The Student Life task force met for the second time last Friday to discuss students' social options and hopes to present a draft report to Dean of the College Lee Pelton by the end of the term, Gabrielle Lucke, the College's Director of Health Resources and co-chair of the task force, said.
Lucke said the task force, which was created earlier this term in a response to Pelton's call for an examination of Dartmouth social life, is presently in the planning stage.
"We've had two meetings of the full task force so far this term, and we plan to meet every Friday at least until the end of the term," Lucke said.
She said the group's first meeting was devoted to brainstorming about the important issues regarding social life at the College, and the second meeting involved analyzing data and devising strategies for collecting information.
Lucke also said the task force has discussed a number of social life issues, including facilities, funding and social opportunities for students.
Canavan said in an e-mail message that the group has been "brainstorming different issues and are in the early phases of collecting information. We are still attempting to really close in and identify all the important issues to address."
Canavan said so far one of the task force's main problems has been defining social life.
"We need to define the term social life because for so many people that means very different things," she said.
Lucke said social life for some people means everything outside of academics, but for others the definition is more limited.
"At this point, we're just trying to do an assessment of it," she said. "We're collecting information to see what direction we should go in."
Lucke said plans for the future include a possible public meeting to involve students in the discussion of social life issues at the College.
Canavan wrote in an e-mail message that she has been pleased with the group's work so far.
"We have gotten together and had the opportunity to get to know one another," she wrote.
"Things are going really well -- the people on the committee are ... in touch with the Dartmouth campus in so many ways and are very sensitive to the enormous range of the topic of undergraduate social life," Canavan wrote.
"Our strength is truly the administrators and student representatives," she wrote.
The Student Life Task Force is composed of 13 members representing the administration and students. The student contingent, which outnumbers the administrators, includes representatives from Asgard, the Programming Board, Dartmouth United, the Student Assembly and two students at large.
The administrators on the task force include Pete Napolitano, the Director of Dartmouth Dining Services, Deb Reinders, the Assistant Dean of Residential Life and others.
