It's no secret that students don't unanimously applaud the D-plan. Every upperclassman at Dartmouth has a story about the best friend he lost, the championship season he missed out on, or the classes he forewent because of certain combinations of on-, off- and leave-terms. As I enter my sophomore winter, I recognize the D-plan's downsides more clearly now than ever before. I will be on leave this spring, on campus for the summer and off in the fall. Recognizing that sophomore summer will not be a typical on-term, I see that I am soon to embark on a nine month hiatus from the Dartmouth life that I love, sacrificing classes I would love to take, extracurricular commitments I hate to miss, and budding interpersonal relationships that have not yet matured and perhaps never will. Needless to say, this sucks.
Like the majority of Dartmouth students, however, I have chosen to take advantage of the unique opportunities the D-plan offers me, despite the costs. Why disrupt, midstream, the precious continuity of a wonderful four years? Fear of becoming too comfortable. I love every term at Dartmouth, but each one goes faster than the last and benefits me as an individual just slightly less. (Yes, even in the land of milk and honey that is college, the law of diminishing returns seems to apply.) There is always something new to learn or somebody else to meet, but nothing rocks my boat as much as those first few weeks and the transition from high school to college. In the endeavor to recover that initial spurt of personal growth, the flexibility of the D-plan gives Dartmouth students an edge over those enrolled at other colleges.
Working in tandem with other offices (e.g. the Tucker Foundation, Career Services,) the D-plan offers school-year opportunities above and beyond the traditional college experience. College interns are in much shorter supply during the school year than the summer, which means a better chance of securing desired leave-term employment. Community service opportunities in education, perhaps funded by the Dickey Center, are available only during the school year. Whatever the mission--travelling, volunteering, ski bumming, studying abroad--the D-plan provides the mechanism to do it during months when other students cannot. Dartmouth even provides a well-established way to make use of the flexible schedule, for lack of more original ideas: the critically acclaimed LSA and FSP.
Anyone who has made the transition from high school to college knows that, regardless of the specifics, there are inherent benefits of straying from the crowd, parting with usual friends, and going out on one's own. It's a strengthening experience. I'm counting on my adventures this spring and fall to teach me something about myself and my place in the world around me, aside from the language skills I will acquire in Spain and the philosophy I will study in Edinburgh.
The flexibility of the D-plan benefits more than just those students who prefer to receive some of their college education outside of Hanover. If one prefers to stay on and graduate in three years, enjoys spending summers at Dartmouth more than anywhere else or wishes to coordinate schedules with friends so as to be never separate from them, the D-plan can make it happen. It isn't inherently disruptive to the Dartmouth experience, and it doesn't force students to make sacrifices; it only expands the options. Without forfeiting campus unity -- orientation week, big weekends, sophomore summer and class days make sure of that -- Dartmouth gives its students the power to individually shape not only their social, extracurricular and academic lives at Dartmouth but also the schedule and locale of their entire college experience.
It's ironic to celebrate as an integral part of Dartmouth that which thirty years ago was, in part, an ingenuity of residential crowd control. ("So we're going co-ed. Now how in hell are we going to house all these women?") The D-plan has become, however, an essential component in Dartmouth's noble tradition of giving students command of their own lives--the very tradition that many worry is under attack in the text of the SLI. I applaud the College for putting major renovation of the D-plan on the backburner this past fall, and I hope it stays there. I urge the implementers of the Initiative to keep in mind, during further implementation, the valuable role that self-direction and independent decision-making play in the comprehensive education of a total person.
