The Office of Residential Life hopes to help Greek houses attain high standards by offering a tool that would give individual houses the ability to monitor the progress toward certain goals and access others' perceptions of their houses.
ORL is working with the Center for Educational Leadership to develop computer software, which it hopes will provide each house with a useful self-assessment.
As designed, this project will include a survey of representatives around campus about their perceptions of the Greek organization, according to Dean of Residential Life Marty Redman. This assessment would be just one component of the developing software, Redman added, noting that the software is still in its initial stages.
The software and corresponding system "...will allow Greek houses to monitor their progress regarding their annual action plan and to see how they are doing in relationship to the rest of the Greek system," Redman told The Dartmouth.
Although only in the first-year of a planned three-year development, this software is already being eyed by members of the various Greek leadership organizations.
"My personal reaction is that it's a great idea; most methods to make the process easier are a good one," Interfraternity Council President, Jonathan Lazarow '05 said. "Most importantly, it will simplify the process of creating the action plan and producing the termly progress reports, from which the houses will benefit."
One important aspect of the software is that it keeps those surveyed anonymous. Any house viewing the results would be "blind" to the names corresponding to the information, according to Redman.
The Greek system, however, will have to wait some time before the actual software is available. Until ORL concludes the initial planning phase, there will be no widespread distribution or use.
