Alums, student form Action Network

The Dartmouth Action Network, a group focused on increasing student and alumni voice in College decision making and on renewing attention to the Board of Trustees social and residential life initiative, was officially launched to the campus yesterday. The Action Network, founded by alums Steven Sugarman '97 and Richard Yeh '97 and current student Steve Hawkins '99, all members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, hopes to "make the Trustees accountable to the opinions of the greater Dartmouth community." The group was announced to the campus through an advertisement in The Dartmouth yesterday and through a mass BlitzMail message. Sugarman told The Dartmouth the group hopes to give students and alumni a greater voice in College decision-making in general, but that the Greek initiative will be the first item on their plate. "What drove us to form was a system-wide problem where students and alumni have repeatedly been frustrated and in a state of dismay over the decisions the administration has made recently," Sugarman said. The student and alumni group plans on soliciting opinions on campus through informal surveys and then relaying that information to the administration. "The Trustees have asked the community to respond. That's exactly what we're going to do but in an organized way," Hawkins said. "Our fear is that the Trustees are going to receive so many different opinions" that the common thread of support for the Greek system will be missed. Sugarman also said the Action Network has talked with academics about studying the effects of the single-sex Greek system on campus and what Dartmouth would look like and how it would function without them. While the group has hired professional political consultants to advise the organization on public relations issues, Sugarman said he hopes the Action Network's strength will spread their message. "Once we've basically consolidated an alumni group we'll become a force they'll honestly have to recognize. Even though they don't agree with everything we say, they'll have to sit at the table with us." Sugarman dismissed assertions made by many members of the administration and Board of Trustees that the social life issue is not open to debate. "Obviously the easiest thing for the Trustees is for those in the Dartmouth community who are upset with what they have done to sit back and listen to what they are saying that this is not a referendum and that [the Trustees] own the College and then do nothing," Sugarman said adding he thinks the Trustees "can be convinced otherwise." "The philosophy of the organization is not to be a fist-waving, angry organization that says the College and the administration are evil and we're going to fix it and watch out," Hawkins said. "We want to work with the College and we don't want an adversarial relationship ... the goal of the organization is to make the Trustees accountable to the opinions of the greater Dartmouth community." If we can come at them with a concrete, documented, supported argument that is convincing then that is the best possible way to affect their ultimate decision," Sugarman said. Initial funding for the group came from approximately six alumni. Sugarman said about a dozen alumni in total were influential in forming the group. The group will be soliciting donations for future activities. Sugarman declined to give specific information on the amount of support the Action Network has received thus far but did say the group has received e-mails "in the hundreds" and said detailed information on support would be released "in the near future." Names of those alumni and students serving in leadership positions of the organization were not released last night. Sugarman said that information would be announced in the coming weeks. One student who already has said she is on the Action Network's student executive committee is Coed Fraternity Sorority Council President Jaimie Paul '00. She told The Dartmouth she was approached about serving on the committee Winter term but the group's leaders wanted to present the organization in a concrete form which was the reason for the delayed announcement. "There are plenty of committees that do a lot of talking. Hopefully this will do some acting as well," Paul said.