Dartblog

Now that Jim Km has left town, a number of anecdotes are making the rounds from people who otherwise would have been discreet. I guess that when the threat of punishment departs, tongues loosen.

1) The Distinguished Professor Walks Out: At one point, Jim Kim invited one of the College’s top emeritus professors to his office. Ostensibly, Kim wanted to hear about this faculty member’s scholarly work. After the first ten minutes of their meeting, wherein Kim monopolized the conversation talking about his efforts bring low-cost pharmaceuticals to the Third World, the professor asked why the meeting was taking place. Kim responded that he had wanted to meet the professor. The prof turned to Kim and announced that the meeting was over, and he promptly left the office — with Kim rushing after him, pleading for him to stay. I guess that some of our faculty have a low tolerance for being manipulated.

2) Jim Throws an Izze Fit: Jim Kim was very concerned about his appearance, and he particularly feared that he was gaining weight in Hanover. He wanted to switch to the diet version of Izze, his favorite drink. But the lo-cal Izze Esque was not distributed in the Upper Valley. No matter. Kim would dispatch an intern on a regular basis to drive down to Manchester to stock up on the beverage. However, on a couple of occasions, the poor intern did not keep tabs on inventory, and our President found himself without his diet soda. Kim’s reproachful tirades, which took place in front of various guests to the presidential office, were the talk of Parkhurst for many weeks.

3) Big Jim Makes Hanover Feel Small: The Town of Hanover’s harsh enforcement of the alcohol laws has repeatedly been the subject of writing in this space. Jim Kim went before the Town of Hanover Selectboard to ask that Hanover’s police exercise the same discretion in enforcing — or rather, not enforcing — the laws against underage drinking as the police forces in other Ivy cities and towns. By all accounts, rather than exhibiting an anthropologist’s subtlety in dealing with local cultures, Kim’s performance led Hanover’s Town fathers to believe that Dartmouth’s President looked down on them as rubes. Needless to say, at the end of the meeting, they were less amenable to changing their position than before it. I guess that the yokels were smart enough to know when someone was talking down to them.