After spending most of the day yesterday digesting the Board of Trustee's unexpected announcement of a massive residential life and Greek system overhaul, members of the Dartmouth community quickly began to consider the question of how the College proceeds from here -- or at least how to figure that out.
Since the Trustees laid out only five guiding principles for the immense restructuring of undergraduate life with little definitive plans for how those principles would be implemented, much of the role for determining that plan falls to students.
Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson told The Dartmouth yesterday he plans to head a task force comprised of about a dozen students as well as additional faculty members.
He said the group would act as a clearinghouse for ideas proposed by members of the Dartmouth community on the restructuring.
While Nelson said he has "not yet fully defined" the task force's membership, Coed Fraternity and Sorority Council President Jaimie Paul '00 and Student Assembly President Josh Green '00 have been selected to be part of the group.
"With many of the things that I do, it's clear up front how much of an impact I'll have," Green said on his forthcoming work on the task force but added, "I don't think it's particularly clear in this case how much impact students will have. My hope is that this will be the most important thing I do while I'm here -- my fear is it will be the most symbolic thing I do."
Also last night approximately 30 students met in the Collis Center to discuss reactions to the Trustee announcement and ways of soliciting student impact.
The students, who were from various classes, affiliations and interests, had widely varying opinions on how to approach the topic. Some felt the Trustee's announcement meant changes in the Greek system were guaranteed and students should concern themselves now with playing as big a role as possible in the decisions to affect those changes.
Others felt it was still worth attempting to fight any changes to the Greek system.
"What we can do," Green said at the meeting, "is to identify the issues there's agreement on and which there's disagreement on."
Some members of the self-selected group of interested students focused on the Greek system's impact on the social side of campus life and how the announcement would affect it.
The changes will "mean more social options," Shauna Brown '99 said. "They're not going to put a bulldozer down Webster Avenue and then look around and say, 'OK -- entertain yourselves.'"
Others were more concerned. Brian Sleet '00 questioned what students are going to do "while we're waiting for them to build us a building," adding the added social initiatives "will still not put us in a city."
Some other members of the group focused more on the personal side of the Greek side.
Fraternities and sororities "affect people's lives in the most intimate of ways," Interfraternity Council President Hondo Sen '00 said.
After much discussion and differing viewpoints about the meaning of the proposals and its impact on residential life and particularly the Greek system the students agreed to organize a town meeting tentatively scheduled for this Monday.
The meeting will be informational and not designed to raise student concerns or opinions on the controversial issue.
Under the plan, students will be solicited to submit an informational question for College President James Wright and Nelson who could attend the meeting.
The students at last night's meeting discussed the possibility of televising Monday's town meeting on Dartmouth Television, the College's new student run cable network.
