The 2006-2007 Student Assembly sought to address campus concerns by focusing on social issues rather than student services -- a change that brought both success and criticism to the group.
"I think [Student Assembly's] biggest success has been changing the dialogue on campus," Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07 said. "We've addressed salient features of campus that have not been previously discussed at the level of dialogue at which they've been discussed [this year]."
This year's Assembly maintained several staple student service projects, but did not emphasize the introduction of new services.
"We tried a lot more to be an advocacy group on behalf of student as opposed to another programming board," Student Body Vice President Jacqueline Loeb '08 said.
Andreadis agreed, pointing to success on gender-neutral housing as a source of pride.
"Every once in a while you need a [Student Body] President to come along that sort of stirs stuff up and gets people thinking," he said.
This change in focus has left the Assembly with a surplus of about $20,000, a sum Assembly treasurer Ruslan Tovbulatov '09 called "comparable" to past years.
The surplus has drawn criticism, however, from those citing it as evidence of the Assembly's failure. Current Student Body President candidate and former Assembly parliamentarian Jaromy Siporen '08 has alleged that the Assembly has been buying food for its last few meetings in order to spend the excess money.
Andreadis denied this connection, pointing to dwindling membership -- a typical trend during the spring -- as the reason for the food.
The Assembly is currently considering using the funds for larger-scale projects, such as using flat-screen televisions as message boards in Collis and Thayer Dining Hall.
"We're not just going go out and buy millions of staples because we can at the end of the term," Andreadis said.
When Andreadis first petitioned the Undergraduate Finance Committee for funding last spring, he asked for a smaller sum than the $70,000 the Assembly was eventually allotted.
"The fact that we have that much money is a testament to what [Student Assembly's] goals were for this year," Tovbulatov said.
The Assembly did not, however, address Andreadis' main campaign issue of sexual assault as effectively as some would have liked.
"[There was] never enough done with sexual assault," Andreadis said. "It was like there was some magic elixir that we just like couldn't come up with, a certain kind of forum that was going to invigorate campus."
Other Assembly members agreed with this criticism.
"In terms of addressing sexual assault we were a little slow off the mark, and a little too focused on ideology," Executive Board member Kapil Kale '07 said.
Perhaps the most trying period of Andreadis' presidency came during Winter term, when a group of students led by former Assembly executive Adam Shpeen '07 attempted to impeach Andreadis -- later shifting its focus to call for Assembly reform.
"Winter term was almost a blessing in disguise," Andreadis said. "All the sudden we had an [Assembly] meeting with hundreds of people, people from all over campus. Everyone was contributing to the dialogue, even if they thought it was silly."
The reform group's efforts eventually led to the creation of the Student Government Review Task Force, a body charged with examining all student governance at Dartmouth. The task force is expected to present its findings this spring.
This situation was exacerbated by the January leak of a letter calling for an end to the Greek system and written by an author identifying himself as student body president.
At the time of the leak, Andreadis said he could neither confirm nor deny authorship of the letter.
In a recent interview with The Dartmouth, Andreadis said that he regretted the manner in which the letter portrayed his presidency.
"I knew from the beginning that I would be seen as somehow anti-Greek," Andreadis said. "For that to come out in the way that it did I think was really frustrating. [It] put me in the light of being anti-Greek and closed off a lot of campus."
Though at times he has been criticized as a divisive figure, Andreadis disagreed with this characterization.
"I feel like I've done a fairly good job of trying to answer to as many different segments of campus as possible, and push in the directions that I think need to be pushed without making people uncomfortable," he said.
Several Assembly members complimented the friendly atmosphere of this year's Assembly -- a trait Andreadis credited to Loeb's work as vice president.
Loeb said that she hopes this atmosphere translates to next year's Assembly.
"I hope the Assembly continues to not take itself too seriously, but to take itself seriously enough that it gets things done," Loeb said.
Andreadis, for his part, encouraged students to place confidence in next year's student body president.
"Having a little faith, I think, is important," he said.
