Hours before the United States government dropped bombs over Baghdad, the Duke Student Government had its own say about the war.
At the general body's meeting Wednesday evening, the Legislature voted against a resolution that opposed unilateral action against Iraq.
In a debate that proved personal for those involved, interested students scattered throughout the room to observe the proceedings, and four of them - seniors Nader Al Ansari and Richard McCray, sophomore Amir Mokari, a Chronicle associate editorial page editor, and Shlomo Sher, a graduate student at the Fuqua School of Business - passionately pushed for legislators to pass the resolution.
The resolution listed three primary effects of U.S. unilateral action on members of the Duke community - deterring students from studying abroad, preventing outside cultural group performances and disrupting the Duke college experience for international students.
Sophomore Bridget Newman - who proposed the resolution with freshman Stacey Yee - called legislators to represent their constituents as student leaders. "You have a challenge before you," said Newman, also a columnist for The Chronicle. "But this is not a reason to shy away from it."
Yee stressed that the resolution was not anti-war but rather opposed unilateral action. "This war affects all of us although it may affect some less than others," she said. "We can't just tell [international students and visiting professors] to shut up and go back."
Earlier in the meeting, Al Ansari, president of the Arab Students Association and a citizen of Bahrain, held up his red passport, revealing the white slip that the U.S. government requires him to carry. "We find ourselves in an atmosphere of fear, mistrust and anger," he said. Although he recalled sealing plastic sheets over windows and placing wet rags under doors as a child to prepare for an attack by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Al Ansari still opposed a war without U.N. approval.
McCray highlighted the severe "life or death" situation for some students, noting his friends and family in the military.
Legislators, however, questioned whether the resolution actually addressed student opinion and whether the issue fell under DSG's jurisdiction.
"To say that we should be commenting on national and international policy is inappropriate for this Legislature," said sophomore Ryan Kennedy, a legislator.
Junior Rick Garcia, another legislator, said the resolution was irrelevant. "I don't think that this affects Duke students at all," he said.
Describing DSG as being at a "crossroads," sophomore Avery Capone said the resolution would diminish the organization's effectiveness. "This is a noble cause, but we're not here to take stances on euthanasia.... We're here to make pragmatic decisions," he said, encouraging legislators to pass fewer, more powerful resolutions.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: Senior Graham McWhorter presented a potential class schedule revision on behalf of a provost task force. McWhorter said the task force hopes to fight a trend in higher education towards a shorter academic week with fewer classes on Fridays.
Although the task force is still soliciting student feedback, the proposed schedule would spread classes more evenly throughout the day and the week. Wednesdays would serve as a break in the week for groups, students and faculty to meet.
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