The Rumor Mill

The next DSG Prez?:

In the race to be what some have dubbed the biggest tool on campus, several potential candidates have emerged. Though current President Elliott Wolf, a junior, is eligible for re-election, sources say the Angier B. Duke scholarship winner is wary of under-loading another semester and may want to retire at the top of his game as a lobbyist to the administration.

The next logical choice would be junior Hasnain Zaidi, who lost to Wolf last year-though not before lodging a formal complaint about the run-off process-and took a consolation prize by becoming president of the Junior Class Council. Still, students shouldn't rule out a run by ambitious sophomore Jordan Giordano, currently juggling the dual roles of DSG vice president for community interaction and chair of the Young Trustee nominating committee in a performance that puts professional DSG executive Joe Fore, a senior, to shame.

Another potential candidate is sophomore Alex Crable, chair of the Student Organization Finance Committee, who has spearheaded a harder confirmation process this year for clubs looking to get their paws on DSG's $600,000 of funding. RM has a novel suggestion for the student body: Try picking some fresh, smart candidates-so smart, in fact, that they haven't spent the past few years of their lives working for DSG.

Begging for the Blue Zone:

It's been a rough few weeks for Duke Parking & Transportation. First, Director Cathy Reeves resigned, generously leaving behind a legacy as the courageous inaugurate of the $100 Durham parking ticket. Then, students bringing their cars down second semester discovered that the Blue Zone parking lot was inexplicably sold out, and hundreds of West Campus residents were forced to buy Central Campus parking passes. Now, RM has learned that the upheaval in the department is slowing down plans for an additional parking deck. This may be a simplistic view, but Duke owns 9,000 acres of land in Durham County-not exactly a booming market. How hard would it be to slap down some extra asphalt?

Gates University Senator Elizabeth Dole is going to have to step it up if she wants to retain bragging rights as the University's most important female alumnus. Even other high-profile donors like the West Campus Plaza's Aubrey McClendon and the Great Glass Box's Karl von der Heyden must be feeling the pressure recently from Melinda Gates, who has donated breathtaking amounts to the University's Financial Aid Endowment and DukeEngage initiative-to say nothing of her brand new French Science Center. RM humbly asks that Gates, who guides the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's over-$30 billion endowment, make an even bigger impact on student life. Is it wishful thinking to hope for the Melinda Gates West Campus parking garage?