Hanover -- Dartmouth College likely will have to lay off workers in response to significant endowment losses, President Jim Yong Kim said in an interview yesterday following his first address to the faculty.

“Would I prefer not to fire anybody? Sure, I'd prefer that. Is there a way we can go forward and not fire anybody? I don't know. … I doubt it,” Kim said in the interview. “We'll do our best to try. But I think the size of the gap is much bigger than anyone ever thought.”

Earlier this month, Kim announced that endowment losses of $835 million had left the school with a $50 million shortfall in operating revenue.

The new president's remarks yesterday came after he was cautioned by several faculty members to be very transparent about another round of job cuts. They said there is a widespread perception on campus and beyond that the lowest paid workers at the Ivy League school bore the brunt of layoffs in February and again in May, that combined for the loss of 72 jobs and reductions in hours for 68 others. Those cuts came as officials announced a two-year plan to cut almost $100 million in expenses from the undergraduate college and Dartmouth Medical School. Twenty-four of the laid off workers have since found other jobs at the college.

The perception is that “we were letting the most vulnerable members of the community take the burden of this,” said German professor Irene Kacandes.

She and professor Sergei Kan said administrators should correct the impression if it is not true. They should also know that “discontent exists,” said Kan, who teaches anthropology and Native American studies. “It's out there.”

English professor Don Pease went a step further, saying service employees in his office building, working late at night over last week's homecoming weekend, told him they “were deeply anxious about their jobs, about their homes, about their security.”

“Can we not make this moment of transition exemplar by doing what our peer institutions are not doing -- bringing people back to work, rather than laying them off? That for me would be the best way to beat Harvard,” Pease said, to applause from the 400-strong crowd of faculty and administrators yesterday in Alumni Hall.

In answer, Kim said: “I couldn't agree more with your sentiment,” but added, “I can't make any promises right now.”

The new president, an anthropologist and global health expert who made his name trying to cure diseases affecting the poorest, sickest populations in the world, went on to say: “Treating the poorest fairly, I think, has got to be part of our vision. But what does that mean in concrete terms? I'm not sure yet. We'll have to discover that together.”

Unlike the last cuts, by Kim's predecessor James Wright, nothing is sacrosanct. Wright had said cuts in financial aid and faculty jobs would not be considered.

Yesterday, Kim said it is all up for grabs.

“We now have to look at everything, put it all on the table,” he said in the interview.

Acting Provost Carol Folt told the faculty the job losses and cuts earlier this year were “significantly higher” for salaried workers than hourly employees.

“It wasn't something that was done at one level and not others,” she said.

Kan suggested setting aside the college's need-blind financial aid policy until finances improve. Kim said he would consider such a move “a crisis.”

“I can't imagine being an institution where we have to say only the rich can go to school here,” he said, to loud applause. But, he added, “We simply cannot not look at everything.”

College financial planners have run the numbers using a growth rate equal to Dartmouth's past 10-year average of 8 percent for the year 2012 and beyond.

“Every scenario has run a deficit,” Kim said. “And the deficits grow each year, as expenses continue to increase and revenues do not keep up -- even with positive endowment returns.”

“Our financials are out of balance,” he said.

Financial planning is taking “easily one-third” of Kim's time, he said in the interview. With fundraising duties added in, the new president is spending “way over half time” on money matters.

And, as part of his fundraising work, Kim last week ponied up his first donation to the college at a reception for financial aid donors: a check for $25,000.

The new president said he's not spent his adult life trying to “accumulate wealth.”

“This was my first gift to Dartmouth,” he said. “It took 100 days, but that's not too bad.”

Susan J. Boutwell can be reached at sboutwell@vnews.com or at (603) 727-3248.