Be it the Big Green, the Dartmouth Moose or something totally new, if Student Assembly has its way, Dartmouth will have an official mascot by the time the Class of 2007 arrives on campus in the fall. Members will lead a campus and alumni-wide search for an official mascot.
A resolution passed last night calls for the Student Life Committee to begin "an intensive campaign to obtain suggestions, survey students and alumni and submit a final proposal for an official mascot to the Board of Trustees before the end of Spring term."
"We need an official mascot -- Dartmouth has never had an official mascot and that is one reason the Indian debate persists," Amit Anand '03 said. Anand sponsored the resolution, along with several other members of the Assembly and its Student Life and Executive Committee.
The resolution also institutes a program, with the financial support of the President's Office, the Dean of the College, the Dean of Student Life Office and the Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, to allow alumni who possess Dartmouth Indian paraphernalia to exchange it for "comparable merchandise." The Assembly pledged $280 for this project, and the administration will provide $720.
Though the resolution passed unanimously without an abundance of discussion, Shardul Oza '06 tried unsuccessfully to pass an amendment noting that several members of the Dartmouth community are offended by the Indian symbol -- something not explicitly mentioned in the resolution.
Other Assembly members said that they felt making such an anti-Indian symbol statement would unnecessarily alienate members of the Dartmouth community who want to keep the symbol and emphasized that this resolution was not making a "value judgement" on those who wear Dartmouth Indian T-shirts.
Natalie Walsh '06 said that she felt that the Assembly could not speak for the Native Americans at Dartmouth community, only for the campus as a whole.
"We have been very careful to tailor this entire program so that it is not as accusative as it could be," Karim Marshall '03 said.
"By instituting this program, we are already making a value judgement," Oza said.
Though the potential debate about the mascot drew more non-voting members from the community than Assembly meetings typically do, they had few comments to make about the resolutions.
The Assembly also passed a unanimous resolution sponsored by Student Body Vice-President Julia Hildreth '05 and the Membership and Internal Affairs Committee to subsidize campaign costs for candidates for the Student Body President and Vice-President.
Candidates are currently allowed to spend up to $125 on their campaigns and the new resolution stipulates that the Assembly will provide up to $90, leaving only $35 to be paid by the candidates themselves.
The mascot resolution comes at the conclusion of a week-long series of campus outreach forums to host discussions on the Indian symbol.
