Over the weekend, Duke Student Government President Awa Nur, a senior, vetoed a bylaw that would allow the student body to ultimately select the Young Trustee. The bylaw was passed with a two-thirds majority by the DSG Senate Nov. 11.
Nur officially vetoed the bylaw by e-mailing DSG Executive Vice President Gregory Morrison, a junior, around 6:20 p.m. Saturday, Morrison said.
Senators can still overrule her veto with a two-thirds majority. An exact date for voting on the veto has yet to be determined.
In her veto, Nur wrote that she decided to overrule the Senate because the election the bylaw called for is “neither free nor fair.” It does not allow candidates to campaign and only allows students to seek endorsements through student groups, which would be “filtered [to students] through these colored lenses,” Nur wrote.
“It has always been my strong belief that the best Young Trustee need not come from a ‘power’ position on campus,” Nur said in her veto. “The election as written restricts competition and debate. Under those circumstances, what really is the purpose of an election, aside, of course, from cosmetics?”
Nur also objected to the amendment that allowed the DSG Judiciary to choose the six at-large additions to the Young Trustee Nominating Committee. She added that senators had not debated the bill enough to come to a decision.
Nur said in an interview that Senators expressed that they did not have enough time to discuss the bylaw. She added that she vetoed to allow for more debate.
“If you look at the fact that they had 48 hours to consider the amendment, now they would have another four or five days,” Nur said. “The Senate can very easily close debate and overturn my veto. I would hope that they don’t do that and I would hope that they take the intentions of the veto to heart. I can’t see a lot of people being displeased by my decision to give free, open discussion.”
To allow for more discussion, Morrison said he will probably push back debate over Nur’s veto to the Dec. 2 DSG meeting. He would not comment on his reaction to the veto.
Junior Will Passo, vice president for Durham and regional affairs, said he disagrees with Nur’s veto. Passo, who co-authored the bill that called for a student body election with sophomore Pete Schork, vice president for athletics and campus services, disagreed with Nur’s assertion that the process was rushed. Passo said he and Shork had discussed the bylaw extensively with committees before Wednesday’s meeting.
“[Schork and I] had changed our position to meet the Senators’ needs,” Passo said. “To say that it was rushed was just ridiculous. You’re not going to bring something to vote unless you have the vote, so Pete and I went with that because we thought we had the vote.”
DSG Chief of Staff Mike Lefevre, a junior, said he supports Nur’s decision to allow for more debate. He added that he proposes that the nominating committee include a randomly generated list of students, which would select the Young Trustee.
Nur said her veto is not an attack on the senators’ work, but it is merely a “challenge.” She said the proposed student body election would not have led to the selection of current Young Trustee Ben Abram, Pratt ’07. Nur, who sat on Abram’s nominating committee her freshman year, said she thinks he has been one of the best Young Trustees.
“When I was reading the bylaw on Wednesday one of the things I considered was, ‘Could Ben Abram survive a system like this?’” Nur said. “The reasoning [of the first point in my veto] was very personable in that Ben Abram would not survive. I care that we create a fair and legitimate system so that anyone who wants to, can compete.”
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