*Editor's note: This is the fourth installment in a series of articles reflecting on College President Jim Yong Kim's first year in office.**##
In the year since he assumed leadership of Dartmouth, College President Jim Yong Kim has faced $100 million budget cuts, staff layoffs and a fiercely contested Board of Trustees race. In contrast to future years, which will likely see Kim take an active role in College initiatives, Kim was forced to confront serious challenges and criticisms from the College community since last June, when he took office.
Kim took a strategic approach in responding to these challenges, according to acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears, by restructuring the College budget to reflect a more comprehensive view of spending and focusing on budget issues while steering clear of the controversy surrounding the Trustee race.
Following the 23-percent drop in the College's endowment during the 2009 fiscal year a total loss of $835 million Kim had to dedicate "almost all his time and energy" to addressing the College's budget deficit, Spears said. While finding areas in which to cut expenses, maintaining "everything that's core to the Dartmouth community and the Dartmouth Experience for students" was a priority for Kim, she said.
In November, administrators implemented a series of budget cuts with the goal of reducing the budget by $100 million over the next two years.
"We must take bold and immediate action to address a structural gap in our budget that will otherwise continue to grow," Kim said in a November 2009 statement released by the College.
At first, the administration may not have recognized the substantial effect the endowment losses would have on the College's budget, according to Spears.
"That was just an initial challenge getting a handle on how the shift in the endowment, and just this whole economic crisis, would affect the budget," Spears said. "Getting real clarity about projected expenses was really important."
The endowment accounted for 32 percent of the College's total revenue in 2008 and has generated an 8-percent annual return over the past decade.
"The more reliant you are on the endowment when it takes a dip like this the more it hurts you," Spears said.
Before the decrease, the College relied heavily on endowment revenue to support its programs, she added.
Instead of implementing uniform reductions across all departments and programs, the administration under Kim took a more deliberate approach to budget cuts, Spears said.
"Instead of just slicing and dicing and making cuts across the board like you're spreading peanut butter, they decided to really do it from a very strategic place," she said.
While implementing the budget cuts, Kim continually stressed the need to maintain the "most important" aspects of the Dartmouth experience. To this end, he confirmed that the College's need-blind admissions policy would be unaffected by the changes in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
"I can't imagine being part of a college that is only open to people who can pay," he said in November. "So we will absolutely maintain our commitment to need-blind admission."
Although the College maintained need-blind admissions, administrators eliminated the no-loan policy for students whose families make more than $75,000 per year as a way to reconcile financial aid with the new budget.
Kim publicized the administration's budget decisions in several information sessions, e-mails and letters to the student body, outlining a three-part plan to address the looming financial challenges in an October e-mail to the Dartmouth community.
The plan aimed to reduce College expenses, increase fundraising efforts and implement new programs that would build on the strengths of Dartmouth" to increase revenue, according to Kim's October e-mail.
"No single path will be sufficient to address these serious financial challenges," Kim wrote.
Kim announced the decision to renovate Thayer Dining Hall instead of constructing a new building at the second open forum on the College budget in November 2009.
The College will use a $12 million donation from the Class of 1953 to renovate the building, renamed the Class of 1953 Commons. The more sustainable, energy-efficient modifications to the new facility will cover the difference between the cost of the renovations and the donations, Kim said.
Kim led the College throughout the controversy surrounding staff layoffs that came with the budget cuts.
After the College laid off 60 staff members in February 2009 as part of former College President James Wright's "Budget Reconciliation Plan," Kim's administration reduced employee benefits and laid off 36 staff members in a second round of budget cuts finalized in April.
The layoffs were part of the $100 million in budget cuts realized by the changes. The College may see up to 30 more layoffs particularly in the areas of finance and information technology by the end of the calendar year, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The round of layoffs Kim instituted elicited a strong reaction from the campus group Students Stand With Staff, created in February, which held a series of outdoor "teach-ins" in April, protesting the layoffs and discussing the effects of the budget cuts on College staff.
Students Stand With Staff criticized the College for lacking transparency and accountability and assuming a "corporate" ideology toward budget cuts, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Kim, along with other College administrators, disputed these complaints.
"I reject it outright that this was not a people-centered process," Kim said. "To say that some group is really devoted to efficiency, effectiveness and getting the job done does not equal corporatization."
Kim's first year in office also saw a contentious race for two open seats on the Board this spring.
The campaigns of John Replogle '88, Mort Kondracke '60 and Joe Asch '79 were marked by tens of thousands of dollars in campaign spending, public criticism between candidates and accusations by current trustees and secondary organizations that Kim had endorsed specific candidates.
Replogle, who was nominated by the Alumni Council, ultimately defeated petition candidate Asch with 70.9 percent of the votes. Kondracke, also nominated by the Council, ran uncontested for a second seat.
Both trustees-elect told The Dartmouth in interviews following their victory that the voting turnout shows that alumni support Kim and his vision for the future of the College.
The election marked the first victory of Council-nominated candidates since the consecutive elections of four petition candidates T.J. Rodgers '70 in 2004, Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 in 2005, and Stephen Smith '88 in 2007.
"It's not that [Kim] endorsed anyone, but the vote is a statement that they want to get on with the success of the College and that they have confidence in him as a leader," Kondracke said.
Kim and the rest of the administration were busy focusing on budget cuts during the Trustee race and that the "process played out as it should have" largely without their interference, Spears said.
"Our priority was stabilizing the institution," she said. "Alumni voted what their conscience was."
Early in the campaign period, Asch suggested that Kim endorsed him in a post on Dartblog, a website maintained by Joe Malchow '08 that has frequently been critical of College policies.
Asch wrote that comments made by Kim at a March 3 alumni meeting at the Dartmouth Club of New York were an endorsement of his candidacy, a claim that Kondracke refuted.
The following month, Smith accused Kim of campaigning for Replogle in an interview with The Dartmouth, citing appearances Kim made at alumni clubs throughout the country that coincided with visits by Replogle.
"I was very distressed to see that Kim has started campaigning," Smith said. "This is a level of presidential involvement in an election we've never seen before at Dartmouth and hopefully will never see again."
Kim denied all such accusations.
"The notion that I was campaigning with specific candidates is absolutely false," Kim said in an interview with The Dartmouth on April 1. "I have been asked on many occasions whether I support one candidate or the other and I have said explicitly every single time that I do not."
He explained that while there might have been "one or two events" that coincided with appearances by Replogle, the visits were "entirely independent."
Spears stressed that Kim acted honorably throughout the campaigning and election period.
"[Kim] did the right thing by really not engaging in all the politics of the process, because that's not his role his role is to lead the institution," she said. "I think [Kim] leads with integrity, and so that's what we saw in his actions that he makes decisions coming from a base of integrity and will speak what is truth."
A few hours after the College announced Kim's selection last March, Kim faced criticism from the nonprofit organization the Hanover Institute, which released a statement expressing concern he would refashion Dartmouth as a research institution rather than a true liberal arts college.
"Neither [Kim's] CV nor the statement accompanying the announcement of his appointment will encourage those of us who have seen the cause of the undergraduate college as THE major challenge," the statement said.
Asch, at the time, also noted Kim's "seemingly thin scholarly record" and "lack of administrative experience in an academic setting."
During the campaign period, however, Asch refrained from significant criticism of Kim.
The Hanover Institute is funding the ongoing alumni lawsuit against the College over parity between alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees.
Kim expressed hope that future alumni races would be less "difficult."
"I think that contentious and expensive and acrimonious races are bad for Dartmouth College," he said.
Spears predicted that Kim's relationship with the newly elected board members will be "extremely productive."
"They're diverse in their experiences, and they're incredibly seasoned leaders in their own fields," Spears said. "The good news is that they don't all agree about the same things, which means that the Board can really provide a good place for tackling some hard issues and getting multiple perspectives."
She added that all the board members are committed to Kim's success as the College moves past budget cuts.
Kim has said College administrators have begun a strategic planning initiative to chart the future course of the College.
In a move that garnered significant attention nationwide, Kim announced the formation of a center to study health care delivery, the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, following up on an early proposal of his administration.
"They're looking forward to him being able to address issues and lead without the pressure of the budget crisis," she said.
