At a fireside chat attended by less than a dozen students at the Top of the Hop last night, Dean of the College James Larimore and College President James Wright discussed important issue pertaining to the community.
The event was intended as part of an effort to reach out to more students and hear their perspective on the College. Despite the extremely low turnout, the hour long conversation covered a range of Dartmouth issues including student-faculty interaction and social space.
Neither Wright nor Larrimore had a specific agenda for the evening, but instead allowed those students in attendance to direct the conversation.
Larimore said students may soon be receiving blitzes or phone calls at random inviting them to have dinner with a group of the College's top administrators.
Larimore described the Fireside Chats as a regular event that seeks to create an environment that is "not a lecture, not a question and answer" but a conversation.
A main theme of the discussion was the effort to increase student-faculty interaction, and the administration's attempt to get direct student feedback on many aspects of life at the College. Larimore pointed to the success of recent book and author luncheons, and Wright spoke of his interest in "bringing faculty back into Hanover."
One student expressed support for recent proposals to install locks or buzzers on dormitory showers.
In response to this comment, Larimore said the idea of shower locks was an "odd approach" to safety "if we don't lock our front doors." He said a much more comprehensive approach to safety should be considered if students feel it is a legitimate issue.
In response to questions about more social space at the College, Wright said "We know that we need social spaces" but pointed to factors of "time and capital" as reasons why dramatic increases in social space on campus are likely to be long-range projects.
The administrators addressed how the Student Assembly and the administration can communicate more efficiently. They said they hope to streamline feedback to Assembly resolutions. Representatives from the Student Assembly including Tara Maller '03 and Dan Pollack '01were in attendance.
The chat which was intended for people to "come together as a community for a conversation," also saw the administrators and students discuss the future of the space previously used as a computer cluster in the reserve area of Baker Library.
Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman was also at the event, and discussed how the Office of Residential Life is involved in recruiting faculty to develop relationships with clusters, modeled after the faculty associate program that exists for the East Wheelock cluster.
Wright stressed that he is eager to know "what is on your mind", and wants to engage in dialogue with students as frequently as possible. Larimore said another Fireside Chat will be held on March 5.
