My experience at Dartmouth has been a positive one, characterized by intellectual growth, fulfilling social opportunities and fellowship. I believe that our collegiate experience is exactly what we choose to make it. However, many students face obstacles, social, structural, or both, as they attempt to shape their individual experience. These obstacles come in many forms, including barriers of space, finances and organizational recognition. My platform strives to create structures of opportunity within the College. Only when these structures exist, may all students, regardless of background or beliefs, feel invested in our community and have a sense of ownership of their individual Dartmouth experience.
In order to construct a positive experience for all Dartmouth students, all students must feel comfortable and supported.
We must address the lack of equity in women's resources. As Assembly President, I hope to address this inadequacy by lobbying for the relocation of the Women's Resource Center and the creation of a Women's Issues Residence Hall. The present location of the Women's Resource Center, which is cramped in a corner of the Choates, highlights the marginalization of women at the College. With currently six sororities and fifteen fraternities, there is clearly a scarcity of women's space. This can be, in part, addressed by the allocation of a state-of-the-arts facility, similar in mission to Cutter-Shabazz Hall, which will serve as a nucleus for discussion and debate of women's issues and concerns.
In addition to the lack of equity for women's resources, we must address the lack of commitment to diversity at the College. The biggest threat to our diversity is the proposed financial aid cuts. This is an issue that disproportionately affects the community of color, but affects half of all Dartmouth students, and will serve to undercut the strides we have made towards diversity. In short, if we don't have need-blind admissions, then we can't decide from among the best applicants. I will lobby the administration and trustees to maintain need-blind admissions and provide aid to all students with demonstrated financial need.
Also with regards to the issue of community, I will work with the administration and faculty to reaffirm the College's commitment to affinity housing, such as the Native American House, as well as lobby the administration for the creation of a Latino Student Resource Center. The Assembly should also support the needs of newer groups, such as Dartmouth United and Eire.
My mission includes providing broad services and opportunities which benefit the entire student body. I would direct the Assembly towards practical accomplishment, such as the creation of a small student art fund (which would buy student art and display it in Collis Center, for example) and move the Assembly away from waste, such as the course guide.
Student culture is a twenty-four hour culture -- it isn't nine to five. Many services that aren't being provided reflect the triumph of the nine to five myth over the late night reality. I want to dispel this myth by getting 24-hour computer consultance at Kiewit Computation Center, a 24-hour Collis, longer hours at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts, longer library hours, and an outside basketball court, which wouldn't have the inside courts' time constraints.
This realization correlates with another important need -- more non-alcoholic programming. Specifically, the return of Friday Night Dance Club and the semi-regularity of Eleazer's Dungeon, as well as the creation of a new auditorium to replace Webster Hall.
Though my experience at the College has been largely positive, I am not blinded by my own contentment. I am not complacent or lost to the flaws in the intellectual and social facets of the Dartmouth experience. As SA president, I will use my experience to further change at the campus level. By raising awareness about the lack of opportunity and addressing the sources of obstacle and conflict, I hope to work towards building a community based on understanding and mutual respect within which all members of the student body will possess the tools to shape their own Dartmouth experience.
Because when it comes down to it, 90 percent of our experience is common: We are all students first, regardless of the factions that have been created among us. By discarding antiquated notions of partisanship and reorienting Parkhurst in our direction, we can address the needs of our community. The results of our intentions lie in our empowerment, which means our tuition money builds and buys the space that we want. It means that students deserve to vote for trustees and sit on the tenure committee. It means the College buying and/or building the student spaces that we need. It's not about taking away from the Greek system or destroying traditions, and it's not about removing the inroads underprivileged communities have made -- it's about construction, not destruction. Having been the president of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity has afforded me a wealth of experience in charting the course of an organization. I know how Parkhurst works, how to deal with alumni, and how to reinvest an organization in its mission. In our case, the mission is construction. As President, I will work to this end.
