As other parts of the College -- most notably the Office of Residential Life -- reduce their reliance on student leadership, the Department of Health Resources has endured a year of administrative turmoil thanks largely to an emphasis on undergraduate participation.
The Sexual Abuse Peer Advisors program (SAPA) lost its coordinator last November when Susan Marine moved on to a position at the Public Health Department of Cambridge, Mass. The immensely popular Marine had come to Dartmouth four and a half years earlier and was adopted by the graduating class of 2000 at commencement.
A second blow hit Health Resources this summer when the coordinator for Drug Abuse Peer Advisors, Margaret Smith, moved on to Keene State College after serving for three years at the College.
A frequent turnover of young professionals who leave Dartmouth as they receive new career opportunities is a common phenomenon, Director of Health Resources Gabrielle Lucke explained, and consequently the department was prepared to deal with their exits.
"There was no mad dash [to replace them] -- people knew where they were going," she said, adding, "These programs are well established." SAPA, the first peer advisor program, was created 12 years ago.
An eight-month gap followed before the SAPA program hired a new coordinator, Abby Tassel, who was originally an interim replacement for Marine.
Despite the long absence of a coordinator, Lucke said that SAPA "didn't miss a beat." Along with Tassel, Lucke and Community Director Nariah Broadus picked up much of the surplus work last year.
"I don't want programs that are dependent on one head," Lucke said, adding that student roles and input should allow these programs to "take on lives of their own."
Instrumental in this, according to Lucke, are four student interns, Stephanie Hogan '02, Nick Rule '04, Freya Sachs '04 and Margot Sullivan '02, who work under Lucke and oversee the peer advising programs.
An increasing number of students have also taken on more responsibility for Health Services by doubling up and becoming, for example, both a SAPA and an Eating Disorder Peer Advisor.
Training for these programs focuses on teaching advisors to help with judicial, health, safety and counseling issues that may arise for students.
The goal of granting students leadership roles is not only to improve the workings of Health Services but also to provide them with experience for their future professions and personal lives, Lucke said.
While Marine and Smith were primarily content specialists, in their time at Dartmouth they also did much to polish the programs and make administrative transitions easier.
As for DAPA, the formal search for a new coordinator won't happen until this spring. Administrators collected resumes earlier this term, but made a decision to suspend the process until after national conferences early next year. Lucke did not elaborate on reasons for the halting of the search process.
Along with EDPA, SAPA and DAPA make up one part of Dartmouth's three-level peer education system. Health opinion leaders -- students trained through a physical class -- make up the second branch. Peer educators, who work in group education organizations such as Students Against the Abuse of Food and Exercise (SAFE), form the third.
Training for students interested in becoming peer advisors is held in the Winter and Summer for SAPAs and DAPAs, and in the Spring for EDPAs.
