In the months following the Social and Residential Life Initiative, some faculty members, as well as steering committee co-chair Trustee Susan Dentzer '77, have vocally blamed Greek house meetings for damaging attendance and attention levels at Thursday morning classes.
At the same time, an alcohol perceptions survey conducted by Dartmouth's Office of Evaluation and Research this year found that the majority of Dartmouth students are responsible around alcohol and do not let their drinking habits interfere with their work.
Similarly, according to Dean of the Faculty Edward Berger, there is no clear faculty consensus on how responsible students are about drinking or whether their habits actually contribute to their classroom performance.
"The early morning class problem is a common buzz among faculty," Berger said, while noting that the seriousness of the problem with Thursday mornings is difficult to assess because it is largely "anecdotal."
Despite what this "anecdotal" evidence and the alcohol perceptions survey findings that show most Dartmouth students to value their work over drinking, during a trustee forum held this Fall in Alumni Hall Dentzer raised a concern that irresponsible drinking has led to lower class attendance on Thursdays.
"You can't get people to get up on Thursday morning to go to class for the reason they're ostensibly here in the first place," she said at the forum. "Does that make sense?"
Her comment even made it into a recent article in The New York Times about Dartmouth's Greek system and the controversy surrounding it.
Reconciling Dentzer's comments with the alcohol perceptions survey findings, Berger said although the majority of Dartmouth students are responsible drinkers, the 10 to 15 percent who are not have contributed to faculty concerns about their Thursday morning classes.
Where are our students?
Although agreeing that most students are responsible drinkers, some College professors told The Dartmouth that the 10A time slot, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. is a problem time on Thursdays.
According to Anthropology Professor Deborah Nichols, concerns about Thursday morning class attendance were raised when the Provost's office was seeking input to draft a faculty response to the Social Life Initiative last Spring term.
She said she has noticed a minority of students who have serious alcohol problems that cause them to miss their Thursday morning classes.
Associate Professor of Religion Susan Ackerman said some of her students have arrived at class hung-over and have not completed their work on time for reasons she attributed to Greek culture and drinking.
"Most students don't drink irresponsibly on Wednesday nights and are prepared for Thursday class," Ackerman said. "But the one, two, three students that don't show up [in a class of 15], remain profoundly irritating and this affects the dynamics of the class."
Another concern for some faculty members is the difficulty of scheduling exams for Thursday mornings. Berger said some professors make candid efforts to avoid Thursdays when placing exams since they would have to give makeup exams to students absent from class.
Ackerman denied planning her courses' exam schedules to avoid Thursdays.
"I am not willing to tailor my course to accommodate house meetings," Ackerman said.
Berger said in response to complaints about the difficulties of scheduling exams on Thursdays and conducting normal classes, some faculty members have suggested that professors should increase work loads and challenges that day. However, he denied that this solution is a common one among professors.
What problem?
Other faculty members either said they have not noticed low attendance rates on Thursday mornings or argued that it is difficult to prove reasons for low attendance.
Chemistry and Biology professors who occasionally have classes on Thursdays said they have not noticed any significant drop in attendance.
Some professors praised Dartmouth students for their responsible work ethic.
"Dartmouth students are as committed as any other students about doing work," Chemistry Professor Russel P. Hughes said.
Many professors who talked to The Dartmouth said they have no basis to judge whether low attendance is because of irresponsible drinking or other factors. They said they often cannot tell whether their students are hung over or just plain tired.
The alcohol survey
The alcohol policy and perceptions survey's results were tabulated by surveying approximately 1000 randomly selected students across campus.
According to Margaret Smith, the coordinator of alcohol and other drugs education programs, the survey dispels myths about Dartmouth's drinking problem.
"Most students are drinking moderately and do not let alcohol interfere with their work," she said.
The very few students that are irresponsible drinkers receive all the press and media attention, she continued.
While some students interviewed by The Dartmouth have felt low attendance trends on Thursday mornings and others have not, all agreed that nearly all students are responsible drinkers if they have an exam or paper due the next day.
