I swore I wouldn't do this. After last spring's Student Assembly presidential soap opera, in which my character was killed off after three blockbuster seasons, I swore that I would remain dutifully, commitedly, silently dead. But, here I am, back (momentarily) from the dead, crystal ball in hand.
Like any good revenant-psychic ex-politico, I'll stick to the basics. I predict that the Reform SA! movement, composed largely of veteran SA hacks, Beacon staffers (who've at least spent the last two years complaining about the SA), and Conservative Union ideologues will fail to bring substantive changes to either the structure or agenda of the august body.
I see Matthew Berry '94, champion of the right-wing goon squad, introducing legislation on college investments in South Africa. The mystic portal is closing, but not before I see Grant Bosse '94, calling yet again for the creation of the ad-nauseum committee to review the constitutionality of executive appointment procedures.
The same 21 people who promised a "student agenda," a renewed emphasis on "student services," and end to the paralytic bickering and quibbling that seems to define the Student Assembly, have used their first three weeks in office to block President Nicole Artzer '94 at every turn, presumably just to flex their heretofore limp political muscle.
Artzer had a wonderful idea in the campaign which most of us who know the Assembly thought would be impossible: She wanted to select an executive board of people who already held positions of leadership in the Greek system, in Class Councils, and other organizations that have a more direct involvement in student life.
Unfortunately, it looks like we were right. Rather than allowing the very sort of reform they promised during the campaign, Reform SA! has invoked bizarre and unfounded objections on procedural grounds and muscled through their own forgone conclusion. The result: we must now wait two more weeks while the executive board members go through the laborious appointment process, during which they may well be rejected by Reform SA!
The week after this debacle saw the first action by the Assembly: a resolution on college financial holdings in South Africa. South Africa? This from the same people who were complaining of a "too political" agenda and an obsession with policy-wonking? You don't have to be a psychic or a cynic to know which way the hot air blows.
Artzer's idea is a good one. She seems genuinely interested in making the Assembly more involved in the daily lives of Dartmouth students. But her hands are tied by the same old cast of characters. The student body elected Artzer because she offered an alternative to the endless cycle of trivial infighting and political grandstanding. The members of Reform SA! would do well to give her a chance and to start playing the supporting roles to which they were elected.
It's early, and I think Nicole Artzer has the will and the patience to see her agenda through. And there are certainly some members of the Reform SA! slate who are genuinely commited to living up to the name. If there's ever going to be a happy ending to the serial psychodrama of SA politics, let's hope these people, the good guys, win out in the end.
