Leaders of various student organizations expressed mixed feelings about the College's proposed new mission statement in interviews with The Dartmouth.
While most praised the draft mission statement as a step in the right direction, several expressed concerns that Dartmouth has not committed itself firmly enough to fostering diversity. Some were also concerned that too many students are unaware that Dartmouth has released a potential new mission statement.
The draft, released earlier this week, features minor changes in wording throughout the document, as well as the addition of a new paragraph stating, in part, "An important element of learning is the ability to recognize and understand differences and similarities in the human experience."
Allyson Wendt '02 and Andrew Leong '03, co-chairs of the executive board of the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance, wondered why the mission statement does not acknowledge the importance of celebrating the diversity of sexual orientations on campus.
Wendt found the omission of any language referring to sexual orientation especially troubling because the new mission statement does specifically note the importance of celebrating differences of race, class and gender.
Leong said, however, that the new mission statement is nonetheless better than the old one in some ways.
"It mentions the importance of interaction among different groups, not just the importance of bringing different kinds of people here and letting them separate in their own communes," he said.
Jeffrey Garrett '02, a member of the executive board of MOSAIC, was pleased with the "general direction" of the new mission statement but thought that portions could be made stronger.
"It addresses the problems outlined in the CIDE [Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity] report about Dartmouth's laissez-faire attitude toward diversity," he said.
Like Leong and Wendt, Garrett was pleased with the revised third bullet point, which stresses the importance of encouraging interaction among students and faculty of diverse backgrounds rather than merely trying to recruit individuals from different backgrounds.
Nonetheless, Garrett expressed concern that the new mission statement will not go far enough.
"The words 'celebrate difference and individuality' could still allow individuals to take a laissez-faire attitude toward diversity," he said. "For example, you have events like a pow-wow or DAO [Dartmouth Asian Organization] Culture Night, and some people go to them, but that doesn't mean that people get anything out of them."
Garrett added that he would also like to see a provision that mentions the importance of students learning and growing as a result of interaction among people of different backgrounds.
Reiko Imai '03, president of the Dartmouth Japan Society, came away with the "general impression that the new mission statement wasn't that much different from the old one."
Imai was pleased that the new mission statement addressed Dartmouth's commitment to diversity more explicitly than the current one does, but she thought that it might support it still more strongly.
"There should be something about the need for continuous talk and effort on the part of the administration to bring up issues of diversity," she said.
Several student leaders also were concerned about the lack of publicity about the new mission statement. A few were unaware that a new mission statement had been released until contacted about it by The Dartmouth.
"Many people don't know about this yet," Imai said. "It seems like there are better ways to advertise the new mission statement, so that more of the general student population knows about it."
The new mission statement is currently available over the Internet for community comment.
