Money Matters

As Dartmouth raises tuition and budgets grow, one undergraduate deems some College spending frivolous. BY

IN LIGHT OF RECENT BUDGET CUTS and talk of fiscal hardship at Dartmouth, I find myself wondering why the College is still operating as though it has money to burn. I do not claim to be a great money manager,yet it isn't hard to find some College expenditures that, from a students perspective, seem superfluous. I believe a comprehensive overview of the budgetfrom the cost of dorm construction all the way down to the price of toilet papercould save a great deal of money.

To find my first example of frivolous College spending, I didn't need to go any farther than my own living room in the Alpha Chi Alpha house on Webster Avenue. Since the College owns my fraternity's physical plant, living in the house is almost the same as living in a dormitory: We have a janitor and free cable and phone service and the standard-issue Dartmouth bedroom sets, fire-retardant couches and overstuffed chairs. Last fall the Office of Residential Life replaced all the couches and chairs in the living room of my house. My brothers and I, while grateful that the College was thinking of our comfort, wondered whether the replacement was really necessary. The new furniture, like the old, was fire-retardant, passably comfortable and clashed with the room's color scheme.

The four new couches, made of a sort of industrial-strength material, cost up to $3,500 each while the three new chairs were up to $1,OOO each. Our living room was outfitted with $17,000 of furniture we didn't ask for or need. When I spoke with Martin Redman, dean of residential life, he said his department generally works with student groups to decide what improvements are needed in their residences. In our case, no brothers were consulted: If the College had asked us if we wanted new furniture, it might have saved $17,000.

In the grand scheme of a college budget, $17,000 is a pittance. But if perfectly good furniture is being replaced in my house, I have to believe it is being replaced in other places on campus as well. And if decisions like this are being made in many departments at the College, who knows how much money is being spent unnecessarily.

One opportunity for saving is on printing costs. Almost every time I check my mailbox at Dartmouth, there is a colorful piece of paper advertising a lecture or some other event. Like other students, I glance at the invitation, make a mental note of it if I'm interested and then throw the paper in the recycling bin. Every day the recycling bins in the Hopkins Center are filled with slips of colored paper. On a campus where students probably spend more time in front of their computers than they do in class, why not simply advertise these events electronically? Not only would the paper not have to be used, it wouldn't have to be disposed of.

There are also much more expensive printings to consider. I was surprised to see that the Dartmouth faculty magazine, published a few months ago, had an expensive die-cut cover. This kind of expense might be appropriate for an admissions brochure, but why the need for it on a magazine being sent out to people who already work for the College?

Also, every year the College pays for the printing of thousands of copies of the Organization, Regulations & Courses, Dartmouths tome for course descriptions and other information. No one from the administration responded to my inquiries about printing costs or quantities, but a source at a publishing house estimated that the volume would cost about $2.85 per unit. If the College is printing enough copies for every student to have one, that puts the cost of printing at more than $10,000 a year. The course information is already available online, and I am sure that any other necessary information could be made available electronically with a modicum of effort. After all, this is Dartmouth, where we receive almost everything—including our grades—electronically.

At a Dartmouth that is becoming ever more modern, it is certainly necessary to preserve tradition. With this in mind, the Class of 1956 contacted the administration and said it was interested in donating some money. Instead of making a donation that would go straight into the general coffer, the class wanted the money to be earmarked for something that would constitute a visible improvement to the school, preferably something that might have historical significance. The administration suggested the money could go toward subsidizing the senior fence project, and the class agreed.

But the $20,000 price tag—to move an historic fence from one side of the Green to another to block foot traffic that had been compacting the soil and threatening tree roots—left many students dumbfounded. According to Jack Wilson, the College architect involved with the project, the cost was so high because of the difficulty in extracting the hand-cut granite posts from the first location and inserting them into the new holes without damaging the stone. This concern for the preservation of the granite was also the reason the project was not put out to bid but instead given to a local contractor with a good reputation for handling stone.

Between the projects announcement and its completion, I heard many students voicing opinions; typical was: "Why not just build a similar fence on that side?" Many students thought the donation could have been used for something else.

The issue of the budget is difficult to cast in terms of right and wrong. The decision-makers at the administrative level are, in my view, intelligent people with good intentions. Sometimes, however, decisions are made that cause the students to feel something has been lost.

Last fall students did lose something. In conjunction with other cutbacks around campus, operations at Sanborn Library and Sherman Art Library were restructured. As an English major, I have spent many hours in Sanborn Library. Lucky for me, the changes there are negligible.

Students of art history have not been so lucky. In addition to other logistical changes that affect the way the library is used, the Sherman staff has been.cut. Students now have to go to the Baker/Berry circulation desk to check out books that they previously could have checked out at the desk in Sherman. Though the reasons for the changes have not been described as financial, it is hard to believe they were based on any other rationale.

Art history majors I have spoken with say the changes, while seemingly minor, have negatively affected the quality of their College experience. I know from the time I've spent at Sanborn that studying in a library or a location specific to your major is a unique educational experience. While studying in Baker/Berry makes me feel lost in the shuffle, studying in Sanborn makes me feel part of a close-knit community of literary scholars. The faces I see around me in Sanborn are the same faces I see in my literature classes and at poetry readings. Unfortunately, that feeling of having an intellectual home on campus is gone for art history students.

Although the price of a Dartmouth education is high, we certainly get much more than we give, and I doubt that any of my fellow students will begrudge paying back their loans. Every day at Dartmouth provides a new opportunity for learning, inside and outside the classroom. One of the art history majors whom I spoke with said she was spoiled to have had such a great place to study. Perhaps she is right. But if we are to be spoiled, spoil us with libraries, not with couches.

ANDREW MULLIGAN is a creative writingmajor and social chair of Alpha Chi Alpha.