Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman is charged with realizing many of the ambitions proposed by the Trustees.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Redman said he is looking forward to the challenging process of identifying the things that need to be done and then making sure they are done right.
In his letter to the College community, Dean of the College Jim Larimore named the Office of Residential Life as the leader in a number of projects aimed at revamping the housing environment, including the development of standards of excellence for Coed Fraternity and Sorority organizations.
"It's going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun," Redman said. "I think we're ready for it. I'm looking forward to it."
Redman said he thought it was very appropriate and reasonable that many of the responsibilities for improving the quality of the Dartmouth experience fall on his office, since, "This is a residential college."
He listed six main concerns that he must consider.
These include the development of the first-year housing program, the building of additional residential space, reporting on affinity housing, evaluating undergraduate societies and revamping residential staffing positions -- in addition to working with the Greek system to develop and meet higher standards.
The CFS system
Redman has put a lot of thought into one of the most significant of the responsibilities handed to ORL by the Trustee report -- his new role with the Greek system.
"[My role is to] encourage pride, provide support," he said. "I believe very firmly in the Greek system."
As directed by the Trustees, Redman said he will help formulate the "new standards of excellence" by meeting and conversing with members of the Greek community, and referring to the current minimum standard codes and the steering committee suggestions -- suggestions largely endorsed by the Trustees.
According to Redman, it is critical for any successful Greek system to have three aspects -- an active chapter that strives for better standards, a supportive college administration and an active and committed alumni system.
He said he wants to work with the houses to develop better alumni relations network than the ones that currently exist.
Another aspect of his involvement is to help the chapters understand their physical plant responsibilities, which will become apparent once the audit mandated by the Trustees is accomplished.
He will again look to the steering committee report, which addressed standards like maximum capacity numbers in detail.
New dorms
Redman did not venture to guess the total cost of the Initiative, but the addition of 500 beds, at a minimum construction price of $100,000 each, will cost at least $50 million.
Despite this, he said he is anxious to begin the building process, and especially the first step of deciding where to construct the new residence halls.
"One of the significant issues we have to decide quickly is 'where?'" he said.
He said the important factors behind this decision are the needs of the athletic and academic departments, because any space the new residence halls will take up eliminates potential sites for their facilities.
To house 500 beds, Redman estimated between three and five new buildings will be needed, with at least one big building that will be able to hold approximately 250 beds where students can live while older residence halls are being expanded or renovated.
He named places like the area behind the Ripley Woodward Smith cluster where the Bema is located, Tuck drive and the north end of campus as possible sites for development.
Redman said he expects these changes will provide housing for every student who wants to live on campus, suggesting that housing crunches will be avoided in the future.
According to Redman, however, his work will not only concentrate on increasing the quantity of available housing, but also the quality.
Redman said he will need to make decisions about whether to significantly improve the Choates and the River cluster residences, or to level and rebuild on the site.
"We're not happy with either," he said.
Other improvements will include taking beds out of service and using those rooms for lounges and converting cramped doubles and triples into doubles and singles.
Figuring it out
In addition to these issues, Redman must come up with many more answers to questions concerning the College judicial system, hazing policies, affinity programs, residential staffing opportunities and freshmen options.
He mentioned many new ideas such as expanding the affinity programs to provide spaces where, for example, people interested in volunteer work, science or music can live together.
He said he thinks that the new student judicial system will involve a council that considers major infractions of College rules, but that minor infractions will still be decided by bodies specific to Greek and non-Greek communities.
He said the College hazing policy currently "leaves too many things unanswered" and would like to see a less ambiguous one emerge.
He said he expects the compensation for undergraduate advisors to at least double, but does not know what the final package will be.