A statement explaining the College's policy on administrative fees and fines will be issued within the next several weeks, according to Dean of the College James Larimore.
This will be the first time the College has clarified its fining system, and it will mark the end of a yearlong process that began when the Student Assembly compiled a list of student complaints and sent them to Treasurer Win Johnson and former Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson last winter.
While members of the Fees and Fines committee, a group that addressed student discontent with the current fining system at the College, would not disclose details of the new system, many expected the new policy would include some positive changes.
Larimore told The Dartmouth he has not yet decided when any changes would be implemented.
"There's definitely going to be change because we're going to have a new policy," Shelley Sandell '01, a member of the fees and fines committee, said. "At least the students can know that none of the departments can come out with new fines without referring to the policy."
Sandell said the committee's reluctance to share details of the proposal because it could prevent the cooperation of the departments on campus the new policy would affect.
The committee met throughout last year and presented its report late this summer to Larimore and Johnson. According to Larimore, he and Johnson have not yet met to finalize the policy change.
Sandell said there are two parts of the report they submitted to Larimore and Johnson. One section is a proposal for a structured fees and fines policy -- something that currently does not exist.
The second section is an outline of several specific recommendations that refer to existing fees and fines, Sandell said. She declined to describe the two proposals in detail.
According to College officials, a reduction in fees and fines could lead to a loss in departmental revenue.
"There might be some departments that have become dependent on either administrative fees or fines," Larimore said. "That's part of the reason we need to sort through the possible impact any changes might have."
Parking operations, for example, earns approximately $400,000 from registration fees and fines in 1997. Athletic Director Dick Jaeger previously told The Dartmouth that fines paid by students who fail to complete their physical education requirements on time help fund some of the athletic programs at the College.
Because of the loss in revenue, "some departments weren't receptive" to the proposal of a structured fees and fines system, according to Sandell.
Richard Heck, an executive officer for the Dean of the College, who also served on the committee, said the departments were more worried about student behavior than a loss of revenue.
The Assembly's letter to the administration focused primarily on anecdotal information provided by students who responded in response to a July, 1998 BlitzMail message asking members of the Class of 2000 to describe any unfair fining experiences.
The response from students, according to the Assembly, was an angry one. One student described a time he was fined $107 for failing to complete his physical education requirement before his Sophomore Summer. He said that the reason for his lapse was that his two younger sisters had been killed in a car accident, but that the College was indifferent to this excuse.
Another student complained of being fined a $25 Processing Fee and a $15 Billing Fee for losing a library book, in addition to the cost of the book itself.
Among other things, the letter called for a clarification of fining policies, the reduction of the disparity between student and faculty and staff parking fines and the elimination of the deadline to complete physical education by Sophomore summer.
