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Dartmouth's Budget Reconciliation Plan

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is affected by the salary freeze?

What services will be reduced?

Why don't we spend more of our endowment?

These are 3 of 34 "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) that are answered on Dartmouth's budget communications website.

You may submit questions anonymously by using the Web form.

Please visit the site for more questions and answers. A sampler:

Does the salary freeze announced Feb. 9 apply to all Dartmouth employees, or to staff only?

The freeze on salaries for FY 2010 applies to most Dartmouth employees, including faculty and staff. For staff, the annual review process will take place this spring, but there will be no merit-based increases. For faculty, regular adjustments will be made for promotion and tenure. Employees earning less than $50,000 per year will be given $1,000 supplemental payments (excluding employees at the Dartmouth Medical School, which is in a strategic-review process). The College will follow the collective bargaining agreements in effect with the union through June 30, 2010.

What specific facilities or services are impacted by reductions-in-hours, and when do those changes take effect?

A number of facilities will be reducing hours and services will be scaled back, as a result of the budget reconciliation plan. Among those areas affected:

• The computer modem pool, which some faculty and staff use to get Internet access from their homes, will close down in June.
• The College Operator, who is retiring, will be replaced by an auto-attendant service for callers to the College's main phone number.
• Café North will cease to offer full-service dining after spring term exams in June. Plans for the facility will be developed over the next several months.
• Courtyard Café in the Hopkins Center will close during summer months, when expenses exceed revenues.
• Dartmouth Athletics is reviewing patterns of facilities usage to make decisions on possible reductions in hours.
• The Green Print subsidy for student printing will be reduced from $40 a term to $20 as of September 2009.

Other changes will be announced as information becomes available.

Dartmouth has an endowment worth $3 billion. Why not just spend that to ease the budget crisis?

Source: Dartmouth Finance and Administration. (Chart design by Jermaine Johnson)

The endowment supports the College's educational mission by providing funding for the operating budget and endowed activities. Eighty percent of the endowment is restricted in its use, and may only be used for purposes specified by the donors, according to Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Adam Keller. Approximately half of the endowment supports financial aid, faculty, and teaching. The balance goes to other priorities, including academics, athletics, and cultural and student activities. The remaining unrestricted funds are used to fully develop the breadth and depth of the College's academic offerings, and to round out the student experience. Those uses are consistent with the priorities that have guided the budget process: to preserve the excellence of the academic programs at Dartmouth, the strength of its teaching and research missions, and our full commitment to financial aid.

By RICK ADAMS

 

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