From the homecoming bonfire to commencement, class councils play a major part in the organization of class events during students' first and fourth years. But due to the D-Plan and a lack of a concrete agenda for the junior and sophomore years, council activity suffers during those times.
The primary obstacle councils have to overcome during their middle years at Dartmouth is a decreased class size, according to current and former presidents of the 2003 Class Council. Since so many students are on leave terms, Language Study Abroad or Foreign Study Programs, the number of active students on campus at any given time remains low.
"Sophomore summer, when everyone is on campus together, is a great term," 2003 Class Council President Jason Ortiz said. "We get so much done. But then, some of the most active people won't even see each other for like a year at a time."
In addition, these scattered middle classes tend to have a different mindset than the first- and fourth-year classes.
"When students first arrive on campus, they're just really excited about being at Dartmouth," 2004 Class Council President Mustafa Abdur-Rahim said. "Then, when they start having to focus more on academics, it's hard to keep up that freshman enthusiasm. For whatever reasons, people just seem a lot less interested in the politics of the school."
The changing levels of participation are reflected in the elections for class officers. While the Class of '04 has elected a write-in candidate for president the past two years, the election for '06 class president last night was a showdown between 5 candidates, all on the ballot.
"The elections in freshman and senior years are generally more hotly contested because they have really specific events that people want to run," said Dan Chang, former 2003 Class Council president. "Sophomore and junior year, there's no specific event that the class can identify with."
In fact, even the '04 council president sees the council's mission as a bit amorphous.
"Class council has been kind of separate from the actual class members," Abdur-Rahim said. "I want to make sure that our council is productive and that our class is informed. Anything I can accomplish along those paths, I'll take it."
According to Ortiz, the councils often play facilitative roles, helping the incoming first-year councils and doing a lot of co-sponsorship, helping other groups fund events that will benefit the classes. For example, the '04 Council gave $10,000 for the Secret Garden dance during their sophomore summer.
Sometimes the classes even invent traditions of their own, such as Class Combat, started by Chang in 2001
"I basically took the reins on Class Combat when I was president my sophomore year," Chang said. "We haven't really decided exactly who's going to be responsible for it in the future, though."
Unfortunately, this inactivity has occasionally led to infighting in the council, as it did for the '03s in the fall and winter of 2001. According to Tim Whelan, former '03 Council president, this harmed council participation and the council "lost a lot of credibility."
"We were failing to promote student activities for unity and spirit," Whelan said. "We lost a lot of our membership, and ... people stopped paying attention."
Even so, the class councils at all levels maintain a unique position because they can focus specifically on providing programs that students want without the serious dedication to campus-wide policy expected of organizations like Student Assembly.
" People blame the SA for everything," Chang said. "They look to the Council for fun. They don't expect much from the Council, and the Council still produces output from their own initiative."
