Editor's note: This is the first in a five-part series of articles exploring the disparities between how the College presents itself and the reality that students encounter on campus. In this piece, The Dartmouth examines the Dartmouth Plan.
"Dartmouth is Dartmouth year round," the College's glossy new admissions brochure tells prospective students. "There's no closing up shop for the summer. The Dartmouth Plan is the system of coordinating your terms to best suit you."
But for some students, the D-Plan has turned into a disaster, taking them away from their friends, forcing them to live in different rooms each term and wreaking havoc on their club and intramural athletic teams.
The administration heralds the D-Plan for the flexibility it affords students. Undergraduates need 12 terms to complete their credits, leaving them several additional terms for travel, employment, internships or personal experiences. According to admissions literature, 50 percent of students participate in at least one of the off-campus options, and 10 percent of students go abroad three times.
Voted on in November 1971 and implemented the following fall, the D-Plan allowed the College to function on year-round operation and to admit women without major capital expenditures. Only one 200-resident building needed to be added for the school to increase enrollment from 3,200 to 4,000 by 1975, because no more than 3,400 students would be on campus each term. Of these 4,000 students, 100 would be women.
Today, students "schedule things in their own way based on their needs" and "can come and go as they see fit," Paul Sunde, associate director of admissions, explained to prospective students in an information session Thursday. He said the D-Plan fits with Dartmouth's "culture, allowing students to be independent."
Students who have taken advantage of opportunities made possible by Dartmouth's unique schedule agreed. Lane Verlenden '06, for example, said he appreciates the limited competition for internships.
"Students are gaining opportunities that aren't available during the summer. An office may have ten interns in the summer and only two in the winter," Sunde said.But Verlenden also acknowledges the negatives.
"Some parts are horrible, like the potential not to see friends for anytime up to a year. And I haven't lived in one room for more than a term since sophomore fall," he said. "I can't choose between love and hate."
Many students agree with Verlenden's housing frustrations.
"I am pretty fed up with packing my stuff all the time and would like to settle into one room or apartment," Libby Sherman '06 said.
The D-Plan keeps the Office of Residential Life busy all year long.
"It means we do housing four times a year," Rachael Class-Giguere, the director of undergraduate housing, said.
According to Giguere, ORL receives many complaints from returning juniors who want to live with friends or in singles but cannot be accommodated.
"In the winter, students can always get housing, but it's a matter of where," she said. "Some students hate changing rooms constantly, but others like saying that they've lived in every cluster on campus." For those working in housing, "it means it's never dull."
Michael Lord, East Wheelock's community director, said he has encountered similar issues. This term, seven out of Lord's sixteen staff members are new. The D-Plan hinders "the benefits that come from consistency in staff-resident relationships and knowledge of the job," he said.
However, Lord sees the D-Plan as an "even trade," allowing "for new blood to come into the staff. Staff members who come on in the middle of a year bring their own skills and talents to the position."
Ned Schneider '06 finds that the D-Plan makes his job as an undergraduate advisor difficult.
"It becomes extremely difficult when I have a lot of sophomores and juniors because they move every ten weeks, and they don't become invested in the community at all, the way freshmen or seniors on an all-senior floor do," Schneider said.
Schneider also blamed the D-Plan for the decline in intramural sports, saying that the sports listed in the lobbies of the older buildings have "trickled" away. He believes this lack of camaraderie in residence halls has led to increased interest in Greek life.
"Your fraternity or sorority is always there for you. It gives you stability when other personal relationships may not be around," Schneider said.
"Also, the D-Plan is hell for club athletes. It's hard to hold a team when the season extends through terms and people are coming and going," said Schneider, who fences in addition to being a UGA.
However, Lauren Burrows '06 sees pluses to the Dartmouth Plan where most people see negatives.
"The D-Plan provides the opportunity to get to know different people better. You just have to work harder at keeping in touch with the people who matter," she said.
