After a relatively sedate fall, the Winter term Student Assembly took a more active role as it responded to campus issues, provided more student services and passed pragmatic resolutions.
Assembly members have avoided the infighting which nearly destroyed the body last year, but the dawning of Spring term with the upcoming elections has some worried that the harmonious nature of the Assembly may be threatened.
"Spring term will be difficult," Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia said. "I hope they can continue to work together through the elections."
Assembly President Jim Rich '96 warned Assembly members against engaging in petty politicking and asked them to refrain from letting the elections interfere with Assembly business.
"Service-wise and policy-wise, the term went very well," Rich said. Rich lauded the Assembly for its actions Winter term, such as calling for a town meeting and working toward improving the College's advising system.
Sateia said the Assembly "responded well to what students had wanted them to do."
"The term was good for opening lines of communication," Sateia added.
The road ahead
The secretarial race already has some Assembly members concerned about politicking.
When Jim Horowitz '98 stepped down from the post at the second-to-last meeting of Winter term, no one volunteered to run for the office when Rich invited members to do so.
The following meeting, Robin Nunn '99 said she wished to run, but Rich said she had to wait until Spring term because the constitution stipulates new secretaries must be elected at the beginning of a new term.
Nunn said she understood Chris Swift '98, who is a vice presidential candidate, was planning to become an Assembly member and running for secretary.
Nunn said Rich "seemed like he was helping with [Swift's] campaign" by "waiting for Chris to become a member."
Last term, Rich endorsed Sarah Cho '97 and Swift in their presidential and vice presidential campaigns.
Rich confirmed Swift has expressed interest in officially joining the Assembly as well as running for secretary.
Swift said members of the Executive Committee discussed who should replace Horowitz for Spring term at a meeting in February and Horowitz suggested Swift for the position.
Swift, who is not an official member of the Assembly, said he has applied to be a voting member by submitting a petition and an essay to the Assembly committee on internal affairs.
He said his top priorities are his committee and the upcoming elections and he will not volunteer himself to be secretary unless the Assembly asks him to.
Horowitz said the matter was not an issue of politics, but of constitutional guidelines.
Spring term plans
Rich said at the Assembly's first meeting of the term this Thursday members will elect a new secretary and discuss the implementation of the new supercluster with Dean of the College Lee Pelton.
Rich said of the supercluster, "I think it's a good idea, but there may be some legitimate problems which need to be worked out." He said he had spoken with many students disappointed by the disparity of class representation in the supercluster.
Other goals for the Assembly this term will include making recommendations to the Committee on Procedure, which will be analyzing and possibly proposing changes to the Honor Principle, Rich said.
He said the Assembly will also investigate how to change the manner in which students are appointed to the Committee on Standards, lengthening hours at the Collis Center and the Hinman Boxes and placing voting student members in such groups as the Committee on Instruction and the Committee on Admission and Financial Aid.
Rich also said he hoped to complete the formation of the Trustee focus group by next term, which would be a body of student leaders who would meet with the College's Board of Trustees to provide them with students' perspectives.
Community issues
Last term, after the community was made aware of events involving hate speech, the Assembly called for a town meeting in Collis to provide a public forum for students to discuss their concerns surrounding racism on campus. The town meeting was heavily attended and many students spoke about racial tensions at Dartmouth.
Rich completed the term by making a pointed request to the Assembly to return after spring break to again address issues of community of Dartmouth.
"We have a somewhat divided and fractious community," Rich said. "We have to try to bring the community together as a whole."
When asked about affinity housing, Rich said, "I don't think it's appropriate to separate students out to the extent that they never interact." He said he would oppose the construction of any new affinity housing on campus.
As well, part of Assembly Vice President Kelii Opulauoho '96's campaign platform when he ran for vice president with Phil Ferrera '96 last spring was to move the Women's Resource Center to a more central and larger space on campus. Rich said the topic has "not come up at all."
Academic efforts
The Assembly also continued to work with faculty to revise pre-major advising and expand the number of courses that permit students to select the non-recording option.
At the end of Fall term, the Assembly unanimously lent its support to a letter, drafted by Rich and sent to the administration, requesting that the College overhaul its current system of advising for freshmen and sophomores.
In January, Rich appointed Swift to chair the Assembly's ad hoc committee on advising. Swift worked with Education Professor Andrew Garrod, chair of the Committee on Student Life, to draft several surveys aimed at garnering student and faculty opinion regarding any changes to advising.
Rich said he predicted a "drastic overhaul" of the advising system.
The actual survey will be conducted this term.
Rich said the committee on advising has been working at a "deliberate" pace. "We've been very careful because COSL doesn't want to rush anything," Rich said.
"While it's sometimes discouraging to see how slowly the process works, sometimes ... it's necessary in tackling such an ... important issue" as updating the College's advising, he added.
The Assembly has spoken with several professors about increasing the number of courses which permit the Non-Recording-Option, a goal of the Assembly which has "not yet" been successful, Rich said.
He said Assembly members are scheduling a meeting this term with the staff of the economics department which has only two courses on which an NRO may be used to try and learn more about the department's apparent reluctance to expand NROs and negotiate more courses with the option.
Student services
The Assembly also completed several more tangible projects students can immediately appreciate.
"These may be mundane," Sateia said, "but if they make life a little easier for students, they're worthwhile."
The Assembly put its course guide on-line, set up several new BlitzMail computers across campus, allotted money to the undergraduate publications fund, installed a change machine in Collis and expanded its bus rides service.
Assembly members negotiated with the Hinman post office to forestall its decision to stop receiving parcels sent via Federal Express.
Rich said he convinced the postmaster to continue accepting Federal Express packages and distributing them to students but the service costs the office extra money, creating a monetary problem which may have to be again addressed in the near future.
Internal affairs
Internally, the Assembly revised its bylaws to correspond to its new constitution and its Committee on Membership and Internal Affairs orchestrated the Assembly's first review of its members.
Early in the term, Rich appointed Bill Kartalopoulos '97 to chair the Assembly's ad hoc committee on constitutional bylaws which recommended a host of adjustments to the Assembly's bylaws.
Kartalopoulos' committee quickly and efficiently drafted a set of new bylaws. Rich said the committee "did a very good job" and the recommendations, which were passed unanimously, were "simple and straightforward."
Twice, Assembly members tried to ratify a constitutional amendment stipulating Assembly presidential and vice presidential must run together on tickets. Both times, the measure failed.
Sarah Johnson '97, vice president of community service, and other members actively tried to terminate her Committee of Community Service. Johnson and others said the committee was unable to perform any appreciable community service, mainly because of the Tucker Foundation's dominance in the area.
"The way it's structured, it can't possibly work," Rich said.
However, several other members of the Assembly successfully blocked the dissolution of the committee.
Also, Rich appointed Dominic LaValle '99 to the office of vice president of academic affairs.
Although most past Assemblies have included a parliamentarian who is a nonvoting Assembly member versed in the rules of the constitution who presides at meetings as an adjudicator over constitutional disputes, "we went the whole term without one," Rich said.
Rich said he and Sateia have been actively searching for someone to fill the role of parliamentarian, but so far have had no success. Rich said the Assembly may decide it does not need one, or it may make the position a paying job.
Rich said if the Assembly hired a parliamentarian, that person would facilitate expansion of the Assembly's office hours. Started this term by Vice President of Communications Jonah Sonnenborn '99, the Assembly has maintained open office hours at its office in Collis so students can have access to their elected representatives.
