Improve Dartmouth, an online forum for members of the Dartmouth community to post suggestions, has altered the structure of its leadership team, moving from six moderators to 14 members on four committees.
Along with selecting new members to fill committees, who each went through three weeks of training to become part of the leadership team, Noah Manning ’17 and Juhi Kalra ’16 were selected was co-chairs of the organization and began their leadership positions two weeks ago.
The four committees — implementation, outreach, technology and moderators — each function differently, Improve Dartmouth co-founder Gillian O’Connell ’15 said.
The implementation team is in charge of facilitating the process of updating the top 10 suggestions voted on by users. Members of the implementation team will assist administrators in incorporating suggestions in cases when help is needed, O’Connell said. Tasks of the implementation team will also may include creating a campus-wide survey to collect more opinions from students to working with a focus group relevant to the suggestions.
New implementation team member Regan Plekenpol ’17 said that she decided to apply for a leadership position at Improve Dartmouth because she agrees with the mission of the organization.
“I think it’s really important to get students’ feedback on the changes they want to see on campus,” she said. “I think it’s really important that these changes get implemented by students and for the student.”
The outreach team is responsible for informing community members about the work and role of Improve Dartmouth and facilitating student participation, while the technology team is in charge of maintaining the website.
Aylin Woodward ’15, a member of outreach team and one of the original six moderators, said that she was attracted to the outreach team because she wants to make sure that more people on campus know about Improve Dartmouth.
“I just really wanted people to know that we are a group of students that are trying to make substantial difference at Dartmouth,” she said.
The outreach team plans to send thank you notes and to the administrators with which they collaborate when implementing the changes suggested on the website, Woodward said. She added that the organization plans to host a social event at the end of the term where students can drop by, mingle and learn more about Improve Dartmouth, as well as produce a flyer about recent changes that have been implemented on campus.
Prior to this expansion,the six moderators were in charge of collaborating with respective administrative members, outreach and maintaining the website.
“Now that we have more manpower, we are going to be able to actually increase facilitation,” Kalra said.
To promote more involvement amongst the first-year students, O’Connell said that the moderators reached out to first-year undergraduate advisors to publicize the organization. The moderators also created posters and YouTube videos, which received more than 2,000 views, to publicize Improve Dartmouth, she said.
These initiatives have been successful, as members of the Class of 2018 have been visiting the page more frequently, O’Connell said. There has been an five to seven percent increase in freshman activity on the site this term, she added.
“Of course, we would like to see stronger numbers with that,” O’Connell said. “We are still very much in a transitional period.”
Out of the 37 total suggestions posted in the last three months, four of them were suggested by members of the Class of 2018.
Vanessa Soncco ’18 said that she heard that Improve Dartmouth is a great platform to learn about what students think is important on campus.
Bryan Lee ’18 said that he likes the idea of Improve Dartmouth and plans to post on the website soon.
“I think that it is a really good method for Dartmouth to make students feel like they are a part of the school where they can maximize their potentials,” he said.
Kalra said that she is looking forward to the dynamic between the newly joined members and team members who have previous experience with Improve Dartmouth.
Recently completed ideas include shifting the Baker-Berry Library opening time from 10 a.m. to 8 a.m. and offering cell phone chargers students can borrow at the circulation desk. Ideas soon to be in progress include modernizing banner and allowing students to register for physical education classes during off-terms.
Woodward is a member of The Dartmouth opinion staff.
