Student Assembly President-elect Jim Rich '96 last night addressed the Assembly about his plans to seek applications from members of the Class of 1997 for the positions of chair and vice chair of the Summer Assembly.
But Rich was challenged by several Assembly members when he announced his intention to open the application process up to the entire Class of 1997.
After Rich said "I'll run an ad in [The Dartmouth] to open it to the entire '97 class," Assembly President Rukmini Sichitiu '95, Stacie Steinberger '98 and other Assembly members quickly spoke out against his proposal because it apparently violates the Assembly's constitution.
Sichitiu said the Summer Assembly chair and vice chair must be selected from either this year's or next year's elected Assembly.
After acknowledging the correction, Rich said he would instead contact only sophomore members of both Assemblies about filling out applications.
"My goal was to make this process fair," Rich said. "It was my understanding that was how the process used to be."
Typically the incoming Assembly president appoints the heads of the Summer Assembly.
Last spring, Sichitiu and former Assembly President Danielle Moore '95 appointed Grace Chionuma '96 to head the Summer Assembly, even though Chionuma was not on the Assembly at the time.
Chionuma had been on the Assembly during her freshman year, and had applied to join the Assembly that spring. After a week of controversy, the Nominations Committee approved Chionuma's application to join the Assembly, and she eventually became summer chair.
Little else happened at last night's weekly Assembly meeting, as no motions were voted on or discussed.
"It's spring term," Assembly Vice President John Honovich '97 said. "We don't have much to do."
Sichitiu said the retreat planned for both the newly elected and the lame duck assemblies had to be canceled because of lack of interest. She suggested combining a retreat, possibly open to non-members of the Assembly with the Assembly's end-of-year banquet.
Sichitiu had originally planned to hold the retreat this weekend to smooth the transition between this year's and next year's Assembly.
For the remainder of the meeting, Assembly members helped put together stacks of questionnaires about academic classes for the Assembly course guide.
The Assembly plans to publish a course guide reflecting student opinion of classes and faculty members.
