8 Asians

Dartmouth College Appoints First Asian American President of Ivy League University

By Yan | Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | Comments


Kim

Dartmouth College announced on Monday that Jim Yong Kim would be the school’s 17th president and the first Asian American to head an Ivy League institution.

Kim’s qualifications are beyond perfect.

After graduating from Brown University in 1982 with a major in human biology, he went on to earn a medical degree and a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard University. Kim has headed the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department, been chair of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, won a 2003 MacArthur “genius grant”, and was listed as one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine in 2006 for his work in saving the world.

As a current Dartmouth student, I applaud the school’s efforts to take a newer, more modern path. Kim’s background in medicine departs heavily from that of presidents past. His appointment has been met with a resounding approval from the community.

It feels comforting to be represented at Dartmouth. While there is a vocal and active Asian American student community, there are only a handful of Asian American professors and administrators. I also think this is a positive step away from a racist comic strip that ran in the campus daily not long ago and the community’s uninspired response. Dartmouth prides itself on its community atmosphere, but there is mild self-segregation that is not uncommon at other schools. While Kim’s appointment will definitely not solve these problems, hopefully in the long run it will serve to mitigate these issues.

Dartmouth is located in the boonies of New Hampshire—two hours north of Boston in a four-block long town called Hanover. All of Dartmouth stereotypes are more or less true. It is the smallest and arguably least well-known Ivy. Kim’s appointment definitely boosts the school’s image up from that of a conservative WASP party school to a progressive and diversity-friendly party institution.

Currently, Asian Americans make up about 5% of the total population in the United States. Of that, about 50% of single-race Asians 25 and older have at least a Bachelor’s degree. It is only 28% for all Americans over 25.

Across the Ivies, the percentages of Asian American students in undergraduate are as follows:

  • Brown- 14%
  • Columbia – 22%
  • Cornell – 18%
  • Dartmouth – 12%
  • Harvard – 16%
  • University of Pennsylvania (”PENN”) – 23.3%
  • Princeton – 15%
  • Yale – 14%

Our “model minority” stigma has been a blessing and a curse. There has been evidence of discrimination in the college admissions process. It’s a touchy subject.

In 2006, the Wall Street Journal published an article that exposed a bias against Asian Americans in college admissions.

“Asian American students have higher average SAT scores than any other government-monitored ethnic group, and selective colleges routinely reject them in favor of African American, Hispanic and even white applicants with lower scores in order to have more diverse campuses and make up for past discrimination.”

When the University of California system eliminated affirmative action in 1996, Asian American enrollment boomed, at the expense of African and Hispanic Americans populations, whose percentages saw a decline. Admissions preferences in elite institutions was also the subject of a Princeton University study which concluded that there would be a dramatic increase of Asian Americans in elite universities if race were no longer considered in college admissions.

And of course, how can we forget the guy who sued Princeton?

The appointment of an Asian American to such a lofty position is a major step for American academia. Kim, however, is not the first Asian American to be the head of a major American university. That honor belongs to Chang-lin Tien, eighth Chancellor of UC Berkeley. And last year, Rhode Island School of Design chose John Maeda as its newest leader.

Anyhow, this has been great publicity for the school. Maybe it will lead to fewer people confusing us with Darth Vader’s mouth.

Source

Thanks to John, whose links I stole.

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  • Daniel
    I'm sort of wondering (just out of personal curiosity) at the measure of demographics in US colleges. Is it just Americans (by citizenship or long-term residence) of Asian descent the census count by or all students of Asian decent?

    Some campuses I visited appeared to have a very high amount of students of Black, Hispanic, Asian (I count both East,South-East and Southern Asian) heritage students, but some of the schools claim a low percentage in their roster. It could be that a lot are international students.
  • Yan
    I'm going to guess it's all students of Asian decent, though it might vary from school to school. Even if it's not, the percentage of internationals at Dartmouth (I'm not so sure about the other schools) is so low that it would not make a huge difference.

    In regards to how you saw high amounts of minority students, it could be that you tend to see them more. The figures could also be off due to some students not wanting to specify their race. I think the numbers for Dartmouth are pretty accurate though.
  • Kim
    Interesting.....

    Well, I've been out of college for a long time, but while I was at UC Irvine, if you hung out in the student commons area, you would swear that the school was nearly 50% Korean. ---because thats where Korean's congregated, in what was a natural, culturally conservative reaction and push-back against SoCal libertine culture. I know for a fact-- (since I was TA-ing at the time) that many of these Korean students were local, and told by their first generation parents not to mingle with whites---but not for racial reasons (or at least not overt racial reasons)----rather, cultural---fearing the loss of culture, and respect for family.

    The Dathmouth racial comic is far more disturbing..... not because of the content, but because the quality of the slur is just so low----very poor quality work. Any time you need others to help EXPLAIN the racial meaning of your strip.... well, you're basically hopeless.... Darthmouth is still the Ivy League, and as Yan points out, relatively isolated.. and, I assume, snow bound much of the school year... Its not like SoCal where you always have warm breezes and the beach as a distraction to excuse for poor work....just very disturbing all around.....Hope Pres. Jim Yong Kim can make some improvements to the campus daily paper..
  • Did anyone else catch the racist email that was sent out to the students in response to Kim's appointment? It was meant to be satirical but c'mon now...

    http://www.ivygateblog.com/2009/03/dartmouth-st...
  • James
    I think that it is pretty optimistic to say that Dartmouth will eventually change due to the mere appointment of an Asian-American president. It really depends on what he does. His actual presence is in line with a lot of recent administration decisions that are essentially for show. Perhaps I'm just a disillusioned recent alum and I'll get over it, but I feel like the disconnect between the administration's talk and the student body is a fundamental problem that needs to be changed on a more profound level than your average diversity training.

    Dartmouth is playing politics - if Prez Kim actually tries to push diversity and minority representation at Dartmouth more than the current administratoin (i.e., if he does his job), he'll take heat from the conservative trustees. They'll say he's only doing it because he's a minority. Truthfully, its more likely that he was selected not to push diversity but give Dartmouth an excuse not to push it. As long as he makes the feigned attempt to diversify Dartmouth that Jimmy Wright did, he will still be viewed by many as pushing diversity just because he's Asian.

    It's a classic warped logic that prevents ethnic minorities in political positions from performing their responsibilities while giving them the chance at the same time to neglect them - it's not okay help people who happen to be in the same ethnic minority as you, but if you neglect them you still get points based on your race.

    I'm not saying I don't like President Kim - he's absurdly qualified, fresh, and, hopefully, innovative. He can do a lot for Dartmouth. But I don't buy it when people say that his appointment is helping Dartmouth with its issues with diversity and minority students.
  • Jim
    Often times Blacks and hispanic students come from less than academically stimulating environments with little family invovlment. The asian community should promote more diversity but not at the cost of becoming a white-asian majority. By providing more opportunities to other minority students you help them become leaders in their own communities and help improve all our communities in America. However a good number of people, as occurs in the white community, often times find this hard to accept or even consider because they see a detriment for their own community. Again this is not true for all but its pervades the minds of many who are in financial-power, academic-power etc.
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