For the past couple of weeks, I have been writing this article with the help of the Dartmouth student body. I have been carrying around a small green notebook everywhere that I go and I have been scribbling down notes related to my campaign. I have been writing down personal ideas, poster prices, lists of friends that I need to blitz, lists of meetings that I want to attend and, more importantly, random ideas that I hear from students.
This article is the result of a dialogue between many Dartmouth students and myself. This article is an outline of my ideas for next year and a demonstration of my commitment to advocacy on behalf of students.
Thursday evening, I attended candidate speech night. For most of the evening, I sat in a room that was completely full -- of empty chairs. I was frustrated by the lack of attendance and I started off my speech by remarking on a room that appeared to be a statement of student apathy. However, while it may be said that a picture says a thousand words, the words that the room was speaking were a far cry from the words and ideas that filled up the pages of my small green notebook.
While there may have been empty chairs before me that evening, I know that Dartmouth students have neither empty minds nor empty hearts. Students at Dartmouth are not apathetic once they are engaged. Students at Dartmouth are not apathetic about issues that are important to them. Students at Dartmouth are not apathetic when they feel that their voices are being heard.
Over the past few weeks, students have been talking to me and asking me questions and I have been listening and responding. At the Greek Leadership Council meeting that all the candidates attended, one student expressed concern over the fact that there are too many committees that are not actually working to increase student voice. At candidate speech night, another student expressed concern over the student body's perceptions of Student Assembly. Many other students have approached me and have asked me, "What do you want to do?"
As student body president, I want to gather student concerns, advocate for students and formulate new ideas and solutions to address these concerns.
My platform is threefold: Direction. Dedication. Destination. As student body president, I will provide direction on: improving the academic advising system, later library hours, improving the gym, increasing the Student Assembly budget, increasing political awareness on campus, improving student-faculty relations, pushing for a greater emphasis on teaching in the tenure process, organizing events that promote diversity, starting a weekly Student Assembly update column in The Dartmouth and working to create bigger and better social spaces.
For each of these ideas, I have specific plans. In order to improve faculty-student relations, I will work to create steering committees in every department.
In addition, I will work to revise and expand the current Dartmouth Miniversity system in a way that fosters student-faculty relations.
At other universities, students are able to take Miniversity type seminars with professors and administrators (for no grades). Many of the classes are both educational and fun (i.e. a weekly dinner and discussion on a specific topic, photography, art history at the museum, etc). These seminars would increase student-faculty relations outside the regular classroom environment and this would be a big step on the road towards an increased student voice in decision making and campus policy formulation.
This article has been co-authored by Dartmouth students. It has been co-authored through my experiences with students over the past two weeks and through my experiences with students over the past three years. It has been co-authored through the blitzes you've sent to me, the questions you've asked of me and the advice you've given to me.
As student body president, I want to continue to advocate on your behalf and I want to co-author a year in which all of our voices will be seen and heard.
