It is time for a change. A fundamental change in how this college functions and how Dartmouth's future is determined. I'm talking about a greater student say in the decision making process of this institution. An Institutional Voice, if you will.
As the Student Life Initiative looms over us, you may ask how this is relevant. But not only is it relevant ultimately, it's the backbone of student life. To not address it is to miss the point -- and miss an opportunity.
Many students have argued for greater student choice in whatever social life system we end up having. Others have complained that they feel the SLI has been a "top-down" process, with the administration making the real choices and students left to fight out the details. Most troublesome, we have questioned whether anything we say has had an impact? An Institutional Voice is the answer to these questions.
Why does it feel like the Trustees control the future? Because they do. Why does it feel that no matter how much we yell and scream, the trustees will do as they please? Simple, they have no reason to listen to us. Half of the Trustees are self-selected and the other half are chosen by alumni. Where are students in the equation?
Every person on this campus offers an important perspective on Dartmouth life. Alumni, faculty, administrators all offer unique insights. But none of them know what it's like to be a Dartmouth student right now. Only we know what current student life is really like. I'm not saying our perspective should be the sole perspective, but you've gotta admit it's pretty damn important.
For years, students have been asking for more social options, more money for student organizations and better residential clusters. And over the years, we've gotten very little response. So we've continued to complain, suggest solutions, and write proposals. All that the trustees and administrators had to do was say, "Yes, we agree with you. Let's make Dartmouth better."
Instead, when they finally decide to follow through on some of what students have asked for, they screw it up. They announce the SLI in the most disempowering way possible. Much like social life, the trustees have never made a commitment to improving student empowerment and voice. Now they say we finally have the opportunity to shape the future. Well you know what? We've been wanting to shape it for years...they've just made it next to impossible. And then they wonder why students don't trust their intentions.
A student vote in Trustee elections -- you might think this is one of the answers. Right? Well, for years students have been asking for this very change and have been rejected again and again. Tell a Trustee that you want a vote and they'd probably chuckle. Tell them you want a student on the board, and who knows what they'd do. "Silly, silly students"...well, their inability to trust students has led to an opposite and equal distrust of them from us.
Unfortunately, we students haven't united together in response. We've broken ourselves into several small factions, fighting one another for our own interests. The Trustees' actions have helped splinter this campus. It is time that we bring it together again, under the call for a student institutional voice.
To their credit, the administration and trustees have done a lot to improve the SLI process in recent months (mostly because they've involved students more). However, they've failed to address a key question: how can we guarantee that students will be heard and havea voice in future decisions? How can we end the mistrust?
Student empowerment must to be a central factor in the future of student life at Dartmouth. The future of Dartmouth must be decided by the entire community: students, faculty, administration, and alumni. Preferably, with these groups working together. But right now, we hold the shortest straw. There are opportunities for students to voice their concerns but as the Student Life Initiative has shown, they're few and far between. This is not acceptable.
Giving students more say is the smart move. It would make Dartmouth a better college. But there's more to institutional voice than just that. We are constantly billed as the future leaders of this country and world,but if we are going to be tomorrow's leaders, we need to be treated as such today. We hear a lot of talk about community, but without an institutionalized voice we are not being challenged to take responsibility for that community. It is Dartmouth's educational responsibility to prepare us, through experience, to be tomorrow's leaders.
So as you write your proposals about the Student Life Initiative, remember the most important aspect of student life at Dartmouth -- the role we have in molding it. Will the future of Dartmouth be one where students are more active in the inner workings of the college? Or will we continue down the same broken path? Tell them how YOU think students can be made to have a greater impact on what changes and what doesn't, in student life and in the overall direction of the college. Tell them; tell them and continuing telling them. And for the sake of this college, I hope they will listen to us. For once.
