“Now We Have a Platform for Discussion”

Board of Trustees Chair Bill King '63 weighs in on the past, present and future of the student life initiative.

Bill King has been a trustee of the College since1991. Heresides in Richmond, Virginia, wherehe is a partner in the law firm of McGuire,Woods, Battle & Boothe.

What was your primary concern during thepreparation of the report by the Committee onthe Student Life Initiative?

Making sure the process was fully in clusive and that everyone had a chance to meet with the committee and say exactly what they wanted to say. The board now has more of a suggestive road map instead of the amorphous "tell us what you think" questions we had in the summer. This gives us a platform for more pointed discussion of specific proposals. We have no preconceivedidea as to how it'll a ll turn out. There was some sense that the trustees were dictating the outcome of this whole process and I think I need to address that straight up. Not only are we not dictating it, but we have religiously tried to stay away from in fluencing the way recommendations were put together or released.

Beyond all the discussion and feedback, whatresearch was used to support the report'ssuggestions?

That's a fair question, Underpinning many of the discussions that this committee had were large amounts of data. The first committee to take a lookatthis,[Associate Dean of Faculty] Dan Nelson's; started taking a look at all the national research. And there has been a tremendous amount of research on many of these issues, particularly the alcohol and fraternity issue. So the recommendations don't come from just a subjective view. There is a great deal of objective evidence used as well.

What's your opinion of national media coverage this past January?

The media could have done a lot worse, they could have done a lot better. But two things came across as essentially positive.

They recognized that a lot of study had been done and that it was not an easy subject, and that there was more work to be done by the trustees because this was only a recommendation.

Still, the "Animal House" references persist.

Is the "Animal House" thing ever going to be set aside? Sure. People and institutions get labeled. You have to just work your way through these, and I think over a period of time we will.

On-campus reaction to the report's release wasmuch milder than the outrage of a year ago.

The way it was discussed back then was a reflection of not preparing the community enough with what we intended to do. You could use the term "miscalculation." Quite frankly, this subject matter has been the discission of at least three very substantive committees and reports over the last 12 years. So we were under the impression, perhaps mistakenly, that the word was some what out in the coinmunity that the trustees were quite concerned with this subject.

What's the best course of action for alumni during the period of feedback?

I urge everyone to read the report as a whole and give us his or her honest opinions on ii. Even body will find several things that are probably not to their liking. In a document of this length and complexity, that's to be expected, particularly when you get involved with such emotionally charged issues. But only a reading of the report in its entirety will give alumni the best opportunity to let us know how they feel, although that's not to suggest we don't want to know what people think about individual issues.

What can we expect in a few months, followingthe period of feedback?

It is my hope that we will be able to come to some resolutions sometime by the end of spring term. But I do not want to pin down a date. This must be done thoroughly and objectively. One of the things the committee recommends is a five-year review by the trustees inthe year 2005. Who knows whether the trustees are going to agree to that or not. But it indicates this is something that might take a long period of time to implement. The financial side of this, for example, could be significant. My guess is that we will probably put together some sort of a timeline in which we project out what we'd like to do over the next five or 10 years.

What issues other than the initiative occupythe board's agenda these days?

The cost of higher education is an issue that's always on our plate. There are always incredible pressures on us for tuition and other costincreases, and we have to be very careful about how we handle those. Another issue is trying to recruit the bestfaculty that we can for Dartmouth. And there are departments that need physical facilities upgraded or built. The issue of future construction at the College, outside of student life issues and clustering, is always before us.

Do you enjoy your job as the chair of thetrustees?

Yes. It is interesting and in these times can be quite challenging. I enjoy the communication that I have with so many different groups within the College. The chairman's role kind of maKes you fair game for everybody, but then again that's part of the ticket. I finish up my tenure in another year or so , so I will be able to at least see the initial stages of thisinitiative and I kind of like that.

To express an opinion or get more informationon the'steering committee's summary recommendations on the student life initiative, clickon. www.dartmouth.edu/~sandrl.