The Board of Trustees will no longer meet on campus on Feb. 4 and Feb. 5 for its termly meeting, according to Justin Anderson, director of media relations for the College. Trustees will instead speak via phone and the Internet due to unsafe traveling conditions, Anderson said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"The meeting wasn't canceled," he said. "Because of the storm today and the concern that there could be more bad weather this weekend, [College President Jim Yong Kim] and [Chairman of the Board Steve Mandel '78] decided to hold the meeting by conference call and webinar."
The two snowstorms predicted for this weekend proved an insurmountable obstacle to meeting in person, Anderson said. Holding the meeting by conference call will allow for greater participation than if the meeting had been held in person, Anderson said.
"[The Trustees] really wanted to come and if there had just been just one storm it might have happened, but just because there were two storms on top of each other it just wasn't safe to fly everyone in here," Anderson said.
Because the Trustees will not convene on campus in person, they will not be able to hold previously-scheduled meetings with students, according to Anderson.
"The students were not participating in all of the meetings, and the ones that they were participating in have just been moved to April," Anderson said. "They just can't sit down with the students if they're not here."
The scheduled meetings with students and faculty will take place on April 7 and 9, Anderson said. Students had originally planned to meet with the Trustees to discuss Greek life, according to Interfraternity Council President Tyler Brace '11.
"There was going to be a bunch of people in the Greek system, and [Panhellenic Council President Anna Sonstegard '11] and I were going to be on a panel," Brace said. "It was going to be on challenges facing the Greek system at Dartmouth, and where we're headed in the future."
Brace said he had hoped to discuss the fraternities' experiences with the Hanover Police and the College judicial process with the Trustees.
Janie Abernethy '12, a SPCSA co-chair, said she was asked to prepare a brief summary about why she joined a Greek house.
"I do work on the [Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault], so I probably would have brought up how that relates to Greek life," Abernethy said.
Although unsure whether she will present at the spring session, Abernethy said she is confident that student representatives will be present.
"I'm not worried that student voices will be cut out," she said.
Acting Director of Greek Letter Organizations and Societies Kristi Clemens informed students involved with the panel about the change via e-mail on Wednesday morning, Sonstegard said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Brace said that, to his knowledge, there was no discussion about including students in the conference call.
"We would like to have had the opportunity to explain the more immediate changes we're facing," he said.
Brace said he hopes to reach out to the Board before their spring session.
"We're going to look into what our options are," he said. "The administration really wants us to try to, and it's an opportunity we'd very much like to have."
The Board last met in November 2010, when it elected Annette Gordon-Reed '81 to the Board.
