Dartmouth has a lot of problems. The ongoing tensions borne of the multiple clashing perspectives that make up our campus have been extensively chronicled in this very paper, discussed at length during myriad forums, committees and meetings over the past several years and, most recently, featured prominently in The New York Times. The expression "Dartmouth has a problem" has been uttered with such regularity that it has taken on a meaning of its own stripped of its initial significance to become an entirely new entity, a string of empty words or a meme.
If Dartmouth were an ailing patient presenting to a physician's office, intensive interventions might be warranted. But treating the most aggressive, systemic diseases, or dealing with the most complicated issues that pervade our campus, requires great effort, patience and time. Meanwhile, there is no need to let superficial wounds bleed out, broken bones remain unset and our hypothetical Dartmouth patient lying in a cold hospital room without a warm blanket. While Dartmouth works on sorting out its most complex problems, the little things should be kept in mind and the little things is something Dartmouth could stand to work on.
Proper nutrition and nourishment are essential to good health. While Dartmouth Dining Services has, in my mind, significantly enhanced the quality and variety of its dining options, burdensome payment plans grounded in fuzzy economics provide a bitter aftertaste. Recent renovations to Collis Cafe have smartened its interiors, but bottlenecks of patrons and interminable wait times for pasta and stir fry are ugly to endure. Arguably, former College President Jim Yong Kim's greatest contribution to Dartmouth was bringing King Arthur Flour to campus to open a library cafe stocked with tasty coffee, decadent goodies and scrumptious lite fare. But non-competitive constraints placed on the cafe in its contract with the College have recently forced King Arthur Flour to significantly modify its menu and hours of operation. It's a little thing, sure, but a dark roast and a cinnamon puff from KAF used to make late nights in the library moderately more tolerable. And despite Novack Cafe's attempts to improve its offerings (and DDS' attempts to recapture lost revenues), it does not come close to measuring up in convenience or quality.
Kim chose tackling binge drinking as his presidency's centerpiece social project. That's not a little thing, but one initiative that grew out of the undertaking is or was. Party packs used to provide late night beverages and munchies to counteract the effects of alcohol consumption, but the College, with its $3.7 billion endowment, recently decided that a $30,000 yearly charge was too much to part with. Party packs were a little thing: an easy, inexpensive way to make our campus just a little bit safer. Though we should continue to work comprehensively with peer institutions to tackle alcohol abuse on college campuses, that should not entail abandoning quick fixes while waiting on larger cultural shifts.
The minor annoyances and missed opportunities keep piling up. In the technological realm: a printing service that seems to function during only certain phases of the moon, a bulky e-mail client last considered fashionable a decade ago and an outdated system software that unnecessarily complicates administrative functions (e.g., being unable to register for classes using the Chrome internet browser). A single room in the library serves as a quiet space for the occasional (and inevitable) all-nighter, but without a restroom, the 1902 Room is no place to answer the strong diuretic effect associated with excessive caffeine consumption. Many would like to see the Greek system loosen its grip on the campus social scene, yet the College has repeatedly failed to create a recreational space that incorporates the simple recipe for collegiate social success: alcohol and autonomy.
Like a general practitioner focused on preventive and palliative care, the College would be wise to address the smaller frustrations that encumber the life of a Dartmouth student. We should, of course, never cease grappling with the big, thorny issues such as those described in the Times (and to which I devote the majority of my own opinion columns), but it would be nice if the College got more of the little things right in the meantime.
