Tapu resigned first, which allowed the Assembly to elect Bode as the new vice president, which they did unanimously. Green then resigned, which caused Bode to become president, vacating the position of vice president. Remtilla was subsequently voted in, again unanimously, as vice president.
Had Green and Tapu not resigned, Bode and Remtilla would have taken charge of their own Assembly, which would not have any funds available. Green and Tapu would have continued to run the old Assembly, which would gradually lose membership, Bode said. This creation of dual assemblies has marked the transition between incoming and outgoing administrations in previous years.
"There would be two Assemblies," Bode said. "One that was dying and one that had no funds."
Jaromy Siporen '08, a presidential candidate in last year's election, was vocally opposed to the transition.
"The student body elected you president until the end of Spring term," Siporen said to Green during General Assembly. He added that Bode would not have an effective presidency this term because she was working with Green's Assembly, not her own.
Green and Bode responded to Siporen's comments by explaining that this was the only way that the Assembly could be effective during this term.
"Leaving me in office leaves me as a lame duck," Green said during the meeting. "Consistently when the president meets this point in the presidency, he becomes ineffective."
In a later interview with The Dartmouth, Bode and Green gave explanations for why the transition is taking place so much sooner than had previously been custom. They said that it would not only make the Spring term a more effective time for the Assembly than it has been in the past, but that it would also help to ease the transition and increase institutional memory.
"It's a springboard that I didn't have, and I wish I had," Green said.
Green likened the Assembly in the past to a phoenix, dying at the end of each term to be reborn from its ashes in the fall. He said that this earlier transition would hopefully prevent this process.
"It wouldn't make sense to me to be at the end of the term," he said. "We transitioned most of the '08s out of leadership positions."
Siporen, who has been involved in the Assembly for four years and has served as parliamentarian for three years, insisted that Green "has done 82 percent of his job."
He questioned what would happen if other '08s at the College resigned when Green resigned.
"The College would fall apart," Siporen said.
Green responded to Siporen's accusation that he was doing only part of his job by noting that the Assembly's past presidents had been ineffective during this transition period.
During General Assembly both Green and Bode outlined what the Assembly had done during the past year and what it would do in the upcoming year. Green said his goals had been to restructure the organization, promote long-term goals, and enact short-term goals, all of which were successful. Bode said the main goals for next year would be working on social life and space improvements, creating a student governance council representing many student organizations, increasing the Assembly's transparency and communication, and providing more student services on campus.
Both Bode and Green emphasized the fact that Bode will continue to work on projects that were brought up during Green's presidency, which will ultimately make the Assembly more productive.
"It's not about this year, it's about the cumulative sum of years," Green said.
