I cannot help but feel like Dartmouth is getting a bit bigger these days. Perhaps it is all these enormous numbers being thrown around by the College administration $100 million in budget cuts and $1.3 billion in fundraising for the "Dartmouth Experience." No one can comprehend such enormous figures.
Or maybe I am getting this sensation because of all the recent talk about a potential increase in class size to help fund budget cuts ("Kim outlines College budget, potential cuts," Dec. 2). President Jim Yong Kim's administration has told us that it would only be an increase of around 50 students a class. But over a few years that begins to add up, and I am frightened that a larger student body brings with it the demise of Dartmouth's small college feel.
Perhaps new construction projects that have been gaining steam recently a new Visual Arts Center and a new Life Sciences Center might account for the feeling. The only structure on campus that does not seem to be burgeoning is our snow sculpture ("Sculpture downsized for 2010," Jan. 29).
But I do not think this sensation is due to any of the things I have heard about or have seen recently in the newspaper. In fact, I am quite certain that this feeling is due to something else, something intangible. Instead, it's how President Kim has thus far treated his role that has brought about this sensation that Dartmouth is becoming a bigger and scarier place.
Let me explain. I have never seen President Kim stroll around the Green like former College President James Wright used to do. I used to love to see Wright elegantly saunter around campus while I walked to class in the morning. A few times we even exchanged greeting, although he never knew my name. Something about seeing him out and about, walking around Dartmouth like any professor or student, made me feel at home.
I only ever see President Kim when he is surrounded by reporters and photographers or when he is on stage delivering some speech that reduces Dartmouth to numbers and statistics on a PowerPoint presentation. It's sad that the only time I have ever seen our College's president has been under these circumstances. With this kind of presence on campus, Kim feels more like the president of a large university than the president of a small, liberal arts college in Hanover, NH.
Call me anachronistic, but I would rather see my College president walking outside of my dorm than see a story about him in the Boston Globe. Call me backwards, but I would rather see Dartmouth have less national prestige if that meant having it feel more like a college more like home.
You can even call me cynical, but I find it saddening that Kim, attempting to create such a grandiose vision for Dartmouth, has turned his presidency into a media trip that talks about the "Dartmouth Experience" without living it or even knowing what it is. You can give all the speeches you want, President Kim. But until you realize that the so-called "Dartmouth Experience," whatever it may be, occurs outside of the auditoriums and lecture halls you speak in, you will never understand or be able to convey what Dartmouth is truly about.
Dartmouth is not about lectures and photo-ops. Our old undying faith for the College is certainly not due to our College's national esteem or even worldwide prestige. Dartmouth's spell on us remains not because we are the best at this or number one at that. We have the still north in our hearts not because of numbers or statistics on a presentation. We give a rouse for Dartmouth not because we are streamlined or because this or that project is budget-neutral. Rather, we are the loyal ones who love her because we experience all that Dartmouth has to offer, love every minute of it, and treat the granite of New Hampshire like our home.
Please, President Kim, for the sake of the College, show us that you understand Dartmouth is more than just a lecture. Engage the student body and faculty outside of these auditoriums and you will ensure that the old traditions never fail.
