Although only about half of the female students interviewed by The Dartmouth expected the Trustees to address campus gender relations in their statement, a large majority said they felt the attention given to the issue was disappointing.
On its first page, the statement by the Board of Trustees said, "We need to affirm the importance of inclusiveness and positive gender relations."
However, there is no more mention of the subject in the rest of the document, including the list of 13 decisions.
Susan Marine, coordinator of the Sexual Assault Awareness Program, said it was difficult to see exactly how the Trustee's announcements would affect the gender situation on campus, and she has adopted a "wait and see" attitude, although she said she was happy that no decisions would be antithetical to gender relations.
Marine was more disappointed by the lack of attention toward the diversity issue, which she emphasized more than gender problems in the College.
Others were more critical of the lack of attention exhibited in the statement.
"Gender issues is something the Trustees definitely need to address," Alex Kremer '01, president of the Panhellenic Council, said. "It's a part of the coeducational process."
When she tried to read through the statement a second time to find the Trustee's views and plans on gender relations improvement, her reaction was disappointment.
"I hadn't realized how little they mentioned it," she said.
Most women were critical of the continuation of the moratorium on selective, single-sex, residential organizations, which would prohibit the creation of a seventh sorority.
Many women said they thought sorority houses provide what Amanda Keton '00 called "women's space." Other women used similar terminology as well, to mean places where women can gather and organize, to have leadership roles, to feel completely safe and meet other women.
"Since [the Trustees] wanted to limit the scope of sororities, they should have balanced it with perhaps an increase in funding for women's resources," Amy Dillon '01 said.
The Women's Resource Center was frequently listed as a place where resources should have been directed, although nothing more specific was said about steps to resolve problems of gender relations.
Some said they thought the attempt to de-emphasize the importance and accessibility of alcohol consumption by banning taps and permanent bars would improve the situation.
"People having more sober communication with each other is a good thing," Marine said.
