Wow, it really has been three weeks since classes began.
It seems like just this morning that Professor Monika Otter gave my Humanities 1 class our introductory lecture on tactful debate.
"And when someone tells an idea," she said, "Entertain it for a moment. Even if it sounds crazy to you, I want you to look at that idea for a moment and see where it goes."
Ironically, I almost ignored Otter's idea, because, to me, it sounded crazy. Why should I trouble myself with ludicrous thoughts? But, in the spirit of the professor's advice, I took a moment to look back at the question and rephrase my objection "If I don't understand something, why should I bother learning about it?"
Now my thought was the crazy one, and Professor Otter's point was made.
This concept of entertaining the bizarre idea has been on my mind a lot lately. Suddenly, everywhere I go I see people brushing off foreign concepts or rushing to shoot down new methodologies. "That's a terrible idea." "Don't you know my way's better?" "Where are they keeping the chimp who came up with that?"
Actually, the prejudice against new and zany ideas is pretty heated, and nowhere is this more glaring than in The Dartmouth Opinion page's coverage of College President Jim Yong Kim.
Poor President Kim just can't get a break with the editorial board of The Dartmouth these days. In a recent Verbum Ultimum "Let's Try This Again" (Sept. 25), The Dartmouth's board roundly criticized the Kim administration for delaying alcohol policy changes, calling the postponement insanity. This criticism was heavily echoed by members of the Opinion staff in the "Short Answer" (Sept. 28) the following Monday, and was even referenced as an "unsettling setback" in that following Friday's Verbum, "To Serve (and Protect)" (Oct. 2). Virtually every column on the Opinion page these days has some piece of advice for Kim everything from accelerating keg policy reform to dodging the limelight a bit. Clearly, these are issues we feel strongly about, as we should but despite our passion, we have to consider that Kim might actually know what he's doing.
Kim has been involved with crazy schemes for decades. Partners In Health, widespread multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, the "3 by 5 Initiative," every one of these projects looked impossible at first and then, before the world had finished shouting "Lunatic!" it was all over. I'm not trying to sing our College president's praises there are many who know that tune better than I do but I do want to point out that we aren't being led by a moron. Kim is a pragmatic visionary he knows what he wants to do, and he knows how he's going to do it.
This much is obvious. Everyone realizes that Kim is a visionary that's why we brought him here, to take us somewhere. But the change of direction seems to have unsettled many. There are problems with our campus that we want solved, and the Kim administration's disruption of those solutions has met with indignation from the press.
Is the Kim administration justified in abandoning the old projects? In one sense, it's never good to abandon a worthwhile effort. On the other hand, Kim is almost obligated to focus on his own agenda if we'd wanted a different set of priorities, we should have found a different president.
Naturally, there are limits, and we should never blindly follow the administration on a route we don't believe in. However, we shouldn't pass judgment on policies before they're even enacted. If an administrative decision has a con, it probably has a pro. Can we really condemn the decision before we've seen both sides?
Again, there are limits. We can only wait for results for a certain length of time before we need to make a decision. But honestly, the Kim administration is only a few months old, whereas Kim's vision one of Dartmouth at the head of a new age in undergraduate education and global problem-solving may take decades to realize. We shouldn't abandon the little things we hope for now, but neither should we stifle the administration before it has a chance to develop its method. Perhaps, for now, we should let go of our residual attachments to past solutions. Perhaps we should postpone judgment until we have a clearer picture. For a moment at least, let's all entertain Kim's vision, if only to see where it goes.