On the Prodigal Collis Renovation

This paper has made no secret of its opinions of the efficiency of Dartmouth’s bureaucracy in the past. Time and time again, we have bemoaned the myriad instances of wastefulness with which Dartmouth administration is ridden. Yet, our warnings seem to have had little effect, as yet again we hear of another tale of wasteful woes with the recently partially completed Collis renovations. The project, coming in at a ridiculous cost of $5 million, stands as a testament of the persistent calcification within Dartmouth’s administration. 

With the Collis patio having been closed for the better part of a year, students had hoped that the renovations would make up for the substantial inconvenience that the unavailability of one of the key outdoor spaces imposed upon them. Yet upon the completion of the project most of us were entirely dissatisfied with the result. The much-vaunted renovations succeeded only in marginally expanding the patio spaces and adding a ramp to the front for easier wheelchair access. Readers should note that Collis already had a ramp, but it was just placed to the side of the patio. 

President Beilock has set a stated goal of reshaping campus life at Dartmouth towards productive discussion facilitated by an enhanced academic experience. Yet, such grand ambitions are not possible if we continue to waste substantial amounts of money on trivial measures. Certainly, the renovations conducted on Collis are beneficial, and yet compared to the cost necessary to complete them, the benefits they provide are miniscule. When one considers that the Collis renovations exceed budgets of Student Government, the summation of the students activities fee, and amount to roughly half of what DDS spends on food in a given year, we understand how large the cost of this project was in comparison to programs the expansion of which would have a greater positive impact on the student experience than nicer stairs and fresh concrete.

Of course, $5 million is in itself not a substantial portion of Dartmouth’s operating budget. Yet, the bill is only the tip of the iceberg of the administration’s wastefulness. One only need peruse the staff directory to find hundreds of examples of utterly unproductive positions salaried out of the tuition paid by Dartmouth students and the endowment funded by donors who, presumably, want to see their money put to some worthwhile use. Dartmouth only recently spent $6.5 million on renovations to the face of Rauner Library, a project which, while certainly more useful than the Collis renovations—Rauner Library having truly needed a facelift—similarly raises eyebrows at its cost. 

While Dartmouth cutting back student services like 24-hour library operations, and having failed to fully-restore pre-COVID dining functionality, one must wonder why Dartmouth is putting the money it draws in from ever-higher tuition bills and an endowment that continues to grow towards generally inconsequential and ridiculously expensive vanity projects. 

Dartmouth’s still relatively new leadership should consider examining exactly why these projects are so very expensive, and whether the cost, if truly necessary, is even worth the benefits to the student experience and the health of the school more broadly.