No longer just the catchphrase on the red T-shirt that Janos Marton '04 wore throughout both of his campaigns for student body president, "The Exit" is now a reality.
After two years, Marton, an omnipresent personality at the College, will step down after two terms in office.
An anomalous two-year tenure has allowed Marton a chance to mature and grow as a leader. However, his longer-than-usual term has also highlighted his inability to finish large projects.
In his second term, the most notable sign of Marton's maturity as a leader for the Assembly is his realization that the Assembly's power is limited, and that, with Dartmouth, as with most places, money does indeed talk.
However, while Marton has proved himself successful with generating new ideas and working with new projects, he has stalled on dealing with older, previously existing problems.
With his healthy dose of realism, Marton went to the Undergraduate Finance Committee and expanded the budget of the student Assembly by 50 percent.
Thus, with a $60,000 budget -- $20,000 more than last year -- the Assembly was equipped to enact influential projects, including the College Readership Program and the Kresge Gym expansion, pioneered by Student Life chair Julia Hildreth '05.
During Marton's campaign in 2002, Marton promised students higher on-campus wages and vast improvements in Greek-administrator relations. Other than token accomplishments, Marton has left these two years later as still-empty promises.
Last year, for his 2003 re-election campaign, Marton set new, more attainable goals during his campaign, and according to Student Body Vice President Noah Riner '06, Marton, for the most part, "has done a great job".
For the most part, Marton has accomplished the concrete promises he made last spring.
During his campaign last spring Marton vowed to ensure that The New York Times, Boston Globe and USA Today would remain free to students wishing to catch up on the latest news by continuing a program that the Student Assembly had implemented earlier that spring.
And indeed, under the tutelage of Marton and Assembly treasurer Adam Small '04, who is also a member of The Dartmouth staff, the College Readership program has been extremely successful. The program has expanded to include double the number of New York Times and Boston Globe papers next year and the inclusion of the Financial Times for a trial period.
According to Riner, the newspaper program will be expanded this spring to include the Financial Times, perhaps within the next week.
Marton's interaction with specific factions of the administration proved a strong point of his leadership. He sought out administrative allies and found solutions.
For one, Marton worked with Dave Newlove and Joe Cassidy to resurrect Collis Late Night, a Big Green Bean-type establishment that has been quite popular.
He also met with Dick's House chief Dr. Jack Turco and arranged candid meetings, resulting in increased lines of communication between students and Turco concerning Dick House's alcohol policy and the reasons behind increased costs of contraception.
Of the more vague promises, Marton's success is much less clear.
Marton did pledge to "protect student interests" in light of the looming budget cuts and the swim team fiasco that plagued the Fall of 2002 -- a goal as difficult to accomplish as it is vague. According to Riner, however, progress was made in this area.
Of major concern to many students is the failure of the Student Assembly to effect real change in the College Alcohol Policy. Just two years ago Marton, a Chi Gamma Epsilon member, stood out as the lone "pro-Greek candidate," a stark contrast to this year's competition among candidates clamoring, among other things, for the title of "most pro-Greek."
Last year Marton also vowed to increase the number of nights that student organizations can use kegs.
Despite efforts (most noticeably issuing a short promotional video regarding the benefits of keg use during the winter of 2004), it seems that the keg issue has yet to be resolved.
Little headway has been made in eliminating the severe restrictions placed on keg use.
Though his alcohol policy concerning the Greek system stalled -- in particular, logistics of probation as well as keg and party registration due to insurance policies and state regulations beyond our control -- Marton took heed to highlight the system's strengths in meetings with high-profile administrators.
"Janos' leadership encouraged the administration to give us the Student Budget Advisory Committee, so that students can have input in the financial decisions of the College," said Riner.
Marton has also failed with his proposal to add young alumni to the Board of Trustees. While this goal remains unrealized, Riner remains hopeful.
"The spirit of the project remains alive," Riner said.
One final important dimension of Student Assembly leadership not widely available to those who spend Tuesday nights elsewhere is the interaction between members and committees.
Although Marton succeeded in welcoming new members to the Assembly and giving them more responsibility, his close relationships with members of the Executive committee may have actually hindered the efficiency of the Assembly.
Marton was perhaps a bit too friendly and flexible, not always pushing his committee chairs to work hard, resulting in minimal projects from certain committees.
It was also unfortunate, many Assembly members have said, that Marton's Assembly let the Diversity Affairs Committee fall by the wayside this year. Led by Jackie Famber '04, the committee showed promise but could not grasp the attention of the Assembly members.
Further, Marton proved adept at motivating committee members to pursue their own projects, small and large.
Over the past few years, he has tried to make the Assembly a more welcoming place not caught up with rigid procedure.
Though some members grumble that the Assembly is not well organized, Marton's more friendly attitude has made the campus as a whole more interested in Assembly and its activities.
