Recent poll results showing that more than one out of three Dartmouth students do not believe the Student Assembly represents their voice and concerns reveal an underlying skepticism among students as to the effectiveness of institutional student government. But this cynicism is not unique to the Dartmouth community.
Student governments at all the Ivy League schools are criticized by their student bodies, to varying degrees, for being ineffective, argumentative and even comical. All one must do is search the archives of editorials of various college newspapers, or talk to a few students, to discover a common sense of dissatisfaction with these organizations.
Despite the fact that Harvard's Undergraduate Council has a budget of $130,000, dwarfing the Assembly's $35,000 budget, it does not command the respect of its students. In the last election, only 20 percent of the student body turned out to vote.
"When I was a freshman [at Harvard] the UC spent a lot of time delving into national and international issues by making lots of resolutions that were obviously ineffective," said Harvard student Hannah Choi '01.
Choi commented that the UC has changed their focus in recent years to student services, such as a "Flyby" lunch service for students on the run between classes, and has met with more success. Nevertheless, Choi said the UC is still "infamous for having extremely long meetings and talking about nothing."
At other schools, such as Yale University, the situation is more encouraging. At 40 percent, student turnout for elections at Yale is tied with Dartmouth as the highest among the Ivy League.
"The YCC (Yale College Council) is more effective on small issues such as two-ply toilet paper, which was a wonderful coup I suppose because it was a sizable expenditure on the part of the College," said Yale student Tim Mosca '03.
Mosca also mentioned that the YCC has been working for years to get soap dispensers and hand towels installed in dorm bathrooms. So far the YCC has not been successful on this front, but it is an example of the kind of small scale improvements affected by student governments.
Recently the YCC has also successfully lobbied to get Martin Luther King Day made an official college holiday.
As with most Ivy League student governments, except Dartmouth, Mosca pointed out that "the YCC has a huge role in allocating undergraduate funds." At Dartmouth, student groups are more likely to find funding from the Committee on Student Organizations, which has a budget of approximately $125,000.
Dartmouth works differently than other Ivy League schools in that its Assembly and COSO have separate budgets and do not officially work together.
At Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, the student governments combine the functions of Dartmouth's COSO and the Assembly. So while each of their budgets totals more than $1 million, they also are responsible for funding an extremely braod spectrum of student activities.
And despite the tremendous budget of the organization she leads, Dana Hork '02, President of the Penn Undergraduate Assembly, said "one of our big goals is to become more legitimate among the student body."
Successfully lobbying for an outdoor basketball court, improving outdoor recycling and serving as the mediating between college students and local merchants (such as the owner of a local video rental shop), are among the activities that have bolstered student opinion of Penn's UA.
Jed Gross '01, Vice Chair of Penn's UA, said he was proud that the UA had also succeed in changing university policy in regard to teaching assistants. The University created an intensive language study program for teaching assistants from foreign countries after students complained that the TAs could not speak English well enough to be understood.
At the same time, voter turnout to the UA elections remains at a relatively low 20 percent. Unlike Dartmouth, members of the student government do not run for individual positions. Twenty-five upper-class students are elected in the spring, followed by seven first-year in the fall. Internal elections are held by the members to determine who the officers will be.
In order to fund their million dollar budget, the Student Assembly of Cornell charges each student an annual $92 student activities fee.
The largest chunk of this fee goes to athletics, cinema and concerts. Despite the emphasis on bringing art and music to campus, student still pay between $10 and $12 to attend concerts.
With regards to the activities fee, one Cornell student, Emily Tice '03 said, "I think the generally feeling is that everything at Cornell is very expensive -- we pay for everything." At the same time, Tice mentioned that almost every event she attends is sponsored by the Cornell Assembly. On another note, Cornell is the only Ivy League school that allows students on its board of trustees. Every two years the student body elects two students to serve as trustees on the 42-member board.
"I doubt how effective they can be, but I still think its really cool that they allow that," commented Tice. She also mentioned that the position of student trustee is highly sought-after and the elections are competitive.
Student trustees are ex-officio members of the Cornell Assembly, but do not take an active role in student government.
The Cornell Assembly has also been historically bipartisan, an issue which does not divide Dartmouth's Assembly to nearly the same degree.
The "extreme politics" may be the reason for the feeling that the Cornell student government has in the past been seen as "childish," "petty," and "squabbling," said Mark Greenbaum '02, the current Executive Vice Chair of the Cornell Assembly
As has been the case at other Ivy League schools, Greenbaum said that Cornell's student government is most successful with "bread and butter issues like dinning and housing ... while students may not love their SA right now, if we are dedicated a lot can be accomplished."
"I'd be nuts to say the SA here or anywhere has a huge amount of power ... the administration doesn't have to listen," Greenbaum added.
"Americans in general don't care about politics, and college is a microcosm of that," Greenbaum concluded.
A similar sentiment was shared by Baro, who said, "student government is necessarily ham-strung because it is completely at the mercies of people with long-term interests. People with short term interests come in and make suggest, which will always be denied."
"People may think it's totally stupid, but I know how hard they work ... and it's true, sometimes they pick they right battle and win," Baro added.
