After two full terms of use, the Dash plan has seen a clear split in student opinion -- with freshmen generally satisfied and upperclassmen mainly confused about the new system.
The state of students' discretionary accounts as of Feb. 27 indicated that approximately one-third of freshmen held a negative balance in their accounts, while nearly 80 percent of seniors had fallen below the zero mark.
This discrepancy is reflective of upperclassmen's familiarity with the old system that extended students an almost endless line of credit.
In contrast, freshmen have taken to the program well, Dash Program Administrator Jeannette Montgomery said.
Student account information has been made available on the Dartmouth College Information System, and freshmen have had more success in accessing this information since the appropriate software came installed on their computers last fall.
Director of Financial Services Win Johnson said that when the College instituted Dash, they knew that it would take time for upperclass students to adjust.
"It hasn't been as wonderful as we made it out to be," Johnson said, although he added the College is looking for ways to convince upperclassmen of the system's merits.
Balancing the Dash budget
Many campus organizations have undergone significant changes in billing practices because of Dash, and members of Greek houses in particular have said the new plan has made things more difficult.
Coed, Fraternity and Sorority house social dues, which were previously billed to students' College accounts, can now only be charged to the Dash discretionary account or paid directly to the house.
Since the discretionary account is frozen after the balance owed reaches $100, Greek houses have had difficulty collecting dues.
Sigma Phi Epsilon President Pete Hasenkamp '98 estimated 30 to 40 percent of the brothers' dues do not clear the Dash system.
Once Dash is rejected, a brother must either make a deposit to Dash to cover the dues or write a personal check. Hasenkamp said it can take several weeks for accounts to be reconciled.
"The old way worked well and we got paid in a timely fashion," Hasenkamp said.
Mark Franklin '98, house manager of Gamma Delta Chi fraternity, said they avoid using Dash to collect social dues altogether.
"We felt that Dash was a pain ... and it was not worth the effort having brothers put money in and have to collect it at the end of the term, " Franklin said.
Alpha Delta fraternity has also chosen not to use the Dash system, AD President Lazaros Theofilactidis '98 said.
Under federal financial aid guidelines, Johnson said social dues have to be separated from the College bill.
However, room rent for living in a Greek house was permitted to be left on College billing since it is analogous to residence hall boarding charges.
The Dash system has also had a noticeably negative impact on the business generated by other College offices and organizations.
Dick DuMez, food and beverage director of the Hanover Inn, said that the Daniel Webster Room and Ivy Grill have experienced a loss of business since the inception of the Dash system.
Associate Director of Administrative Services Bill Barr equated one of the consequences of the new billing system to taking "away carte blanche charging" at the Webster Room and Ivy Grill.
DuMez said he has heard from students that Dash is "not conducive to encouraging spending money on dining."
"We thought about putting [The Hanover Inn dining facilities] on the dining program but ended up putting it on the discretionary," Johnson said. "It is more analogous to downtown activities than to DDS."
DuMez said that the Inn is now trying to find ways to bring students back into the fold.
Jed Eliades, rentals manager of Dartmouth Outdoor Rentals, said he has experienced a slight increase in business since rentals have been included in the Dash system. Outdoor rentals previously had to be purchased with cash or by credit card.
Eliades said Dash has made it slightly easier for students to rent equipment -- but also made it more difficult on the rentals staff to keep up with paperwork.
Complaints and confusion
Many complaints about the new system have centered around students having to pay for charges that previously were billed to their homes.
Johnson said, "Clearly when things went home on the student bill it was damn convenient." Students may perceive the new system as having taken privileges away from them, Johnson said, merely because they are not yet used to it or simply because "things have changed."
"It's not analogous to a banking card. It wasn't designed for that," Johnson said.
But other students cited the newfound control they had over their of their finances as the primary benefit of Dash.
Johnson said the increased student accountability is a desired effect of Dash. "We got a lot of criticism from parents that they wanted to have some limits, some kind of budget plan [for student spending]," he said.
Much of the confusion still being experienced by students of all classes dates back to an information packet mailed by the College last August that introduced the four-account plan.
Many students said they found themselves uncertain of how often and in what ways they would be using Dash.
The packet said one of the greatest benefits of Dash was the Discretionary Plan.
According to the packet, the Discretionary Plan is "a declining balance account with overdraft protection, which allows you to make more on-campus purchases with your ... Student ID than were previously possible."
Barr said for financial aid purposes, federal law requires an account such as the Dash discretionary separating basic College charges of tuition and room and board from other charges.
Several students expressed concern over the impetus behind changing to the new Dash system.
David Altman '99 said upon receiving the Dash packet this summer, he immediately realized the financial benefit to the College of making students pay in advance, "creating huge amounts of capital at one time."
"I felt very perturbed by the idea that the school might be literally using the students to generate money," Altman said.
But Barr said the College is not in fact "making any money" from Dash.
Not all students found the new system to be so confounding.
Lon Setnik '98 called the packet "informative. It let me know there was nothing else I needed to do because it was really just like DBA."
Johnson said that in addition to following the new federal guidelines, the College had students in mind with the creation of Dash.
"We wanted to open up more opportunities for students to use their IDs to charge around campus," he said.
The future of Dash
Montgomery said that the program is still in the growing stages.
"It's in the planning stages to be able to put vending and laundry on the card ... It is probably a very real item in the next year or two," she said, adding that vendors are making bids on providing the service for washers, dryers and vending in dorms.
Barr said the administration is eager to receive feedback on Dash through the student representatives on the Dash campus card committee.
"It's for the students, so you kind of have to make it work for them," he said.
"The SA has looked into the Dash and we're trying to make the best of the situation that is possible," Student Assembly President Jon Heavey '97 said. "It is going to stay around, there is no reversing that decision due to federal regulations on financial aid money."
