Though applications for the Student Government Review Task Force were available to the entire student body, only 12 students applied, six of whom are currently involved with Student Assembly.
The application, due at midnight on Feb. 22, was sent out via a campus-wide e-mail three times last week and included questions asking students to explain why they were "representative of Dartmouth" and how they would describe their main complaints with current student governing bodies such as the Assembly, Programming Board and the Committee on Student Organizations. The Assembly's Membership and Internal Affairs Committee will pick eight members from the applicant pool by Thursday.
"I guess I would've liked even more applications," Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07 said. "But I definitely am hopeful that there are people from outside [the Assembly] who can help make some recommendations about [student government] structure."
The task force is the product of legislation passed by the Assembly on Feb. 13. This measure, which was sponsored by MIAC, laid out the plan for the group to address the issue of student governance at Dartmouth.
Student Body Vice President Jacqueline Loeb '08, the chair of MIAC, said that though the committee envisioned a task force with only one representative from the Assembly, MIAC may consider increasing this number given the application figures.
"We are planning to assemble a group of people that cover many different aspects of campus life," Loeb said.
Though she has yet to read through the applications carefully, Loeb said that skimming the applications led her to believe the applicant pool was strong.
"While eight out of 12 is a high [potential acceptance rate], it's sort of a self-selected group," Loeb said.
Loeb said she was not surprised that there were only six applicants from within the Assembly, noting that the emphasis the legislation placed on creating a diverse task force may have discouraged some Assembly members from applying.
The formation of a governance review group appears to be the end result of a term-long push by a group of students led by Adam Shpeen '07 to reform the Assembly. The group failed in its efforts to impeach Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07, later calling for a wide review instead.
Assembly member David Imamura '10, who was deeply involved in crafting the task force legislation but chose not to apply, echoed these sentiments.
"The major reason why I decided not to apply is because in order for the task force to be effective it needs people who are outside of [the Assembly]," Imamura said.
Loeb also noted the difficulty in reaching out to students who are not involved in the Assembly.
"A lot of people don't read Student Assembly blitzes," Loeb said. "That's not necessarily our fault. We tried to reach out to campus."
Loeb said that MIAC had discussed soliciting applications in The Dartmouth, but later decided that The Dartmouth Editorial Board's recent piece on the task force provided the desired publicity.
Several students who are not involved with the Assembly admitted being unaware of the task force's existence, while others expressed disinterest.
Laura Sayler '09 said that though she had received the BlitzMail message about the task force, she decided not to apply because of other commitments.
"That's hard because the people that will respond to those blitzes are people that are very interested [in student government]," Sayler said. "If people are frustrated and think [the Assembly] doesn't do anything, those people aren't going to get involved."
Several applicants who are not involved in the Assembly or other student groups listed this distance from student governance on their applications as one of their strengths.
"I decided to apply because I think [student governance] is something that's very important to the student body as a whole," applicant Andrew McCauley '09 said. "Coming to it with an outside viewpoint, having not been involved with the current system, I won't be quite as biased one way or the other towards the current system."
Of the applicants who are members of the Assembly, not all are rank-and-file members. Kapil Kale '07, who joined the Assembly this year, said that he applied for the position because he felt he could bring both an outsider and insider perspective to the group.
"It's important to me because I actually care a lot about [Dartmouth's student government] and I want it to work better than it does right now," Kale said.
Though she expressed excitement about the applications the group has received, Loeb said that MIAC would be open to reevaluating the application process.
"If we're not able to assemble what we think is a good group of students, then we will pursue other means," Loeb said.
