Dartmouth Student Government student wellness programs are progressing this term with the installation of treadmills in the library and a textbook sharing program, senators said during Sunday’s DSG meeting.
At the weekly convening, general senator Julia Zichy ’27 noted that the workout machines under multiple standing desks on the first floor of Berry Library that were installed in the fall are popular.
Library staff are “really pleased with the turnout of the walking treadmills and are even open to the idea of putting in more at some point, which is really good news,” Zichy said.
Zichy also noted that East Wheelock senator Honiely Aviles ’28 has been working on a “great project” to potentially install a fitness center in the West House river dorms. The program would include walking treadmills, weights, a stationary bike and yoga mats.
During the fall term, DSG also launched a book bank program to encourage students to donate their used textbooks by offering them a $5 Still North Books and Bar gift card. In the winter term, using remaining funds from this program and additional DSG funds, DSG managed to purchase a total of around 50 textbooks for students.
South House senator Jason Zhu ’28 noted that the program is “going really well … [although] the logistics are a little bit complicated.”
“We sourced half the textbooks from Still North … and the other half we’re getting from Amazon and other companies,” Zhu said. “I have about 15 more [remaining textbooks] on hand right now [to be sent out].”
Senators also discussed their hopes to expand the program to work in collaboration with department chairs and receive more faculty support.
“I thought [it] would be [a good idea to partner] … with the school, or specifically department chairs, or departments, so that they could kind of partially take over part of the program,” student body president Sabik Jawad ’26 said.
Senators also discussed a variety of upcoming campus programs, including the HanUnder Arts Festival, a three-day arts festival at Dartmouth run yearly by the Hopkins Center for the Arts Fellows. Hop fellow Shakeb Arsalan ’26 expressed his desire to expand the program “into a regional student arts festival” this spring, and asked for DSG to collaborate with Palaeopitus senior society to secure artists for the event.
“I wanted to make sure that we preserved a democratic nature … [in] trying to change the scene of the student arts on campus,” Arsalan said.
During the meeting’s public comment period, Tyler Brown ’26 brought up his concerns about the fact that the campus connector bus system does not make more frequent stops on campus before traveling off campus.
“I think that it’s kind of crazy that the campus connector includes Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Summit on Juniper, and I feel as though there should be one bus that is allocated for the actual student campus,” Brown said. “I personally live in East Wheelock, and if I want to go back to the engineering building, I have to go all the way to Summit, wait 30 minutes, and then come back to [the] engineering [building].”
Jawad shared that DSG is planning on meeting “with transportation services sometime this month and will be sure to bring this up.”
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
Julia Zichy ’27 is an arts writer for The Dartmouth. She was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
