Last Friday, The Dartmouth Editorial Board praised Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson for making a greater effort in the last few weeks to engage with the student body. Moving forward, what do you hope Dean Johnson will do to address student concerns?
At Dartmouth, we have conversations about having conversations. Such meta-discourse is so far removed from any actually helpful initiatives that it almost seems like change is impossible. If change is to be effected, it will not involve more pointless and fruitless discussion. We need detailed plans with plausible mechanisms presented to the student body. Peter Blair '12
I hope that Dean Johnson will turn words into actions. Although acknowledging student concerns is certainly the first step toward ensuring that students' voices are heard, it is by no means sufficient on its own. Moving forward, I hope that the administration will consider student suggestions in a more visible way and let us know that it is not only listening to, but also responding to, our feedback.Lorelei Yang '15
Dean Johnson should create and enact a concrete plan for improving academic advising. Departments need to have designated pre-major advisors to whom queries and concerns can be addressed during freshman and sophomore years, and students need consistent support from departments after declaring majors. Right now some departments have great advising systems, while others offer little support.Hannah Hoyt '13
I hope that Dean Johnson will seek to address the pressing campus issues that can be directly improved via administrative action. Our joke of a first-year advising system, the universally criticized dining plan and the medical bureaucratic inefficiency that is Dick's House are all logical places to start making changes.Zack Miller '13
I'm curious as to why it has taken such public outrage to get the College's administrators to be more attentive to student concerns. Dean Johnson's recent and welcome engagement with the student body should be the norm, not the exception.Don Casler '14
In the future, I hope that Dean Johnson will make it clear to the student body what specifically she can do to address student concerns and what is out of her control. I am still not entirely sure of each administrator's powers and responsibilities. Clarifying who is in charge of making different decisions will allow students to direct their concerns and criticism to the right people.Natalie Colaneri '12
Although Palaeopitus' Google Moderator forum represents an important step toward better communication and transparency between administrators and students, in her first session, Dean Johnson appeared to focus more on qualifying or advocating the administration's current practices and past decisions than taking the requests and needs of the Dartmouth student body to heart. To respond, for instance, that student course evaluations remain confidential merely because such is "standard practice" entirely fails to address the underlying student concern about making informed course selection decisions and holding professors accountable for substandard teaching practices. Adam Mehring '14
My hope is that Dean Johnson moves to fill some of the leadership void created by President Kim's departure. Kim was, for a very short period of time, the face of Dartmouth. His attendance at a campus event was a sign of the value the College attaches to the event. I fear Provost Folt will not be able to provide such a presence as interim president, so Johnson must try to improve her own visibility at student events.Nicholas Zehner '15
