Thirteen students are running for Duke Student Government vice president positions.
The vice presidents for the seven DSG committees—Durham and regional affairs, equity and outreach, facilities and the environment, residential life, social culture and services—will be decided in the April 11 election. The four contested positions are vice president for social culture, vice president for residential life, vice president for equity and outreach and vice president for academic affairs. Two candidates, juniors Caroline Hall and Jacob Tobia, are running for the equity and outreach position.
As former DSG senator for student life, co-director for gender relations in the cabinet and an intern at the Women’s Center for gender equity and leadership, Hall said she has a background in gender issues. Her goal is to change the social culture on campus and the way gender violence issues are viewed, mainly through the Prevent Act Challenge Teach bystander intervention training program, she added.
After speaking to numerous DSG senators, Hall said she wants to make equity and outreach an “actionary committee.” Now, she noted, the committee is often perceived as reacting to issues after they happen, as opposed to anticipating problems and implementing solutions before problems occur.
Tobia, a current DSG senator for residential life and former director for LGBTQ policy and affairs in the cabinet, said he wants to provide minority students a space to speak with a unified voice and to encourage greater cooperation among different communities composed of minority students.
“When any individuals within our community feel excluded or marginalized, we all lose out,” Tobia wrote in an email Tuesday. “For me, that’s what the equity and outreach position is all about—ensuring that DSG reaches out to those communities and works to make Duke a more inclusive space.”
His main vision is to establish a new campus body called the Equity Council, which will be composed of leaders from groups that represent historically marginalized communities, he said. Such groups would include the Black Student Alliance, Asian Students Association, Blue Devils United, Duke Disability Alliance, Diya and Mi Gente.
Freshman Prashanth Ciryam, a senator for academic affairs, and sophomore Ray Li, also a senator for academic affairs and sophomore class vice president, are running for vice president for academic affairs.
If elected, Ciryam said he would redefine academic integrity, continue reworking the curriculum to ensure the usefulness of the modes of inquiries and areas of knowledge and create a syllabus archive.
“Right now, academic integrity at Duke is fundamentally flawed the way it is defined in the Duke Community Standard,” Ciryam said. “It says collaboration is a good thing, but also says that receiving help of any kind that is not specifically sanctioned by the professor is a type of cheating.”
Ciryam’s plan is to approach the administration and faculty and explain the values and importance of collaboration—perhaps helping to redesign the syllabus if necessary, he added.
Li wrote in an email Tuesday that he believes students deserve to have more input on issues that affect their academic experience.
“Duke should extend our Fall reading period, establish online syllabus archives, create video synopses for courses, improve pre-major advising, lengthen the period for dropping classes without penalty and allow more student representation for discussion of Curriculum 2000 revision,” he added.
Li said he plans to carry out the “Bookbag Sunday” event proposed by previous vice presidents of academic affairs that would feature student and professor interactions, department presentations and informal advising sessions with upperclassmen and advisers.
Sophomores Fedja Pavlovic and Jacob Zionce are running for vice president for residential life.
Pavlovic said that his main agenda is to implement an electoral reform that will allow elections to be based on residential houses rather than committees or classes.
“DSG needs to adapt as the houses get stronger as a unit and develop strong identities,” Pavlovic said. “As house councils subsequently gain more [influence], DSG will lose its relevance on residential life matters.”
Pavlovic proposes to divide the campus into 48 constituencies and have each constituency elect one senator. This model will result in a more personalized electoral process that is more community oriented, he added.
Zionce, current vice president for residential life and former senator for residential and dining, said that his re-election campaign centers around three points: his experience, record and vision.
“I have been able to foster strong relationships with important figures both within the student body and the administration,” he wrote in an email Tuesday.
As a member of DSG, he has worked to increase the number of individuals in blocks from six to eight, and helped to create gender neutral housing on West Campus.
Zionce’s vision includes allowing for bigger blocks on parts of campus and bringing new food vendors into the Edens Quadrangle area, as well as improving fairness for assessment process for selective housing.
The most competitive position is vice president for social culture with four candidates: freshman Banks Anderson, freshman Bryan Dinner, junior Leilani Doktor and sophomore Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie.
Sophomore Derek Rhodes, current vice president of Durham and regional affairs, is running for re-election unopposed and said his new agenda is not drastically different for his second year.
“The biggest thing I want to focus on is the off campus mediation work that we started this year—working more closely with Durham and Duke police to ensure that there is support with students who are living or planning to live off campus,” he said. “I also want to expand internship opportunities for Duke students in Durham to establish a formal program that crosses all departments with the city government.”
Rhodes added that he wants to continue building relationships with the Office of Student Conduct, city government, neighborhood associations and be the voice for students in the Durham community.
Sophomore James Kennedy and freshman Lavanya Sunder are also running unopposed, for vice president for facilities and environment and vice president for services, respectively.
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