On March 1, at the eighth weekly Dartmouth Student Government meeting of the winter term, senators discussed housing development in Hanover, adding laundry cubbies, continuing the fall term book accessibility initiative and the Unwind Your Mind mental health event.
Allen House senator Daniel Cai ’26 shared news about the upcoming Hanover Planning Board meeting on Tuesday and urged students to attend and “support individual housing developments” that are currently pending approval. KCC Hanover Investment agent Jolin Salazar-Kish submitted applications to construct several duplexes that are up for design review at the upcoming meeting.
“There is a continued housing crisis in Hanover that has made both student housing as well as the housing of other people who work at Dartmouth very unaffordable,” Cai said. “From the student perspective, we really want more housing to be built to make sure that our students are not basically exiled to Summit.”
General senator Julia Zichy ’27 proposed earmarking $2,500 for the annual Unwind Your Mind mental health event in the spring. This event, which is sponsored by the Student Wellness Center, the Counseling Center and the library, offers music, chair massages, therapy dogs, free snow cones and a petting zoo to students.
“Unwind Your Mind is by far the biggest project the Health and Wellness Committee works on every single year,” Zichy said.
DSG passed the initiative with unanimous consent.
East Wheelock senator Sud Paul ’27 presented a proposal to fund the expansion of residential life laundry cubbies to address students taking and leaving others’ clothes in “unkept locations.” The proposal, which would cost $2,500, would prioritize installing laundry cubbies in West House and East Wheelock dorms — the dorms on the further ends of campus with no cubby installations, according to Paul. This proposal passed with unanimous consent.
Paul also shared plans to work with Generation Conscious, an ecologically-friendly laundry detergent refill sheet company working towards more accessibility and affordability. Paul hopes to have “free detergent sheets for everyone across campus” as DSG continues to work with Residential Operations on this initiative.
“It’s pretty much a good substitute for Tide Pods, and it really does reduce environmental problems,” Paul said.
Paul also shared plans to improve prayer rooms across campus by installing frosted windows to offer privacy and providing new prayer mats for the rooms.
General senator Trace Ribble ’29 proposed earmarking $2,500 to expand and “streamline” the course book accessibility initiative which started in the fall of 2025. The program previously worked with Still North to purchase course materials for 45 students. In the Student Issues Survey, the program received positive feedback from students and Ribble hopes to improve this initiative.
“We’re working on perfecting it a little bit more,” Ribble said. “We’re hoping to work a little bit closer with Still North to get these books to students by week two.”
During the closed session of the meeting, senators approved Geair Justice ’29 for the class of 2029 vacant Senate seat.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, DSG wrote that it “deliberated on an impeachment petition submitted against a Class of 2029 Senator based on concerns related to their expected standards of conduct.”
“The Senator submitted a letter of resignation shortly before the hearing. The Senate voted 21–0–3 to censure based on the impeachment petition,” the email continued. “Since the discussions took place during a closed session, we will make no further comments at this time.”
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
