When the College implemented the "Dartmouth Experience" plan last year, Dean of the College Lee Pelton said he wanted the East Wheelock supercluster to be "a marriage of intellectual and social life at Dartmouth."
After a term-and-a-half in existence, many students and faculty living in the cluster say it is achieving Pelton's goal.
"I am very pleased and happy with the way things are going," Pelton said. "They have wonderful programs, and they are doing exactly what we planned."
The East Wheelock residence cluster is comprised of Andres, Morton and Zimmerman residence halls. Cluster Dean Steven Cornish resides in the cluster, and Faculty Associates Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer live in the faculty house next to the East Wheelock residence halls.
Although Cornish said the supercluster is still a "work in progress," he said the East Wheelock program has made significant progress so far.
Intellectualism and social life
One of the most successful parts of the East Wheelock cluster, according to Cornish, has been the increased contact among campus speakers and faculty members with students.
"Particularly with important speakers, [students] have had the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with people who would normally be remote," he said.
Supercluster resident Marc Resteghini '99 said Hirsch and Spitzer have hosted discussions featuring a Dartmouth faculty member in their house over dessert on Monday nights.
For example, a few weeks ago Dean of Graduate Studies Ed Berger spoke at the faculty house about the genetics and the Human Genome Project and societal concerns. Resteghini said the talk attracted 30 students.
Pelton said the cluster held 22 programs during Fall term, and Cornish said about 50 or 60 people have attended most of the cluster-sponsored events, although some are from outside of the cluster.
Cornish said he thinks there is a mixture of classes attending lectures and events in East Wheelock, although he has noticed more first-year students than upperclassmen -- a trend he says is consistent with the composition of the cluster.
East Wheelock Area Coordinator Brian Patel '97 said he thinks many of the upperclassmen living in the cluster are "not here because of the program, per se, but I think them being here and seeing what goes on makes them want to go to events."
Snacks and more
Patel said he lived in the East Wheelock cluster last year and he thinks there is more community in the cluster this year.
He said more people congregate in Brace Commons, the cluster common area, because of programming events and the late-night snack bar -- a service unique to East Wheelock -- which is open from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Besides the traditional setup of undergraduate advisors and an area coordinator, the East Wheelock cluster has a programming council of students who were elected in the fall.
Resteghini '99, one of the council's co-chairs, said the council is responsible for bring forward student ideas and organizing social functions. One successful student-initiated event last term, he said, was when two busloads of students traveled to Boston to see the musical "Rent."
Supercluster resident Aarathi Sambasivan '00 said she thinks living in East Wheelock is a different experience than living anywhere else on campus because residents have "a very accessible and approachable dean right downstairs and more opportunities to hear guest speakers."
But she said the supercluster is not as "loud and lively" as other residence halls because everyone has their own bathrooms and many people tend to stay in their rooms and do not go out often.
"But the snack bar tends to make up for that -- it is usually pretty crowded," Sambasivan said.
East Wheelock UGA Rex Morey '99 said a significant number of people attend cluster events, and "the sign-up sheets are full, so I think they are getting the turnout they were looking for."
But some students said they found little difference between the supercluster and other clusters.
"You're going to have both -- the kids who sign up to live here for the rooms, particularly upperclassmen, and the people who want a different sort of place to live," Resteghini said.
David Sanders '99, an East Wheelock resident, said the snack bar is a popular place, but he did not think a lot of people attended cluster activities.
Sanders said he does not think the environment in East Wheelock is different from other clusters on campus.