Friday's Verbum Ultimum discussed Student Assembly's failure to address issues that are important to the student body. Do you think the Assembly should always spearhead student efforts to lobby the administration?
The Assembly should be the focal point of student involvement in College policies, but neither students nor the administration see it as a legitimate means toward that end. Until the Assembly either makes itself more responsive to student opinions or shows it can make an impact lobbying the College about undergraduate needs, it will remain in bureaucratic, resume-pumping limbo, without respect or authority.Brian Solomon
Student Assembly should definitely be taking the lead in opposing the administration's new dining plan. This is not to say that Assembly leaders should spearhead every student effort. However, if a plurality of students oppose one of the administration's plans, the Assembly should become involved.Jonathan Pedde
Whether individual students lead protests or the Assembly spearheads them, these complaints have and will continue to fall on deaf ears. We can complain all we want about the ad hoc manner of student protests, their laughable disorganization and dispassionate griping. But until we realize that the true cause of this frustration is the fact that the administration ignores the wishes of its students, we will be wasting our time with unimportant technicalities.Jasper Hicks
The modest successes of independent, issue-specific student committees indicate that reform is possible outside of Student Assembly, but the efforts have been unsatisfying in pace and progress. Given the Assembly's unequaled resources and influence, issue committees would be wise to team up with it in the future if the committees want to accomplish their goals more efficiently and effectively.Brendan Woods
It would be nice to have a centralized, democratic and well-funded organization capable of lobbying the administration on behalf of the student body. Too bad the Assembly isn't that organization it needs to get itself in order before anyone might begin to take it seriously. That means holding fair elections, ending absenteeism and drawing up some real policies of its own.Josh Kornberg
As a body of individuals constituted to be the liaison between students and the administration, the Assembly should lead responses to administrative decisions and policy changes. Its lack of response to relevant issues such as the dining plan demonstrates the group's growing irrelevance. However, in order to fully take advantage of the resources provided by the Assembly, students need to become more actively involved in the organization.Alesy Iturrey
Ad hoc groups like Dartmouth Students for Dining Choice will always be more focused and enthusiastic about their cause than the large bureaucratic Student Assembly. The people who care the most about a given issue are those who can provide the most effective leadership. The Student Assembly should merely provide financial and organizational support.Ethan Wang
If the Assembly doesn't take action to speak on behalf of the students it professes to represent, the existence of the Assembly is counterproductive at best. This middle man exists as a fake liaison to the administration, fooling students into thinking they have a voice. The Assembly should act as a megaphone for the students, always diving head first into current issues.Leah Feiger
It's the Assembly's job to spearhead whatever efforts are supported by a sufficient groundswell of student sentiment. Given their limited budget, Assembly leaders need to make sure they pick the right battles instead of spreading themselves too thin. At the same time, issues such as accessibility may be extremely important and yet be personally relevant to only a small proportion of community members. The Assembly needs to dig deep for student opinion and not entirely forget about small but impassioned student groups.Roger Lott
