Hammonds said she believes that the College’s efforts to engage the student body are leading students to speak up.

“I know that more students than ever before are taking advantage of the opportunity to visit me during office hours,” Hammonds wrote, adding that she is “always available to see any student who wishes to meet with me outside of office hours.”

But despite these many efforts by the administration to seek out student opinion, not all undergraduates feel the need to voice their views on College policy.

The seven alcohol meetings in the fall saw low attendance, drawing about 70 students in total. In April, the three meetings to allow students to vet the administration’s newly drafted alcohol regulations drew a total of five students.

“If you were to ask students what have been the College’s priorities the last few semesters, I don’t know if they could really answer that,” UC President Danny P. Bicknell ’13 said.

For Bicknell, the student body is divided between the “500 students who really understand the College,” and the “6,000 students” who do not understand or do not actively engage with the administration.

Bicknell said he thinks engaging the latter group of students is one of the biggest challenges facing the College.

“Going to meetings shouldn’t be a barrier to entry,” Bicknell said. “You don’t want to build a self-selecting community.”

Many students, Bicknell said, have trouble squeezing the administration’s public forums into their already packed schedules.

Catherine A. Brown ’14, who plays lacrosse and participates in ROTC, is one such busy student.

Brown said that her life on campus is too hectic to attend Hammonds’ office hours or other College meetings.

“I think the College definitely tries really hard to make students welcome in that process,” she said. “I didn’t take advantage of it because I have a lot of other things to worry about.”

Brown said that many of her athlete friends were also unable to attend the College’s various town halls this year.

“If the meeting is at 6 p.m., if you play a sport, you’re probably not going to be able to go, and certainly not commit to going,” she said.

Bicknell said that this issue could be remedied if administrators facilitated more casual interactions with students.

Pforzheimer House Committee Co-Chair Christine J. Hu ’13 said she was happy when she heard that Hammonds came to a dinner with students in her House and added that she would like to see the dean become even more visible on campus.

“If Dean Hammonds were to assume some of [Nelson’s] roles, I’d be really excited to work with her,” Hu said.

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.