Student Assembly Vice President Nahoko Kawakyu's resignation last night has brought the Assembly into the campus spotlight for the first time this year. Unfortunately, this sudden visibility is for all the wrong reasons.
The announcement of Kawakyu's resignation aggravates the Assembly's lack of decisive leadership and calls for an examination of its presence on campus, or lack thereof.
Although last year's Assembly made great strides in student service under the leadership of Jon Heavey, overcoming the political infighting and bureaucracy characteristic of past assemblies, this year the organization has taken a step back down the slippery slope of inaction and stagnation.
Compared to the decisive goals and tangible results of last year's Assembly, such as helping to reform Dartmouth Dining Services and initiatiing the construction of a new weight room, the current Assembly has delivered nothing more than vague objectives and shaky results.
The Assembly's call for increased diversity, for example, lacks plans for concrete actions and illustrates the organization's impotence.
This inability to act should not occur in an organization supposedly dedicated to providing student service and representing student opinion to the administration.
The Student Assembly must act now to emerge form the confines of its low profile and provide leadership through visibility and action.
Instead of indirectly soliciting student input for its "Visions of Dartmouth" project via computer, the Assembly should simply talk to the students it represents.
The Assembly's counterproposal to the recommendations of the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs represented the perfect opportunity for the organization to step up and express student opinion.
However, the Assembly tiptoed around crucial issues instead of boldly voicing student opinion, and its response lacked coherence, conciseness and publicity.
By focusing on concrete actions rather than vague abstractions, the Assembly could augment its credibility with both the students and administration.
Dartmouth students need an Assembly that can get things done and is not afraid to represent student opinions .
The Student Assembly must decrease its rhetoric and increase its action.
