Dartblog

The President of Dartmouth should not care about global health any more than he cares about African & African-American Studies, Asian/Mideast Language and Literature, Asian/Mideast Studies, Anthropology, Arabic, Art History, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Chinese, Classical Studies, Cognitive Science, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, Earth Sciences, Economics, Evaluative/Clinical Sciences, Education, English, Engineering Sciences, Environmental Studies, Film Studies, French, Geography, German, Government, Greek, Hebrew, History, International Studies, Italian, Japanese, Jewish Studies, Korean Language and Literature, Latin Am/Caribbean Studies, Latin, Latino Studies, Linguistics, Mathematics & Social Sciences, Mathematics, Music, Native American Studies, Public Policy, Philosophy, Physics, Portuguese, Psychological & Brain Sciences, Religion, Russian, Studio Art, Sociology, Spanish, Speech, Social Science, Theater, Women’s and Gender Studies, and War and Peace Studies*.

Of course, Jim Yong Kim can have his personal passions, don’t get me wrong, but there are plenty of people around here, your humble servant included, who would like to see our President show interest in subjects other than global health and the fields that surround it. The animating idea behind the liberal arts is that the study of a range of fields is of value, both in and of itself and also for students who will then take the knowledge and skills that they derive from this work and apply it to other areas.

Dartmouth faculty members share the same passion for their own fields that Jim Kim feels for his particular interest. However, as the leader of this institution, President Kim will not fulfill his responsibilities if he does not devote the same time and attention in his meetings and his speeches to the College’s varied fields of study that he now gives only to global health.

This is not a gentle admonition; there are a good number of people on the faculty who are asking whether President Kim sees himself as running an Ivy League college or only its medical school.

* In other words, all of Dartmouth’s academic departments.