To the Editor:
No matter how well you do something at Dartmouth, you're going to be criticized.
Dartmouth's political pundits are notorious for wanting it all, no matter what the facts are, and the 1994 Student Assembly Course Guide is no exception. Critics of the guide complain that it costs too much and fails to cover all of the courses offered at the College. In other words, they want a course guide that costs less and contains more.
This may, at first, seem to be a rational desire if you're willing to overlook the fact that a course guide covering every course at the College would entail the production of a publication over 800 pages in length at a staggering cost of some $20,000 -- roughly two-thirds of the Assembly's annual budget.
Most Dartmouth students -- pundits excluded -- are intelligent enough to reason that such an endeavor would greatly exceed the resources the Assembly now has available.
As it is, almost the entire burden of creating this book fell upon the shoulders of myself and Summer Assembly President Grace Chionuma '96. Both of us poured literally hundreds of hours into the book's editing, production, layout and design.
Perhaps if some of the course guide's critics had lifted a finger to help they might have some grounds on which to complain.
Furthermore, the course guide can only contain as many reviews as professors are willing to provide. Each term the Assembly distributes evaluation forms to every department. If a professor chooses not to distribute these forms or withholds completed forms from the course guide, there's little the Assembly can do but appeal to the department chairs.
I would suggest that anyone disappointed in a particular department's lack of representation direct those concerns to that department and/or professor. I'm sure there's nothing the people who invest their time and energy in this project would like more than to see a more complete course guide -- as long as it's economically feasible.
Another conveniently overlooked fact is that the $8,200 printing cost of the 1994 Course Guide is already substantially less the three previous guides. The 1990 and 1991 guides each cost in excess of $11,000 to print, and the 1992 Course Guide -- distributed in an electronic format -- cost nearly $10,000 to produce. The 1993 Course Guide was pre-empted by ineptitude and cost the Assembly nothing but ridicule and derision.
The financial maneuvering of Student Assembly President Danielle Moore '95 should be credited for the incredible printing deal the 1994 Course Guide received.
The fact of the matter is that the course guide now in the hands of Dartmouth students is more comprehensive and of higher quality than any other that has preceded it. Not only does it include more course reviews than its predecessors, it also includes the addition of top-rated faculty profiles and cumulative ratings of departments and professors. Special care was taken to transform the format of the 1994 Course Guide into a user-friendly, quick-reference source.
At the very least, this year's course guide far exceeds what students received last year. It cost less and delivers more than any previous guide, and we have the tireless efforts and managerial savvy of Danielle Moore and Grace Chionuma to thank for it.
But the pundits just complain, complain, complain. At least your Student Assembly is doing something now. If you happen to see Danielle, Grace or Vice President Rukmini Sichitiu '95, please thank them for me, will you?
