Despite comments in February by Trustee Chair Stephen Bosworth '61 that fraternity and sorority rush would be affected in the fall of 1999, it now seems unlikely the College's social and residential life system will see significant change before the graduation of the Class of 2000.
The Board of Trustees will decide sometime during the Winter or Spring terms how to implement the controversial Social and Residential Life Initiative, according to the Steering Committee's trustee co-chairs, Peter Fahey '68 and Susan Dentzer '77, who detailed the projected timeline of the process during an interview with The Dartmouth over the weekend.
But although change might not come as quickly as first expected, both co-chairs denied speculation that the Trustees are backing off from the severity of the changes suggested during the initial announcement five months ago.
In February, Bosworth said the upcoming fall's rush process would be affected by the initiative, saying "what you call 'traditional rush' is no longer relevant," and speculated the Trustees would come to a decision in the fall or winter.
But Fahey and Dentzer said Saturday the first few weeks of fall term - when fraternity and sorority rush takes place for the Class of 2002 - will be the time when the Steering Committee presents to the Dartmouth community "an array of alternative approaches" for how the Initiative might be implemented, and the announcement of final decisions by the Board will not take place until Winter or Spring term of 2000.
The Committee will spend Fall term listening to feedback from the community about the options presented, as well as any new options which surface. "We'll still be listening, but we'll be listening in a more focused fashion," Fahey said.
By the end of Fall term, probably in November, the Committee will finish its report and present one complete implementation plan both to the community and the Board.
The Winter term will mark Phase Three of the process as the Board will hear community input on the Committee's proposal. After that "discussion process," Fahey said the Board will take into account both the Committee's proposal and the community's input before coming to a decision.
Dentzer said the Board will not have "one vote, up or down" at any point, and Fahey added it is currently unclear whether action will be taken by the Board after their February meeting, after their April meeting, or if some action will be taken after each of the two full-Board meetings.
This past weekend's meetings marked the second summer weekend summit for the 16-member Committee. The co-chairs said the group is set to meet once more during Summer term - July 21-22 - and then again at least once more before the start of Fall term to finish putting together the list of options for change they will present to the community soon after students return to campus in the fall. The co-chairs will also give a progress report to the full Board of Trustees during the Board's August retreat and will receive feedback from the trustees.
Dentzer said she saw "recognition" of alcohol abuse at the College as a universal theme that many of the proposals focused on.
Citing from memory statistics that 48 percent of Dartmouth students self-report engaging in "binge drinking", 22 percent self-report having vomited in a public place as a consequence of drinking alcohol and one-third self-report having an alcohol induced blackout, Dentzer said the Dartmouth community needs to examine at its social and cultural norms with respect to alcohol abuse.
Both Dentzer and Fahey declined to comment on whether they think alcohol abuse is more prevalent at Dartmouth than at other comparable institutions, with Dentzer saying "our job is to look at what is here at Dartmouth, so we're frankly not spending a lot of time trying to figure out whether a third of your students reporting a black out is a higher level or a lower level [than that of other schools]. I think we'd all agree that, whatever the rate is, that it's higher than we'd like." At the July 21-22 meeting, the co-chairs said the Committee will meet with more groups on campus including more members of the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, as well as William DeJong '73, who is head of the Higher Education Commission - the entity that has the contract from the Federal Department of Education to advise colleges and universities about alcohol abuse. DeJong will talk to the Committee about ways the College can cut down on alcohol abuse.
