Dean of the College James Larimore, Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman, College Vice President and Treasurer Win Johnson and Director of the College Real Estate Office Paul Olsen will hold an information session today at 4 p.m. regarding the College purchase of student off-campus residences.
Larimore said the Student Assembly prompted the discussion to address student concerns and update the College community on developments of the purchase agreement.
Larimore said he sees the discussion as an opportunity to share more information about the proposed purchases with the Dartmouth comunity.
"One of the first things we need to do is provide more factual information to students," he said.
Larimore said he has had a seriesof meetings this term with Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 and Assembly Vice President Margaret Keucker '01 to discuss various aspects of College business.
Last week, Kuecker and Krishna had suggested a information session on the purchase of off-campus housing to Larimore after several students had expressed their concern to Assembly members, he said.
Krishna said he thinks the purpose of this information session will be to clarify the College's intent in purchasing the off-campus properties and answer the question of who will be likely to live there in the future.
Larimore himself was confused by the current state of affairs concerning the purchase, and felt that many students on campus shared this confusion, he said.
"A lot of people seemed pretty upset," he said.
Krishna said while he does not expect more than 20 or 30 students to attend the discussion because of its timing during finals period, he thinks it is important to hold an information session.
He said he thinks most students want to know whether the off-campus residences in question will remain student housing, and whether they will be available at the same price. The current residents are most vocal about the purchase and have expressed the most concerns, Krishna said.
Larimore said his hope for the question and answer session is first to offer a factual description of what has occurred up until now and what the timing is likely to be in regard to the planned purchases, and then to discuss concerns with the students attending the session.
Vice President and Treasurer of the College Win Johnson also emphasized that the session is intended to answer any questions students might have and to explain what the College is currently doing. Johnson said that while the College does not yet have complete answers to all the questions concerned students might raise, the administrators at the information session will do their best to calm students' fears.
Larimore stressed the importance of "everybody starting off on a level playing field" by making sure information on the purchase is brought into the public domain.
Director of the College's Real Estate Office Paul Olsen also said he has heard from town officials that parents of some students have directed complaints to the town regarding the conditions and quality of accomodation in some of the off-campus houses.
"If they are owned by the College, the expectation ought to be that the houses and apartments are up to code and that they are safe," Larimore said.
Currently, Olsen said, the plans for the purchase of these residences are not more certain than when the idea was first announced, as the College is still at the stage of conducting inspections and survey work of the off-campus properties.
"This will be a very long planning process," Olsen said.
When the College first made its purchase agreement with Hanover Investment Corporation public earlier this summer, Redman told The Dartmouth that the purchase is not intended to force students to live on-campus. The administration had no plans one way or the other, whether to retain the 15 residences occupied by undergraduates or to use the buildings for other purposes.
