A group of students led by Adam Shpeen '07 seeks to reform Student Assembly. Instead of working with me to increase the Assembly's accountability to the student body, they are advocating for my impeachment.
Increasing accountability to and from students has been the central theme of my tenure as Assembly president. The status quo at Dartmouth disadvantages too many, but cannot be changed after one term.
Many of the issues I advocated as president have never before reached this level of campus dialogue. We are beginning to implement the recommendations of the Sexual Assault and Gender Violence Task Force, analyze faculty surveys on diversity issues, formulate a concrete plan with the Office of Residential Life for the debut of the first ever gender-neutral housing at Dartmouth and establish a reporting system for "incidents of bias" so that all students may voice complaints about unsafe spaces.
These developments are incredibly consequential for hundreds of students. If Shpeen's "'general impression is that most students don't like the way that Tim is acting as the president of SA,'" I demand to know if "'most students'" includes those that cite the work the Assembly is currently doing as monumental in making their experiences at Dartmouth ones of which they can finally begin to be proud.
The Assembly played an essential role in the positive community building which occurred last term. It supported the Solidarity Against Hatred rally that acted as a campus-wide response to a series of hurtful events during the fall, partly associated with the The Dartmouth Review.
The influx of students at our first meeting this term was substantially composed of staff of the Review. If they are seeking membership to the Assembly with the express purpose of impeaching me, I wonder if they would have as many students backing them now as they had protesting them last term.
Another large group of potential new Assembly members this term are brothers of Shpeen's fraternity. If the Review has no intention of addressing the concerns of students it repeatedly offends, I would hope that Shpeen's brothers might be interested in the Assembly because they care about improving the quality of life on campus for every student.
For example, if they want to help improve the sexist and homophobic climate that many on campus feel is endemic to the fraternity system, maybe they can begin by having a conversation within their house. This could spearhead a larger movement within the Greek system to challenge attitudes and behaviors that make many Dartmouth students feel -- at the least -- uncomfortable.
Hopefully the mission of these newly interested parties at Assembly meetings is actually in line with my goal of making every student at Dartmouth feel welcomed. If so, I suggest that we focus on the issues that are not being properly addressed rather than the structures that are actively working to address them. If the overall structure of the Assembly is not conducive to this goal, then we should begin to have that conversation in a productive manner -- devoid of personal controversy.
It is unethical for Shpeen to claim that he resigned from the Assembly when he had specifically requested only to serve as Academic Affairs chair for Fall term. It is unproductive that those who are "extremely disappointed" in the Assembly under my leadership have not presented me with a substantive critique.
Why hasn't Shpeen come forward sooner, rather than at a time when there is speculation that the reasons for doing so are more personal than professional?
So much more work needs to be done at Dartmouth in order to make every student's experiences here more rewarding. The Assembly and I cannot do it alone. We need to collaborate with other campus organizations. But I also need the full cooperation of every Assembly member. All students should join the effort.
