Student Assembly's election season officially began this weekend as presidential and vice-presidential candidates have begun to campaign to improve Student Assembly's image on campus.
This year, the election falls earlier in the term than in previous years. The principal reasons for moving up the election this year were to ease the transition from the current to the incoming Assembly and to give the Assembly more time to write proposals to the Undergraduate Finance Committee. Linda Kennedy, director of student activities, and current Student Assembly president Travis Green '08 advised the change, which was subsequently voted on by the Election Planning and Advisory Committee.
"The benefits of holding elections earlier will outweigh any potential negatives," Sara del Nido '08, non-voting chair of EPAC said. Del Nido is a former opinion editor of The Dartmouth.
Molly Bode '09 and Lee Cooper '09 are the two official presidential candidates. Nafeesa Remtilla '09, Miesha Smith '09, Tay Stevenson '10 and Chuck Zodda '09 are on the ballot for vice president. Elections will be held April 8 and 9.
Bode said her main goals as president would be improving social life on campus by offering more social alternatives, promoting cooperation between Greek organizations and creating a realistic pro-keg policy.
"I want to make everyone have the most fun as possible on campus," Bode said.
She added that she would create transparency around the Assembly and work to make minor changes around campus, such as installing microwaves in Novack Cafe and offering copies of The Sunday New York Times.
Bode, who hails from Atlanta, Ga., plans to modify a major in biology with film. Her involvement in the Assembly began in the fall of her sophomore year, and includes two terms as vice president of the Alumni Affairs Committee and two terms as vice president for student life. She said her decision to run was motivated by her current involvement.
Cooper, a member of the Assembly throughout his freshman year, left during sophomore fall despite being a member of the Internal and Membership Affairs committee. He said he became "very disillusioned with the Assembly and the lack of leadership." He said he is now ready to return to the Assembly in order to completely change how it operates by lobbying administrators more heavily.
"I'm not afraid to knock on an administrator's door," he said.
Cooper, a religion major and a public policy minor from Long Island, N.Y, said he believes that the primary problem with the Assembly is that "it's not respected by students and administrators alike."
For the vice presidential candidates, Remtilla said that she would try to promote cooperation between different organizations.
"We're so over-programmed and a lot of times these diverse organizations have common interests," she said. "I really think that's one of [the Assembly's] goals is to be the mechanism behind that."
By working on "recruitment and retention" Remtilla said she hopes to "create an enthusiastic and fun student government."
Remtilla, a double major in psychology and economics from Vancouver, British Columbia, has worked with the Assembly since the summer of her sophomore year and has been heavily involved in planning PANGEA events that focus on bringing together diverse groups on campus.
Stevenson said he is the only candidate committed to real change. He said he would expand the Assembly's power by incorporating all student government organizations under its domain.
"I want to bring something real out of the ashes of [the Assembly]," he said. "I want to change the dynamic of [the campaign] by expressing ideas that have not been expressed before."
Stevenson said that he believes many of the other candidates' campaigns feature the same "laundry list of things that have been copy and pasted from campaign to campaign."
"What they don't realize is that [the Assembly] doesn't have enough power to do that," he said. "We can't change anything without having the power to do so. I will stand at the doors of Parkhurst and pound at the doors with my fists until they're bleeding if it means that we can give Dartmouth some sort of coherent student body."
Stevenson is a double major in government and philosophy major with a minor in German studies from a small town in Minnesota. After spending the Fall and Winter terms in Germany, he returns to the Assembly for the first time since last spring. He said that he is "the only person at [the Assembly] who isn't there for ego or to bolster their resume."
Smith is currently on the government Foreign Study Program in Washington, D.C. . Being off campus during the term of elections has made campaigning more difficult, she said.
"Just because you don't see me around doesn't mean that I'm not an active member of campus," she said. "I definitely have a campaign group that's helping me out on campus."
She said her experience as Assembly treasurer and spokesperson has provided her with the experience she will need to "make [the Assembly] the bridge it should be between students and administrators." Smith added that she would work with other groups on campus to combine "power and resources."
Smith is a government and sociology major from outside of Philadelphia.
Zodda, who has no prior involvement in the Assembly, said he became interested in running for vice president last term, when he was off campus and kept in touch with the College by reading The Dartmouth.
"I'm someone who generally knows how to get things done, and I think that those skills transfer to anything," Zodda said.
His main concerns are obtaining higher paying jobs for students on work-study, improving housing issues and forming a more efficient Committee on Standards. He would also like to improve the hours at Dick's House and the College's keg policy "in terms of sustainability."
Zodda is a history major from Boston.
The candidates will participate in three debates in the week leading up to the elections.
