Joan Baez, an alumna from my alma mater, Redlands High School, once said, "As long as one keeps searching, the answers come." These words seem obvious in minor everyday applications of them, but the answers don't come as easily when the questions concern larger, societal dilemmas such as prejudice and intolerance. We cannot be expected to resolve these fundamental issues within a year, or even over the course of our time at Dartmouth. Yet, we are morally and intellectually obligated to address them, and to understand the degree to which they affect our own community.
Ideally, the Student Assembly president is someone who has the ability to lead and also the experience of working with various types of people. They are someone who coordinates people and resources and understands their constitutional role. They must know the Assembly inside and out, and, at the same time, not lose sight of what lies outside of it. It is important that they have prior experience working with administrators. Most importantly, the president must be someone who can lead the Dartmouth community in attempting to focus on the larger, unresolved issues that we face.
The president must be inclusive of all the disparate voices on this campus in their search for these answers. It is for this reason that as president of La Alianza Latina, last Spring, I played a lead role in the successful acquisition of an Administrative Advisor for Latino/Hispanic students at Dartmouth. Also, my hopes to bring issues such as diversification of curricula to the Assembly were successful.
This year's Assembly supported my push to establish the permanence of the LACS department, and passed a resolution that I co-authored with Khalid Osbourne-Roberts '98 to make Latino Courses a part of the permanent Dartmouth curricula. As a result, the college announced that it would initiate a search for a tenure track professor to teach Latino Studies courses. In addition, this search for answers led me directly to the position as coordinator of the Multicultural Project for the Tucker Foundation, as well as to become a member of the College Committee on Student Life, the College Committee on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment, and the College Priorities Advisory Committee.
Currently on the Student Assembly I have a series of resolutions pending debate which I have co-authored with William Kartalopoulos '97. These resolutions on community call for the Assembly to direct our efforts towards such things as an investigation into the fulfillment of the World Culture distributive requirements within the first five on campus terms; Student Voting Members of the Board of Trustees; Assembly liaisons to the Hopkins Center and the Hood Museum Advisory Boards; research into coordination of HOP activities with Faculty teaching; Mandatory Town meetings to be run by the Assembly twice per term; open and forthright support for Sexual Assault Awareness Week; and increased efforts into examining student interest in a diversified curricula.
For the past year, the Assembly has remained stable and organized as a whole. On several instances, however, the Assembly did not appear to be either a very organized or sensitive body. During the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend celebration on campus, the Assembly was nowhere to be found. There was little evidence that the Assembly was even remotely concerned with the events of a weekend whereas numerous individuals from the campus at large -- ranging from first year students to the President of the College -- were involved.
When the SA held an emergency town meeting, it proved that it was capable of taking a purely reactive role in addressing the "hate crimes" which have been a regular part of campus life since the summer term. It is not the Assembly's job to act as "moral police," but it is the sole institution which is meant to represent, encourage, and incite the entire student body. It has fallen very short of fulfilling this role of late. I blame this passivity not on Jim Rich's lack of leadership, but in his lack of experience dealing with people and issues of diversity and discrimination.
In high school, we all worked incredibly hard to distinguish ourselves. We applied and interviewed for Dartmouth fearing, and perhaps even expecting, rejection. We made a commitment to Dartmouth, and Dartmouth's commitment to us shouldn't end with a letter of admission. If we are to pay $120,000 for a diploma, that diploma should mean something to us. I want to know that this institution gave me my money's worth. I want to know that I received the full benefits of the academic institution, and an equal place in the community. Only a diverse and experienced Assembly can actualize this. It is now that we, the students, must take ownership of this institution; that we must make a home of this place called Dartmouth.
