This Wednesday, the Duke Student Government Senate approved a bylaw amendment to add another step to the bylaw amendment process.
The amendment, proposed by Vice President for Services Will Hardee, a sophomore, was supposed to deal with inefficiency in the Senate. The approved version mandates that future bylaw amendments get discussed in the Internal Affairs committee, which will convene independently of the Senate. The amendment was approved unanimously.
“I think the biggest complaint about DSG is inefficiency," Hardee said. "At the beginning of the year, there were a lot of proposals for restructure [of the Senate], which I strongly opposed because they had no substantial backing for how they would improve efficiency. In my opinion, efficiency would be spending less time in Senate talking about ourselves and more time talking about how we can help the student body.”
DSG also tabled a proposed budgetary statute to fund senate dinners from the Legislative Discretionary Fund—which is used for internal DSG events and currently stands at $1,466. The proposed budgetary statute would have funded a series of dinners designed to introduce new DSG senators to administrators.
“It is good for new senators to have the chance to get to know administrators to help the student body," said first-year Joel Mire, senator for academic affairs. "But I just wanted to make sure we were, as a senate, fully considering equity for senators and cost, and I think the Senate recognized it."
The Senate held a first reading of a new Student Organization Funding Committee bylaw change, proposed by senior Tanner Lockhead, vice president for Durham and regional affairs. This bylaw amendment would require non-SOFC recommended budgetary statutes and statutes that exceed $10,000 to have a second reading in the Senate before receiving approval.
DSG will vote on the SOFC amendment next week.
In other business:
DSG approved funding requested by the selective living group Brownstone and several other SLGs to hold a philanthropy concert. The Senate also approved funding for the Duke Dance Marathon and the Multicultural Greek Council Blaze the Stage show.
DSG approved the formation of two new student groups—Duke Hawaii Club and Crazies for a Cure.
The Senate tabled the approval of the Coalition for Alleviating Poverty. This group was to act as an umbrella organization that would bring together several groups on campus interested in reducing poverty. Senators were concerned about the potential conflict that could arise between Duke Partnership for Service and this proposed group because both would have similar purposes.
DSG also approved the renaming of Camp Kesem North Carolina as Camp Kesem Duke. In effect, Camp Kesem North Carolina has split into a Duke branch and a University of North Carolina branch.
The Senate approved a Financial Oversight Advisory Committee decision to uphold a SOFC rejection of reimbursement to Partners in Health Engage for their upcoming bake sale.
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