Environmental Alliance endorses Passo and Schork

During the past few years, sustainability has become increasingly institutionalized at Duke. We are glad to see that the presidential campaigns of Will Passo and Mike Lefevre both can capitalize on this momentum and lead Duke to a more sustainable future. Both understand the importance of Duke’s sustainability efforts and both have shown the will and ability to make progress. However, in the upcoming election, we support Passo. Despite Lefevre’s commendable environmental accomplishments, we believe that Passo has demonstrated an unmatched passion as an advocate for student interests.

This is the intended role of the DSG president—to represent the student body and lobby on its behalf. It is the vice presidents who are directly involved in pursuing specific projects to completion. Although Lefevre has demonstrated his capacity in a vice presidential role, we strongly believe that Passo is better suited for the DSG presidency. In addition to having the necessary experience for the job, Passo also takes a more holistic view of the needs of the student body, and this makes Passo our candidate of choice, although we do recommend marking Lefevre as a second choice.

In the race for executive vice president, we are impressed with all three candidates’ enthusiasm for environmental initiatives, yet the clear choice in this contest is Pete Schork. His efforts as vice president for athletics and campus services have given him a comprehensive understanding of Duke’s sustainability projects, and he has presented a clear plan for how those projects can move forward in the coming year. Not only is Schork the most experienced of the three candidates, but he has also taken initiative on several occasions through his work with the Student Environmental Sustainability Committee in support of improving sustainability at Duke.

Environmental Alliance strongly endorses Will Passo for president and Pete Schork for EVP.

Ben Soltoff

Co-president, Duke Environmental Alliance

Trinity ’12

Mikael Owunna