Dear fellow Dartmouth students, In its present form, the Student Assembly is a totally defunct governing organization. Since 1992, the SA has not quickly delivered basic student services, has not forcefully relayed student concerns to the administration and has not effectively influenced major policy changes. Instead, its members have frequently cast their representational responsibilities aside and voiced and acted on their own concerns and problems.
While changes of truly startling importance are taking place under our feet and more are being proposed, like the plan to revamp the First Year Experience -- a change that promises to forever change the face of Dartmouth -- the SA, as if it was somehow isolated from student opinion in an airtight vacuum, continues to engage in the politics of self-aggrandizement and ego inflation, passing resolutions that, frequently, no one cares about but the author.
The consequences have been quite predictable. When the SA initiates a reform, makes a proposal or passes a resolution, the administration politely ignores it while students laugh out loud at the futility of it all. As a result, the SA has no legitimacy within the administration it is attempting to influence and no credibility with the students it purports to represent.
With these realities in mind, I'm proposing a comprehensive, overhaul of the SA's governance structure and legislative tactics. The plan promises to restore the Student Assembly as a legitimate and credible voice for the student body -- a government that is representative, responsive, effective and accountable.
The cornerstone of my reforms is to make the SA a more representative government by scrapping the current system of at-large representation and replacing it with residential representation. Presently, SA members are disconnected from Dartmouth students. When have you said to a SA member, "Hey, I want you to bring up this issue"? It never happens. Because students have no contact with SA members, the SA deals with a course guide no one wants instead of freshman dorms.
Under the representative government I propose, students would elect representatives for his/her dorm, CFS organization or affinity group.Now, with an SA representative -- your representative -- living down the hall the SA is not only more accessible to each student, but the individual SA representative is more accountable. It's only by placing representatives in close contact with their constituents that the SA can become responsive and accountable to student concerns.
Once we've established a truly representative government, the SA, as the legitimate voice of the students, has a legitimate claim on committee seats, held by students, who are currently selected by the administration. For example, the administration currently appoints five members to the Undergraduate Finance Committee (which controls the distribution of $420,000 of Student Activity fees), six members to the Committee on Standards, and all the students included on the First Year Experience Committee and the Task Force on Alcohol. If it's impractical for the student body to elect all the student committee members, the SA should appoint them, not the administration. The administration wants to legitimize its decisions with student committee members, but demands to select the students. That's not legitimate representation. That's a travesty.
The SA should also vigorously lobby for student interests on major campus issues. Resolutions are not enough. To ensure that our opinion is taken into account, the SA needs to illustrate student opinion to the administration using petitions. Dumping 2,500 individual letters on Dean of the College Lee Pelton's desk opposing Freshman Dorms is a far more effective tool to display student dismay than a pie chart in The Dartmouth that says 66 percent of students feel the same way.
But, the SA shouldn't stop there. If the administration refuses to respect student opinion, the SA should take their case to the Trustees and alumni through one-on-one meetings and direct mailings. If the students feel strongly enough about an issue, it is the responsibility of the SA to stand up to the administration on their behalf.
With an effective student government in place, we can tackle issues and win. My first priority is to prevent the implementation of Freshmen Dorms -- a divisive initiative that promises to change the face of Dartmouth. Next, I want to make "Student Life" one of the Trustee's four budget priorities, freeing up funding for things like keeping Collis Center open for 24 hours and a Saferides program. I'll work to restructure the new Office of Residential Life lottery system, which leaves exclusively sophomores without fall housing, further dividing the community. Furthermore, I'll fight for the 50 percent of Dartmouth students who receive financial aid and might not be here if it wasn't for need-blind admissions.
What I bring to the Student Assembly is a new vision -- the idea that we, the students, can have a say in what Dartmouth is like in ten years. With that vision I bring a new brand of leadership. No more senseless infighting among self-interested representatives. No more personal agenda politics that detract from the major campus issues.The Student Assembly is not about being for the right or being for the left; it's about being for DARTMOUTH. And as President, that's what I'll fight for.
