Two major developments -- the foundation for a peer advising system to be implemented next fall and the endorsement of an "Undergraduate Bill of Rights" -- marked Tuesday night's Student Assembly meeting.
Student Life Committee Chair Julia Hildreth '05 presented a detailed six-page proposal that outlined the foundation for a new peer advising system that hopes to complement the current faculty advising system in place. The committee's outline sets forth objectives for the program's preparation and groundwork, recruitment matters and criteria for the selection of peer advisors, and the actual training of the peer advisors.
Hildreth said roughly 150 upperclass students will need to be recruited in order to have 10 first-year students assigned to three advisors. Upperclass students would be selected during the middle of Spring term and would train to become peer advisors in the interim period before Fall term next year for students in the Class of 2008.
Assembly President Janos Marton '04 lauded Hildreth's efforts in meeting with representatives from the Office of First-Year Students, the Academic Skills Center and the Dean's Office Student Consultants, among other groups, when outlining the system.
"If everything works out during the first year of the system, it should be self-sustaining," Marton said.
Also at the meeting, Ralph Davies '05, chair of the Student Organizations Committee, sponsored a resolution to endorse a student bill of rights, and the Assembly nearly unanimously passed the resolution.
"Students don't understand what their rights are so this creates a better accountability on the part of the administration and a better sense of understanding on the part of the students," Davies said.
The Undergraduate Bill of Rights enumerates student rights regarding freedom of expression and dissent, academic rights, privacy and personal electronic information, discipline, finance and protection from excessive use of force. Collectively, this bill embodies many student concerns that have been voiced in the past few weeks.
"It is still in a revisionary stage, but our long-term goal is that ultimately this will be endorsed by College administrators and the faculty, and it will largely be a clarification of existing policy," Davies said.
Davies said that the Greek Leadership Council and the Dartmouth Civil Liberties Union have endorsed the bill, and he is hopeful that the Council on Student Organizations and the Dartmouth Civil Liberties Union will all endorse the bill sometime this week.
In other Assembly news, Brett Martin '04, chair of the Communications Committee, organized a town-gown relations forum for Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Collis Center.
In a roundtable format, noted New England historian and former Dartmouth history professor Jere Daniell '55 will speak on the history of Hanover and the College's relations with the town.
