The 13 crew members selected from 34 applications for this summer's Big Green Bus trip were announced after a two-week selection process.
The group will travel across the country on the bus this summer to raise awareness about alternative fuels and sustainability.
The individuals selected for the group bring a diverse background of skills and personal qualities to ensure the bus's continued success, said Andrew Zabel '09, who was one of the selection committee's four members. This year marks the first year the program has required an application procedure due to the large increase in interested students.
"I think, as a whole, they're a lot more qualified in terms of being familiar with different aspects of the bus. We have people who already know a lot of the science behind sustainability, we have people who have written grant proposals or press releases, people who have extensive experience with public speaking, and those are the type of things that last year's crew didn't really have," Zabel said. "As a whole, they are more qualified, or come into it with better background experience that lend themselves to what the bus is doing."
Some students, however, have raised questions about the fairness of the selection process and what they see as its insular nature.
"They may have already known people that wanted to do it, without looking at people ... who may have really cared about the program [but whom they didn't know personally]," said Carrie Thompson '08, whose application for the Big Green Bus was rejected.
Within the new group of bussers, all 10 of the selected students who were not freshmen are in some way involved in Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips.
Selection committee member Jeff Milloy '09 said that the selection of those involved with Trips is not completely coincidental because there are many aspects of the DOC trips that the bus crew wishes to emulate.
"Both projects are so distinctly Dartmouth in similar ways, and we've been looking at the Trips program for inspiration during our own selection process," Milloy said.
"Trips and the Big Green Bus are looking for very similar qualities in people," said selection committee member Craig Rubens '06, who served on the Trips' "H-Croo" in 2003 and was its director in 2005.
"We need a group of people that works well together and can respond to obstacles as they come up," Rubens added.
The number of students selected to be part of the group who are also involved in Trips is reflective of the number of applicants involved with Trips, according to Milloy, though he said he could not give an estimate as to how many Big Green Bus applicants were also involved with Trips.
Esther Perman '07 said that she was excited when she found out she had been chosen, but "wasn't too surprised."
When asked why, Perman replied, "Because I know a lot of people."
Eric Trautmann '07, who was selected to travel with the bus, said he was good friends with Rubens prior to applying, but that he does not believe this was why his application was accepted.
Perman said that the Big Green Bus's newly selected members make up a strong group of motivated individuals who are different from those involved in previous years.
"In the past, [the group] has been a lot of ultimate [frisbee] players. Now it's a new crowd that has not been involved with it before," she said.
Only one of this summer's selected members plays ultimate frisbee, Zabel said.
