While students consider undergraduate research opportunities, Dartmouth Dining Services and College traditions such as Homecoming to be particularly important to their Dartmouth experience, the Native American Program, the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and the Hood Museum of Art are deemed to be of lesser importance, according to a Student Assembly survey released late Thursday night. The survey, conducted online over interim, is intended to help the College decide which areas to target for budget cuts.
The survey was divided into two sections: the first asked students to rank the importance of specific departments, and the second consisted of free response questions.
Many offices whose mission pertains to small segments of the Dartmouth community, such as OPAL and the Native American Program, were ranked particularly low, but this may be a reflection of the low number of students that are directly affected by those offices, the published results of the survey suggest.
"I wasn't really surprised by it, because not all students have the same experiences," Student Body President Molly Bode '09 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Many students were confused by what those offices do."
Based on the survey's findings, the Assembly recommended scaling back OPAL and other similarly specific programs unless those programs restructure and advertise their services more effectively to reach out to the campus as a whole, the findings said.
In the free response section, many students who had used OPAL's resources commented that they had benefitted from OPAL leadership training opportunities, such as the Diversity Peer Program, Bode said. Although OPAL ranked poorly compared to other departments in terms of students' personal experiences, it was listed frequently in the free response section among departments that students considered "fundamental to the Dartmouth experience," Bode said.
The Hood Museum of Art was rated on average as one of the elements of the College's with the least import on students' Dartmouth experience, Bode said.
Although the Hood had a low average score, the Hopkins Center for the Arts was ranked significantly higher. Many students described the Hop as the single most important on-campus resource, according to a summary of the survey's free responses. Students also commented that many of the Hop's programs are already under-funded.
"I thought it was pretty interesting that the data said [the Hood] ranked the lowest," Bode said. "For me, I even think of the Hop and the Hood as kind of similar and even kind of the same department."
Students also questioned the relevance of the undergraduate advisor system for upperclassmen and recommended addressing "administrative waste" to achieve the necessary $40 million budget cut. Students found upperclassmen UGAs "unnecessary."
In some departments, rankings varied greatly by ethnic group. Greek Letter Organizations were ranked significantly lower by Native American students, International Students and students who identified their ethnicity as "other." Varsity sports were ranked considerably lower than average by Asians, Native Americans, Latinos and students who identified as "other."
Student perceptions of the Dartmouth Skiway also highlighted differences of opinion among student groups. The survey summary recommended reducing the Skiway's operating hours, noting that although some students ranked it as being of moderate importance, many students consider the Skiway to be a "luxury" because it is not affordable for the entire campus.
About 34 percent of the student body responded to the survey, which was generally representative of campus demographics, according to the published summary.
The College will use the survey results to identify inconsistencies between areas that the administration is considering for budget reductions and the areas that students listed as priorities, Adam Keller, executive vice president for finance and administration, said.
"[The results] will be a very, very valuable part of the landscape of the next couple weeks of discussion," Keller said.
