Tara Bansal cites academic affairs experience in bid for DSG president

<p>Inclusivity is among Bansal's four main priorities as she tries to succeed DSG&nbsp;President Keizra Mecklai.&nbsp;</p>

Inclusivity is among Bansal's four main priorities as she tries to succeed DSG President Keizra Mecklai. 

Junior Tara Bansal hopes to continue to make improvements to student life if elected Duke Student Government president.

Bansal—a native of Dix Hills, N.Y.—currently serves as the vice president of academic affairs. Her platform includes four main themes—empowering communities, equity and inclusivity, modernizing academics and upgrading Duke.

“I think Duke is an easy place to feel at home," Bansal said. "When there's somewhere you actually care about it's about wanting to put the effort and energy in to make things better."

Bansal proposed amendments to expand the pass/fail policy as a part of the curriculum review this year. She was also one of the authors of a statute creating the DSG program to provide free online access to The New York Times for all undergraduates.

Regarding equity and inclusiveness, Bansal supports cultural competency training and increasing socioeconomic and racial diversity across organizations on campus.

“I’d like to see an expansion of the living-learning community, which is a new housing option I started and is inclusive to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status,” Bansal said. “Within [Interfraternity Council] and [Panhellenic Council], I’d like to look into ways to fit endowments from alums to expand the number of scholarships for people in the system.”

In addition, her platform includes institutionalizing Title IX “Consent Chats” to educate students about bystander intervention and sexual assault. She also plans to ensure that all Duke-sponsored events are disability accessible and is looking to increase non-DSG representation on policy-making committees.

Bansal also hopes to “bring Duke into the 21st century” by establishing on-campus voting sites, allowing students to have more say in campus construction and partnering with Uber on campus as an extension of the Duke Vans system.

She cited working with administrators and serving as a voting member of the Academic Affairs committee of the Board of Trustees as experiences that make her uniquely qualified for the position.

“Day in and day out, I’ve worked with the highest administrators at Duke,” Bansal said. “I have a relationship of mutual trust and respect with deans, the provost and the vice provost, which I think is vital to the role of DSG president.”

Keith Whitfield, vice provost for academic affairs, is working with Bansal to redesign ACES. He wrote in an email that he has collaborated with Bansal on several other projects that she brought to the attention of the administration.

“Tara Bansal has made a significant impact on how the administration engages with students. She has been very persuasive in making the case for the interests of the students,” Whitfield wrote. “She is the most creative student leader I have met since coming to Duke over nine years ago.”

Bansal is a public policy and global health double major with a minor in economics. She has been involved in several organizations on campus including Alpha Phi sorority, Lasya dance ensemble, Djembe Ensemble percussionist, Bass Connections and as a coxswain for men’s club rowing.

Senior Jamal Edwards, who was recently elected undergraduate Young Trustee, has served on DSG with Bansal as senators of academic affairs and was her teammate on the men's club rowing team.  

"I have worked with her a lot over her time at Duke and I have seen her proven ability to connect with different communities on campus," Edwards wrote in an email. "She consistently asks pointed questions when needed, speaks up for students—even when it's an unpopular opinion—and has the grit it takes to be effective in the role."

Correction: This article was updated to note that Bansal is a voting member on the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs committee, not just a standing committee member. The Chronicle regrets the error.

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