Trinity sophomore Nii-Amar Amamoo-a candidate for Duke Student Government vice president for community interaction-recently met with Durham mayor Nick Tennyson to discuss a link between DSG and Durham's city council.
"It was an encouraging conversation," Amamoo said. "He told me that if we want to be proactive in that situation, they would be more than willing to accommodate."
Amamoo hopes the that the partnership-one in a series of links he hopes to build-will provide a newfound connection between the two bodies and the communities they serve.
"We need to break down the walls that keep people in their safe zones," he said.
Amamoo, who plays on the varsity soccer team and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., contends that one of those walls is that of the lecture hall.
"I've proposed the implementation of a meeting where four faculty would have lunch, coffee or dinner with eight or nine students," he said. "It'd be an atmosphere of getting to know each other outside of the traditional student-faculty relationship."
The most far-reaching of Amamoo's policy proposals, however, is the expansion of the Learning through Experience, Action, Partnership and Service program, which integrates community service projects into the curricula of eight courses. Amamoo said he would like to double the number of courses LEAPS currently serves.
But LEAPS's leaders said the organization is hesitant to grow next year. "We want to assure that we have sufficient staff to facilitate [the courses] before we grow," said Trinity junior Peggy Kane, LEAPS's assistant coordinator.
One of the greatest responsibilities of DSG's vice president for community interaction is coordination of the Young Trustee selection process. Amamoo said he thought the process ran "pretty smoothly" this year but that if elected he would hold a public forum so that students could voice their concerns and support to the candidates.
Amamoo served last year on Blackwell Dormitory's house council and this year helped organize Martin Luther King, Jr., Day activities. He said he would like to expand next year's festivities to include a prayer breakfast led by a local pastor.
Amamoo said one of his initiatives is to host a community service day with North Carolina Central University or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"It'd be a half day of community service and a half day of just chilling out, maybe with some barbecue," Amamoo said.
The community service day would be a way to meet those from other schools and bring together students from a cross-section of the University's social strata, Amamoo said. "The social interaction here is very split-greek and non-greek, black and white," Amamoo said, "but I think people want to meet others in neutral elements."
Amamoo's position on the soccer team has raised questions over his ability to devote sufficient energy to the post between practices and biweekly games during the season.
But men's soccer Head Coach John Rennie doesn't see that as an issue. "You know the saying-if you want somebody to get a job done, find a busy person," Rennie said. "I think if he wants to do it, I think students would be lucky for him to do it."
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