<p>The GGMM posting at Dartmouth about the appointment of Dr. Jim Yong Kim represents the misguided, offensive, and wrong effort of a single undergraduate to put a humorous spin on Kim’s election to be Dartmouth’s next president.</p>
<p>The overwhelming response to Dr. Kim’s election has been positive. The Search Committee went through a year-long process. Even though Dr. Kim does not come from a ‘traditional’ academic background, he blew away all the other candidates. He is beyond impressive: rarely does a candidate emerge virtually by acclamation; who stands out so clearly as someone right for both the place, and the time.</p>
<p>The Board then elected him to the position, and Dr. Kim accepted. His introduction earlier this week was wonderful to watch. In my estimation, his challenge will not be ‘racism’ on the Dartmouth campus, but rather how to deal with the sleeplessness which every parent of a newborn experiences! (His 2nd son is less than a week old.)</p>
<p>Given his background (growing up in Iowa, undergraduate at Brown in the late 70s/early 80s, and rising through the faculty ranks at Harvard Medical School), it is certain this incident represents neither the first, nor the most juvenile, manifestation of ‘racism’ which Dr. Kim has encountered. It is also certain that his nature rises far beyond the level of this incident. This UGs opinion, no matter how ill-formed, no matter how satirical its intent, does not speak for Dartmouth, does not reflect on any substantial portion of Dartmouth, and ought not to be taken at all as a pejorative upon the institution and its many members, students, staff, faculty, administration, and alumni.</p>
<p>Dartmouth may be located in northern New England (which is not very diverse, either racially or ethnically), but Dartmouth itself is incredibly diverse. I don’t have the numbers at my fingertips, but it rivals each of its sister Ivy institutions in diversity. In terms of gender equity, it leads the Ivies in terms of female faculty members, and has had a number of successful programs over the last 20 years to increase participation and support of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering fields.</p>
<p>Look for Dartmouth to use this incident as a springboard for further positive change: change which has been underway in a continuous thread, whether in the form of the first Episcopalians embraced in the community, or the first Irish Catholics, or the first German-Americans, or the first Italian-Americans, or the first Jewish Americans, or the first African-Americans, or the first Asian-Americans… you get my drift. It’s a continuum, folks. Every generation has the challenge of bringing ‘others’ into the fold. The contrast may be sharper at Dartmouth, because of its locale. But the contrast is not more intense than at any other seat of learning.</p>