In November of 2008, turnout among Duke students in the U.S. presidential election topped 80 percent. Less than five months later, turnout in the hotly contested election for Duke's own student body president failed to break the 40 percent mark. Several weeks later, in Duke Student Government elections, which saw gender equality and the legislative representation of three-fourths of campus on the ballot, not even 25 percent of students bothered to open their laptops and vote.
Perhaps the dismal turnout in the last spring election was due to the fact that only the Class of 2012 seemed to care about its representation-filling all eight of its allocated Senate seats. Five of the eight seats for the Class of 2011 were left vacant. For the Class of 2010, seven of eight went unfilled. This is because no one contested those seats.
They remain empty.
Your student government's Senate is composed of 40 members: eight elected from each class, and eight selected through an application, interview and confirmation process.
Assuming that the class of 2013 is true to freshman form and fills all of its allotted eight seats (as each freshman class has throughout recent memory), then you will have a grand total of twenty elected legislators in your representative government.
The remaining 20 will be appointed.
The DSG Senate aspires to be like the U.S. Senate, not like the College of Cardinals. You ought to have an elected government-not a half-elected, half-appointed one.
DSG has gone to the unusual length of scheduling special elections to be held concurrently with the freshmen elections to fill the twelve vacant seats reserved for the classes of 2011 and 2010. Elected representatives are more accountable to you, their constituents. An elected body is more powerful than an appointed one when it comes to making a stand for student rights.
But they can be filled only if students value their representation enough to be candidates and seize the opportunity to serve.
A criticism we often hear of the Senate is that it is not "representative," meaning not that those who hold positions don't advocate on behalf of their constituents, but rather that the composition of the Senate does not reflect the composition of the student body.
The Senate reflects who among the student body stands for election, not any sort of systemic discrimination. A broader Senate means a Senate with different approaches to problem solving. It means differently informed decisions. It means spirited debate. It all results in stronger advocacy for you.
But having such a Senate means that you have to elect one. And you can't elect one unless more of the talented and qualified students at Duke present themselves as candidates.
The problem of student interest in opportunities for university service, however, extends beyond the DSG Senate.
Twenty-three seats are reserved for students on nine different and important Presidential and University Committees, ranging from the Campus Sustainability Committee to the President's Council on Black Affairs to the Arts and Sciences Council. Many of these committees are at the heart of administrative decision-making, and all of them do work important for students at Duke.
Aside from the undergraduate representatives to the Board of Trustees and the DSG president herself, students who sit on these committees have arguably the next greatest ability to influence the outcome of university policy debates in ways favorable to students.
Yet each year, DSG has to leave many of these seats vacant due to lack of interest and a resulting dearth of applications.
You are here for four years. Why not take time to make the University, through its student government, a better institution for the students that come after you?
Edmund Burke said, "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." University service is a worthy endeavor.
As we muddle through our years here trying to do the little we can, we couldn't be happier to have your help.
Awa Nur and Gregory Morrison are president and executive vice president of Duke Student Government, respectively.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.