VIGIL TONIGHT

over blitz:

Please join your Dartmouth peers in a candlelight memorial for the people murdered today at Virgina Tech. We hope to join as a community in remembering the victims of this tragedy.

Candlelight Memorial Ceremony
8 PM
Collis Porch
Monday, April 16

Power outages, wind, and rain will unite to make today miserable.

News stories of the day
VA SHOOTING:

At least 33 dead in Virginia Tech shooting (CNN)

Deadly shooting at US university (BBC)

Gunfire on campus of Va. Tech kills at least 33 (LA Times)


Anna Nicole Smith's diaries fail to sell at auction
What? Is no one interested in her thoughful and profound insight to every day occurrences?
McCain To Send Self Back To Vietnamese POW Camp To Revitalize Campaign (from the Onion)

It's looking like this lovely rain and snow we're experiencing with be joining us at least until Tuesday evening, possibly until Thursday. Fashion accessories this week: umbrella and boots.

News stories of the day:
Texas may require schools to carry elective on Bible
Man proposes after four minutes
US generals urge climate action


The Sunday Funnies

(click play to watch)

Distorted Images

The following videos are about the way common perceptions of beauty are distorted. The first two are serious, the last one is a joke (you need to watch the second one in order to get it). Enjoy.

Facebook Profile Picture Evolution

(click to watch)

Dove Artificial Beauty: Evolution (original)

(click to watch)

Dove Parody: Slob Evolution (I almost wet my pants when I first saw this)

(click to watch)

Dumb College Pranks

We've all seen drinkin' time (bottom), but this one gives it some serious competition.

Yellow Book Prank (Tufts)

(click to watch)

Drinkin' Time (Dartmouth)

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007)

So it goes.

GA Minutes 10 Apr 07

Proposal to Fund and Support “Collis-Up-All-Night”
Sponsored by: Lawton Leung ’10, Ashley Cartagena ’10 and the Communications Committee

WHEREAS the Dartmouth Student Assembly has, in the past, held successful “Collis-Up-All-Night” events

WHEREAS the event has provided a fun and safe alternative for social interaction;

WHEREAS the event will bring together a variety of organizations and representatives of the Student Body including performance groups and programming organizations, thus fostering cooperation and community;

WHEREAS there is a lack of alcohol-free events for the student body that last for the duration of a night;

WHEREAS “Collis-Up-All-Night” will be on the night of Friday, April 13th, 2007 during the hours of 7 PM to 2 AM;

WHEREAS an event such as “Collis-Up-All-Night” will be a positive addition to the successes sponsored by the Assembly;

WHEREAS the Communications Committee has found some alternate funding by working with Programming Board and Collis Governing Board and is implanting inexpensive activities to decrease costs;

LET IT BE RESOLVED that the Student Assembly allocate up to $3,000 for the execution of this event to be divided among the following expenses:

Food: $1000
Student Performance Groups (Including Final Cut, Rockapellas, Dodecs,
Decibelles etc.): $200
Advertising: $25
Activities and games: $1475

Poker Tournament: $100
Pong paddle painting: $750
Movies and popcorn: $25
Prizes (including iPods for poker and bingo): $600

Maintenance, building fees, discretionary funds: $300

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED that student organizations including Face Aids, Habitat, and Grassroots Soccer, will have tables providing information and requesting optional donations throughout Collis during the event.

LET IT FINALLY BE RESOLVED that the Communications Committee will be accountable for the responsible use of allocated resources and the successful execution of the event.
Statement in Support of Syllabus Accessibility


Statement in Support of Syllabus Accessibility
Sponsored by Adam Halpern-Leistner ’10, Corey Chu ’08, and the Academic Affairs Committee

WHEREAS course syllabi provide accurate information about courses that can be beneficial to students during course selection;

WHEREAS copyright concerns prohibit the posting of syllabi on non-secure websites;

WHEREAS the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) is working on limiting the Blackboard website so that syllabi posted there will only be available to the Dartmouth community, but with the expected release of a new version of Blackboard, this project will not be completed until after next fall;

WHEREAS using the Dartmouth Web Authentication system, academic departments can easily post course syllabi that will be viewable only by the Dartmouth community;

WHEREAS the Dean of Faculty’s office has called the process of uploading syllabi onto department websites a “trivial” task;

WHEREAS the Government Department has used this system to post past syllabi and has reported very positive feedback;

WHEREAS course syllabi provide a way to learn about a course that is more comprehensive than course listings and more objective than Course Guide reviews.

WHEREAS course syllabi provide information such as reading lists that can be useful to students not taking the class but interested in the subject;

WHEREAS the accessibility to course syllabi during course selection may decrease the adding and dropping of classes during the first two weeks of the term;

WHEREAS syllabus accessibility can assist professors in publicizing their courses;

LET IT BE STATED that the Student Assembly inform departments about the importance of making course syllabi accessible;

LET IT FURTHER BE STATED that the Student Assembly encourage departments to use the Dartmouth Web Authentication system to post syllabi online with professors’ consent.


Statement of Concern Regarding Computing Services Cable Box Distribution Plans
Sponsored by: Cory Cunningham ’10, Harshil Shah ’09, Corey Chu ’08, Neil Kandler ’08,
and the Student Services Committee

WHEREAS the Department of Computing Services at Dartmouth College administers the cable television network for students living in on-campus housing;

WHEREAS the current coaxial cable system that provides television free of charge will be deactivated at the end of the Spring 2007 term;

WHEREAS commencing with the Summer 2007 term, in order to receive cable television in on-campus housing, students must either use DarTV, which is only available on computers, or an STP cable box;

WHEREAS in order to watch television on a regular television set, students must use an STP cable box to convert cable from an Ethernet port to a coaxial cable;

WHEREAS Computing Services is currently intending on requiring that students purchase these STP cable boxes outright at a cost of approximately $300;

WHEREAS $300 is a significant sum for many Dartmouth students to be forced to pay if they wish to have television in their rooms on a traditional television set;

WHEREAS nearly all of Dartmouth’s peer academic institutions provide cable television service to students as part of their regular housing fees;

WHEREAS Computing Services intends on partnering with Evolving Vox, an organization not affiliated with the College, in order to allow students to rent cable boxes at a fee which is unnecessary;

WHEREAS given that Evolving Vox does not fall under the jurisdiction of the College, there is no guarantee that this will be a successful and fair program for ensuring the appropriate reuse of said boxes;

WHEREAS there are a variety of other methods that the Department of Computing Services can make said STP boxes available to students while still ensuring responsible use of the units;

LET IT BE STATED that the Student Assembly issue the following statement of concern regarding the Department of Computing Services plans for distributing STP cable boxes:

The Student Services Committee and Student Assembly at large are concerned that the Department of Computing Services is not considering Dartmouth students’ best interest given their current plans for the future cost and distribution methods of the STP cable boxes. There are a variety of different options available that would ensure that the units are properly handled, including, but not limited to, refundable security deposits and administrative fines, and none have been given fair consideration.

Given the significant student financial outlay necessary in order to purchase a STP box, and the inadequate current plans for the eventual reuse of the units, the Student Assembly, on behalf of the student body, request that the Department of Computing Services ascertain a superior method of distributing and controlling the usage of these units without such a high cost to students.

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED that the Student Services Committee and the Student Assembly at large share its concerns with the Department of Computing Services in an effort to improve the plans for purchase and distribution of the STB boxes to develop a plan that is fair and equitable to both the students and administration.

'The Dartmouth Wiki' Controversy

On March 30, a blitz was sent out by "The Dartmouth Wiki" to all students asking them to sign-up for their website. SA had been developing a wiki of our own for a while now and didn't want people to be confused and think that this 'impostor wiki' was our doing. Later that day, we sent this blitz out to campus:

Recently, a mass blitz was sent out from "The Dartmouth Wiki" asking students to register and help build a wiki (as in Wikipedia) for "Dartmouth University" [sic]. This website (as far as we are aware) is in no way associated with the College, Student Assembly, or any of its members and is instead an outside commercial venture. The Student Assembly and the Dartmouth Computer Science Department have been working to develop our own Dartmouth Wiki and will soon make it available for student use; however, this is not it.

This group has recently launched wiki sites for other schools (including the rest of the Ivy League and numerous others) and is selling advertisement space on its pages. The website seems to operate by allowing students to ask questions which are then emailed out on compiled mailing lists, much like spam. At the time of this writing, 175 students have already signed up. We advise that all students approach this website with appropriate care and recommend that those who wish to register with it consider using an email address other than their DND account.

We will be sending out more information about the upcoming official wiki in the near future.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Student Assembly

Appearently the guys over at collegewikis.com weren't too happy with this blitz. They subsequently wrote the following letter to the editor published in The Dartmouth on April 5, which they also posted on the front page of their website:

To the Editor:

We launched the Dartmouth Wiki because several Dartmouth students e-mailed us asking for one. CollegeWikis.com is a team of current and recent students whose only intention is to provide other college students with a useful and informative resource. Our wikis have been well-received at schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. We are not profiting from the website.

The Dartmouth Wiki creates a trusted network by using a facebook.com-like system of only allowing students with a @dartmouth.edu e-mail address to register and ask questions, thus ensuring accurate, high-quality, and relevant information.

There is value in both official and unofficial information. We’ve modeled our wiki after wikipedia, an unofficial yet extremely useful resource. We should welcome the diversity of both an “official” and “unofficial” wiki, especially when the official site plans to censor postings it doesn’t approve of and is still in the “formative” stages. (from the article: “this page will be approved by the administration and the information on the site will be filtered").

The Assembly telling students not to use a website is reminiscent of a government that tries to censor its citizens, and I hope Dartmouth students won’t stand for it. CollegeWikis.com purposely allows students to post about whatever they want, not to be monitored by others who decide what information to allow.

If I were a student, I'd be disappointed that the Assembly 1) thought they could dictate what websites I should go to, and 2) told me not to use something that could be of great value when they have no viable alternative. I would be even more disappointed if my classmates followed that order.

Joe DiPasquale
Founder, CollegeWikis.com

Thankfully for Dartmouth, Joe isn't a student, although he does have a pretty good idea (but we thought of it first). This is the letter we were thinking of sending to The Dartmouth, but we deemed too harsh:

We would like to thank Mr DiPasquale for his letter in The Dartmouth yesterday and for finally recognizing that we are "Dartmouth College" and not "Dartmouth University." We are all glad to see that his commitment to "accurate, high-quality and relevant information" extends far enough to get the college's name right.

The purpose of the blitz the Student Assembly sent out a while ago was to make sure that students did not think that his wiki (which sent emails to all students asking them to sign-up under the name, "The Dartmouth Wiki") was not affiliated with the college and was not the wiki that Student Assembly has been quite publicly developing. As flattering as it for him to compare the Student Assembly to 'big government,' Dartmouth students are smart enough to know that we were looking out for their best interests and that they are free to use his website as they please. His attempts to criticize us in order to protect his own commercial interests are transparent.

Mr. DiPasquale ends his treatise on the proper role of government by saying that it was wrong of the Assembly to ask students to "approach this website with appropriate care" when there is "no viable alternative." He is wrong here because there is a good alternative to his website: it's called bored@baker.

The Student Assembly Executive Board

Comments?

Explanation of the New Attendance System

(from the GA Minutes of 3 April 2007)

Nathan L. Bruschi, Secretary, explained the new attendance and voting system for the Student Assembly. The following notes were written on the chalkboard:

1. If you are a member, you should have a card on the front table (in black ink, with the SA logo). If you are not a member, please fill out one of the blank cards (with the red marker provided).

2. To vote or get your name on the Speakers’ List, please raise your card so that we can read your name. We will know who has voting rights by the color of the card.

3. When you leave, put your card in the bins near the doors. We will collect these cards from these bins and use them note which members were present.

4. If you won “kudos” you will be presented with a sticker to put on the back of you card so that you can keep track of your achievements.

GA Minutes 03 Apr 07

Proposal to Fund Ivy Council’s Spring 2007 Conference
Sponsored by Joe DeBonis ’10 and the Executive Committee

WHEREAS Ivy Council acts as a useful networking and information sharing body among the Ivy League schools;

WHEREAS Dartmouth’s Ivy Council serves as Student Assembly’s representative to the Ivy Council;

WHEREAS there are bi-annual conferences in the Fall and Spring, which provide a forum for Ivy League schools to discuss various issues that arise in their respective student governments;

WHEREAS issues from each school are discussed at the conferences;

WHEREAS past issues discussed at the conferences have included the Committee on Standards (or its equivalent), campus security, course evaluation systems, and ROTC and the LGTBQA community;

WHEREAS the spring 2007 conference will be held at Brown University on April 13, 14, and 15;

WHEREAS possible issues that will be covered at the conference this year include (but are not limited to) environmental sustainability on campus, recruitment and retention of student government, gender-neutral housing, and academic and departmental advising;

WHEREAS the information gathered at the conference will be relevant to many issues and projects that exist in Student Assembly;

WHEREAS discussion of these issues can lead to new and useful ideas for projects and policy;

LET IT BE RESOLVED that Student Assembly allocate up to $600 to finance Ivy Council’s dues, transportation, and other expenses necessary to attend the Spring 2007 Ivy Council Conference.



Proposal to Endorse Ivy Council’s Ivy-Wide Climate Neutrality Resolution
Sponsored by Joe DeBonis ’10 and the Executive Committee

WHEREAS Dartmouth is an active and contributing member to Ivy Council;

WHEREAS environmental issues such as sustainability and climate neutrality are important issues for the student body and administration of Dartmouth;

WHEREAS Dartmouth is at the forefront of campus sustainability;

WHEREAS an Ivy-wide resolution of campus neutrality would be in accordance with the environmental goals and ideals of the College;

WHEREAS such a resolution will be passed by Ivy Council at the spring 2007 conference, contingent upon the support of each school’s student government;

WHEREAS, as the Resolution states, “Embracing environmental sustainability and clean energy is in concert with universities’ existing goals and values, including service to society, realization of social justice, the training of future leaders, and technological advancement”;

WHEREAS, as the Resolution states, “Ivy League universities are in a unique position in society to demonstrate leadership in addressing global climate change and have the academic and financial resources to be global leaders on this issue”;

WHEREAS the student group Sustainable Dartmouth was part of an inter-Ivy coalition that drafted and ratified this resolution;

WHEREAS the Resolution calls for each signatory to adopt the goal of individual and collective climate neutrality through a combination of increased energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, and the purchase of carbon offsets;

LET IT BE RESOLVED that Student Assembly endorse Ivy Council’s Ivy-wide Climate Neutrality Resolution and become a signatory thereof. (See following)