I am grateful for the opportunity to reach the college through Dartmouth's print media. It is through this forum that I had wished not to offend the Student Assembly, but to study it in a serious manner.
Legislative and representative bodies are important entities, and they consume a great deal of their members' time. Thus, any criticism of such bodies is taken as an unfair attack on the representatives themselves. Perhaps my last column was taken in this way.
William Kartalopoulos '97 contended in his column that I have misunderstood not only the legitimacy and function of Student Assembly at Dartmouth, but also the founding principles of the United States. If true, his assertions would render me completely bereft of a future in political thought and in political journalism.
That, for me, is a frightening prospect, and so I must renew my inquiry into the Assembly.
When, in my last column, I introduced the possibility of American democracy being overrun by citizens' direct access to lawmakers, my statement was in no way meant as an approval of this trend. A nation should indeed be as far removed from its ruling bodies as republicanism will allow.
This sentiment, however, has little to do with how the College should be run. For there is a strong demarcation between American politics -- for which James Madison had to create a republican government that could spread out over vast amounts of territory--and the political exchanges that take place in a small college environment. The two cases are markedly different.
Kartalopoulos, however, says I have forgotten Madison's lessons, and that American and Dartmouth politics are indeed very similar to each other.
It is difficult to draw true parallels between the U.S. Congress and Dartmouth's Student Assembly because the former acts as a lawmaking body -- the American people have a vested interest in the actions and laws of Congress. Students at the College, however, have no such interest in the Assembly.
Yet Kartalopoulos argues the SA is very much like a national representative body.
Actually, the true lawmaking body and the only parallel to Congress on this campus is the administration; and it is this entity that is worth addressing directly. Surely, the Conservative Union at Dartmouth and Spare Rib represent two of the many different factions at the College. But it is not the Assembly that untangles the mess of student factions in order to find consensus on a given project.
Rather, it is the administration that does this. Because there is no such thing as a single student voice, Dartmouth students and their respective organizations directly petition and rely on the administration, which is the only legitimate, rule-making body on this campus.
But according to Kartalopoulos, it is really the Student Assembly that rids us of our factions, not the administration.
Despite my contention that Dartmouth students handle their own matters in an industrious way, I am portrayed as someone who insults the intelligence of Dartmouth's voters.
Simply because these good students vote for representatives to the Assembly does not mean they believe anything will come of it; in fact, this argument is taking place in The Dartmouth just as several other groups on campus are questioning the Assembly's worth.
Many students of this campus join me in asking why it is we have the Student Assembly. And my discussion of what "is" was not devoid of what "should be." Rather, I clearly stated the Assembly would never recover from the blow a connected campus and a responsive administration had dealt it.
As for what should be? The Student Assembly should be denied the appearance of legitimacy that comes from a false process of voting. The Student Assembly should be a mere debating society, so that the Administration cannot take advantage of it or discredit it at will.
Still, Kartalopoulos believes the Assembly can be repaired so that students will once again care about it, have faith in it.
It is in the spirit of continued discourse that I submit this essay for the College's consideration. What strong passions brought into this discussion such bitterness as before, I do not know, but I would like to see the dialogue continue. Most of all, however, I am not here to instruct the Student Assembly with regards to its business, for I am not a representative, as Kartalopoulos is.
Perhaps all I wanted was better course guides.
