The Organizational Adjudication Committee will start training members of its student board during Winter term, students and College officials announced following a meeting Friday. Despite an abrupt announcement on Jan. 12 that the effort would be postponed until Spring term, students involved in forming the board said it should now be ready for operation before the end of Winter term, closer to the original timeline.
The deadline for student applications to serve on the board which will review minor misconduct involving student organizations has been extended to Jan. 29, according to David Imamura '10, who chaired the Student Assembly committee that proposed the student board. Organizers hope to launch the board by mid-February, he said.
Students had previously voiced concerns about the board's balance between affiliated and non-affiliated students, particularly because the board will deal with minor misconduct involving student groups, including Greek organizations, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The extended application deadline will also allow the Assembly and acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears to select a more diverse group of students that accurately reflects the campus, Assembly spokesperson Will Hix '12 said.
"We are interested to get it back on track to deal with the diversity issues and ensure that there will be good results," Hix said.
The original plan to begin training the board of 50 students on Jan. 13 was delayed due to the "recent activities keeping up the administration's time," Student Body President Frances Vernon '10 said.
Vernon said the group was able to move up its start date because of the collaborative effort of the Assembly and student organizers. Students stepped up to help with a backlog of logistical work that had previously prevented the OAC initiative from moving forward, she said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Hix said the preparation of a budget reduction proposal for next month's Board of Trustees meeting sidetracked administrators from the OAC project.
"There were a lot of things going on and they didn't want to do it in a haphazard manner," Hix said.
College administrators who announced the initial postponement cited their overburdened workloads on a variety of issues, including budget problems and the fire at Phi Delta Alpha fraternity, as reasons for the delay, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"There was a time-management issue for laying out the groundwork and sanctioning guidelines," Imamura said. "There were lots of implementation details that needed to be done, and now, given the last couple of weeks and talks with the judicial office, everything has been back on track."
Hix emphasized that students involved in launching the OAC student board are optimistic about the adjusted timeline.
"We're eager to get it implemented as soon as possible and [to be] as effective as possible," he said. "This is a pilot program, so we want to make sure it can be implemented correctly the first time to be used as a model in the future."
The new timeline was discussed in a meeting on Friday afternoon between students, members of the Assembly and Undergraduate Judicial Affairs.
