Trinity junior Harry Hutchinson said he believes the key to the office of vice president for student affairs is personal involvement with students.
Hutchinson said that after serving for two years as a Duke Student Government legislator he feels that students view DSG as unapproachable. His said his goal is to have students know his face on campus and feel free to stop him to discuss their concerns.
His experience working with student concerns goes back to high school, where he was a member of the student government and actively involved in the Black Student Alliance. This activity lead him to pursue leadership roles at the university level.
There are many problems that students at the University feel strongly about, Hutchinson said. Included among his goals are examinations of these problems, including a re-evaluation of the financial aid car policy and the freshman board plan.
Hutchinson said he thinks that DSG has the tendency to look at issues from an administrative stand point. He said that he believes that many issues that students are concerned with need to be addressed from the students' perspective.
While serving on DSG, Hutchinson worked with the Community Interaction Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. He said that it is vital to be embedded in the activities that students are involved with.
DSG needs to take a more assertive voice on campus, Hutchinson said.
"I want students to be able to turn to us for solutions as representatives of their concerns," he said. "We need to go out and petition students to see what they want, to find out what interests them and then to take their opinions to administration."
Other projects of Hutchinson's include the establishment of a black male achievement program in his home town in Maryland. His project was designed to promote diversity in the community and is now implemented state-wide.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.