Dartmouth is a college entrenched in tradition: the alma mater rings from Baker Tower every evening at six o'clock, students will always be called by the year in which they will graduate, every winter students will risk life and limb to jump into a frozen Occum Pond over Winter Carnival, and a blazing bonfire will always tower above freshmen as they circle it as many times as the year they graduate during homecoming.
The Dartmouth traditions, the way we live at this College, have been a constant -- something that students have never had to question. There have been extraordinary changes in the past -- most notably the College's decision to go coeducational in 1972 -- yet the Dartmouth social experience has remained strikingly the same.
However, now, the Student Life Initiative will likely change the social and residential life at the "College on the hill" forever.
The incoming freshman class will be the first class to experience a newer Dartmouth -- a Dartmouth that no class before can completely know or understand.
They will be the first class to rush Greek houses in sophomore winter, the first to experiment with freshman-only housing and the first to witness Greek houses without taps and bars.
For more than a year, some aspects of the Initiative have been points of contention between the student body and the administration. After 14 months of discussions, meetings and recommendations, the Trustees finally announced their plans for the future of the College. A future that the '04s will be the first to fully glimpse.
In their Initiative decision, the Trustees also decided to uphold the previous moratorium on the formation of new single-sex organizations, to abolish the Coed Fraternity Sorority Judicial Council, to move to an expanded cluster system and increase dining and recreational facilities.
"The Board's desire has been to make the social and residential experience more reflective of Dartmouth's dynamic, diverse, coeducational community," read the Statement from the Board of Trustees released on April 19.
"The out-of-classroom experience must be consistent with the traditions of academic excellence and leadership development that have characterized Dartmouth and have made it one of the nation's leading institutions of higher learning."
With the goal of reforming the social and residential life at the College in order to suit Dartmouth's changing student body and needs, the Trustees felt the "need to affirm the importance of inclusiveness and positive gender relations; encourage greater continuity in the residential experience; develop more residential, social, and recreational options; reduce the dominance of selective, residential, single-sex organizations; provide greater support for graduate students; and work to eliminate the abuse of alcohol and other drugs."
"There has rarely been such an important and exhilarating time at Dartmouth College in terms of what these improvements will mean for the lives of students," Larimore wrote in a memo to the campus last April.
Larimore hopes that students will continue to play an integral role in the Initiative.
"The SLI is now in the design and implementation stage," Larimore said. "What developed last year was the result of first hand discussion ... Hopefully the '04s will become involved very quickly."
"It makes good sense to have students involved," he continued.
A central part of the development of an improved social and residential community is the increased funding and training of the undergraduate advisors, UGAs.
"The increase in UGA compensation, support and resources will have a large effect," Larimore said. "I believe if we put more resources in reach of students they will tap into their creative energy to develop more programming and activities."
In an effort to cultivate a strong sense of first year community, the Board decided to widen the choice of housing. Next year, 10 percent of the Class of 2004 will be housed in first-year only residence halls and floors. Members of the class will not be able to specify a preference for mixed or single-class housing.
Until now, the long tradition of mixed-class residence halls has made previous attempts at first-year housing extremely difficult.
The first-year housing experiment has been widely debated on campus.
Defending it, Larimore said, "The level of energy in first-year dorms is typically higher. The extended undergraduate advisor training and funding will make this even more vibrant."
"The students will still have access to upperclassmen," he said.
Larimore also believes that the new housing arrangements will potentially provide another medium for faculty/student interaction.
In addition, the Board charged the administration with initiating planning for enhanced residential clusters and expanded recreational and dining facilities.
The Board also approved the construction of 500 new beds within the next five years which should ease the current housing crunch substantially.
Freshman orientation is also being modified and expanded as a result of the Initiative.
"Last year, there were probably 55 social events and activities. That was an increase from 10 the year before. We have students working with staff to refine it further," Larimore said.
The aspect of the Initiative that has caused the most unrest among current students, however, is its implications for the future of the Greek System.
"I think we are moving along a continuum where the number and variety of social options is increasing, and more will develop over time," Larimore said.
Many of the concrete changes focus on reform of the Greek system. Kegs, which have played an integral part in registered parties, will disappear with the removal of the tap systems from the CFS basements.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman announced early this summer that the deadline for removal of taps and bars from all houses is September 16. The first one -- at Sigma Delta sorority -- is already gone.
"The taps provided an open source of alcohol. There were continuing concerns on what that symbolized," James Wright, President of the College, told The Dartmouth in April.
