Think back to when you first came to Dartmouth. What did the phrase "Dartmouth Community" mean to you? The sense of community here at Dartmouth is unique; it distinguishes us from many other schools. Yet how strong a community is Dartmouth? Are we one unified community or a collection of smaller, disconnected ones?
Most of us arrive here excited about the possibilities ahead, then find something we enjoy doing and quickly focus on that. We create our own smaller piece of the "Dartmouth Community" from which we do not often leave. And while it is wonderful to find a niche you can call your own, the opportunity to interact with people outside our smaller world is often lost. We get so involved in what we're doing that we lose a sense of the greater Dartmouth community.
Dartmouth's students have a broad range of experiences and perspectives, but too often we don't meet and learn from as many of each other as we might. Our community is limited by its fragmentation, weakened too often by a feeling of "us versus them" rather than of "we." We are a diverse group of individuals, but we are united through our common Dartmouth identity, and we can learn a lot from one another.
If there is one organization that can bring students from all segments of campus together, it is the Student Assembly. The Assembly is for all students, but too frequently people view it as unrepresentative of the campus as a whole. My goal is to change this: I want to make the Assembly a place where all students feel welcome at a meeting or contacting an Assembly member, an organization in which each student knows that his or her input and ideas are valued. This is the only way that we as students can have an active voice in shaping the Dartmouth Community.
I remember the first few times I went to SA meetings. I felt somewhat intimidated by a sense of exclusivity and wasn't sure that I wanted to continue coming. My goal is to change this: I want to increase real interaction between the Assembly and other organizations by redefining the role of organizational representatives, to foster greater communication between cluster and class representatives and the people they represent. Only as a unified voice can we have credibility as a student body with the administration, and this cannot happen until any student who wants a voice in this College feels comfortable approaching the Assembly and getting involved.
The Assembly's biggest asset is its students. In drawing upon the ideas and input of more students; in making the Assembly more active and communicative with the campus as a whole, we increase our legitimacy not only as a representative organization but as an overall student body with an active and valuable role in shaping this College.
There are many ideas for improving Dartmouth. Adding more kosher dining options and putting course syllabi on the web, for example; lowering printing waste at Kiewit and making reading period longer. But I am not running for Vice President simply to work on a few specific student services, though there are definitely some projects that I would like to see happen next year. My goal is to create the atmosphere in which all students feel comfortable coming to the Assembly, a place where everyone's ideas can find a welcome forum.
Students from all segments of campus have come up with wonderful ideas about how to make this campus a better place. I want next year to be about their ideas, not just about mine. The Assembly is not just about the people who lead it; it is about its relationship to the entire campus and its ability to build upon the strength and diversity of all of Dartmouth's students. Even if you do not choose to become a part of the Assembly, it is important that you feel represented within it.
What matters is that the Assembly is open to all students, for the Assembly represents all of us. The only way that our ideas can come to fruition, the only way to ensure that the Assembly is representative of students and that we can speak as a student body with a unified voice, is for the Assembly to reach out to all students, to play an active role in strengthening this community. The Assembly is supposed to be inclusive of all of Dartmouth's students, and I want to make it that way.
