Residential life administrators are working to curb community standards violations in multiple residence halls. According to associate dean for residential life Stacey Millard, residents in Hitchcock Hall and Wheeler Hall were required to attend meetings last week to address recurring cleanliness issues and noise complaints, respectively.
While individual students have not faced disciplinary action for the violations, future incidents may result in it. In a Jan. 16 email to residents of the first, second and third floors of Wheeler, assistant director of residential education Krista Patronick wrote that future “late night noise” should be “reported directly to [her] … as it is happening.” The email, which notified students about the mandatory meeting, was obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth.
“If I hear about any late night noise from now on, I will be showing up with [Department of Safety and Security] when that noise is reported to me, even if it is at 2 a.m., to determine who is making this noise and issue conduct hearings accordingly,” she wrote.
A “number of incidents” in Wheeler Hall — which houses South House first-year students — have been reported to Office of Residential Life staff involving “disruptive noise that made it difficult for fellow community members to get rest,” Millard wrote. According to the College Student Affairs website, noise which “interferes with classes, College offices and other campus and community activities is prohibited.”
To address the complaints, Patronick hosted a mandatory meeting on Jan. 19 with residents of the first, second and third floor of Wheeler. The session, which Patronick convened with Wheeler UGAs and residents, sought to reinforce noise policies, Millard explained.
Students who did not attend the meeting faced a $100 penalty, according to the Jan. 16 email from Patronick to residents. Ben Cashwell ’28, who lives on the second floor of Wheeler Hall, expressed doubts about the meeting’s efficacy.
“A lot of the noise complaints [are about individuals] who are probably not going to change their actions based on a meeting,” he said. “To people who felt like [the meeting] wasn’t targeted towards them, it was a waste of their time.”
Cashwell also expressed frustration with the $100 penalty for non-attendance.
“I thought it was crazy [that] if I [didn't] show up to this meeting, I [was] going to be penalized by having to pay,” he said. “It not only seems inequitable, it’s just wild.”
Wheeler third floor UGA Lily Easter ’25 said she believes the penalty contributed to high student turnout, with all but four residents in attendance.
“Especially if you’re not wealthy, [$100] is a lot of money,” Easter said. “That showed. There were a lot of people [at the meeting].”
Across campus, residential officials for Hitchcock Hall — which is home to upperclassmen in the South House housing community — convened a meeting on Jan. 16 after “unknown individuals” left shared spaces in “poor condition,” Millard wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth. Residents were unable to access shared bathrooms for a 24-hour period due to the “excessive cleaning” required, School House assistant director Allison Kruchell added.
The issues included improper disposal of bodily waste and misuse of shared kitchens, Kruchell said. In a Jan. 14 email to residents of Hitchcock Hall, she wrote that she had received a report from the Facilities and Custodial team that included concerns about a student “irrigating their nose daily” in the kitchen with a neti pot and “poop[ing] in [the] handicap shower trash.” These actions violated the Student Handbook Standards of Conduct, Kruchell said.
While Kruchell acknowledged that these specific instances may stem from a “mental health pattern” or may be “alcohol-related,” she added that she believes they are part of a broader pattern of disrespect for the Dartmouth community.
“The biggest issue I’ve noticed on campus is this lackluster attitude for shared spaces,” she said.
Students who did not attend the mandatory meeting on Jan. 16 or schedule a follow-up would be “written up for non-compliance,” according to the email sent by Kruchell to residents. Further, a continuation of the behavior would result in a “building-wide fine” for “excessive cleaning,” Kruchell wrote.
According to Kruchell, 84 of the 85 Hitchcock residents attended the meeting or communicated their absence to schedule a follow-up session. Students at the meeting seemed “shocked” that the incidents were occurring, she added.
“They didn’t know this was happening because it gets cleaned up, and they don’t have to deal with it,” she said.
Hitchcock first and second floor UGA Mollie Berry ’25 said she believes the meeting made residents “more cognizant” of hygiene and cleanliness issues.
“A couple residents wrote thank-you letters to the custodian and would say ‘thank you’ in the hall,” Berry said. “I think that’s a good sign.”
Kruchell added that seeing students acknowledge the incidents on the anonymous messaging app Fizz was “comforting.”
“I was really hopeful when I saw students [posting], ‘Hey, the custodial staff deserves better than this,’” she said.
The Student Handbook does not specify College policy for meetings with entire residence halls. However, building-wide meetings — compared to emails, for example — can be “effective” strategies for incident prevention when individual accountability is not possible, Kruchell said. Since each of the meetings last week, behavior in both residence halls has “largely improved,” Millard wrote.
However, according to Hitchcock Hall custodian Billie Jo Buchanan, improper disposal of bodily waste — for example, peeing in the floor drain — and misuse of garbage cans continues to happen “every single day.”
“The showers should only be cleaned once a week,” she said. “I have to clean them daily. That’s crazy. It takes away from other projects like high dusting and cleaning the stairwell. … I just [wish students] would be mindful of others coming behind them.”
Millard emphasized the importance of residents’ cooperation with College policies for “fostering a positive experience for one another.”
“Everyone plays a role in keeping our residential communities safe and cultivating a respectful living environment,” she wrote.
