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June 30, 1999
The report of the Alumni Council College Relations Group summarizes alumni response to the Student Life Initiative (SLI). The report is divided into two main sections: general alumni perspectives on the SLI, gathered between February and May, 1999; and Alumni Council input, gathered during the Council's spring meeting, May 20-22, 1999.
General alumni feedback came from a variety of sources: the College's web site; the CRG's own e-mail address; letters; and telephone calls. This response can be characterized as reaction to early published statements from the College, press coverage, and electronic communications among the alumni network. The Alumni Council, in its deliberations, had the opportunity to listen and speak to trustees, administrators, students and each other, and in this sense became much better educated than the general alumni population about the SLI.
I. Overview of the CRG
- Elected committee of the Alumni Council
- Composed entirely of alumni who are not employees of the College
- Mission: "to elicit and responsibly communicate the concerns of all alumni and to candidly discuss these with the Board of Trustees and the administration . . .(and to have) meetings with representative members of the Board of Trustees and the college president."
- Role of CRG in Providing Alumni Feedback on Student Life Initiative (SLI)
- Requested by Stan Colla to compile all alumni input for presentation to Board of Trustees (Feb-May 1999)
- Requested by Dave Cook, Alumni Council President, to lead broad and free-ranging discussion of the SLI by the Council in May 1999 in the latter's role as the primary forum for the discussion of issues and concerns relative to the alumni body and Dartmouth College
II. Alumni Perspectives on the Student Life Initiative Feedback (February - May, 1999)
- Process for getting feedback
- Letter from Stan Colla to all alumni volunteers
- E-mail from Sherri Oberg to all Alumni Councilors
- Phone calls from CRG to Committee on Alumni Organization members and presidents of all alumni organizations
- E-mails to list serves of various clubs
- Information in Alumni Magazine and Dartmouth Life
- Coordination with Alumni Relations Office while maintaining independence
- Meeting with trustees on 3/31/99
- Mailing to Alumni Councilors on 4/27/99 urging attendance
- Prolonged discussion at May 20-22 Alumni Council meeting
- Points of consensus
- Five Trustee goals are laudable
- Change may be good for the institution
- Process for the initiative was flawed
- Alumni opinion was not solicited in advance
- Significant break with historically inclusive decision making process
- Distrust of top-down, autocratic approach
- Anger at Trustees for asking for discretionary money (Alumni Fund) without asking opinions
- Strongest feelings among alumni leaders, even those who support the initiative
- Communication of Initiative has been confusing
- Trustee missive was innocuous
- "Quotes" from President were extremely ominous
- Secretive process compounded the problem
- alumni relations staff unable to clarify
- alumni leaders unable to clarify
- Result
- agenda unclear
- interpretation is that single-sex fraternities/sororities will be made co-ed/ abolished
- Points of controversy
- Should Trustees make fraternities/sororities co-ed?
- Yes
- Fraternity/Sorority system is fundamentally flawed
- Drawbacks of Fraternities/Sororities
- Insulates students from full range of experiences and friends
- Detrimental to integrated, harmonious community life on campus
- Promotes offensive, dangerous behavior and alcohol abuse
- Rush is degrading; artificially divides people into exclusive groups
- Alienating to those not in the system
- Reputation deters some applicants
- No
- Freedom of choice is good
- Single-sex organizations
- In real life, there are times when single-sex social options enhance personal growth
- People like to socialize with people similar to themselves
- Exclusivity of affinity housing, sports teams and academic groups highlighted
- single-sex social and residential options are essential for true diversity
- if students wanted more co-ed houses, there would be more
- Educational experience
- critical to allow students to make their own choices, learn to shape their own lives
- Social engineering is bad
- Making frats/sororities co-ed limits options rather than expands choices
- Fraternities /sororities have many benefits
- Alcohol abuse won't be minimized by making CFS co-ed
- Feedback from various alumni organizations
- Benefits of CFS
- Long lasting friendships
- Support network and safe haven for members
- Bonds with a diverse group of people
- Continuity to life within the D-plan
- Leadership experience
- Community service
- Long-term bond with the college
- Key to Alumni Fund success
- Key to Dartmouth's strong sense of place and tradition
- Summary "statistics" (see attached chart)
- Suggestions for improving social and residential life
- Give CFS more programmatic responsibilities; retain system and build on its strengths
- Offer improved, low cost social and cultural programming
- Build co-ed cluster dorms
- Keep single-sex dorms
- Give students more governance and programmatic responsibilities within dorm system
- Supplement existing system with more inclusive options
- Adjust D-plan, bring greater cohesiveness and continuity to residential life
- Retain open parties and lack of pretension that many value in CFS
- Improve social options: dance clubs, sports bar, jazz club, health club, etc.
- Instead of forcing change, concentrate on offering alternatives
- Replace CFS with co-ed academic interest houses
- Make CFS all co-ed
- Focus on educating students about alcohol abuse—this worked more for me than keg bans and security checks
- Offer incentives for single-sex houses to go co-ed/don't force
III. Alumni Council Input on the SLI (May 20 - 22, 1999)
- Council devoted majority of May meeting to educating Councilors about the SLI
- Attempt to balance misinformation provided by national press
- Report on SLI by Trustees
- Panel discussion on SLI by administrators and students
- Report from CRG on alumni input on SLI
- Small group discussions to generate input on
- Top priorities for improving student life at Dartmouth
- Ways to improve the fraternity/sorority system
- Ways to improve social and residential spaces
- Ways to minimize alcohol abuse
- Alumni Council's Top Priorities for Improving Student Life at Dartmouth
- Upgrade and create dorm facilities with residential and social options that effectively compete with CFS
- Upgrade existing dorms
- Build more dorms
- Get more people back on campus
- Work with CFS to create a plan with clear goals that are monitored
- Provide financial incentives for achieving goals
- Establish and enforce consequences for not meeting goals
- Look for ways to better integrate social and academic aspects of undergraduate experience
- Provide better use and more social space designed by students
- Provide ongoing alcohol education
- Ways to Improve the CFS System (per AC)
- Remedy imbalance between fraternity & sorority houses
- higher priority than co-ed houses which have been marginally successful
- Develop a plan with measurable goals that are monitored and reported against
- financial incentives for hitting goals
- consequences for missing goals
- clear rules which are enforced
- Get CFS to take a leadership role in alcohol education
- Improve physical plant by
- reforming funding mechanisms
- dedicating summer to repairing houses vs. housing sophomores
- Provide college funding and facilities for more student organized social alternatives outside of the CFS System
- Take the pressure off the CFS system to be the primary provider of social life for entire college
- Ways to Improve Social and Residential Spaces (per AC)
- Conduct use audit of existing space
- get team of diverse students to generate creative ideas for how to use existing space
- Improve accessibility and functionality of Bema/College Park
- improved paths and sculptures
- increase performances and cook-outs
- Improve accessibility and transportation to DOC cabins and facilities
- Give Alumni Hall to students/create new space for alumni
- Expand International House
- Define a new central meeting space
- e-mail has eclipsed Hinman as the central meeting place
- Integrate academic life into dorms as a choice
- not for everyone, some like to separate work and play
- Create housing pyramid
- larger for freshman who want to meet people
- smaller for seniors who want shared life experience
- Bring back single-sex dorms
- Ways to Minimize Alcohol Abuse (per AC)
- Increase alcohol education
- health/alcohol courses as part of PE freshman year
- additional funding to expand program/one FT advisor not enough
- ensure peer counselors for all student groups
- Encourage students desire to take responsibility
- fund training of more peer counselors
- get student groups to set goals and enforce
- bear consequences for failure to enforce own goals
- Highlight and reinforce behavior of students who do drink responsibly
- help students redefine behavior norms
- Develop disciplinary policy which is influenced by legal issues
- underage/illegal drinking should carry stiffer penalties
- prompt notification of parents at first underage offense
- Develop better understanding of why students binge drink
- conduct focus groups of binge drinkers at Dartmouth
- compare data with society at large
- use data to develop plan to attack this serious problem
IV. Recommended Next Steps
- Proactively distribute accurate information on SLI to all alumni over summer
- Re-solicit alumni input in fall
- Respond to CSLI final report in December
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