New housing policy lets freshmen choose roommates
A new housing policy allows incoming students to choose who they live with. Previously, the College assigned roommates either randomly or with the aid of a housing survey.
A new housing policy allows incoming students to choose who they live with. Previously, the College assigned roommates either randomly or with the aid of a housing survey.
Following a series of mild winters, Hanover Town officials and residents are grappling with the increase. New Hampshire’s archery deer hunting season began Monday and will last into December, and the College is collaborating with the Town of Hanover to increase hunting opportunities in the area.
The Board of Trustees approved a project to expand the Hood Museum and triple its classroom capacity during its September meeting and annual retreat over the weekend. The Trustees also received updates from across the College, including the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” presidential steering committee and the three graduate schools.
Michael Kiefer, newly appointed vice president for presidential initiatives and principal gifts, officially began his duties on Sept. 2. Kiefer, a former vice president for institutional advancement at Haverford College with more than 25 years of experience working in higher education, will work with deep-pocketed alumni to raise money for large projects like the creation of faculty clusters and the expansion of the Hood Museum of Art and Thayer School of Engineering.
The College dropped one spot to the 11th best university in the country, and three spots to fourth in undergraduate teaching in the U.S. News and World Report annual rankings released last week. This decline comes after Dartmouth held the top spot in undergraduate teaching for five years, an accomplishment Dartmouth has highlighted in the past.
Dartmouth ranked 31st for socioeconomic accessibility among around 100 colleges with four-year graduation rates of at least 75 percent, according to a New York Times analysis published last week. While dean of admissions and financial aid Maria Laskaris noted a growing awareness of inequality on campus, students interviewed said the College could do more to promote discussions of socioeconomic status.
The “Moving Dartmouth Forward” presidential steering committee, convened in May by College President Phil Hanlon, worked this summer to solicit feedback and consult experts about reducing binge drinking, sexual assault and exclusivity. Its proposals will be announced this fall and opened to public discussion.
Dartmouth enters the school year amid two federal probes, high turnover in staff who deal with sexual assault and a new sexual misconduct policy.
Fragments taken from Class of 2018 admissions essays were performed by upperclassmen Tuesday as first-year and exchange students were officially welcomed to Dartmouth on the first day of orientation.
The College is waiting to begin searching for a new Dean of the College until after the presidential steering and residential redesign committees present recommendations on improving student life, making it unlikely the search will begin until early 2015.
A faculty committee will convene this fall to consider opening course reviews to students, following a proposal that was tabled at a meeting in May. The issue will then be decided in a general faculty vote, according to the Dean of the Faculty office.
Like last year, freshmen cannot attend Greek events serving alcohol for the first six weeks of fall term. The Greek Leadership Council launched this policy in May 2013 and is making changes in its second implementation, clarifying disciplinary procedures and planning to host more non-alcoholic social events.
As members of the Class of 2018 unpack today, some will be moving into spaces that diverge from the typical freshman floor. More than 200 freshmen are enrolled in a living learning community.
Recruitment for the College’s first faculty cluster begins this week, as a committee led by engineering professor Laura Ray launches the search for the Thomas Kurtz chair in computational science. In addition to the Kurtz chair, search committees will select two other professors to join the cluster this year.
A new meeting structure, faculty participation and “state of the student body” videos mark changes to Student Assembly this year.
More than one-third of the Class of 2018 chose to participate in the First-Year Mentoring Program, which matches three or four freshmen with upperclassman mentors.
Dartmouth fell to fourth place in undergraduate teaching and 11th place overall among national universities in the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings released Sept. 8.
As vice president for presidential initiatives and principal gifts, Michael Kiefer will advise College leadership on ways to solicit donations.
The College should offer more gender-neutral spaces for students to casually drink, freshmen should be required to take a sexual assault course and mentorship programs should be strengthened. These are among 250 ideas aimed at reducing high-risk drinking, sexual assault and exclusivity, summarized from submissions by more than 500 students.