The College is requiring Dartmouth Libraries to cut its budget over the next two fiscal years, according to emails sent by dean of libraries Susanne Mehrer to library staff and obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth. While a Dec. 1 email from Mehrer stated the required cuts totaled $2,614,000, Mehrer wrote in a March 5 email that the “FY27–FY28 budget planning figure is $1 million lower” than the initial $2.6 million cut.
“As part of the normal budget building process, targets often shift as we move from preliminary figures to final decisions,” Mehrer wrote in the email.
Meher added that “the proposals that the Libraries submitted” to meet the required cuts have been finalized, and “no further changes for next fiscal year need to be made at this point.”
“Following numerous discussions with our key partners across Dartmouth and specifically with [College chief financial officer] Scott Frew and Provost [Santiago] Schnell, we made adjustments for FY27 that would minimize the impact on our scholars and academic community, foregrounding access to library collections and critical library expertise,” Mehrer wrote.
According to the Dec. 1 email, the cuts will come out of the library’s “central subvention budget,” or the non-restricted funds the College allocates to the library to fund its operations. The cuts exclude Feldberg Library and the Medical and Health Sciences Library, Mehrer wrote.
Dartmouth Libraries must cut a minimum of half the total amount in the 2027 fiscal year and the remaining amount in the 2028 fiscal year, according to the email.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote that “all units across campus are participating in annual budget planning for FY27” as the College “work[s] to align expenses with revenue growth.”
“Our financial position remains healthy, and this year’s budget planning will help Dartmouth better navigate cost pressures, including inflation and healthcare expenses, to ensure we stay in a strong financial position,” Barnello wrote.
In another email sent to library staff on Jan. 23, Mehrer wrote that Dartmouth Libraries “will not be recruiting for or filling” three part-time and three full-time open positions due to the cuts.
“These initial decisions have all been made with consideration of the new budget targets, our role in supporting Dartmouth’s mission and the Libraries’ values and strategic direction,” Mehrer wrote in the email. “We recognize that a reduction in the size of our staff will impact how we support our community, and we will work with department heads and teams to adjust accordingly.”
This comes after Dartmouth Libraries faced $1.7 million cuts to its central subvention budget during fiscal years 2018 to 2021, according to a 2020-2021 Council on the Libraries annual report. Cuts during this period were similarly “achieved by eliminating existing vacant roles,” the report said. Budget cuts also led Dartmouth Libraries to permanently close the Kresge Physical Sciences and Paddock Music libraries during this time, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth.
Two Dartmouth employees aware of the current cuts have been given the pseudonyms Michael and Lucy. They each have been granted anonymity to speak candidly about their experiences.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Michael said there is a lot of “uncertainty” surrounding the cuts, which his team learned about “a little after Thanksgiving break.”
“We’re all just waiting to see what happens and that can be a bit scary,” he said.
Michael said he “appreciated” the “open communication and dialogue” between library administration and staff regarding the cuts.
“It was relayed to us pretty quickly,” Michael said. “... That’s something that we definitely appreciated.”
Lucy, who works in another academic department but “depends on” library resources for her research, said she is worried that these services will be “scaled back.”
“A lot of what we do in [my department] is very niche research, much like a lot of other departments,” she said. “We rely upon open access.”
Lucy said she is also worried that her department’s subject librarian, which is a librarian who provides specialized support for research in a field of study, “is in jeopardy.”
The subject librarian has “been invaluable to our current [work],” she said. “Some of us have written letters of support for her.”
The three emails obtained by The Dartmouth did not indicate that any currently filled staff positions would be terminated due to the cuts.
According to a Feb. 11 email statement to The Dartmouth from Dartmouth Libraries, library “leadership has been communicating with all our Libraries colleagues about this process since early December and with the Council on Libraries.”
“As ever, our commitment is to Dartmouth’s teaching, learning and research missions, which includes thoughtful and regular reviews of open positions and our operations,” the statement reads.
