As most of the Class of 2006 is now aware, our selfless Senior Executive Committee has settled upon eight class marshals from a host of qualified nominees.
Oh sorry. I haven't even written an entire paragraph and yet I've already made an egregious error. When I said "selfless," I meant to say selfish, self-serving or even self-absorbed. In fact, the 'S' in SEC could stand for any of these words that immediately springs to mind after first glancing at the list of elected individuals that will lead us on June 11.
Of the eight selected class marshals, five are members of the selection committee. A bit incestuous, don't you think? Perhaps Russ Lane '06, Edy Wilson '06, Mike Guzman '06, Marie Choi '06 and Ben Schwartz '06 expected that their self-nomination would go unnoticed. Alas, they've been found out. Let me be the first to congratulate each of them on a job well done. Collectively they were able to overcome the urge to do what is right and shamelessly seized the opportunity to elect themselves to these esteemed graduation posts. I hope that they have room on their respective resumes to accommodate this wonderful honor.
Last term's SEC election was and still is considered highly controversial. The selection of class marshals presented the 20 members of the council with the ideal opportunity to validate their election and affirm that they are in fact an impartial assembly of students prepared to make decisions representative of class sentiments over the course of the next five years.
Instead of a diverse selection of eight class marshals, each representing a given facet of the Dartmouth College experience, we are left with a homogenous slate dominated by the SEC members themselves. I think anyone would agree that athletics is deserving of a mention at the front of the pack of Dartmouth's graduating seniors. Unless Palaeopitus is a varsity sport, the collection of class marshals is deficient in this regard. This is not to discredit the achievements of Alison Crocker, a fine skier. Yet one cannot help but think that her Rhodes Scholarship was being rewarded with this appointment, not her talent for cross-country skiing. Although, I do concede the possibility that both were being rewarded, or that it in fact takes being a world-class scholar-athlete to break through the Palaeopitus voting wall that dominates the SEC. Where are names like Anthony Gargiulo '06, Brian Hendrickson '06, Brandon Piper '06, Mats Lemberger '06, Andrea Stava '06, Olivia Zaleski '06, Danielle Mohilef '06? Any of whom the Class of 2006 would have whole-heartedly embraced.
The corruption in this election is painfully apparent. Sixty-three percent of this year's class marshals are members of both the SEC and Palaeopitus. It has already been well documented that neither of these groups is in any way representative of our class as a whole, yet, I was holding out hope that at least the sense of responsibility and respect for the College that has elevated these individuals into the favor of the administration over the last four years, would lead them to choose a better cross-section of marshals.
I will take this opportunity to pre-empt the argument that the nomination pool was extremely thin this year. Let us not forget that each SEC member has the ability to nominate anyone for graduation positions so a weak applicant pool could have been easily remedied.
The proper procedure in this situation would have been for all nominated SEC members to withdraw from the class marshal race and solicit other members of the Dartmouth community they viewed as both representative of the college's various student activities and worthy of leading their class into commencement.
Great debate has begun to surround the most recent version of the Association of Alumni Constitution, but we might also, as a class, consider revising another constitution -- the SEC constitution. Only with this could we properly ensure that such a disaster will not happen again. Most people know that incest leads to the propagation and expression of undesirable genetic traits. Well, this SEC voting incest has given birth to a group of class marshals as undesirable as the group from which it has sprung.
