Dean of the College James Larimore unveiled 34 new BlitzMail terminals Monday night alongside members of the Student Assembly.
The event, which Assembly leaders hastily rescheduled from Tuesday night, comes on the heels of the dramatic removal of Brian Martin '06 from the committee chair to which he was appointed only last week.
The Assembly allocated $10,000 for new BlitzMail terminals in the Fall term. Larimore's office matched the funds dollar for dollar two weeks ago, according to project leader Lucas Nikkel '05.
The new computers arrived last Wednesday, and Assembly members raced around campus to install them for use Tuesday morning.
"It's frustrating to try to check blitz and have a computer that's constantly failing or slow," Nikkel said, noting that most of the BlitzMail terminals on campus are about seven years old.
"We're putting our money where our mouth is," Assembly executive David Hankins '05 said.
In matching the Assembly's funds, the Dean of the College's office expected the Assembly to keep the exposure of the new terminals under wraps until all the computers were set up so that the campus could wake up to the surprise in the morning, Nikkel said.
"We'd try [to keep it a secret] but we figured this is a hard town to keep a secret in," a prophetic Larimore said.
"It wasn't meant to be kept a secret really," Student Body President Julia Hildreth '05 said, "It was more like we wanted the blitz terminals to pop up and everyone to be excited about them."
'Beyond Angry'
Some claimed Hildreth's tune was very different over the weekend, however, when members of the Assembly's executive committee notified her that the surprise might have been derailed by a leak about the computers to The Dartmouth.
In a private BlitzMail message obtained by The Dartmouth, Hildreth alerted all Assembly executives to the breach. The executives were supposed to be the only students aware of the project's status.
"It ruins the whole surprise thing altogether and Dean Larimore is totally going to be pissed," Hildreth wrote. "Apparently Brian Martin told 'The D.' I don't know how the hell he found out, but I'm beyond angry. If anyone sees Brian out tonight, let him know he better check Blitz."
Nikkel retrieved Martin from a party at Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Nikkel told Martin there was an Assembly "emergency" and brought him to the Assembly's new Collis offices to sit down with Hildreth, Martin said.
Martin, who was confirmed just last Tuesday as the Assembly's new vice president for alumni affairs, said he found this surprising because "SA doesn't really have emergencies."
"We wanted to give him a fair chance to represent himself -- and he misrepresented himself," Nikkel said.
Martin had a different take on what happened in the Assembly's offices, saying that in the meeting early Sunday morning a distraught Hildreth accused him of leaking confidential information and "ruining everything." He later sent Hildreth a BlitzMail message demanding her to substantiate her claims.
Larimore, who was not told why the date of the event was advanced, said he was unfazed by the change. Larimore said he was glad the Assembly solicited his help and pleased his office had the means to come to their assistance.
'Taken Care Of'
Later Sunday morning, Hildreth assured Martin that the issue had been "taken care of," according to Martin.
"From approximately noon to 6:30 p.m., I considered the whole issue over with," Martin said.
Meanwhile, Hildreth said she was approached by several members of the executive committee who thought there was still a serious problem, which prompted the Assembly leaders to investigate the leak.
At 6:30 p.m., Martin was summoned for another meeting with Hildreth.
"She called me a liar and said I was lying and refused to provide any evidence," Martin said. According to Martin, Hildreth said that more than one person had told her they saw Martin inappropriately discussing the confidential Assembly plans.
Later that night in the executive committee's weekly meeting, Hildreth called for Martin's removal from office on the grounds of "ethical misjudgment" under the Assembly's constitution, accusing him of having lied to committee members about the leak.
Hankins said he felt the situation could have been tempered, but the atmosphere was hostile when Martin entered the room.
"[Martin] said he'd just been yelling at [Hildreth] for the past ten minutes," Hankins said.
Once Martin stepped outside and closed-door deliberations began, the mood became "very subdued," Hankins said.
"Everyone in the room was very sad about the choice that we were being faced with," Hankins said.
The issue was not over the fact that information had been disclosed about the project but that Martin had allegedly been dishonest with members of the executive committee, straining future working relations, Hildreth said.
"The evidence that we were given and what was told to us about the situation left it clear in our minds that there was one decision we had to make," Hankins said.
"As a group, we all agreed that it was incredibly unfortunate that we had to come to the decision," Hildreth said.
Following the meeting, Martin sent a pre-emptive BlitzMail message to the Assembly, writing that he was offended, frustrated and disappointed at the decision.
"He made some remarks during the moment that he may come to regret later," Hildreth said of Martin's message. "[But] I think he'll realize that there certainly was no personal ill-intent."
The incident "doesn't outweigh all the good he's done for the Assembly in the last three years," Hildreth said. She anticipates that Martin will remain an active member of the Assembly and hoped it would not affect his run for Assembly president in the spring.
"My plans won't change," Martin said, "I'm still going to run."
"I think that people will quickly realize that Julia Hildreth has launched an unfair campaign against me," Martin said.
Rather than hurt the Assembly's image in the view of the campus, Hankins said he thought the episode "reflects well on SA -- we had a problem and we dealt with it."
