A perceived lack of communication between DSG’s Executive Board and the Senate about a proposal to merge Campus Council into DSG caused confusion among the Senate.
At Duke Student Government’s meeting Wednesday night, senators expressed frustration at being left out of the Executive Board’s decision-making process concerning the potential redistribution of Campus Council work to DSG and the Duke University Union. As outlined in a presentation to Campus Council last week, the merger would create a Residence Life and Dining Committee and a new vice president position in DSG, in addition to redistributing Campus Council’s programming responsibilities to the DUU.
“People are upset that there are a lot of back room negotiations that happened behind the backs of members of this body,” said senior Ben Bergmann, athletics and campus services senator.
DSG President Mike Lefevre, a senior, stressed that no decisions about a merger have been set, adding that the final decision will be made through a student referendum Feb. 15. Still, many senators had “sour tastes in [their] mouth[s]” that they were not included in the process to change the three organizations. Lefevre said that plans for a potential merger began in November 2010.
Senior Gregory Halperin, academic affairs senator, questioned why members of the Senate were not informed from the beginning that a potential merger was being explored.
“It seems to be that there’s a severe lack-of-trust issue here,” added senior Joe Catapano, an academic affairs senator. “Everybody under the sun knew this was going to happen... and you go behind our backs.”
Lefevre and DSG Chief of Staff Andrew Schreiber, a senior, said the delay was justified because the potential changes affected more parties than just DSG. They said Campus Council’s small size warranted the organization’s attention prior to informing the Senate.
“It would have been disastrous to present this to DSG first because there are a lot of people on Campus Council who would have taken it on a personal level,” Lefevre said.
In addition to the DSG Executive Board, the Campus Council Executive Board, DUU President Yi Zhang and DUU Executive Vice President Annie Kozak, both seniors, attended meetings planning the potential restructuring.
“I think we could have done a better job of including people who were interested,” said DSG Executive Vice President Pete Schork, a junior. “We didn’t include you guys as much as we could have, but we were dealing with a sticky situation.”
There will be a forum for the student body to discuss the proposed changes to DSG and Campus Council Monday Jan. 31.
In other business:
Two DSG committees may be redefined. As the Residence Life and Dining Committee is added, DSG is considering reorganizing the Athletics and Campus Services Committee and the Student Affairs Committee to reflect changes in the University’s administrative structure. Under the new structure, there could be five committees. In addition to the Academic Affairs, Durham and Regional Affairs, and Residence Life and Dining committees, DSG could add Student Life and Athletics, Services and Environment committees.
Vice President for Student Affairs Gurdane Bhutani, a sophomore, proposed a file sharing service exclusively for Duke called DukePie. Questions rose about DukePie’s legality, prompting the idea to be postponed for a week.
The Honor Council and DSG will host a President’s Forum Feb. 4, featuring President Richard Brodhead, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta and possibly Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek.
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