Video responses from Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson to 20 questions submitted by members of the student body via Google Moderator were uploaded on Thursday to the Dean's Office website. Beginning on April 24, an initiative pioneered by Palaeopitus Senior Society enabled students to submit questions online and to vote "yes" or "no" on other students' questions, either increasing or decreasing a question's popularity.
Altogether, 843 students submitted 152 questions and 22,180 votes, according to the website. Johnson answered the 20 questions, grouped into 15 videos, that received the highest ratio of "yes" to "no" votes and had a large number of votes overall, according to President's Intern and Palaeopitus co-moderator Jason Goodman '12. Question topics included student perceptions of Dartmouth Dining Services, hazing and health care services at Dick's House.
Johnson said in an interview with The Dartmouth that she was not surprised by any of the issues or problems that were mentioned. Most of the problems have already been realized or acted upon by the administration, she said.
The most popular question, with 480 "yes" votes, inquired about long wait times and understaffing at Dick's House and about the administration's plans to improve on-campus health and mental health care. New jobs for counselors and health care providers are already being created at Dick's House to better support students, and the changes will be implemented in fall 2012, Johnson said.
"[Moderator] is the counter to Bored at Baker," Palaeopitus member and former Student Assembly Vice President Amrita Sankar '12 said. "I think it's cool the way students would vote down questions that were ridiculous and non-relevant and instead vote up hard-hitting questions on charged issues."
One such question addressed the College's stance on hazing and punishment for those who report hazing after having participated in it themselves. In reply, Johnson said that, after having many conversations with students over the past several months, she sees value in a system of partial immunity, like that offered by the Good Samaritan policy.
Greater flexibility on the administration's part will allow students to come forward more freely without fear, Johnson said. Responsibility also partially falls to students, who must refrain from isolating or ostracizing peers that come forward about hazing.
"I think students need to take a look at their own structures and figure out how to change those as well," Johnson said.
Deanna Portero '12, who posted a question on the Moderator site, said that although she did not agree with all of Johnson's answers, the site offers a system that encourages effective communication between students and administrators.
"With the hazing answer, even if students are isolating each other, it doesn't change the fact that the administration isolates the students, too," Portero said. "I thought that it was good that [Johnson] gave honest, clear answers. I wasn't thrilled with a lot of her responses, but the important thing is that she's engaging the student body."
The separation of questions into different videos enables students to locate the questions that matter most to them, Portero said. Portero said that although Dartmouth represents a complex community difficult for anyone especially a new dean of the College to navigate, she hopes that the Moderator project will be the first step of many that Johnson will take.
Goodman said he hopes Moderator will have a lasting legacy at the College because of its ability to promote conversation among the entire student body, as opposed to select groups. Moderator is a tool with tremendous potential, as students are more comfortable communicating online, according to Goodman.
"I think that there's a silent majority of Dartmouth students who are affected by decisions the administration makes but for whatever reason don't impact the decision-making process very vocally," he said. "A big part of Moderator was to allow these students to have a voice on campus."
Michael Funaro '12 said he believes the responses provided by Johnson were insufficient and failed to address the questions at hand.
The Moderator model currently in place lacks necessary elaboration, he said.
"If these issues are too complex for the dean to answer and need to be handled by their respective overseeing departments, then Palaeopitus needs to follow up with these departments," Funaro said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Sankar said it may prove helpful in the future to solicit input from experts on certain topics to answer questions.
Students must keep in mind that Johnson's responses are inherently biased, as Johnson must "defend her position," Jamie Choi '15 said.
Questions posted on the site represent the opinions and criticisms of students and require active solutions rather than merely explanations from administrators, according to Funaro.
"I think at the end of the day, we're looking for resolutions and improvements, not attempts at justifying why things are the way they are," he said in the email. "I think we have to ask whether these administrators have lost themselves somewhere out there, and if they've gotten to be stars in the process of all of this."
To keep the program simple and focus on soliciting questions, Goodman said that Palaeopitus chose to omit a comments section on Moderator. Further expansion, however, may open Moderator to discussion between students, he said.
