As we head toward the final Dimensions weekend and “commitment day” for high school seniors everywhere, the question on every Dartmouth student’s mind is: Will our yield rate follow the pattern of the recent application rates? Will we miss out on some of the best and brightest students? This past year has seen both a decline in applications to Dartmouth and an increase in our acceptance rate. Yet the administration continues to display its ignorance of everyday student life around campus, acting seemingly independently of popular opinion.
While our admissions numbers have suffered in recent years, what exactly have administrators done? Despite a minute slowdown for the upcoming academic year, they have continued to increase our tuition, making us the second most expensive Ivy League school. They have effectively allowed Dartmouth Dining Services to coerce the student body into paying more and more money in a monopoly system. They have done away with giving credit for AP and IB test scores. And, most recently, they have broken the Dimensions program, considered highly successful by common opinion, into multiple days and prohibited Dimensions performers from posing as fake prospective students. It seems like all the administration has done is come up with shortsighted solutions to serious problems or take a hammer to systems that need no fixing.
Further, the things that a seemingly large contingent of the student body wants have been ignored: a better printing system, serious and comprehensive improvements to mental health care and other Dick’s House services, changes to DDS policies such as DBA rollover and takeout restrictions. As a student, things are looking bleaker by the day. And though I keep trying to tell myself to have hope and “just keep swimming,” I cannot help but feel that Dartmouth is struggling to stay afloat, sinking ever lower.
Administrators appear to be scratching their heads and wondering how they can “fix” Dartmouth, yet we stand here loudly and firmly telling them what we, the actual students who live our daily lives here, think could be amended. Of course, we have learned that there is one way to get the administration to appear, at least outwardly, to listen to our opinions. That method is to make a big enough commotion that the media gets involved, leaving the College with no choice but to act for fear of being cast in a negative light by outsiders.
Though there may be work done behind the scenes, to the average student, the administration appears to be driven by profit and political correctness, rather than what is appropriate for the situation and best for the community. From what I can perceive, it is the everyday student who loses out. We need both increased action and more transparency from the administration.
There has been one small bright spot on the otherwise dismal horizon. The recently introduced website Improve Dartmouth, created by students with funding from the President’s Office, allows members of the Dartmouth community to propose, vote on and provide feedback on ideas before receiving administrative responses. The underlying concept is promising: combining student suggestions with some degree of increased administrative transparency. Looking at the difference in quantity and scope between the suggestions marked completed, under review and in progress offers encouraging insight, but at the same time reveals just how much can still be done. A small victory: FoCo has a new clock.
We have now reached a pivotal moment for Dartmouth, on the heels of being awarded a $100 million donation and holding two summits focused on redirecting Dartmouth, one led by administrators in combination with members of Dartmouth Roots and one by students. Now is the time for the administration to turn things around and start changing Dartmouth by listening to the concerns that students agree upon, because many initiatives, from the simple to the complex, have widespread student support. Now is the perfect chance to turn the tide and hopefully ride the waves of improved public opinion to a better future. The students are ready and willing to just keep swimming. The only question is whether the administration is ready and willing to join us.
