For centuries, Dartmouth’s residential campus has been a defining element of our community.  With the College’s historic $500 million investment in housing, building on Wheelock Street, and renovating existing spaces, we have an opportunity to serve students at a new level—where they live—elevating their experience and enhancing their education.

As we cultivate a healthy, engaged, inspired student body—one that can fully participate in the intellectual excellence of our classrooms, labs, athletic fields, and performance spaces, while building connections for life—residential communities have a particular power to elevate or undermine that work. Residential life can promote mutual responsibility. It can be a training ground for respectful dialogue that tests and improves ideas and deepens our understanding of one another.

Our House System, established a decade ago, offers an example of how faculty and graduate students interact with students outside the classroom. Greek Life plays a role in fostering community across campus, leading community-service activities and college-wide events. Our Living Learning Communities allow students to form interest communities of their own, delving deeper into their own experiences and perspectives.

Yet all of these models for residential life can improve. Each struggles with its own challenges. Each can do more to promote a healthy environment that brings students together rather than creating division. We are committed to sustaining and supporting the whole residential community at Dartmouth with particular attention to House Communities, Greek Life, and Living Learning Communities. In addition to examining these communities themselves, we need to realize the full potential of the student support offered by the new School of Arts and Sciences, Health and Wellness, Community and Campus Life, and Athletics—all of which contribute to the student culture.

By engaging students and experts across the institution, we can improve residential life and  better fulfill Dartmouth's mission to “educate the most promising students and prepare them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership.”

Charge

This working group is charged with an examination of the current nature and role of our current  housing options (the House System, Greek Life and Student Societies, and Living Learning Communities), illuminating their current strengths and vulnerabilities for undergraduate students, with a focus on practical, actionable recommendations in these areas:

• How can Dartmouth improve community within our residential options?

• How can Dartmouth extend and expand on successful community-building already happening within each residential model, making it available to more students?

• How can these residential opportunities better inform one another?

• How can residential life further reduce unhealthy and unacceptable behavior, and offer real alternatives for students?

• How can Dartmouth more generally improve the experience for all students, including those outside these residential programs?

Process

To explore these questions, the working group will tap the creativity and experiences of a wide swath of stakeholders across campus, including faculty, staff, students and alumni. 

The working group will be split into subgroups in three areas: 

• The House Communities;
• Greek Life and Student Societies,;
• and Living Learning Communities. 

Representatives from each subgroup will focus on specific themes that transcend residential communities (e.g., social exclusion). The working group will prioritize, wherever possible, findings and recommendations informed by data and examples of leading practices and what can be learned from experiences in other residential settings. The working group will consider previous examinations of The House Communities, LLCs, and Greek Life and Student Societies at Dartmouth mindful that every era is different, including today’s. The purpose of the working group is not to diminish the value of any of these communities, nor phase out their existence at Dartmouth, but rather to assess and recommend how they can be improved by working together.

Subcommittee Chairs

Living Learning Communities:

• Adria Brown, Director of the Native American Program
• Israel Reyes, Professor and Chair of Spanish and Portuguese at Dartmouth College; Director of Fellowships, Office of the Provost
• Mark DeVilbiss, Assistant Dean of Residential Life; Director of Residential Education

Greek Life and Student Societies:

• Hunter Carlheim, Director of Greek Life and Student Societies
• Charlie Wheelan, Clinical Professor of Business Administration; Faculty Director, Center for Business, Government & Society
• Dr. Rae Hall, Director of the Office of Pluralism & Leadership

House Communities:

• Ryan Hickox, Chair of Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Seun Olamosu, Director of the International Student Experience Office