Dartblog
Special Feature: Give a Rouse
Whither the College on the Hill? Dartblog brings you news and commentary from Hanover and the world at large, including deep coverage of the maturing tenure of Dr. Kim.
Archived post
This is an archived post. Please click here to see the latest entries.
« The President of Dartmouth Should Not Care About Global Health | Home | When in Parkhurst, Have an Espresso »
Dartmouth Cuts Its Retiree Death Benefit
Oh, the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing in today’s Valley News about the College’s elimination of its retiree death benefit in order to save $150-200k/year — which Dartmouth justified as follows:
“It was concluded that removing this benefit could save three to four jobs at the College and our priority is to preserve as many jobs as possible,” the college said in a statement issued to the Valley News in response to questions about the death benefit.
How about a different priority: using this money to hire another professor and still cut those other jobs? If they were cuttable but for this specific saving, then they should still be cut.
The essential element lacking in the VN story was an investigation into how many companies in the Upper Valley actually offer a similar benefit. The Valley News does not offer any such thing to its own retired employees, neither does my company, nor does any other local employer that I know. My benefits expert says that the only entity in the Upper Valley other than the College that offers a death benefit to retired employees is… wait for it… DHMC.
The real story here is why Dartmouth felt compelled in the past to offer such market-exceptional, cradle-to-grave benefits. Clearly this is no longer possible, not when the College’s budget is broken and students can’t get into the courses that they want.
Featured posts
-
October 18, 2009
When Love Beckoned in 52nd Street
We were at San Francisco’s BIX last evening, enjoying prosecco, cheese, and a bit of music. A full year of inhabitation in Northern California has unraveled to me no decent venue for proper lounging, but… -
October 9, 2009
D Afraid of a Little Competish
So our colleague and Dartblog writer Joe Asch informed me that the D has rejected our cunning advertising campaign. Uh-oh. The Dartmouth is widely known as a breeding ground for instant New York Times successes,… -
September 4, 2009
How Regents Should Reign
As Dartmouth alumni proceed through the legal hoops necessary to defuse a Board-packing plan—which put in unhappy desuetude an historic 1891 Agreement between alumni and the College guaranteeing a half-democratically-elected Board of Trustees—it strikes one… -
August 29, 2009
Election Reform Study Committee
If you are an alum of the College on the Hill, you may have received a number of e-mails of late beseeching your input for a new arm of the College’s Alumni Control Apparatus called… -
August 23, 2009
Fare Thee Well, Tom Crady
And now Dean Tom Crady has precipitously announced his departure from the College after only 20 months on the job. How to read this? By way of background, prior to coming to Dartmouth, Crady had… -
May 31, 2009
Kangaroo Court, Indeed
In an interview with The Dartmouth, alumni-elected trustee T.J. Rodgers ‘70 explained his reasons for declining to participate in future evaluations of trustees up for “re-election,” namely the “kangaroo court” nature of such discussion in…