After five weeks of delays, the Student Assembly voted to take on the role of appointing student advisors to the Alumni Council at its Tuesday night meeting.
The amendment allows for the Assembly's alumni affairs committee to select student representatives to the Alumni Council through an open campus-wide application and interview process. The legislation finally made it to the floor after weeks of internal squabbles over which Assembly subcommittee should be in charge of the selection process.
Previously, the Alumni Relations Office selected two student representatives each spring from a pool of nominees provided by the sophomore Class Council. Two juniors and two seniors serve as nonvoting members of the Council at any given time and are expected to attend the Council's biannual meetings in the winter and spring.
Director of Alumni Leadership Patsy Fisher-Harris '81 said alumni feel that interacting with students is probably the best way they can learn about campus issues when they return to Hanover.
Fisher-Harris, who was responsible for choosing the student representatives from the Class Council's nominees, said the change is a result of the Assembly's initiative, and although she welcomes it, she does not want to see selection of student representatives become a "beauty contest."
"I'd like to have more student input in the decision-making process," Fisher-Harris said.
Current student representative Neha Kulkarni '05 said neither she nor fellow representative Matt Oppenheimer '05 had heard about the new selection process when it was first slated for a vote a few weeks ago and that she wanted know where the motivation for the process change came from.
"SA hasn't been to the Alumni Council, so they don't know," Kulkarni said. "I don't think they're in a position to choose."
But Bob Serenbetz '66, chair of the Council's student life committee, was concerned with the current representatives' participation in the Council's meetings.
"I can only tell you at the last committee meeting, none of the four representatives chose to attend," Serenbetz said.
Alumni are looking for students representative of their peers who are willing to dedicate time to the Council's activities, Serenbetz said, something he said was "not particularly onerous."
At the Council's December meeting, Student Body President Julia Hildreth '05 "pushed an agenda of a number of different items," Serenbetz said, to "enhance the relationship between the student body and the alumni."
Among them, Serenbetz said that he felt this method of increasing student involvement in the representative selection process was a "great idea."
"I don't think SA should knock down doors that shouldn't be knocked down," Kulkarni said. "I think they do a great job, but I don't think this is really a place that needs their hand."
The Assembly also voted last night to add two diversity-related questions to its online course guide. Students reviewing their courses will be asked to rate on a one-to-five scale whether the course "included diverse perspectives on the subject" and answer yes or no as to whether or not the professor "was sensitive to the diversity of the students within the class." The second question will include a comment box for reviewers to elaborate on their answer.
Proposal co-sponsor Erin Johnson '08 said the questions will likely appear on the course guide in time for Winter term course reviews.
Co-sponsor and diversity affairs vice president Santiago Vallinas '07 said the question would be added for the benefit of students browsing for courses and for professors, who have access to the reviews of the classes they have taught.
Vallinas said a major aim of the proposal was "making professors more aware and sensitive to the students in the class."
Assembly members who disagreed with the proposal said the course guide was not the right venue for the discussion.
"I think it's really opening up a huge can of worms," Diana Zhang '06 said, suggesting that there are more appropriate forums for students to express their concerns about how their professors handle diversity issues.
