At a meeting marked by the presence of new representatives -- likely foreshadowing an upswing in Greek membership in the near future -- the Student Assembly voted 51 to zero last night in favor of supporting five student working groups engineered to address the five principles announced by the College's Board of Trustees two weeks ago.
According to Teresa Knoedler '00, Assembly member and sponsor of the resolution, Assembly representatives will participate across group lines in a collaborative rather than organizational effort to facilitate and fund this venture.
"The Assembly is not necessarily establishing the five groups, but rather this [resolution] is an endorsement of the groups," Knoedler said.
Assembly Vice President Case Dorkey '99 said, "The important challenge for everyone involved is the communication between working groups so that the principles relate to each other, and that focusing on each one doesn't take away from the whole."
The Assembly's resolution granted $2,000 to fund the working groups, covering primarily communications and publicity expenses such as posters and mailings. The general Assembly will stay informed of each working group and its expenditures through Executive Committee reports.
Seven new members were present and voting at last night's meeting, two of whom were Greek members.
While the Assembly already contains members representing some Greek houses, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority, Psi Upsilon, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Chi Alpha fraternities recently contacted the Assembly expressing interest in representation, Dorkey said.
"We have gotten a rush of interest in the Assembly across the board, not just Greek. I encourage every organization to have reps on the Assembly, and I expect and hope that Greek houses will send reps as well as other student organizations," Dorkey said.
Before the announcement of the Trustee initiative, seven houses were represented, and of upperclass Assembly representatives, 22 were affiliated while 21 were not, according to Dorkey.
"The five working groups have been generated from an impromptu group to find the best way to deal with the Trustee initiative," Knoedler said. "This concept has been thrown around since the beginning."
Dorkey's personal sense as to why that group, which was composed of student leaders and anyone else interested, came to that decision is "that no system is perfect. The advantage of basing it on the principles is that it doesn't place our own value judgments on the process. The Assembly can be helpful in this process, but it needs to be one player out of many."
