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Thursday, December 05, 2002

Re: The Big Picture

Stan Horowitz responds to Mr. Wilson:
Alexander Wilson has it right. It is not at all obvious why Dartmouth needs to cut anything.

My hypothesis is that there are some things (maybe having to do with the research university in all but name) that have received increased funding. It was expected that normal operations could be maintained in other areas because of the increase in money available from the endowment. This turned out to be false. In order to keep the high priority items going at the desired level in the face of market losses and low interest rates something had to go.
I agree with Messrs. Wilson and Horowitz but suspect that much of the bloat from the late Nineties that the College now refuses to cut comes from social and diversity-enhancing programs, which seem to be staff-heavy, littered with expensive consultants, and sometimes involve the College eating the costs of building construction and facilities renovation (i.e., when donors can't be found; ever wonder why "Poison Ivy" or whatever they're calling it this year isn't, e.g., "The Chet Johnson Diversity in Nightlife Project"?). I just can't think of a commensurate rise in graduate-level activities over the same time-frame. If anyone has any facts to the contrary, please post 'em.

Posted by Andrew Grossman at 3:54 PM

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