“So my question is,” I concluded, “does the success of your campaign mark the end of Student Assembly?”

SA President-elect Tim Andreadis sat across from me, the hint of a smile growing on his face. Finally, he responded. “No, I don’t think it’s the end of Student Assembly; I just think it’s the end of Student Assembly as most people know it.”

Explaining Andreadis’ victory or its potential meaning to our campus is no easy task. After an election two years ago that brought Julia Hildreth to the helm by the comfortable margin of a single vote, and Noah Riner’s clear mandate of 29 last year, Andreadis’ 214 vote victory in round 10 stands out as a veritable landslide. And don’t forget—he was a write-in candidate. In retrospect, it’s almost disturbing; Andreadis has more of an actual mandate than Noah Riner and the Bush Administration combined. So who the heck is this guy?

“Student Assembly has often felt like they might not be in the position to address social issues in the past,” Andreadis began, “But they are. We are the voice of the students; we act as the liaison between the students and our administration.”

Indeed, if we consider Student Assembly’s recent history, Andreadis seems to have hit his mark. With programs dealing with the technical infrastructure of campus life, such as the newspaper readership program, comprising the major part of Student Assembly’s budget, SA seems to have concerned itself with the physical stuff surrounding us—our human condition—rather than working to implement a vision for the student body. But things weren’t always this way.

The ancient annals of Dartmouth College tell us that SA history began with its organizational forerunner, the Undergraduate Council. Foreboding name aside, the body was designed essentially as the unifying structure of Dartmouth College. All campus leaders, from club presidents to sports captains, held seats in this elite governing corps. But the leaders were apathetic, and, as a result, they accomplished nothing. When the UGC merged with the Interdormitory Council, the two gave birth to SA, replacing oligarchy with a proud young democracy. The predictable result? A group of students who quickly became career politicians. SA, since its inception, has only grown increasingly hermetic.

Of course, the situation on the ground has become slightly more complicated since the merger of ‘69. The fratty boys and girls of Dartmouth College now look toward their Greek Organizations for direct government, which have, in turn, their own super governmental structure, the Inter-Fraternity Council. Student activities are controlled by super-mega-behemoth-monster COSO (with a $225,000 budget, cha-ching), while Programming Board brings in the bands we don’t want to see, and the Hop provides the culture some students drink to forget.

So where does SA fit into this picture? In the past, it seems that the obvious answer, given our divisiveness, has been to provide money for those programs that the College should support, but doesn’t. Sure, SA has provided the blitz terminals, the bikes (umm…maybe the College is right in not supporting this), the newspapers, and the ability to meet with our Profs over a nice Cup o’ Joe, but because these programs are a fact of life at Dartmouth, no one on the street seems to know what the hell SA actually does.

Enter Andreadis. He plans to make changes that will, in fact, prevent SA from doing its former job. By ambitiously planning to cut the budget by 50%, Andreadis literally means this is the end of SA as we know it. The assembly will be fiscally incapable of providing newspapers, bikes and computers to the Dartmouth campus. But fear not, noble students. Andreadis says the cuts won’t happen unless the Provost’s office takes up the programs that it should have been supporting for years. Student Assembly will finally apply pressure on the College to do its job—to provide us with the necessary infrastructure for life at Dartmouth.

And it seems like this will be a damned good thing. This year alone, Student Assembly has accumulated a budgetary surplus of $19,000. In addition, the excess money leads to unnecessary expenditures. Andreadis shocked me when he explained that SA spent slightly more than one thousand dollars this year solely on dinner for members at its own meetings.

So what will replace this old-school Assembly model? Is it this sexual assault business? Are we seriously going to have a bunch of SAPAs and MAVs and other obscure abbreviations running amuck in SA chambers? The Dartmouth characterized Andreadis’ success as the product of rabid lies and fear-mongering (self-call!!!!), but regardless of the accuracy of his statistics, the campaign against sexual assault was merely an aspect of Andreadis’ platform. “Sexual assault sort of emerged as an issue early in the campaign. It was the thing that really mobilized some parts of campus. But really,” Andreadis continued, “I’m about policy changes. We need to focus on making Student Assembly address policy concerns. Real concerns.”

“It takes a whole campus community to build a successful Student Assembly. We really need to retool, rediscover what our priorities should be as a campus,” Andreadis said. Examining the divisive power structure at Dartmouth College, there are two options for Student Assembly’s future. It could engage in uncontroversial programs neglected by other student organizations, or choose to tackle social issues that pervade every sphere of Dartmouth life. It seems that we have finally chosen the latter.

At Dartmouth College, the time for social criticism has arrived. With an administration that, for the first time in thirty years, has finally ceased to struggle against the wishes of the student body and begun to cooperate with it, we should expect that Dartmouth College will take a serious look inside itself. Social criticism, although it has always had support here, will finally have a real voice beyond its former acronymic, resume level. And SA has the opportunity to be at its helm. “I think that for a lot of people, social issues have always been a concern. But when it comes down to it, these issues have either stagnated, or have not been addressed at the level the student body at the level it would like,” Andreadis said, “It’s time to start addressing them as a campus community.”

In order to do so, Andreadis is advocating a cooperative model. When working with the Greek Community he explained he would act as a partner, rather than attempt to speak for the system. But Andreadis continuously reminded me of the most important part of his vision: that it doesn’t just involve the Greek system. “Pointing the finger at frat row is not only unfair,it’s also naive,” he explained. Andreadis’ project is a holistic one. If it succeeds, it will unify as it divides. In short, we’ll return to the old UGC model, but with members who actually care about their jobs.

Andreadis did not win because of scare tactics, or special interest groups, or his attacks on The Dartmouth’s spotless reputation for journalistic integrity. Rather, he won because, on some level, students sensed what his campaign was about: a new vision for Dartmouth society. As Andreadis said, “I don’t think the mission [of Student Assembly] has changed, in terms of being the voice of the student body. Instead, we’re acknowledging it more fully.” Congratulations, Tim. It’s about time we’ve had you here.