Social Update

A "town meeting" held September 21, the first day of fall term, served as the last public information and input session for the Trustee initiative on social and residential life. Trustees Susan Dentzer '77 and Peter Fahey '68, Th '69, cochairs of the committee on the student life initiative, updated some 300 people on what's ahead.

Dentzer explained that the five principles announced last February—aimed at improving and increasing continuity in residential life, adding student-controlled social spaces, increasing the inclusiveness and coeducation of the social system, reducing the number of students living off campus and eliminating alcohol abuse—are being applied to four areas of campus life: student residences, eating and social spaces, social organizations and alcohol policy. The committee is in the process of evaluating myriad ideas submitted by all parts of the Dartmouth community.

Dentzer stressed that although no decisions have yet been made, the committee agreed upon several common values that will guide the future: learning, responsibility, choice, inclusiveness, community, opportunities, belonging and acceptance. The overall goal, said Dwntzer,is to "foster learning in its broadest possible sense." A variety of possibilities are under discussion, from creating "common houses" that could serve as social space for dorm clusters to modifying the Greek system to make it "compatible with the central academic mission of the College." (The initiative "isn't about suppressing the coed, fraternity and sorority system,"Fahey said. "If it continues, we'll make it a better system.")

Student input included requests for more substance-free dorms, kosher dining and cable access to the Black Television Network. Not surprisingly, some students spoke in favor of maintaining the Greek system, while others spoke against it. An '03 asked the Trustees to hold a special session for first-year students to bring them up to speed on the initiative.

Dentzer and Fahey reported that during October the committee would be formulating the recommendations it will make to the full Board of Trustees in late fall. During the winter, they said, there will be ample opportunity for community discussion of the committee's recommendations."Later- whenever discussions are complete," President Wright and the Trustees will take action, said Dentzer. Implementation may well take a decade to complete.

Input on the initiative can still be sent to The Committee on the Student Life Initiative, P.O. Box 683, Hanover, NH 03755 or emailed to csli@dartmouth.edu.

Market research suggests that a bowlingalley, "Cinedrome" and "tiki bar" in anenlarged Thayer could spice up social life.