A re-shaped Student Assembly, its leaders and members elected last spring on anti-incumbency platforms, will begin to formally hammer out its agenda at a first meeting Tuesday.
Rejecting the Assembly's old guard, students elected Nicole Artzer '94 as president and Stephen Costalas '94 as vice president.
Artzer advocated reforming the Assembly's committee structure so that student leaders focus more on student concerns and less on political issues.
And the new president is working with an Assembly that is expected to welcome change. Members of a group called Reform SA! won 15 of the 21 at-large seats by advocating a break from the status quo.
While Artzer and Costalas pushed several specific goals for the Assembly during their campaigns, they say the unifying goal of the new Assembly is to make the body more responsive to student concerns.
In past years the Assembly was criticized for spending too much time wrangling over political issues that did not directly affect the lives of undergraduates.
Artzer said last year's Assembly, under President Andrew Beebe '93 and Vice President Andrew Smith '94, was "an organization of the theoretical," and said her Assembly will "be a real reform towards student needs."
But Artzer said the Assembly will continue to discuss Dartmouth-related political issues using a new committee structure.
Last year, the Assembly's three primary divisions were the policy committee, which dealt with political issues that affected Dartmouth, the project committee, which worked on improving student life at the College, and administrative affairs, which tried to bridge gaps between students and administrators.
During Summer term, the Assembly worked in Artzer's proposed new structure, with academic, extracurricular and administrative affairs as the three primary committees.
Now Artzer wants to "take the Summer Assembly's cue and expand on it," by officially changing the functions of the committees in the Assembly's constitution.
Artzer said she anticipates no problem passing the constitutional changes. Senior Class President Dan Garodnick, who helped rewrite the Assembly's constitution a year ago, will help the Assembly with the changes.
Artzer and Costalas have also selected the executive committee for their Assembly. The executive committee decides what issues the Assembly addresses, and can control the direction of the Assembly.
Costalas called the executive committee, which is made up of the heads of Artzer's proposed committees, "a great group of people."
"They don't all have the same point of view. They understand they have a greater responsibility for the Assembly and are willing to put personal feelings aside," Costalas said.
Rachel Perri '94 , the president of the Panhellenic Council, the governing body of the College's sorority system, and Jesse Russell '96 will head the academic committee.
Artzer said the academic committee will investigate a report passed last year that recommended the closing of the education department. The committee will also study the number of minority faculty members and the academic advising system.
Costalas said the Assembly will investigate involving "a broader range of ideas in courses rather than a broader range of courses offered."
The extracurricular committee, headed by Mitch Jacobs '94 and the president of the Class of 1997, who has not yet been chosen, will focus on ideas for expanding extracurricular options on campus, Artzer said.
The extracurricular task force will investigate unifying the social scene under the new Collis Student Center. It will also explore creating a unified student group to oversee activities at Dartmouth.
Laura Bennett '96 and Sophomore Class President Brendan Doherty will head the administrative affairs committee. Artzer said its top priority will be to open communication between administrators and students, especially on issues concerning the Greek system.
The committee will also look into changing the College's policy on when dormitories are locked and into addressing the free speech issues raised last year when student protesters confiscated copies of The Dartmouth Review, the off-campus conservative journal.
The communications committee, which Artzer hopes will act as a liaison between the students and the Assembly, will be headed by Tyrone Thomas '94 and Alex Morgan '95, the vice president of the Summer Assembly, she said.
Artzer said the communications committee, which has played a minor role in previous Assemblies, will have an expanded role this year. She said the Assembly will try to get more input from the general student body.
"It's a two-way street ... we are really working to network all organizations on campus," she said.
Costalas and Mark Waterstraat '94 will head the nominations committee, which nominates students to serve on College committees.
