Of all the places to look for great strides in racial equality, you might think an institution far south of the Mason-Dixon Line, a school that didn't even admit its first black students until 1961 and a university with a "good-old boy" reputation would be a bad place to look.
You would be mistaken.
A 1999 study in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education found that Duke had elected more black student body presidents--seven--than any other leading college, and an eighth has served since.
Not only that, but today's Duke Student Government was created through the vision of two black campus leaders: Tonya Robinson, Trinity '92, and Hardy Vieux, Trinity '93.
For one and a half years from Fall 1991 to Spring 1992, Robinson was president of DSG's forerunner, Associated Students of Duke University-a body that was by all accounts every bit as unwieldy and opaque as its name.
It was a time much like the present: Campus culture was a central focus for discussion, and town-gown relations were strained.
When Robinson, a Durham native who was raised, as she says, "on what some might say was the wrong side of the tracks" by a single mother, decided to run for ASDU president, race was one-but not the only-element of a push she led to make student government more democratic.
At that time, she and Vieux say, black students tended to turn to the Black Student Alliance when change was needed. But Robinson, now a counsel at the Washington, D.C., law firm WilmerHale, decided instead to remake ASDU as a more effective body. To help her, she recruited the aid of students representing a wide cross section of the undergraduate population.
"It felt as if we were running a historic campaign," she says. "Race was an issue, but we thought we were on the cusp of a people's movement. We all came from diverse backgrounds, but what we had in common was a desire to change things on campus."
But she says her status as the only black candidate in a large field did not go unnoticed. And her election, in turn, had a ripple effect both on and off campus.
"For me, it was a huge accomplishment to go to Duke and have not only a productive and satisfying college experience but to be able to give back as student body president," she says. "There were extraordinary accomplishments in healing the divide between the University and the city at that time, and part of that was the symbolic significance of having a child of the city in that position."
Vieux, also now a lawyer at Washington's Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi, says by the time he ran, his race was almost a non-factor-the road had been paved smoothly for him by Robinson's successful tenure.
"She was a hometown girl; she was genuine, intelligent and honest," he says. "Succeeding her was easy and at the same time difficult-there was no question of, 'Could an African American serve this?' But at the same time, she left big shoes to fill."
Upon assuming the presidency, Vieux took up Robinson's reformist mantle, making some changes she had suggested and rechristening the organization as Duke Student Government. He says he struggled early, but ultimately believes he was able to help ensure the legislature spoke for everyone by opening it up to a wider range of students.
But since Joshua Jean-Baptiste, Trinity '03-who served as president in 2002-2003-no black students have run for DSG president, and black student representation lags behind representation in the student body.
Senior Malik Burnett, president of BSA, says DSG has had a reputation in past years as little more than a programming body. Furthermore, low black representation in the senate means there are few role models for aspiring black DSG senators.
These are all complaints Vieux heard leveled against ASDU and DSG when he was on campus. But he says he feels it is important that the views of black students-and members of every other group on campus-be heard.
"Our decisions were only as informed as the people we talked to," he says. "If you only had opinions from the white males in [Kappa Alpha fraternity]-well, no disrespect to them, I just don't think they can bring the perceptions of, say, an Asian American from Texas to the table."
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