As Friday's deadline for the submission of responses to last month's steering committee report approaches, a wide variety of campus organizations are preparing to present their views and opinions to the Student Response Task Force.
Panhell
The Panhellenic Council issued its response to the Student Life Initiative Recommendations yesterday, focusing on the proposals that, if implemented, would most affect sororities.
Panhell President Alex Kremer '01 said the committee that wrote the group's response agreed for the most part with the Trustee's ideas and wanted to find a way to achieve them effectively within the sorority system.
The group's report supported requiring a Sexual and Drug Abuse Peer Advisor and a UGA to live in each house, but that the UGA be a member of the house and that an Eating Disorders Advisor also be required.
The organization also approved of the idea for an integrated rush period, but felt that it should continue to occur during Fall term and be followed by a term-long "new member period."
"The new member period is not about a sorority testing its new members but rather about the new members testing the sorority," Panhell's report said.
Other modifications to the steering committee's proposals Panhell recommended include reviewing of the Coed Fraternity Sorority organizations individually rather than as a group, the continuation of summer residence in Greek houses and the creation of a seventh sorority to meet demand.
Zeta Psi
Zeta Psi fraternity's response, released earlier this week, examined much of the Initiative report point by point.
Zete's nearly 40-page response "tried to highlight student choice and really improving continuity," President Matt Kuhn '01 said.
"I would say that we agreed a lot with the ideas and with the spirit of the original report," Kuhn said.
Echoing an idea found in the Panhell response, Zete recommended the creation of social ties between Greek and affinity houses, administrators and faculty.
Zete's response suggested that house members rather than community members be trained as College certified bartenders citing liability issues and a lack of non-students willing to do the job.
Also put forth was an alternative housing assignment system that was discussed during conversations the Zete committee had with the Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman.
In the proposed system, students would receive housing lottery numbers as they do now, but would have a chance to choose a room in their assigned cluster first if they wanted to remain. If they wanted to change their residential cluster, they would have a chance to participate in a large scale lottery the next day.
GLBT
The Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance report focuses on eliminating a "pervasive institutional homophobia," said Tom Kennedy '00, who coordinated the writing of the response.
DRA will advocate increasing the resources available to GLBT students on campus in the social, academic and residential realms in hopes of changing the campus atmosphere, Kennedy said.
The organization would like to see an increase in the number of staff dedicated to GLBT support on campus as well as the development of academic programs related to GLBT issues.
Many more student groups plan to hand responses to the Task Force before tomorrow's deadline. The Inter-Fraternity Council and the CFSC both plan to release their responses today.
Although no campus sorority responded independently to the recommendations, several fraternities, including Psi Upsilon and Bones Gate, intend to issue independent responses.
Many non-Greek organizations, such as the Dartmouth Outing Club, the Afro-American Society and Hillel also plan to offer the Task Force their input.
