A new group calling itself Dartmouth United hosted a discussion last Thursday night in which the leaders outlined their hopes for improving Dartmouth's sense of community and social scene.
The group hopes to unite the campus by providing substance-free programming but is still trying to define itself and its specific agenda.
"We feel that something is missing here. We want to provide a way to bring more people together on campus while offering a social option that doesn't involve drinking," Phil Lord '97, one of the group's two creators, said.
Lord and Jay Lavender '97 created the group late last year when they began questioning what was missing from Dartmouth.
"We love Dartmouth and we want other people to like Dartmouth as well," Lord said.
Dartmouth United "is an alliance of artists, athletes and students from all sectors of the Dartmouth community ... whose goals are to provide students with something more, not something else," Lavender said.
Thursday's discussion, which attracted more than 120 students to the Top of the Hop, began with an informal history of Dartmouth United and the presentation of its long and short-term goals.
Dartmouth United set tentative goals for itself, including finding funding, gaining official College recognition and implementing its own activities -- which may include road trips, speakers and concerts.
Lavender and Lord said they began Dartmouth United by talking to other students to locate common concerns.
"We started by holding brainstorming sessions with other students every week for the last month to see if other organizations also saw a need for more social options on campus," Lavender said.
Unlike many of the clubs and organizations on campus, Dartmouth United will not be exclusive in its membership.
"Everyone is a member. We will find probably that more students are active than others," Lavender said.
"By incorporating more people, we hope to generate some interest in taking a role in Dartmouth United," he said.
Another issue addressed at the discussion was the role of alcohol in Dartmouth's social scene. "We found that alcohol abuse was too pervasive rather than complementing the social atmosphere here," Lord said.
Lord and Lavender said they feel the absence of alcohol will lead to more interaction between students and result in deeper and "invariably stronger relationships."
"We are interested in providing such opportunities in a substance-free setting. Our concern is not with your drinking choices -- each of you makes your own choices," Lavender said.
Lavender and Lord also commented on the group's desire for a campus facility, specifically a house, that would act to "facilitate dialogue between different parts of the Dartmouth community."
Both envision the house as a place where students could go to hang out when they wanted something different to do on weekends.
