The Student Assembly said it would work to give students a larger role in the College's decision-making process in its annual report, submitted to the Board of Trustees earlier this month.
The report, authored by newly-elected Assembly President Josh Green '00, called for increased interaction between students and Trustees, including student participation in Trustee elections and granting student membership on the Board of Trustees.
"We are surprised by the limited responsibility given to students in the College's decision-making processes," the report stated. "We are constantly frustrated by our inability to lastingly shape the community to which we belong."
The Trustees oversee the operations of the College, including setting tuition for the following academic year and selecting new administrators. Currently, only alumni can sit on the Board or vote in elections for new Trustees.
However, other colleges such as Cornell University and The College of New Jersey allow students on the Board of Trustees.
"We think students should have the right to shape Dartmouth while still in Hanover," the report stated. "We think students should have the right to vote."
Summer Assembly Chair Janelle Ruley '00 said putting a student on the Board of Trustees would "provide a perspective that might be lacking."
"Students can offer something very different," Ruley said. "Often times, alumni can be removed from what's happening at Dartmouth, but students witness things firsthand."
In a letter to the Trustees, which was included in the Assembly's annual report, Matthew B. Nelson '00 wrote, "You must understand that your rejection of this proposal indicates that you do not feel the students, the very people who are the heart and soul of the Dartmouth community, are capable of directing that community."
Nelson's letter will be printed in the July issue of Rockefeller Center's Public Policy Quarterly.
The report also urged Trustees to devote more resources to create additional social space for students. The report stated that the conversion of Webster Hall into the Rauner Special Collections Library limited space for social programming at the College.
"It is not so much the decision itself that leaves such a bad taste in student's mouths but rather the way the decision was made with apparent disregard for student wants and needs," the report stated.
