Administration announces thirty-eight layoffs, reinstitution of student loans
By The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Monday, February 8, 2010
Web Update
Thirty-eight current employees and full student grants for families with incomes over $75,000 will be the first specific casualties in the College's efforts to mitigate its $100-million budget shortfall, the College Office of Public Affairs announced in a press release Monday afternoon. The budget plan, which College President Jim Yong Kim submitted to the Board of Trustees over the weekend, also finds $25 million in savings in "administrative reorganization and restructuring," the largest single segment of the proposed cutbacks.
Administrators will go forward with 38 layoffs beginning Tuesday, to be followed by a second round of layoffs that will reduce the workforce by a "comparable number" by the end of April, when the "most intensive phase of the budget-reduction process" draws to a close, according to the release. Thirty-three employees will be asked to work reduced hours, the release stated. While faculty will not be affected by the layoffs, jobs will be eliminated at "all levels" of employment and will affect both union and non-union employees.
The new budget will also require students with family incomes over $75,000 to take on loans of $2,500 to $5,500 each academic year, beginning with members of the Class of 2015, according to the release. Financial aid packages for current students will not be affected by the change in policy. Tuition, room and board and other fees will also be increased 4.6 percent, to $52,275 per year.
Benefits packages for College employees are also under review, although specific details of changes in benefits will not be announced until April, according to the release. Administrators expect to find $13 million in savings from projected changes to benefits and salaries.
In an e-mail message to the Dartmouth community, Kim announced that he will, along with acting Provost and Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt and Senior Vice President Steven Kadish, donate 10 percent of his salary, to be split between the Dartmouth College Fund and a separate hardship fund.
The budget also calls for the sale of College properties that are "not core to the College's mission or strategic plan" as a way to raise revenue, according to the e-mail.
No athletic teams will be eliminated as part of the budget reduction measures, Kim, Kadish and Folt said in a press conference held Monday. The College will seek increased support from alumni as a way of funding athletic teams, they said.
College administrators will also work to consolidate and streamline administrative departments as a way to provide cost savings, the group said. The College administration has been as efficient as administrative structures at other academic institutions, they said, but the administration could be made more efficient by looking to businesses for leaner operational models.
This is a breaking news web update; this article will be updated as more information becomes available.
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