The Intercommunity Council is a group of leaders with perhaps the most disparate interests in the University. Get the Undergraduate Publications Board chair together with the president of the Duke University Union and the Campus Council president and you've got a room with two programming specialists--one of whom concentrates on the whole community, one on the students--and a publisher. Expand this committee to 12 members and you've got a group that can talk all day and not really understand or identify with one another.
The potential for this group is great--it's the conference of Duke's top student leaders. But only a handful of agenda items can truly unify this group--giving input on key initiatives and lobbying for a few common interests, for example. Duke Student Government last week nixed class presidents as ICC members, replacing them with representatives from the Women's Center and the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Life. The change seems to make sense, but it's only a start.
More than anything, ICC needs a strong, sophisticated and compelling leader. The DSG vice president for community interaction, now the ICC chair, is too often learning to lead on Duke's top leaders. Furthermore, he usually does not have sophisticated understanding of Duke to understand what could unite these people. And these leaders, who are already strapped for time, do not have the patience to wait for something to happen. They should be empowered to elect a leader from among themselves and build the ICC into a truly productive body.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.