Like most Duke students, Trinity junior Jeremy Huff enjoyed the bonfire after the men's basketball game against the University of North Carolina. But as junior class president and a candidate for Duke Student Government vice president for community interaction, Huff was concerned about its aftermath.
"I woke up the next morning and saw groundsmen shoveling piles of ash," Huff said. "I would have like to have seen students clean it up along with the employees." Huff said greater understanding between employees and students is the key to improving the Duke-Durham relationship.
"The emissaries-the people who carry the impression of Duke into the community-are the employees," he said. "We have to start at home in any sort of larger effort."
One step in this direction, he said, would be for dormitories to invite housekeeping staff and other employees to more dorm events. He would also like DSG or another organization to establish a "lunch fund" to pay for students to take employees out to lunch.
If elected, Huff would also oversee the Young Trustee selection process-a process that Huff said functioned efficiently this year.
But he would like to streamline the process further by limiting the number of applicants interviewed to five or six. Under Huff's proposal, the committee would be allowed to extend more interviews in the event of an exceptionally strong pool.
DSG's vice president for community interaction also chairs the Inter-Community Council. Huff said he would like to expand ICC's role so that meetings serve as a link between student groups who might want to co-sponsor events such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Last Day of Classes, which he said foster a greater sense of community.
Adding the Campus Social Board to ICC could also improve communication between interested student organizations, Huff said.
Brandon Busteed, chair of CSB, agreed. "I think an at-large seat for CSB and possibly other groups would be a great idea," the Trinity senior said. More community events might also encourage a more campus-based social scene, a shift that Huff believes is needed to improve relationships between students and neighborhood residents.
Huff worked to develop relationships in the Durham community as coordinator for Project BUILD last summer. "He really did a good job of making sure that all the community placements were very organized," said Trinity junior Nancy Kennedy, who served as Huff's assistant director. "There were never unexpected holdups for planning."
In addition to coordinating Project BUILD, Huff serves as the facilitator for a house course on Duke-Durham relations and-along with the other class presidents-worked to organize Rejecting Hunger, an initiative that raised more than $14,000 for the North Carolina Food Bank.
"I think this is an ideal position for him. As V.P. he'll be able to implement the ideas he brings from all his experience," said Sophomore Class President Shirin Odar, who worked with Huff on Rejecting Hunger.
Huff said he would use his position to provide students with the structural support needed to go out into the community. "I'd like to see a broader definition of the Duke community," he said. "I'd like to extend that to Durham."
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