Audience reaction to last night's presentation by the Initiative steering committee varied greatly as the crowd both applauded the Trustees' visions of the future of Dartmouth and voiced concerns over future changes.
Less than 250 students attended the heavily publicized event, and student reaction seemed to focus more on a perceived lack of student input during the most recent phases of the initiative process than it did on the ideas presented by the steering committee's Trustee co-chairs.
"It doesn't seem that they were really listening tonight," said Charles Gussow '01, vice president of the 2001 Class Council. "It feels like students are only a small part of the process."
Many others expressed similar concerns that they were not being taken seriously by the committee.
"I get the feeling that they felt forced to have a meeting," said Barrett Thornhill '01, though he also said that last night's presentation was "a good step."
Some members of the Class of 2003 expressed concern with their role in the decision making process.
"I think they should definitely consider including '03s on the committee," said Mia Yocco '03. "There is a '99 [on the committee] and that class has already left."
Other freshmen left with mixed feelings regarding the progress of the committee.
Noah Miller '03 said the meeting "occasionally was not just rhetoric," but "I think it's possible that this entire program was done for publicity."
Other students, however, said they felt they left the meeting with a better sense of what the end results of the initiative would be.
"All the while they were claiming nothing was final" said Sarah Blanton '00, "but there was definitely a stress on certain ideas. I think we're going to see mostly changes with college residences -- they talked a lot about building buildings."
Blanton said she felt that the committee's plans focused on cluster-based social spaces similar to the current Greek houses.
"I get the impression that they already have their proposal and are waiting to unveil it," Thornhill said.
Many other students also said they believe the Trustees have already narrowed potential plans down to only a few options.
"I was excited that they tried to give out some bits of information," said Thornhill, though he added that the plans were still very unclear.
Some members of the Class of 2003 expressed concern with the timeline of the initiative.
"From what I've seen the entire process is moving very slowly," said William Kwan '03, "I don't think that I'm going to see any of the changes."
Many student questions at the meeting focused on the fate of the Greek system and what types of social space would "modify or replace" Coed, Fraternity and Sorority houses.
Blanton said students will have to be willing to work with the proposal because "even the best plans are not always perfect in implementation. We'll just have to figure it out as we go along."
As the forum continued past the two hours it was scheduled for, most students in attendance left, leaving mostly professors and administrators in the audience along with less than 50 students for the final half hour of audience comments and questions.
The steering committee is officially known as the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.
