The Dartmouth Review
Tuesday – May 29, 2018
3
MASTHEAD & EDITORIAL EST. 1980 EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief B. Webb Harrington
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Jack F. Mourouzis
Executive Editor Joshua L. Kauderer
Managing Editors Daniel M. Bring Rachel T. Gambee
Tech Editor Erik R. Jones
Associate Editors Eashwar N. Sivarajan William G. Jelsma Alexander Rauda
Senior Correspondent Joshua D. Kotran
BUSINESS STAFF President
Noah J. Sofio
President Emeritus Robert Y. Sayegh
Vice President Jake G. Philhower
ADVISORY Founders
Greg Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, Keeney Jones
Legal Counsel
Mean-Spirited, Cruel, and Ugly
Board of Trustees
Martin Anderson, Patrick Buchanan, Theodore Cooperstein, Dinesh D’Souza, Michael Ellis, Robert Flanigan, John Fund, Kevin Robbins, Gordon Haff, Jeffrey Hart, Laura Ingraham, Mildred Fay Jefferson, William Lind, Steven Menashi, James Panero, Hugo Restall, Roland Reynolds, William Rusher, Weston Sager, Emily Esfahani-Smith, R. Emmett Tyrrell, Sidney Zion
NOTES Special thanks to William F. Buckley, Jr. “A great thanks to all the brave soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice.” The Editors of The Dartmouth Review welcome correspondence from readers concerning any subject, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material published previously in The Review. We reserve the right to edit all letters for clarity and length. Please submit letters to the editor by mail or email: editor@dartreview.com Or by mail at:
The Dartmouth Review P.O. Box 343 Hanover, NH 03755 (603) 643-4370
Please direct all complaints to: editor@thedartmouth.com
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win great triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to takerank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” —Theodore Roosevelt
EDITORIAL
Bloated Bureaucracy As seniors prepare to graduate and helping students with the paper timesay so long to Dartmouth, it seems fit- card, a task frequently carried out in ting to examine for what their four years that office. It is worth pointing out that of tuition actually paid. The educational the office that I went into probably has advancement that the College provides enough space for twenty or so workers should be obvious to any graduating at the typical arrangement, and many customer. They know how much they more if they were to squeeze in like have learned over the last four years. the Capitol Hill office in which I once Each graduating senior also knows the worked. It appeared however that the position of employment they will soon office was nearly abandoned when I enhold, or the lack thereof. Professors and tered at around 1:00 pm in the middle of classrooms are of course a deepthe week. The person whose ly important part of signature I needed was the Dartmouth edunot back yet; her twocation, but those are hour lunch break had what we see every day. called her away. When Given this, it seems asked why the process opportune to discuss was the way it was− the other thing that time consuming and student tuition, along confusing− one of with whatever other the office workers remoney can be fleeced sponded by saying “so from students via students don’t fill out Dartmouth Dining paper timecards.” Services or other fees, I later went to 7 actually pays for: adLebanon Street in ministration. Accorddowntown Hanover. ing to Dartmouth’s The Payroll Office ocB. Webb Harrington filings as a non-profcupies an office at this it, the College employs approximately location. The Payroll Office was closed 2700 non-Geisel employees. A filing and abandoned at 3:10 PM when I arfrom 2012 suggests that about 60% of rived. This is policy as the office is only those employees work in the following open 25 hours per week. After further areas: “Advancement,” Dean of the Col- inquiry, I was informed that all emlege, Finance, and Administration, the ployees in this office are full-time emPresident’s Office, and a concentration ployees, and work nowhere else but the of employees in the Provost’s Office. For Payroll Office. If only I had such a work comparison, there are only about 4400 schedule. undergraduates attending Dartmouth, I dropped off my signed form and so there are two employees for every headed downstairs to ask more about three students at Dartmouth. Only 600 typical hours for the organization. After of all of Dartmouth’s employees are ten- a brief and pleasant conversation with ured or tenure-track faculty, including several more staffers, excited to soon be the graduate schools. These facts and able to head out for the day. Perhaps one figures can only go so far as to describe reason that they were so open to helping the administrative situation at Dart- me is that it appeared that they had no mouth whereas personal experience can other work to be accomplishing. normally do more to illustrate it. In the By the end of my journey, I had learned last few weeks, I have had a personal a lot. I learned that administrators have episode with a small portion of Dart- very little work to do without clear roles mouth’s administrative bloat that exem- assigned to them. I’m sure that many plifies a common student experience. of my fellows who are graduating to On campus, I work as a Study Group pursue careers in investment banking, Leader in Economics. In order to get consulting, and technology will be enpaid, like many other Dartmouth em- tertained, and then probably offended ployees, I fill out a time card online. If that so many employees “work” only 25 there is a mistake in the electronic time- or 30 hours per week, including time off card by the end of a two week pay period, for lunch. I learned that some administhen I have to fill out a paper timecard trative procedures exist merely to try to and follow the process to get it amend- make students’ lives more difficult and ed. After a miscommunication concern- time-consuming. Just as my journey ing whether I billed for preparation time through a small portion of the Dartbetween myself and the College, I got to mouth administration came to an end, follow this process and experience for so too does the journey of many seniors myself the mire of the College’s admin- through our small, if bloated, College istrative branch. on a hill. Our graduating friends get to First, I went to the library, second look back on their four years fondly. For floor Baker to be exact. There, I met the parents, students, and alumni who with three different women, each of wonder what the check they signed is whom tried to help me fill out a form being used for, the answer is obvious: that was not self-explanatory. As it turns another bureaucrat. I am sure the doout, despite such a large bureaucracy, in- nation to the continued employment dividual employees’ roles are not clearly of many unnecessary administrators is defined. No one person has the job of much appreciated.