Hello Dartmouth! Your vice president, Nafeesa Remtilla '09 and I would like to inform the student body of Student Assembly's accomplishments this year and encourage you to vote in today's election. We have brought you new services, advocated for your rights on major policy issues and have collaborated with more student groups to make a more active and open Assembly. We hope that your new Student Assembly will make further improvements to your Dartmouth experience.
Services:
Numerous reliable services have been maintained, such as the course guide, the newspaper readership program, take a professor to coffee, "Uh-oh" notifications, New York City buses and laptop vouchers. New services include posting book lists online, working with Bruno Books to allow students to search for cheap textbooks and the Zimride Facebook application to promote sustainability and carpooling. We took on the weekly T.G.I.A.F. blitz to streamline communication of events, and created the Lost and Found BlitzMail bulletin to reconnect you to your lost "black North Face." We also collected student opinions on how to to improve BlitzMail.
Advocacy:
In the spring of 2008, we advocated for guaranteed on-campus housing for all four years, and helped prevent members of the Class of 2009 from being left without housing. We worked closely with the administration to recommend and implement changes to the Alcohol Management Program and the Committee on Standards. We have also been working with different academic departments to examine and expand the CI distributive requirement, and have placed students on committees with administrators and faculty.
Most importantly, we immediately voiced your concerns about College budget cuts, holding open forums with administrators and producing a budget survey with a response rate of over 34 percent. Working with the Class Councils, Palaeopitus Senior Society and the Student Budget Advisory Committee, we compiled recommendations to protect the Dartmouth experience now and in the future.
Community Building and Alternative Social Spaces:
We created the Inter-Community Development Fund, which allows different groups to come together and host an event or program. This fund, along with our PANGEA and other events, encouraged interactions among over 30 different groups on campus. We hosted events with more than 300 people in Hovey Grill and Fahey-McLane, and we have a sustainable party in the works for the Energy Pledge Campaign. We also hosted the second annual Mr. and Mrs. Big Green competition and Live Campus '09, bringing many groups together for charitable causes. In addition, we held the first Kindness Day, and have supported many student"faculty and student"staff interaction events. Finally, we created the Student Recognition Award to recognize students who have significantly impacted our community, and a Student Memorial to recognize undergraduates who have passed away.
What's next for this Assembly and beyond?
This spring we will be bringing you a database of student, faculty and collaborative research projects so that students can make more informed research proposals. We will be continuing to work with the Town of Hanover to create a better alcohol policy. The Assembly task force on combating sexual and physical assault will be making recommendations, and a task force to increase campus resources for students with mental and physical disabilities is in the works. Most importantly, we will be bringing you the opportunity to provide College President-elect Jim Yong Kim your vision for Dartmouth's future -- so be sure to look out for the "Visions Report Survey."
When you are choosing a candidate, keep in mind that he or she must be a strong leader who will reach out to all constituencies. The next candidate will have to deal with the ramifications of the budget cuts and build a strong relationship with President-elect Kim's new administration. While having a student on the presidential search committee helped represent your interests, the work of the next student body president is even more important to help guide Dartmouth's immediate and long-term future. This will be accomplished through reaching out to all constituencies and communicating their needs to President-elect Kim, the Dean of the College and the Board of Trustees.
Thank you for letting us serve you this past year and keep Dartmouth's future in mind when you vote today.
