Dartblog

Critical Thinking: Management Quality

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-25T04:00:00-05:00

The D is running a four-part series on the Board of Trustees, and while the descriptions contained therein are more or less on the mark (with a few awful omissions), the young journalists have failed to engage in critical thinking worthy of a Dartmouth education. When Trustee Chair Steve Mandel makes a statement, a good reporter should ask a follow-up question or two. Let's take a look at one example of a missed opportunity for a set of serious, probing responses:

From this statement we can incontrovertibly conclude that MBAs have a high opinion of themselves, but how can we objectively test the proposition that the shift over the last 10-12 years to an MBA-dominated Board has led to better management of the College? Here are a few metrics (there's a Harvard B-school word for you) that an MBA might use to evaluate the effectiveness of Dartmouth's business-oriented Trustees, and that our intrepid reporters might have brought up in their discussion with Chairman Mandel:

Endowment Growth: As we have recently seen, the College's endowment grew more quickly than any of its Ivy peers in the 1990s; however, since 2000, growth has been the slowest in the Ivy League.

Personnel Bloat: The number of non-faculty employees at the College grew by 33% between 1999 and today (almost a thousand new staffers) -- even as the student population remained stable. Unnecessary growth occurred in virtually every area of Dartmouth's budget-sapping bureaucracy. The undergraduate side of the College now has almost five staffers for every faculty member.

Budget Growth: Total College expenditures in 2000 were $383,970,000; in fiscal 2011, the College spent $738,341,000. That's a total increase over 11 years of 92.3% -- a period of time during which inflation was 30.6%.

Salaries and Benefit Growth: Total employee compensation grew even faster than the budget: from $216,456,000 in 2000 to $434,917,000 in 2011 -- a jump of 100.9%. Benefit levels were the most expensive in the Ivy League by a wide margin.

Tuition Cost Growth: Annual tuition/room and board/fees at the College are now the second highest in the Ivy League (after Columbia), even though Hanover is the second-lowest-cost environment in the Ivies (after Cornell).

Personnel: The Board permitted Jim Wright to remain in office long after his sell-by date (if he was ever effective in the first place), and his replacement by Jim Kim and now Carol Folt continues the line of weak leaders. Wright, Kim, Folt and senior administrators like Adam Keller, Barry Scherr and Sylvia Spears would not have been hired by any well run corporation, yet they remained in place in Hanover for years.

Moral Climate: Brand management seems to be the order of the day for the Trustees, with spinning a close second. Kim/Folt's presentation of just how $100 million was supposedly trimmed from the budget did not pass muster with even Humanities professors; to professionals, it was a joke. The hazing controversy was cynically ignored by Jim Kim for almost two months, so as not to cloud his World Bank campaign. Justifications for changes to DDS mealplans and the closing of the swim docks were ludicrously dishonest. Rigor, transparency and the ability to admit that the College is anything less than perfect are not qualities present in the current Board.

I-n-n-o-v-a-t-i-o-n: Does anyone on the Board or in the administration even know how to spell this word? What new programs, initiatives or ideas have been put into place over the last decade to improve the undergraduate academic or residential experience? None that I can see, though the faculty is not short of proposals. But the President and the Board just don't seem to be open to any kind of change (sorry, but committees on binge drinking and sexual assault, or on-line healthcare Masters programs for adult students, don't count as real change). Of all the criticisms of the Trustees and the administration, to me this is the most damning.

Am I missing an area where the MBA-Board has been strong (other than in self-congratulation)? I think not.

That said, the core point here in not that these MBA Trustees are unintelligent. In the world of finance and investing, they have all made a ton of money. The problem is that they, like their other colleagues on the Board, just don't spend enough time at the College to understand Dartmouth's strengths and weakness. In addition to their professional and family responsibilities, they often serve on a half-dozen or more prestigious corporate and charity boards. The end result for Dartmouth is a rubber stamp Board of Trustees that does not interact enough with faculty, students and staff in order to gather the information necessary to oversee the administration. As I hope has been abundantly clear above, the corrosive effects on the College of insufficient oversight are obvious, no matter how much Chairman of the Board Steve Mandel might pat himself on the back.

Petition Trustee Zywicki Raised Conflicts

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-24T04:00:00-05:00

George Mason Law Professor Todd Zywicki '88 was removed from the Board of Trustees in 2009 following a proceeding that Trustee T.J. Rodgers '70 termed a "a kangaroo court." Ostensibly the Board's decision turned on a series of intemperate remarks that Zywicki had made about the College during a conference at the Pope Center; however, one cannot help but surmise that Zywicki also raised hackles among the Trustees by questioning the placement of large portions of the endowment with Board members' investment funds.

In an amicus curiae brief that he filed with the State of New Hampshire Supreme Court, Zywicki noted his efforts to review the College's investment policies.

More of the Usual Sloppiness

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-24T03:59:59-05:00

The College has an ever-increasing number of bureaucrats who do less and less good work. What a dysfunctional organization. How could the below occur?

Read the full Valley News article.

College Invests Endowment In Bain Capital as a Favor to a Trustee's Spouse

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-23T04:00:00-05:00

While Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital is in the news because of the Obama campaign's broadbrush criticisms of the Republican candidate, Dartmouth's Trustees have no problem in investing in the huge fund. The College's IRS Form 990 for 2010 shows no less that 12 different transactions (capital contributions and distributions) with Bain Capital's various funds. Several examples:

The spouse of a Trustee (does anyone know who?) seems to have been the conduit for the various investments. (A longtime Dartmouth reader suggests that the spouse in question is Bain Capital's Mark Nunnelly, the husband of Trustee Denise Dupre '80.)

The same report notes six transactions with former Trustee Leon Black '73's Apollo Management firm:

and four transactions with Trustee Bill Helman '80's Greylock Partners. Helman is the Chairman of the College's Presidential Search Committee:

Let's be precise. The issue is not that the College invested in these funds. They are open for investment by large, sophisticated investors, and some of them have been very successful. However, as we have seen, others have not been profitable, and the College's investment performance has suffered in the last decade.

My concern is whether the choices to invest in Trustee's funds have been arm's-length ones. Are investment decisions being made on the merits? Or is there a gentleman's understanding among the men and women on the Board that "I'll vote to invest in your fund if you'll vote to invest in mine."? Add to this the open secret that a donation of $10 million buys a seat on Dartmouth's Board, and it is not hard to conclude that buying your way in as a Trustee leads to rich compensation.

From the looks of things, it sure appears as if the old boy's club is in full operation.

Addendum: This space has nothing against private equity firms; in fact, we see them as critical actors in American economic life -- as David Brooks intelligently opined in a recent column in the Times.

Adderall and Other Drugs

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-23T03:59:59-05:00

In tandem with our reports on the widespread abuse of cocaine at the College (here, here and here), Natalie Colaneri '12 recently published a column in The D on student abuse of study drugs like Adderall. She has now put together a forum on these narcotics. How good it is to see a student take the lead on this issue.

FINALS are coming.... GOT ADDERALL?

Do these drugs actually work? Are they dangerous? Can we extend the reading period?

A Forum on Study Drugs
Wednesday, May 23rd, 7-8:30PM
COLLIS COMMONGROUND
Panera Bread AND Morano Gelato!
YOU WANT GELATO.

*This forum is not about how "study drugs are bad"... it's informative, not judgmental*

Come listen to a panel consisting of psychiatrist Dr. Ben Nordstrom, Dean April Thompson, Professor Lee Witters, and Dean Francine A'Ness and ask questions/discuss the issue.

Co-Sponsored by: Collis Governing Board, SAE, Office of the President, ABLE, DAPA, AXA, NAD, Tabard, Panarchy, Alpha Theta, KKG, Zete, Alpha Kappa Alpha, The Inter-Fraternity Council, Varsity Equestrian Team, Tri-Kap, Tridelt

The D's Editor Wants Your Honest Opinion About President Kim

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-22T23:00:00-05:00

Let him have it.

From: The Dartmouth
Date: Tue, May 22, 2012 at 2:53 AM
Subject: HOW HAS KIM DONE?
To: CAMPUS-EVENTS@listserv.dartmouth.edu

With President Jim Yong Kim's impending departure from the College, The Dartmouth wants to know: What do you think of his tenure?

***Did Kim effectively work to reduce binge drinking on campus?***
***How were his efforts surrounding sexual assault prevention?***
***What kind of impact will he leave on Dartmouth in the long run?***

Results will be published in the pages of The Dartmouth later this week!
Take the survey to make your voice heard.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KGQ7VN3

We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Curiously enough, while the survey asks questions about hazing, binge drinking, sexual assault, healthcare and the budget, it makes no reference to Kim's impact -- or utter lack thereof -- on the College's academic life and students' residential experience. Have The D's editors confused the responsibilities of Dartmouth's President with those of the Dean of the College or even the Director of Student Health Services?

The Effects of Good and Bad Governance

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-22T04:00:00-05:00

Yesterday's post about the whistleblower letter by the anonymous Friends of Eleazar Wheelock group of Dartmouth employees detailed the placement over the last decade of much of the endowment with investment funds run by Dartmouth Trustees and other alumni cronies. Let's update the figures showing the disastrous effect of this policy.

During the 1990-2000 period, Dartmouth's endowment enjoyed the highest growth in the Ivy League:

In the subsequent eleven years (2000-2011), with much of the endowment in the hands of Trustees and their friends, the endowment had the lowest level of growth in the Ivies.

What will be the end result of this corrosive insider dealing, and the concomitant atmosphere of spin and dishonesty that pervades the administration? At some point in time, faculty, students, staff and alumni will say that they have had enough of poor governance -- and of Dartmouth. However, I fear that none of these groups will act collectively to stop the rot; rather, individual members of the faculty will leave Hanover, the best students won't come here, the finest staff members will depart, and alumni will reduce their donations to the College. One can argue that this process has been underway for some time now.

Addendum: As we have noted, to make up for the endowment's poor performance, the Trustees permitted the College's total debt to explode over the past twelve years, both in absolute terms and in comparison to our Ivy sister schools.

What Matters to Meir Kohn and Why

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-22T03:59:59-05:00

If you are trying to answer the Jeopardy question of what Dartmouth professor a) has endless amounts of time for students, b) is a tough-as-nails teacher whose classes fill up instantly, c) runs weekly discussion groups almost every term where students review an interesting book, d) is the object of paeans in The D, and e) has a fine publishing record, look no further than today's What Matters to Me and Why lecture by Professor Meir Kohn.

From: What Matters To Me And Why
Subject: Jewish Morality...and Economics

Jewish Morality...and Economics. What's the connection?
Find out at today's What Matters to Me and Why lunch discussion with Professor Meir Kohn ECON! He'll be discussing Jewish Morality and Economics over free Collis soup from 12-1 at the Tucker Living Room.

Where: Tucker Foundation Living Room
When: Tuesday 5/22, 12pm
What: Collis Soup and Converstaion
Who: YOU and Professor Kohn
Why: Take a break in this final week of class and get to know a professor outside of the classroom over a delicious soup lunch! See you there!

For more information, contact WMTMW.

Episcopalians Elect Hirchfeld '83 Bishop

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-22T03:59:58-05:00

The New Hampshire diocese's next bishop will be Robert Hirschfeld '83, formerly of the Grace Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. Hirschfeld is the spouse of Polly Ingraham '79. He rowed crew at the College and Ingraham played on Dartmouth's first women's hockey team. The couple have three children, one of whom, William, is a '14. Hirschfeld's appointment is a step back from controversy for the diocese: the 2003 election of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson led to bitter debates in the world-wide Anglican-Episcopalian community.

College Whistleblowers Denounce Trustee Conflicts to Government

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-21T04:00:00-05:00

This space has regularly reported on the incompetence and malfeasance of the Dartmouth administration. While most of our reporting comes from public sources, a great deal of Dartblog's content has been provided by honest people on the College's payroll -- longtime staffers, past and present, who are disgusted by the conflicts of interest and self-dealing that have diverted the College from its educational mission.

Dartblog has now learned that a group of College insiders, who call themselves the Friends of Eleazar Wheelock, have written a whistleblower letter to numerous government figures and other institutions: NH Governor John Lynch, NH Attorney General Michael Delaney, Massachusetts House Judiciary Committee Chairs Cynthia Creem and Eugene O'Flaherty, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Massachusetts Senator Patricia Jehlen and Massachusetts Representative Mike Moran (sponsors of a bill that would require enhanced disclosure of conflicts of interest, investment holdings, managers and fees, as well as other vital financial data from private colleges and universities), the Internal Revenue Service, the Service Employees International Union, the NH Department of Justice Charitable Trusts Unit, the Union Leader, and the New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities Authority.

The letter details how members of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees -- a Board dominated by MBA money managers, unlike other Ivy Boards -- and people in their circle have plundered the College's endowment, using it to fill the coffers of their investment funds. The details go far beyond the information contained in a Tellus Institute report and a Valley News series that were published last year.

While the conflict of interest of Trustees steering College money to their own enterprises is obvious, the effect on Dartmouth of these unwise decisions should also be noted. As Dartblog has previously described, the endowment's performance in the 1990's was the best in the Ivy League; during the past decade -- when these practices took flight -- it has been the worst.

Find the above-mentioned link regarding Pamela Joyner here.

Find the above-mentioned link regarding Leon Black here.

To download the entire letter as a pdf file, please click here.

At this time, it is unclear whether the various governmental authorities who have received the above communication have responded to it or initiated any kind of investigation.

Paris Diary: We Sure Eat a Lot of Bread

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-20T04:00:00-05:00

Not an oil truck. No. A flour truck, parked in front of Béchu, our lovely local bakery. It makes two deliveries each week, pumping flour as if it were fuel into a large tank in the basement. Béchu buys about 150 quintales of flour each month; that's about one ton every two days. In our apartment across the street, we have bread on the table at lunch and dinner, usually a ficelle -- a small version of a baguette. We need it to go with cheese and to mop up sauce, and as an accompaniment throughout any meal.

Béchu's bread is often sold straight from the oven; the staff laughs when I grinningly complain that it is too hot. The bakery is also a place where the people behind the counter seem to remember every customer. Occasionally when I shop before a meal, I'll be told that we don't need any bread because my wife has already been by.

Oh The Places You'll Go on LSA/FSP

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-19T04:00:00-05:00

We've long held the position that a Dartmouth foreign study program should be mandatory for students; today only 60% of undergrads take advantage of the College's wide range of options. Being comfortable in a foreign environment is an essential skill, and relieving crowding in Hanover would be helpful, too.

In the picture above, Dartmouth students viewed the royal carriages exhibited in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Arras, a city in northern France not far from Vimy Ridge, the site of bloody battles in WWI. Students also saw the Carrière Wellington, a huge series of underground quarries that sheltered as many as 25,000 Allies soldiers in the Great War. Their visit was written up in an article in La Voix du Nord.

Addendum: The D is reporting that "The Off-Campus Student Advisory Board, a committee designed to improve study abroad programs, plans to improve student knowledge about off-campus programs by launching a website next week detailing academic, cultural and internship opportunities, as well as basic safety and accommodation information for each off-campus program." This is a smart improvement: I'd have enjoyed seeing other students' accumulated knowledge when I was on LSA in Mainz.

Addendum: Similar to the above-mentioned website, the Student Assembly's new Dartmouth Group Directory, a Wikipedia-style database with information about student groups, is a nice bit of progress on an otherwise moribund campus.

The Apotheosis of Jim Kim

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-18T19:02:24-05:00

The Gospel Choir will sing the Hallelujah Chorus in honor of Jim Kim's ascent to the World Bank.

Gosh, even Jim Wright, who was no stranger to vanity, didn't do anything like this.

Jim Kim: Dartmouth's Greatest President

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-18T04:00:00-05:00

By all accounts Bruce Rauner '78 is a smart investor, but sometimes one has to wonder about the taste of Dartmouth's many MBA's. At a well attended Dartmouth Club lunch for Jim Kim last week at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Chicago, Rauner introduced Kim as "the greatest of Dartmouth's seventeen presidents." He listed Kim's accomplishments as the Science of Health Care Delivery masters program, cutting back the endowment draw by over 2% without cutting back on any academic budgets, and creating the national collaborative to combat student drinking.

Kim thanked Rauner for the introduction, did not take issue with the praise that he had received, and then referred to Rauner in turn as "Dartmouth's most generous donor." (I guess Dr. Seuss has been quickly forgotten.)

What a bunch of back-slapping, towel-flicking boys. How sad to see supposedly educated people bereft of intellectual discipline and historical perspective.

Addendum: Personally, I'd rank John Sloan Dickey, who was President for 25 years (1945-1970), and at least a dozen other leaders, ahead of Jim Kim. Rauner's list of Kim's supposed accomplishments includes nothing related to the College's academic and residential life. Kim couldn't even re-create Dickey's Great Issues course -- about which he talked so much in his first couple of years in Hanover, until he found out that it took actual work, and not just slick speeches, to put innovations into place.

The Most Expensive Ivy But One

Joseph Asch '79 — 2012-05-17T04:00:00-05:00

Next year's Ivy tuition numbers are in for everyone but Columbia (for some reason that school doesn't announce its increase until the end of June each year), and the College is once again the most costly Ivy -- though we'll undoubtedly drop back to #2 once Columbia's figures appear.

This result is particularly unacceptable given that the cost of living in Hanover is the second lowest among the Ivy cities and towns, and the cost of living in Manhattan is the highest (see below). Additionally, the College's 4.8% increase for the coming year in tuition, room/board, and fees was the second highest jump in the Ivy League after Yale:

Dartmouth: +4.8%
Cornell: +4.4%
Penn: +3.9%
Brown: +3.5%
Yale: +4.9%
Harvard: +3.5%
Princeton: +4.5%
Columbia: not yet announced

Inflation over the past year was 2.29%.

We seem to be putting space between ourselves and schools like Princeton. Four years in Hanover will now cost you $26,872 more than getting your education in Princeton, NJ. If you had the choice, where would you (and your parents) choose to go to school?

Addendum: Unless the College gets serious about its costs, the 2013-2014 academic year will see the basic cost of attending Dartmouth break $60,000.