This is the fourth installment in a seven-part series profiling the candidates for DSG president. Monday's profile will feature Trinity junior Lino Marerro.
Touting experience as one of his fundamental attributes, Trinity junior Chris Lam said he wants to serve as a conduit for students' voices as next year's Duke Student Government president.
Citing his extensive background of collaboration with both administrators and student leaders, Lam, currently DSG vice president for student affairs, explained during an interview Wednesday that he feels as though the University is at a crucial point in its history-a point which requires a DSG president who is both accessible and perceptive.
"I felt that through my experience this year," Lam said, "and through my three years [at the University], that I had developed a good relationship with the student body-one of trust and respect so that I felt that if I decided to make a run, it would be well-received."
During his tenure at the University, the Pinehurst, N.C., native has been involved with several student organizations. In addition to DSG, the public policy studies major and political science minor served during his sophomore year as president of Duke Democrats and executive vice president of the Independent Students Association-a political and social group that he co-founded and could arguably be dubbed his greatest accomplishment.
"I think... what we succeeded in doing was putting the issue of residential equity back on the table," Lam said, referring to ISA's repeated chiding of the administration for maintaining Trent Dormitory's independent-only status. "And if [ISA] didn't accomplish anything other than that, I think it was incredibly important."
Lam, who also broadcasts sports for WXDU, has been involved with University housing issues in some capacity since the end of his freshman year. Most recently, the student affairs committee that he chairs issued a report-which he will present to the Board of Trustees this weekend-summarizing upperclass students' assessments of their residential experiences. With this account, Lam hopes to affect the University's long-term residential setting-an arduous process, he said, that could result in the closing of Trent as well as the construction of a new West Campus dorm.
Well aware that the influence of each year's DSG president transcends that official's one-year term, Lam, who describes himself as a "tireless advocate" for students, said he has both the energy and credibility to ensure that students' concerns will be acknowledged and considered within the University's administration. Much like the lingering influence of the DSG president, the administration is much more permanent than its student body, which makes some undergraduates believe that administrators are indifferent to their needs.
"You're going to help shape things that are going to affect Duke for years to come," Lam said, "and it's important that that person have a vision for where they think Duke should go."
Inherent in his vision are a broad spectrum of policies-ranging from the maintenance of the University's need-blind admissions policy to the renovation of existing residence halls on West to the administration's mammoth fund-raising initiative, the Capital Campaign.
"The [campaign] is obviously one of the more important projects in the next couple of years for Duke, and where students come in on that is defining what the goals of that campaign should be," Lam said. "It's such a comprehensive project, people from all parts of Duke have got to... help articulate where our greatest needs are."
Lam-who spent last summer in Durham working with DSG and helping staff North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt's re-election campaign-also hopes to work on a political campaign when he graduates from the University. A finalist for the Truman Scholarship, he eventually plans to pursue a joint degree in public policy and law before entering the political realm as an adult.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.