When Alex Wilson '01 announced this week that he would step down from his position as Student Assembly treasurer, the organization had to choose someone to fill his place.
In the debate over who should assume the executive council role, Wilson told the Assembly: "I, for one, can say the job doesn't take great intellectual acumen."
Whether or not Wilson's successor, Jessica Walters '03, does indeed have an easy task ahead of her, next year's treasurer will oversee the largest Assembly budget in several years.
Beginning in the 2001-2002 academic period, the student government will have 35,000 dollars to work with -- up from 30,000 dollars this year.
That comes to about eight dollars per Dartmouth student.
Assembly leaders say that every single one of those dollars is necessary to continue the kind of student services on which the campus has become reliant. Public BlitzMail computers, holiday busses, and Mugshots are all funded by the Assembly, they note.
"The reason why they gave us the increase of $5,000 is there really isn't another organization that does the same stuff. That money wouldn't make a big impact on programming as a whole," Assembly president Jorge Miranda '01 said.
And though the Assembly has historically struggled to win favorable reviews from students -- a struggle that very much continues to this day -- a random sampling of students conducted by The Dartmouth found that most agree with their Assembly representatives that the budget is well spent.
"The eight dollars feels like a little to me," said Leah Horowitz '02. "I've been off campus, and now I notice the little things. There's a lot more computers, the TVs in Collis and in Food Court."
Vanessa Lee '02 agreed: "I don't really mind the fee. I think I've benefited from the SA, though I don't think I've gotten a lot of material benefits. It's through them working to keep things open, or if I have a complaint I'll go to them."
Still, about a quarter of the students contacted by The Dartmouth registered reservations about the Assembly and the money that goes to support it.
"I would probably rather have the eight dollars in my pocket," said Frank Webb '03. "I don't really feel they're an entirely representative body of the campus. It's unclear to me how much they actually get done."
Dristen Berry '04 agreed: "So far I haven't really seen them do too much with the money. So I wouldn't be exactly satisfied with the budget."
In fact, a lot of the Assembly's work doesn't require any funds. Meeting with administrators and working in committee groups is costly only in time, not money.
But the Assembly's more tangible undertakings, like student services and communications, is where the money adds up. This year, the Assembly spent 16,000 dollars on student services, 4,250 dollars on communications and 5,250 dollars on membership and internal affairs. The Assembly also earmarked 3,700 dollars for new equipment for Kresge Fitness Center.
The Assembly gets its funds from the Undergraduate Finance Committee. Each year, the group has to submit a budget and make its case. This year's 5,000 dollar increase came in spite of the Assembly's proposal to freeze its budget.
"I think all of it's worthwhile," Wilson said. "We have a much broader mandate and responsibility than any other group."
While the Assembly has kept itself out of the financial hole for the past two years, in 1998 it found itself 10,000 dollars in debt. An embarrassed student government had to borrow from various College funds and take money out of the following year's budget just to keep afloat.
And it wasn't more than five years ago when the Assembly commanded a 50,000 dollar annual budget. More recent Assembly leaders concluded there was only so much they could do, they said, and have been lowering their requests to the UFC.
