College lays off three from admissions office
By Emily Goodell, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Friday, April 17, 2009
Three employees have been laid off from the admissions and financial aid office as part of the effort to trim $72 million from the College's budget by 2011, according to Dean Maria Laskaris. The admissions office will also work to reduce spending on travel, Laskaris said.
The staff reductions coincide with an increase in the number of applicants to the College. Dartmouth received a record 18,130 applications this year, 10 percent more than last year. The acceptance rate was the lowest in the College's history.
"I think it's going to make it a little more challenging for us as our application volume continues to grow, and also the volume of students applying for financial aid continues to grow," Laskaris said. "We're looking at all facets of our operation, our travel, our publications, our communication, our off-campus programs, the ways in which we use technology. We've begun to look at all of those ways in which we can recruit students to Dartmouth, to look and see how we can be as efficient as we can with our resources."
The admissions and financial aid office had to decrease its staff by the equivalent of four full-time positions, Laskaris said. In addition to the three employees who were laid off, one open part-time position will remain unfilled. Several staff members have been asked to work 11 months out of the year instead of 12.
The laid-off employees include admissions officers, who read applications, as well as support staff, Laskaris said. The admissions and financial aid office and student employment office currently employ 51 people, Laskaris said.
The office will also no longer send paper applications to students at home, beginning with prospective applicants to the Class of 2014, Laskaris said. Most students will also have to submit their applications online.
"It makes sense from a budgetary perspective, a sustainability perspective and a research perspective," Laskaris said.
Dartmouth's admissions office also aims to expand its web outreach.
"We're trying to have a multi-faceted approach to reaching out to [students]," she said. "Interns are doing a lot with Facebook and blogs and Youtube videos and things like that."
Admissions offices at some other colleges and universities are making similar changes.
Harvard University's admissions office will cut its travel budget by half, eliminating visits to many high schools, according to The Harvard Crimson. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has also laid off staff members and will reduce travel spending significantly, The Tech, MIT's campus newspaper, reported. MIT is planning to focus its recruitment efforts on reaching students individually by telephone and online, The Tech said.
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