During the last few years, the Student Assembly has been ineffective and has almost completely lost the respect of the administration and the student body. Tonight, the general Assembly should take the first step in reversing this trend by approving the recommendations made by the Student Assembly External Review Committee.
If approved, the recommendations should make student government at Dartmouth more representative and legitimate. If the recommendations are voted down, the Assembly will look more petty in the eyes of the students.
The recommendations would abolish the Assembly and replace it with an "Undergraduate Council." The council, with a radically different structure and representational system, would be a vast improvement over the current Assembly.
To be sure, these recommendations do not guarantee a perfectly functioning student government; there will always be students who are more interested in playing politician than in representing their fellow students. Still, the recommendations are a prudent step in the right direction.
The student government could theoretically be the most powerful organization on campus. It can bring the voice of the students to the administration, faculty and trustees. But the current Assembly is incapable of the task. The proposed council could be the power voice the student body lacks.
Over the last three years, the Assembly has tried several times to tinker with its constitution, and tried to rectify fundamental problems with minor modifications. It is clear that the Assembly needs more than a tune-up -- it needs a major overhaul.
The time is at hand for the Assembly to vote in favor of this overhaul. The function of any student government is to serve and represent the students. Because the Assembly has not adequately done so in recent memory, it should approve the review committee's recommendations so it can start representing the students again.
Tonight, Assembly members must be brave and look toward the future, and try to escape its three-year-old downward spiral.
