To the Editor:
The editorial board of The Dartmouth, in its effort to tell the community what changes the Student Assembly should enact, made a glaring though common mistake in suggesting that individual classes elect at-large members only from within their class in order to create a feeling of constituency.
Distinction by class year is purely arbitrary, as individual classes do not have individual needs. It is detrimental to the election process if individuals have to pander to their classes to get elected, and if a person from one class does not have the chance to elect a competent person from another.
The work that the Student Assembly does applies to the whole school. In U.S. politics, different states have different economies and strengths and needs, so the need for geographic accountability is real. At Dartmouth, constituency by class year is a fallacious assumption that will only make the elections more arbitrary than they may already be.
