This week, the College announced the formation of a second search committee to find an interim director for the vacant Director of Greek Letter Organizations and Societies position after a Spring term search failed to find and hire a suitable candidate ("Carney position remains vacant," July 13). The unfilled GLOS directorship is only one of a long line of job gaps that have emerged in administrative, student life and student services departments as a result of budget cuts and other efforts to restructure the administration. Even more troubling than these job vacancies, however, is the subsequent lack of transparency that surrounds the committee appointment process and the decisions that these committees make.
Dartmouth is still without an athletic director, a GLOS director, a manager of the Sustainability Office and a director for the Center for Women and Gender. These vacancies are not recent developments: former Athletic Director Josie Harper announced her resignation over 18 months ago, and Carney announced her impending retirement in early February of this year. It is a great shortcoming of the College that successors to these positions have yet to be named.
These job vacancies are indicative of a shortsighted restructuring plan on behalf of the administration. Budget cuts that were meant to make us more efficient have left the College with holes in its bureaucracy. The College's incomplete vision for Dartmouth is now being realized as projects remain unfinished and work piles up on empty desks.
When it comes to establishing and evaluating candidates for job vacancies, we understand that there is a trade-off between speed and comprehensiveness. We applaud the College for its attention to detail in these searches and its refusal to settle for substandard candidates. The College has also sought student input on the athletic director and the GLOS director search committees, which we hope to be a harbinger of continued student involvement in administrative decision-making.
With the expeditious appointment of government Professor Michael Mastanduno ("Mastanduno named Dean of the Faculty," July 16) after a comprehensive yet efficient two month search process College officials can no longer claim that filling job positions has to be a slow and supine process.
Nevertheless, the College has continuously failed to provide a concrete timeline for its searches and has consistently failed to release tangible evidence and information on the progress of the search committees. This is disappointing given Kim's initial promises to work openly and collectively with the student body.
At this point, all we can ask is that these positions be filled with qualified candidates before students arrive on campus for Fall term. This is the duty of the search committees specifically, but it is also in the interest of the administration and the student body to ensure that these committees meet deadlines and name candidates in a timely fashion. The Dartmouth community must be updated frequently on the status of all candidate searches and job openings that arise within the administration. A single line on a department website stating that a director of that department is "To Be Determined" does not suffice.
These vacancies affect everyone in the Dartmouth community and it is only through transparency, urgency and collective action that we can fill these vacancies with qualified, caring individuals who will move the College back on the right track.