Interim College President Carol Folt attended Student Assembly's weekly meeting and fielded questions from and students on Tuesday. Folt discussed the administration's plans for the remaining months of her term and its preparations for President-elect Philip Hanlon's arrival on July 1.
Folt said that nine long-term strategic planning working groups will release reports this year. The reports will be "condensed" to reduce redundancies and released to campus for student comment and feedback, she said.
These will consider student organizations' input and incorporate feedback into a final report to be released later in the year.
"Students will have access to the reports," Folt said. "The strategic working group will spend April and May distilling the essence of comments from students."
The report will tackle a "major curricular review" in the arts and sciences, living and learning environments development, sustainable energy on campus and online education, Folt said.
Strategic planning reports are released every few decades and combine faculty and staff's views on institutional progress.
The strategic planning report will outline "where Dartmouth is and where it wants to be," Student Body President Suril Kantaria '13 said.
Folt also voiced a desire for greater student, faculty and staff dialogue and hinted at a plan to organize a series of dinners to facilitate campus conversation.
"I really want to work together with students over the next two months," Folt said.
Students asked Folt about a range of topics, including Dartmouth's international rankings and the administration's response to recent bias incidents.
Tyler Rivera '16, a River cluster representative, asked why Dartmouth was the only Ivy League school to see a drop in the number of applications this year.
Rivera is a member of The Dartmouth.
Fewer people will attend college by 2020, Folt said in response. Other Ivy League institutions only saw a minimal increase in applications, which represents "statistical noise," she said.
After Folt's address, the Assembly continued the meeting discussing committee members' reports about ongoing projects.
A recent initiative to keep Alumni Gym open for longer hours over the weekend was successful after "modest turnout," Kantaria said. The initiative will continue through this week and will include a special late night Zumba class.
The first-year mentoring program will host events this term but will use the spring to prepare the program for the incoming members of the Class of 2017, Rachael Williams '15 said.
"We're also trying to take a few steps back to gear up for next year, and we'd really appreciate freshman input," Williams said.
The meeting concluded with a recap from freshman cluster representatives Austin Boral '16 and Hersh Trivedi '16 about the intellectual life initiative held in Russell Sage residential cluster last week.
Boral is a contributing columnist for The Dartmouth.
The intellectual life initiative, started midway through fall term, encourages professors and students to meet over dinner or in small discussion groups outside the classroom.
The event attracted 15 people and provided an intimate atmosphere, Trivedi said.
"It got really off-topic, but it was a lot of fun," he said.
