With little discussion, the Student Assembly voted unanimously last night to cancel today's boycott of Dartmouth Dining Services.
The cancellation comes two weeks after the Assembly passed a motion calling for the one-day boycott to protest DDS's refusal to meet the Assembly's demands for meal plan reforms.
But yesterday, College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton accepted the Assembly's proposal for a Meal Plan Task Force to examine DDS policies, leaving Assembly members feeling that sufficient progress had been made to warrent cancelling the boycott.
The Assembly spent at least $562.50 promoting the boycott with two full-page advertisements in The Dartmouth that ran Tuesday and Thursday of last week.
Assembly President Nicole Artzer said she believed the amount was unjustifiable because organizers considered calling off the boycott as early as the beginning of last week.
The original boycott motion was a response to what its supporters called "insufficient flexibility" on the part of DDS. The call for the boycott followed two years of Assembly motions calling on DDS to revise its student meal plan.
"Two weeks ago very, very little progress had been made," Assembly representative Matthew Berry '94 said. "The issues we are concerned with will be considered by the task force. They are on the table - [Hutton] has assured me of that."
At the Assembly's meeting two weeks ago, before the boycott motion was passed, Artzer presented the idea of a task force to the Assembly. But the specific goals of the task force had not been decided.
"The task force was designed from the beginning to be a comprehensive study," Artzer said. "There have been additions in wording but not in principle."
The task force will examine DDS's policies and operating principles focussing specifically on the "punch" system for freshmen, refunds from Declining Balance Accounts and a possible fee to allow upperclass students to opt out of a meal plan. The task force also hopes to establish a permanent DDS advisory committee.
Artzer wrote the Task Force's agenda after several meetings between Assembly members and DDS.
The task force will be composed of four students, chosen by the Assembly, and four administrators, whom Hutton will select. One of the students will be Nina Nho '97, the Assembly's liason to DDS and at least one administrator will be from DDS.
The terms of the task force call for the first meeting to take place by March 1 and for conclusions to be issued no later than June 1.
Grant Bosse '94 said he has some reservations about the task force. "They're not agreeing to what we want yet but they are agreeing to discuss it," Bosse said.
The boycott motion sparked political infighting in the Assembly that led to last week's failed attempt to impeach Artzer.
