Student Life
The Committee on the Quality of Student Life, established by President Kemeny last summer at the direction of the Board of Trustees, delivered its report this spring. The 16 committee members four from the faculty (including the chairman, Chemistry Professor David Lemal), seven students, three administrators, and two alumni were charged with making a "study of the quality of student life at Dartmouth, including social and residential alternatives, more creative use of dormitories and other buildings, and the development of plans for the utilization of facilities currently occupied by fraternities at such time as they may become available."
If any generalization can be made about the committee's findings all 61 pages' worth, plus a series of lengthy appendices it is that they hinge on a conception of the College as a residential learning com- munity, primarily because Dartmouth "believes that significant parts of a truly liberal education take place outside the classroom." The recommendations generally aim to improve the quality of residential life and to reinforce a sense of campus community with the fundamen- tal object of furthering the activity of learning. While some may (and, indeed, some do) disagree with specific recommen- dations on the grounds that they won't ac- complish what is desired, or that they ex- ceed the committee's charge, it is difficult to fault the logic of the committee's basic approach.
In order to implement its recommended policy of " ... maintaining a residential system in which a variety of groups can come into being and pursue their interests, but also a system in which there will be in- teraction among the members of different groups so that a sense of broader and more universal community will arise .. . the committee first of all proposes a reorganization of the dormitory system, with the dorms organized in "clusters" containing a stable student population from year to year. A student would choose a community and stay with it, although a room or even a dorm assignment might change from year to year. Each grouping of dormitories would involve faculty ad- visers and associates; a local form of government; expanded social, cooking, and eating facilities; and increased funding (supported by increased student activity fees) for social and cultural programs. The River Cluster dormitories would become exclusively freshman housing a contro- versial recommendation that occasioned a dissenting minority report.
The fraternity system should not be abolished at this time, the report says. Some recommended modifications of the overall fraternity system would subject the houses to the same standards and regula- tions as govern dormitory life, encourage fraternities to abandon the attempt to provide social life and entertainment for the entire College, exclude freshmen from the houses until the first day of formal spring rush, establish upper and lower limits on membership, and guarantee a place to anyone wishing to join a frater- nity or sorority.
Another section of the report concerns "non-residential" proposals, the first of which is to reaffirm the honor principle and to supplement it by a "principle of community" stating, in part, that "the life and work of a Dartmouth student should be based on integrity, responsibility, and consideration." Other recommendations suggest dividing Thayer Hall into smaller dining rooms, re-examining the all-you- can-eat food policy there, and encouraging student groups to sponsor occasional meals. The Committee on Standing and Conduct should be relieved of the respon- sibility of dealing with cases of academic standing in order to attend to cases in- volving conduct and honor-principle violations, the report states, and the possibility of having the campus police become officers of the law should be in- vestigated. In the area of student services, the committee proposes easing restrictions on the student use of College facilities, making the array of available counseling programs more widely known, publicizing and re-evaluating the student grievance procedure, providing additional indoor recreational athletic space, and increasing the funds available for the entertainment of students by faculty in their homes.
A recommendation that prompted three committee members to file a minority report concerned the academic calendar. The majority of the committee cited year- round operation as a central cause of the problems identified in the life of students and asked for the creation of a committee to study "the advisability of retaining the present calendar or the wisdom and feasibility of adopting a conventional academic calendar" that is, a calendar with no mandatory summer term. (Presi- dent Kemeny, the founding father of year- round operation, quickly went on record as opposing such a move and the study proposal was defeated by vote of the faculty.)
Some of the nicest prose in the report has to do with recommendations about "campus ambiance," the proposals to limit parking and automobile traffic in deference to pedestrian traffic and "serenity," and the suggestions for preser- ving open spaces. "This last point is not trivial," the report claims. "Respect for these spaces is both practical and sym- bolic. They protect the institution from the noise and static 'outside the wall,' and thus symbolically mark off the university as a place of study, contemplation, discourse, reflection, or meditation. These activities are the root, the center, the primary pur- pose of an institution of higher learning. They should not be ignored or inhibited. Instead, they should be nurtured in every possible way."
For the past 18 months or so, Dart- mouth and the quality of life here in general have been under considerable scrutiny. The fraternity system, the curriculum, the calendar, and now overall student life have been studied and reported on by one or more committees. The im- pulse for all of this soul-searching has come from dissatisfaction in some cases and a desire to improve on success in others. So far, at least in the case of stu- dent life, not a great deal has changed ex- cept for the intensity of feelings and rhetoric that sometimes characterized last year's debate of the issues. Aside from the flurry of different committee meetings, this year has been quieter. The changes recommended by the Committee on the Quality of Student Life now await a deci- sion by the trustees.
