Almost a year after the original announcement of the Student Life Initiative, the steering committee's recommendations on its implementation will be released sometime next week.
Dean of the College James Larimore said each student will receive an executive summary -- a condensed version of the entire report -- in his or her Hinman Box on the release date. The College does not plan to mail the actual report to students because of its physical bulk.
Larimore could not offer an exact release date yet, saying that the report was at the printers and will be ready the week of Jan. 10.
According to steering committee co-Chair Trustee Susan Dentzer '77, the final report is "a good evening's read."
Dentzer said the report is a collection of general and specific recommendations that will eventually set the course of the College for at least the next decade. She called the steering committee's final report a "great set of recommendations."
Steering committee co-Chair Peter Fahey '68 said he does not think any individual committee member would have proposed all of the recommendations in the report, but he said everyone in the group could support each of the final recommendations.
He said the report begins with a summary of its recommendations. He said the report will also include discussions of the more detailed proposals.
"I think that everyone will like certain aspects and disagree with others," he said.
Like the other members of the Dartmouth community, Chair of the Board of Trustees William H. King '63 has not yet seen the report. However, he said he recognizes the amount of effort that went into its creation.
"I expect the report to be thoughtful and comprehensive," he said.
According to King, the College has planned the report's dissemination so that everyone who is interested will be able to have access to it as soon as possible upon its release.
"We're going to make every effort to be as open and as accepting to comments as we can be," he said. "You've got to remember that the report is simply that. It's a report. It's the culmination of the work of many different people over a long time, after an extraordinary amount of participation by groups on and off-campus."
He said the Board feels that it is important for all community members to have equal access to the report so that they can all add to the discussions that will follow its release.
"It falls to the Board to take the report and consider it," King said. "Once the report is out, the Board will listen to and take with great interest comments and criticisms."
King, Dentzer and Fahey all told The Dartmouth that during the Winter term, the report's proposals may change when continuing community discussion and input contribute to the report.
Although individual community members will not receive copies of the report, they will be able to pick them up at stations in the Collis Center, the Hopkins Center, Thayer Dining Hall and the Rockefeller Center, special assistant to the Dean of the College Mary Liscinsky said. The report will also be available on the Dartmouth College website so that community members who are not in Hanover will be able to access it.
To facilitate the community-wide discussion, the College has arranged various conversations and forums.
"The night of the release, whatever night that is, we hope to have discussion groups -- not for facilitators to explain, but just so that students can talk," Liscinsky said.
She also noted that throughout the Winter term, there will also be fire-side chats with College President James Wright, Larimore and possibly some College Trustees, as well as some community dinners that students will be selected at random to attend.
Liscinsky said the involvement of all community members -- even ones who do not usually vocalize their opinions -- should participate in the discussion following the report's release.
"I'm really placing a lot of responsibility on students to take part in the discussions," she said.
King, Fahey and Dentzer said the Trustees plan to be present on campus and at various alumni clubs around the country to receive as much feedback as possible in an attempt to formulate their final decision.
Fahey said he anticipates the Board's final decision to come during the Spring term when the Trustees are satisfied that they have received enough community feedback.
The steering committee is officially known as the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.
