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The Dartmouth
July 13, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Students wonder if reform will work

While most people agree the Student Assembly External Review Committee's recommendations are a step in the right direction, the one thing they say the recommendations cannot change is human nature.

Even if the new "Undergraduate Council" is approved -- which is certainly not guaranteed -- students say reform will not succeed unless the council attracts members who are dedicated to representing and serving students.

The committee's final report, released Tuesday, calls for changes in the Assembly's representation, structure and election procedures to make student government more accountable, responsible and unified.

Some of the committee's major recommendations include: having presidential and vice presidential candidates run on a ticket, creating seven new vice presidents -- appointed by the president -- to oversee committees, limiting membership to 50 students, having each class select eight representatives and having one-third of the membership be appointed.

"Yes, the Student Assembly has a lot of structural problems and yes, hopefully this report will be able to solve them," former Assembly member and Conservative Union At Dartmouth President Bill Hall '96 said.

"But the Student Assembly's biggest problem is not with the structure of the Assembly, it is with the people involved in it," he said.

And that is the essence of the problem -- it is easy to change the Assembly's name, it is not too difficult to change the Assembly's structure but it is very difficult to change the people who have created the problems in the Assembly during the last several years.

"I do not think the Assembly can be reformed unless the people on the Assembly are absolutely dedicated to serving the student body and not serving individual needs," former Assembly member Jim Brennan '96 said.

Class of 1995 Vice President Hosea Harvey, who chaired the reform committee, said the very nature of the new Undergraduate Council will "invigorate" students and motivate them to work for the benefit of all students.

Harvey said underlying the organization's name change is a new philosophy that will change the dynamics of the body.

But Hall said student government needs more than a new philosophy. He said the Assembly is too political and not legitimate.

"People aren't getting involved because they want to represent their fellow students," Hall said. Instead, he said students see involvement as a vehicle for power or a stepping stone to law school.

Hall said it is unrealistic for an organization to go from being poorly-run to well-run just by changing its constitution.

Former Assembly member Tim Rodenberger '95, who rewrote the Assembly's constitution last year, agreed the present Assembly is too dominated by personalities.

Rodenberger said the proposals are a "good step," but "you can put together the best system ... and it still may not have [the desired] effects."

Assembly Vice President-elect Kelii Opulauoho '96 said students he has spoken with have expressed two different views.

He said some students have said the Assembly has been ineffective in the past and students should use any means necessary to get it working again, while he said other students have told him that "without the cooperation of the entire Assembly, the new recommendations will not make the Assembly work any better."

Opulauoho said adopting a new constitution "does set up a slight hurdle that the Assembly would have to get used to these recommendations."

Assembly President-elect Jim Rich '96 said the committee has "done a good job providing the structure," but the structure depends on Assembly members for its success.

Class of 1996 Vice President Tom Caputo agreed with Rich but said recommendations alone will not fix the Assembly's ailments. "There needs to be a change in the focus of students involved," he said.

Assembly past

Caputo said the Assembly currently has two fundamental problems.

"The Student Assembly has more or less lost its credibility with students over a number of years for lots of reasons," he said. As a consequence, Caputo said the administration does not believe it is a valid organization.

For the recommendations to be effective, Assembly members must not only change their focus, but also gain the respect of the student body and the administration.

Brennan said the Assembly's fundamental problems are part of a gradual decline in the Assembly's legitimacy.

Brennan said during his freshman year, then Assembly President Andrew Beebe '93 proposed the mandatory coeducation of the Greek system. The idea, Brennan said, was opposed by many students and as a result, students came to feel that the Assembly was not very representative.

The following year's election, Brennan said, was "very tainted." Assembly President-elect Stewart Shirasu '94 resigned after allegations of campaign fraud. A second election was held and won by Nicole Artzer '94.

Artzer attempted to be effective, Brennan said, but "other elements within the Assembly tried to impeach her."

This year, the Assembly's elected president Danielle Moore '95 resigned this fall after internal Assembly bickering spilled out to the entire campus.

But Brennan said this spring's elections give cause to hope for an Assembly of more accountability and respectability.

Harvey said the Undergraduate Council is free from the historical connotations of the Assembly and free from its historical focus.

Assembly future

The Assembly will vote on the recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday, and it is unclear whether or not it will approve the recommendations.

"I hope they realize that accepting those recommendations is necessary to provide legitimacy to the Student Assembly," Rich said.

Rodenberger said because the student body presently holds the Assembly in "extremely low regard" and the Assembly realizes this, the Assembly may act out of necessity in adopting the regulations.

Harvey said he is confident the recommendations will pass with the required three-quarter vote.

Harvey said he would like to see all the proposals passed as a package deal, because many of the recommendations are interdependent.

Eight Assembly members told The Dartmouth last night that they will vote for the recommendations, four said they will vote against them and nine Assembly members said they were unsure how they will vote.

"They're the best compromises we could come up with," committee member and Assembly Secretary Ben Hill '98 said. "I think it's going to pass."

Many Assembly members have said they are dissatisfied with parts of the recommendation and would therefore like to vote on it "in parts."

But, just what constitutes "parts" has not been defined.

Opulauoho said the recommendations give more power to the Assembly president "to the point where I think is too much."

"On the new recommendations, the vice president does have limited explicit power but I also feel confident that the issues I ran on will be achieved because Jim and I have come to a consensus," he said.