Well, that’s not quite true. We have been all up ons higher ed for quite a while. It’s not nicknamed University of Caucasians Living among Asians (UCLA) for nothing. But now Dartmouth has taken another step in choosing the first Asian-American to head an Ivy League institution. So this is quite interesting news.
Dr. Jim Yong Kim was born in Seoul and currently chairs the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard. He received a MacArthur genius grant in 2003 and has worked extensively with Dr. Paul Farmer. I’m interested to see what he brings to Dartmouth, as his background is quite different from that of other university presidents.
It will be sad to see the current president of Dartmouth go, as my family have known him through the years and he and his wife have been so warm and welcoming to us. I know there has been tension between President Wright and the Board of Trustees, and that Dartmouth’s mismanagement of money was revealed a month or so ago and led to some staff downsizing. So I guess a change like this shouldn’t be surprising.
My little brother currently attends Dartmouth as an undergrad so to him I say, “Enjoy the Korean man responsibly.”
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: academia, firsts, korean
No Responses Yet to “Asian-Americans infiltrating higher ed!”