To the Editor:
I am deeply disturbed by the make-up of the executives selected by president-elect of the Student Assembly Frode Eilertsen '99.
The power of the President to essentially pick anyone on this campus to fill the roles of chairs of vital committees such as Administration and Faculty Relations, Academic Affairs and Student Life, is very exiting and yet dangerous.
The Student Assembly's executive board ought to be as diverse as the SA itself and the student body. This means not only bare minimum proportional representation by gender, socio-economic, ethnic, racial and sexual orientation lines, but also generational lines as well.
To appoint only one member of the Class of 1998 to the executive board is absurd.
In my eyes, such an action is hypocritical for an individual who repeatedly said during his campaign, "if we cannot make the perfect world here at Dartmouth, how the hell can we expect to make it out there?"
I ask, "how the hell are we to make a perfect Dartmouth when the executive board that has been selected ignores all the hard work '98s have done on and off the SA?"
Tokenism in this area cannot be viewed as a conciliatory gesture, it is downright insulting.
But I suppose that one appointed '98 is better than no appointed black/African-Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans (East and South) or Gay/Lesbian/Bisexuals.
We are lucky to have Nahoko Kawayka '99 and Millicent Cho '99 as elected (not appointed) members of the executive board next year to provide at least some balance where this area is concerned.
