I am a complainer. In fact, most students here could accurately be called such, as we have all done our fair share of ranting about the various things that bother us at Dartmouth. Yet all this complaining which is often supplemented by the proposal of good alternatives has rarely resulted in any real change.
Every day, from conversations at dinner to the columns printed on this page, Dartmouth students come up with meaningful ways to improve this college. In just the past week, I've listened to promising ideas about making Banner Student course evaluations available to students ("Assessment Access," Jan. 20), expanding the number of classes that we can NRO and improving the student advising system. Unfortunately, all of these proposals will likely remain at the dinner table. We all have ideas that we really want to see implemented, but getting the College to actually act is no easy task. Pushing even a single major initiative through to the administration requires significant resources and organization, a daunting task we cannot achieve alone. What we need is someone to find a single proposal we all support and organize the student body around that cause. The Student Assembly is the obvious organization that can provide that leadership.
The Assembly is in the midst of transitioning its focus from programming-oriented activities toward broader College policy improvements. ("SA adjusts to changes in focus and structure," Jan. 7). To this end, the Assembly has created a number of policy committees that are conducting research and providing more opportunities for students to discuss ideas with administrators. However, while these changes are steps in the right direction, they will not help enact major initiatives any time soon.
Committees risk bogging down ideas in endless brainstorming sessions and bureaucracy. More importantly, bombarding administrators with complaints and suggestions during discussion forums will likely have little impact. While College officials might nod politely and agree to "consider" an idea, it is unlikely that they will give any suggestion serious consideration without significant prodding. Sometimes, this is simply because the administration does not have the time and resources to carry out everything that students propose. But more often when it comes to major changes in how the College is run, the administration doesn't agree with student ideas. Overcoming this resistance will require a determined and concentrated effort on the part of students.
The seemingly never-ending debate on how to improve the College's alcohol policy is a perfect case in point. When the student members of the Student and Presidential Alcohol Harm Reduction Committee released their recommendations on alcohol reform last May, the administration merely set them aside for half a year. In January, the College finally announced a disappointing set of "reforms" that ultimately will not produce significant change ("Admins. discuss SEMP revisions," Jan. 5). Throughout the process, there was much grumbling about the administration's lack of attention to student recommendations, but no one took any action. Had our discontent manifested into an organized effort to enact the changes we wanted, this case might have ended differently.
Instead of trying to juggle dozens of things at once, the Assembly should choose one initiative that most students want and focus its energy on getting the plan enacted. If an idea gains enough publicity and student support, the administration will have a much harder time brushing it aside. Getting Dartmouth students to stand united behind an initiative will not happen overnight. However, the Assembly leaders all have campaign experience and it shouldn't be difficult to convince most people to support a proposal such as making course evaluations public.
Granted, picking a single cause to fight for means other ideas might have to be temporarily put on the back burner. However, when you try to do too much at once, you risk not getting anything done at all. The Assembly has wanted to do everything from reducing sexual assault to improving campus sustainabililty to creating more social spaces, but in the end, no significant progress has been made on any of these goals. By focusing on individual initiatives one by one, we can have a much more organized and efficient way of bringing about the change we want to see at our school.
