Four students will serve as undergraduate representatives to the Budget Advisory Committee next year, the second year of direct student input during meetings with the College's top budget officers.
Three out of four representatives have been chosen and a fourth will be selected in the fall, so that a woman will be among the students on the committee.
Seniors Marcelino Garcia, Auguste Goldman and Vahtang Khoutsishvili were selected from nine candidates nominated by the Student Assembly to serve on the Advisory Committee, which sets priorities for the College's $130 million budget.
Provost John Strohbehn and Dean of Students Lee Pelton conducted joint interviews with the nine candidates and selected the three. They then decided to add an additional fourth seat designated for a female student.
The only woman among the applicants was Nicole Artzer '94, the new Student Assembly President. She applied for the committee before she won the Assembly presidency, creating a possible conflict of interest which she discussed with Strohbehn and Pelton.
"It was felt that her presence on the committee might diminish her effectiveness as Assembly President in those instances where she had received confidential budget information," said Jeannine McPherson, assistant to the Provost.
"However, the Provost and Dean Pelton feel it is important that at least one female undergraduate be represented on the committee," McPherson said. "Therefore, they asked Nicole to nominate female candidates for consideration."
Artzer gave them three names, and the additional representative will be selected from among them in the fall.
"I nominated women I felt had taken a leadership position at Dartmouth, who had a fair sense of economic issues at the College," Artzer said. "They've shown the ability to remain open-minded in what the priorities of the College should be."
The Advisory Committee was created on a trial basis last summer in an agreement forged between Strohbehn and the leadership of the Summer Assembly.
Strohbehn informed the Assembly at the end of March that students would again be selected to serve on the Advisory Committee, indicating that the first year had been a success.
The Budget Advisory Committee advises the informal budget committee of the College's top budget officers.
The budget committee was formed in 1989 by President James Freedman. The Provost chairs the committee, which includes the President, Treasurer, Dean of Faculty, Dean of Students, Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs and Associate Treasurer.
The Advisory Committee will meet several times from Fall term until Spring term. In addition to student opinions, the Advisory Committee hears the views of the faculty subcommittee on priorities, consisting of about six members elected by the general faculty.
Khoutsishvili, the third student member last year, was selected again this year.
Andrew Smith '94 and Rohan McFarlane '93 served on the committee in its first year. The two said they argued strongly to keep this year's tuition increase down. They said they felt the committee, which ultimately did decide on a lower rate of tuition increase, took their opinions into account.
Toward the end of the year the senior budget officers faced a $1.3 million deficit and decided to cut employee benefits instead of cutting academic or student programs.
According to Smith, Treasurer Lyn Hutton had to teach the students complicated financial concepts in order to understand the committee's work.
She said the budget committee will get off to a much earlier start this year, since students were selected by the Assembly in the spring instead of the fall. She is planning the first meeting for September, more than a month earlier than last year.
