The Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips program accepted 274 of the more than 615 students who applied to be trip leaders, and waitlisted another 68 applicants, according to Trips assistant director and Student Body President Molly Bode '09. Organizers also announced that the Trips student fee would increase by 12.5 percent this year and that 20 percent more financial aid would be offered to participating students in light of the economic crisis.
Of the more than 175 students who applied to be members of Croos -- groups of students who do everything from providing first-aid to cooking food at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge -- 44 were selected. The selection rates for trips leaders and Croo members were similar to those in 2008, when 271 of 645 trip leader applicants and 44 of 170 Croo applicants were selected.
More minority students, international students and athletes applied to be trip leaders than in past years, Bode said.
The Trips program will cover 60 percent of the student fee for high-need students, 50 percent for medium-need students and 40 percent for low-need students.
The cost per student has increased by $20 and now stands at $180 to account for increased financial aid and rising food and fuel costs, according to Brian Kunz, the assistant director of the Outdoor Programs Office.
"We want to make Trips an option for everyone," Kunz said. He added that the office is always willing to consider requests for higher levels of financial aid on a case-by-case basis.
The Financial Aid Office assigns aid applicants to each need category and then sends their assignments to the Outdoor Program Office, which administers the aid.
Financial aid funds are drawn from Trips fees, alumni gifts, endowments and a reserve account to provide extra funds in years when financial aid requests are unusually high. Last year, a total of $15,925 in aid was awarded to 175 students, or 18 percent of the members of the Class of 2012 who participated in Trips.
Incoming students who do not apply to Trips receive a phone call from the Trips director or assistant director.
Approximately 90 percent of the Class of 2012 attended Trips last year, Kunz said.
Although members of the Class of 2013 will not sign up for trips until June, trip leader applications were due three weeks ago.
Trip leaders are selected by the Trips director, Trips assistant director, Trips leader trainers and 38 others with at least two years of trip-leading experience, Bode said. Each application is read without any identifying information by two or three people to ensure objectivity, Bode said.
Croo members are chosen by the director, assistant director and the six Croo chiefs, Bode said. The Croo chiefs work together to select members for all Croos, not just their own. Croo chiefs were notified of their selection on Feb. 6.
All trip leaders must complete a risk assessment seminar, a group dynamics seminar and first-aid and CPR training, Ian Wheat '09, who participated in trip leader selection said. First-time leaders must also complete a Wilderness Skills Seminar, Wheat said.
This year, some sections may have a higher concentration of students from underprivileged backgrounds, Bode said. The First-Year Scholarship and Enrichment Program, a new program that prepares freshmen from schools without a college preparatory curriculum for Dartmouth academics, includes an orientation that will overlap with some Trips sections. Students participating in this program will be included disproportionately in other sections.
Some freshmen in past years have said that the mentors available during Trips become less available after Trips end, Bode said.
To address this, the Trips program may create a directory of trip leaders who have volunteered to serve as advisers for the incoming class.
