According to a discussion with Coordinator of the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program Leah Prescott that was reported in The Dartmouth, there are an estimated 109 rapes a year on campus ("Many rape incidents occur yearly at College," Feb. 6). This means that if you are a woman at Dartmouth, there is a 17 percent chance that you will be raped on campus before you graduate. The prevalence of sexual assault cannot be ignored, though not one of the student body presidential candidates has cared to even mention it. Big Green Bikes? So much for advocating students' personal safety.
The truth is that the women of Dartmouth do not have a voice in Student Assembly -- an ostensibly impartial organization. Although designed to lobby for student priorities, Student Assembly has chosen repeatedly to spend more time, energy and money on tidying up its own internal divisions that serve to depoliticize campus-wide crises.
Women are not alone here. Many other groups at Dartmouth, many of them minority, have issues that are also ignored in favor of blatant claptrap such as working for smaller class sizes. Give me a break. Does anyone at Dartmouth want larger class sizes? Such issues are ultimately deceptive. No one person, even student body president, can possibly make systemic changes in the institutional structure of Dartmouth. More pressing issues are on the table, and all the candidates running for student body president have their heads in the sand about them.
This is why I am running as a write-in candidate for student body president. As opposed to past student body presidents, I will not remove myself from campus dialogue; instead, I will provide a voice that grapples with uncomfortable realities and growing divides that continue to mire our campus in unfulfilled promises of institutional support and personal growth.
Student Assembly is not a programming board -- we already have a Programming Board. If Student Assembly spoke up for once outside of Carson L02 and personally engaged students, students would listen. As it exists now, Student Assembly is afraid to cause a much needed stir around an increasingly apathetic campus.
For example, some of the other presidential candidates have mentioned their interest in increasing the transparency of the Committee on Standards. COS has been more than willing and cooperative in trying to dispel the mystery around its hearings. Nonetheless, students themselves must demand that stricter penalties be enacted against perpetrators of sexual assault and other violent abuse. I will support you. Committee on Standards? How about Committee on Low Standards.
Not only am I a voice of reason, I will demand accountability on all fronts. Currently, Student Assembly is working for Student Assembly's betterment. Student Assembly is overly concerned with itself. Consequently, most students dismiss Student Assembly as a laughable and nebulous entity that sponsors under-attended student activities. This is a major problem. Students care about much larger issues than awarding professors with catered dinners every term.
There are many Greek-affiliated students -- men and women -- who desire to make their organizations stronger by finding ways to hold each other accountable for actions that alienate many students. I support this effort. The Greek system at Dartmouth can only be made stronger if someone decides to stand up and speak about why he or she feels uncomfortable in certain Greek spaces. With the Student Assembly involved in a political capacity, the result will not be men against women.
Greek presidents are extremely concerned about what happens in their respective houses. But unless issues are raised by more than a few individuals, nothing will change. We have had much discussion regarding the implications of the Greek system on our social options, most recently surrounding Frat Free Friday. We need to have much more.
Although I am a gay man, the issues that concern me are not just "minority issues;" they are, more correctly, urgent issues based on a logical appraisal of what is important to all students. For example, gender-neutral housing would give every student the opportunity to live with whomever he or she wants. Gender-neutral housing is an issue I have been working on since its Student Assembly birth in the fall of 2004. Gender-neutral housing will allow for students to live together regardless of gender and will allow students more freedom and responsibility.
The recruitment and retention rate of minority professors is despicably low and support for the inclusion of ethnic studies programs at Dartmouth is simply not enough, especially since most of our peer institutions already offer them. Recruitment and retention of minority professors is important because, too often, renowned minority professors leave Dartmouth in response to what they see as a homogeneous population and culture. However, minority students of color comprise 39.5 percent of the admitted 2010 class. Of course, many students care about rectifying issues related to minority representation. But they will have a diminished voice if our next student body president has no experience with the multiple identities that comprise our campus.
As student body president, I will focus on the interpersonal relations between all students at Dartmouth -- interactions that sometimes have wide implications for the recognition of us all as individuals. Dartmouth students are characterized as having different class, racial, gender, religious, sexual and political identities. Yet not one of the other presidential candidates has admitted it.
My demonstrated leadership on campus, in addition to the initiatives I have brought to Student Assembly in the past, serve as proof that I will not only articulate the realities of student life at Dartmouth, but also be a responsible and inclusive leader, ensuring that all voices will be heard.
