With Duke Student Government elections a few weeks away, DSG President Takcus Nesbit speaks on the role of student government and its place in the University community.
Q: We're curious to hear what you think of DSG's relationship with the administration. Is the relationship generally favorable?
A: Well, for the most part, I think we have a real cooperative arrangement with the administration, more so than-from what I understand-other schools.
We'll talk with administrators. One of the things that [people from other schools] always mention to me is how amazed they are at how involved students [at Duke] are in the decision-making process and how serious their opinions are taken when we sit down at the table. I don't think a lot of students realize exactly how much influence student government has over policy making at the University. I really do think that we're pretty well-respected and that our opinions are really taken into account when the decision is made.
Sometimes there is a hard decision that has to be made-things that don't necessarily coincide with what we're saying-but at least we know that our voice is being heard and that we're being taken seriously.
Q: Do you think student input has always been taken seriously, or is it a recent development?
A: I think it has to be historical. Things like this just don't happen overnight-people don't just gain respect for each other overnight.
I can't speak for the period before [past University president] Terry Sanford that well, but I've heard nothing but good things for the Sanford administration and the way they tried to deal with students. I think it's really a part of every president's wishes, but I think he probably institutionalized it more than any other president of the University.
But that kind of attitude-that students are to be involved in the decision-making process-is really beneficial to the University. And it has been very beneficial to the students. We have the chance to really influence some of the decisions that are made at the University-positively or negatively.
That's important. That's the nature of government-that's what you want to see.
Q: A common complaint is that students are apathetic. Do you think that that is a fair complaint, and is DSG addressing the concern?
A: I don't think Duke students are apathetic, first of all, and I say that based on my observations of apathy on other campuses. At Carolina, the average turnout in elections is 10 percent. At Virginia, it is 5 percent, to give you an idea of how unapathetic Duke students are in terms of voting and elections. In fact, the legislator election rate in an off-presidential year is 23 or 25 percent, and it's been that way for the past three or four years. And Duke students have opinions and aren't afraid to give them-we have people coming into our office, and people taking this side or that side on the op-ed pages.
So what do you mean when you say "apathetic"? Are you talking about it at a Duke level, or a national level, or what?
Q: At a lot of other universities, there are all sorts of visible activism going on. Why don't we see this sort of activity at Duke?
A: That's a good point. I think the level of activism is pretty low at Duke. Even in most student organizations, we don't really have a lot of students who I would consider activists on campus. I think activists are a very different type of person. I think most activists feel very passionately about one issue set of issues.
I'm not an activist. If you look at my position, I feel strongly about a lot of different issues, I don't advocate one particular issue or focus all my energy on one issue.
Q: Why do you think Duke students tend not to be activists?
A: Oh, it's in the water! Honestly, though, it could be a number of factors. I think a lot of students come to Duke and see it as a stepping stone, and that effects how they act. If you take another similar campus like Berkeley, which has a high level of activism, a decent athletic program and good academics, the underlying difference is just the nature of where we are. There is a really different culture here. We've certainly had some real activist leaders, but I just don't think there's ever been a strong activist bent on campus.
Q: How then, do you account for upswings in activism? I'm thinking here of the tradition of the Duke Vigil.
A: Well, I think during the '60s, and especially during the Civil Rights movement, Duke was just in the middle of it all. I don't think we had a choice one way or the other to be activists or not. Now we're really in a position where we could go one way or another.
But being in the South, it's weird-we're more laid back, and it's not that we don't discuss the issues. It's that in a lot of ways we just discuss the issues differently.
I think it was maybe a Princeton Review poll that said we were one of the campuses with one of the worst race relations in the country. I don't know how true that is. I mean, I'm not going to deny that we don't need to resolve or have a discussion about race. I know, at least that during my tenure here, we've had more discussions about-I've been to more race relations forums in my four years at Duke-than I've had for all of my entire life. And it doesn't matter because I love to go.
I just think that there's a lot of things going on here that we take for granted. I've been to other places where you've got maybe worse race relations and they don't even talk about the problem. And you don't see their names in other places. I think there's something to be said for at least having the guts to talk about something like the race issue.
Q: Is there anything DSG could to facilitate such a discussion on race relations?
A: I think we could sponsor race relations more, we've done things in the past. We've co-sponsored things with Spectrum-I just don't know where people are, to be honest. It seems to me that one thing I've heard is that race-relation forums are great, but every time I go I hear the same people say the same thing.
But how do you attack the whole issue of diversifying? How do you challenge people? As a University, I don't think we challenge people to really get out of their spheres-we don't challenge people to step beyond their spheres of comfort-we don't do it. We don't say "go out." We do a lot of talking, but we don't do a lot of doing.
The University itself is moving in a very interesting direction. I mean, we're not required to take a foreign language, yet there's a good chance that half the United States by the year 2020 is going to be bilingual. We need to really think more about being less Duke-centric and more our role in the world and how we fit into that.
Q: Do you think the solution is through a more activist agenda? I'm thinking along the lines of Spectrum's "We Need a Real Education" campaign.
A: Where is the protest now? What has that campaign achieved? Now, I truly think that the "We Need a Real Education" campaign was a great idea. Diversifying the curriculum is something we need to focus on and we should try and change at the University. I would hope that DSG could have a role in diversifying the curriculum. But I think, and what I have found to be more effective, is working through the administration. I don't think the administration does a wonderful job of reinforcing some of those ideas. But they're in a tough position, because on the one hand we want support, but on the other hand we don't want to be told what to do, and that's a very fine line to walk-and the University really gets caught in a catch-22.
Q: One criticism of DSG is that no one knows what it does. Is that a problem with the student body or is that a problem of communication on DSG's part?
A: I think it's a problem on DSG's part. People don't know what we're doing because we're not doing a good job of letting people now what we're doing. We started a newsletter-we only got one issue out, but we're putting out another one.
But that's always been a constituent complaint because we're not in-your-face. And, it's a good thing that we're not out in everyone's face all the time.
The problem is that with student government, most folks don't notice you unless you're doing a terrible job. If we're not doing something bad, then people are pretty much okay and go about their merry way. But if you screw up, or create some kind of controversy, then everyone knows about DSG and they want to reform it.
Q: What advice would you like to give to next year's president?
A: Well, make the most of your time at Duke. Balance your time wisely. While you are the president and there's a lot of responsibilities that you have, stay close to your friends. And really make the most of your senior year, because it's your only senior year you're going to have.
Doing this-being DSG president-is really important, but in a lot of ways there's some things that are more important than being DSG president. Sometimes it's hard to shake the mentality of "if I don't do it, it's not going to get done." And a lot of the time, that is the case. I just don't know if it's all got to be done that day.
Q: What is the one, lasting mark that you hope to have left on Duke University after graduation?
A: I don't want to say, "that's what I did." I'd rather be able to hear other people say, "When Takcus was DSG president, that's what they did."
In a lot of ways, it's a team effort and I'm just at the top of the pyramid. There are a lot of people making a lot of things happen on Duke's campus. So it's a lot more important to be able to say "that's what DSG did when Takcus was president of DSG" than "that's what Takcus did."
Jessica Moulton, assistant editorial page editor and Ed Thomas, editorial page editor, conducted this interview.
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