In his final term as president of the Student Assembly, Jorge Miranda '01 wants to pursue his main goal of increasing student involvement by planning four summits in which students and important figures on campus can talk openly.
The summits, which begin this Wednesday, will focus on promoting student involvement with the administration, Trustees, College committees and faculty.
According to Miranda these summits represent something that has never before been tried by the Assembly, and he describes them as an "incredible" opportunity.
Each summit will be composed of roughly five of the nine Assembly members that make up the Student Involvement Committee (SIC). Approximately five non-students who are influential in the College's decision-making process will also be present.
The first summit will be held this Wednesday and will bring together members of the College administration and the SIC. Among those present will be Holly Sateia, Dean of Student Life.
For two hours, students and administrators will discuss issues such as student efficacy, mutual respect, increasing coordination between administrators and Assembly members and the creation of student advisory boards.
According to Miranda, the administrative summit is the most important because the Assembly works closely with members of the administration on a daily basis.
Miranda expressed frustration at the current relationship between the Assembly and the administration.
"This winter students were given no advance notice of the changes with room draw; the same was true of door locks. SA cannot work effectively ... when it has not been given any prior notice," Miranda said.
The second summit will be held this Thursday and focuses on issues involving the Board of Trustees of the College. This summit comes in conjunction with the Spring term Trustee Weekend. Dean of the College James Larimore and five Trustees including President James Wright are expected to attend.
Attendees of the summits will discuss "the need to have more mutual cooperation and collaboration between students and Trustees on the long-term decisions and vision of Dartmouth," Miranda said.
The third summit will be held on Wednesday April 11th and will bring together the SIC and members of several different College Committees. In this summit, the SIC hopes to make concrete changes by presenting several recommendations.
The Assembly would like students themselves to chose which students will be on all College Committees. The Assembly would also like all of its appointments to be final " "not just recommendations," Miranda added.
The Assembly would also like decisions made by the Undergraduate Finance Committee to be final, not subject to approval by the Dean of Student Life.
Although Sateia has never rejected the $600,000 budget proposed by the UFC, Miranda said he thinks students should be in control of the relatively small amount of money allocated to them.
The final summit will be held on Monday April 16th and will focus on the Dartmouth faculty. The Assembly will recommend that students be present at all job talks for professor candidates.
"Now more than ever students have a negative attitude towards Trustees and the College," Miranda said of his motivation to plan these summits.
He attributed the negative attitude to the recent Student Life Initiative, which created much controversy, especially among upperclassmen.
Explaining why the summits will not be open to the public, "In a public forum Trustees would be more reserved," Miranda said.
The goal was to create an honest, non-confrontational setting, he added.
