The Assembly and administration have agreed to use students' Visions to guide their future policies, Summer Assembly Co-chair Janelle Ruley '00 said.
She said the decision, made during a meeting of Assembly members and College administrators, will be instrumental in opening doors to students.
Ruley and Assembly President Josh Green '00 began Visions of Dartmouth last winter to collect student opinion about the future of the College. The drive, which brought in over 800 responses, is intended to be presented to the incoming College president.
Visions are not, however, the Assembly's only effort to break down barriers between students and administrators.
The Assembly is also working toward student suffrage in trustee elections, Assembly representative Alex Yates '00 said.
Currently, alumni can vote on six of the 12 men and women who approve top administrators and the College's 3-year budget, but students do not have any decision making power, Yates said.
She said the Assembly has contacted the Alumni Association, the body that runs trustee elections and would decide who could vote in them, and hopes to speak to it about the issue during the association's next meeting.
Yates said student participation in trustee elections would be symbolic, and might also influence the final vote tally.
Students should have a say in who's running the College while they're there she said.
Assembly member Case Dorkey IV said the student vote would only add about 4,000 eligible voters to a pool of 40,000.
"It's not like this is a significant proportion of people ..." he said. "You're adding only a small increase of votes."
The Assembly also has plans to unite the campus through Conversations discussions of relevant issues, Ruley said.
She said Montgomery Fellow Manning Marable has agreed to lead the first discussion, which will likely address race relations at the College.
Ruley said the Assembly has made progress with its plan to replace outmoded BlitzMail computers with PowerPCs, and has submitted information to Kiewit about the locations of each terminal it would like to replace.
Ruley said the Assembly is soliciting student input about the types of programs that will be installed on these computers.
The Assembly is also continuing to address the issue of whether campus residence halls should be locked, and is going to select four students to serve on a committee that will advise Acting Dean of Residential Life Mary Liscinsky about the issue, Ruley said.
Additionally, Assembly representative are endeavoring to improve the campus's academic advising network, Ruley said.
