Although student representatives to the steering committee will be open to questions from the Dartmouth community at a forum tomorrow night, they are bound by the committee's confidentiality policy forbidding the release of details of deliberations and discussions at their meetings.
As a preview to Tuesday's panel, the 2003 Class Council is sponsoring an information session in an effort to update first-year students on the Student Life Initiative tonight in Cook auditorium.
The student representatives to the steering committee -- chemistry graduate student Jesse Fecker, Hillary Miller '02, Matthew K. Nelson '00, Kyle Roderick '99 and Meg Smoot '01 -- will be answering questions from the audience at tomorrow's panel, Student Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 said.
Krishna said the Assembly wants to make sure every student who wants to ask the representatives a question will get the opportunity.
"They're our representatives and we haven't really had the chance to talk with them on a large scale," he said.
Fecker told The Dartmouth that while they are still bound by the confidentiality policy the steering committee has used about specific meetings and conversations of the committee, student members can talk about what the process has entailed and how input from Tuesday's forum will factor into their upcoming decisions.
Former Student Assembly Vice-President Case Dorkey '99 will be the panel's moderator.
Fecker emphasized that the report to the Board of Trustees has not been written yet and that any input that comes from students at the meeting could be factored into what the steering committee decides.
Miller said the student members of the committee are hoping to engage Dartmouth students in a dialogue that will be more exciting than she feels the last forum was.
She said she hopes to "infuse a feeling of possibility" into the students about what can be done at Dartmouth in the next 10 years and that she hopes the conversation will approach topics or suggestions for change from all sides, including "philosophically, emotionally and practically."
The Assembly is organizing the panel, which originated from an idea suggested by Josh Green '00 at last month's town hall meeting with the steering committee's co-chairs, Trustees Susan Dentzer '77 and Peter Fahey '68.
Assembly representatives and the steering committee student representatives will meet this afternoon to finalize the panel's organization. Krishna said it is unclear at the moment whether the meeting will start immediately with questions from audience members or whether the steering committee members will give short background introductions at the beginning.
Bill Shields '03, one of the 2003 Council members organizing tonight's freshman information, said the panel will help make his class more informed participants in the Tuesday panel.
During the panel, Jacob T. Elberg '00 -- president of The Dartmouth -- will discuss the history of the Initiative and Roderick will discuss the steering committee's formation and progress. Green, last year's Assembly president, will tell '03s about student response to the Initiative and the ways the Assembly tried to increase the student feedback to the Trustees.
First-Year Office intern Jorge Miranda '01 said four upperclassmen will also be presenting differing views on the Initiative and their lives at Dartmouth.
Shields said he feels that many freshmen have strong views on the Initiative, but have not come to those opinions as a result of facts. Through hearing the panel's presentation of facts and "where different people stand on the issue, we can all figure out where we stand," Shields said.
Miranda said he has found many freshmen are basing their opinions on those of upperclassmen.
He cited the shouting of the line "lest the old traditions fail!" when freshmen sang the alma mater at their Orientation-week First Class Meeting as an example of their protesting without knowing why.
"I asked ... freshmen if they knew why people shouted those lines. They had no idea. They just thought that was the way it was supposed to be. They had no idea about the history of things," he said.
Miranda said he is going to try to set up other panels or opportunities for freshmen to learn about campus controversies or student activism throughout the term.
"I feel students, and freshmen in particular, need to learn about the College's history. Ten years from now, what will the Initiative mean to the incoming '13s? Change happens at Dartmouth all the time, but it's so easily forgotten and taken for granted," Miranda said.
