In January of 2000, the Student Life Initiative declared that sweeping changes were in store for the residential system of the College. Now, a year and a half later, some question whether any of the proposed changes have actually taken place.
The report -- which was submitted to the College's Board of Trustees by the Committee on the Student Life Initiative -- called for new residence halls, "decompressed" dorm rooms, more social spaces and general improvements to existing residence halls. It also emphasized strengthening communities within residential clusters through more cluster-centered activities.
In a statement to the press, released in March, the College announced intentions to erect two new undergraduate residence halls, each containing double and single rooms, lounges and kitchens on every floor and "a large community center for group activities."
According to Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman, plans are underway for the construction of one new undergraduate residence hall, to be located on the Tuck Mall. The College hired an architect for the project last February, and the Student Assembly is currently gathering names of students to serve on a student advisory committee that will work with administrators in designing the new building.
While a second new undergraduate residence hall is also on Redman's agenda, an architect has yet to be hired for that project.
"The other [building] I will get to," Redman promised.
The planned construction did little to ease this spring's housing crunch. As in previous years, a number of students found themselves without assigned housing until the very beginning of the term.
The housing shortage made the SLI's proposed decompression -- reduction of students per room -- virtually impossible this term. Redman said that in future terms, new residence halls should allow for such decompression to take place, although he admitted that this expectation is "predicated upon the assumption that a number of students will want to live off campus [as they have done in the past.]"
Should the number of students desiring to live off campus decrease, the cramped conditions of some residence halls may not be alleviated.
"[It] would present another set of problems," Redman conceded.
Although the Office of Residential Life has yet to receive formal feedback from undergraduate advisors and cluster residents, Redman believes that the social life within residence halls has become more prevalent.
"My sense is that the staff is working hard to increase communities within their buildings ... and [that] more social activities are going on," he said.
More students, in general, appear to be interested in becoming involved in the organization of residence hall activities, with this year's number of students applying to be undergraduate advisors being nearly twice that of last year.
While one might attribute this sharp increase to the recent tripling of salaries for UGAs -- a raise encouraged by the SLI -- Redman feels that the growth in the number of applicants may be due to a "myriad of reasons" including increased diversity among students.
Redman maintained that strengthening social programs within residence halls has always been one of the goals of the Office of Residential Life. The SLI, he explained, "heightened awareness," of this goal.
The SLI also helped reinforce the idea of an increased number of social spaces -- something that ORL has "wanted for some time," he said. According to Redman, these spaces could be used for dances, concerts and lectures, and would allow for students to congregate with friends in places other than their bedrooms.
Redman cited the East Wheelock cluster as one residence hall in which such social spaces have proven to be successful. Redman, however, is reluctant to present East Wheelock as a model for all future residence halls, but rather sees it as only one of a number of types of housing clusters that the College has the option of constructing in the future.
"We could have ten different clusters doing ten different things," he said.
Redman is not worried that new cluster communities will isolate residents and detract from the Dartmouth community as a whole -- a concern voiced by many after the release of the SLI report -- pointing again to the East Wheelock cluster, where many residents are members of a variety of campus organizations, including Greek Houses and sports teams.
Redman views the report as a "living document." The SLI, Redman said, "must stop being the SLI and must become the way we do things."
