Coeducation Study Proposed

The Dartmouth Campus Conference has recommended that the Board of Trustees authorize a special task force to study the question of the education of women at Dartmouth College.

Following an open meeting Saturday, January 18, during which students, faculty, administrators, and Trustees discussed various aspects of the question, the Conference members continued discussion of the topic in private sessions Saturday and Sunday and voted to submit the following recommendation to the Board of Trustees:

The Dartmouth Campus Conference, having had the benefit of discussions at the open meeting of January 18, the ongoing study of an ad hoc faculty-student committee, the report of the faculty Committee on Educational Planning, and a study of the findings of certain other institutions, agrees that the education of women at Dartmouth College is a subject of top priority and therefore recommends that the Board of Trustees take prompt action to undertake in-depth studies of this subject through a special committee or task force composed of students, faculty, Trustees, administration, and alumni and, based on the outcome of these studies, take whatever further action is indicated.

The need for effective student government was a second item receiving attention by Conference members. The focus in these discussions was on the residential unit and various arrangements that might promote a better quality of life and greater social responsibility within the living unit. To pursue this question further, Chairman F. William Andres '29 appointed a subcommittee of the Conference to study the matter and report back at a future meeting. In this connection the Conference noted it would be helpful if under the aegis of the Committee on Educational Planning there was developed a proposal for a dormitory unit or group of units which might function next year on an experimental basis and which would include students and faculty sharing both academic and social responsibilities.

The Campus Conference meetings are being financed by the Joel Benezet '66 Memorial Fund and represent Dartmouth's first formal and ongoing effort to bring Trustees into direct and regular communication with undergraduates as well as with faculty and staff.