Year after year, during student election time, we are confronted by the same question: What is the purpose of the Student Assembly? Year after year, the newly elected president promises to reform the Assembly into a representative organization that improves student life.
And, year after year, we are let down.
When Jorge Miranda '01 took over as President last year, he promised us a "new Assembly" -- one that would make effective changes and institutionalize student voice at the College. But like in years past, this has simply not been the case.
The College administration made some of the most important decisions affecting student life this past year without even consulting the Assembly. This blatant neglect is obviously partly the fault of the administration but, more importantly, is symbolic of the lack of legitimacy the Assembly maintains.
For example, the administration did not consult the Student Assembly before or after they announced major financial aid changes earlier this term that essentially left out currently enrolled students. Even worse, the Assembly never responded to these changes that certainly affect a large portion of the students they claim to represent.
Instead the Assembly chose to focus on protesting the punishment of Psi Upsilon fraternity on charges of racial and sexual harassment. The resulting resolution, which subverted the real issues of the incident, also failed to have any substantial impact on Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman's decision about the fraternity's sanctions.
Most recently, the Assembly voted to change the titles of the Assembly president and vice president to Student Body president and vice president in an effort to clarify the positions and make them more legitimate.
Unfortunately, changing names is not going to do the trick. Students must have allegiance to and faith in the Assembly so the administration can take the group seriously.
Legitimacy does not and will never come with a change in semantics.
These and many other instances in recent terms serve as evidence of the Assembly's growing distance from the student body and plummeting clout with the College administration.
And, we as students have no reason to expect anything different from next year's "leaders."
To this year's Student Assembly: filling in for a shortage of Dining Services workers at Novack Caf and placing BlitzMail computers around campus is not enough. You need to open your eyes to the real problems on campus, such as the ones that result in protests or other campus discourses. You have been quiet on these major controversies for too long.
Be proactive in improving the lives of Dartmouth students.
We all know your leadership holds meetings with administrators, your executives form useless committee after useless committee and your members attempt to bury the pointlessness of their "resolutions" under lofty rhetoric. We know that, and so does every student on this campus who isn't sitting in 101 Collis on Tuesday nights.
We expect more from our Student Assembly. We expect our Student Assembly to serve, not just claim to serve, as the legitimate representative body of all students. We urge you to make real changes now.
