With just a few weeks remaining until the '04s descend upon the Hanover plain, the Student Assembly has been working this summer on student services for both newcomers and upperclassmen for the coming Fall term.
The traditional summer Assembly focus has been geared toward short-term community service and student life projects.
"I came in [to summer] thinking it was going to be a lot about student service projects for the '02s, and we've done a lot of that ... but we've had a good mix between what I expected to do and some longer projects for the fall and the year to come," summer Assembly President J.R. Lederer '02 said.
Among major Assembly projects accomplished this summer was a guide to student organizations and their contact information, which will be distributed during freshman orientation and will also be available to members of the Class of 2003 when they return to campus in the fall, Lederer said.
Mugshots, for the first time ever, may include freshmen. "We don't see a reason not to, so we may go ahead and do that," Lederer said. "Many upperclassmen want to get to know the freshmen, and it makes for a more versatile, longer-living book."
The dining guide, which will replace Eats Plus, will be placed in Hinman Boxes Fall term. This guide will contain menus of restaurants and phone numbers of local services.
While this summer may have focused on short-term student services, the Assembly already has plans to become quite active by submitting various reports during Fall term.
According to Assembly President Jorge Miranda '01, the state of student involvement report will look at all ways in which students are involved in decision making at the College and point out the outlets of student influence as well as propose improvements, such as a student member of the Board of Trustees.
The World Cultures Initiative will also be a focus of the Assembly reports, and will be submitted to the World Cultures Initiative committee. Miranda said the Assembly plans to invest time in generating campus discussion in defining this broad goal of the Trustee report.
Other reports to be submitted early in the fall are the D-plan report and the Dick's House report, which will work collaboratively with Dick's House staff to better serve students in the future, Lederer said.
"We are extending the Dick's House report and sending out a succinct survey [in the next week] to the '02s to make it a multi-year report about Dick's House," Lederer added.
According to Lederer, the results from spring surveys concerning D-plan recommendations have been summarized, and the report is in its last stages and will be given to a standing Initiative committee that focuses on the D-plan.
Furthermore, a fines and fees announcement in the fall will reveal what changes are taking place as a direct result of student complaints, Miranda said.
In addition to his nomination of students to Student Life Initiative committees that are meeting this summer, Miranda has started keeping records past Assembly decisions this summer to avoid future repetition.
One problem of the Assembly is that every few years there is a repetition of what students have done in the past and little progress is made, Miranda said.
"Archiving is a way to institutionalize what we've done and not repeat ourselves," he continued. "When we go to an administrator about an issue, we'll have our history straight so we're not uninformed."
