Several alumni praised College President Jim Yong Kim's commitment to maintaining Dartmouth's academic standards and considerate approach to determining staff layoffs in the $100-million budget cut plan announced to the Dartmouth community on Monday. Kim's request for increased donations by the alumni body, however, elicited mixed reactions.
"I am really impressed that Kim is dealing with this fiscal crisis in a strategic way, in a humane way and that he is dedicated to maintaining excellence but also improving it," said Morton Kondracke '60, an unchallenged Alumni Council-nominated candidate for the Board of Trustees.
Kondracke added that he approves of Kim's commitment to "make the College better" through the budget cut process.
Several alumni said they support the elements of the budget plan that involve streamlining elements of the administration and behind-the-scenes, or "back-of-the-house," functions to preserve "front-of-the-house" operations including academics and athletics.
"I am 100 percent supportive of Kim's distinction [between back-of-the-house and front-of-the-house operations] and his desire to make the cuts to the back of the house," said Joe Asch '79, a petition candidate for the Board of Trustees. "The last thing we should be cutting is faculty and sports."
Moving forward with the budget changes, College administrators should look for a "long-term structural fix" that would diminish the College's operating costs and free up funds that could be invested in students, faculty and the Dartmouth experience, said John Replogle '88, the Alumni Council-nominated candidate for the Board Asch is challenging.
Multiple alumni contacted by The Dartmouth said they were pleased to see that no faculty positions or academic programs will be eliminated by the budget cuts.
"Kim is dedicated to keeping Dartmouth the very best institution of higher education there is for teaching of undergraduates," Kondracke said. "What is first in [Kim's] priority list is maintaining the academic excellence of the College, which I applaud."
In response to Kim's statement that academic programs would not be affected by the budget cuts, Frank Gado '58, a former member of the Association of Alumni Executive Board, said the curriculum and educational goals of the College should have been reexamined during the budget process.
Gado also criticized Kim's recent request for increased donations. In an e-mail to the Dartmouth alumni body, Kim asked for "help in increasing support of Dartmouth students through the Dartmouth College Fund," in addition to further donations to the College's three graduate schools. Kim also said his current appeal for donations is reminiscent of the calls made by Melvin Adams of the Class of 1871 for alumni to give after a fire burned down Dartmouth Hall in 1904.
Comparing the College's current need for alumni giving with that of 1904 is unjust, according to Gado and former trustee Todd Zywicki '88. The Board had parity between the number of alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees in 1904 which it does not today.
Since the Board does not consider alumni "equal partners in the governance of the College," asking alumni for a similar obligation to the one they had in 1904 "reeks of hypocrisy," Zywicki said.
But John Daukas, Jr. '84, chair of the alumni liaison committee for the Council, said parity on the Board is unrelated to the budget plan that Kim announced on Monday.
"[Parity] has not a darn thing to with any of the budget issues here," Daukas said. "It's a silly thing for someone to bring up."
Throughout the entire budget cut process, the trustees were impressed with the ability of Kim and College administrators to complete the cuts in a "professional" and "businesslike" manner, according to Daukas, who met with the Board Saturday.
Zywicki and Gado both noted that other underlying causes of the budget crisis that led to the cuts include poor College investment strategies and the mismanagement of the endowment by the Board's finance committee.
Both Alumni Council President Janine Avner '80 and John Mathias '69, president of the Association of Alumni, said that they support Kim's request for alumni giving to the College.
"I really like the call to action [Kim] issued to alumni," Mathias said. "He is right, it is time for us to step up and do everything we can to support the school financially. To the extent that he is looking for additional revenue, [it is] appropriate to call on alumni at this time."
The relatively limited scale of layoffs drew positive responses from several alumni who commended Kim's dedication to minimizing the number of dismissed employees. Thirty-eight College employees were terminated in the first of two layoff rounds, despite predictions by several members of the Dartmouth community that up to 200 staff members could be terminated.
"While I think that layoffs are always regretted and they have a significant impact not only on those laid off, but also on those who remain it feels to me like Kim has taken a very human and deeply considerate approach to it," Replogle said.
Both Replogle and Asch said they approved of the policy of using attrition and voluntary early-retirement incentives to make most of the staff reductions over the past two years.
"That's pretty good," Asch said of the 400 staff positions that have been eliminated over the past two years. "That's a decisive reduction in the College's head count."
Other alumni interviewed by The Dartmouth said that although they feel the reinstallation of student loans for students with family incomes over $75,000 is unfortunate, they were happy that the College could maintain its commitment to need-blind admissions.
"[The financial aid change] is probably something that had to be done in order to have income or raise revenues," Avner said.
Although the 4.6 percent tuition increase was described by Kim as the "smallest increase in the past five years," Asch contended that it was the largest increase when compared with national inflation rates over that time period.
Because the economy has recently experienced deflation, unlike previous years, the increase in cost is not partly offset by inflation.
Asch also said the asset-selling component of the budget plan will not address deficits in the future because the asset sale provides only one-time revenue. A $16-million portion of the $100 million reduction results from the sale of College assets.
