There are only four days left before the deadline for submissions to the Student Response Task Force, about two months before the Board of Trustees will meet to discuss the future of Dartmouth. Now is the time for all of Dartmouth's students to rally around an idea. One year ago, Dartmouth's Trustees set out five principles. We can respond with a single one: greater and freer student choice.
We can all agree that restricting of the options we can choose from, be they residential or social, is exactly what we do not want. Our disagreements stem only from the question of how best to increase choice. We all acknowledge that choice is the desired end. Even on the most controversial of issues, the future of the Greek system, that minority that favors the system's elimination makes the claim that its dominance is reducing choice. While the logic of eliminating choices in order to increase choices requires some impressive mental gymnastics to accept, the goal does remain the same.
It is very clear, however, that many members of the administration, the faculty and even the Board of Trustees do not understand this common goal. The most obvious proof of that misunderstanding is, of course, Trustee Dentzer's gaffe in the fall when she explained the benefits of "structured choices." But that philosophy also underpins much of the Committee on the Student Life Initiative's report.
Whether it is locking students into one residential cluster for their first three years at Dartmouth or endorsing the massive reduction, if not the end, of single-sex Greek organizations, the Committee has clearly set out to structure students' choices for them. Their suggestions for remedying Dartmouth's most obvious problem, limited social space, may best be described as vague and perfunctory. Yet this is the issue on which nearly all students agree huge strides are necessary.
The faculty did nothing to alleviate the sense that the powers that be at Dartmouth are unconcerned with free student choice by voting unanimously for derecogition of all Greek organizations, despite the massive student support for their existence. I have heard many students question the standing of the faculty to make sweeping pronouncements on the appropriate activities of the students, outside the classroom that is the faculty's sole responsibility. This point is well taken, especially given that the faculty has never made much of an effort to advocate social alternatives for students. It would have been far more productive if they had demonstrated a real desire to build something and not just tear things down.
In fairness, all these assaults on student choice are understandable, if not forgivable. Students have never made a concerted statement that free and expanded choices are important to them. We have made the point in piecemeal fashion, defending the Greek system or asking for more social options. But we have never really stated our desire for choice explicitly. Until we do we will always be accused of being shortsighted and immature. It is time to make it clear, especially to the Board which may not really be aware of how we feel, that we are not fighting for beer, or for the status quo, but for the right to make our own choices, and to have as many choices as possible open to us.
So take the next few days and send something to the Task Force. Let them know that we want a Dartmouth where we have more choices, not fewer. A Dartmouth where every student feels welcome everywhere on campus. A Dartmouth where we have the opportunity to interact with everyone, while still being allowed to interact with whatever group or groups we wish to. A Dartmouth where we can live in our clusters for as long as we choose to do so, without being forced to remain someplace we wish to leave. A Dartmouth with a residential system that works to make students choose to live in it, not one that forbids them to live anywhere else. Let them know about whatever you want Dartmouth to be, but most importantly let them know that you want a Dartmouth where you make your own choices, and have as many choices as possible to make.
There are many ways Dartmouth can go in the next few years but perhaps the most important decision will be between student choice and a parental administration, between treating students as adults or children. I am sure many on this campus feel that the Trustees and administration will make their own decision regardless of what we say now. So look at it this way: do you really want them to be able to say that we wanted to be treated as children all along? And who knows, we might actually be treated like adults for a change.
