Hundreds of Geisel Employees to Learn Fate Next Week

Hanover — Employees of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College will learn next week whether the school’s deficit-driven restructuring measures will leave them unemployed, require them to start over as employees of Dartmouth-Hitchcock or leave their current job status intact.

Although the college won’t say how many employees will see their employment statuses change, an email sent out Tuesday afternoon signaled that hundreds of employees will be affected.

The email, which was signed by Interim Dean Duane Compton, started on a positive note: “Thank you for your commitment to Geisel and for your patience during our strategic transformation process.”

But it made clear that the looming, though not fully detailed changes that have sparked uncertainty and worry among some of Geisel’s more than 300 faculty members and many of its more than 800 other employees are still on the way.

Faculty and other employees of the psychiatry and clinical research departments now at Dartmouth will become D-H employees. A majority of the holders of the jobs struck from the rolls at Dartmouth will get offers from D-H, officials at both institutions have said.

More details will be released soon, the email promised. Beginning April 18, department chairs and human resources staffers will meet with employees whose status will change, Compton’s email said.

The college also plans to communicate — medium not specified — with the rest of Geisel’s employees that week, the email said.

Those who are about to change status will also be sent a letter through the U.S. Postal Service as required by the U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act, Compton wrote.

That law requires firms and institutions with at least 100 employees to provide written notices prior to a plant closing or a mass layoff that will eliminate the jobs of more than 50 employees and one-third of the workforce.

The changes in job status will take effect June 30.

Dartmouth has also arranged for “career transition services” for employees from Lee Hecht Harrison, a firm that says it “helps companies simplify the complexity associated with transforming their leadership and workforce so they can accelerate results, with less risk. We do this by helping their employees navigate change, become better leaders, develop better careers and transition into new jobs.”

Rick Jurgens can be reached at rjurgens@vnews.com or 603-727-3229.