Many of you may have seen the sidewalk chalk that my running mate, Harry Qi ’17, and I have put around campus. Our platform has been online since the very beginning of campaigning, and it is accessible to all. I have reached out to many of you personally either in FoCo, at your dorms or in Baker-Berry Library. And so I would like to take this opportunity to talk about something more important than the platform of any one candidate.
Although Dartmouth is filled with myriad smart, talented and hard-working individuals, we have seen little action from our Student Assembly in the past years. Despite the large budget and a relatively large amount of power (as an organization funded directly by the Undergraduate Finance Committee) that the Student Assembly has, many of you neither know what Student Assembly does nor how it can make an impact on campus. Student Assembly needs to be made more relevant to the issues facing campus.
I hope, with this year’s talented field of candidates, whoever you vote for and ends up in office will really make a strong effort to make the Assembly part of everyday life on campus. I have always been passionate about various student government organizations and have been disheartened by the inactivity of our Student Assembly. I chose to run because I know that we can do better and that we need to do better. Most of the students I talk to on campus shouldn’t only be aware of Student Assembly when candidates wish to get elected. Catchy phrases shouldn’t be about garnering votes, but should instead highlight actual plans of action.
If you vote for me and my running mate, Harry, I can promise you that I will work to make sure that the Student Assembly is more relevant to campus. I will promise to work hard to address the many issues and challenges I have discussed with the majority of you. Harry and I have tangible, implementable plans of action which we can start working on from day one. We know we are not experts on various issues, but we are hardworking, have the resolution to get things done and the willingness to listen to those students who are the experts on various campus issues.
And if you do not vote for me or Harry, I promise that I will still work hard to address the many issues and challenges I have discussed with many of you. They aren’t going away, and I’d like to be part of the solution. I hope that you will join me on Student Assembly, regardless of the election outcomes.
Working as a team, all class years can accomplish amazing things. This has been done before, and beneficial results — not just goals or hopes — have been accomplished. We need to bring this accountability and high expectation of student assembly of tangible, effective results back to campus. A win or a loss, I want to help lead the Student Assembly in that direction.
Jon Miller '15 is running for student body president. He is a member of The Dartmouth opinion staff.
