Alex Grishman '01
Age: 21
Hometown: Chaupaqua, N.Y.
Major: History
Platform:
Increased student involvement in change-making process, especially the SLI.
Construct new image for Student Assembly and publicize its work.
A relative Assembly outsider, Alex Grishman '01 wants to involve students at all levels of the College and hopes to lead the Assembly in working on both large and small projects.
After attending Assembly meetings last year while the Initiative process was going on, Grishman said he thought things were run extremely inefficiently and the Assembly poorly represented the views of all students.
"Someone had to step in, and I decided that person was going to be me. I felt like my ideas weren't being well-represented," he said.
If he is elected president, Grishman said he plans to look at specific problems on campus and find common-sense solutions.
Grishman said the programs that emerge as a result of the Initiative process will be the Assembly's most important issues next year, as well as "helping to construct a new Dartmouth in a view in which all students have a say."
One problem which "annoys me to no end." Grishman said, is the College's system of fines, and he would make looking into that a priority.
He said other priorities should be getting Dartmouth cards to work in more vending machines on campus, completing more teacher evaluations and attaining a higher degree of student involvement in deciding which professors receive tenure.
With regards to the Greek system as it stands, Grishman said it is "a large part of the social setting at Dartmouth, and while some of the things that go on there must be changed, not all of them do."
A Theta Delta Chi fraternity brother, Grishman sees himself as a strong Greek supporter who is willing to reform the weaker aspects of the system.
Grishman also co-chairs Operation Smile, which works with disadvantaged children in the area.
A member of the lacrosse team, Grishman said that the sport has taken up much of his time, and he wants to find a way to give back to the College.
Jorge Miranda '01
Age: 20
Hometown: Norwalk, Ct.
Major: English
Platform:
Institutionalized voice for all students.
Making the Assembly more open and inclusive, and thus more representative.
Turn the Assembly towards working on concrete projects and making it more active in general.
Jorge Miranda '01 said the most important goal for his presidency would be to create an institutionalized voice for all students -- to involve more people in the decisions made on campus and make it easier to enact meaningful change.
"Right now, when the Assembly passes a resolution, the administration doesn't even have to respond to it. Institutional voice means the guarantee that they will at least respond and tell us why they don't agree," Miranda said.
Some of the ways in which an institutional voice could be achieved would be to have student representatives on faculty and College committees, which make many campus decisions that affect students, Miranda said.
Miranda has been working on a change to the faculty advising system since his freshman year -- one process that could have greatly benefited from an institutionalized voice. "I'm really confident that advising will change in the future. But the process has been really slow because it's really hard for students to figure out how to change things here at all."
To go beyond simple student services and make the Assembly a more respected and representative organization, Miranda intends to diversify and widen its membership. "I don't feel that the way to make the Assembly more representative or legitimate is to make it more elective. People who run for elections are not necessarily representative of this campus," Miranda said.
According to Miranda, the important issues for next year will be specific parts of the Initiative, including gender relations, improving the women's resource center and finding social options that students really want.
Miranda has been a member of the 2001 class council, La Alianza Latina, the Committee on Standards, the Committee on Instruction, Green Key and Casque and Gauntlet. He also chaired LEAD, a Tucker mentoring program, worked as a UGA for two years and served as Assembly president during his Sophomore Summer.
Brett Quimby '02
Age: 20
Hometown: Dover, N.H.
Major: English
Platform:
Reversion to single-sex, all female educational institution.
Change title of Student Assembly president.
Make Twinkies available in Food Court.
Brett Quimby '02, hailing from "Dover, New Hampshire, the metropolitan hub of New England," represents the Jack-O-Lantern humor magazine in his bid for the presidency.
If elected, Quimby would promptly move to change the title of "Student Assembly president" to "Mayor of the Student Assembly" so that people would refer to him as mayor.
His second move would be to stop the Assembly from sending out any mass blitzes telling students what the Assembly is doing.
Quimby believes that right now, the Assembly deals well with infractions by students and imposing punishments on violators. According to Quimby, the Assembly is a good judicial body and has checks and balances "just like the United States."
The most important change that would be made during his presidency would be a sweeping one. Quimby and his running mate, Jacob Osterhout '02, believe that making the College all-female would be the best thing to do.
"The presidency is a form of sacrifice," Quimby said, explaining that by staying on campus as a male, he would sacrifice himself to the good of the College. "In fact, back in the mid-1800s, they used to sacrifice the Assembly president at the top of Baker Tower."
Quimby said that if he were elected, he and Osterhout would stay on campus to help select the incoming classes, calling it a sort of "ritualistic death."
Quimby is a strong supporter of the Greek system and noted that although he has not met many Greeks, he has met a few Italians and other people from the Mediterranean area.
"The Greek system is great," he said. "Greek people need a place to celebrate Greek culture."
Speaking about the Initiative process to date, Quimby said that he was not very happy with it because people had not talked enough about him specifically.
Quimby is a brother in Alpha Delta fraternity, Quimby is involved with the Dog Day Players, the Jack-O-Lantern, and FATASS, or Former Athletes' Association. He also coaches a seventh grade lacrosse team.
Meg Smoot '01
Age: 20
Hometown: McLean, Va.
Major: Math, Economics
Platform:
Have the Student Assembly take on specific projects that will improve the day-to-day lives of students.
Meg Smoot '01 wants to direct the Assembly's efforts towards projects that all students "can rally around," naming several specific issues she would like to see the Assembly undertake.
Smoot said she was frustrated after her experience as a student member of the steering committee because the Trustees did not address many aspects of the committee's deliberations.
The Assembly should work on improving funding for student organizations, Smoot said, adding that there is "still a lot of bureaucracy which could be streamlined."
Smoot expressed concern about the recent lack of popular campus-wide events and suggested that events such as concerts by popular bands could be organized with better funding.
She said the Assembly should also study the computer and communications systems at the College.
"It's not bad, but it could be better," she said. "It's not as much on the cutting edge as it used to be."
Smoot suggested setting up a site equivalent to eBay, where students could sell or trade items like bikes or textbooks.
She also believes that a partial solution to the problem of discontinuity at the College could be found in something as simple as assigning freshmen one phone number for their entire college careers. While students are off campus, they could check their voice-mailboxes by calling a toll-free number.
Smoot would also encourage Career Services to include more counseling for high tech careers. Right now, Smoot said, Career Services is focused on things like investment banking and law, even though the high tech industry is the fastest growing section of the economy.
Smoot also cited improvements to the Women's Resource Center as very important. The center is rarely used, due to its peripheral location, and could be moved instead to a place like the Hovey Grill in Thayer, she said.
Smoot is a sister in Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and has served on the organization's executive board. She was also a member of the steering committee, which met from May through December.
Alex Wilson '01
Age: 20
Hometown: New York City
Major: History
Platform:
Representation of all students on campus.
Change in focus to issues that really matter to students.
Radical changes to structure of Student Assembly and way it is run.
Alex Wilson '01 advocates major changes to the Student Assembly in an effort to make it a clearly representative organization which focuses on broad issues that affect the entire campus.
Wilson believes that the Assembly does not adequately represent everyone it should, nor does it concentrate on issues that really matter to students -- with the exception of the Initiative responses that it gathered.
He said that part of making the Assembly more representative requires that every voting member of the Assembly have a clearly-defined constituency which can hold its representative responsible for decisions.
The three most important issues that the Assembly should address are diversity, gender relations and student choice. He wants to bring different groups at Dartmouth together to work on them.
"The Assembly would have certain problems bringing different campus groups together given the low esteem in which it's held, but it's the only one which has the organizational mechanisms and general structure to deal with issues like that," Wilson said.
Wilson said more social and residential options are necessary at the College, but they should be created without eliminating any options that exist now. He said making sure that everyone feels comfortable using social or residential options, regardless of gender or color, is an equally important part of expanding student choice. He believes that the Greek system must be maintained as both a social and residential option.
He said he thinks that more important than an institutional voice for the Assembly is the ability to line up all students behind a general idea and show the administration and Trustees that other groups support the Assembly.
Wilson has been on the Assembly since his freshman year and is currently serving as secretary. He is a brother at Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity and served as vice president of the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council during his Sophomore Summer. He has volunteered at David's House and for John McCain's primary campaign and is a member of Conservative Union at Dartmouth and Hillel.
