The unexpected promotion of Student Assembly member Joshua Marcuse '04 to the presidency of the Ivy Council set the tone for last night's meeting of the Assembly as Dartmouth's student leaders looked to save the all-Ivy forum.
Marcuse, formerly the Council's vice president of internal affairs, assumed the office following the resignation of Cornell's Michael Brown. Brown's resignation left another empty seat on the executive board, which was already dealing with the earlier resignation of Stephanie Long '04.
Two-fifths of seats on the Council's executive board are now empty.
In addition to the vacancies on the executive board, the council is also dealing with the appointment of inexperienced head delegates from Princeton, Cornell and Yale. This means that half of the steering committee is new, making it more difficult for the council to regroup.
These developments, along with Harvard's decision to secede from the council last May, led to the delay of the spring meeting and may ultimately result in the organization's demise.
"The Ivy Council is very close to dying," Marcuse said.
Marcuse described Long's decision to resign as the Council's vice president of external affairs as "a blow to the organization." For her part, Long said, "my personal goals were in conflict with the council itself."
The Ivy Council was started in 1993 to serve as a forum for the sharing of information between students at Ivy League schools. Each year the council puts on two main events " Ivy Corps, a community service day inspired by similar events held at Dartmouth, and the Ivy Leaders Summit. If the Council collapses, both of these events would likely go with it.
To prevent the dissolution of the Council, Marcuse asked for the support of the Assembly. He also proposed holding the spring conference at Dartmouth, a move which would require the allocation of thousands of dollars and other resources.
The spring conference was supposed to take place at Cornell, but Marcuse did not think that that would be realistic given the current state of Council affairs. Dartmouth, he said, would be the only place where he could manage the resources necessary for the conference to take place.
Student Body President Molly Stutzman '02 said that it would be "a tremendous opportunity for Dartmouth to have the spring conference here -- if there's enough energy from students here we could essentially bring the Ivy Council back from the dead."
Stutzman also warned that the Council's problems may be a result of the inherent difficulty of bringing together students from widely-separated campuses. If that's the case, the council may eventually die regardless of any effort made by Marcuse and other Dartmouth students.
"Dartmouth has traditionally been the backbone of the Ivy Council," Stutzman pointed out. "On one hand its an incredible opportunity but its also an incredible burden."
In addition to the debate over the state of the Ivy Council, the Student Assembly also conducted a discussion in response to last week's sketching of a swastika on a student's door.
The purpose of the discussion was to brainstorm ways to back up last week's SA resolution, which condemned acts of bigotry and hatred, with action.
Among other topics briefly discussed last night were the resumption of A-Lot shuttle service -- expected to be up and running by Jan. 30 -- and plans to gauge student interest in Dartmouth Dining Services delivery.
