Student Assembly tackled reformation of the Scholarship Office and the pending revision of the hot button "Good Samaritan" policy on Tuesday night, but could not vote on resolutions because too few members appeared at the meeting.
David Hankins '05, Jim Baehr '05 and Julia Hecht '08 presented a proposal that will be sent to Dean of Faculty Carol Folt and Dean of the College James Larimore for the revision of the Scholarship Office. Hankins, Baehr and Hecht said they felt that Dartmouth was underrepresented among peer institutions in the number of students earning prestigious scholarships, such as the Rhodes or the Fullbright.
"We get a Rhodes scholarship like once every two years," said Hankins.
The students said that the state of the Scholarship Office is to blame for this underrepresentation, with Baehr categorizing the office as "in disarray."
The three called on peer institutions for help in forming the proposal, which would create a database of previous winners and provide relevant information for aspiring scholarship winners. Under the system, successful first-year students would be encouraged to begin preparing as soon as possible so that they are in contention for these scholarships.
The proposal also called for an expansion of paid employees in the Scholarship Office, which the students categorized as "severely understaffed."
"We basically have one and a half people running the office," said Hankins, who pointed out that Harvard's scholarship office has five full-time employees.
In addition to working on the Scholarship Office proposal, Hankins teamed up with Kirsten Murray '07 and Frank Glaser '08 to discuss revision of the "Good Samaritan" policy.
According to Assembly president Julia Hildreth '05, Larimore has said that "keeping the policy as it is is not an option." Larimore will be meeting with students in an Accelerated College Committee to examine Hankins, Murray and Glaser's revisions of the policy.
"This is big," said Hildreth of the upcoming meeting.
According to Hildreth, students currently avoid placing "Good Samaritan" calls out of fear of disciplinary action from the College.
"Far fewer students make 'Good Samaritans' than should," Murray said.
The resolution would eliminate any limit on "Good Samaritan" calls and exclude the possibility of disciplinary action on students involved. Currently, the College does not allow abuse of "Good Samaritan" calls by reserving the right to discipline students who use them flagrantly.
"The focus should be on medical consequences, not disciplinary consequences," said Hankins, who is on the student life committee and student services committee.
Additionally, instead of meeting with a college dean after a "Good Samaritan" call, students would be able meet with a community director instead.
Hankins, Murray and Glaser have not decided whether the policy would call for immunity for Greek houses, should they place a "Good Samaritan" call. The students mentioned that they would want some members of Greek houses to eventually serve on the committee that will meet with Larimore, particularly from houses that have had trouble with the policy in the past.
The Assembly was scheduled to decide on a resolution to provide backing for the students' proposal, but the meeting lacked the quorum of members necessary to take a vote.
Lindsay Greenberg '08, Jacques Hebert '07 and Kirsten Murray '07 presented findings from last month's Ivy Council conference.
The students said that the Assembly should take advantage of the Ivy Council as a tool for informing policy decisions and encouraged students in the Assembly to join the Council.
Hebert, a news writer for The Dartmouth, said that some members use the council as a "networking organization" while others use it as a "policy tool," and Dartmouth should certainly use it to inform policy.