Poorly attended DSG meeting focuses on residential plan

The president of Duke Student Government spoke out against future dorm construction on East Campus during a meeting of the DSG legislature Thursday.

No legislation was discussed because there were not enough legislators present for quorum.

Trinity senior Paul Hudson, DSG president, said decisions about building new dorms should be postponed until the University creates a residential plan.

Last spring administrators said the University should close North Campus because of the Medical Center's plans for expansion. Recently, some administrators have said that Hanes House and Trent dormitories should continue to house students.

The issue cannot be solved by building more dorms on East, Hudson said. Constructing an additional 190 bed spaces on East cannot be backed by any solid reasoning, he said.

"There is no intellectual defense of the idea of 190 more bed spaces on East, other than it's half of 380."

Hudson suggested that DSG discuss the issue and create appropriate legislation. In February 1992, ASDU passed a resolution stating that North should eventually be closed, he said.

Last week DSG passed a resolution opposing further construction on East.

Building more dorms on East would be even more foolish if North's future is undetermined, Hudson said.

"The debate of an all-freshman East is essentially moot if they keep open North," he said.

Hudson said the recent suggestions by University administrators to keep North open is "a short-term response to a lack of cash to build more."

IN OTHER BUSINESS: Judith White, the University's sexual harassment prevention coordinator, presented the final draft of the University harassment policy.

The major difference between the proposed policy and the former one is that the new one is "not exclusive to sexual harassment," White said, but includes all situations of "people targeting other people because of their sex, race, religion or sexual orientation."

White defined harassment as "creating a hostile or intimidating environment through your physical conduct or your verbal conduct."

Another change is that employees, faculty and students will all be bound by the same policy, White said. In the past, one policy was specifically for University employees, whereas faculty, administrators and students were bound by a separate one, she said.

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