At its Winter term meeting this weekend, the College's Board of Trustees voted to implement the Dartmouth Experience proposal, set forward by Dean of the College Lee Pelton.
Under the plan, the East Wheelock cluster will undergo a $600,000 renovation this summer and will be outfitted with a resident professor, a "cluster dean," a snack bar and a $25,000 programming budget by Fall term.
Pelton said he hopes the plan, which is the realization of the recommendations of the Committee on the First-Year Experience that Pelton created and chaired, will result in the "marriage of intellectual and social life" at Dartmouth.Pelton said success in the East Wheelock cluster may lead to similar renovations in other Dartmouth residence hall clusters.
"We intend to evaluate this initial step after a couple of years, and if it is judged a success, to replicate it in other clusters," he said.
Pelton said he expects 50 percent of the cluster's 235 residents to be freshmen and that upperclassmen are an important component of the project.
Pelton said students will be able to request to live in the new cluster when they apply for housing. If there is competition for the available rooms, Pelton said residents will be selected at random.
"Students have complained to me that it's not always easy for intellectual life outside the classroom to take place," Pelton said. "A number of students have complained the College has not given intellectual life enough priority."
The plan "grew out of the first-year experience report. One of the principle issues was students asking that the College provide another social alternative - one not dominated by alcohol," Pelton said.
"What this attempts to do is unite intellectual activities with socializing and to suggest that those two can be one and the same," Pelton said.
"But 'intellectual' does not mean sitting around on the floor and discussing Plato's Republic," he said. "It could mean talking about marketing or health care, public policy" or sporting events.
Pelton said the essence of the new cluster will be a stronger relationship between faculty and students. The white house at 13 East Wheelock St. that sits adjacent to the dorms will be renovated to house a resident professor and his family.
The resident professor will be a tenured, senior professor appointed by College President James Freedman, Pelton said. He or she will be relieved from half their teaching load in order to a make time for cluster responsibilities.
The job will entail organizing social events that are both intellectually stimulating and fun at the same time.
"I think the key to this is the faculty associate," Pelton said. "He or she must have the ability to work with students, the Office of Residential Life and the cluster dean to create an environment that really feels like a community of learners who are having fun learning."
Pelton said the College will begin the search for the resident professor soon.
"It will be a competitive process," he said. "A small committee with at least one student will conduct process."
The committee will look for a professor who enjoys being with students outside of the classroom, Pelton said. The choice must be made carefully because Pelton expects the resident professor will reside at the cluster for three or four years.
In addition to be a friend to students, the resident professor will organize social events as intellectually stimulating as they are fun.
The new cluster is to be a magnet for all members of the Dartmouth community, not just the cluster's residents, Pelton said.
Pelton said the resident professor will be at the center of this new interaction, inviting students, artists, speakers and other faculty members to cluster social events.
The "cluster dean" will be similar to a class dean, Pelton said. He will spend half his time advising students at the cluster.
Pelton said he envisions "students going down to see the dean to talk about graduate school or some advising issue and then in the evening there might be an event in the [resident professor's] house."
"Let's imagine that the convocation speaker is invited for lunch at the professor's home," Pelton said. "The residents who have interest in that speaker's area will come over."
Pelton said the resident professor and the students will decide together what kind of programming to fund with the $25,000 budget.
During the summer, Brace Commons will be renovated to include office and reception areas for the resident professor, the cluster dean and a full time administrative assistant.
The renovation will also include the creation of a small snack bar for evening and late-night use by students.
A fourth-floor study room will be converted to a seminar room large enough to accommodate 20 students.
