Last night, Student Assembly held a town hall event to present its Bill of Rights draft and answer questions from students, faculty and staff interested in the document. Around 30 students and several members of the administration attended the event.
Jeffrey Fastow ’18, student affairs committee co-chair, said that the student affairs committee noticed that throughout the past terms, there has been a “noticeable” spike in student issues with Safety and Security as well as concerns over increased academic rigor. The committee also noted a disconnect between the College’s administration and students’ rights in judicial processes and hearings.
After studying the College’s student handbook, he said that his committee realized there were many gray areas, prompting the decision to develop the Bill of Rights.
Student Assembly president Frank Cunningham ’16 emphasized that the bill as of now is only a draft version and that the point of this town hall was to get student and administration feedback.
“I think this document has started a conversation, and that was my intention,” Cunningham said.
The next step for the Assembly will be to revise the document with the feedback they have been getting and then work with administrators to actually implement the Bill of Rights, Student Assembly communications director Jessica Barfield ’16 said.
She said that the earliest the Bill of Rights would go into effect would be by the end of spring term and the latest will hopefully be by the start of the new academic year in September.
“We’re always open for questions and comments, the website’s going to remain there at least for a year,” Barfield said.
Cunningham said that he would love to host another town hall event. He added that many of the College’s peer institutions have clarifying documents in their student handbooks or release similar statements of concern to their administrations. What distinguishes the Assembly’s Bill of Rights from those documents, Cunningham said, is the goal of integrating the Bill into the student handbook, which other institutions have not done.
Cunningham said the Assembly’s goal was to integrate this Bill of Rights document into students’ daily lives.
Following Cunningham and Fastow’s opening speeches, the floor was opened to audience questions. Questions ranged from what the next steps would be for the bill to how regulations for Safety and Security officers would actually be enforced.
After each question was answered by either Fastow or Cunningham or both, the town hall broke up into smaller discussion groups.
Vice provost for student affairs Inge-Lise Ameer said that after having seen the Bill of Rights for the first time a couple of days ago, she wanted to come to the town hall to have a better understanding of what students were experiencing.
Senior associate dean of student affairs Liz Agosto said she thought the event presented a good start to the conversation. However, Agosto said that she had not been involved with the development of the document and heard about it at the same time the rest of campus did. She emphasized the need to find a balance between institutional issues and the need for student rights.
“With rights come responsibilities, and I think that to talk about one without addressing the other leaves a void in our actions and our expectations,” Agosto said.Agosto said she wishes administration had been invited to have the conversation sooner, but she is nevertheless excited to start the conversation now.
“I support student initiatives and I think that there’s no reason for students to engage us until they’re ready in this process,” she said.
Student Assembly member Rebecca Suydam ’18 said that she was pleased by the administrator and student turnout.
“I think that it’s really important to open up dialogue on this campus, especially about such important issues,” Suydam said.
Livia Clandorf ’17 presented many suggestions to members of the Assembly during the event regarding ways they could improve the current bill.
“I think it’s an important initiative to get right, and when I saw the document and had a lot of criticism for Student Assembly, I wanted to make sure it was heard,” Clandorf said.
Cunningham opened the event by noting the Assembly had been working hard to prepare and present the bill.
“By no means is this bill finished, or even close to being finished, but it’s a step forward,” Cunningham said. “This bill is a concrete step forward to opening the lines of communication between students and administrators.”
Cunningham said he is hopeful that this Bill of Rights will be able to bring about real change on campus.
“I think the turnout could have been higher, but I’m also grateful that with the numbers that showed up,” Cunningham said. “I had some awesome conversations this evening. I got a lot of great feedback.”
Barfield is a member of The Dartmouth business staff.
Sonia is a junior from Ottawa, Canada. (That is the mysterious Canadian capital that no one seems to ever have heard of.) She is a double major in Economics and Government, with a minor in French. She decided to join The D’s news team in her freshman fall because of her love of writing, talking to people, getting the most up-to-date news on campus, and having a large community of fellow students to share these interests with.
