Pick a topic: The College's ban on local sororities; Hanover Police's attack on Greek life and the Good Samaritan policy; the pervasive threat of sexual assault; class oversubscription; an ineffective residential life policy; the lingering consequences of budget cuts. All of these problems have huge ramifications on the quality of every student's hallowed "Dartmouth Experience." And people care about them, but they don't take enough meaningful action to confront them. What are the issues students have recently self-organized to address instead? Making the Homecoming bonfire more welcoming ("Group works to improve bonfire," Oct. 15) and reinstating swimming at the Connecticut River docks.
We don't mean to denigrate those two endeavors as small in scope as they may be. At least the students involved are devoting some of their time otherwise spent on classes, practice and extracurriculars to engage with each other and challenge the administration on matters they care about. But no students have stepped up to take responsibility for effecting change in other, more vital areas. In just the last year we've seen student-led efforts raise tens of thousands of dollars for relief of the earthquake in Haiti, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with College staff against layoffs and move against Hanover Police's ill-conceived and harmful drinking policies. But several events thus far this fall should have catalyzed similar action.
Are Dartmouth students cripplingly apathetic? Recently, this debate engaged columnists, who argued that we no longer care about confronting major issues in person-to-person conversation ("The Need to Engage," Oct. 18) or campus-wide dialogue ("Blood, Toil, Sweat and Apathy," Sept. 28). Our comments section alone demonstrates, however, that students do care intensely at times. But even though students acknowledge and hold informed, often passionate, opinions, we've entered a remarkably stagnant period of campus affairs. While students understand, and often discuss, the issues that exist, few substantial results have emerged from the copious talk and voluminous writing on issues of common concern.
In our current lull, students delegate to bodies such as the Student Assembly, and the College administration, which are largely ineffective at substantially changing culture. For example, rather than mobilize for changes in the social system that could help save lives, students simply watched the Student and Presidential Alcohol Harm Reduction Committee from afar as its policy recommendations were presented, and went nowhere. It is students' lack of willingness to actively support these entities that ultimately renders them ineffective.
The College isn't perfect after 241 years it never will be. But that does not mean four years in Hanover should be dedicated to ignoring and complaining, instead of acting. Dartmouth students must recognize that they do not need the sanction of a committee or an invitation from the College administration to take action. Such action must produce more than good intentions; students before us rallied the community to produce tangible changes, and there is no reason that interested students can't do the same to combat sexual assault or defend Greek life.
