All three candidates for Duke Student Government president agree on one issue: last year's restructuring of the undergraduate student government did not go far enough.
For the government to succeed, it will need student support in order to lobby the administration effectively as well as bring about changes that benefit students.
The presidential candidates, Trinity sophomore Richard Boykin, and Trinity juniors LeAnn Levering and John Tolsma, all agree that DSG needs to be reinvigorated so that more students want to participate in the government. Currently, many dormitories struggle just to find one resident who is willing to serve as DSG representative.
Last spring, undergraduates overwhelmingly approved the DSG constitution, which overhauled the structure of a government widely considered ineffective and inefficient. But according to the candidates and some legislators, the revised structure failed to effect a change in attitude within either the legislature or among undergraduates.
This year's rhetoric about re-energizing the student government echoes many of last year`s campaign slogans.
"Right now we have a lot of unused potential," said Trinity senior Paul Hudson, DSG President, during last year's campaign. "The top leadership has to get the members of the legislature and the student body at large more involved with what's going on at the University."
But Hudson`s administration has left plenty of room for improvement in changing students' attitudes toward DSG.
Where the three candidates differ is in their specific plans for action and the experience they each bring to the job. Tolsma is the only one of the three with extensive experience working inside DSG, while Levering has frequently dealt with the University administration from outside the student government. Boykin has not participated in any high-level University affairs.
Boykin has had little involvement with almost all organizations on campus. He has had no contact with DSG or University administrators, but said that because he is an unaffiliated student he will be better able to represent the average University student.
However, his lack of experience could be a handicap in trying to garner support for issues in both DSG and the University administration.
Levering said she deliberately avoided student government as a freshman because she thought it accomplished nothing. Instead, she chose to work on women's issues, and she has had valuable experience working with the Women's Coalition and organizing community-wide events such as Take Back the Night. A self-described activist, she pledges to instill that spirit in DSG.
Outside of these issues, however, she has had little experience dealing with University administrators on long-range planning. She has only recently become familiar with DSG, which might hurt her if she takes office, although she said insiders have exaggerated the government's complexity.
Tolsma, currently chair of DSG's Student Organizations Finance Committee, clearly has had the most experience working with DSG and with University administrators. His varied roles in DSG and his work on University and Board of Trustee committees would help him, in his words, "step in on day one" and take action.
But some fear that Tolsma, as a DSG insider, may be too entrenched in student government to be able to energize the organization.
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