After a series of last-minute additions and withdrawals before the nomination deadline on Friday, the race for Student Body President officially takes off today as candidates Boyd Lever '10, John Nolan '10 and Frances Vernon '10 begin their campaigns.
Vice-presidential hopefuls include Philip Aubart '10, Cory Cunningham '10 and Robert Hoffman '10. Cunningham is a member of The Dartmouth Senior Business Staff and Aubart is a columnist for The Dartmouth.
The field of presidential candidates was shaken up last week by Vernon's late entrance into the race and the withdrawal of candidates Brendan Hart '10 and David Imamura '10.
None of the candidates are Assembly insiders.
Vernon has served as president of the 2010 Class Council since freshman year, although that work did not overlap with the Assembly, she said.
"They're very different organizations," she said. "Class council has a lot more focus on specific class unification."
Lever has attended meetings periodically throughout the past three years.
"I know everything there is to know about Student Assembly," Lever said. "I don't like the system."
Nolan has limited experience with Student Assembly. He said he needs to attend one more meeting before he can become a voting member.
"As someone who is newly forming relationships with the administration, I know that I can be a better representative of what students want to see done," Nolan said. "I'll be voicing the students' voices to the administration, rather than being the voice of the administration to the students."
Vernon, who described herself as already familiar with many members of the administration, said that knowledge could help her make more informed decisions.
"Already knowing who those people are, having those connections, I feel that I'm really prepared to take on that job [as Student Body President]," she said.
Lever said he wants to improve the Assembly's connection with the administration.
"I do think that once we re-configure [the Assembly's] relationship with the administration, students won't deem Student Assembly as so inconsequential, and the apathy won't be so pervasive," he said, adding later, "We are the smallest Ivy League school with the biggest and least efficient [student government]."
Vernon applauded the administration of current Student Body President Molly Bode '09.
"I have no criticism of the past year of the Student Assembly administration," she said.
Nolan did not share this sentiment.
"I think the current Student Assembly is very cut-off from the majority of the student body," he said.
Nolan said that, if elected, he plans to cut the Assembly's budget by $10,000. He said this move would better distribute the funding among organizations whose financial support may have been reduced due to the recent budget cuts.
Vernon said she would include a reserve budget under the Undergraduate Finance Committee in order to help support the organizations whose budgets have been cut.
"We're all thinking about where can we cut down our spending," she said, adding that by requiring the organizations within the UFC to submit detailed budgets, organizations might be encouraged to be more accountable and transparent in their spending.
Lever said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth that, as Assembly president, he would work to ensure that different communities are not disproportionately affected by the budget cuts.
Nolan's platform also calls for the creation of a student liaison position within the Assembly. Several student liaisons would be responsible for getting in touch with leaders from various organizations on campus and representing their concerns to the Assembly.
"If I'm elected president, my main goal is to bring Student Assembly out and reach out to students, instead of trying to bring students into it," he said.
One prong of Lever's platform includes transforming the Assembly's structure, specifically looking to make it "less convoluted by the elaborate committee system," he said.
Vernon said she would work to have a student representative on the Board of Trustees who would be elected by the student body his or her junior year and would spend the following four years on the Board.
"Their main contribution will be the student perspective," she said, adding that a student-elected representative would raise the number of elected trustees on the Board.
Cunningham, a vice presidential candidate, is a member of Student Assembly and was chair of the Student Services committee his sophomore and junior years.
Aubart has no previous experience in Student Assembly. His said his work as an opinion columnist for The Dartmouth has him "thinking about campus issues."
Hoffman could not be reached for comment.
The Student Assembly debates begin tonight with a forum sponsored by The Dartmouth in Tindle Lounge at 7 p.m.
The original version of this article incorrectly identified student body vice presidential candidate Cory Cunningham '10 as chair of the Student Life committee. In fact, Cunningham chairs the Student Services committee. In addition, the article incorrectly identified presidential candidate Body Lever '10 as a voting member of the Assembly. In fact, Lever does not have voting privileges.
