In preparation for the fast-approaching elections, candidates for president and vice president of Student Assembly gathered last night in Collis Commonground to give short prepared speeches and answer questions posed by moderators and audience members.
Last night marked the first time that all candidates had assembled in one room for the specific purpose of discussing pertinent campus issues, but the audience reached only about 60 students at its peak level.
Presidential candidate Alex Grishman '01 cited the Initiative as a reason to get involved in the Assembly and expressed concern over the apathy he said he has seen on campus.
Jorge Miranda '01 said "It's too hard to affect change here at Dartmouth" now, and said the key to a successful Assembly is to keep it open, Miranda said.
Meg Smoot '01 said it is not voice for the Assembly that will be important next year, but going out and actually accomplishing things. "As students, we need to push for things that affect our lives."
Alex Wilson '01 stressed the need to "stop addressing small, insignificant things" and emphasized the importance of having representatives on the Assembly be held accountable to a clearly-defined constituency.
Wilson said the first thing he would do as president is go out to different parts of the campus, find people willing to work on issues confronting the College and convince them to come to the Assembly and do something about it.
Miranda said he wanted to clarify the role of student involvement in implementation of the Initiative.
Smoot said she would she would gather past and present members of the Assembly's executive board and Dean of the College James Larimore to map out a plan with specific deadlines for future goals.
Grishman said he would go around and talk to every member of the Assembly and explain to them the "new way of running things."
The three candidates for vice president -- Chance Hill '01, Jacob Osterhout '02, and Molly Stutzman '02 -- were greeted by numerous responses from the audience.
Hill called for cooperation between students and Larimore in order to effectively implement projects resulting from the Initiative. He also suggested "moderate reform" of the organization in order to draw representatives from sports teams and other organizations.
Stutzman cited three major goals in her speech -- make the Assembly more open and inclusive, expand the student services aspects of the organization, and define the role of students in enacting change on campus.
"Right now," Stutzman said, "the administration has no responsibility to take our decisions into account."
Hill discussed his ability to bridge the gap between Greeks and non-Greeks on campus, as well as his level of experience as an upperclassman.
Stutzman emphasized her advantage of getting to know the Assembly from the outside her freshman year before joining her sophomore year.
"After tonight, it was very clear what the differences were between each candidate's agenda. It's quite a diverse field," current Assembly president Dean Krishna '01 told The Dartmouth.
But Casey Sixkiller '00, who ran for president last year, saw it in a different light, commenting on the abundance of "rhetoric" heard in the discussion.
