Ian and I want to empower students to accomplish their goals, and to make their life easier while doing it. We will immediately address Student Assembly's two primary flaws: its internal focus and the student body's lack of respect for it. Our Student Assembly will then build for the future. Please join us in our vision for Dartmouth.
Internal Student Assembly reform:
Student Assembly must begin to look outwards. The DartMoose effort didn't talk with athletes, who will compete under its banner. When addressing climate change, Student Assembly neglected to consult campus environmental groups, who had already announced an Ivy League-wide effort to reduce our carbon impact.
We can connect expertise with those who can enact change. For example, a month after I brought Sustainable Dartmouth to Student Assembly, their ideas were passed as legislation. This year's Diversity Affairs Committee shows how this approach can be. They will bring fraternity leaders together with SAPAs to address sexual assault and host a dinner this Sunday with student leaders to discuss Student Assembly's work. They have shown the effectiveness of this idea, and we will extend their methods to the entire organization.
Short term:
We will rebuild trust in SA through a series of short term, realistic plans.
We will: bolster the IFC's drive to reform keg policies so that every house can have a keg on tap; implement the COS Task Force's recommendations, focusing on better guiding those involved through the process; improve Novack with more couches and colorful paint; place class syllabi online, with or without College help; re-launch PANGEA to connect disparate groups with innovative programs highlighting their individual strengths.
These ideas are simple, and within the boundaries of what SA can achieve.
Long term:
From this foundation, we will tackle larger issues that face campus. We will create a new mascot that is more than a goofy costume, centralize information and address the distortions that socioeconomic class causes.
Our Student Assembly will immediately contact athletes to ask them about a new mascot, and search for people to make the mascot a symbol of our College. We will sponsor a competition among students supporting each candidate mascot. Imagine a football game with cheers, songs, a trumpeting moose or a chainsawed tree.
A centralized calendar and information resource -- "The Green" -- will provide announcements and advertisements for social events, programs, workshops, concerts, and service projects. Student Assembly has already been developing this idea. We will harness next year's freshmen to fill it with information.
This year, Dartmouth has struggled with intolerance. In a community this diverse, different groups have struggled to reconcile varied outlooks. We hope to foster acceptance and empowerment for every Dartmouth student. The PANGEA program will be just the start of these efforts.
The issue of socioeconomic class silently divides our campus. Too many students work long hours on campus just to pay to be here. Campus policies constantly ignore these students. As part of our long term goals, we will advocate to raise the campus minimum wage, and make admission for international students need-blind.
