Friday's Verbum discussed the issues that newly-elected Student Body President Max Yoeli '12 and Vice President Amrita Sankar '12 should address in their time in office. What do you think is the most pressing campus issue that Student Assembly must address in the coming year?
Before Student Assembly tackles any issues, it first needs to undergo internal reforms so that it can effectively represent student interests to College administrators. The lack of candidates and poor voter turnout in Friday's elections show just how disenchanted Dartmouth students are with the Assembly. If the Assembly is unable to get the student body to rally behind it, there's little hope that it can successfully take on the administration.Ethan Wang
The Assembly should focus on not screwing up. Maintain the Course Guide. Buy staples. Make sure there is paper for Green Print. That's it.Josh Kornberg
The student body president-elect and vice-president-elect face an assortment of campus issues and controversies that need to be addressed. Regardless of which issues they prioritize, they must first and foremost serve as a strong and representative voice of the student body. If Assembly leaders take concrete positions on campus matters and advocate for the student body's interests rather than sitting on the sidelines as they seem to have done the past year, perhaps only then will student interest and election participation rise.Louis Wheatley
In light of the recent misunderstandings and miscommunication apparent in the unveiling of the new DDS system, the Assembly must first ensure that students have an adequate say in administrative decisions.Yoo Jung Kim
The Assembly needs to broaden its horizons and not reduce discussions on race and gender dynamics to the issues of sexual assault and bigotry towards minorities. The solution to encouraging positive interactions between diverse individuals may lie in opposing organizations that divide the campus along superficial lines and even provide unfair advantages to particular segments of the student body. Roger Lott
While there are many large issues the Assembly should begin to tackle this year, new Assembly leaders can start to gain student approval by immediately tackling some of the smaller issues affecting campus life. Updating Green Print to the 21st century, for example, would go a long way in proving the effectiveness of the Assembly to a very apathetic student body, whose support it will need for any larger initiatives in the future. Jasper Hicks
The Assembly owes its present irrelevance to its redundancy. They should stop tilting at buzzwords and leave the alcohol and sexual assault issues to the Inter-Fraternity Council and Panhellenic Council and diversity issues to the Office of Pluralism and Leadership and Institutional Diversity and Equity. The Assembly would better serve the student body by focusing on improving the academic experience, residential life and dining services and containing Dartmouth's skyrocketing tuition.Charles Clark
The Assembly should seek to improve the experiences of those in under-represented groups at Dartmouth by making issues related to racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity a top priority on its agenda.Natalie Colaneri