This past weekend, 36 of our campus's leaders, representing a diverse array of organizations, descended upon Pierce's Inn in Etna, New Hampshire, for the fourth annual Dartmouth Leadership Conference. The Leadership Conference serves as an opportunity for student organization leaders to convene, cooperate, brainstorm and collaborate in order to address problematic issues at the crux of Dartmouth life. After lengthy discussions -- at one point involving President James Wright --the students attending the conference condensed their once extensive list into five prevalent issues.
One of the issues discussed was the insufficient interaction between the faculty and the students at our College, one often reputed for its devotion to undergraduates. Students frequently stumble across obstacles when seeking a mentor, extra help and recommendations. One of the primary solutions suggested concerned the creation of more common space for both professors and students. As it stands now, the primary setting for professors and students to meet is in the offices of the professors, a place that intimidates many students, since it is the professor's realm. One answer would be to renovate and convert the existing departmental lounges into professor/student interaction areas. Another solution would be to revamp the academic advising system, possibly including the often energetic and willing professors emeritus, who can devote more of their time to their advisees. A third possibility would be to create a standing committee affiliated with the Dean of the Faculty, which could create and coordinate frequent interaction between the students and the faculty.
During the retreat, we also addressed the problem of mistrust amongst the student body and administration. Students do not feel that their voices are being heard and the administration hesitates to directly involve students in their decision-making processes. Our proposals to change this culture of mistrust included greater informal interaction between the students and the administration, an accessible guide to the administration and a summit for students, faculty and administrators held each term with an agenda set by the students.
We also discussed the need for a centralized administrative resource addressing issues of community (including multiculturalism, gender, race, religion and sexuality ) in order to ensure education on these issues in an ongoing and proactive manner. The methods of implementation would include reformation of undergraduate advisor programming standards, awareness seminars, a Multicultural Affairs Office and Center, action on the REI Distributive Requirement, an increase of staffing and funding for cultural centers and the incorporation of In- and Out-of Classroom Education into Cultural Centers.
We also discussed an issue we called, the "Bubble Phenomenon". It is obvious that Dartmouth is physically isolated. Yet, this fact should not deter us from knowing more about what is happening in the world outside Hanover's bounds. Exposure to local and global issues is crucial to creating a proactive, informed and involved atmosphere on campus. CNN should be broadcast in Thayer Lobby, Collis Lobby and other campus spots, so we can all catch the headlines. News-boards, tickers, community service and current-events bulletin boards and the Dartmouth homepage can also update students on happenings in the rest of the world. Not only should Dartmouth bring the world to us, but the College should also offer us more opportunities to go outside "The Bubble," such as organizing regularly scheduled, subsidized busses to Montreal, New York and Boston.
Finally, the members of the conference proposed to initiate more random interaction between Dartmouth students. Oftentimes, after meeting the initial group of friends at Dartmouth, it becomes difficult to reach out of one's comfort zone. Circles of friends should obviously grow tighter over our years at Dartmouth, but they should not be exclusive. We propose to promote more random interaction between students with subsidized weekend getaways involving randomly selected participants and.implementing DOC trips for sophomores.
The aforementioned quintet of propositions represents hours of collaboration between student leaders from countless student organizations. Even though we are in the midst of the Report on the Student Life Initiative, this fact alone should make these points worth considering.
