Minority issues have assumed an increasingly important role both at Dartmouth and elsewhere in the two years since the announcement of the Student Life Initiative -- the wide-ranging plan to enhance the residential and social life of the College.
The recent change from half to full-time advisory positions for several campus affinity groups, including African-American, Latino/Latina, Asian and Asian-American and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender students, has been one of the most significant results of the Initiative for minorities on campus.
"A result of the new positions is that we now have more time, resources, and can create more change," said Nora Yasumura, advisor to Asian-American students.
"Also, we've been working more collaboratively, and we're now all centrally located, for coordination and support," Yasumura said, adding that all advisors now report to the same person, Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia.
Additionally, the new positions have allowed for the creation of the Diversity Peer Program, which is a training program that allows students interested in diversity to come together to discuss race, gender, class and people with disabilities, according to Yasumura.
The changes come at a time when Dartmouth has seen a greater number of minority acceptance letters mailed out than ever before, according to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. Out of 2,216 total admits, 764, or 34.5 percent, were given to minority applicants, up from 31.8 percent last year.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenburg credited the Initiative with creating an atmosphere more welcoming to minority students.
"There's still a lingering reputation of Dartmouth as a place that is fraternity-oriented, male-oriented, less diverse. I think the SLI is something that addresses that for prospective students," Furstenburg said.
"Prospective students see the social structure as a sign that Dartmouth is less tolerant, so anything Dartmouth does to address the social structure will help," Furstenburg added.
Furstenburg cited a decline in male applications, a decrease in the number of '04's interested in the Greek system, and an increase in the diversity of the applicant pool as signs that Dartmouth has indeed undergone positive change.
Other colleges are undergoing similar debates over the importance of diversity and minority issues as well. At Wellesley College in Massachusetts, the dispute has risen to the level of outright protest. A group of students is scheduled to begin a hunger strike early today to protest the college administration's refusal to appoint two full-time cultural advisors to fill recently vacated positions.
The strike was coordinated by The Sisters Leading Action for Multiculturalism, or SLAM, a student coalition which contends that such advisors are necessary to support the interests of women of color at the college.
Andrea Saavedra, a senior at Wellesley, commented that neither students nor faculty of color "can continue to grow numerically, spiritually or culturally if there is not an established advocate in the administration."
Wellesley has encountered difficulty filling the existing part-time positions due to the problems inherent in recruiting advisors for a job that offers limited hours and pay.
Dartmouth and Wellesley are not the only colleges grappling with challenging -- and often controversial -- minority issues, however. Alex Willingham, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Multicultural Center at Williams College, talked of a similar issue at his own college, while emphasizing that such problems are difficult and rarely present easy solutions.
"The crisis that is agitating the campus now is the issue of Latino Studies: Latino students are pressing for the creation of a Latino Studies department, but other people are resisting it," he said.
"My sense is that these and related issues are very much on the minds of faculty, administration and students, and everybody is trying a new and different way to do things," Willingham added.
Dartmouth's Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenburg noted that, in light of developments at other schools such as Williams and Wellesley, Dartmouth's addition of full-time advisory positions was not as remarkable as it might appear.
"I would say our peer institutions have also been concerned with residential life, so as revolutionary as what we think we're doing is, other schools are adding a lot of the same things," he said.
In demographic terms, Dartmouth appears to be diversifying its student body, though not to the same extent as many other comparable schools. At the beginning of the 1999 school year, approximately 24 percent of Dartmouth students were non-white, as compared to 37 percent at Wellesley, 32 percent at Yale, 27 percent at Brown, 22 percent at Williams, and 30 percent at Princeton, according to the Insider's Guide to the Colleges.
With respect to the composition of the student body, Furstenburg described his role as one of an agent of change.
"Admissions is geared to be what we want Dartmouth to be, not what it is or used to be," he said.
He again emphasized the importance of the Initiative if Dartmouth is to continue to attract a talented and diverse student body in the coming years.
