VERBUM ULTIMUM: Defining the Experience
By The Dartmouth Editorial Board
Published on Friday, January 29, 2010
The oft-cited “Dartmouth Experience” undoubtedly means something different to each member of the College community. When the endowment is doubling, any differences in personal values can conveniently be swept under the rug. Only after losses to the endowment — when jobs are threatened and budget cuts debated — must we seriously consider how these values define the College. Before we make cuts, we must prioritize what is essential to the Dartmouth experience. Until we do this, all budget cut conversations will be overshadowed by the larger debate on the College’s core purpose.
In an open letter to College President Jim Yong Kim, 75 faculty signatories articulated a clear vision of what they felt Dartmouth is and ought to be (“Faculty protest layoffs in letter,” Jan. 26). The College they envision is a community that serves as an “anchor” for the Upper Valley. This model, and the budgetary actions that would be consistent with it, has garnered widespread student support. We wonder, however, if this movement is gathering so much attention simply because there is no defined alternative approach that has been as clearly articulated. Those who have rejected their argument believe Dartmouth must act as an institution engaged in the “business of education.” They argue that current “economic realities” trump any ethical responsibility Dartmouth has to the surrounding community — effectively putting the “bottom line” at the core of College values.
Being fiscally responsible, however, is a business model, not an institutional principle. In either case money will be spent, but the true issue is where it should be spent. We must make judicious cuts to preserve the Dartmouth Experience — no one will refute that — but the community never received a clear explanation of what the administration sees as essential to that experience.
Kim was chosen to be our leader. He must provide Dartmouth with one unified vision for the College’s future. Until he does that, we have no point of reference from which to judge the claims made by the faculty or by the Service Employees International Union. After three terms and multiple budget forums, Kim has enumerated many goals for the College — to lead in health care development, to produce responsible global citizens, to dominate in athletics and to provide the best undergraduate education in the world. These are admirable aspirations, but they are too disparate and broad to constitute one coherent vision for the College — especially when we must decide what line items are most essential and which could be jettisoned. The budget cut process requires the College to narrow its direction, define the path for the future and prioritize certain goals above all else. Without a clear idea of the College’s priorities, everything supposedly remains “on the table,” yielding debate that is frequently too nebulous to be productive.
The time has come for Kim to lay out the specific direction of the College for the next decade, even the next century. The budget presentation at next weekend’s Board of Trustees meeting should be viewed as an opportunity to highlight and affirm a defined set of goals. Instead, we are left waiting for an announcement of budget cuts that will, by default, give us more perspective on what the previously undefined Dartmouth experience actually means.
President Kim has always stated his priorities- focusing on and building medical service delivery.This is where the money is or can come from. The Dartmouth Experience will be wonderful for those whose disciplines can contribute to this vision, e.g. languages if they contribute to doctor patient communication and not literature; computer science if it enhances medical record keeping; visual studies if it can provide comforting art for the walls of patient room; music, history, philosophy, classics can be downsized; the Hood Museum, the Hopkins Center have nothing to contribute to Kim’s vision. Not all sports need to be represented…only those that can have predictable winning seasons. Welcome to the new reality: the Kim corporation.
By Longview on Jan 29 | 6:50 am
I hope that cuts aren’t made too drastically. After all the market has come back a little ( I guess….).
What I think Kim needs to do is be adamant that his priority is first and foremost the undergraduate. That in no way means we need to compromise research, and there can be a lot of synergy there. What Kim should not do is cut faculty….at least not yet, and certainly only when ALL other options are no longer available. That includes (1) massive cuts elsewhere, (2) increased student body to raise revenue, and at the very worst, (3) slimming down financial aid. I was irked a little that my major while I was there (I graduated several years ago, majoring in economics) simply had too few professors. Classes were nearly always oversubscribed at the intro and mid-levels, and I had to wait until senior to take one of them. I can only imagine the ire at any students who see faculty cuts, especially when there are still cuts that can be made elsewhere. I also took a lot of classes in Music, English and Spanish, and although those classes weren’t a over-subscribed, their place there was invaluable in my education. As much as I loved the billybobs, the gym, and all the money programming board gave the clubs I was in, I would have forgone those to get into Econ 21 earlier. Ultimately, the prospective student could always take his/her money down the river and get an education at another school, which en masse would certainly hit Dartmouth’s revenue stream and compound the problem.
By Billy Quirk on Jan 30 | 12:11 am
Priorities for the college: I do think Dartmouth should be in the “business of education.” One of the foundations of our modern economy is specialization. This allows us to prosper because people can master their individual field and eventually innovate. It would be best for society if Dartmouth focused on providing high-quality education and research, rather than providing jobs for the local community. Employment is important, but it is something that should be the focus of other organizations that specialize in it, e.g. the government, non-profits, etc. Dartmouth can best help the “jobs agenda” by providing society with high productivity leaders as well as innovative research.
By T.K. on Jan 31 | 1:02 pm