Kim had to dedicate "all his time and energy" to tackling the College's budget deficit after the endowment dropped 23 percent a total loss of $835 million in the 2009 fiscal year, acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears previously told The Dartmouth.
Over the last year, Kim remained committed to academics, introduced changes to the financial aid program and announced a series of staff layoffs. Maintaining "everything that's core to the Dartmouth community and the Dartmouth experience for students" was a priority for Kim as administrators identified various ways to reduce expenses, Spears said.
In October, administrators announced that the College would implement a four-phase process to identify and implement $100 million in budget cuts over a two-year period. The first phase, which ran until the February Board of Trustees meeting, focused on creating preliminary budget reduction proposals. The Board finalized and began implementing the budget cuts during the second phase, which lasted until the April Board meeting.
Administrators are currently implementing additional savings initiatives and revenue measures throughout the third phase, which will end in September. They will then evaluate the process and make necessary adjustments during the final period.
Kim continually emphasized the importance of preserving the most important aspects of the "Dartmouth experience" for students while implementing the budget cuts. In particular, he confirmed that the College's need-blind admissions policy would remain intact throughout the process 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," Kim said in November. "So we will absolutely maintain our commitment to need-blind admission."
Although the need-blind policy was not affected by the budget cuts, administrators terminated the no-loan policy for students whose annual family incomes total more than $75,000.
Kim announced the administration's budget decisions in a series of e-mails, information sessions and letters to the Dartmouth community throughout the year.
In November, Kim announced that the College would use a $12 million gift from the Class of 1953 to renovate Thayer Dining Hall instead of using the donation to construct a new dining and social facility, as the College had originally planned. Thayer has been renamed the Class of 1953 Commons.
Several sustainable, energy-efficient improvements to the existing facility combined with efforts to consolidate purchases will cover the difference between the amount donated and the cost of the renovations, Kim said at the November forum.
Kim also led the College through a series of controversial staff layoffs that resulted from the budget cuts.
Kim's administration laid off 38 staff members and reduced employee benefits in a second round of budget cuts finalized in April. An additional 33 staff members were asked to work reduced hours. About $13 million in savings are also expected to result from the review of employees' benefits packages.
The College previously laid off 60 employees under former President James Wright's administration as part of Wright's "Budget Reconciliation Plan."
The College can expect to see up to 36 additional layoffs particularly in the areas of information technology and finance by the end of the calendar year, according to Kim.
The round of layoffs instituted by Kim elicited protest from Students Stand With Staff, a campus group created in February to oppose staff layoffs. SSWS held a series of outdoor "teach-ins" in April to discuss the effects of the budget reductions on the College staff and to protest the layoffs.
Kim, along with other College administrators, disputed SSWS's claims that the administration was assuming a "corporate" ideology and that the budget reduction process lacked transparency and accountability.
"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."
In addition to staff layoffs, Kim announced the restructuring of the administration in an e-mail sent to the Dartmouth community in April. The new structure represents a "leaner," more "cohesive" administration, Kim previously told The Dartmouth.
"We wanted first of all to streamline the administration," he said. "We have a relatively, now, smaller group of people who are in charge of large areas, to which they'll bring my hope is greater coherence."
Under the new structure, which was implemented June 1, the College will increase efficiency by joining previously independent departments that "naturally go together," Kim said.
Former vice president of Alumni Relations David Spalding '76 was chosen to fill a new position, chief of staff, and now reports directly to Kim. Four other administrators the executive vice president and chief financial officer, the provost, the senior vice president for advancement and the general counsel report exclusively to the president, while seven additional administrators report both to the president and another administrator.
The restructuring also created the Advancement division, overseen by former vice president for development Carolyn Pelzel. The Offices of Alumni Relations, Development and Public Affairs all now report to Pelzel.
"I have great, great confidence in them. Those are the people who I am going to lean on most to run this entire College," Kim said.
Two other administrators the dean of faculty and the vice president for communications will directly report to the provost and the senior vice president for advancement, respectively, and both will report directly to the College president.
"Before, there were relatively more direct reports, but also it was a much more decentralized administrative structure," Kim said. "We brought much greater cohesion to the administrative structure."
Though some administrators no longer report directly to Kim, their roles will not be diminished, according to Kim. He also discussed how the structure of the new administration corresponds with the College's future strategic planning process.
"We should have clarity on how we're structured and how we function administratively and academically," Kim said.
Kim said he hopes to complete the strategic planning process in two years and is "anxious" to discuss ways to enhance the College's reputation with members of the Dartmouth community.
"What we are known for in the world is the outstanding quality of our liberal arts education," he said. "So I know that without question, one of our top, top ideas is going to be how we can think about improving on what we're already known as being best in the world as."
Also in April, two open seats on the Board of Trustees led to a controversial election during Kim's first year as College president.
Mort Kondracke '60 who was nominated by the Alumni Council ran uncontested for his seat, while John Replogle '88, also nominated by the Council, won against petition candidate Joe Asch '79 with 70.9 percent of the vote for a second seat.
Following their elections to the Board, Replogle and Kondracke told The Dartmouth that the voting turnout represents alumni support for Kim and his future plans for the College.
"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.
The election was the first time that Council-nominated candidates won the alumni vote since the four consecutive elections of petition candidates T.J. Rodgers '70 in 2004, Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 in 2005, and Stephen Smith '88 in 2007. The Trustee race "played out as it should have" without interference from Kim or the other administrators, who were focused on adjusting the budget cuts at the time, Spears previously said.
"Our priority was stabilizing the institution," she said. "Alumni voted what their conscience was."
Gratuitous campaign spending marked the campaigns of Replogle, Kondracke and Asch, while allegations circulated regarding Kim's endorsement of certain candidates. Early in the campaign period, Asch said he believed that Kim's comments at a March 3 alumni meeting at the Dartmouth Club of New York suggested he would endorse Asch's campaign. Asch made these comments in a post on Dartblog a website maintained by Joe Malchow '08 that is often critical of College policies.
The following month, Smith accused Kim of supporting Replogle's campaign, as Kim's visits to alumni clubs across the country coincided with Replogle's appearances at the same clubs. In a letter to the Editor of The Dartmouth, Smith added that he was "very distressed" to see Kim getting involved in the election.
Kim refuted the accusations.
"The notion that I was campaigning with specific candidates is absolutely false," Kim told 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."
Kim created the Student and Presidential Alcohol Harm Reduction Committee to reduce alcohol overconsumption at the College in response to measures Hanover Police took to curb underage drinking in February.
Kim's formation of SPAHRC is "an indication of his confidence in students to solve problems," Spears said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
SPARHC subsequently conducted research on alcohol consumption and policies at the College in order to promote student safety.
Kim's past experience as a researcher motivates him to take action based on evidence such as the SPAHRC findings, Spears said.
"It's good for the College because it gives us some really good information to base initiatives on," she said. "But it's also practicing exactly what students will have to do in the world to tackle problems."
Kim's past work in global health enabled students to mobilize quickly to provide disaster relief in response to January's earthquake in Haiti. Kim co-founded Partners in Health an international health care organization with Paul Farmer, a Harvard Medical School professor, in 1987.
"President Kim really made it apparent to the Dartmouth community how important it was to help out at that time," Presidential Fellow Molly Bode '09 said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth. "Without Partners in Health, we wouldn't have accomplished what we did in Haiti."
Between donations from the community and the College's donation of over 20 tons of medical supplies, Dartmouth raised over $1 million for Haiti relief. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center also sent several teams of doctors and nurses to Haiti to assist in local hospitals.
"It's not only impressive how fast the response was, but also how committed we are to having a sustainable, long-term relationship with Haiti and with Partners In Health," Bode said. "[Kim's] passion, his expertise and his connection [to Partners In Health] really moved us in the right direction at the right moment."
Kim said he did not recognize a conflict of interest between his continued involvement with PIH and his role as College president.
"I am president of Dartmouth College but I am also a human being," Kim previously told The Dartmouth. "I don't think anyone expected me to come to the job of president of Dartmouth College and give up my humanity in doing so. My humanity dictates to me that I try to help and respond."
Kim's background in healthcare may have led him to campaign successfully for the creation of the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, a center devoted to the study of health care delivery. Kim suggested creating the center at the beginning of his administration as a way to take advantage of resources at the College and to meet growing outside demands for advice on healthcare delivery.
