Efforts to overhaul the College's disciplinary process, revamp the alcohol policy and implement budget cuts marked Dean of the College Tom Crady's year and a half tenure at Dartmouth, which will come to a close this week following Tuesday's abrupt announcement that he would resign the post.
Crady's time at the College was defined by a stated aim to interact more closely with students. In recent months, Crady has been at the forefront of campus debate on efforts to restructure the College's alcohol policy.
When he replaced Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson in January 2008, Crady said he would seek to make the College's administration more transparent, and that he would work to listen to students' concerns, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"I'm really here to listen to students and be an advocate for students," Crady said at that time. "It's important to see how students feel about things. It doesn't mean we're always going to agree on issues."
Crady has since emerged as a leader in managing the College's relations with students and particularly with Dartmouth's Greek system.
Controversy surrounding the College's Greek system emerged early in Crady's tenure; during his first month on the job, the College announced the reversal of the previous permanent de-recognition of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, allowing the organization's alumni to form an interest group in the fall of that year and begin recruiting new members.
The decision was met with controversy on campus, as the emergence of a new Beta organization on campus led to the displacement of Alpha Xi Delta sorority, which had previously leased the organization's house. In the wake of the announcement, students marched to Parkhurst Hall and delivered petitions calling for the establishment of more gender-neutral and female-controlled social spaces on campus. In his brief address to the crowd, Crady affirmed that he was "committed to try to find additional spaces for sororities."
In Spring 2009, the Panhellenic Council invited Kappa Delta national sorority to begin establishing a new chapter at Dartmouth. The organization began recruitment on campus this summer.
Crady also advocated the creation of more gender-neutral social spaces on campus, serving as chair of a Social Life Committee formed in February 2008 to investigate expanding alternatives to the College's Greek system
Perhaps Crady's most prominent project at the College has been his work to reform Dartmouth's existing social event management procedures policies.
Throughout his tenure, Crady consistently advocated a more liberal alcohol policy at the College. In a panel discussion held in late January 2008, Crady argued that strict alcohol policies mask a school's drinking problems, and said he believes the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 and that the College's alcohol policy should focus on self-governance by the student population.
"I think if you become very heavy handed all the time with alcohol, you'll drive it underground," Crady said.
Crady has led work on the Alcohol Management Policy in the wake of its initial October 2008 release. AMP, a new, more liberal proposal which seeks to overhaul the College's alcohol policies, would allow student organizations to determine what type of alcohol to serve at their events and in what quantities. The policy has been delayed, however, following student criticism of the provision allowing Safety and Security to walk through any event with more than 30 attendees and for the proposal's elimination of "on-the-fly" events.
In the wake of budget cuts made at the College in response to the global economic crisis, Crady appeared at several student forums, seeking to both manage expectations and allay student concerns about the forthcoming cuts. The first year of Crady's tenure was marked by ongoing efforts to revamp the College's Committee on Standards a project that was started under Nelson's tenure following over a year of review of the previous system and debate over changes proposed by a Student Assembly committee, which had been disputed by former Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07.
In September 2008, Crady announced that the College would no longer report violations outside of suspension or separation from the institution, and first-time alcohol offenses would no longer be subject to the disciplinary process. Despite general campus approval to the changes, many students complained that the changes to COS did not sufficiently address the Assembly's review committee's suggestion that the standard of evidence required for students to be found guilty to be made stronger, The Dartmouth previously reported.
While the last formal review of COS policies occurred in 1995, after the 2008 review Crady said he hoped to reconsider COS practices every three years.
