On April 29, Sabik Jawad ’26 was elected as the next student body president. Favion Harvard ’26, who ran on another ticket, was elected as vice president. Jawad’s campaign emphasized supporting non-citizen students, addressing dining automation and taking a more “confrontational approach” with the College. On May 22, The Dartmouth sat down with Jawad to talk about his future plans and goals as DSG president.
Why did you choose to run for DSG president?
SJ: I did not have any intention of running when I first came into student government. I actually was supposed to be abroad this term during the election, but I chose to run mainly because I felt the student government needed to go in a particular direction at this very moment.
Whether it be by the administration or other stakeholders, like alumni, I felt that the role student government needed to play was to get our seat at the table.
How do you plan on working with Harvard, considering that you ran on separate tickets? How do you plan on merging your priorities?
SJ: I’m seeing this as an opportunity to do something unique. Favion and I combined were supported by probably 1,800 different voters. In some ways it can be seen as a split ticket, but in some ways I also see it as an opportunity to form a united front in going about student advocacy over the next year. I don’t think our priorities are very different. I think what was mainly different was the approach.
Could you talk about your work in regards to Dartmouth Dining Service?
SJ: Meal swipes has been something that I’ve worked on since my freshman year and first term as a senator in DSG. There have been considerable changes in how meal plans work, particularly last year, after the Food and Security Task Force presented its suggestions which resulted in increased meal equivalencies and other changes to meal plans.
My main issue currently with the way meal plans are done is that there is no consistent forum for students to continuously give input to senior leadership and officials who set the dining budget on what students want from the meal plan. One of my key proposals on dining was establishing a council on dining.
Could you speak about your efforts and future plants to support international students on campus?
SJ: One of my key measures was trying to set up an emergency fund through DSG for international students and undocumented students. I want to focus more on getting institutional funding for student groups like the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth next year instead, because I feel like those groups are better equipped to handle a fund like that and because they already do work on similar funds.
Another priority you mentioned was addressing student physical and mental health. Could you talk about that as well?
SJ: One of my goals is increasing access to Plan B on campus, either through DSG funding, getting Plan B in dorm rooms or getting institutional funding for something like that. Other goals are having more Dick’s House-style vending machines around campus, which I hope to work towards with Dr. Estevan Garcia at the Health Service in the future. Other than that, I think in terms of mental health, one thing is trying to help improve accessibility to therapists and counselors across the Upper Valley by, in some form, funding transportation to counselors outside of Hanover.
What are your thoughts on the current state of the Dartmouth Student Government and are there any intentions of making any reforms to address these issues?
SJ: One of my other priorities has been improving accountability in DSG.
One thing I want to do is set up a petition system that allows, first of all, anyone to recall any of their senators, even me, if they feel we have not done a great job. And secondly, I would want that petition system to also be set up so that students can initiate referendums to vote on issues they care about, instead of relying on DSG to proactively do it.
How will you work with different perspectives or opinions different from your own in DSG?
SJ: I don’t think there's a clear, good answer to it. I think the best assurance I can give you is that I am someone who will listen. There are probably going to be moments where things are not going to go how I want, and I will accept that. There are probably going to be moments where someone else might not like the approach I want to take.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
