The Office of Residential Life's decision to only house 400 seniors next year (and deny housing to all fifth-year B.E. students, as well as any other student in a class before the Class of 2009) has already created a great deal of controversy. Besides forcing seniors off-campus, the announcement will oblige those who would like to stay on campus but who have bad housing numbers to find friends with good housing numbers -- and plead that someone take them in. While I understand the rationale for this decision, this is just the latest in a recent string of decisions from College administrators that have blindsided students and appeared to have had little, if any, student input.
The gradual change from last year's cable (except in the new dorms and two buildings in the Choates) to this fall's "unsupported" cable to finally shutting off campus cable this winter showed a complete lack of student consultation. In an article last April, ("TV Watchers To Face $300 Box Fee," Apr. 6, 2007), Director of Network Services Frank Archambeault said that he initially estimated little use of set-top boxes by students. Discussion with more than a handful of students, however, would have revealed popular discontent over a policy most students did not know about until this term, and the begrudging realization that many of them would buy boxes because, frankly, watching television on your computer is not all that fun.
The reasoning behind this policy seems to be that "the campus made a very large investment in this technology....It's tomorrow's technology and we are out in front of a lot of our peers in providing this service." Even if a change is technologically more advanced, it should be for the benefit of students.
These issues occur often at the College, so I do not mean to demonize either Network Services or ORL -- two organizations that I believe are trying to act in the best interests of the College and its students. I must ask, however: Since housing and television policies have the biggest impact on students (and local landlords), when were students consulted? A Residential Operations employee told me last winter that after announcing the end of cable TV on campus, the lack of outcry led Network Services to believe that students had accepted the switch. As any Dartmouth student would tell you, however, we do not send blitzes to administrators about a policy two years before it is enacted. I certainly never thought I would actually be limited to DarTV by my senior year.
ORL must be commended for their work on the new dorms, which have solved many of the problems of older ones. Individual bathrooms, lounges and kitchens on every floor give students far better facilities than the ones the Class of 2008 came in with. But now the '09s, who were not guaranteed housing as sophomores (unlike the '10s and the '11s) are barred from room draw after the first 400 seniors get housing. Regardless of the policy's merits, it is very late to announce such a policy and expect good housing options to simply surface in Hanover (especially for those who had planned to finally cash in on their first good housing numbers). It reflects a fundamental disconnect between the administrators enacting the policies and the students who are affected by them. In my three-plus years at Dartmouth, I have spoken to countless administrators, particularly in ORL, and I admire their passion for student life and dedication to making student housing a better experience for everyone.
I wish, however, that they had done a better job bringing students into the decision-making process, rather than blindsiding them with a policy they now have to deal with.
With just over a year left in President Wright's career at Dartmouth, I hope that Wright's successor will pledge him or herself to involving students in the administrative process. Because these decisions are made by individual departments, I do not blame President Wright for this issue, but I do believe communication is possible, if given the proper emphasis. If anyone had ever consulted me, I would happily have attempted to give my predictions on campus opinions, and in the cases listed above, my predictions would have been correct.
Students have a better idea of what works for them than administrators do, and since administrators have the decision-making power, students should at least have a voice in the process.
