After failing to convince Duke Student Government to put it on DSG’s March 31 election day ballot, members of Campus Council are taking matters into their own hands with a proposed fee increase that would bring as much as $90,000 more for Last Day of Classes—and for big-time bands.
DSG tabled the student activities fee hike of $7.50 per semester at its March 9 legislative meeting due to conflicting presentations on the new money’s allocation. As a fallback option, Campus Council representatives will begin petitioning students today for a referendum on DSG’s second election day April 12, when senators and class officers are voted into office. In order to bypass DSG and put the increase on that ballot, 15 percent of all undergraduates—about 960 signatures—must approve the measure.
“Given the popularity of Last Day of Classes and student interest in seeing a marquee headliner, I don’t think 15 percent of the student body signing it will be a problem,” said outgoing Campus Council President Anthony Vitarelli. “It’s just like buying a concert ticket.”
Because the increased revenue from the fee hike would officially pump into Campus Council’s existing $50,000 budget and be distributed from there, legislators took caution at their last meeting with initially placing what DSG President Pasha Majdi called a “convoluted” plan on its executive ballot.
“You just can’t have people say, ‘Give us $50,000 and we promise we’ll use it on this,’” said Majdi, a senior. “That’s not good enough.”
Campus Council Treasurer Brittany Greenfield said she remained frustrated with the Senate’s tabling of the resolution, but she and her colleagues would press on with the second ballot option because “it’s easier to get 960 signatures than go back to DSG.”
Since the increase would not go into effect until the 2006-2007 school year, Greenfield said the petition would primarily target freshmen with promotions at the Marketplace over the course of the next week and a half.
Elizabeth Ladner, DSG attorney general and 2005 election coordinator, said the second ballot petition was rare but that it gave students an alternate route to push through legislation.
“If there is something that DSG doesn’t necessarily think should be done and the student body does, then they should take advantage of this,” said Ladner, a senior.
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