At this week’s convening, Dartmouth Student Government “workshopped” a statement of solidarity with the ongoing Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth strike in a closed session. However, it failed to meet the quorum required to vote on the issue after a senator walked out. The senator purposefully left to halt the vote — putting attendance right below the necessary number to decide.
SWCD, which represents student dining workers and undergraduate advisors, initiated a strike on May 19 after contract negotiations with the College failed.
On May 18, the Dartmouth Student Government Senate met for its seventh weekly meeting of the spring term. Led by student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25, the Senate also debriefed Green Key weekend.
Statement on SWCD Strike
After the public meeting, Odigbo opened a closed session to discuss how the Senate should respond to the SWCD strike and vote on the solidarity statement. Student body president-elect and SWCD leader Sabik Jawad ’26 proposed a statement endorsing the strike.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, North Park senator Jude Poirier ’28 wrote that the Senate decided to delay an endorsement vote because senators “felt more context on the strike was necessary.”
“We have some members who are very involved in the SWCD, who are actively sharing details with us as we deliberate on whether we will endorse the SWCD strike,” he wrote.
Last week, senators voted to fund a strike cafe that would allow students to buy coffee without crossing the picket line. However, senators decided to push their discussion of whether to release a statement endorsing the strike until senators “got more context,” according to West House senator Samay Sahu ’27.
Sahu said in an interview after the meeting that senators “discussed the urgency of releasing a statement of solidarity with student workers.” However, some senators were hesitant to endorse Jawad’s statement because they were unsure of details of the SWCD’s demands.
“There were a few claims [in Jawad’s statement] that weren’t specifically cited, [and] there wasn’t any evidence to back up the claims,” he said. “So I personally and some other senators ahead of time asked for context, and [Jawad] did provide the context … during the meeting … which was woefully insufficient for me because you can’t expect me to read something thoroughly and expect me to vote on it in five seconds.”
For example, the statement alleged that Dartmouth Dining automation “led to the loss of 15 jobs in the snack bars alone” and that the College “acted in bad faith” in negotiations, according to Sahu.
“One person left the meeting immediately when they realized they could stop the vote on this issue,” Sahu said.
Sahu said he spoke with the senator, who “thought that there was no point in voting” because of the lack of information provided to senators, such as a “clear cut list of [SWCD] demands.”
“If we’re going to make a statement to the student body, we need to be able to provide the full context for students so that we’re giving them all the toolkit needed for them to make their own assessments of the strike, and it just wasn’t there,” Sahu said.
Green Key weekend debrief
Senators raised concerns about water access, building entry policies and trash management during Green Key weekend. Many senators agreed the College should increase drinking water availability and improve trash disposal next year.
Poirier brought up safety concerns with restricting ID access to dorms throughout the weekend, calling it “a very silly ordeal” to not be able to help drunk friends get into their dorms. During Green Key weekend, students’ ID cards can only access their residential building to avoid non-residents disturbing dorms.
Odigbo noted that similar issues arose in 2019 and suggested DSG revisit past recommendations.
East Wheelock senator Jack Wisdom ’26 said that DSG met with associate dean for residential life Stacey Millard about building access during Green Key weekend last year and administrators “were set” on restricting access.
The senate also unanimously passed a requirement that senators be up-to-date with their Sexual Violence Prevention Project requirements.
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
