Although the Duke Student Government academic affairs committee nears the end of a busy year, few of the issues it has worked on have been resolved. As a result, next year's vice president is likely to have a pivotal role in issues including course evaluations, technology, Perkins Library renovations and bookstore privatization.
Junior Abhijit Prabhu, the lone candidate for vice president for academic affairs, hopes to use the experience he has had with these issues to build on this year's progress. Prabhu is currently DSG's executive secretary and communications director for the Duke University Union, but has also served as an unofficial member of the academic affairs committee this year. Freshman DSG legislator Zach Pfanstiel originally submitted signatures to run for the position, but later dropped out.
"Basically a lot of what I want to do is aimed at making academic life more convenient at Duke," said Prabhu. "There's a definite need to make sure that you follow through on what's already been done, especially with course evaluations."
Course evaluations may be the most important academic issue facing undergraduates next year. For years, DSG officials' attempts to develop a widespread, easy-to-use system have failed. But current DSG Vice President for Academic Affairs Jason Bergsman seems to have made progress in convincing faculty to give students access to course evaluation data.
"People have agreed that we need to do it. It's up to us to figure out how," said Prabhu, who advocates hiring work-study students to process the data under the supervision of a faculty-student panel.
The renovation of Perkins-still in the planning phase-is likely to be another important issue. As one of the students serving on the Perkins Library renovations committee this year, Prabhu has tried to ensure that undergraduates' concerns are heard.
"It was at his insisting that we had the University librarian, the architect and myself come in at 11 at night and observe how the library is used in hours when we're not usually there," said Robert Byrd, chair of the renovation committee.
Among other things, Prabhu suggests improved study space and reserved carrels for senior thesis writers. "A lot of the student spaces are very uninviting and restrictive. There needs to be more user-friendly areas for undergraduates to study," he said.
Prabhu also plans to push for the expansion of a wireless network, which he sees as inevitable and less costly than ethernet.
He also plans to advocate additional technological upgrades, including improving ACES Web so students can search for courses by subject and encouraging professors to hold interactive office hours using an instant messaging system.
A possible privatization of Duke University Stores is another issue Bergsman has worked on this year and Prabhu plans to continue studying next year. Prabhu currently serves on a student advisory committee on that issue. "Our goal there has been to find out more about how the stores work and find out what our options are for improving them," said Prabhu.
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