With the release of the steering committee's recommendation report imminent, Greek leaders are maintaining their across-the-board wait and see attitude of Fall term and say they look forward to participating in the campus-wide discussions that will follow the announcement.
According to Dean of the College James Larimore, the steering committee plans to release its final list of recommendations sometime next week to the Dartmouth community.
Special Assistant to the Dean of the College Mary Liscinsky told The Dartmouth that there will be College-organized discussion groups the night of the report's release when students can share their initial reactions to the recommendations. Similar discussions and critiques will continue throughout Winter term and will be largely student-initiated.
Assistant Dean of Residential Life Deborah Carney, who advises the Greek leaders, said she met with house leaders yesterday, but she did not specifically mention the report, other than to encourage affiliated students to read the recommendations and respond to them. She said the meeting was primarily a logistical one.
President of Psi Upsilon fraternity Dan Mahoney '01 said the only preparation tactic he is using right now is to encourage the members of his house to share their thoughts after they read the steering committee's recommendations next week.
"I think it's important that the predominant voice on campus be heard on this issue," he said.
However, he noted that he and his brothers cannot do anything regarding the Initiative announcement until they read the report.
"The response we can calculate will be mostly based on what's in the report and we don't know that yet," he said.
Outgoing Coed Fraternity Sorority Council President Jaimie Paul '00 said she thinks students are "expecting something big" but she said the Greek organizations cannot do much to prepare for the announcement.
"The most important thing is to be informed and reading the report before having a response," Paul said.
President of Sigma Delta sorority Elizabeth Kleinerman '01 said she planned to address the steering committee's upcoming recommendations briefly during her first house meeting of the term. However, she agreed with other house leaders that no specific plans could be determined yet since no one knows what the final report will entail.
President of Zeta Psi fraternity Matt Kuhn '01 said yesterday afternoon that he did not plan to specifically address the report at the first house meetings of the term. However, he said he has told his house members about various meetings for campus leaders that he plans to attend once the recommendations are released next week, including one Monday session with Larimore.
He said the outgoing house president, James Mills '00, has been in contact with both the national organization and the alumni corporation to plan meetings to discuss the contents of the report.
Kuhn said he expects to be in almost immediate contact with his alumni advisers as soon as he has read the steering committee's recommendations.
Paul said she can not predict how students will react to the report, but she suggested that opinions on the recommendations will vary greatly between different students.
"What happened last February [when the Trustees announced the Five Principles] was people having an initial reaction of anger and a need to feel defensive," she said. "Maybe there won't be that element of surprise, but when you talk about student social life, it is so personal that if changes are perceived as being drastic, people may react negatively to them."
Kleinerman said she has been telling her sisters "to keep their ears open and not make any quick judgements." But she said student reaction next week will depend on what the report says.
The entire report will be posted on Dartmouth's website. Copies will also be available at stations in the Collis Center, Thayer, the Hopkins Center and the Rockefeller Center.
The steering committee is formally known as the Committee on the Student Life Initiative.
