The statements released by the Trustees and Dean of the College James Larimore were met with a lack of surprise by the leadership of the Student Assembly and members of the Student Response Task Force yesterday.
These student leaders expressed general agreement with the announcements and said that they had great hopes for improvements to the social and residential future of the College -- but many disagreed with specific changes that now will be made to the Greek system.
"Nothing's going to change unless the culture changes," Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 said, adding that he thought the decisions made by the Trustees is a step in the right direction toward making those changes.
Approval is most enthusiastic for the development of social and residential space and the reevaluation of the D-Plan.
"[D-Plan review] is something the College has needed to do for a really long time," Assembly Vice President Margaret Kuecker '01 said.
Vice presidential candidate Chance Hill '01 expressed support for the promised fair treatment of Greek houses as places with individual personalities, in which they would be given the opportunity to meet the Trustee's standards.
Task Force Member Kate Laswell '02 said, "I'm excited by the fact that the Trustees were so generous in their ability to conceive so many new parts to Dartmouth," referring to the creation of new social spaces and physical construction.
Many felt the Trustees had made many of their decisions before reading student proposals, but, as Alex Wilson '01, Assembly treasurer and presidential candidate, said, "[that is] what we were told to expect."
The biggest controversy involved the decision to place a moratorium on the formation of new single-sex residential selective organizations, which, for most, killed hopes of the creation of a seventh sorority house.
"The College needs a seventh sorority, if not an eighth or a ninth," said Molly Stutzman '02, Assembly student life chair and candidate for vice president.
She added that it is not equitable that the sorority system could not be more like the fraternity system, which has houses higher in number and smaller in size.
Moving rush to Winter term, requiring undergraduate advisors to live in Greek houses and failure to emphasize diversity also evoked criticism.
"One of my main concerns is that diversity on campus was not addressed as a main issue," presidential candidate Alex Grishman '01 said. "I would like to see that brought to the forefront of anything that transpires."
Meg Smoot '01, candidate for Assembly president and a member of the steering committee, expressed frustration for the fact that the announcements did not reflect the hard work that her committee had put into its proposal.
"It was a good first step, but it doesn't fully encompass what the Trustees said they wanted to do in terms of changing social and residential life on campus," Smoot said.
Smoot characterized the decisions as being "logical enough" not to have needed such an extensive process of debate.
Wilson echoed these frustrations, saying that the announcement, missing vital specifics, was vague and "not worth the trouble it caused."
He said he was particularly infuriated by the neglect for the area of diversity and gender relations. He characterized the lack of attention as being "close to an insult."
Laswell said she saw the omission of details as a positive sign that the Trustees took into account the wide range of student opinions that emerged. She said she was initially surprised at the vagueness of the announcement, considering the "minute details" the Task Force had been working with.
However, after some thought, she accepted the flexibility the decisions would allow and was "pleased that they did not give exact details."
Stutzman attacked the speed with which the Trustees produced their decisions, comparing their four days of discussion to months of weekly meetings, taking polls and cluster discussions on the part of the students.
"I don't think they gave [the SA report] the full attention that they should have given," she said. "I'm disappointed."
Jorge Miranda '01, candidate for Assembly president, said he thought the Trustees were being "condescending" by neglecting to comment on student input.
He said he understands that while the Trustees are not compelled to listen to students, they do owe the student body reasons for their decisions, instead of making announcements "without giving an explanation why."
Krishna admitted that it was difficult to tell which areas were influenced by student input, but made the point that the direction the Initiative took 14 months ago is different than the one it went in yesterday.
"Clearly the community made a difference," he said.
Kuecker suggested that although first impressions of the announcement did not make it clear, "in the details, the statement does reflect student input."
Andy Mengshol, task force member and co-president of the Graduate Student Council, said he was pleased with all of the recommendations, and especially the ones concerning graduate housing, creation of a student center and construction of dining and social space.
He said these were things graduate students had been working toward for years.
