Dartmouth faces an exciting time in its long history, and I hope you will elect me to help guide the student body through the challenges and opportunities before us.
There is the College presidential search, an alumni lawsuit, a new Dean of the College and issues of inequality permeating campus dialogues. I believe that I offer strong leadership to navigate through these issues in a direction that we, the collective student voice, desire.
Student Assembly has a poor reputation among much of the student body, but many of these negative attitudes and apathy toward the Assembly stem merely from shortcomings in communication that I hope to improve upon.
The Assembly needs to continue doing what it has done well -- providing tangible improvements in student life -- but it needs better public relations and communication. Students are unaware of the Assembly's accomplishments, and simple fixes. Pushing for more newspaper coverage, advertisements in campus publications, a campus newsletter and better-publicized "town hall" meetings can begin to alleviate the pessimism that pervades the campus. Additionally, I will push for new improvements in daily life such as more affordable color printing, providing laundry detergent in dorms and providing over-the-counter medicines in Novack.
The sorts of projects listed above, however, are not the end goals of my presidency, but rather the foundation for improving confidence in the Assembly. Confidence breeds enthusiasm and an expanded membership, exactly what the Assembly needs right now. I also hope to strengthen Assembly membership by incorporating the Committee on Student Organizations, a great cross-section of our campus, with the Assembly. These two infusions of new energy, ideas, and diversity will allow Assembly to take the advocacy role that has long eluded it.
As President, advocacy will be a prime concern, and I look forward to engaging in a long-term initiative to introduce a student voice on the Board of Trustees. This will serve to provide both transparency on the Board, as well as a more powerful student lobby with the administration.
I have experience as 2009 Class Council Treasurer, a freshman on Student Organizations Committee in SA, an Opinion columnist for The Dartmouth, vice president of service and programming for Alpha Delta Fraternity and a member of the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club, all of which have connected me with resources across campus and have taught me invaluable communication and leadership skills.
Now, I hope that you, my peers, will elect me as your president to serve the entire student body. From student life improvements to improved lobbying with the administration, I am confident that one year from now Student Assembly will be better recognized as an organization that improves "The Dartmouth Experience" for all students.
Too many Dartmouth students feel that their voices are not heard and their needs not met. Student Assembly has neither magic pills nor the resources to solve everyone's problems, but a balance of daily improvements and institutional progress can move us in the right direction.
