The Student Assembly voted unanimously yesterday to amend its constitution to create a diversity affairs committee. The new committee will coordinate students' efforts to address diversity issues.
"We are very happy with this decision," Asian-American student adviser Nora Yasumura said. "It is a historic day for Dartmouth."
The amendment was sponsored by Assembly members Jonathan Lazarow '05 and Aly Rahim '02 and is modeled upon the College position Director for Institutional Diversity and Equity.
As stated in the newly-amended constitution, the committee will "address general concerns of inclusiveness and pluralism," and will be headed by an as yet unnamed vice president.
"We will be actively seeking input and involvement," Student Body President Molly Stutzman '02 said. "We hope this will be a venue to better communicate with and work with other students."
The overwhelming support for the new committee surprised Rahim after the last meeting's debate.
"Last week was more contentious, but bringing in members of diversity groups that supported the measure made people realize how the committee will be able to affect so many different events and groups on campus," Rahim said.
The proposal to form a committee to deal exclusively with diversity concerns was inspired in part by last month's swastika incident, in which the Nazi hate symbol was drawn on a Jewish student's message board.
"We proposed lots of measures but few of them were actually implemented," Rahim said. "It was clear how difficult it is to respond to this sort of concern on an ad hoc basis. We can do so much more if we have a body of dedicated people working on a committee."
The decision was a model of how the Assembly should suggest and implement proposals, supporters said.
"We really looked at the details and considered whether it was in our long-term interest," President's Assistant Joshua Marcuse '04 said. "It shows careful planning and commitment and is a model of how our resolutions should work."
In other business, the Assembly awarded a $1,000 "Innovative Teaching Grant" to Mayumi Ishida for her work on a web-based method of teaching Japanese language skills and recognized professors Paul Christensen and Gladys Guzman as recipients of the 2001 Professors Award.
