Although the full Student Assembly made no definitive decisions and passed no major resolutions this summer, its committees have been working in a variety of different directions, the committee chairs said last night.
"The number of resolutions that the Assembly passes shouldn't be a measure of how much the Assembly has accomplished," Administrative and Faculty Relations Chair Case Dorkey '99 said. "There are things that the Assembly does that are not as concrete as resolutions."
A member of the Student Life Committee as well as one other Assembly member will represent the Assembly on the Dartmouth Dining Services committee formed in summer in response to the Spring term DDS funding controversy.
"Discussions were carried on over the summer about how the different changes were going to be made to DDS," Green said. "The committee is there to make sure DDS is responding to student needs."
Members of the Academic Affairs committee have been working on several different issues -- two of which have carried over from last year, the issue of multiple minors and the proposed implementation of an Ethnic Studies program.
Nothing has been decided on either issue, but Assembly Vice President Nahoko Kawakyu said that as regards the Ethnic Studies program, "We really want to start a dialogue between students and faculty about what they want and what they need."
The Student Services committee is working toward providing public computers and printers to residential clusters far from the Kiewit Computation Center.
The Communications committee is producing an informational pamphlet including information on administrative structures and school fines, said Committee Chair David Parker.
The committee will be placing information bulletin boards in each residence hall and TICK Talk, the Assembly's bimonthly newsletter, will be expanded to four pages.
"Our overall goal is communication so that people can get educated," Assembly President Frode Eilertsen '98 said. "We want to be able to go the students and say, 'What can we do for you?,' instead of them coming to us."
The Student Life Committee is attempting to find ways to involve students in the search for a successor for College President James Freedman, who will step down after Commencement in June.
"It may be just a logistical thing, but we really want input on how to involve the students in the search," said Student Life Committee Chair Josh Green '00.
"Our role is to make sure that the student perspective is being considered in the search for the new president," Eilertsen said.
The committee plans to plan a report on "what is right and what is wrong with Dartmouth" for the new president and involve more student input, Green said.
