on other campus issues.
"He's going to have to pay a lot of attention to the budget right from the very start," Scherr said. "He may have to be a little more imaginative, but I suspect there will be a number of initiatives he will put forward despite the budget climate."
Kim will also take office in the wake of a period of tumultuous relations between the College and alumni critics. The Association of Alumni brought a lawsuit against the College in October 2007, after the College announced that it would add five new Board-selected trustees to the College's Board, ending parity between alumni-elected and charter trustees on the Board that the Association claimed had been guaranteed in an 1891 agreement.
The lawsuit was dismissed in June 2008 after alumni elected individuals opposed to the suit to the Association's executive board. Legal action on the issue has seen been resumed by a group of alumni separate from the Association and has yet to be resolved.
In November 2008, the Association proposed an amendment to its constitution that outlined a switch from the approval voting process to a one-person, one-vote system for trustee elections and instituted a limit the number of Alumni Council-nominated candidates from three to one or two in those elections. The amendment passed with 82 percent of the vote in May 2009.
In April, the Board voted not to reelect Trustee Todd Zywicki '88 for a second term the first time in recent history that such reelection has not been routine. Zywicki, who was first elected as a petition candidate to the Board, has frequently spoken out against College policies and was reprimanded by the Board in January 2008 after he called former College President James Freedman "truly evil" and made other controversial statements in an Oct. 27, 2007 address at the John William Pope Center, a higher education think tank.
Trustee T.J. Rodgers '70 has said he will no longer participate in evaluations of sitting trustees up for reelection in protest of the manner in which he says the Board of Trustees made its decision not to reelect Zywicki. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Rodgers described the proceedings leading up to Board's decision as a "kangaroo court." Other trustees have declined to discuss the reelection proceedings, citing Board confidentiality.
Rick Routhier '73 Tu '76, former chairman of the Alumni Council's nominating committee, said he believes relations between the College and its alumni have improved in recent years.
"Recently the College and Board have done a terrific job of communicating their thinking during an incredibly difficult time," Routhier said.
John Daukas '84, president of the Alumni Council, agreed.
"There still is a lawsuit out there, but I think we are in a much better place than we have been with our alumni," he said. "We have done a much better job of communicating with alumni what is going on campus and being more open."
Routhier said that to avoid animosity and additional lawsuits, the College and Kim's administration will need to adopt the communication style used by Wright and the Board of Trustees.
"Kim should clearly explain what he's thinking to the alumni so that they can get behind that vision and participate in it if he wants to maintain the level of enthusiasm that most alumni have about his selection," he added.
Routhier said that he thinks Wright's recent efforts at transparency have set the stage for "calmer" discussion to take place among alumni.
Some alumni, however, maintain that it will take more than increased communication for Kim to improve relations between Dartmouth's administration and alumni. Frank Gado '58, a former member of the Association's executive committee and frequent critic of the Wright administration, said that he has communicated with "hundreds" of alumni who are frustrated with fundamental decisions that Dartmouth's administration has made.
"Many have turned their backs on Dartmouth," Gado said. "These are people who are really passionate about the school but they've been put off by the course their alma mater is taking."
Kim said that he hopes to communicate directly with alumni during the first months of his tenure and "convince them there is no need to continue to sue the College."
Dartmouth athletics are also in a state of flux on the eve of Kim's presidency, as athletic director Josie Harper, who announced her retirement in January, will officially step down from her position on Wednesday. The position of athletic director will be temporary filled by interim director Robert Ceplikas '78 until a final decision about Harper's replacement is made next year.
While Dartmouth fielded many championship teams in the last year including men's baseball, women's basketball and women's figure skating and improvement was seen in the record of men's basketball and hockey teams, men's football has repeatedly finished last or close to last in the Ivy League in recent years. The team finished the 2008 season in last place in both scoring and total offense in the Ivy League, and posted their first win-less season in 125 years.
