According to members of the Student Assembly, the Fall has been characterized by projects involving extensive planning, with implementation not quite surfacing yet. However, some projects have manifested successfully, including the Newspaper Readership program and the process of the mascot search.
When asked about the status of many Assembly initiatives, Stella Treas '05 said, "It's kind of hard to say. The fall is more about planning, putting things together. Like the Kresge Fitness Center, there's only some much we can do before we get through the planning stage."
Treas further noted that many projects will start showing more concrete results in the Winter term.
"It takes a term and a lot of planning ahead to do a lot of major projects; some things fall into place at the right time," Treas said.
Carried over from the spring, the Assembly-led search for a new mascot was put to rest this term. After a final survey asking students about their opinion of a moose mascot, the moose only met with 40 percent support. Due to the inconclusiveness, the Assembly chose to end the search and give the results to the Alumni.
"I was disappointed with the outcome in the sense that the campus didn't have a mandate on a single candidate," Steve Koutsavlis '05 said, "It's frustrating because I know people have put a tremendous amount of work into reaching closure on this."
Koutsavlis, however, felt no need to change the process in retrospect, "The mascot search ended when the students wanted it to end," Koutsavlis said, "I'm personally supportive of the mascot search and how it went, I don't feel there is any different course of action we could of taken."
The Assembly worked on numerous other projects including better course guides, attempts to expand library hours and improve study spaces and a recently passed student research resolution.
"The resolution basically looks at promoting research on campus, but in the sense that it incorporates the work professors do into the classrooms. It also consolidates opportunities in research on campus," Koutsavlis said.
The Fall term also concludes the first part of Student Body President Janos Marton '04's second term in office.
In response to his leadership role, Marton said, "I think things are going fine. The Fall term is when I give much authority to my committee chairs. In the winter and spring, I dive into the issues as hands-on as possible."
Discussing Marton's role as Student Body President, Treas said, "This is my third year in the organization. Janos has been leading it for two years, and before then there was definitely a different leadership style. It was more by-the-book and agenda based. Yet, I think there are advantages to this new style because people have more flexibility in pursuing their own projects and often feel freer to voice their opinions on issues that come before the Assembly."
Treas went on to explain the advantages of this year's collection of students.
"The execs and the general assembly have been working really hard," Treas said, "We have a really good group this year."
