After members waited outside the meeting room for roughly 10 minutes until Safety and Security arrived to open the door, the Assembly was forced to postpone discussion of the only resolution on the agenda -- the Constitutional Amendment to Rename the Diversity Affairs Committee -- due to a time shortage as well as the fact that not enough voting members were present.
Student Assembly President Tim Andreadis '07, who won as a write-in candidate last spring after running a highly vocal campaign, stayed quiet for much of the night, instead allowing the seven committee chairs and Assembly Vice President Jaqueline Loeb '08 the opportunity to explain procedure to the approximately thirty interested freshmen present.
Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee Adam Shpeen '07 expressed excitement over the high freshmen turnout.
"I've been in SA for three years... as far as first meetings go, there were more individuals there than I've ever seen in the past... individuals who are highly motivated to [work for] SA."
Ben Arad '10, who attended the meeting hoping to find out more about student government at the College, remarked that he still needs to see more of the Assembly before deciding on the level of his involvement. Although he was grateful for the informative outline of the Assembly's structure, he expressed regret over the meeting's failure to introduce legislation.
"With any organization, the best feeling for something comes from actually experiencing it," he said. "We didn't get to discuss policy [on Tuesday], since we just focused on an overview."
Arad noted that he felt as if he "didn't get to see [Andreadis] in action, since he was just giving us an overview."
Each of the seven committee chairs took time to speak about the role of their respective groups and outline some main goals for the year during the meeting.
Chair of the Student Life Committee Kenneth Klinger '07 said he aims to improve the mental health department at the College, noting that as it stands the program is "not what it should be."
Yuki Kondo-Shah '07, chair of the Diversity Affairs Committee, noted that her committee plans to focus on issues such as minority professor retention rates and gender neutral housing -- both of which Andreadis outlined in his platform last spring.
Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia also attended the meeting and offered advice to Assembly members. Beyond addressing practical issues, including how to appropriately contact professors and administrative figures, Sateia cautioned students against attempting to accomplish too much before first creating strong bonds among themselves.
"[It's important to] work on how you are going to relate to each other," she said. "Spend some time looking at yourselves...before jumping in."
Sateia encouraged members to maintain their enthusiasm throughout the disappointments that will come throughout the year.
"When I come back in the spring," she said, "I want to see as big as an audience [as I see today]."
