When College President Jim Yong Kim addressed the issue of alcohol abuse and sexual assault at Monday's termly Faculty of Arts and Sciences general meeting breaking from the trend of focusing on academics and the College's financial standing many professors in the audience appreciated his departure from the budget conversation, professors interviewed by The Dartmouth said.
"I thought it was a really interesting presentation," John Carey, the chair of the government department, said. "Last year in particular, these meetings tended to focus overwhelmingly on the budget."
While the budget is a critical issue, there are other important problems not as widely discussed, English professor Lynda Boose said.
"All were glad to hear he wanted to bring up two topics that are sort of the dirty laundry binge drinking and sexual abuse," she said. "Lots of faculty meetings have been preoccupied with budget. It's nice to get back to important things not that the budget isn't."
Although Kim's presentation did not outline a specific plan to prevent sexual assault and binge drinking, it nevertheless conveyed his intention to make both issues main priorities, according to Boose. This dedication sets him apart from other members of the Dartmouth community, she said.
"[The presentation] was not down to details more of an announcement of the things he intends to make priorities," she said. "These issues aren't pleasant. People tend to shrug and say, What can you do?' but he's very aware of the problem."
While the topics of sexual assault and alcohol abuse differed from the other budget-centered general meetings, it was not the first time the faculty had considered these topics.
"These are issues that the faculty has discussed before," anthropology professor Deborah Nichols said. "They have sometimes in the past been raised by faculty members."
But because the College president is now confronting the problems of sexual assault and alcohol abuse, the issues have become more familiar to the faculty, according to Nichols.
"Because President Kim raised them, I think most of the faculty appreciated the seriousness of the concerns he was raising," she said.
The presentation served as a source of information for faculty members who may not have known the prevalence of these issues at Dartmouth.
"Obviously I've been reading about the drinking issues in the newspaper," Carey said. "But it's also interesting raising the issue of sexual assault. It's something I haven't been as tuned in to."
Kim largely focused on changing Dartmouth culture so that sexual assault and alcohol abuse will become unacceptable, according to Carey. Many professors said this transformation will be difficult.
"How do you stop it and get through to students to make them understand that every other student is like a brother or a sister?" Boose said. "You'd never sexually assault them."
Still, many professors said they believed the change is conceivable.
"I'm an anthropologist, and I won't pretend that making culture change is easy," Nichols said. "But it is possible."
Kim's analogy that the culture of sexual assault and binge drinking could evolve to become taboo, as did the once widespread culture of drunk driving and smoking was a comparison that resonated with some professors.
"[Twenty-five years ago] people had an awareness of drinking and driving, but there wasn't a culture that this was unacceptable," Carey said. "I can imagine that a similar shift in attitudes can happen around binge drinking."
