Student Body President Noah Riner '06 tried to put the tension surrounding his Convocation remarks last week behind him at the term's first Student Assembly meeting Tuesday night.
Riner began the meeting with a 30-minute, closed-door session during which the Assembly confirmed his choice of Elisa Donnelly '07 to lead the Assembly's student life committee. Donnelly, who is also a member of the Navigators Christian Fellowship, assumes the post Kaelin Goulet '07 resigned last week as she called Riner's invocation of Jesus an embarrassment to the Assembly.
Goulet said that, by appointing Donnelly to fill her position, Riner wasted a chance to reach out to students who may have been offended by his speech.
"I think it's unfortunate that at a moment of opportunity to send a message, he [Riner] perpetuated a state of homogeny amongst the body," Goulet said.
Donnelly, however, said she took the position in part to support Riner.
"I definitely back Noah and the speech that he gave," Donnelly said. "I think it is appropriate that someone who has a more positive view of his remarks fill in, and I would like to support Noah during this time. I guess that's part of the reason that I took the position."
Donnelly's supporters cited her experience in executive roles on the Assembly as reasons for her confirmation.
"I'm not a Navigator, and regardless of whether that may have been one of the reasons Noah appointed her, I think her contributions to SA far more merit her appointment than any other reason," Ben Waters '06 said.
Riner denied that his friendship with Donnelly played a part in her appointment.
"I'm friends with everyone on the Student Assembly. Any SA member I picked would be my friend," Riner said.
As far as what she plans to do with her new position, Donnelly said she wants to work on making residence halls "real communities" by reinstating the dorm Olympics and intramural dorm sports. She also plans to address the problems students face while participating in Dartmouth's ROTC program and support the seventh sorority being established this year.
Assembly members also introduced two items of legislation at the meeting.
The Assembly quickly passed a proposal to fund the collegiate readership program, which provides students with free copies of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today and The Financial Times. The program is expected to cost $25,000 of the Assembly's $90,000 budget.
Riner and Travis Green '08 also introduced a proposal to fund the informal "Dartmouth Advising Network," which is designed to solidify the relationships formed between freshmen and upperclassmen through $7 coupons to local restaurants.
Green is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
Under the proposed system, the Assembly would give trip leaders, and other upperclassmen volunteering to befriend freshman who did not participate in trips, coupons to take their freshmen out for meals in town.
The proposal's sponsors said that while the relationships formed between freshmen and their trip leaders are valuable, freshman often feel lost once they arrive on campus.
"You are building a bond that's out in the woods, but that doesn't translate," Riner said.
The plan, whose cost would be capped at $7,000, relies heavily on the honor system. Assembly members expressed their concern that upperclassmen might take advantage of the program, using the coupons for themselves and their friends rather than for freshmen.
"There's no way to track it," Green said. "We thought about a receipt system but that gets too complicated."
After a long period of questioning, Assembly members tabled the proposal, which will be discussed again next week.
