Winter term saw the Student Assembly absorb two previously independent student organizations, make significant moves to assume responsibility for alumni-student relations and set up over 30 new BlitzMail computers on campus.
The Assembly, however, struggled throughout the term with bureaucratic and procedural woes, including the dramatic removal of an Assembly executive for allegedly leaking word of the secret Blitz-terminal rollout.
Centralization has been a key theme this term for the Assembly, which adopted the Dartmouth Chapter of the Ivy Council, the organization that attends and coordinates conferences with student-government leaders from the other schools in the Ancient Eight, and the Election Planning and Advisory Committee, which regulates and oversees spring elections for various campus-wide student offices.
While Ivy Council returned to the Assembly after only a short stint as an independent group recognized by the Committee on Student Organizations, EPAC was created four years ago and administered by members of the Palaeopitus senior society. Assembly leaders reasoned that elections for student body president and vice president generate most of EPAC's work, and thus the elections committee should move under the student government's purview. The Assembly also suggested that it has more experience running elections and would be better suited to oversee the process.
Similar logic was behind the Assembly's move to take on the responsibility of appointing students to serve on the Alumni Council. Before the Assembly passed an amendment assuming control over the selection process, administrators in Alumni Relations worked through each sophomore class council to cull nominees and select four current students to sit on the Council and share information about the current state of the College with alumni. Alumni Relations agreed to the plan after councilors met the plan with enthusiasm and the class council expressed no reluctance in relegating its responsibility.
While the Assembly has been making moves to get more involved in alumni-student relations, it also worked to improve administration-student relations, hosting its first-ever town meeting in February, which garnered respectable attendance for its debut. This term the Assembly also persuaded the Dean of the College's office to match $10,000 in funding for over 30 new BlitzMail terminals, which were installed in February.
The Diversity Affairs committee was particularly active this winter, lobbying hard for co-ed housing, getting new questions on diversity added to the Assembly's online course review and bringing minority issues to the forefront of the Assembly's agenda.
While the Assembly has seen some real accomplishments this quarter, it has been plagued by bureaucratic and procedural problems, which reached a height when Student Body President Julia Hildreth '05 and Assembly executives dramatically removed Brian Martin '06 from the chair of the alumni relations committee amid rumors that Martin leaked news of the BlitzMail computers to The Dartmouth.
Assembly leaders also found it difficult to maintain the quorum needed to vote on legislation -- perhaps in part due to the fact that the meetings, which Assembly leadership conducts according to parliamentary procedure, have tended to go on for well over an hour and sometimes over an hour and a half.
Although some of the meetings included extensive, heated debate on Assembly projects, many were uneventful but dragged on regardless. Assembly leaders frequently had to plead with members to stay for the duration of a meeting to vote on legislation, and on one occasion literally chased after members who left early. The difficulties the Assembly faced getting members into meeting rooms and keeping them there led to the suggestion of an amendment in February to reduce majority approval for future amendments. The amendment failed.
Setting the weekly agenda was also problematic at times and slowed progress. The amendment regarding the selection of students to sit on Alumni Council, for instance, stalled for weeks before making it onto the agenda because of squabbles between Assembly leadership and the Assembly's alumni affairs committee over the final draft.
Projects slated for Spring term include important academics-related initiatives. The Academic Affairs committee launched a successful voucher program for students to take their professors out for a cup of coffee. The committee spent most of the quarter working quietly with administrators to extend library hours and with professors to get book lists and course syllabi posted before the start of classes.
Other projects in the works include the revival of the Big Green Bike program, which had been controversial in its previous two incarnations. If passed by the Assembly, BGB would provide participating students with between 50 and 100 bicycles at their disposal for use on campus.
