In addition to their high-profile touring of campus Greek houses, the Steering Committee also engaged in less talked-about activities this weekend, meeting with numerous people involved in the implementation of the Trustees' Five Principles.
The committee met with many of the administrators who submitted proposals to the Task Force, including Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia, as well as the architects reviewing the College's social and dining space and numerous student leaders from the Student Assembly and the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council.
The committee also discussed the proposed reforms with a subgroup of the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and alums representing Greek interests.
In what Trustee and Steering Committee co-chair Peter Fahey '61 said were "extremely productive sessions," the committee attempted to "get beyond the words that were written" in the Task Force Report "and talk to some of those people who authored those words to make sure we understood precisely what they meant."
It is unclear whether the committee left with a precise understanding of at least one Initiative issue however - the controversial proposals submitted by the student-led Five Principles Working Groups.
Fahey told The Dartmouth he gathered from a discussion with Student Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 and Working Group co-chair Marc Fenigstein '01 that the Working Group proposals were "predominantly" supported by the Assembly.
The Assembly voted down many elements of the proposal in a five hour long debate - including those calling for limiting the number of students who can live in each Greek house to five, calling for stricter behavioral rules for house members, and an 8-8-8 plan for gender parity within the CFS system. The Assembly's cutting of proposals prompted main sponsor Tom Leatherbee '01 to resign from the Assembly in protest.
While Krishna said he informed the committee that the Assembly had voted down significant portions of the proposals he stood by his assertion that the Assembly had endorsed numerically "most of the Working Groups' proposals."
Alex Wilson, CFSC vice-president and the Assembly member who led the charge against the controversial Greek elements of the Working Groups' proposals, said he felt if Fahey left the meeting thinking the proposals as a unit were "predominantly" supported, "I think he would be gravely mistaken and that would be very troubling later on."
Wilson said "the parts we supported were the no-brainers" and many controversial elements were voted down.
In addition to the Working Group proposals, Krishna also said he talked to the Steering Committee about "social norms" at Dartmouth.
"We had a good discussion about why the idea of 'boot and rally' is repulsive to people when they come in as freshmen but is acceptable by the end of sophomore year," Krishna said.
Krishna said he could not give the committee a solution to the problem but said it is "definitely a basement culture."
Many of the people who met with the committee declined to comment on the confidential discussions.
Fahey said the Steering Committee was pleased that many of the proposals in the Task Force Report were from what he perceived to be diverse segments of the student body but contained overlapping and reconcilable visions of what Dartmouth should be after the Initiative implementation.
