Short Answer: What is the most important issue in this year’s Student Assembly elections?
Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of Short Answer, a new item in which members of the Opinion staff respond to a question posed by the Opinion editors.
Social space disparity between males and females. A campaign run and won on a platform with tangible, realistic proposals for more equitable social space allocation would give the president the political capital (and mandate) she or he would need to finally allow the Assembly to become the student advocacy organization it has woefully failed to be.
— Evan Meyerson ‘08
The new Student Assembly president is going to have to offer a coherent solution to complaints about rampant sexism and homophobia within the Greek system.
— Jordan Osserman ‘11
Student Assembly has often been accused of being an unrepresentative and unresponsive body. Candidates need to be specific about how they plan to reach out to groups and people around campus and make the Assembly relevant to the wants and needs of most students.
— Dave Glovsky ‘08
How to redefine the Assembly’s mission and means of operation so that it can actually have an effect on campus life rather than simply be a resumé building activity for a minority of students.
— Gahl Rinat ‘09
Although it is a longstanding and unresolved issue, I still feel that reforming the Committee on Standards is a matter of preeminent concern. Certainly there must be a way to fine-tune the rules and make them fair to both victims and alleged perpetrators of sexual assault?
— Sam Buntz ‘11
Student Assembly should break its silence about the Association of Alumni lawsuit and the ongoing governance dispute and work to dispel myths about the state of the College floating in alumni circles. Official Student Assembly resolutions tackling the debate — adding the current undergraduate perspective — would take the wind out of the sails of the alarmist alumni and make the decisive difference.
— Dan Belkin ‘08
Reform: the next Student Assembly president will come at a critical time for impacting and guiding many reform movements across campus. These include streamlining student activity funding, reforming the student judicial system, increasing the scope of social spaces, addressing Greek options for minorities and women and improving the efficiency of student government itself.
— Nathan Bruschi ‘10
Although Student Assembly does accomplish many things, the majority of the student body is apathetic. The candidates can run on whatever issues they so choose; the student body still won’t care.
— Phil Aubart ‘10
Dartmouth could benefit from more unity among different campus groups. The campus is more fragmented than the majority tends to realize, so it would be nice to see the candidates make an effort to reach out to different parts of Dartmouth and try to bring them all together.
— Lydia Chammas ‘09
What can it do for me? Beyond newspapers and course reviews, isn’t there more that the Student Assembly can do to enhance the quality of student life on campus?
— Brian Solomon ‘11
I would like to see the candidates taking more time to closely evaluate reviews on the Student Assembly Course Guide. By using these reviews, candidates can rectify common problems that students find in specific departments and courses.
— Denise Hotta-Moung ‘11
