SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2021
THE DARTMOUTH COMMENCEMENT ISSUE 2021
PAGE 11
A revived Palaeopitus searches for its niche on campus B y Arielle Feuerstein The Dartmouth Staff
Prior to the advent of organizations like Student Assembly, Palaeopitus served as the principal student governance body on campus. Founded in 1899, some of Palaeopitus’ original responsibilities included collaborating with the administration on college policy, overseeing student parties and preserving campus traditions. In 1968, the student body voted to abolish Palaeopitus because the group “represented the kinds of institutions that students were fighting against in the ‘60s,” according to the Palaeopitus website. By the time Palaeopitus returned to campus in 1981, its previous role had been filled by Student Assembly and other campus organizations. Today, Palaeopitus’s mission statement promises to organize events that bridge the gap between students and the administration, address threats to the campus community, advocate for student interests, and create a space for campus leaders to collaborate. Students apply to join Palaeopitus at the end of their junior year, and the organization seeks out leaders in other areas of campus life to join its ranks. There are also four ex-officio members: the president of Student Assembly, the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth, the senior class president and the intern to the president of the College. Co-moderator of the 2021 Palaeopitus delegation Marina Cepeda ’21 describes the society’s present role as a “project-based organization” that advises Dean of the College Kathryn Lively. Ezekiel Vergara ’21, another member of Palaeopitus’ 2021 delegation, explained that Palaeopitus members split into committees that pursue different projects. Cepeda said that projects vary based on the interests of the members of each delegation. Her delegation,
she said, focused on advocating for marginalized communities, addressing student mental health and improving transparency within the administration, and one of their projects included creating an organizational chart to help students navigate communicating with the administration. “Sure, you can ask Dean Lively your questions, but perhaps there’s somebody else who can better answer your question, can get you funding, can connect you to counseling — whatever you need.” Cepeda said. An important role of Palaeopitus lies in its direct communication with the administration. Cepeda met with Lively twice a month when she served as co-moderator, and the organization is able to bypass bureaucratic red tape to bring issues before Lively. “Let’s say you had a concern. The next time I meet with Lively, I’m going to bring it up,” Cepeda said. “There’s no voting [whether] we want to bring up your concern — do we need to pass a resolution? Do we need to discuss it? It’s very informal in the sense that we will advocate and we will bring up issues.” While Palaeopitus has a direct line of communication with Lively, its current ability to influence the actions of the administration is limited. “We provide ideas to [the] admin that they can choose or not choose to follow up on,” Cepeda said. The administration’s response to Palaeopitus’ varies somewhat, according to Vergara, and is dependent on the specific situational circumstances. “Various factors, such as the member’s role at Dartmouth, perhaps institutional, or the issue itself, affect whether administration will respond,” Vergara said. Palaeopitus is not the only student group that communicates with the administration on behalf of student interests. Student Assembly, which replaced Palaeopitus as a structure of student government before the society’s revival, pledges to “lend a voice to student concerns and opinions” in their mission statement. Palaeopitus differs from Student Assembly in its structure: While members of Student Assembly are elected by the student body, Palaeopitus membership is application-based and only consists of members of the senior class. Yet after Palaeopitus’ return, Cepeda noted that the group had to rediscover its purpose on campus. “We sort of had to find our niche again because Student Assembly filled in the gap of communication,” Cepeda said. Vergara noted that Palaeopitus has been “siloed” because so many other bodies also communicate with the administration. Some of these bodies, like Student Assembly, are more widely recognized among students. Vergara said that under the pandemic’s unusual circumstances, his delegation was relatively successful in communicating with students, but he feels that it is definitely an area in which Palaeopitus could improve in the future. “I do think that there could be things to increase the student body’s awareness of Palaeop. I know we have a website that we’re currently trying to renovate, [...] facetime more students; we talked about perhaps doing office hours with students,” Vergara said. Cepeda, echoing Vergara’s sentiments, noted that she does not think that the student body “knows
SOPHIE BAILEY/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The senior society overlaps in its authorities with Student Assembly and the COVID-19 student advisory board.
the extent of what Palaeop does and “It’s hard when you only select can do for students.” leaders because that means that Palaeopitus’ role also currently has everyone’s capacity isn’t as big, overlap with the Dean of the College because you’re committed to several Student Advisory Board, which Lively communities already,” Cepeda said. described in an interview as an “ad hoc Palaeopitus’ position as a projectgroup of students [...] which advise [her] oriented organization is another and respond to the College’s COVID factor that contributes to its struggle policies.” The members of this board to carve out a permanent campus were nominated by administration niche, according to incoming senior members, and Lively noted that some class president Alexander Klein ’22, of the students appointed were drawn an ex-officio member of the 2022 from Palaeopitus. Palaeopitus delegation. He attributes Despite this overlap, Vergara feels Palaeopitus’ present lack of a proper that Palaeopitus is “well-situated to niche partly to the fact that there is make institutional change alongside little continuity between delegations, organizations like Student Assembly.” which makes it difficult for Palaeopitus He served as a member of Lively’s to serve a consistent role on campus. student advisory board along with the This, he said, limits the scope of its President of the 2021 Class Council projects. and Student Assembly president. “Each year, we try to do something Vergara added that Palaeopitus’ different or work on a new project, structure somewhat differentiates its and there’s no continuation of past role from other representative bodies. projects, and sometimes, that’s a “We’re not an problem,” Klein elected body, and “It’s hard when you said. “Some of that’s something the advice that that should be only select leaders the graduating r e c o g n i z e d , because that means senior s told but I think we us was not to everyone’s capacity do advocate for make too big of students in a isn’t as big, because a goal because way that might you’re committed to it’s really easy be different to think of a from Student several communities really big great Assembly [...] already.” project and then because Palaeop not have enough is composed time to finish of a variety of - MARINA CEPEDA it — especially different groups ’21, PALAEOPITUS COsince you only from all across have a year, campus,” Vergara MODERATOR really.” said. “Our role is Klein advocating for students as opposed to hopes that the society can adapt representing students.” its structure to remedy this lack of Cepeda thinks that Palaeopitus’ continuity. unique composition of campus “We’re trying to find a way to have a leaders strengthens the organization. focused goal that can be a continuation She sees value in having members from year to year to build upon,” Klein in “different pockets of campus” said. that have experience leading their Althoughthepurposeof Palaeopitus community. may currently be nebulous, its role on “It’s definitely a strength to have campus may become clearer in the people from different backgrounds coming months. Lively acknowledged and identities as an advocate for their that there are presently a number of communities,” Cepeda said. student advisory groups that somewhat However, the group’s structure has overlap in purpose, and she expressed its weaknesses. While each member an intention to remedy this. can bring a valuable perspective, “At some point, we all sat down and Cepeda noted that the members’ heavy said, ‘this is a lot of advisory groups, involvement in other areas of campus and they’re sort of all working on the life can limit their ability to dedicate same things. How might we streamline time and energy to Palaeopitus’ aims. this and also make a clear distinction
between the two?’” Lively said. As the College recovers from the pandemic and returns to normal operations, Lively said she did not feel the student advisory board would still serve a necessary role on campus, given that it was initially formed to respond specifically to College COVID-19 policies. Lively, who said she has decided to abolish the board, added that she wants to keep an advisory board of students and that Palaeopitus will fill this role in the upcoming year. “I asked Palaeopitus if they would be willing to step down from some of their project-based work where they were often overlapping [...] to be a longer-term student advisory board where we can begin to think about some of the larger structural and cultural problems that we’re going to be facing, particularly coming out of COVID-19,” Lively said. The details of the transition are not yet finalized, but there are a number of issues that Lively said she hopes that Palaeopitus can provide student input on, including questions surrounding reviving campus life postpandemic, improving communication between students, faculty and the administration and addressing student mental health. “Some of the questions that I would like student input on are: How do we reboot the feeling of community, given the fractured year that we had last year? How do we think about leadership transitions when there are students on campus that missed an entire year? [...] How can we think about mental health and getting the entire campus community involved?” Lively said. Lively added that she will begin to meet with Palaeopitus members over the summer to decide the details of the organization’s new role. The 2022 Palaeopitus delegation will begin actively serving in its renewed advisory role come fall 2021. “My greatest hope is simply to reopen lines of communication and to be able to create a space where we can be creative again, where we can bring our best ideas and come up with workable, implementable solutions to solve tough problems,” Lively said. “I would like to be able to help use Palaeopitus to help restore a greater sense of collaboration, cooperation and partnership between students and administration.”
