The Ivy Council, a forum which brings together delegations from seven Ivy League institutions at two conferences during each school year, has had a strained relationship with the Assembly in the past.
Consequently, the degree to which the two bodies have been connected has varied in recent years.
In January 2005, the Assembly passed an amendment formally reconnecting these two bodies. However, Ivy Council's tie to the Assembly remained less strong than those with the Assembly's other committees. As a result, members of the Assembly and other individuals were involved in choosing the Ivy Council's leadership.
This uncertain status led to problems in the relationship between the two groups.
"[The] lukewarm support that Ivy Council has just created a really difficult dynamic for [the Assembly] to get feedback and for Ivy Council to feel like it's welcome," Assembly President Tim Andreadis '07 said.
The role of Ivy Council has been an important topic of discussion for the Assembly's executive board this year because of concerns about the Council's efficacy and high costs.
"There's a fair amount of people [within the Executive Committee] who didn't really want to do Ivy Council at all this year," said Kapil Kale '07, who is a member of the Executive Committee.
Last year, the Ivy Council spent more than $6,000 on conference dues, transportation and other costs.
Some members of the Executive Board believe that Ivy Council's results in past years have not warranted these high costs.
"Ivy Council hasn't been the most effective branch of [the Assembly] in the past," Kale said. "Very little that's been substantial has really come out of it."
Katy Whisenhunt '09, who sponsored the amendment, said that these financial concerns were an important impetus for the amendment's creation.
"The idea is to make [the Ivy Council] cost less money to [the Assembly]," she said during debate on the amendment. "We're trying to make Ivy Council more accountable to Student Assembly."
Now that Ivy Council is established as a standing committee, the Assembly will have greater control over its leadership and funding.
"We figured that by making Ivy Council a standing committee it will then become more accountable to Student Assembly in terms of relaying information," Assembly Vice President Jacqueline Loeb '08 said.
"We'll be able to control who the leadership is to make sure we're happy with the person in charge."
The Assembly also approved legislation that provides the Council with up to $600 in funding for its fall conference, which will be held at Princeton University in November.
This estimate is based on sending only four delegates to the conference, a significant decrease from the eight or nine Dartmouth representatives who attended last year.
Most schools bring between eight and 12 representatives to conference, although there are generally at least one or two schools with smaller delegations.
Kale explained the reasoning behind this decrease, referring to this fall's conference as a trial run for the Ivy Council.
"We're going see how this goes this term, and if it goes well we can kind of expand it in the spring, but otherwise we want to keep this down, we want to keep [expenses] small," Kale said.
Whisenhunt agreed that reintroducing the Ivy Council as a cost-efficient asset to the Assembly is this fall's main goal.
"Ideally we'd bring more people to the fall [conference] but I think it's more important to kind of bring a minimum amount and show Ivy Council's usefulness," Whisenhunt said.
