On May 4, the Dartmouth Student Government Senate met for its fifth weekly meeting of the spring term. Led by student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25, the Senate prepared for an upcoming meeting on grading policies. Senators also passed four spending proposals for walking treadmills, buses to West Lebanon, laundry cubicles and loaner MacBooks, as well as discussing voter turnout and the split ticket result of last week’s DSG elections.
Dartmouth’s grading policies
Senators talked about the controversial enforced median policy, which students have maligned because it tends to bring grades down. Some departments — including the popular government major — have stuck with it to counter grade inflation.
The College’s Committee on Instruction is meeting this Tuesday to assess possible new grading policies. Odigbo will take DSG’s conclusions to the meeting.
One of the potential new approaches is taking courses for no grade or a written evaluation, as students can currently do at Brown University. Other possibilities include making all classes pass or fail or enforcing a university-wide grade median, according to Odigbo.
At the mention of taking classes for a written evaluation, general senator and student body president-elect Sabik Jawad ’26 smiled and pumped his fists into the air.
Allen House senator Tamia Kelly ’27 said she believes attempting to reduce grade inflation using medians is “irrational.”
“I’m a [Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies] double major, and the average grade median in the LALACS department is a B+. Why?” Kelly asked. “Why are we gatekeeping ‘Introduction to Latin American and Caribbean Studies’?
Kelly added that enforced medians make it “very difficult” for students to apply to graduate school.
“We had a couple of law schools here on Friday. [We gave them] our GPAs, and they’re like, ‘You need to get those up,’” Kelly said. “Half of these law schools don’t even know that the Dartmouth government and [economics] departments have median enforcement, so they think we just suck.”
Jawad said he was “skeptical” about efforts to combat grade inflation.
“[Grade inflation] is just the result of having a lot of smart people in college,” Jawad said. “And Dartmouth is way behind its peers in terms of grade inflation.”
Spending proposals
A proposal to allocate $1,010 for more walking treadmills in Baker-Berry Library passed 13 - 2 - 1.
Jawad, who voted against the proposal, said later in the meeting that he has been “fiscally conservative” about DSG’s spending in hope that DSG will be able to contribute to a memorial for Won Jang ’26, who passed away last summer.
“Won’s friends have been considering creating a permanent memorial for him,” Jawad said. “The plan has not been finalized completely … but I was hoping we could, at the very least, partially fund that, along with the emergency fund.”
The Senate voted by unanimous consent to allocate $3,600 for weekend shuttles to West Lebanon for the rest of the month, and $1,500 for laundry cubicles in dorm laundry rooms and $1,500 for free rental MacBooks for students whose computers are being repaired at the Dartmouth Computer Store.
DSG elections
This year’s turnout for the DSG presidential election, 1,876 ballots, was slightly lower than last year by 69 votes, according to Odigbo. Still, it was the second-highest turnout in the last five years.
However, Odigbo added that he believes it is the “duty of the candidates to motivate turnout.”
“The relative lack of in-person events up until Thursday compared to last year … I can’t say depressed turnout, but I’m not surprised that turnout is lower,” Odigbo said.
In this year’s election, candidates from two different tickets — Jawad and Favion Harvard ’26 won the student body president and vice president seats, respectively, with a margin of three votes between Jawad and East Wheelock senator Jack Wisdom ’26 for the presidential seat.
Jude Poirier ’28 said that this year’s DSG election results were an “important example” as to why the student body president and vice president run on separate tickets.
“There were nuances that led people to feel the need to split the ticket,” Poirier said. “What we are seeing now is an affirmation that [separate votes for president and vice president] should continue to happen.”
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
Jackson Hyde '28 is an intended philosophy major from Los Angeles, California. His interests include photography, meditation, and board game design.
