The Office of the Dean of the College and the 2001 and 2002 Class Councils are making plans to notify students who will be off campus during the Winter term of the final recommendations the Steering Committee on the Student Life Initiative will make to the Board of Trustees next January.
The Dean's office plans call for the recommendations to be posted in their entirety on the Web soon after their release for the students on Language Study Abroad, Foreign Study Programs, internships or other off-campus activities can have access to them.
2001 Class Council President Collin O'Mara '01 said the two councils are requesting the Dean's Office to send a mailing to every off-campus student detailing the recommendations since some students may not be able to access the Internet.
The 2001 and 2002 Class Councils would fund the mailing if it does not receive the backing of the Dean's office, O'Mara said.
The mailings will contain a self-addressed, stamped envelope to encourage students to send feedback to the Board of Trustees on their views of the committee's recommendations.
O'Mara said a BlitzMail message may also be sent to off-campus students to inform them of the recommendations.
Both the Dean's office and the 2001 and 2002 Class Council presidents said they are interested in receiving feedback from as many students as possible following the announcement on Jan. 10. No matter how the information is distributed, they stressed there will be a means by which off-campus students can respond.
O'Mara said the Class Councils would assume the responsibility of summarizing the results and presenting them to the Trustees.
The decision of how to release the information to all students has not yet been finalized, according Committee Co-Chair Peter Fahey '68.
"The board will be getting students' ideas of how to disseminate the information," he said.
Different proposals for keeping students informed are still under consideration, according to Special Assistant to the Dean of the College Mary Liscinsky.
Other possibilities being considered by both the dean's office and the Class Councils include structured discussions moderated by professors leading the LSAs and FSPs or by the students themselves, according to O'Mara.
"Anything that allows for brainstorming" will help provide the Trustees with student feedback, he said.
Another idea, mentioned by both Liscinsky and O'Mara, is to allow students in locations where there are Dartmouth alumni associations to join with alumni in discussions on the recommendations.
One possibly is the students could join alumni in teleconferences directly with Trustees.
All of these means of reaching students in off-campus programs have the goal of keeping students better informed than they were last February when the Trustee Initiative was first announced.
"The Dartmouth community isn't just in Hanover all the time," said Josh Warren '02, president of the 2002 Class Council. "It'll be interesting to see how the discussion takes place" after the announcement of the Steering Committee's recommendations.
Warren added that following the original announcement of the Initiative last February, "too much of too little" occurred in the way of discussion. Many forums were held, but not enough students' opinions were considered, he said.
Liscinsky expressed a similar opinion, saying too many students "felt really left out of the process" last February.
"It's important to make sure that everyone gets the information firsthand," O'Mara explained. "Last year, people just read The Boston Globe" and heard the news of the Initiative that way, he said.
O'Mara said administrators have realized "how badly it went last year" and are being careful not to repeat the same mistakes.
Alison Lothes '01, who will be in Washington, D.C., during Winter term at an internship in Washington, D.C., expressed doubts whether student opinions would be heeded.
"Yes, it's important [to be informed], but I don't know how much they will listen to us," Lothes said. "I think [the Initiative is] important and I want to know what kind of changes will be made."
Mariha Gibbs '01 said it was important to her to know about the Committee recommendations, but that a Web page might be a more effective way of distributing the information than mailings. She said that she planned to have her mail forwarded home while on her FSP.
Tim Wright '01, who will be working in Boston during the Winter term, agreed that mailings would be ineffective.
"I think it's a complete waste of money," he said. He added that he would be inclined to respond to a BlitzMail message about the recommendations, but not to a mailing.
"It's worth spending extra just to make sure they get the information," O'Mara said. "I just don't want people to feel isolated out in the hills of the Czech Republic or wherever they are."
