Karl Marx once wrote, "Philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point, however, is the change it." While the social revolution of the 1960s is gone from most college campuses today, the amount of activism that still takes place is staggering, even overwhelming. There are over 200 organizations at Dartmouth, and as incoming students, you will undoubtedly sign up for at least a dozen that you will never participate in. Dartmouth College is filled with remarkable students, dead set on changing the world, and doing it before they graduate. What then, is the role of an undergraduate student government? It is likely that most of you are from high schools with token student councils that had little or no influence on the issues that really mattered to you, and come to Dartmouth with either great expectations or forgone disillusionment regarding student government. I will try to explain to you in my remaining 700 words, what the Dartmouth Student Assembly can mean to you.
Ever since a group of hippie anarchists abolished the Student Assembly in 1969, hard-working students fighting for a voice on this campus have gradually rebuilt one of Dartmouth's most important student institutions to what it is now: a diverse 70-member panel of students with the ear of the administration, a $35,000 budget, and healthy relationships with students all over campus. The great range of the SA's (everything at Dartmouth is represented by acronyms) accomplishments include student services like subsidized busing and the maintenance of blitz computers, to dealing with Dartmouth's financial aid policy, alcohol policy, and academic direction. When I was elected Student Body President this past May, it was on a platform that included addressing environmental issues, work-study wages and Dartmouth's Greek system, all of which will be tackled this fall, allowing full participation from incoming students.
Working on the Student Assembly can be a great experience for a number of reasons. You will meet lots of great people through working in small committees, and by the end of the year some of your best friends will inevitably be your peers in the Assembly. By working with faculty members and administrators, you will gain a keen insight into the inner workings of Dartmouth, and augment life skills like leadership and communication. But most importantly, you will be gradually, sometimes dramatically, helping improve student life at Dartmouth, fixing problems that your friends will only complain about. Year after year, the energy of the first-year class is the driving force behind many of the Assembly's most successful projects, and as next year's Vice President Julia Hildreth '05 and five other '05 executives can tell you, the Student Assembly does not hesitate to bestow leadership on underclassmen. After all, most of you are here because you were bright, dedicated leaders in high school, and the worst sin you can commit when you come to Dartmouth is forgetting that.
During your orientation week there will be one or two events exclusively devoted to accommodating new students to the way the Assembly works, but I will briefly comment on how to get involved as early as possible. The Dartmouth Student Assembly is rare among student governments in that you do not have to be elected to join. That having been said, the easiest way to become a voting member is to run for dorm or cluster representative about a week into Fall term. Because it is so early into your Dartmouth experience, running gives you incentive to meet everyone in your dorm. If you are not elected, you can still become a voting member through means a little too detailed and dry to explain here. But just so all of you know now, and never have to ask this question again while you are at Dartmouth, anyone is allowed to attend and speak at Student Assembly meetings, and anyone is allowed to participate in their projects. Julia and I really look forward to the enthusiasm your class will bring not only to Assembly, but to the whole campus, and if for any reason you are less than extremely excited about the best four years of your life, just remember how pumped everyone else will be when you arrive.
If you have any questions over the summer about the Student Assembly, or Dartmouth in general, feel free to blitz me. In addition, the two new Membership Chairs, Will Highducheck '04 and Brett Martin '04, are going to be here during First-Year Orientation to help you get involved with Assembly whenever you are ready, and make sure you wind up working on the projects that matter to you.
Just remember, after all the problem sets are done, the 300 pages of reading have been skim-med, and the all-nighters over, you will realize that the greatest difference between a high school education and the college experience is that, at Dartmouth, what really matters is what you do with yourself after those two hours of class time a day are over. Working with the Assembly will be a great opportunity, and I can promise it will be a good time. Have a good summer, and see you this September.
Janos Marton is a guest columnist and the Student Body President.