After a three days of discussion about campus social issues like diversity, the Academic and Student Services Officers Network conference ended yesterday on an inclusive note.
The College hosted this year's conference, which enabled representatives from some of the nation's top schools to share successes, failures and different approaches to solving problems that have arisen in their communities.
Dean of the College Lee Pelton said, in an interview with The Dartmouth, he wanted to highlight the importance of moving away from the specialization of programs and groups within the college community as the focus of his keynote speech at the welcoming dinner on Sunday.
"My worries are that our institutions are becoming too specialized," Pelton said.
Pelton said he wants to see a movement toward programming that applies a broader notion of diversity -- "issues that are not simply related to curriculum" nor to extracurricular groups.
John Pryor, Dartmouth's coordinator of evaluation and research and Dartmouth Medical School Research Professor, said Pelton's opening speech "set the tone for the rest of the conference".
Pryor said, "People kept referring back to and building upon" the themes that Pelton addressed in his speech.
The officers at the conference discussed "the issue of diversity and ways to grapple with it and define it," Pryor said.
He said some discussions at the conference focused on Pelton's idea of creating programs that are more inclusive.
Pryor said the College already has an example of such a program. He said Cutter-Shabazz Hall is open to all people who have an interest in learning about African American culture and does not exclude people who belong to a different ethnic group.
Participants at the conference also discussed alcohol abuse on campuses, Pryor said.
He said the discussion focused on "enlisting the help of students to deal with these issues, instead of [having the administration] trying to come down with a decree."
Dartmouth faculty co-moderated most of the discussion sessions with members of the other institutes, said Mary Childers, the College's director of equal opportunity and affirmative action.
Childers facilitated a session titled, "Diversity and Negotiating Ethnic Identities in the Post Civil-Rights Era," with the dean of students from Amherst College.
Childers said she felt the atmosphere of the conference, which included schools with similar student bodies and similar problems, allowed for more open conversation and made it easier for differing opinions to surface.
She described the conference as "stimulating" and said the organization of the conference gave her the opportunity to "learn a lot" from her colleagues at other top colleges and universities.
Pryor said the conference was a "wonderful opportunity for upper level deans to get together and discuss things that go on at various campuses."
Some of the other institutions participating in the conference included Smith, Swarthmore and Williams.
