As I walked down Webster Avenue one recent morning (after a class nearby, just to be clear), I watched people coming and going in and out of their respective Greek houses and realized that Fraternity Row is the only truly student-controlled space on campus.
I then walked down to the Collis Center for lunch and realized that the "student center," as it is called, is a complete joke. There is very little student control over Collis; in fact, it often feels as if the only claim it has to the title of "student center" is the fact that it is near the center of campus and that students can usually be found there.
On other college campuses, student centers (or student unions, as they are sometimes known) are buildings that are student-controlled and student-governed. They provide meeting spaces for clubs, social events, often house the student government, sometimes provide food, etc. While on the surface it seems that Collis meets many of the criteria for being a true student center in terms of services it provides, all of the day-to-day functions are secondary to the fact that Collis is controlled by the administration.
One need only take a stroll around the upper stories of the building to find that most of the space is controlled by the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, the Student Life Office and the Academic Skills Center. While I think all of these groups are great parts of the Dartmouth community, their offices should not be in the student center. Even more telling, when you visit the Collis "student center" website and click on the "Who Are We" button, you are treated to a list of administrators complete with a flowchart of who oversees the various components of Collis.
I hope this seems as ridiculous to you as it does to me. At one of the nation's top universities, our administration will not even trust us to manage a building. While I have personally worked with many of these administrators -- who are all great people who have many responsibilities beyond Collis -- the fact remains that they are simply not students. Even the student-run Collis Governing Board is limited to making capital improvements to Collis and putting on some programming, all under the eye of the administrators who run Collis.
Instead, I propose that Collis be given over to the student body. We have already shown ourselves capable of successfully running our own programs, such as DOC Trips, numerous affinity houses, and yes, even our excellent Greek system. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that Dartmouth students could effectively run our own student center.
We should keep the Cafe and Lone Pine run by Dining Services, but allow students to govern everything at Collis, including scheduling space, bringing in entertainment and events, apportioning office space to various bodies of student government and clubs, and making improvements to Collis that students want. More than anything, it will empower students to create a space that is entirely our own, without having administrative baby-sitters watching over everything we do.
Some will argue that students cannot run Collis as well as full-time administrators. I think students absolutely can. One major parallel is the Dartmouth Outing Club, wherein students effectively manage numerous spaces including the first floor of Robinson Hall, the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and various cabins. Clearly, students have proven more than capable in managing buildings. However, even if students weren't as effective at managing the building as administrators, they would still do a better job at it. This is because no matter how well-intentioned administrators are, at best they can only try to govern Collis in the way they think students want, whereas students can take Collis in the direction we want.
This administration has for years talked about the Student Life Initiative and giving students more alternative social space, and so on. If they truly believe in what they are saying, then they should put their money where their mouths are and give the student body its own space. Not to self-call, but we are Dartmouth students, and we will be running the country one day; I think we can be trusted with running our own student center.
