Approximately 31 percent of Dartmouth students are utterly disappointing. I derived this percentage by dividing the total number of votes cast for Tim Andreadis (1,269) in Student Assembly elections by the total number of Dartmouth undergraduate students (approximately 4,100). Does this calculation strike anyone as ridiculous? Sure it does, and understandably so.
Unfortunately, no one thought the same of Andreadis' convoluted and largely unsubstantiated calculation that women at Dartmouth have a 17 percent chance of being raped prior to graduating. Admittedly, sexual assault is a significant issue facing all colleges, and I'm certainly not trying to make light of the issue. I would just like Dartmouth students, especially those that voted, to reflect on the recent election results. It seems as though all of his supporters fell victim to popular rhetoric and empty promises. Let's face it, our new student body president is not going to be able to solve sexual assault and diversity issues on campus. In fact, he hardly presents coherent plans for any of the problems that he identifies. To those of you who voted for him based on the hope that he would make our school a much more tolerant place, I am sorry you were so thoroughly deceived.
I will say that Andreadis ran an effective campaign in that he got a striking majority of votes through fear-mongering. Maybe that's just politics, but do his supporters honestly feel that his proposals are adequate solutions to the problems that he presents?
In the interest of length, I will limit my argument to his seemingly most significant issue, which is reducing sexual assaults on campus. Those of you unfamiliar with the campaign might be asking how Andreadis plans to accomplish this goal. According to our newly elected "representative," the answer is simple: just take a map of the school and divide it into different zones. Then, someone will track and record the locations of various sexual assaults. Although I'm not sure how he plans to achieve this minor miracle, given that most sexual assaults go unreported and it seems unlikely that the College would be so forthcoming with such information. My skepticism aside, Andreadis then plans to publish periodic reports detailing the breakdown of reported sexual assaults. His hope is to use his position as president in order to increase advocacy and awareness across campus. Unfortunately, I think he and his supporters grossly overestimate the persuasive potential of his position.
Ultimately, his polished report, surely one that most students won't even read, will simply amount to wasted resources. But, maybe Dartmouth women will sleep more soundly at night knowing that they have someone on their side, tirelessly undertaking such impressive research. I'd like to say you can't blame someone for trying, but when you present a plan so poorly conceived as this one, I have a hard time not finding fault. Andreadis does not seem to realize that the typical student, for better or worse, can continue his or her daily life with little regard for the activities of Student Assembly. This problem is one for which he conveniently presents no solution. I am simply trying to make people realize that Andreadis will not be able to fulfill all of his ambitious promises when the bottom line is that most simply do not care about what happens in those weekly Assembly meetings.
