On March 2, the Dartmouth Student Government Senate met for its ninth weekly meeting of the winter term. Led by student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25, the Senate discussed a constitutional task force proposal — sponsored by School House senator JJ Dega ’26, West House senator Favion Harvard ’26 and East Wheelock senator Jack Wisdom ’26 — and a constitutional amendment proposed by Odigbo to allow non-voting DSG representatives to vote on budget allocations.
The constitutional task force proposal — whose language was adjusted during discussions at the March 2 meeting to include a formal process for approving a task force director — passed 8-2-1. The representative budget voting amendment was tabled for future discussion due to time constraints.
The task force will “recommend” improvements for DSG’s bylaws to the Senate, Dega wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
“[Harvard, Wisdom and I] wanted to establish a broader working group to examine DSG’s current operations and propose ways to improve our organization and its functions for the full Senate’s eventual consideration,” Dega wrote.
A prior version of the proposal obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth contained no explicit mechanism for choosing a task force director. At the meeting, Odigbo said the Senate should be able to vote on the task force’s director, after which the proposal’s text was changed.
According to the proposal passed during the March 2 meeting, which was obtained and reviewed by The Dartmouth, individuals “interested in serving” on the task force will self-nominate for “Senate approval.” The director of the task force will be a sitting member of the task force who self-nominates and must receive Senate approval.
“I’m glad the proposers ultimately made the directorship process more open, and we will build an even more efficient solution in the spring,” Odigbo wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth.
General senator Ikenna Nwafor ’27, who spoke in opposition to the proposal at the March 2 meeting, wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that a “key issue” of the passed director confirmation process is that the Senate “is not presented with the full range of potential candidates.”
“Since the Senate has chosen to establish an internal review task force, it is crucial to ensure that the process remains transparent, democratic and free from unnecessary bureaucracy,” Nwafor wrote.
DSG task forces are organized on a term-by-term basis, according to the DSG constitution. According to Odigbo, the new task force — whose members have not yet been nominated — will serve until winter term ends on March 14. After March 14, a new proposal for the task force will have to be passed and its members will have to be reapproved, he explained.
The Senate also discussed a representative budget voting amendment, which aimed to “expand student involvement in DSG” by allowing non-voting representatives to vote on budget allocation, Odigbo wrote. Currently, DSG representatives — members of the public confirmed by the Senate after attending three open DSG meetings in a term— can only vote in committees, not on the Senate floor.
In an interview after the meeting, general senator Sabik Jawad ’26 said he opposed the amendment during the meeting because he believed it “caused issues with [DSG’s] mandate.”
“The entire purpose of DSG is student advocacy … for the students, by the students,” Jawad said. “Having non-elected members voting on the [portion of DSG’s] budget that comes from individual student activities fees [charged as part of students’ tuitions] causes a lot of complications.”
Non-voting representative Honiely Aviles ’28 wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that she believes representatives would be “overstepping their bounds” if allowed to vote on budget allocation.
“Senators have the power to vote, as they were elected by the Dartmouth student body,” Aviles wrote. “Representatives are not directly elected.”
An informal survey of the Senate taken before the amendment was tabled showed an even split for and against it.
Health and wellness committee members and DSG executives also provided progress reports on ongoing projects.
Odigbo said “some members” of the Palaeopitus Senior Society are “working on” a project that will reduce the need for seat-saving at Commencement. According to past reporting by The Dartmouth, most seating at Commencement is available on a first-come, first-served basis — which results in some guests paying seat-savers to claim spots when the Green opens around 5 a.m.
Jawad, a former seat saver, said in an interview after the meeting that he was “concerned” that a new seating system would make it more difficult for low-income students to acquire Commencement seats.
“Currently, because it’s a free-for-all system, everyone has an equal chance of getting their preferred seats theoretically,” Jawad added in a written follow-up statement to The Dartmouth. “I’m worried other systems might not give everyone a fair shot at getting the seats they want.”
Representative Mary Sherrard ’28, who co-ran the Health and Wellness Committee’s “winter wellness” giveaway in Novack on Feb. 28, said in an interview after the meeting that it was “good to meet people’s physical needs while also meeting their mental needs.” Students were given goodie bags containing chapstick, fuzzy socks, a hat, gloves, a scarf, a Lego set and hand lotion, alongside crisis cards — which inform people who are with someone experiencing a mental health crisis how best to help them — from the Counseling Center.
“We’re trying to do a resource giveaway and bring awareness to something every [term] on campus,” Sherrard said.
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
Jackson Hyde '28 is an intended philosophy major from Los Angeles, California. His interests include photography, meditation, and board game design.
