With her decisive victory on Monday, Student Body President-elect Frances Vernon '10 was given a clear mandate to act on behalf of the College's student body. Although our first choice in the race was Boyd Lever '10 ("Verbum Ultimum: Vote Lever," April 20), we hope that Vernon will take this opportunity to make bold and swift changes as president.
We challenge Vernon to transform the Assembly from an insular and programming-heavy group into an effective organization that advocates on behalf of the students for College policy change. Vernon must be more than just a liaison between students and the administration; the relationships she has built with administrators will only prove beneficial if she is willing to occasionally step on these allies' toes in order to effect positive change.
With that in mind, there are three major areas of College policy that Vernon and the Assembly must address in the coming year:
First is the flawed system of student-activity funding. The current structure is not only overly complex, but also lacks transparency and is inconsistent in its allocation of funds. Too frequently, one funding organization expends its budget imprudently and prematurely, thereby forcing the rest to reallocate funds -- often sacrificing valuable programming. While Vernon's proposed reserve fund would solve some of these problems, she must go further in protecting student interests by reducing the overlap between funding organizations, increasing accountability and simplifying the funding process.
Second, Vernon must incorporate students into the judicial process for campus groups in a carefully weighed manner. She should abandon her plan to create an Inter-Greek Judicial System -- such a system would likely lead to a game of cat and mouse between judicial board members and administrators, and could create further divisions between Greek and non-Greek students -- and should adopt Lever's proposal for a "Peer Adjudication Committee," which would work with the current Organizational Adjudication Committee and include both Greek and non-Greek members.
Finally, we urge Vernon to continue the Assembly's push for the speedy implementation of a revised alcohol policy. We understand that the Alcohol Management Policy has been delayed in an effort to remedy important flaws in its structure -- but that does not mean that certain obviously necessary measures, such as a reformed and rational keg policy, should be stalled as well.
As Vernon prepares to take office, there is a long road ahead of her. By meeting these issues head-on, Vernon will leave Dartmouth not only having improved the quality of student life, but also having established Student Assembly as a robust and effective organization. We hope she rises to the challenge.
