When Elliott Wolf first stepped into the role of Duke Student Government president last year, his only experience with the administration had come from research for his often-critical regular columns in The Chronicle.
But Wolf, a junior, credits his outsider status and sometimes-irreverent style as being instrumental in what he and other current DSG leaders described as a successful and effective year.
Wolf's personal stamp on DSG has been evident in blast e-mails to students with slogans including "getting s- done" and "don't f- up."
Wolf said the biggest accomplishments of the year included implementing the stoplight at Broad and Perry streets and reclaiming the front row of Cameron Indoor Stadium for students during men's basketball games. This year's DSG also left its mark on campus by coordinating the C-4 and C-5 bus routes and changing the Young Trustee selection process.
Wolf added that he hopes next year's Executive Board-which will be elected April 3-will continue the work accomplished by the current group.
"I would hope that next year DSG would continue along the same lines-articulate clearly its organizational mission, what goals or projects come along with that based on what's happening on campus at the time and figure out systematically what it has to do to bring those things about," Wolf said. "I don't want to peg it to specific things or projects because a very large part of what we do is reactionary, in that the administration will come to us with a specific proposal or some policy change or something that we have to deal with."
This year's DSG also drafted the organization's first comprehensive strategic plan, which outlined a four-pronged approach to advocating on behalf of students and allowed DSG to become very goal-oriented, Wolf said.
"We figured out exactly what we wanted to do and what we needed to do in order to accomplish those things," he added.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs and vice chair of the Campus Culture Initiative Steering Committee, said he thought DSG has had a successful year and that Wolf's lack of personal involvement with DSG prior to his win did not have a negative effect on the organization's work this year.
"I think this is a group that accomplished quite a bit and has quite a bit to be proud of," Moneta said.
Wolf's win last year was a departure from previous years when presidents had been longtime members of DSG.
Wolf said the combination of members with no prior involvement and those with an extensive DSG history was what made the group particularly accessible to students this year.
"It was important that most of us came from outside of the organization in that we weren't dedicated to upholding the old model," Wolf said. "We're not one nebulous organization-we are students. We fight on behalf of students, we do things that students do.... We don't walk around dressed up in our Sunday best every day and maintain some pretense about our status on campus."
He added that DSG has internalized its mission of lobbying on behalf of student interests and supporting student groups.
"I think we were uniquely effective in being an advocacy organization for Duke students and not just a self-serving leadership academy," said sophomore Kevin Troy, DSG public relations director. "There was always a sense of forward motion, and we were more inclined to ask what's next instead of just patting ourselves on the back for what we've already done."
Wolf credited written, well crafted memoranda for accomplishing many of DSG's goals this year.
"This is a private university, the administration has all the power over everything, and given that it's an academic setting, the only recourse that we have is to try and make better arguments," Wolf said. "At least in an environment like Duke, if you make a good argument you do win for the most part."
Moneta said the CCI report has introduced a number of issues for DSG to address next year, including Duke-Durham relations and renovations on West and Central campuses.
But like Wolf and other members of the Executive Board, Moneta said this year's work will not fall by the wayside.
"It's not like all of the issues that have been addressed this year have been finished," Moneta said. "So [I'd like to see] more of the same and taking the lead with the accomplishments of this year."
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