The Student Assembly met for the first time last Friday to set up its agenda and committee structure for the summer.
Summer Assembly President Grace Chionuma '96 told about 10 people at the meeting that the Assembly's big goal over the summer would be to get things done.
"The purpose of Summer Assembly is for the most part project-oriented," Chionuma said. "By the end of the summer we need tangible products."
Chionuma said the Assembly's two main focuses this summer are a faculty and administrative directory and a "comprehensive guide to Dartmouth academics and resources."
The Assembly also has a host of other topics on its agenda, ranging from work on a speaker symposium and campus phones to a look at the College's admissions procedures and Social Issues Night.Chionuma said because the College is restructuring Social Issues Night, a controversial presentation during Orientation on topics like homophobia and anorexia, she is not sure how much weight sexual assault will get at the presentation.
She said the Assembly should look into how much attention sexual assault receives this year. Last year, Chionuma led an Assembly task force that successfully lobbied the administration to increase the amount of time spent on sexual assault during Social Issues Night.
The Assembly will also start work on a "comparative curriculum review," to see if there are subjects offered at other schools that Dartmouth does not. Chionuma specifically mentioned a Korean language program.
As in past years, the Assembly also plans to produce a dining guide and a student discount card. Like last year, the Assembly will pay an outside company to handle the guide and card.
In an interview after the meeting, Chionuma said the Assembly should be able to make significant inroads on all its projects this summer.
"We will be having fun this summer," she said. "I didn't know what attitude we would have, there is a lot of positive energy. People seem to want to work, and that's what I want."
She also said she hopes to run a "public relations campaign" to change the campus opinion that the Assembly members "only care about politics."
Much of the discussion during the 40-minute meeting revolved around how to motivate people to work for the Assembly this term.
Some Assembly members suggested having food and positive reinforcement for members, but Laura Bennett '96 said "the focus should be on making people want to work."