Recently, the Duke Student Government vice presidents laid out the specific goals toward which their respective committees will work this year. Of the four departments, only two--Academic Affairs and Facilities and Athletics--displayed a coherent and realistic set of policy goals. The remaining departments, Student Affairs and Community Interaction should restructure elements of their plans to ensure that their initiatives are both practical and relevant.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Avery Reaves approached the DSG executive elections last spring with the most solid platform of any candidate running for any position, and has already begun to make headway in several important areas. The issues that Reaves has placed on his agenda directly effect students and can be reasonably improved within his tenure. He has made the new dean's excuse policy a top priority. If and when the policy is approved, it will undoubtedly benefit students in the long run, the mechanisms involved need to be clearly expressed to both students and professors. Second, he plans to make much-needed improvements in the pre-major advising center by creating incentives for participation by younger faculty and increasing advisors' familiarity with C2K. These changes are much-needed, and it is suprising that it has taken the University this long to address them.
The committee on Facilities and Athletics, led by Alex Niejelow, will make building-safety and improved parking and transportation its primary objectives. With the various construction projects on campus, enforcing safety codes and guidelines should be a priority. Further, the opening of gated lots after 5 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends will help to alleviate the parking crunch facing vistors to West. This has been long-promised, but this should be the year it actually happens.
Vice President for Student Affairs Elizabeth Dixon has a lofty agenda, but her goals raise questions of feasibility. Foremost, her plans do not focus on the development of the planned Student Village. This should be her committee's primary focus. The Village is now in its planning stages, and she should make her committee a central conduit through which student input is communicated to appropriate officials. Further, she plans to improve the quality of social life by alleviating the cost to selective groups of holding parties and gatherings on-campus. Dixon has correctly identified the fact that holding events off-campus is expensive, because groups must pay to rent a restaurant or venue, and pay for transportation and alcohol. However, it will be difficult for Dixon to secure enough money from the University to make holding events on campus worthwhile. Many groups would need to see a drastic reduction in cost to submit to having University bartenders at their events and operating under the supervision of campus officials. Dixon should keep her focus grounded, and work on keeping students abreast of developments on the Student Village, and improving campus safety and crime-prevention awareness.
Finally, the committee on Community Interaction is perennially plagued by ambiguity and lack of direction, and this year is no different. While we applaud vice president Andrew Wisnewski's enthusiasm at strengthening communication inside the Duke community and outside in Durham, his goals need to be streamlined and better organized. He should associate himself with the CSC and the Office of Community Affairs to orchestrate advocacy programs in the Durham community, instead of focusing on issues like the Primate Center which is waste of his and DSG's time.
As usual, DSG has a long road ahead. It is admittedly difficult to resist the temptation to strive for lofty goals, especially in the face of a reputation for ineffectiveness and a lack of tangible results. However, this year's leaders should tackle issues within their power, and create a strong foundation of organization and interaction upon which future executives can build.
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